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The decomposed remains of seven people, believed to be undocumented migrants, are discovered in a fertiliser container in Asunción, Paraguay. The container set off from Serbia on 21 July and travelled through Croatia, Egypt, Spain and Argentina en route to Paraguay. Three of the seven were identified as being from Morocco and one from Egypt. According to the coroner, asphyxiation was the likely cause of death. | The decomposed remains of seven people, believed to be undocumented migrants, have been discovered in a fertiliser container in Paraguay, officials say. It set off from Serbia on 21 July.
The container had travelled through Croatia - thought to be the migrants' planned destination - before going through Egypt, Spain and Argentina en route to Paraguay.
Three of the seven were from Morocco and one was from Egypt, forensic doctor Pablo Lemir said. The discovery was made by employees of an agricultural company in Paraguay's capital, Asuncion.
Asphyxiation was the likely cause of death, Dr Lemir said, adding that all of the victims are believed to be male adults.
The fertiliser could have led to a faster process of decomposition, he added.
A Serbian taxi receipt and telephone card were discovered in the container, along with food.
"We assume that they arrived there from their country of origin and had planned to travel to a nearer destination but they did not calculate the distance well and did not survive the trip," prosecutor Marcelo Saldivar told the Reuters news agency.
Their supply of biscuits, bottled water and tinned food was enough to last 72 hours, he said.
"All the bodies are decomposed. They are just hair and bones," he said.
Efforts are now underway to try to identify the victims. | Armed Conflict | October 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Flash floods kill at least 32 people in western Afghanistan, destroying homes and sweeping through makeshift shelters that housed displaced families. | HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Flash floods have killed at least 32 people in western Afghanistan, destroyed homes and swept through makeshift shelters that housed displaced families, a government official said on Saturday.
Flooding caused by heavy rains started spreading on Thursday and left a trail of devastation across seven provinces, said Hasibullah Shir Khani, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Disaster Management Authority.
Another 12 people were missing and more than 700 houses were destroyed or severely damaged, he added.
The floods worsen an already desperate situation. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced in the region by last year’s severe drought and the 17-year-long war with the Taliban.
Floods in early March caused further destruction and put this year’s wheat harvest at risk.
“My house and my farmland have been destroyed by floods. If you go and see the destruction it makes you cry,” said Shir Ahmad, who lives in a village in Herat province, which borders Iran.
Children waded through muddy, knee-deep floodwaters that flowed through tent camps for displaced people after the rain stopped. Some families strung salvageable clothes and bedding to dry.
Floods have destroyed hundreds of homes, some historic sites, thousands of acres of farmland, bridges and highways, said Jilani Farhad, a spokesman for the province.
Floods are a common occurrence in Afghanistan, although not usually this severe. The country has little infrastructure, such as ditches and sewers, to manage water run-off from rain or melting snow.
“There is huge destruction caused by floods,” said Ahmad Jawed Nadem, head of refugees and repatriation for Herat. In one area, he said he saw more than 200 destroyed houses.
In Herat alone, eight people were killed, said Dr. Abdul Hakim Tamana, head of public health for the province.
“They had the drought problem, and the floods and the conflict. They are very poor people and they lose all they have,” the Afghan Red Crescent Society’s secretary general Nilab Mobarez said.
“It’s not as simple as they will go on with their lives.”
World Vision said it appeared tens of thousands of Afghans were affected. Some residents of Badghis province were calling it the worst storm in 20 years, it said.
Iran has also been flooded by torrential rains, overwhelming emergency services in some areas.
Reporting by Storay Karimy and Jalil Ahmad in HERAT; additional reporting by Orooj Hakimi and Rod Nickel in KABUL; Writing by Rod Nickel; Editing by Paul Tait
| Floods | March 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Nvidia announce that they are acquiring Arm Holdings, the market–dominant designer of smartphone processors, for US$40 billion in the semi–conductor industry's largest–ever deal. | UK-based computer chip designer ARM Holdings is being sold to the American graphics chip specialist Nvidia.
The deal values ARM at $40bn (£31.2bn), four years after it was bought by Japanese conglomerate Softbank for $32bn.
ARM's technology is at the heart of most smartphones, among many other devices.
Nvidia has promised to keep the business based in the UK, to hire more staff, and to retain ARM's brand.
It added that the deal would create "the premier computing company for the age of artificial intelligence" (AI).
"ARM will remain headquartered in Cambridge," said Nvidia's chief executive Jensen Huang.
"We will expand on this great site and build a world-class AI research facility, supporting developments in healthcare, life sciences, robotics, self-driving cars and other fields."
A number of business leaders have signed an open letter calling on the Prime Minister to stop the merger.
A senior government source told the BBC that it would not block the sale, but said conditions could be imposed on the takeover.
Softbank made commitments to secure jobs and keep ARM's headquarters in the UK until September next year.
"So far, when you read the announcement coming from Nvidia they said they will honour that Softbank has made at the time," said Sonja Laud, chief investment officer at Legal & General Investment Management.
"But with the expiry about to happen and obviously the Brexit negotiations under way it will be very interesting to see how this develops in the future."
This appears to address concerns that British jobs would be lost and decision-making shifted to the US. Last week, the Labour Party had urged the government to intervene.
But two of ARM's co-founders have raised other issues about the takeover.
Hermann Hauser and Tudor Brown had suggested ARM should remain "neutral", rather than be owned by a company like Nvidia, which produces its own processors. The concern is that there would be a conflict of interest since ARM's clients would become dependent on a business with which many also compete for sales.
Moreover, the two co-founders also claimed that once ARM was owned by an American firm, Washington could try to block Chinese companies from using its knowhow as part of a wider trade clash between the countries.
"If ARM becomes a US subsidiary of a US company, it falls under the Cfius [Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States] regulations," Mr Hauser told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"[That] means that if hundreds of UK companies that incorporate ARM's [technology] in their products, want to sell it, and export it to anywhere in the world including China - which is a major market - the decision on whether they will be allowed to export it will be made in the White House and not in Downing Street."
He added that he believed the pledge to retain and increase the number of UK jobs was "meaningless" unless UK ministers stepped in to make it legally enforceable.
But ARM's chief executive played down the threat of export bans.
"It isn't to do with the ownership of the company, it's all to do with analysis of the product itself," Simon Segars told the BBC.
"The majority of our products are designed in the UK or outside the US, and the majority of our products don't fall under much of the US export control set of rules."
Mr Huang added that ARM had "some of the finest computer scientists in the world" in Cambridge and he intended to both retain them and attract others to what would become Nvidia's largest site in Europe.
The UK prime minister's spokesman said "ministers have spoken to both companies", adding that the government would be scrutinising the deal "including what it means for the Cambridge HQ".
ARM creates computer chip designs that others then customise to their own ends. It also develops instruction sets, which define how software controls processors.
It is based in Cambridge but also has offices across the world, including a joint venture in Shenzhen, China.
Hundreds of companies license its innovations including Apple, Samsung, Huawei and Qualcomm. To date, ARM says 180 billion chips have been made based on its solutions.
When Softbank acquired ARM, it promised to keep the company's headquarters in the UK and to increase the number of local jobs, which it did.
Softbank's founder Masayoshi Son described the firm as being a "crystal ball" that would help him predict where tech was heading. But losses on other investments, including the office rental company WeWork, prompted a rethink.
California-headquartered Nvidia overtook Intel to become the world's most valuable chipmaker in July.
Until now, it has specialised in high-end graphics processing units (GPUs). These are commonly used by gamers to deliver more detailed visuals, as well as by professionals for tasks including scientific research, machine learning, and cryptocurrency "mining".
Nvidia is also one of ARM's clients, using its designs to create its line-up of Tegra central processing units (CPUs).
Under the terms of the deal, Nvidia will pay Softbank $21.5bn in its own stock and $12bn in cash. It will follow with up to a further $5bn in cash or stock if certain targets are met.
Nvidia will also issue $1.5bn in equity to ARM's employees.
Mr Huang has already said that one of the changes he wants to make is to accelerate development of ARM's designs for CPUs used in computer servers - a rapidly growing sector.
Amazon is among companies that are already betting on the tech.
But experts say one risk Nvidia faces is that the takeover could encourage ARM's wider client list to shift focus to a rival type of chip technology, which lags behind in terms of adoption but has the benefit of not being controlled by one company.
"ARM is facing growing competition from RISC-V, an open-source architecture," wrote CCS Insight's Geoff Blaber in a recent research note.
"If its partners believed that ARM's integrity and independence was compromised, it would accelerate the growth of RISC-V and in the process devalue ARM."
Mr Blaber also suggested regulators might block the deal.
"This process will take months if not years with a high chance of failure," he told the BBC.
Mr Huang has said that he expects it to take more than a year to "educate" regulators and answer all their questions, but said he had "every confidence" they would ultimately approve the investment.
It's a deal which the man who founded ARM says is a disaster. And many in the UK's technology industry will agree with Hermann Hauser. He opposed the 2016 sale of the chip designer to Softbank but accepted that the Japanese firm stood by its guarantees to boost employment and research in Cambridge. But a takeover by Nvidia, one of the many firms that licences ARM's designs, appears to pose a threat to its business model - why will its hundreds of other customers now have faith that they will have equal access to its technology? In recent days leading figures in the Cambridge technology sector have lobbied Downing Street, calling for ministers to intervene to bring ARM back under UK ownership. There have been signs that the government is considering a more active industrial policy.
Dominic Cummings, who has talked of the need for the UK to have a trillion dollar tech company, is leading the drive for a more interventionist approach. Now, with Hermann Hauser and others warning that this deal will make Britain a US vassal state, the government is under pressure to step in and ensure that control over vital home-grown technology is not lost to a foreign power. | Organization Merge | September 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
New Zealand defeats India in the first semi-final of the Cricket World Cup. | New Zealand 239-8 defeated India 221: The Black Caps will face either England or Australia in the final
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New Zealand reached their second successive World Cup final after dramatically toppling India by 18 runs, Ravindra Jadeja’s swashbuckling 77 from 59 balls coming in a losing cause.
Star batsmen Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli had misfired at Old Trafford, India’s top three making just one apiece, as they lurched to 24 for four and then 92 for six chasing 240 on the reserve day of this semi-final.
Jadeja’s pyrotechnics gave India a fleeting hope but he departed with 32 required off 13 balls before Mahendra Singh Dhoni was run out for 50 from 72 deliveries as the Asian giants were skittled for 221 from 49.3 overs.
The Kiwis will therefore face England or Australia in Sunday’s showpiece at Lord’s after successfully defending 239 for eight, their watchful approach on Tuesday vindicated following India’s struggles.
Ross Taylor top-scored with 74 from 90 balls as the Black Caps added 28 runs in the remaining 3.5 overs of their innings, deferred until Wednesday morning because of persistent rain on Tuesday afternoon.
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India made an abject start to their reply, losing three wickets in the space of 11 balls, including the prize scalps of Rohit and Kohli, who had contributed in excess of 1,000 runs in the group stage.
Jadeja, batting for the first time in the tournament, put on a World Cup record 116 for the seventh wicket alongside the more subdued Dhoni, who was content to defer the big-hitting responsibilities to his junior partner.
Jadeja obliged, clubbing four fours and as many sixes, before holing out to long-off off Trent Boult and though Dhoni attempted to up the ante, the veteran was run out following a direct hit from Martin Guptill in the penultimate over as India’s hopes vanished.
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Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. | Sports Competition | July 2019 | ['(The Independent)'] |
Following a period of quiet, Israel reopens the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza. | Israel has fully reopened its cargo crossing with Gaza, saying it is in response to a period of relative calm.
Lorries carrying fuel and commercial goods passed through Kerem Shalom on Wednesday after weeks of restrictions.
The fishing zone off Gaza's coast was also restored to 17km (nine nautical miles), having been reduced to 6km.
Kerem Shalom was closed for all but humanitarian deliveries in retaliation for cross-border incendiary kite and balloon attacks by Palestinians.
Human rights groups said the move amounted to illegal collective punishment.
Kerem Shalom is the main lifeline for the two million people living in Gaza, and the territory's economy is almost entirely dependent on it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman promised to use a "heavy hand" with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which dominates Gaza, when they imposed tighter restrictions on the use of Kerem Shalom on 9 July.
They demanded Hamas stopped the launching of incendiary balloons and kites that have sparked hundreds of fires in southern Israel since April, burning more than 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of forest and farmland and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage.
However, the arson attacks did not stop and there have been several flare-ups in violence that have raised fears of a new war.
Last Wednesday night, militants fired more than 180 rockets and mortars into southern Israel, and the Israeli military carried out more than 150 air strikes on "military and strategic" targets in Gaza. The escalation left three Palestinians dead and seven civilians in Israel injured. A truce mediated by Egypt and the UN reportedly took effect the following night, and there have been fewer reports of incendiary devices being launched since.
In a message posted in Arabic on Facebook on Wednesday morning, Mr Lieberman said he had decided to reopen Kerem Shalom and extend the fishing zone "as a clear message to the residents of the Gaza Strip: peace and quiet are worth it and violence is not".
"The residents of Gaza have much to gain when the citizens of Israel enjoy peace and security, and much to lose when quiet is disturbed."
Mr Lieberman accused the leadership of Hamas of using civilians "as live ammunition and as human shields" and warned: "If Hamas turns to violence again, we will respond immediately and in a much more severe manner than before."
More than 160 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the end of March - most during protests along the Gaza-Israel border at which thousands have expressed their support for the declared right of Palestinian refugees to return to their ancestral homes in what is now Israel.
One Israeli soldier has been shot dead by a Palestinian sniper during the same period.
The BBC's Yolande Knell in Gaza says the reopening of Kerem Shalom crossing has raised hopes that Egypt and the United Nations could be getting closer to negotiating a more comprehensive truce between Israel and Hamas that would prevent another escalation and ease the severe economic hardship in Gaza.
On Tuesday, Israel's finance minister confirmed a report that Mr Netanyahu had secretly met Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi in Egypt in May. The two men are believed to have discussed the terms for a ceasefire, the easing of the blockade of Gaza, and the rebuilding of its infrastructure.
Israel and Egypt imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Gaza when Hamas reinforced its power over the territory in 2007 by ousting its rivals, a year after winning legislative elections. The two countries say the blockade is for self-defence.
In a separate development on Tuesday, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said that it might not be able to open schools for more than half a million children in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon this month because it had run out of money to pay their 22,000 teachers.
Unrwa officials said the decision by US - which has long been the agency's largest single donor - to withhold $305m (£240m) of funding this year was the main cause of the financial crisis. The Trump administration has said it will withhold funds until Unrwa makes unspecified "reforms".
| Government Policy Changes | August 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
21 people are killed after a boat capsizes in Nigeria's northwestern state of Sokoto. | File photo shows rescuers work at the site of a boat accident in Lagos, Nigeria, March 12, 2014. (Xinhua/Zhang Weiyi)
ABUJA, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-one people were confirmed killed after a boat capsized in Nigeria's northwestern state of Sokoto, local authorities said on Friday.
Responders recovered the bodies of 17 women and four children on board the overloaded boat, which capsized due to strong waves in Gida Kare district of the state on Thursday, the National Emergency Management Agency said.
An investigation has been launched to ascertain the cause of the boat.
The boat was carrying at least 50 passengers at the time of the incident.
The 29 other victims were able to make it to shore during a rescue operation, said Suleiman Karim, a NEMA personnel. One other official said a 1-year-old child was among the dead victims.
The victims of the boat accident were all internally displaced persons (IDPs) returning to their village in Gidan Kare after they were attacked recently by gunmen, according to the local Daily Trust newspaper.
Gidan Kare is one of many districts in northern Nigeria hard-hit by attackers, mostly cattle rustlers. File photo shows rescuers work at the site of a boat accident in Lagos, Nigeria, March 12, 2014. (Xinhua/Zhang Weiyi)
ABUJA, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-one people were confirmed killed after a boat capsized in Nigeria's northwestern state of Sokoto, local authorities said on Friday.
Responders recovered the bodies of 17 women and four children on board the overloaded boat, which capsized due to strong waves in Gida Kare district of the state on Thursday, the National Emergency Management Agency said.
An investigation has been launched to ascertain the cause of the boat.
The boat was carrying at least 50 passengers at the time of the incident.
The 29 other victims were able to make it to shore during a rescue operation, said Suleiman Karim, a NEMA personnel. One other official said a 1-year-old child was among the dead victims.
The victims of the boat accident were all internally displaced persons (IDPs) returning to their village in Gidan Kare after they were attacked recently by gunmen, according to the local Daily Trust newspaper. | Shipwreck | August 2018 | ['(Xinhua)'] |
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili called for a cease fire which his Security Council secretary said means that Georgian troops will withdraw from Tskhinvali and stop responding to Russian shelling. | TBILISI, Georgia (AP) Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili proposed Saturday to declare a cease fire in the breakaway province of South Ossetia.
Saakashvili, speaking at a news conference Saturday, also proposed that the warring parties be separated.
Georgia's Security Council secretary, Alexander Lomaia, said Saakashvili's proposal means that the Georgian troops will withdraw from Tskhinvali, the provincial capital of South Ossetia, and stop responding to Russian shelling.
The Russian military said previously they already had driven Georgian forces out of Tskhinvali.
GORI, Georgia (AP) Fighting raged in South Ossetia for a second day Saturday as Russia sent hundreds of tanks and troops into the separatist province and dropped bombs on Georgia that left scores of civilians dead or wounded.
Georgia, a staunch U.S. ally, launched a major offensive Friday to retake control of breakaway South Ossetia. Russia, which has close ties to the province and posts peacekeepers there, responded by sending in armed convoys and military combat aircraft.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that some 1,500 people have been killed, with the death toll rising Saturday.
The figure could not be independently confirmed, but witnesses who fled the fighting said hundreds of civilians had probably died. They said most of the provincial capital, Tskhinvali, was in ruins, with bodies lying everywhere.
Television footage showed burned-out Georgian tanks as sporadic fighting continued overnight and into Saturday.
The fighting threatened to ignite a wider war between Russia and Georgia, which accused Russia of bombing its towns, ports and air bases. Georgia, a former Soviet republic with ambitions of joining NATO, has asked the international community to help end what it called Russian aggression.
It also likely will increase tensions between Moscow and Washington, which Lavrov said should bear part of the blame for arming and training Georgian soldiers.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday that Moscow sent troops into South Ossetia to force Georgia into a cease-fire. Moscow has said it needs to protect its peacekeepers and civilians in South Ossetia, most of whom have been given Russian passports. Ethnic Ossetians live in the breakaway Georgian province and in the neighboring Russian province of North Ossetia.
Russian military aircraft on Saturday raided the Georgian town of Gori. An AP reporter who visited shortly after the bombing saw several apartment buildings in ruins, some still on fire, and scores of dead bodies and bloodied civilians. The elderly, women and children were among the victims.
The Russian planes appeared to have targeted a military base in Gori's outskirts that sustained hits. They also apparently hit nearby living quarters.
Georgia said it has shot down 10 Russian planes, including four brought down Saturday, according to Kakha Lomaya, head of Georgia's Security Council.
The first Russian confirmation that its planes had been shot down came Saturday from Russian Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the General Staff, who said two Russian planes were downed. He did not say where or when.
Overnight, Russian warplanes bombed the Vaziani military base on the outskirts of the Georgian capital and near the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said. He also said two other military bases were hit, and that warplanes bombed the Black Sea port city of Poti, which has a sizable oil shipment facility.
The bombings caused significant casualties and damage but further details were not yet available, he said.
Lavrov said Georgia had brought the air strikes on itself by bombing civilians and Russian peacekeepers. He warned that the small Caucasus country should expect more attacks.
"Whatever side is used to bomb civilians and the positions of peacekeepers, this side is not safe and they should know this," Lavrov said.
The Russian bombings have targeted Georgian areas outside of South Ossetia. Asked whether Russia could bomb the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, Lavrov answered: "I don't think the bombing is coming from Tbilisi, but whatever part of Georgia is used for this aggression is not safe."
Diplomats have issued a flurry of statements calling on both sides to halt the fighting and called for another emergency session of the U.N. Security Council, its second since early Friday morning seeking to prevent an all-out war.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Russia to halt aircraft and missile attacks and withdraw combat forces from Georgian territory. Rice said in a statement that the United States wants Russia to respect Georgian sovereignty and agree to international mediation.
There were conflicting claims as to who held the battlefield advantage.
Russian Gen. Vladimir Boldyrev said in televised comments that Russian troops have driven Georgian forces out of the capital of South Ossetia and are pushing them out of the area.
Georgian officials dismiss the Russian claims and insist they are still in control of Tskhinvali.
Eyewitnesses said that separatist and Russian forces seemed to be in control of Tskhinvali center, with no Georgian troops visible Saturday morning. Horrified civilians crawled out of the basements into the streets as fighting eased, looking for supplies.
The air and artillery bombardment left the city without water, food, electricity and gas.
Russian military commanders, who accused Georgian forces of deliberately attacking Russian peacekeepers with heavy weapons, said 15 peacekeepers have been killed and about 150 wounded.
Russian military spokesman Col. Igor Konashenkov alleged that Georgian troops had killed some wounded Russian peacekeepers when they seized Russian checkpoints. Konashenkov's claim couldn't be independently confirmed.
It was unclear what might persuade either side to stop shooting. Both claim the battle started after the other side violated a cease-fire that had been declared just hours earlier after a week of sporadic clashes.
Washington was sending in its top Caucasus envoy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, to try to end the bloodshed.
It was the worst outbreak of hostilities since the province won de facto independence in a war against Georgia that ended in 1992. Russian troops went in as peacekeepers but Georgia alleges they now back the separatists.
Russia, which has granted citizenship to most of the region's residents, appeared to lay much of the responsibility for ending the fighting on Washington.
Georgia, which borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia, was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the breakup of the Soviet Union. Georgia has angered Russia by seeking NATO membership a bid Moscow regards as part of a Western effort to weaken its influence in the region.
Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili, a U.S.-educated lawyer, long has pledged to restore Tbilisi's rule over South Ossetia and another breakaway province, Abkhazia. Both regions have run their own affairs without international recognition since splitting from Georgia in the early 1990s and have built up ties with Moscow.
Georgia has about 2,000 troops in Iraq, making it the third-largest contributor to coalition forces after the U.S. and Britain. But Saakashvili has called them home in the face of the South Ossetia fighting. The Georgian commander of the brigade in Iraq said Saturday they would leave as soon as transport can be arranged.
Associated Press writers Douglas Birch and Musa Sadulayev on the Russian-Georgian border, and Vladimir Isachenkov and Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this report. | Armed Conflict | August 2008 | ['(AP via Google News)'] |
Voters go to the polls in the Eastleigh by–election following the resignation of former UK Cabinet Minister Chris Huhne with Liberal Democrat candidate Mike Thornton retaining the seat for his party. | The Lib Dems have claimed victory in the Eastleigh by-election, with the official result yet to be announced.
The party's candidate, Mike Thornton, told reporters he thought he had won. The UK Independence Party's candidate, Diane James, said she was "still aiming for first", but now believed she was "guaranteed" second place. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of former Lib Dem minister Chris Huhne, after he pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.
It was the first time the Conservatives and the Lib Dems, as coalition partners, have gone head-to-head in a seat which was winnable for both.
BBC political correspondent Robin Brant, who is at the count in Eastleigh, said that turnout was estimated at 52% - down from 69% at the 2010 general election, but still "high for a by-election". "It's early days, but there is talk here of UKIP coming second and the Conservatives slipping to third," our correspondent added. "That would be virtually a victory for them."
Earlier, on the BBC's Question Time programme, Liberal Democrat Home Office Minister Jeremy Browne said he was optimistic the result would show that his party is "alive and kicking, and an important part of the political landscape of this country". "We had the best candidate, I think that was accepted even by those who didn't vote for him," he claimed. Mr Thornton has been a parish and borough councillor since 2007 and has lived in the local area for 19 years.
But the Conservatives' Claire Perry, appearing on the same programme, was worried that politicians visiting the seat had "overwhelmed the electorate" with campaign literature. Residents had distributed leaflets yesterday saying 'Just go away, I've made my mind up', she said. The Conservative by-election candidate, Maria Hutchings, stood against Chris Huhne in 2010, coming second. She lives in Eastleigh with her husband and four children and is a campaigner for special needs children and carers.
Mrs Perry said: "I would love to see more fantastic women in parliament, frankly across all parties. If we don't get Maria in, we're missing a chance to get a really great female candidate. So I'll be disappointed if we haven't won." From the Hampshire constituency's creation in 1955 until 1994, Eastleigh was represented by the Conservatives. It has been held by the Lib Dems since. Huhne won the seat in 2010 with a majority of 3,864 over the Conservatives, with Labour in third and UKIP in fourth.
Also on Question Time, UKIP's Neil Hamilton, a former Conservative MP, said his party had "everything to play for". "My message to the other parties for 2015 is: Get used to UKIP, because we will be providing the real choice in the general election in 2015," he said. UKIP's candidate, Diane James, is a healthcare expert and member of Waverley Borough Council in Surrey.
Were Mrs James to have edged the Conservatives into third place, Labour frontbencher Maria Eagle said there would be "meltdown in the Conservative party". She said: "There's no doubt that immigration has been a big issue in the campaign here. "We've had discussions about what we could do to deal with that, to ensure that no foreign worker should take a job at less than minimum wage and be exploited and force down people's wages". Labour selected comedy writer, broadcaster and author John O'Farrell as its candidate.
This will be only the fifth occasion since the 1945 general election when the Lib Dems, or their predecessors the Liberals, have defended a parliamentary seat in a by-election. Both coalition parties have been fighting hard to win the seat, with David Cameron and Nick Clegg visiting the constituency to campaign.
The Lib Dem leader has said he expects it to be a "close contest" and Mr Cameron had urged all his MPs to head to the constituency to support their candidate.
UK Independence party leader Nigel Farage has said he is expecting a "big swing" to his party in the seat, with most polls carried out in the seat putting the party third, ahead of Labour.
Labour's candidate, Mr O'Farrell, has said the campaign "re-invigorated" the party in the area, which Ed Miliband has visited to campaign several times.
Chris Huhne resigned as Eastleigh's MP earlier this month after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice over claims his former wife took speeding points for him.
Since the start of the by-election campaign, the party has faced further difficulties with former Liberal Democrat chief executive Lord Rennard facing allegations of sexually inappropriate behaviour by female Lib Dem activists.
Lord Rennard has denied the allegations, which he described as a "distortion" of his character.
Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes told the BBC that the allegations had not had much impact on Eastleigh voters, who understood that they were simply being asked to choose a new MP. "The electorate are clever enough to realise that all the national stuff - that may be scandal or intrigue, or rumours or speculation - is not as relevant as who will go and fight for the sort of things that Eastleigh needs," he said. Fourteen candidates stood in Eastleigh:
Eastleigh: What the result means
Eastleigh by-election candidates
| Government Job change - Election | February 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Juventus win Italy's association football championship for the fifth consecutive time. | Last updated on 25 April 201625 April 2016.From the section European Football
Juventus were crowned Serie A champions for a fifth season in a row after Napoli's 1-0 defeat at Roma.
Sunday's 2-1 victory at Fiorentina put them on the brink of glory, and Napoli's failure to win on Monday meant Juve can no longer be caught.
It completes a stunning rise for the Turin side, who were in 12th place and 11 points off the top on 28 October.
However, they have won 24 of their 25 league games since, drawing the other, to take them clear.
Napoli's defeat denies Juventus the chance to win the title at their own ground. They host Carpi on Sunday at 11:30 BST.
Juve captain Gianluigi Buffon has now won seven Serie A titles with the club, who had another two stripped from them for a match-fixing scandal more than a decade ago.
"The moment we really turned a corner was scoring in the 95th minute against Torino," said the 38-year-old goalkeeper, referring to the 2-1 victory on 31 October that started their long winning run. "That gave us a confidence boost and we began to see even the most unthinkable targets were within our reach.
"My first and this season's have been the greatest of all my Scudetto victories. This season has been crazy and unbelievable. This victory showed our strength both in terms of technique and character."
Coach Massimiliano Allegri, who has won the Serie A title in both of his two seasons in charge, said: "It has been a memorable season.
"Everybody thought we had no chance after our bad start, when many thought the club should have sacked me. We did very well to react after that poor start, winning 24 games out of 25 is almost impossible, but we did it." | Sports Competition | April 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Brazil, Iran and Turkey agree on a nuclear fuel swap aimed at easing concerns from the West that Iran might building a bomb. |
Iran has signed an agreement to send uranium abroad for enrichment after mediation talks in Tehran with Turkish and Brazilian leaders.
Correspondents say the plan could revive a UN-backed proposal and may ward off another round of sanctions. But the BBC's Tehran correspondent says the deal will be viewed with scepticism in Western capitals, as Iran says it will continue enriching uranium. Meanwhile, France has announced progress at the UN on fresh sanctions. AFP news agency reported that Israeli officials were accusing Iran of manipulating Brazil and Turkey to stave off sanctions. The West has long suspected that Iran's nuclear programme is aimed at making weapons - a charge Tehran denies. Progress made?
Under the deal, Iran's foreign ministry said it was ready to ship 1,200kg (2,645lb) of low-enriched uranium to Turkey, in return for fuel for a research reactor. The deal does not address the central nuclear issues dealt with by successive UN Security Council resolutions - namely Iran's refusal to halt its enrichment programme and address questions about its past nuclear activities. The US reacted by saying it still had serious concerns over Iran's nuclear programme, although it did not reject the agreement.
It said the Iranian government "must demonstrate through deeds - and not simply words - its willingness to live up to international obligations or face consequences, including sanctions". "While it would be a positive step for Iran to transfer low-enriched uranium off of its soil as it agreed to do last October, Iran said today that it would continue its 20% enrichment, which is a direct violation of UN Security Council resolutions," said a White House statement. Russia welcomed the deal, although President Dmitry Medvedev said further talks were needed on Iran's nuclear programme. During a trip to Ukraine Mr Medvedev said the fact that Iran apparently still intended to continue its own uranium enrichment would continue to concern the international community. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said there had been "some important progress" in talks at the Security Council on fresh sanctions against Tehran. The UK, for its part, said work on a resolution about imposing new sanctions on Iran would continue until Tehran showed its intentions were peaceful. The German government said that nothing could replace a deal between Iran and the UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on world leaders for new talks "with Iran based on honesty, justice and mutual respect". The EU's high representative for foreign affairs, Baroness Ashton, was ready to meet the Iranian authorities to find a "full and complete" solution to the stand-off, her spokesman said. 'Negotiating ploy?'
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were at the talks in Tehran with Mr Ahmadinejad. On the plus side, it appears that Iran is still interested in swapping some of its low-enriched uranium for fuel rods for its medical research reactor in Tehran, which is in need of replenishment.
Sending low-enriched uranium to Turkey would be a good first step but it does not solve the problem, because Turkey cannot produce fuel rods. There therefore needs to be a further agreement with the countries that made an earlier offer to supply them - the US, Russia and France. And these countries are likely to be very cautious as they fear that Iran will impose conditions that, for them, make a deal impossible. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said 1,200kg of low-enriched uranium would be shipped to Turkey, and that Iran would notify the IAEA "within a week". Under the deal, Iran has said it is prepared to move its uranium within a month of its approval by the so-called Vienna Group (US, Russia, France and the IAEA). In return, Iran says it expects to receive 120kg of more highly enriched uranium (20%) - a purity well below that used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons - within a year. If the deadline is not met, Iran says Turkey "will return swiftly and unconditionally Iran's low-enriched uranium". BBC Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne, in London, says the agreement does not make clear whether Iran's low-grade uranium will be used to make the new fuel or just held as a kind of security deposit. Our correspondent says Western governments will fear this is just a negotiating ploy designed to delay new sanctions. Crucially, Turkey and Brazil are both on the UN Security Council, and so have a vote on those sanctions. The Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, who spent 18 hours hammering out the deal with his Brazilian and Iranian counterparts, said there was now no need for more sanctions against Iran. "The swap deal shows that Tehran wants to open a constructive path... there is no more ground for new sanctions and pressures," he said. 'Last chance'
The US is in the final stages of negotiating a fourth sanctions package with other UN Security Council members.
This new deal will be examined in great detail and with a high degree of scepticism in foreign capitals, our correspondent says. Iran backed out of a similar proposal last October citing disagreement about the details of the deal, which included a simultaneous swap, something the IAEA said was not feasible. Iran's stocks are now thought to be much larger than the 1,200kg covered by the new agreement. Both Russia and the US say the talks represent Iran's last chance to avoid harsher sanctions. Iran has been mounting a big diplomatic effort to prevent new UN sanctions; its foreign minister has visited all 15 members of the Security Council. | Sign Agreement | May 2010 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(BBC)'] |
A drone strike by the United States kills 50 Taliban militants in South Waziristan, Pakistan. | Up to 50 suspected militants have been killed in two US attacks in north-west Pakistan, local officials told the BBC.
In the first attack, suspected US drones attacked a Taliban forest camp in South Waziristan, near the Afghan border, killing at least 10 militants. Hours later, officials said about 40 militants died when five missiles hit a vehicle convoy in the same region. It has been one of the Taliban's deadliest days since the drone campaign began last August. Separately, a top Taliban commander, Maulana Fazlullah, was reported to have been wounded during the Pakistani military's ongoing offensive in the Swat Valley. Wednesday's suspected drone strikes were targeting militants in a stronghold of Pakistan's top Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud. The Pakistani army is now bracing itself for a major offensive against him. In the first of Wednesday's attacks, missiles hit the thickly-forested and mountainous Karwan Manza area, some 10km (six miles) south-east of Ladha. Officials say six missiles were fired, completely destroying a Taliban hideout, a day after another camp was hit in a similar attack nearby. In the second attack, five missiles were fired at vehicles carrying militants on the main road between Ladha and another town, Sararogha, according to local officials. They said all the vehicles were destroyed and the dead were mostly Taliban militants, as well as members of banned militant organisations from Pakistan's Punjab province. The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says the militants targeted in the double strike were loyal to Baitullah Mehsud. US officials believe he is providing both the Taliban and al-Qaeda with a refuge in the region. They are offering a reward of $5m (3m) for his capture. 'Insecurity'
Our correspondent says the increased number of drone attacks has caused a great deal of insecurity among the Pakistan Taliban commander's fighters. Meanwhile, there was confusion over the fate of Maulana Fazlullah - a radical cleric and a commander of the Pakistani Taliban in the Swat Valley - who is said to have been wounded in an air strike on Monday. Army spokesman, Maj Gen Athar Abbas, told reporters: "We have credible information Maulana Fazlullah has been injured... But it is not possible to confirm whether he is alive or not." Analysts describe him as the "architect" of the two-year uprising aimed at enforcing Sharia law in the Swat Valley, where government troops have been engaged in a bitter campaign to oust Islamist fighters for the last two months. The Pakistan Taliban has claimed responsibility for numerous suicide bombings and other attacks which have killed scores inside the country. There have been dozens of suspected US pilotless air strikes since last August, mostly in the tribal North and South Waziristan regions, killing hundreds of militants and civilians. Last month, a suspected drone struck twice within hours killing more than 60 people - most of them militants who had gathered for the funeral of those killed in the first strike. Pakistan has been publicly critical of drone attacks, arguing that they fuel support for the militants. The US military does not routinely confirm such strikes but the armed forces and the CIA in Afghanistan are believed to be the only elements capable of deploying drones in the region. In March, US President Barack Obama said his government would consult Pakistan on drone attacks. What are these? | Armed Conflict | July 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Washington, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser activates the District of Columbia National Guard due to an organized protest of pro-Trump supporters. | WASHINGTON (AP) — Bracing for possible violence, the nation’s capital has mobilized the National Guard ahead of planned protests by President Donald Trump’s supporters in connection with the congressional vote expected Wednesday to affirm Joe Biden’s election victory.
Trump’s supporters are planning to rally Tuesday and Wednesday, seeking to bolster the president’s unproven claims of widespread voter fraud. “There are people intent on coming to our city armed,” D.C. Acting Police Chief Robert Contee said Monday.
A pro-Trump rally in December ended in violence as hundreds of Trump supporters, wearing the signature black and yellow of the Proud Boys faction, sought out confrontations with a collective of local activists attempting to bar them from Black Lives Matter Plaza, an area near the White House.
On Monday, Metropolitan Police Department officers arrested the leader of the Proud Boys, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, 36, after he arrived in Washington ahead of this week’s protests. Tarrio was accused of burning a Black Lives Matter banner that was torn down from a historic Black church in downtown Washington during the December protests.
A warrant had been issued for Tarrio’s arrest for destruction of property, police said. He was also facing a weapons charges after officers found him with two high-capacity firearm magazines when he was arrested, a police spokesman said.
Trump has repeatedly encouraged this week’s protests and hinted that he may get personally involved. Over the weekend, he retweeted a promotion for the rally with the message, “I will be there. Historic Day!”
At a November rally, which drew about 15,000 people, Trump staged a limousine drive-by past cheering crowds in Freedom Plaza, on the city’s iconic Pennsylvania Avenue. And at the December rally, which drew smaller numbers but a larger contingent of Proud Boys, Trump’s helicopter flew low over cheering crowds on the National Mall. The protests coincide with Wednesday’s congressional vote expected to certify the Electoral College results, which Trump continues to dispute,
Election officials from both political parties, governors in key battleground states and Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have said there was no widespread fraud in the election. Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies have been dismissed by judges, including two rejected by the Supreme Court.
Now with downtown D.C. businesses boarding up their windows, Mayor Muriel Bowser has requested a limited National Guard deployment to help bolster the Metropolitan Police Department. During a press conference on Monday, Bowser asked that local area residents stay away from downtown D.C., and avoid confrontations with anyone who is “looking for a fight.” But, she warned, “we will not allow people to incite violence, intimidate our residents or cause destruction in our city.”
According to a U.S. defense official, Bowser put in a request on New Year’s Eve to have Guard members on the streets from Tuesday to Thursday to help with the protests. The official said the additional forces will be used for traffic control and other assistance but they will not be armed or wearing body armor. Congress is meeting this week to certify the Electoral College results, and Trump has refused to concede while whipping up support for protests. Some 340 D.C. National Guard members will be activated, with about 115 on duty in the streets at any given time, said the defense official, who provided details on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The official said Guard members will be used to set up traffic control points around the city and to stand with district police officers at all the city’s Metro stops. Contee said Guard troops will also be used for some crowd management.
“Some of our intelligence certainly suggests there will be increased crowd sizes,” said Contee.
D.C. police have posted signs throughout downtown warning that carrying any sort of firearm is illegal and Contee asked area residents to warn authorities of anyone who might be armed. Because D.C. does not have a governor, the designated commander of the city’s National Guard is Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. Any D.C. requests for Guard deployments have to be approved by him.
The defense official said that there will be no active duty military troops in the city, and the U.S. military will not be providing any aircraft or intelligence. The D.C. Guard will provide specialized teams that will be prepared to respond to any chemical or biological incident. But the official said there will be no D.C. Guard members on the National Mall or at the U.S. Capitol.
At previous pro-Trump protests, police have sealed off Black Lives Matter Plaza itself, but the confrontations merely spilled out to the surrounding streets. Contee on Monday said sealing the area again was “a very real possibility” but said that decision would depend on the circumstances. “We know that historically over the last few demonstrations that BLM plaza has been a focal point,” Contee said. “We want to make sure that that is not an issue.” The National Park Service has received three separate applications for pro-Trump protests on Tuesday or Wednesday, with estimated maximum attendance at around 15,000 people, said Park Service spokesman Mike Litterst. On Monday, a stage was being assembled for one of the protests on The Ellipse, just south of the White House. Organizers plan to rally on Tuesday evening at Freedom Plaza and again all day Wednesday on the Ellipse, including a 1 p.m. Wednesday march to the Capitol. Expected attendees include high-level Trump supporters like Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Republican strategist Roger Stone, a longtime Trump devotee whose three-year prison sentence was commuted by Trump. Stone was convicted of repeatedly lying to Congress during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
During the Dec. 12 pro-Trump protests, at least two local Black churches had Black Lives Matter banners torn down and set ablaze. Contee said the hate-crimes investigation into those incidents was still ongoing and that his officers would be out in force around area churches to prevent similar incidents.
“We will be increasing out visibility around the churches in the area,” he said. On Monday the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law filed a lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court against the Proud Boys and Tarrio on behalf on one of the vandalized churches, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.
“We will not allow white supremacist violence to go unchecked by the laws of the land,” Rev. William H Lamar IV, pastor of Metropolitan AME, said in a statement. | Protest_Online Condemnation | January 2021 | ['(AP)'] |
Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, believed to have held Malawi's first gay engagement ceremony, are arrested and expected to be charged with gross public indecency. | Two gay men arrested in Malawi after getting engaged are to be charged with gross public indecency, police say.
"We arrested them because they committed an offence; homosexuality in Malawi is illegal," police spokesman Davie Chingwalu told the BBC. Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza held a traditional engagement ceremony over the weekend - believed to be the first gay couple in Malawi to do so. Homosexual acts carry a maximum prison sentence of 14 years in Malawi. The pair are being held in separate cells in Blantyre until their case is heard, Mr Chingwalu told the BBC's Network Africa programme. Engagement party dress
The BBC's Raphael Tenthani in Blantyre says the pair have been seen relaxing at the police station with Mr Tiwonge still wearing the dress he wore at the engagement party. He says they may have to spend a few more nights in jail as the judiciary is on its Christmas recess and they will not be able to appear in court until next Monday. Our correspondent says Malawi is a deeply conservative society, but recently a group of campaigners came together to form a gay rights organisation, Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP). CEDEP's executive director, Gift Trapence, says the laws used to arrest the couple are invalid because they are against the Bill of Rights enshrined in the 1995 constitution. "Even if you arrest them or charge them for 20 years, you cannot change their sexual orientation. They are what they are," he told the BBC. "So the issue is in a democratic era - if you are arresting people based on their sexual orientation, are you doing justice to the fundamental human rights of these individuals?" he said. Correspondents say some voices in government have also started to call for more openness about homosexuality as the authorities try to tackle high rates of HIV/Aids. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | December 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(IOL)', '[permanent dead link]'] |
In Gaelic football, Dublin win the Championship Final – their second in three years – by a single point , condemning opponents Mayo to yet another final defeat, their seventh since their last victory in 1951. | Last updated on 22 September 201322 September 2013.From the section Gaelic Games
Mayo's attempt to win the All-Ireland Football Championship for the first time since 1951 ended in disappointment as Dublin won by a point at Croke Park.
Bernard Brogan scored two goals and three points as Jim Gavin's Dubs secured the Sam Maguire trophy for the second time in three years.
Mayo had made the better start and led until Brogan flicked in his first goal in the 16th minute.
Andy Moran got Mayo's goal but they fell agonisingly short, 2-12 to 1-14.
Dublin, having won the Football League earlier in the year, have completed a double by becoming champions for the 24th time in their history.
Mayo, who had lost five finals during a long 62-year wait for All-Ireland glory, were fancied by many as they had knocked out holders Donegal emphatically in the quarter-finals.
Their hunger was apparent as skipper Moran, Lee Keegan, Keith Higgins and Cillian O'Connor scored to put them 0-4 to 0-1 up.
Brogan's first goal - which saw him cleverly flick the ball over defender Ger Cafferky and advancing keeper Robert Hennelly - brought Dublin level.
Mayo led 0-8 to 1-4 at the break but Dublin had a good spell on the restart during which Cian O'Sullivan and Eoghan O'Gara scored to edge them ahead.
Moran's low shot into an empty net put the game in the balance again but, when Brogan netted from substitute Denis Bastick's pass, Dublin were 2-9 to 1-9 up.
Points were exchanged and Mayo had cut the gap to just two with the game deep in stoppage-time.
Mayo, needing a goal, then won a free in a good position but O'Connor opted to clip over for the point.
It was the wrong decision as the corner-forward's seventh point of the afternoon was the last kick of the match and the Dubs won by a point. | Sports Competition | September 2013 | ['(2–12 – 1–14)', '(The Times)', '(BBC)'] |
First President of Algeria Ahmed Ben Bella dies at the age of 95. | The first president of independent Algeria, Ahmed Ben Bella, who has died aged 95, did not remain long in office once he had achieved success in his fight against colonialism. However, after the long period of imprisonment and exile that followed his overthrow, he re-emerged in the 1990s as his country's voice of conscience.
Absorbed as a colony in 1847, Algeria was long regarded as part of metropolitan France. Ben Bella had been decorated for bravery by General Charles de Gaulle during the second world war. Yet Algerians were excluded from French politics, and any nationalist protest was stamped upon.
Born into a family of mountain peasants in Maghnia, on the Algeria-Morocco border, Ben Bella joined the nationalist Parti du Peuple Algerien while a 15-year-old. His political life began in earnest against the background of the French massacre of Algerian protesters at Sétif on VE day 1945.
In 1947 he and Hocine Aït Ahmed launched the secret paramilitary Organisation Spéciale (OS) with the aim of overthrowing the French. They raided a post office in Oran for funds in 1949, but Ben Bella was jailed and the OS crushed. He escaped in 1952 after sawing through his cell bars, and eventually found refuge in Cairo.
There, in March 1954, Ben Bella and eight other Algerian revolutionary leaders created the National Liberation Front (FLN). They maintained that "the only negotiation is war", and seven years of conflict ensued.
For two years Ben Bella shuttled between Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, acquiring weapons and sending orders to fighters in the field. In October 1956 French agents captured him and four colleagues on board an airliner flying to Tunis, and detained them in France. The resultant schism between these external leaders and the local resistance was to blight Ben Bella's short presidency.
Released from prison in France in March 1962, after the Evian agreement between France and the provisional government of Algeria had ended the war, Ben Bella was elected president in September 1963. That year he passed Algeria's first constitution, encouraged the creation of Sonatrach, Algeria's national oil and gas conglomerate, and built schools for thousands of former shoeshine boys.
Yet public disillusion set in when Ben Bella began mismanaging the country. He spurned the FLN tradition of collective leadership by interfering in the jurisdiction of ministers and redistributing land through a corrupt bureaucracy, forcing out former allies one by one.
Backed by Houari Boumediene's force of 70,000 "external" FLN troops, he ousted Algeria's provisional prime minister, Ben Youssef Ben Khedda. In April 1963, Vice President Rabah Bitat resigned after accusing Ben Bella of betraying socialist principles, but soon went into exile. Another ex-comrade, Aït Ahmed, launched a rebellion in September 1963.
Boumediene unseated Ben Bella in June 1965, as the president tried to open negotiations with the rebels. European sympathisers detected the CIA's hand at work. Ben Bella was initially held incommunicado, but later under house arrest. He married Zahra Sellami, a journalist who had come to interview him, and the couple drew closer to Islam. While condemning the violent excesses of the Islamists, Ben Bella saw Muslim values as the surest guarantee of rights in Algeria.
Ben Bella was freed in July 1979, soon after Boumediene died. He moved to France in 1980, but in 1983 was expelled and went to Lausanne, Switzerland. There he launched Le Mouvement pour la Démocratie en Algérie (MDA) in May 1984, returning to Algeria in September 1990 to contest the nation's first multiparty elections.
The MDA portrayed itself as an alternative to the Islamist FIS and ruling FLN, but did poorly at the polls. A military council cancelled the electoral process after dramatic FIS successes and assumed power in January 1992. Ben Bella spearheaded the Rome Platform for restoring Algerian democracy in January 1995. His party boycotted the November 1996 constitutional referendum and was banned in 1997.
Ben Bella led campaigns in support of the Palestinian cause and against US foreign policy. However, his support for Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 sat uncomfortably with his belief in the inviolable rights of sovereign states. And Berbers in Algeria were unhappy about his pan-Arabism. | Famous Person - Death | April 2012 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
14 anti-government protesters are killed as Libyan protesters seeking to oust president Muammar Gaddafi defied a crackdown and took to the streets in four cities on what they called a "day of rage". , | Raucous pro-government demonstrators took to the streets of Libya's capital overnight Thursday, state television reported, hours after at least seven were killed in clashes between security forces and those opposed to the North African nation's longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi.
Images from state television, labeled as "live" at what would be early Friday morning, featured men chanting pro-Gadhafi slogans, waving flags and singing around the Libyan leader's limousine as it crept through Tripoli. Scores of supportive demonstrators packed the roadway and held up pictures of their leader, in power for four decades, as fireworks occasionally dotted the night sky. At multiple points, Gadhafi playfully popped up from his vehicle's sun roof to acknowledge the support.
That positive scene -- as well as reports out Thursday that Libya had released 110 political prisoners and would convene a committee to examine major changes to its government -- appeared a far cry from what had happened earlier in the day in Benghazi. There, in Libya's second largest city, human rights groups and protesters themselves claimed they were attacked by pro-government security forces.
Demonstrations also took place elsewhere in Libya following calls posted on websites for a "Day of Rage" on Thursday, the five-year anniversary of an incident in which security forces killed at least 12 protesters.
Over the last several days, confrontations between anti-government factions and security forces have contributed to at least 21 deaths in the North African nation -- a figure that CNN, which does not have journalists in Libya, could not independently confirm. Officials at international human rights groups have said that they fear that death toll may be too low.
Despite movement in recent years toward free expression, information is still difficult to get out of Libya. Moammar Gadhafi's government retains control over most of the nation's media and monitors and censors the fledgling private media outlets.
Ahmed Elgasir, a researcher at the Geneva, Switzerland-based Libyan Human Rights Solidarity, said that serious clashes between protesters and security forces occurred Thursday in Benghazi, located on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast.
Citing an unnamed security source, the pro-Gadhafi publication Quryna reported that seven people were killed and "a number" of others wounded when security forces used live ammunition after demonstrators became "violent."
The report claimed that protesters targeted government buildings, burned police stations and inflicted other damage around Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city.
A protester told CNN by phone that about 3,000 people gathered after midday prayers at the seaside corniche and marched toward the courthouse. The demonstrator, whose name has been withheld for safety reasons, said police -- some without uniforms and others in riot gear -- wielded knives and fired live ammunition to disperse the crowds.
The protester said that the crowds, angered by state television's portrayal of previous pro-Gadhafi demonstrations, grew to the thousands. They chanted anti-Gadhafi slogans and "Peace!"
Mohammed Ali Abdallah of the opposition National Front for the Salvation of Libya said that, as night fell Thursday, he still was receiving reports from his sources of ongoing clashes in Benghazi. That included reports, he said, of snipers targeting protesters.
The day before, at least 38 people were injured when police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse crowds in Benghazi, Quryna said
Novelist Idris al-Mismari told the Al-Jazeera network that plainclothes security officers used tear gas, batons and hot water on the crowds. During his live interview, the line went dead. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that he was arrested then.
One of the protesters likened the situation in Libya to Egypt, telling Human Rights Watch that "they are sending baltaqiyyas (thugs) to beat us."
Abdallah also reported protests in other towns across Libya -- Darna, Ijdadia, Kufra, Zintan and Al-Bayda. Medical sources told him five people died in Albeyda, he said.
Abdulla Darrat, spokesman for Enough Gaddafi, an anti-Gadhafi Libyan exile group in the United States, told CNN that hospitals in Al-Bayda were inundated and that doctors were running out of medical supplies to treat the injured.
Elgasir, of Libyan Human Rights Solidarity, said his group's sources on the ground said 10 people were killed in Al-Bayda on Thursday and that the city was surrounded by security forces. He said he was unable to contact people in Al-Bayda on Thursday because the internet and cell phone text messaging had been shut down.
He said his own group's website has been hacked since last November last year, after it presented a report on Libya to the U.N. Human Rights Council. The agency has not been able to get its site back up, he said. Elgasir also said demonstrations were taking place in Zentan, south of Tripoli.
Human Rights Watch reported that security forces had arrested at least 14 Libyans in connection with the demonstrations. Among them were human rights activists, journalists, lawyers and two key members of the families of people involved in an alleged 1996 massacre at the Abu Salim jail.
U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Libya should listen to its people.
And U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton had made clear that "countries across the region have the same kind of challenge in terms of the demographics, the aspirations of their people, the need for reform," he said.
"And we encourage these countries to take specific actions that address the aspirations and the needs and hopes of their people," Crowley said in a news briefing Wednesday. "Libya certainly would be in that same category."
In fact, an independent source told CNN that Gadhafi is acutely aware of discontent with the government and has been moving to address popular grievances before they surfaced on the streets.
Libya, like many of its Arab neighbors, is suffering from economic hardship and a lack of political reform. Unemployment rates among the nation's youth are high.
Gadhafi has spoken with groups of students, lawyers and journalists in the past few weeks, the source told CNN.
On one occasion, the longtime ruler appointed an outspoken member of the lawyers' union as its leader, removing the syndicate's old guard, according to the source. He also promised action to address the country's housing crisis.
On Thursday, state television reported that 110 members of Al-jam'a Al-libyia Al-Muqatila, also known as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, were let out of prison Thursday, part of a planned release coordinated by a charity led by Moammar Gadhafi's son Saif.
Quryna reported on the same day that a government group, dubbed the Secretary Committee of the People's Conference, plans to make major changes to Libya's government.
The committee's reforms will affect executive branches of government and also include moves aimed at better supporting local government administrators, Quryna reported.
The highly placed Libyan source close to the government sought to downplay the reports of unrest. The source asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
"There is nothing serious here," the source said Wednesday. "These are just young people fighting each other."
Libya, he said, is not Egypt.
CNN's Tim Lister, Salma Abdelaziz, Yousif Basil, Ingrid Formanek and Moni Basu contributed to this story. | Protest_Online Condemnation | February 2011 | ['(The Jerusalem Post)', '(CNN)', '(Al-Jazeera)'] |
A blaze at the Cinecittà film studio complex in Rome burns down several buildings. | A large fire broke out late on Thursday at the legendary Cinecitta film studios in Rome, with firefighters scrambling to prevent the flames spreading to the nearby historic centre of the city.
The fire started around 10:00pm (local time) and destroyed a 2,000 square-metre hangar where sets for films were stored, before spreading to several other buildings.
"There are flames up to 30 to 40 metres high, because it is wood and synthetic materials that are burning," Guido Parisi, the commander of the Rome region firefighters, was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.
"We're going to use aircraft because the flames must be fought from all sides in order to prevent them from spreading further," he said, adding he feared his firefighters would need all night to bring the fire under control.
He says there have been no injuries from the flames or smoke.
Eleven fire engines had been dispatched to the film studios.
No flames or smoke were visible from the studio's entrance, according to an AFP photographer.
The operational centre for the Rome fire service could not provide any details about the scale of the fire when contacted by AFP.
The studios, situated in a vast complex a few kilometres from the historic centre of Rome, celebrated their 70th anniversary last April.
Several Italian media outlets reported the fire started where the Anglo-American television production Rome - about the birth of the Roman empire - had been filmed and had destroyed its sets.
- AFP
| Fire | August 2007 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
Officials of FIFA meet in Zürich for the 2016 FIFA Extraordinary Congress to select a new President of FIFA to replace Sepp Blatter. Gianni Infantino is elected with a majority of votes in the second round of voting. | It took time for Gianni Infantino to warm up to the idea of running for the FIFA presidency.
He didn’t declare his candidacy for world soccer’s top job until October, just hours before the deadline. And even then he was only holding a spot for his boss, UEFA leader Michel Platini, who had been accused of ethics violations.
But after Platini was banned from the sport for six years, the 45-year-old Infantino stayed in the race and Friday he was the upset winner after a six-hour election drama that required two ballots to sort out.
“I am feeling a lot of emotion and have not fully realized yet what has happened,” said Infantino, who repeatedly tapped his heart and appeared on the verge of tears after the results were announced. “It is still very fresh and it’s been a long and exciting journey and I probably need some time to chill out and see what has happened.”
Infantino outpolled Asian soccer confederation head Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim, a member of Bahrain’s royal family, who was widely considered the favorite among the five presidential candidates. In the first round of balloting Infantino got 88 votes, three more than Salman but far short of the 138 needed for a first-round win.
That sent the election to a second ballot for the first time in 42 years, with a simple majority of the 207 votes cast sufficient for victory. Infantino got over that bar easily, earning the support of 115 FIFA delegates to serve out the remaining 39 months of embattled President Sepp Blatter’s term.
Blatter, elected for a fifth time in May, was suspended along with Platini by FIFA’s ethics committee last fall amid bribery and corruption scandals.
After Friday’s vote, Infantino quickly struck a tone of healing and inclusion.
“Today was an election but not a war, a competition but not a fight,” he told reporters. “It was a sporting contest. We now have to build bridges, not walls.”
Although Infantino spent 16 years with European soccer governing body UEFA, the last seven as its secretary general, most fans knew him primarily as the guy who handled the ping-pong balls during the annual Champions League draw. But behind the scenes, he built a reputation as a workaholic who grew into his role as one of European soccer’s most powerful and effective officials.
Gianni Infantino waits on Friday for the Extraordinary FIFA Congress to begin in at Hallenstadion in Zurich. Infantino, with Swiss and Italian nationality, won 115 votes to become the international soccer organization’s new president.
A lawyer with Swiss and Italian nationality, Infantino was born in an Alpine village near the Swiss-Italian border and less than seven miles from Blatter’s hometown.
Infantino has been credited with building strong ties between UEFA and governmental bodies such as the European Union and the Council of Europe. He was instrumental in expanding the European Championships and implanting the controversial Financial Fair Play guidelines aimed at reining in the runaway spending by European clubs.
Under his leadership, UEFA’s revenue almost tripled.
As the ninth president of world soccer’s governing body, Infantino will need those diplomatic and financial skills because FIFA is mired in an ethical and financial crisis that has left its very future in doubt.
Last year the U.S. Justice Department indicted 41 people, many of them high-ranking FIFA officials, over allegations of racketeering, money laundering, bribery and corruption. Swiss authorities have also launched investigations, focusing on the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. And FIFA’s ethics committee has banned Blatter, FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke and Platini — for all soccer activities for six to 12 years.
The FIFA Infantino inherits is undergoing financial tumult as well. Although the group claimed a $2.6-billion profit off the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, several corporate sponsors cut ties with FIFA during its ethics crisis and FIFA is expected to post a $108-million deficit — its first shortfall in two decades — when it releases its 2015 financial report next month.
To change that, Infantino has tried to break free of the cronyism that has longed marked FIFA by stamping himself as someone who is looking out for the interests of the sport.
Before Friday’s vote he made an impressive 15-minute speech to FIFA delegates, speaking without notes in six languages.
“I will work tirelessly to bring football back to FIFA and FIFA back to football, this is what we have to do,” he repeated in his first news conference as president.
“FIFA has gone through sad times, moments of crisis, but those times are over,” he told the voters. “We need to implement the reform and implement good governance and transparency.”
FIFA delegates gave Infantino a powerful mandate to do just that, overwhelmingly approving a slate of reform measures before Friday’s presidential vote. The package calls for FIFA to expand its executive committee to 36 members, at least six of whom must be women. Top officials will be limited to terms of 12 years, divided into three four-year terms, and those officials’ salaries will be disclosed to the public.
A stakeholder committee will also be created to “ensure greater transparency and inclusion” through broader representation of players, clubs and leagues. Infantino, a member of the committee that drafted those rules, has 60 days to implement the reforms.
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | February 2016 | ['(BBC)', '(Los Angeles Times)'] |
Movement for Democratic Change President Morgan Tsvangirai becomes Zimbabwe's new Prime Minister. | Morgan Tsvangirai takes the oath at a ceremony with Robert Mugabe
Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been sworn in as prime minister in a unity government with President Robert Mugabe.
Mr Tsvangirai won the first round of last year's presidential election - but he withdrew from the run-off, citing violence against his supporters.
However he later agreed to share power with Mr Mugabe.
In a speech after his inauguration, Mr Tsvangirai called for an end to human rights abuses and political violence.
He also pledged to do all in his power to help alleviate the suffering of Zimbabweans.
"Political violence must end today," he said. "We can no longer afford brother against brother, because one happened to have a different political opinion.
"I can assure that the culture of impunity and of violation of human rights must end, and it must end today."
Mr Mugabe said he would co-operate with Mr Tsvangirai.
"I offer my hand of friendship and co-operation, warm co-operation and solidarity in the service of our great country Zimbabwe," he said.
"If yesterday we were adversaries... today we stand in unity. It is a victory for Zimbabwe."
Mr Mugabe earlier administered the oath of office to Mr Tsvangirai at a ceremony in Harare.
Two deputy prime ministers were also sworn in: Thokozani Khupe, the deputy leader of Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a break-away faction of the MDC.
Zimbabwean journalist Brian Hungwe told the BBC that some army commanders attended the swearing-in ceremony in plain clothes.
In the run-up to the March 2008 elections, army commander General Constatine Chiwenga said he would only serve Mr Mugabe.
Political analyst Ibbo Mandaza told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme: "I was hoping to see them [the army] saluting Morgan Tsvangirai. I think in due course they will salute."
Scepticism
The new prime minister must deal with an economy in ruins, 90% unemployment and a cholera epidemic which has killed more than 3,400 people.
Hyperinflation is causing prices to double every day and the country stopped publishing inflation figures after it was last estimated at 231m%. People are using foreign currency wherever possible.
More than half the population rely on emergency food aid.
The cabinet in the new coalition government will be sworn in on Friday.
There is deep scepticism about whether it will work, says the BBC's southern Africa correspondent, Peter Biles, in Johannesburg.
At best it will be a transitional arrangement leading eventually to a new constitution and fresh elections, he says.
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband cautiously welcomed the appointment of Mr Tsvangirai as a "step forward", but was worried that Mr Mugabe remained as president.
"While Morgan Tsvangirai is acknowledging the crowds, behind him is a lurking figure and that figure is President Mugabe, who has tyrannised that country and bought it to its knees," he said.
The international community stood ready to offer additional aid to Zimbabwe but it depended on the actions of the new government, he said.
Final deal
A final deal on power-sharing was reached in January, after Mr Tsvangirai returned to Zimbabwe following an absence of more than two months for fresh talks with Mr Mugabe.
Earlier negotiations had faltered after the MDC accused Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF of keeping the most powerful ministries - including the one that controls the police - to itself.
A minister from each party will now share the home affairs ministry.
Other important ministries the MDC will control are health, education and finance.
On Tuesday, Mr Tsvangirai named Tendai Biti, secretary general of the MDC as his choice for finance minister. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | February 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
A second round of storms and strong winds moves east across Texas in the American Southwest, with three radar–confirmed tornadoes damaging homes and causing injuries in the Houston area that got up to eight inches of rain since Friday night. Six people have been killed. | As many as five people have died in extensive flooding in Texas, including two possible victims whose bodies were found Saturday in Houston.
“We’ve executed over 130 water rescues,” said Michael Walter, public information officer for Houston’s office of emergency management.
One of the bodies was found in a flooded ditch, the other in a wooded area east of downtown. Whether the deaths were due to the floods isn't yet know. “We’re waiting for confirmation from our medical examiner," he said.
Houston has experienced significant street flooding as have areas of Harris county, which surrounds the city, Walter said. At least 57 structures in Houston have been flooded.
Between six and 10 inches of rain fell in eastern Harris county between Friday and Saturday, and up to 14 inches in Liberty County to the east, according to the National Weather Service.
An entire neighborhood near Hunting Bayou on Houston's east side was “significantly flooded,” Walter said.
“We’ve got multiple homes under water and we had to put in high water rescue vehicles to get people out,” he said.
“They’ve also had tornadoes in Pasadena and Friendswood to the southeast,” Walter said.
Power was out across portions of the area. CenterPoint Energy reported that 12,300 customers were without power at 4:00 pm.
By Saturday afternoon the rains had stopped for the next few days, but the danger hasn’t passed. A National Weather Service flash flood warning for portions of southeastern Texas was in place until early Sunday morning.
“Everything that was upstream is now coming downstream,” Walter said.
Several bayous in Houston are over their banks, or still threatening to spill over. A bayou is a slow moving, often marshy or boggy stream on flat ground.
.
Two bodies were recovered after flooding in the Austin and San Antonio areas on Friday and a third on Saturday in Travis County.
The flooding was the results of storms that moved east across Texas on Saturday, including at least three radar-confirmed tornadoes .
The storms and suspected tornadoes, which forecasters say were caused by an upper-level disturbance from Mexico, socked an already-sodden swath of Texas that was still drying out from the remnants of Hurricane Patricia. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | October 2015 | ['(AP via USA Today)', '(AP update)'] |
The Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal ends his campaign for the Republican Party nomination. , | Louisiana governor was most recently polling at 1% in national survey of Republican voters and says he has decided to suspend his campaign
Once a rising star in the Republican party, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal has ended his campaign for the 2016 presidential nomination. “It has been a great honor for me to run for president of the United States,” he said, announcing his decision during an interview on Fox news. “This is not my time. I’ve come here to announce that I’m suspending my campaign for the presidency.”
Jindal said that he had decided to withdraw, in part, “given this crazy unpredictable election season”.
Jindal’s campaign had focused heavily on the crucial early state of Iowa. The Louisiana governor essentially camped there in an attempt to appeal to the evangelical social conservatives who make a significant proportion of caucus-goers. Jindal had shown some success in doing so in recent weeks, climbing as high as 6% in one recent poll of the state. However, it proved not to be enough for his campaign.
He faced a variety of obstacles. Jindal was long hamstrung by weak national poll numbers, anemic fundraising as well as low approval ratings in his home state –where only a third of voters approved of his leadership. His poor performance in national polls meant that he was kept off the main stage in presidential debates and instead relegated to the undercard debate. Jindal’s campaign complained ferociously about this exclusion to the RNC.
Jindal’s withdrawal is most likely to benefit Ted Cruz. The two candidates shared a variety of similarities. Both are first-generation Americans with ardently conservative platforms and strong support among social conservatives. With Cruz already gaining momentum in Iowa with the endorsement of Representative Steve King on Monday, Jindal’s departure from the race gives the Texas senator even more breathing room in his lane of the Republican primary.
He said he would join a policy thinktank and called for a focus on economic growth and “specific solutions”.
Jindal declined to make an endorsement of an erstwhile rival. “I trust the American voters to select our next nominee,” he said.
Jindal criticized Barack Obama for what he said was a failure to take on the Islamic State group.
“We’ve got a president, he’s a community organizer at a time of war. He doesn’t even want to say the words radical Islam.”
Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and former Governor Rick Perry of Texas previously withdrew from the Republican race. “I have been blessed with the best family you could ever have,” Jindal said. He said his three children had heard the news. “Their biggest question is still whether they can get a dog.” Jindal was one of the most fervently conservative candidates in the field. He called for congressional term limits and repeatedly railed against Washington Republicans whom he said did not do enough to oppose Obama. The Louisiana governor also one of the most vocal opponents of Donald Trump in the Republican field. Jindal repeatedly labeled Trump “an egomaniac” and “a carnival act”. The son of Indian immigrants, he also repeatedly referred to his family background in a folksy manner as well as his own personal conversion to Christianity in his youth.
Fellow candidates praised Jindal. Ben Carson said he ran “a campaign he should be proud of”, while South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham wrote that Jindal “has always been a strong voice for the conservative cause”. Rick Perry called him a “great governor, standup friend, loyal American!!” Thank you to @BobbyJindal for being a conservative governor and running a campaign he should be proud of. Wishing the Jindal family well.
.@BobbyJindal is a good, conservative, policy-focused governor. Am confident he will continue to play an important role in the party
Heidi and I wish Supriya, Bobby, and their family all the best.
Bobby Jindal has always been a strong voice for the conservative cause, served the people of LA well, & I wish him & his family all the best
A former Rhodes scholar who had long been touted as a rising Republican star, Jindal launched his campaign in June with a hidden camera video posted to his campaign’s Facebook. The first Indian American governor in American history, the 44-year-old Jindal is currently finishing his second term as his home state’s chief executive. Before being elected governor, he served for three years in the US House of Representatives.
In a conference call for reporters describing the decision to drop out, Jindal’s top strategist, Curt Anderson, said this was “a bizarre election and he just wasn’t able to break through”. This was echoed by Jindal’s campaign manager, Timmy Teepell, who noted no one would have been able to predict that Donald Trump and Ben Carson, whom he referred to obliquely as “two gentlemen”, would be in first place.
Anderson said that while Jindal had been “thinking about [dropping out] for a few weeks”, he only made the final decision on Monday night. The top strategist said “you know it’s not easy. [Jindal] is a fighter and his instinct is to never give up but you also have to be realistic in politics and look at what your opportunity is and what your chances are and he just decided it just wasn’t going to happen for him this time.”
Two obstacles cited were Jindal’s inability to participate in debate and his campaign’s weak fundraising.
Teepell told reporters that they never imagined Jindal “would be excluded from the debate stage”. He described the Louisiana governor as “incredibly smart and strong debater” and insisted he would have excelled if given the opportunity to participate in a primetime debate.
Fundraising was also a major problem for Jindal’s campaign. As of the last FEC report he only had $261,000 on hand, less than all of his rivals. Anderson conceded that this was a factor and said: “I think it was Dick Gephardt who said presidential campaigns don’t end, they just run out of money.” However, despite this, Teepell insisted that the campaign had no debt. … as you’re joining us today from Korea, we have a small favour to ask. Tens of millions have placed their trust in the Guardian’s high-impact journalism since we started publishing 200 years ago, turning to us in moments of crisis, uncertainty, solidarity and hope. More than 1.5 million readers, from 180 countries, have recently taken the step to support us financially – keeping us open to all, and fiercely independent.
With no shareholders or billionaire owner, we can set our own agenda and provide trustworthy journalism that’s free from commercial and political influence, offering a counterweight to the spread of misinformation. When it’s never mattered more, we can investigate and challenge without fear or favour.
| Government Job change - Election | November 2015 | ['(The Guardian)', '(Fox News)'] |
The remains of King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia who died on 15 October 2012 are cremated in Phnom Penh. | The body of Cambodia's former King Norodom Sihanouk has been cremated in the capital, Phnom Penh.
Huge crowds gathered for the ceremony, which marked the final farewell for the man who was a prominent presence during decades of turmoil. King Sihanouk died in Beijing in October at the age of 89. His embalmed body has been lying in state since then to allow people to pay their respects. Foreign dignitaries from several nations were attending the ceremony. Among them were French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Prince Akishino of Japan, the brother of the crown prince. Chanting monks led Buddhist prayers for the former king, before an artillery salute sounded out and fireworks were set off.
His widow, Queen Monique, and the son in whose favour he abdicated, King Norodom Sihamoni, then lit the funeral pyre at the 15-storey-high purpose-built crematorium.
Some of the former king's ashes will be scattered at the confluence of three rivers and the remainder stored in an urn in the royal palace. The huge crowds who had been filing past the cremation site all day were kept away as the pyre was lit, and TV cameras were covered so the moment was private, the Associated Press reports.
Monday's cremation marks the end of several days of commemorations for the former monarch, who died of a heart attack. On Friday, tens of thousands of people turned out to watch as his golden sarcophagus was paraded through the streets of Phnom Penh to the crematorium. Since then people from across Cambodia, dressed in mourning colours of white and black, have been lining up to file past his coffin, some holding lotus flowers.
"It's the last day for us all to pay homage to the great hero king and to send him to heaven," King Sihanouk's long-time personal assistant Prince Sisowath Thomico was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
King Sihanouk remained an influential figure in Cambodia until his death, despite abdicating in 2004. He became king in 1941 while still a teenager, and led Cambodia to independence from France in 1953.
He was a presence through decades of political and social turmoil in Cambodia, despite long periods of exile overseas. In later life he emerged as a peacemaker who helped bring stability back to his country, after an ill-fated choice to back the Khmer Rouge in its early years. His record, says the BBC's Jonathan Head, who is in Phnom Penh, is complex and showed many personal flaws. But none of that was talked about among the crowds paying their last respects - they were simply mourning the loss of a giant personality, who has been one of the few constants in their tragic history. "I don't have any words to express the sorrow and suffering I feel when knowing his body will soon disappear," Hin Mal, 79, told the Associated Press news agency. "I love and respect King Sihanouk like my own father." | Famous Person - Death | February 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Taiwan announces that it will open a representative office in Aix-en-Provence to serve southern France. This is the second Taiwanese representative office in France and the third office to open this year, coming after the establishment of an office in Hargeisa, Somaliland, and the re-opening of the office in Guam. | Street scene of Aix-en-Provence (Pixabay, djedj photo) Street scene of Aix-en-Provence (Pixabay, djedj photo) TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan is opening a representative office in the Southern French city of Aix-en-Provence, a decision that is seen as a diplomatic breakthrough for the country.
“After thorough discussions, the Taiwanese government will establish a representative office in Aix-en-Provence of Southern France, said Johnson Chiang (姜森), a senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Tuesday (Aug. 25). The decision was made in consideration of growing exchanges between Taiwan and France in an array of areas, including business, innovation, culture, and education, he said.
Chiang did not reveal when the office would be inaugurated, nor did he talk about the potential nominee for taking charge of the office as well as other personnel arrangements. He said only that the preparations are currently underway.
Taiwan has so far only one representative office in France, which is in the capital. Functioning as a branch of the Taiwanese representative office in Paris, the Aix-en-Provence office will provide services to the Taiwanese living in or traveling to the southern regions of the country, said MOFA.
This will be the third representative office Taiwan establishes overseas this year, following Guam and Somaliland. Aix-en-Provence is a university city northwest of Marseilles, which is the second-largest city in France according to population.
MOFA announced in July that it would reopen the representative office in Guam, which had been closed since 2017, with the goal of strengthening the country’s presence in the Pacific region. Taiwan also set up the Taiwan Representative Office in Somaliland, a self-governing territory in East Africa, earlier this month despite opposition from China and Somalia, which claims to have sovereignty over Somaliland.
The number of Taiwanese traveling to France in 2019 increased by 62 percent compared to 2016, according to MOFA. French people coming to Taiwan also grew by nearly 30 percent in the same period. | Organization Established | August 2020 | ['(Taiwan News)'] |
British detectives continue the hunt for suspects in the 2007 Glasgow International Airport attack and the 2007 London car bombs plot. Two doctors are among the seven people currently in custody in the UK in connection with the attacks with another person held in Brisbane, Queensland. | A 27-year-old man arrested in Queensland in connection with Britain's foiled car bomb plot was a registrar at the Gold Coast hospital, Attorney General Phillip Ruddock has revealed.
Police executed a number of search warrants in south-east Queensland, including at the hospital in Southport, after the man's arrest at Brisbane International Airport last night, Mr Ruddock told reporters in Canberra this morning.
"There were suggestions from the UK that in the context of their investigations there was some interest in (a) person abroad," he said.
"The situation is that the AFP Queensland Police acting on this advice that we have received specifically from UK authorities detained a 27-year-old man at Brisbane International Airport last night."
"The man is currently assisting police with their inquiries. No charges have been laid."
Suspect 'trying to leave Australia'
Mr Ruddock said the man was attempting to leave Australia.
"The man was seeking to leave Australia and did not have a return ticket," he said.
When asked if the man was an Australian citizen, Mr Ruddock said: "My understanding is that the gentleman has been resident in Australia."
Australia would not be raising its terror threat level because it had no information a specific attack was planned, he said.
"The only other advice that I can give you is that while these matters are obviously of concern, there is no information that suggests the terror alert at medium should be varied," he said.
"And as I've said over the last day or so, when I use those words I use them very deliberately because what it means is that while a terrorist attack could certainly be possible in Australia, we have no specific information about any such planned action here."
Hospital 'stunned'
Reported claims by Attorney-General Philip Ruddock that a man arrested at Brisbane airport last night in connection with the foiled UK terror plot was a registrar at the Gold Coast Hospital, have caught the hospital's management in Southport by surprise.
This is what one stunned hospital official had to say just before 10.30am: "Our switchboard's jammed at the moment and our public affairs lines are ringing constantly. So I've been instructed to tell people that we're unable to comment at the moment until we get more information and as soon as we do, we'll be preparing a media statement."
'Be calm'
Earlier this morning, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said a number of search warrants were being executed across south-east Queensland.
"Queenslanders, I just want to say, need to be calm about this," Mr Beattie said.
"We are not aware of any threat to any building or any activity in Queensland at all, so the threat remains as it was prior to this arrest."
British police said in a statement the man was arrested at an undisclosed location in connection with the investigation into the incidents in London and Glasgow.
"He remains in custody," British police said.
The BBC earlier reported the man was arrested overseas, but did not say in which country.
Doctors held
Two Arab doctors, both licensed to work in Britain, are amongthe eight peopleheld in connection with the foiled attacks, a police source said. The source named Bilal Abdulla, who qualified as a doctor in Baghdad in 2004, as one of the men held after ramming a jeep into a Glasgow airport terminal and setting it alight in a spectacular fireball on Saturday. Mohammed Asha, 26, a second doctor who qualified in Jordan the same year, was arrested with his wife on Saturday evening when unmarked police cars blocked a motorway in northern England to stop their car. Attacks linked Scotland Yard police declined to comment on a report on the website Muslim News that another suspect, arrested in Liverpool, was also a doctor, from India.
British authorities say the Glasgow attack and the London bombs are linked, and suspect radical Islamists of being behind them. None of the suspects has been charged, and police have up to four weeks to question them. A security source said there was no indication the alleged plot involved bioterrorism or required specialist medical knowledge.
Not 'a surprise' The source declined to discuss the individuals arrested but said that in previous investigations "we have seen people who are well educated, from good middle-class backgrounds. I don't think it's a surprise." Britain's National Health Service employs large numbers of foreign doctors. A spokeswoman for the General Medical Council, with whom both Abdulla and Asha are registered to work in Britain, said: "We are in contact with the police and will be cooperating with them where it's appropriate to do so." Foreign doctors coming to Britain must pass written tests and a clinical examination, and inquiries are also made with their home universities. "We validate your medical qualifications with the university where you studied, we validate your identity, we go through a series of checks," spokeswoman Tanya Royer said. Successful applicants gain 'limited registration', entitling them to work as junior doctors in Britain typically for six months to one year, with a maximum of five years, she said. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2007 | ['(BBC)', '(BBC)', '(BBC)', '(The Melbourne Age)'] |
The United States Senate confirms John Kerry to become United States Secretary of State by a vote of 94–3. Kerry succeeds outgoing Secretary Hillary Clinton on February 1. | The Senate overwhelmingly approved Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) as the next secretary of state Tuesday afternoon, with three Republican “no” votes.
The vote was 94 to 3, clearing the way for Kerry to formally take over from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday.
He assumes the post amid a civil war in Syria that has killed an estimated 60,000, stalled nuclear negotiations with Iran and the spread of militancy across North Africa. U.S. relations with Russia are at a low point, the United States is struggling to manage a changing relationship with a rising China and the prospects for new Mideast peace efforts appear dim.
Three Republicans voted against Kerry — Texas Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn and Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma.
| Government Job change - Election | January 2013 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
A passenger barge crashes and capsizes on the Congo River in Mai-Ndombe Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing at least 60 people, while 240 others are reported missing. At least 300 people have been rescued from the river. | KINSHASA (Reuters) - At least 60 people died when a passenger barge carrying more than 700 people became shipwrecked on the Congo river at night, Democratic Republic of Congo’s humanitarian affairs minister said on Monday.
Some 300 survivors had been found near the scene of the accident in Mai-Ndombe province in the west of the country, but another 240 remained unaccounted for, Steve Mbikayi wrote on Twitter.
Deadly boat accidents are common in Congo, which has few tarred roads across its vast, forested interior and where vessels are frequently loaded well beyond their capacity.
For most people the Congo river and its tributaries are the only means of travelling long distances.
“We sympathize with the families of the victims and we demand sanctions against all those responsible for the transport sector,” Mbikayi said, without elaborating. No further details were immediately available.
Reporting by Stanis Bujakera; writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Howard Goller
| Shipwreck | February 2021 | ['(Reuters)'] |
U.S. President Donald Trump orders the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle. | Nato is expelling seven Russian diplomats in response to a nerve agent attack in the UK.
The international security organisation's chief said the move would send a message to Russia that there are "costs and consequences" for its behaviour. Twenty-six countries have expelled Russian envoys in the past two days, in solidarity with the UK.
They all believe Russia was behind the poisoning of two people in Salisbury. Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were poisoned on 4 March in the southern English city, and investigators say a military-grade nerve agent was used. Russia has denied involvement.
Speaking in Brussels, Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said he would also deny pending accreditation for three Russian staff, and would reduce the size of Russia's mission from 30 to 20. Nato made a similar move in 2015, in response to the Russian annexation of Crimea. Before that, there were 60 Russia personnel at its Belgium headquarters. Earlier, Russia accused the US of pressuring other countries to join the mass expulsion of its diplomats. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Washington of "colossal blackmail" and said there were "few independent countries" left in modern Europe.
Mr Skripal and his daughter remain stable but critical in hospital.
Mr Lavrov said it was inevitable that there would be a response to the mass expulsion. He singled out the US for blame.
"When one or two diplomats are being expelled from this or that country, all the while whispering apologies in our ear, we know for sure that this is a result of colossal pressure, colossal blackmail, which unfortunately is Washington's main tool now on the international area," he said.
"It is hard to escape a conclusion that we were right when we stressed several times that there remain few independent countries in the modern world, modern Europe."
Russia's foreign ministry is said to be drawing up a number of possible retaliatory measures for President Vladimir Putin to consider.
One Russian senator, Vladimir Dzhabarov, was quoted as saying there would be a "tit-for-tat" response to the US decision to expel 48 envoys at the Russian embassy in Washington and 12 more at the UN in New York.
Mr Lavrov's deputy, Sergei Ryabkov, earlier said a tough response was needed but stressed Moscow would not abandon strategic stability talks with Washington.
A total of 27 nations have now announced the expulsion of more than 140 Russian diplomats.
Moldova, Ireland, Australia and Belgium are the latest countries to act, after the UK made the first move by expelling 23 envoys earlier this month.
Belgium said it would expel one diplomat, having previously indicated it might not take the step because it played host to the headquarters of the EU and Nato. Its announcement came after Nato made its statement. The majority of the countries making the move are either members of Nato or the EU, or both. Nato's Mr Stoltenberg said: "The practical implication of course is that Russia will have a reduced capability to do intelligence work."
President of the European Council Donald Tusk said he would not rule out further measures.
UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has praised the "extraordinary international response" by the UK's allies. He said "the world has had enough" of Russia's behaviour but rejected suggestions a new Cold War was dawning.
EU countries that have said they have no intention of expelling diplomats include Austria, Greece and Portugal, although all have said they support the UK and condemn the poisoning.
Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz tweeted that while he backed the EU, "as a neutral country we will not expel any diplomats", preferring to "act as a bridge-builder between East and West".
New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it did not have any undeclared Russian intelligence officers, but added: "If we did, we would expel them." . | Government Policy Changes | March 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Family members of deceased de facto president of Chile Augusto Pinochet are arrested in Santiago on charges of embezzlement. | They are accused of illegally transferring $27m (£13.2m) to foreign bank accounts during the general's time in power between 1973 and 1990. A judge ordered 17 other suspects to be held, including aides to Gen Pinochet.
Gen Pinochet died in December 2006 before he could stand trial on charges of corruption and human rights abuses.
More than 3,000 people were killed or "disappeared" during his military rule.
Pablo Rodriguez, the Pinochet family lawyer, said he was "astonished" by the decision, which he called "illegal and abusive".
He expressed confidence the ruling would be reversed on appeal.
Aides implicated
Gen Pinochet's 84-year-old widow, Lucia Hiriart, was taken to hospital with high blood pressure following her arrest.
However, Judge Carlos Cerda said there were "solid indications" the accused had "participated in the misuse of fiscal funds". No-one in Chile is above the law
Michelle BacheletChilean president
Judge Cerda is investigating a case in which Gen Pinochet allegedly hid funds with the help of Washington-based Riggs bank. Suspects include Gen Pinochet's former personal secretary, Monica Ananias, and his lawyer Gustavo Collao. At least three retired army generals - Jorge Ballerino, Guillermo Garin and Hector Letelier - were also charged. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said she would await the court's decision "with calm".
"No-one in Chile is above the law," she said.
RIGGS CASE
2004 US probe into Riggs bank found Gen Pinochet held up to $8m in secret accounts there Accounts alleged to have been opened in names of his widow, children and associates
Further investigations found former ruler held some $27m in foreign accounts
Gen Pinochet charged with tax evasion and using false passports to open accounts abroad
His lawyers say fortune gained legally through savings, donations and accrued interest
In 2004 a US Senate investigation found hundreds of bank accounts in the name of Pinochet and his relatives at the bank. He was being investigated for tax evasion, fraud and embezzlement in relation to those funds.
His immunity from prosecution was stripped in 2000, sparking years of legal wrangling to try to bring him to trial for alleged human rights abuses and tax fraud. His lawyers said he was unable to defend himself for health reasons. In 2006, Gen Pinochet died of a heart attack aged 91 while under house arrest. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | October 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
In men's professional tennis, Novak Djokovic defeats Kevin Anderson in three sets to win his fourth Wimbledon championship. | Last updated on 15 July 201815 July 2018.From the section Tenniscomments457
Novak Djokovic earned his first Grand Slam title in more than two years by beating Kevin Anderson to win his fourth Wimbledon championship.
Djokovic, seeded 12th, won 6-2 6-2 7-6 (7-3) to claim a 13th Slam - his first major since the 2016 French Open.
The Serb, 31, quickly took control to win the opening set in 29 minutes, breaking twice more in the second set.
Djokovic saw off five set points in an even third set before dominating the tie-break to seal victory.
He dropped to his haunches just inside the baseline as Centre Court rose to acclaim the champion, hugging South African Anderson at the net before skipping over towards his box and celebrating wildly in front of his coaching team and wife Jelena.
"I had many moments of doubt, I didn't know if could come back to this level to compete," said Djokovic, who also won the Wimbledon title in 2011, 2014 and 2015.
"There is no better place to make a comeback, it's a sacred place for the world of tennis, it's very special."
He is now in outright fourth place on the all-time list of Grand Slam men's singles titles, moving clear of Roy Emerson and closing the gap on Roger Federer (20), Rafael Nadal (17) and Pete Sampras (14).
The former world number one will move back into the top 10 when the latest rankings are released on Monday.
It is his first title since winning Eastbourne last year.
Djokovic dominated the men's game earlier this decade, holding the number one ranking for 223 weeks and completing a career Grand Slam when he claimed the title at Roland Garros two years ago.
Then, his cloak of invincibility began to slip.
After losing to Sam Querrey in the third round of Wimbledon in 2016, Djokovic alluded to difficulties in his personal life and his form subsequently tailed off.
Fitness also became an issue, taking two spells away from the ATP Tour because of an elbow injury, leading to him dropping out of the world's top 20 earlier this year for the first time since 2006.
Now he is back among the world's elite after a wonderful Wimbledon.
Djokovic broke twice in each of the opening two sets, dismantling 6ft 8in Anderson's service game and grinding him down in the rallies.
Anderson rarely ventured forward and offered little variation - until the third set at least - but Djokovic nullified the increased threat to win in two hours and 18 minutes.
While Djokovic's troubles have been well documented, eighth seed Anderson has enjoyed his own renaissance in the past 12 months.
The 32-year-old cracked the world's top 10 for the first time towards the end of 2015, but faced a catalogue of injury problems during 2016 and dropped towards the foot of the top 100 as a result.
However, he has battled back to reach two Grand Slam finals and a top-five ranking over the past 18 months.
While reaching last year's US Open final showed he possesses an all-round game, Anderson's biggest weapon remains his serve - which he lost in the opening game against Djokovic with a double fault on break point.
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Anderson struggled to find his rhythm and movement in a slow start, unsurprising after spending almost 11 hours on court in his previous two matches, and lost serve again in the fifth game.
While Roger Federer and John Isner eventually succumbed in those marathon quarter-final and semi-final matches, Djokovic was always going to be a tougher opponent to crack with the Serb regarded by many as the best returner in the game's history.
Of course, Djokovic also had a lengthy semi-final against Rafael Nadal but he did not look like he had returned to Centre Court without the benefit of a day off.
After taking the opener, Djokovic continued to wear down Anderson and, helped by some unforced errors from the South African's racquet, broke again in the first game of the second set.
Djokovic moved 4-1 ahead before Anderson finally started to ask questions of Djokovic's serve, missing his first break point in what proved to be the final game of the second set.
Anderson rarely ventured forward in the opening two sets, coming to the net on seven occasions, before changing tack and making 14 approaches in the final set alone.
It contributed to an even third set as both men dominated their service games until Anderson earned another break point in the eighth game - the first of the set - with the help of the net cord.
Djokovic cranked up the tempo, landing a first serve to see off the break point, only to offer up two set points in the 10th game with two double faults.
He managed to save both, despite many on Centre Court cheering when they thought he had hit a forehand long on the first, going on to hold for 5-5 and greeting the winning point with a huge roar towards the crowd.
Djokovic's next service game also came under pressure as Anderson could not convert three further set points - and his failure to do so proved costly.
Djokovic raced 4-1 ahead in the tie-break, earning four championship points when Anderson dumped a forehand into the net.
The South African saved the first with a smash, but was powerless to save the second as Djokovic hit a first serve down the middle which could only be returned into the net.
"I am definitely not feeling as fresh as I was coming into the week," smiled Anderson.
"But I'd have given another 21 hours to have the opportunity to play out here, it really meant a lot to me."
Three-time Wimbledon champion and former Djokovic coach Boris Becker on BBC TV
Djokovic is super-fit, very dedicated. He studies the history books, he knows Nadal and Federer have more Grand Slams though he won't talk about it. He can play for two or three years more years and win a few more majors.
Four-time Wimbledon semi-finalist Tim Henman on BBC TV
When you reflect on Anderson's last three matches, he had to play the match of his life against Federer from two sets down.
Then he has to play the new match of his life against Isner. Then to come back on finals day to beat Djokovic is a step too far.
He showed guts and determination, he hung in there and created opportunities. If he could have got the third set there might have been a second wind.
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Watch some of the quirkier moments and best action from the Wimbledon final as Novak Djokovic wins in straight sets and makes an emotional tribute to his son.
Analysis and opinion from the BBC's tennis correspondent.
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Get the latest tennis headlines sent straight to your phone, sign-up to our newsletter and learn where to find us on online. | Sports Competition | July 2018 | ['(BBC Sport)'] |
Six people are arrested in Ankara for alleged involvement in the murder of Andrei Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey. | Turkish police have detained six people over the killing of the Russian ambassador, who was shot in the back as he gave a speech in Ankara by an off-duty police officer shouting "Don't forget Aleppo" and "Allahu Akbar".
Russia's ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, was making a speech at the opening of a photographic exhibition when he was shot and killed by Melvut Mert Aydintas, a 22-year old member of Ankara's riot police squad.
Aydintas was later killed in a shootout with police, while three others were wounded in the attack, authorities said.
The state-run Anadolu media agency said the attacker's mother, father, sister and two other relatives have been held in the western province of Aydin, while his flatmate in Ankara has also been detained.
Police paced up and down behind a cordon on Tuesday morning outside the art gallery where the ambassador was shot. A crime scene investigation van was parked outside the building.
AP: Burhan Ozbilici
Aydintas was wearing a dark suit and tie and fired at least eight shots, at one point walking around Mr Karlov as he lay motionless and shooting him again at close range.
A video showed the attacker shouting: "Don't forget Aleppo, don't forget Syria!" and "Allahu Akbar" ("God is Greatest") as screams rang out.
"We are the descendants of those who supported the Prophet Muhammad, for jihad," he also yelled in Arabic.
He paced about and shouted as he held the gun in one hand and waved his other hand in the air.
The United States said its three missions in Turkey would be closed for a day after a gun was fired in front of the US embassy in Ankara on Monday night.
The embassy was near the art gallery where Mr Karlov was shot and Turkish police detained a man over the incident, state media reported.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had agreed in a telephone call that their cooperation in fighting terrorism should be even stronger after the killing.
Mr Putin said it was aimed at derailing Russia's attempts to find, with Iran and Turkey, a solution for the Syria crisis.
The countries' foreign ministers were meeting on Tuesday.
AP: Burhan Ozbilici
Turkey faces multiple security threats, including from the Islamic State militant group. A spokesman for the hard-line Sunni Muslim group urged sympathisers around the world this month to carry out a fresh wave of attacks, singling out Turkish diplomatic, military and financial interests as preferred targets.
However, a senior Turkish security official said there were "very strong signs" the gunman belonged to the network of the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says orchestrated a failed coup in July.
The official also cited the fact the attacker had taken July 15-17 as a holiday. The Government may argue the timing of his holiday demonstrated foreknowledge of the July 15 coup.
Mr Erdogan has denounced Mr Gulen as a terrorist, but the cleric, a former ally, denies the accusation, and has also denied any role in the assassination.
Russia is an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its air strikes helped Syrian forces end rebel resistance last week in the northern city of Aleppo.
Turkey, which seeks Mr Assad's ouster, has been repairing ties with Moscow after shooting down a Russian warplane over Syria last year.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop condemned the "shocking" attack on Twitter and extended her condolences to his family and the Russian people.
Russia's Ambassador to Australia, Grigory Logvinov, worked with Mr Karlov for decades in North Asia and the Russian diplomatic service. He said Mr Karlov's death was a tragedy.
"When a diplomat, especially a top ranked diplomat, an ambassador, is killed it goes beyond all limits and is extraordinary, because the life mission of a diplomat is to prevent war, to prevent fight." AP: Burhan Ozbilici
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | December 2016 | ['(Reuters via ABC News Australia)'] |
The United States hosts a two–day Leaders Summit on Climate and invites 40 world leaders to discuss the necessity of combating climate change and committing to reduce their nations' emissions. Due to quarantine protocols, the conference is virtual. | President Biden today kicked off a virtual climate summit attended by 40 other world leaders by announcing an ambitious cut in greenhouse gas emissions as he looks to put the US back at the center of the global effort to address the climate crisis and curb carbon emissions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are two notable leaders who are attending President Biden's two-day summit, underscoring the wide range of leaders attending. Many allies of the US are also in attendance, including French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Here's a look at the world leaders the US invited to the summit: From CNN's Nadine Schmidt in Berlin
German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed President Biden's commitment to cut his country's greenhouse gases by as much as 52% by 2030.
''The national contribution of the United States for 2030 is a clear illustration of your ambitions and is a very clear and important message to the international community,” Merkel said on Thursday during a virtual climate summit of world leaders.
Merkel also welcomed the fact that the US is back to being a global partner in tackling climate change. Merkel said that the world's commitment in tackling the climate crisis is ''a herculean task because this is nothing short of a complete transformation — a complete change of the way we do business, the way we work.”
She reiterated that Germany has already reduced its emissions by 40% — compared to 2019 — and said that the EU will be climate neutral by 2050. 'We want to have at least 55% less emissions by 2030 compared to 1990,” Merkel said.
From CNN's Marlon Sorto and Caitlin Hu
Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will propose a new migration agreement between the countries of North and Central America this week, he announced on Sunday.
His proposal would ask Central American migrants as well as Mexicans considering emigration to work across Mexico planting trees and crops for three years in return for an eventual six-month US work visa, López Obrador said in a video posted to his YouTube channel. Eventually, participants in the program should be able to apply for US citizenship, he said.
The Mexican President plans to present the plan during Thursday's virtual Climate Summit, convened by President Biden.
"You'll go six months (to the US) and then you will return to your town. And then, three years after having your work visa, with good behavior, you already have the right to apply for your US citizenship," he added.
Some background: Thousands of Central Americans have been driven northward by the economic pain of the pandemic and two devastating Category 4 hurricanes last year. The recent influx of migrants, especially unaccompanied minors, at the US southern border has overwhelmed the American government's resources in the last month.
Biden's administration has asked Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala to tighten their borders and stem the flow of migrants, and has also placed around 28,000 radio ads in Latin America to discourage people from making the trip.
Aiming to find in environmental reforestation a solution to the migration crisis, López Obrador's proposal would extend the existing Mexican government welfare program Sembrando Vida, or Sowing Life.
The US is just one of the major polluters announcing new, more ambitious climate targets this week. A number of countries, including the United Kingdom and Japan, have also upped their goals. The UK government announced on Tuesday it is aiming to slash the country's emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels. The government has previously made a commitment to reduce emissions in 2030 by at least 68% compared to 1990 levels.
On Thursday, Japan followed the UK and said it would aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 46% in 2030 from its 2013 levels. Previously, it was targeting a 26% cut. The European Union has reached an agreement on a new climate law on Wednesday, following marathon talks that lasted 14 hours. Under the law, the EU pledged to cut emissions by 55% below 1990 levels by 2030.
From CNN's Sarah Faildell Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged his country’s commitment to a “green development” at the global climate summit with US President Joe Biden and other world leaders. Xi reaffirmed China would achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, and to peak carbon emissions by 2030.
Xi also announced China’s plan to limit the increase in coal consumption: “We will strictly control coal fired power generation projects. We will strictly limit the increase in coal consumption over the 14th 5-year-plan period, and phase it down in the 15th 5-year-plan period.” China will also promote joint efforts for green Belt and Road projects, Xi said.
Speaking about the need for global cooperation on climate, Xi said, “Not long ago the Chinese and US sides released a joint statement addressing the climate crisis. China looks forward to working with the international community including the US to jointly advance global environmental governance.”
Watch: From CNN's Betsy Klein, Kate Sullivan and Kevin Liptak
President Biden announced an ambitious goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 50% from 2005 levels by 2030.
While the goals are a part of the Paris climate agreement that Biden rejoined upon taking office, they are non-binding and the administration has not rolled out a plan on how the US will meet them. Officials said Biden and his team arrived at the final number in a meeting at the White House on Wednesday morning.
The figures were struck after lengthy consultations with government agencies, scientists, industry representatives, governors, mayors and environmental researchers. The move underscores the President's commitment to addressing the climate crisis and follows on his pledge to work with other countries to find joint solutions to global issues.
Biden went on to call on world leaders to join him, setting up a key test of his administration’s ability to galvanize support on this issue.
He set the forthcoming Glasgow UN climate conference on Nov. 1 as a key target for other countries to join him in laying out goals.
Steps between now and the Glasgow conference, he said, “will set the world up for success.”
Biden called addressing climate change, which he described as “the existential threat of our time,” a moral and economic “imperative” and said this is “a moment of extraordinary possibilities.”
Watch: From CNN's Betsy Klein
President Biden kicked off the Leaders Summit on Climate Thursday with welcoming remarks, calling on the world leaders to take action to combat climate change collectively as he announced an aggressive new goal for greenhouse gas emissions.
The first moments of Biden’s remarks, including the entirety of introductory remarks by Vice President Kamala Harris, were wracked with audio issues. The pool was unable to provide the summit live to television networks, a last-minute change, so reporters were reliant on a whitehouse.gov feed. Biden pointed to actions the US would take, an effort to reassert US leadership and put the US back to the center of the global effort to address the climate crisis after the Trump administration largely disengaged.
Biden focused on the job creation aspect of addressing the climate crisis in his remarks, suggesting he sees “an opportunity to create millions of good-paying middle class union jobs.”
“When I talk about climate, I think jobs. Within our climate response lies an extraordinary job creation and economic opportunity ready to be fired up,” Biden said, going on to urge investment in infrastructure.
“I want to build critical infrastructure to produce and deploy clean technology, both those we can harness today and those we will invent tomorrow,” he said.
Harris made brief introductory remarks ahead of Biden, outlining how the leaders present share the common concern of climate change.
“As a global community, it is imperative that we act quickly and together,” she said, calling for innovation and collaboration “around the world.”
From CNN's Aditi Sangal
As President Biden commited the United States to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN it's now a matter of policy and not individual choices to make these goals a reality. Giving the example of electric vehicles, he said it won't take any sacrifice for Americans but policy needs to ensure that "they're affordable, to make sure we have enough charging stations around the country, to make sure the electric vehicles of tomorrow are made in America on American soil by American workers, preferably American union workers."
In the larger picture, Buttigieg pointed out that the US is responsible for about 15% of the world's emissions.
"That's why it was so disastrous when the last administration basically left the US seat at the table empty. That's why it's so important today that we are convening," he added, saying that it's important that the country leads the way.
"We're looking for other countries to make big commitments as well. But we can't do that with a straight face if America isn't leading the way, if we're not walking the talk. That's what this big, bold but achievable commitment from the President today is going to help us do —resume that position of US Leadership and then challenge the other nations of the world to be part of the solution as well."
Watch: From CNN's CNN’s Jacqueline Rose
Former Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore praised the Biden Administration’s pledge on cutting US carbon emissions on Thursday, calling it “a ground-breaking step” and saying, “we have no more time to waste.”
Gore noted that significant cuts are needed in this decade if we are to limit the global temperature rise and avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change.
In 2006, former VP Gore brought climate change to the forefront of global discussion with the Academy-Award winning film An Inconvenient Truth. Gore shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their efforts to study and inform the global audience about the climate challenge.
More on Biden's announcement: Biden committed the United States to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% to 52% below its 2005 emissions levels by 2030. While the goals are a part of the Paris climate agreement that Biden rejoined upon taking office, they are non-binding and the administration has not rolled out a plan on how the US will meet them. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | April 2021 | ['(CNN)'] |
At least 3 people are killed in the centre of the city of Homs, with one being seen to be shot in the head after forces loyal to the regime fire into crowds of people. Gunfire erupts in the city of Daraa. | At least six people have been killed as thousands attended anti-government protests across Syria after Friday prayers, human rights activists say.
Three died in the country's third largest city, Homs, when security forces opened fire on demonstrators.
Two were killed in a northern suburb of the capital, Damascus, and another died in a village near Deraa in the south. Earlier, an opposition leader said President Bashar al-Assad had promised troops would not fire on protesters.
Louai al-Hussain was quoting a presidential adviser, Buthaina Shaaban, after talks with officials to negotiate an end to the crisis.
Ms Shaaban made a similar statement when demonstrations began in mid-March. As many as 850 people may have been killed since then.
Homs has been the scene of a major military operation since Monday. Areas have been shelled by tanks, and troops have been conducting house-to-house searches and arrests to find or intimidate protesters.
The Syrian government says it is pursuing "armed terrorist gangs", which it blames for the deaths of about 98 soldiers and members of the security services nationwide, and 22 police officers.
As Friday prayers came to an end, reports started to come in of protest marches leaving mosques in many parts of the country.
The first came from the mostly Kurdish, north-eastern town of Qamishli, where protesters carried a huge flag with the word "freedom" spelled out in Kurdish. There were some scuffles, but the rally ended peacefully. Protests were also reported in a number of other towns and cities, including in the centre of Homs, where at least three people were killed, activists told the BBC.
"At first they opened fire in the air but the people continued... and then they shot directly into the crowd," one told the Associated Press.
There were also said to be gatherings in the Zahra, Mezzeh and Muhajirin areas of Damascus, and several outlying suburbs. In the northern suburbs of Barzeh and Saqba, to the north of the capital, protesters reportedly chanted: "We want the overthrow of the regime."
In nearby al-Qaboun worshippers who came out of the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq mosque clashed with about 50 government supporters who were being filmed by a Syrian TV station, a witness told the Associated Press.
Plainclothes gunmen in a jeep with covered licence plates then opened fire on the anti-government protesters, he added. Activists said two were killed and several others wounded.
In the north-eastern suburb of Douma, arrests were reported, while in Daraya, to the west, security forces and militiamen fired tear gas.
Witnesses also said there were protests in central Hama, where Mr Assad's father crushed an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1982.
Security forces initially held back, but later used batons, tear gas and water cannons to disperse the large crowd, they added. Protesters succeeded in ripping down a portrait of the president on the town hall.
Activists also said one person was killed in a village outside Deraa, the epicentre of the anti-government unrest.
Information Minister Adnan Hassan Mahmoud said army units had completed their withdrawal from Deraa and started a gradual withdrawal from the coastal city of Baniyas. Residents of Deraa said there were still tanks outside mosques and that troops had fired into the air to disperse a large demonstration after Friday prayers, while those in Baniyas said hundreds of troops were still there. Mr Mahmoud also said there would be a "national and comprehensive dialogue" in all governorates in the coming days. Meanwhile, the UK Foreign Office said that its political director, Geoffrey Adams, summoned Syrian ambassador Sami Khiyami to express its "profound concern about the Syrian government's violent repression of its own citizens". A spokesman of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said earlier that 700 to 850 people had been killed in the two-month-long crackdown. The figure was based on accounts from rights activists.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it fears hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people in Syria have been detained. Reports from Syria are hard to verify independently, as foreign journalists are not allowed into the country.
CLICKABLE
A mobile phone snapshot, reportedly taken in Qamishli on 29 April, shows protesters carrying banners written in Arabic and Kurdish demanding democracy.
Razan, who is a resident of Damascus, tells the BBC about violence and protests around Syria.
This unverified video seems to show a peaceful protest in Talbisah. Moments into the footage, tanks fire on unarmed civilians. Wyre Davis reports.
Residents of Deraa walk past a burnt-out building. It follows shelling by troops in what human rights groups say was an intensified crackdown on protests in recent weeks.
Syrian army vehicles were photographed near Homs and broadcast on the Syrian opposition internet channel Sham SNN on 11 May.
Human Rights Council
Syrian presidency
Setback for EU in legal fight with AstraZeneca
But the drug-maker faces hefty fines if it fails to supply doses of Covid-19 vaccine over the summer. | Armed Conflict | May 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela is discharged from hospital following two days of tests. | Former president Nelson Mandela had a quick and highly co-ordinated homecoming on Friday after his release from hospital.
Cameramen rushed to try to get the first images as he was driven through the gate of his Houghton, Johannesburg home in a military ambulance, but the windows were covered.
Other vehicles assumed to be ferrying family members were also allowed onto the premises.
He was discharged after spending two-and-a-half days being treated for a respiratory infection. The 92-year-old political icon would receive home-based care.
Hospital staff came outside to watch his departure. As he left in a military ambulance, led by nine motorbikes and six police cars, he passed a group of school children singing Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika and holding a poster with the words "take a short walk to health Madiba".
Photographers charged after the convoy with blue lights flashing and initially no sirens.
Earlier Surgeon General Lieutenant-General Vejaynand Ramlakan told a press briefing at the hospital: "He received treatment and has responded very well... .He is stable, but will be monitored closely."
Mandela's grandson Mandla told the briefing: "My grandfather has been discharged and we as a family will make the necessary arrangements for him to go back to his home in Houghton." - Sapa | Famous Person - Recovered | January 2011 | ['(IOL)', '(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Malaysian authorities detains hundreds of foreign workers in a major raid in areas around the Kuala Lumpur Wholesale Market. It is the second major raid on the country's biggest wholesale wet market by the authorities amid the movement control order. | KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian authorities on Monday (May 11) detained hundreds of foreign workers in a major raid in areas around the Kuala Lumpur Wholesale Market, which has been under total lockdown due to a high coronavirus infection rate, local media reported.
This is the second major raid on a foreign-worker enclave by Malaysian authorities amid the movement control order (MCO).
The first raid around the Jalan Masjid India earlier this month raised complaints from labour activists that arresting the foreign nationals will scare many others into hiding, when they should be encouraged to come forward to be tested for the virus without fear of being detained and deported.
On the flip side, there has been strong pushback from Malaysians fearful of the virus being carried by foreign workers who live in cramped, rented housing.
Malaysia has some 2.2 million registered foreign workers and an estimated three million more undocumented labour.
Members of the media who were present were barred from going near the wholesale market - Malaysia's biggest with its vast arrays of seafood to vegetables. They were stopped from taking pictures and videos of the operations, New Straits Times reported on its website.
The areas surrounding the market is under "enhanced MCO" - total lockdown - with unrolled barbed wire and armed soldiers, due to the high infection rate.
Locking down an area allows mass testing to be conducted by the Health Ministry and for the area to be disinfected, with food and essentials brought in daily by the Welfare Department. But the lockdown also prevented foreign migrants from escaping should they want to do so.
The surprise raid started after 6am with immigration department officers and its personnel surrounding Malaysia's biggest wholesale wet market and rounding up nationals from Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and Nepal, NST said.
A helicopter hovered above the market during the raid.
This was an Immigration Department operation. The police and a number of other agencies provided security assistance," Kuala Lumpur police chief Mazlan Lazim told journalists in a WhatsApp message, as quoted by Malaysiakini news site.
Most of those detained on Monday were believed to have worked in the sprawling market and surrounding shops.
At least three trucks were seen leaving the area around 10.30am under police escort, The Star reported.
Defence Minister Ismail Sabri, who is also the senior minister overseeing the MCO, had previously defended raids on foreign-worker enclaves, saying they will be placed at immigration depots.
The enhanced MCO on the KL Wholesale Market is scheduled to end on Wednesday (May 13).
On Sunday (May 10), another area with many foreign workers was placed on enhanced MCO - the big Jalan Othman Market in Old Petaling Jaya town.
Meanwhile, 84 rights groups in a joint statement urged Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to address the hate speech against Rohingya refugees following the online campaign against the community which began shortly after the MCO began.
“Your leadership in addressing hate speech and threats directed at the Rohingya is essential to prevent violence, discrimination and other human rights abuses,” the statement said.
“We urge you and your government to speak out in support of the rights of the Rohingya. We ask that you and your government challenge false or discriminatory narratives and highlight your government’s commitment to upholding their human rights.
Once embraced by Malaysian Muslims as fellow Muslims from Myanmar, there are now local calls for the Rohingya to be deported, as foreign nationals have at times been blamed for the pandemic and taking away local jobs amid steep job losses in Malaysia.
The statement was issued by, among others, Amnesty International Malaysia, the European Rohingya Council, Human Rights Watch, and Malaysian groups Suaram and the Islamic Renaissance Front.
Malaysia on Monday reported 70 new Covid-19 cases to raise the cumulative total to 6,726. There was one new death caused by the virus to bring the total to 109. | Riot | May 2020 | ['(The Strait Times)'] |
2008 SLA Northern offensive: The Sri Lankan Army captures the Tamil Tigers' de facto capital of Kilinochchi. | Sri Lanka's military have seized control of the Tamil Tiger rebels' de facto capital of Kilinochchi, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has announced.
He described the taking of the northern town as an "unparalleled victory" for government forces.
A pro-Tamil website confirmed the news but said the town was mostly empty as the rebel fighters had moved out.
A suspected suicide bomber later killed two airmen in the capital, Colombo, the military said.
Correspondents say the loss of Kilinochchi will be a heavy blow to the rebel group.
The town is of huge symbolic importance to the Tigers, who had assembled there the trappings of a separate state they want for the ethnic Tamil minority.
The Sri Lankan army has for months been advancing towards Kilinochchi, which has been in the hands of rebels for the last decade.
Both sides have recently claimed to have inflicted heavy casualties on each other in the north of the island.
But there have been no independent reports from the front line and it is impossible to verify either account of casualties.
Bitter fighting
"We should pay the gratitude of the whole nation to those heroic soldiers who achieved that victory," President Rajapaksa said in a nationally televised address.
He urged the rebel fighters to lay down their arms.
Sri Lankan troops fighting in the north of the country
The pro-Tamil website TamilNet reported the occupation of Kilinochchi, saying troops had entered a "virtual ghost town" as the civilian population and rebels shifted further north-east.
It said most of the buildings in the town had been destroyed by continuous military strikes and added that rebel casualties had been kept low despite the fighting.
In Colombo, a suspected suicide bomber attacked the headquarters of the Sri Lankan air force, killing at least two personnel and wounding around 30 people, including nine airmen, officials say.
Earlier on Friday, government officials said troops had entered Kilinochchi from three directions and predicted the town would fall within a few hours.
Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said troops had to overcome "enemy pockets" of rebel fighters.
On Thursday, the military said it had seized the strategically important junction of Paranthan, a crossroads north of Kilinochchi, in a bitter fight that lasted for hours.
It said the success at Paranthan had effectively cut the main supply line to several Tiger strongholds in the north of Sri Lanka.
Although the loss of Kilinochchi will be a blow to the Tigers, the head of its political wing, B Nadesan, told the BBC recently they would be able to continue fighting even if they lost the town.
The rebels would remain in possession of some territory to the east of the town down to Mullaitivu on the coast, although that too is under threat from government forces.
Correspondents say that while the government seems able to maintain the upper hand, heavy battles are likely still to lie ahead and there is concern about the fate of the large number of civilians in the Tiger-controlled north.
The rebels deny using them as human shields and reject allegations they are forcing people into their ranks to fight. | Armed Conflict | January 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
A man drives into a crowd of pedestrians in Antwerp, Belgium, injuring several people. Police arrest the man, who is believed to be North African born and living in France. | PARIS A French resident tried to drive over pedestrians on a crowded shopping street in the Belgian port city of Antwerp on Thursday, and a rifle and several knives were found in the vehicle, prosecutors said.
With tensions already high in Europe after a similar attack involving a vehicle on Wednesday near Parliament in London, Belgian prosecutors identified the suspect only as Mohamed R., in keeping with traditional practice a 39-year-old French resident of North African ancestry.
No injuries were reported, but a bomb disposal unit was sweeping the car for explosives and inspecting an unidentified canister of liquid that was also found in the car.
“We remain vigilant,” said the Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel, on Twitter. “Our security services did an outstanding job in Antwerp.”
Bart De Wever, the mayor of Antwerp, increased the state of alert and added police security in busy neighborhoods, including shopping areas, transportation hubs, monuments and museums. The ministry of defense was sending additional troops to patrol.
It was one day after Belgium observed the first anniversary of the deadliest attack on its soil, when suicide bombers in Brussels assaulted the main airport and a subway station, killing 32 people.
Antwerp is the second most important hub for radicalization in Belgium, and only Brussels has sent more people from the country to fight for Islamists in Syria.
The city is home to the now-banned and defunct terrorist group Sharia4Belgium, but Antwerp has so far averted a large-scale terrorist attack, and the local authorities have succeeded in foiling several plots and convicting dozens of terrorists in court over the last three years.
Around 10:45 a.m. Thursday, the authorities said, a red car with French plates sped through a shopping area in central Antwerp, forcing pedestrians in the Meir, Belgium’s biggest shopping area, to dive out of the way.
Soldiers on a routine patrol noticed the vehicle and signaled to the driver to stop, but he ignored them and drove through a red light, again putting pedestrians in danger.
A rapid response team was called in and chased the car, stopping it less than a mile away and arresting the driver on the banks of the Scheldt River.
Once the car stopped, the suspect did not resist as he was taken into custody, bystanders told local news media.
The investigation was being handled by the federal prosecutor’s office, an indication that the attack would be treated as a terrorist case unless proved otherwise.
President Franois Hollande of France said the attack “seemed to involve a French national,” adding that the suspect “was looking to kill or at the very least create a dramatic incident.” | Armed Conflict | March 2017 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
The Palestinian Authority signs 15 UN/Geneva human rights treaties including the Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel responds with sanctions. Peace talks continue. | Israel has imposed sanctions against the Palestinian Authority (PA) in retaliation for its signing up to join international treaties, officials say. They say taxes collected on behalf of the PA will be frozen, with limited access to bank deposits in Israel.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the move as "Israeli hijacking" and "theft".
It is the latest in a series of steps by both sides which have strained US-led peace-making efforts.
Israel says the move by the PA to join the treaties breached a commitment made before talks resumed last July after a three-year hiatus.
On Friday, Switzerland confirmed that "the state of Palestine" had acceded to the Geneva Conventions, which govern the rules of war and military occupations.
The Palestinians have repeatedly accused Israel of breaching the Fourth Geneva Convention by pursuing settlement construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967. Israel has rejected the charge, saying the convention should not apply there since neither had been sovereign territory but under Jordanian occupation when Israel took control of them in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israeli officials are quoted as saying that debt payments will be deducted from tax transfers routinely received by the PA. Israel collects taxes on behalf of the Palestinians, and transfers about $100m (80m euros) per month, accounting for two-thirds of the authority's budget. It is not yet clear how much money will be withheld or for how long.
Israel has also said it will suspend its participation in a gas exploration off the coast of the Gaza Strip.
Mr Erekat told AFP news agency it was "theft of the Palestinian people's money" and a "violation of international law and norms by Israel".
Israel decided on Wednesday to limit its contacts with Palestinian officials in reaction to PA President Mahmoud Abbas's application last week to join 15 international treaties and conventions
Meanwhile, US state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed a new round of talks between Israeli, Palestinian and US officials had taken place on Thursday.
She said the gaps were narrowing, but played down reports of a deal in the making.
Negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians have faltered in recent weeks, with each side accusing the other of violating commitments.
The Palestinians were angry when Israel did not sanction the release of a fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners, as agreed in principle under the terms on which they returned to peace talks last year. Palestinian officials say Mr Abbas's move to join the treaties and conventions was a response to Israel's failure to release the prisoners. Israel stressed that it had made any prisoner release conditional on progress being made in the negotiations and on the Palestinians abiding by a commitment not to take unilateral steps which could be seen as furthering statehood - an issue both sides agreed to settle in peace talks.
Earlier this week, US Secretary of State John Kerry said recent actions by both Israel and the Palestinians, including an Israeli decision to reissue tenders for 700 new settlement units in occupied East Jerusalem, had complicated efforts to advance the peace process.
Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 war and formally annexed the area in 1980 - a move not recognised internationally. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.
Settlements built there and elsewhere in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
| Sign Agreement | April 2014 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
In association football, Manchester City defeat Manchester United in what had been described as the biggest match in Premier League history. Vincent Kompany scores the winning goal to take City to the summit of the Premier League table with two games of the season left to play. | Last updated on 30 April 201230 April 2012.From the section Football
Manchester City took control of the Premier League title race with two games remaining thanks to a derby victory over rivals Manchester United.
Vincent Kompany's header in first-half stoppage time gave City the win that puts them top on goal difference, just three weeks after they trailed United by eight points.
City needed victory while Sir Alex Ferguson knew a draw would suit his purposes more than opposite number Roberto Mancini.
And the United manager perhaps decided to err on the side of caution, with Wayne Rooney employed as a lone striker.
In a game of few chances, City were the more positive side and deserved the three points from what had been labelled the biggest game in the Premier League's 20-year history.
United, in contrast, were passive, poor and lacking inspiration despite the high stakes, failing to get a shot on target as City keeper Joe Hart enjoyed a virtually untroubled night.
Ferguson's frustrations boiled over in the closing stages when he angrily confronted Mancini after City substitute Nigel de Jong was booked for fouling Danny Welbeck. Mancini delighted City's support by giving the Scot as good as he got - complete with gestures - as they went head-to-head before fourth official Mike Jones stepped in.
With United dropping eight points out of their last 12, the momentum and advantage is now with City. Mancini knows victory in their last two games, away at Newcastle United and at home to Queens Park Rangers, would give them their first title since 1967-68.
City's recent resurgence has also proved decisive for their goal difference as they now hold an eight-goal advantage over United and, as referee Andre Marriner sounded the final whistle, their fans joyously celebrated a victory they clearly felt would prove decisive.
City's Premier League home record this season stands at 17 wins and one draw. They are guaranteed to finish with the best home record in the division this season and the team sporting that record has won the Premier League in each of the last nine seasons.
Ferguson's selection had an almost European look to it, with Rooney starting as the lone front man and Park Ji-sung starting in the Premier League for the first time since January with the apparent detail of marking Yaya Toure.
Watched from the stands by his father-in-law Diego Maradona, Sergio Aguero had City's best early chances but the Argentine was twice off target.
Rooney cut an isolated figure in a United side seemingly set out for containment - but he was still lively enough to enjoy several feisty exchanges with Kompany, one of which earned the City captain a yellow card from referee Marriner.
After being frustrated by United early on, City gradually increased the pressure and were rewarded with the breakthrough in first-half stoppage time. Chris Smalling failed to make contact with David Silva's corner and Kompany powered a header past United keeper David de Gea.
Park's contribution had been minimal and it was no surprise when he was the first player sacrificed by Ferguson before the hour, as he chose to give United more offensive options by introducing Welbeck.
Carlos Tevez had also worked hard but had been on the margins. He was replaced with the more defensive-minded De Jong after 67 minutes.
Mancini attempted to close the game down further by introducing Micah Richards for David Silva, United responding by introducing Ashley Young for the disappointing Nani, an alteration that met with little attacking response from United.
Toure had been dominant for City and almost wrapped up the victory with a 20-yard shot just wide following a trademark surge from midfield.
In the closing moments it was City applying the pressure as opposed to United, with De Gea saving well from Gael Clichy and the otherwise excellent Samir Nasri guilty of over-elaboration with an opportunity in the area after another powerhouse run from Toure.
United's display was so poor that they were unable to even rouse themselves for their trademark late rally, City surviving in complete comfort to take control of the title race. | Sports Competition | April 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress rules that the right to amend the Basic Law of Hong Kong belongs to the National People's Congress. The Standing Committee also issued an "interpretation" of the Basic Law which set out an additional step required for any changes in Hong Kong's political structures. | HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- China's ruling that it has the sole power to initiate political change in Hong Kong is seen as the biggest step taken since 1997 to tighten reins over the pro-democracy movement.
In a clear message that China's central government is tightening its control over the rule of law, it has prohibited Hong Kong from initiating change without Beijing's approval.
"The right to amend the law belongs to the National People's Congress," Qiao Xiaoyang, deputy secretary-general of the NPC's Standing Committee, told a press conference. "The central government has the deciding power on changes of Hong Kong's political structure in the entire process."
Beijing officials say there is no cause for alarm in their interpretation of Hong Kong's mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law.
Chinese lawmakers said they were propelled to carry out the interpretations on how the leader and politicians are chosen in Hong Kong to end disputes and confusion in the territory amid a rising tide of pro-democracy protests.
Before the ruling there was no clear-cut indication of who should initiate reform in the territory, but democrats in Hong Kong had assumed they just needed two-thirds of legislators to agree to move ahead.
The free-wheeling territory of 6.8 million people was given a high degree of autonomy when it was handed over to China in 1997 under the "one country, two systems" formula.
Beijing pledged to keep the special administrative region's capitalist systems and way of life "unchanged" for 50 years.
The Basic Law came into effect at the time of the handover allowing direct elections for the territory as soon as 2008, the year after unpopular Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's term expires.
But the constitution also states Beijing has a final say over any electoral changes, and residents have been watching to see how China interpreted the Basic Law ahead of legislative elections in September.
Around half a million people rallied in July last year, and a smaller number this January, demanding political change in a city where the leader is handpicked by a committee loyal to Beijing and less than half the legislature is directly elected.
While Hong Kong put a controversial anti-subversion law on hold following the mass uprising, in his annual policy speech in January, Tung skirted growing calls for voting rights, disappointing activists who had hoped he would launch public consultations early in the year.
Instead, Tung said any consultations on democracy would be with Beijing first, and established a task force to consult with Chinese leaders.
In recent months, Chinese President Hu Jintao's administration has played hardball, worried calls for more democracy in the territory will spill over to the mainland.
Beijing is also concerned about losing control over the territory, prompting it to issue rhetoric not seen in decades.
It stressed that Hong Kong's ruling elite must consist of "patriotic" elements and has labeled pro-democracy politicians "unpatriotic."
China's hard stance has cast into doubt Beijing's commitment to reform, and has also strained ties with Taiwan, the United States and the rest of the world. (Beijing jitters)
A visit by outspoken democracy leader Martin Lee to Washington in March rattled Beijing.
The United States has been upfront about wanting more democracy in Hong Kong, with the State Department repeating calls that it supports electoral reform and universal suffrage.
But China has responded by asking Washington to stop interfering in its internal affairs.
Democrats in Hong Kong see Beijing's move as an alarming sign of interference, China expert Willy Lam told CNN. They say it sets a bad precedent and allows China to step in as often as it wants in the territory's internal affairs.
China's tactic of muffling rising calls for voting rights has worked to lower expectations among the population.
Most opinion polls conducted last year showed 80 percent of the population supported universal suffrage by 2007, but now that number has fallen to around 60 percent, Lam said.
Meanwhile only 43 percent of 1,045 people interviewed in a poll conducted by the University of Hong Kong in February said they trusted Beijing, down from 50 percent at the end of December. | Government Policy Changes | April 2004 | ['(effectively an amendment)', '(CNN)'] |
Richmond defeats Geelong by a 31-point margin in the 2020 AFL Grand Final at The Gabba in Brisbane. | Richmond machine Dustin Martin has instantly become a figure of footy folklore after a freakish piece of Grand Final history.
The 2020 AFL season has been a year of changes - but some things will never change.
Dustin Martin, the big game specialist, will always deliver when the Tigers need it – and he did it again in another superhuman performance to give the Tigers a third premiership in four years.
AFL live scores: Grand Final match centre
Martin’s freakish effort of four goals – all miraculous solo efforts – handed him the Norm Smith Medal as the Tigers ran out winners by 31-points after a second half rampage.
Catch Fox Footy’s Grand Final Week coverage on Kayo. Stream all the latest news and insight right up until first bounce plus half-time and full-time analysis from the Fox Footy commentary team. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
Martin’s freakish performance headlined several historic achievements in the Tigers’ victory, including:
A humble Martin was all class in his Norm Smith medal acceptance speech.
“First of all, I would just like to thank Geelong for an awesome game,” he said.
“You’re an awesome club. Well done to Gaz (Gary Ablett) on your unbelievable career. To the AFL, Toyota, the government, last but not least, the Richmond footy club. Let’s go.”
On the flip side, there was nothing but misery for the Cats.
Champion Gary Ablett was in tears at full time with his career ending with insult being added to injury. The Cats veteran suffered a shoulder injury in the first quarter and needed to have the joint strapped up. He also went off at three quarter time for further treatment, speculated to be a pain-killing injection.
The result also leaves Geelong superstar Patrick Dangerfield still without a premiership.
Here’s how all the drama unfolded.
The Norm Smith medal voting panel has handed Dustin Martin a rare perfect game where he was awarded the top votes from every voting member.
Martin won the award on the back of a perfect 15 votes.
Norm Smith medal voting:
15 – Dustin Martin
6 – Jayden Short 4 – Shane Edwards 3 – Mitch Duncan 2 – Nathan Broad How the judges voted:
Leigh Matthews – Dustin Martin, Nathan Broad, Shane Edwards
Lauren Arnell (ABC) – Dustin Martin, Jayden Short, Mitch Duncan
Malcolm Blight – Dustin Martin, Mitch Duncan, Shane Edwards
Damian Barrett (AFL) – Dustin Martin, Jayden Short, Shane Edwards
Peter Ryan (The Age) – Dustin Martin, Jayden Short, Shane Edwards
Dustin Martin capped off a freakish best-on-ground-performance with his fourth goal as the Tigers ramped up their celebrations after a hard fought 31-point win. Martin's haul led the Tigers in a second half rampage as they piled on ten goals to two after the Cats had led by 22 points in the second quarter.
The triumph could begin to sink in for the Tigers late in the fourth quarter when they jumped out to a four goal lead and they eventually emerged with a 12.9 (81) to 7.8 (50) victory.
Cats star Sam Simpson was knocked out cold in a marking contest. Simpson was stretchered off the ground after the sickening collision which came as teammate Sam Menegola went back with the flight of the ball. Simpson appeared to take an arm to his head before he landed on his head in an ugly double-whammy.
His injury forced a lengthy delay which gave the Cats a brief moment to catch their breath.
Sam Simpson is being stretchered off after a marking contest with Sam Menegola. Hope he is okay. pic.twitter.com/jYsoBpd2cf
Richmond made it eight of the last nine goals when Dustin Martin produced another special solo effort to all-but kill off the Cats with seven minutes left in the game. Martin broke a tackle and kicked from on the 50m arc to take his personal tally to three goals in another Norm Smith medal-winning effort.
His goal took the Tigers out to a 22-point lead after a Tigers second half rampage that the Cats simply had no answer for.
DUSTY'S KICKED THREE ? pic.twitter.com/90PtMrtwAQ
Dustin Martin has carried the Tigers to a two-point lead at three-quarter time after he produced a stunning series of highlights to start the second half.
Richmond kicked the first two goals of the second half to turn the decider on its head and set up a thrilling finish.
The Cats' lead was down to just three points after goals to Jack Riewoldt and Jason Castagna all-but saw the Cats' lead disappear.
The Cats had led by as many as 22 points in the second quarter. Martin's second goal of the game put the Tigers in front with six minutes left in the third quarter.
Martin's ability to kick his goals in crucial moments saw many footy commentators go the early crow and hand him the Norm Smith medal – should the Tigers go on to win.
"This has flipped. They have got the Cats worried," Footy commentator Kane Cornes told SEN Radio. "We have a game on our hands." The Tigers led at the final change 7.4 (46) to 6.8 (44).
DUSTIN MARTIN.WHAT A GOAL ? pic.twitter.com/T8PyMLTe2V
Geelong kicked five goals straight to lead by 22 points late in the second quarter before a Dustin Martin steadier kept the Tigers in the hunt.
It was a goal the Tigers desperately needed with the Cats making light work of the weakened Tigers' defence following injuries to Nick Vlastuin and Nathan Broad. The Cats lead at half time 5.5 (35) to 3.2 (20).
A pair of streakers forced an extended delay late in the first quarter when they invaded the field of play.
One streaker was able to run through Geelong's forward 50m arc and went on to kick a goal from the goal square before being wrapped up by security.
A second streaker, who was also fully clothed, was also tackled by security and escorted off the ground. It was later revealed the pair were online comedy act Marty and Michael.
They attempted to publicise themselves by printing their names on their T-shirts.
Gary Ablett is back on the field after being helped from the field grimacing in pain from a shoulder injury.
After being taken to the dressing rooms holding his left arm – the same shoulder he has previously had surgery on – Ablett returned just five minutes later. The return of the man affectionately known as the "son of god" was met with a huge cheer from the Gabba crowd.
Despite Richmond kicking the first two goals of the game, Ablett returned to give the Cats fans a reason to smile when he took his spot inside the Cats' forward line. However, there were two further injuries in the first quarter with Nathan Broad and Brandan Parfitt both going off injured.Earlier, Tigers defender Nick Vlastuin suffered a sickening head injury when Patrick Dangerfield charged out and collected him across the face. The injury saw Vlastuin stretchered from the field after a delay of more than seven minutes during which time he was motionless on the Gabba turf.
Richmond announced at quarter time Vlastuin would take no more part in the game.
Gaz is back out there! #AFLGF pic.twitter.com/MZNnB1oKPn
Gary Ablett has been taken from the field in Nightmare start to the grand final for Geelong. In a moment of high drama, Ablett was helped from the field with his arm in a sling position after appearing to injure his shoulder as he hit the ground after contact.
The injury on Ablett's left shoulder is the same one he has previously had surgery on.
It came just seconds after Cats superstar Patrick Dangerfield appeared to elbow Tigers defender Nick Vlastuin in the head as they charged in for a loose ball. Dangerfield attacked the ball and led with his arm as he punched the ball away just a fraction of a second before Vlastuin would have snatched the Sherrin. Dangerfield's brief follow through saw him elbow Vlastuin in the cheek. "Vlastuin, he's out cold behind the play here," Channel 7's Luke Hodge wrote. As play progressed, Vlastuin was motionless on the ground. Play was eventually stopped as Vlastuin was stretchered from the ground, still not moving. The game was delayed for more than seven minutes. A second extended break while security took care of multiple streakers that entered the Tigers' forward fifty saw the first quarter last more than 34 minutes.
Ablett was also taken straight to the dressing room to have the shoulder injury assessed.
Daisy Pearce said of Ablett: " He's in a lot of pain. You can see him grimacing there in his face".
Both Gary Ablett and Nick Vlastuin have been helped off the ground in a wild sequence of play. #AFLGF pic.twitter.com/hA4gZbXoFe | Sports Competition | October 2020 | ['(News.com.au)'] |
The 2012 BRIT Awards for British popular music are held in O2 Arena in London with Adele, One Direction, Ed Sheeran and Coldplay among the winners. | Adele has capped a year of global success with two prizes at this year's Brit Awards ceremony in London.
The star added the Brits for best British female and British album to the six Grammy Awards she won last weekend.
But former X Factor boy band One Direction beat her to the award for best British single.
Ed Sheeran also won two awards - best British male and British breakthrough - while Coldplay were crowned best British group for a record third time.
| Awards ceremony | February 2012 | ['(Capital FM)', '(BBC)'] |
A Royal Norwegian Air Force F–16 fighter jet, taking part in a mock attack on Tarva on April 12, mistakenly opened fire on a control tower with three officers inside, who survived unharmed, according to the Norwegian military. | It is the second time in six years the tower has been fired on in error by F-16 jets – no one was injured either time
A Norwegian fighter jet on a training exercise jet mistakenly machine-gunned a control tower with three officers inside, who survived unhurt, the military said Sunday.
Two F-16s were taking part in a mock attack on the uninhabited island of Tarva off Norway’s west coast when one of them opened fire with its M61 Vulcan cannon, which is capable of firing up to 100 rounds a second.
“An investigation has been opened,” Captain Brynjar Stordal, a spokesman for the Norwegian military, told AFP.
A hail of bullets hit the tower in the incident, which happened on the night of April 12, but the officers inside were not injured. In a similar incident in 2009, F-16s fired in error on the same tower, with at least one round piercing the structure, but again no-one was injured.
It’s not the only incident of an F-16 firing on the wrong target. In 2014 a Dutch fighter jet accidentally strafed the control tower at the Vliehors range on the island of Vlieland, north of Amsterdam, during a training flight.
During the incident, several live rounds from the aircraft’s 20mm cannon caused minor damage to the tower. Two controllers who were inside the building at the moment of the attack were not injured. | Military Exercise | April 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
In horseracing, African Story wins the Dubai World Cup, | Last updated on 29 March 201429 March 2014.From the section Horse Racing
African Story won the Dubai World Cup at Meydan to give trainer Saeed bin Suroor and the Godolphin stable a sixth win in the world's richest race.
The 12-1 shot, ridden by Silvestre de Sousa, overcame long-time leader Mukhadram to clinch the $10m showpiece.
The seven-year-old went ahead in the straight and was well clear at the line.
Derby winner Ruler Of The World, who had a poor draw, was struggling from some way out under Joseph O'Brien. Seven countries were represented in the race, but the result was a clean sweep for the ruling Al Maktoum family of Dubai. Sheikh Mohammed also owns Cat O'Mountain (25-1), who finished third, while his brother, Sheikh Hamdan, owns the 14-1 runner-up Mukhadram.
The success followed what had been a disappointing evening for Godolphin as Cavalryman finished second in the Dubai Gold Cup and several fancied runners underperformed.
It was left to African Story to produce the ultimate triumph for owner Sheikh Mohammed, who is also the driving force behind racing at Meydan.
Jockey De Sousa said: "It's an amazing feeling and he just proved he's the best."
The horse was fifth in the race last season but De Sousa said: "He was very unlucky here last time when he banged his head in the stalls, but he has proved he's the boy."
Earlier jockey Jamie Spencer helped 33-1 chance Certerach cause an upset in the Dubai Gold Cup, before riding Toast Of New York to victory in the UAE Derby. | Sports Competition | March 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
A bushfire leads to the residents of Eden, New South Wales, to evacuate. | Hundreds of people in the New South Wales coastal town of Eden have faced the choice of defending their homes or fleeing as authorities warn a massive fire is moving towards the area.
Dozens had sought shelter on Eden's wharf, but police warned that area was no longer safe.
A police officer told tourists and those not able to defend their homes to leave at his briefing on Sunday morning.
"We cannot guarantee your safety at present under the conditions that we have now here at the Eden Wharf," he said.
Officers warned there was an "imminent risk" from the Border fire burning to the south, and people should leave for evacuation centres in Merimbula or Bega.
"They are considered the safest places to be at this particular time," the officer said.
"I'm telling you now, and this is from the control centre which is been situated at Bega that has control of the entire district — that this is not a safe place to be."
ABC News
Police said they would arrange transport for those who did not have the means to travel.
The RFS said while conditions had eased slightly, people who decide to stay should enact their bushfire plans and be prepared to defend their property.
There are no evacuations orders in place, but the RFS warned the Princes Highway to Merimbula could close at short notice.
ABC News: Phil Williams
Barry Ellis said he would be staying put.
"He [the police officer] said this wasn't a safe place to be, and I know bloody well it is a safe place to be. It has been for 150 years," he said.
Evette Moroney told the ABC her family would stay near the water.
ABC News
"With everybody going on the roads, it's a bit eerie. With everybody leaving in one go, it's overwhelming," she said.
"We might make a different choice a little bit later, but for now we'll let the people who most need to go."
Elwyn Nash said she was evacuated from a nearby town to the Eden Wharf.
"We were advised that the best place to come to was at the wharf because you're close to the water and you can get in the water if necessary," she said.
"I'm a bit uncertain about what I was told there, but I think it's a bit more sensible to stay here rather than get in a paddock with a lot of people." | Fire | January 2020 | ['(ABC News and Current Affairs)'] |
French lecturer Clotilde Reiss, charged with spying in Iran after last June's disputed election, is released and returns to Paris. | France has denied it made a secret pact with Iran to secure the release of a French lecturer charged with spying after last June's disputed election.
Clotilde Reiss has now arrived in Paris following a flight from Tehran. She was originally sentenced to 10 years in jail in Iran but this was commuted to a fine of $285,000 (190,000), her lawyer said. The 25-year-old was accused of espionage and e-mailing photographs of anti-government protests. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told Radio J in France that there had been "no haggling and no pay-off" to secure her release. Ms Reiss is due to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday.
Ms Reiss's lawyer, Mohammad Ali Mahdavi, earlier said he had paid the fine on her behalf. She has been staying at the French embassy in the capital Tehran since she was bailed six weeks after her arrest in July last year. At that time, Ms Reiss had been on a six-month teaching and research assignment in the central city of Isfahan. The BBC's Hugh Schofield in the French capital says that with France at the forefront of efforts to punish Iran for its nuclear programme, there has been suspicion she was being held to put pressure on Paris. Last week, France freed an Iranian engineer whom it had detained for the alleged illegal export of electronic parts for use by Iran's military. The US had wanted to extradite Majid Kakavand, but a French court rejected the request last week and he was allowed return home. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2010 | ['(The Times)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(BBC)'] |
In one of the deadliest days of the protests so far, Iraqi security forces open fire and kill 25 people who were blocking a bridge in Nasiriyah, while 10 people are killed in Najaf, and four people are shot dead in the capital Baghdad. The Iraqi Armed Forces says an emergency unit had been created to "impose security and restore order" in response to the violence. 45 people have been killed by security forces in total. | Deaths follow torching of Iran’s consulate in a challenge to Tehran’s power and influence on its neighbour
Iraqi security forces have shot dead at least 45 protesters after demonstrators stormed and torched an Iranian consulate in Najaf, in what could mark a turning point in the uprising against the Tehran-backed authorities.
At least 29 people died in the southern city of Nassiriya when troops opened fire on demonstrators who blocked a bridge before dawn on Thursday and later gathered outside a police station. Police and medical sources said dozens of others were wounded.
Four people were killed in Baghdad, where security forces opened fire with live ammunition and rubber bullets against protesters near a bridge over the Tigris river, the sources said, and twelve died in clashes in Najaf.
In Nassiriya thousands of mourners took to the streets, defying a curfew to bury their dead after the mass shooting.
Video of protesters cheering in the night as flames billowed from the consulate were a stunning image after years in which Tehran’s influence among Shia Muslims in Arab states has been a defining factor in Middle East politics.
The bloodshed that followed on Thursday was one of the most violent days since the uprising began at the start of October, with anti-corruption demonstrations that swelled into a revolt against authorities seen by young demonstrators as stooges of Tehran.
While many of the protests focus on domestic issues, like corruption and lack of job opportunities, the post-Saddam years have seen Iran embed itself in nearly all aspects of Iraqi governance.
Since the withdrawal of US forces in 2011, Iran has consolidated itself not only in Iraq, but in Lebanon, where Hezbollah plays a dominant role. In Syria, Tehran’s war against Isis allowed its proxy forces to establish footholds.
Following the violence in Iraq, Iran closed the Mehran border crossing on Thursday night for security reasons, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported, citing a local border official.
“With attention to the recent events and the unrest in the country of Iraq the Mehran border has been closed from tonight,” Mojtaba Soleimani, the manager of the border post said, according to Mehr.
He said it was not clear when the border would reopen.
In Najaf, a city of ancient pilgrimage shrines that serves as the seat of Iraq’s powerful Shia clergy, the Iranian consulate was reduced to a charred ruin after it was stormed.
The protesters, overwhelmingly Shia, accused the Iraqi authorities of turning against their own people to defend Iran.
“All the riot police in Najaf and the security forces started shooting at us as if we were burning Iraq as a whole,” a protester who witnessed the burning of the consulate told Reuters, asking not to be identified.
Another protester, Ali, described the attack on the consulate as “a brave act and a reaction from the Iraqi people. We don’t want the Iranians.”
But he predicted more violence: “There will be revenge from Iran, I’m sure. They’re still here and the security forces are going to keep shooting at us.“
Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the attack and demanded “the Iraqi government’s firm response to the aggressors“.
So far, the authorities have been unyielding in response to the unrest, shooting dead hundreds of demonstrators with live ammunition and tear gas, while floating proposals for political reform that the protesters dismiss as trivial and cosmetic.
The prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, has so far rejected calls to resign, after meetings with senior politicians that were attended by the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, the elite unit that directs its militia allies abroad.
Abdul Mahdi on Thursday summoned a senior military commander in Dhi Qar province, where Nassiriya is located, to Baghdad to explain why the situation had deteriorated, a military statement said.
The military commander of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), an umbrella group of paramilitary groups whose most powerful factions are close to Iran, suggested the unrest in Najaf was a threat to Shia clergy based in the city.
The paramilitary fighters would use full force against anyone who threatened Iraq’s most senior Shia cleric, grand ayatollah Ali Sistani, commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis said in a statement posted on the PMF website.
“We will cut the hand of anyone trying to get near al-Sistani,” he said.
The influential populist Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr issued a fresh call for the government to resign, while warning those who torched the consulate that they risked provoking a violent backlash from the authorities.
“Do not give them cover to end your revolution, and stay clear of religious sites,” he said in a statement on Twitter. If the government does not resign, “this is the beginning of the end of Iraq,” he said. | Protest_Online Condemnation | November 2019 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)'] |
The athletic therapist for the Humboldt Broncos, Dayna Brons, dies from injuries sustained in the crash, raising the death toll to 16. | Join Tim and Sid as they talk about the tragedy that struck the Humboldt Broncos.
SASKATOON — The athletic therapist for the Humboldt Broncos has become the 16th person to die following a horrific bus crash in Saskatchewan last week.
Relatives of Dayna Brons, 24, said they will remember her "joyful smile."
Brons died Wednesday afternoon in a Saskatoon hospital from injuries sustained in Friday’s crash.
"She was surrounded by those she loved and those who loved her," her family said in a statement. "Dayna will be forever remembered for her joyful smile, and her passion and love of sport."
The team was on its way to a playoff game when the bus collided with a semi truck at an intersection near Tisdale, Sask.
Brons, who was from Lake Lenore, Sask., suffered serious head trauma and had undergone two surgeries.
She had been on a breathing apparatus and was in an induced coma.
Brons was extremely proud to be part of the Broncos team, her family said.
"Dayna’s family would like to thank the first responders, emergency staff, and all those who have cared for Dayna over these last few days for their support. And, they would like to thank everyone across Saskatchewan and Canada for their love and prayers during this very difficult time," the family said.
The family requested privacy as it grieves.
Former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy said he spent about half an hour with Brons and her family when he visited the victims of the bus crash last week.
"We spent a lot of time in that room and it’s just sad," said Kennedy, who has farmland in Saskatchewan.
He said Dayna was asleep while he was there but he visited with her family.
"I think there was hope for everyone but the injuries on that accident were significant for everyone."
"I was pulling for her. I was just hoping that she’d get through that."
Lacrosse and soccer teams that Brons also worked with had offered their support for the keen, happy trainer on social media. So did Canadian women’s hockey Olympian Hayley Wickenheiser.
"’The only girl on the boys team’ … Dayna I’ve been thinking of you a lot! Praying you pull through," she said.
After the news was released by her family, Wickenheiser expressed her condolences.
"The worst news," she wrote. "RIP Dayna. The boys will take care of you up there."
The Saskatchewan Roughriders organization also expressed its condolences.
The team said Dayna worked with the Riders during 2016 training camp.
"We are saddened to learn of the passing of Dayna Brons," the team said.
Athletic therapist Neal Demmans, who used to work with the Broncos, met Brons when they both ended up working with the Saskatoon Swat lacrosse program in 2015.
She was a happy person who was always willing to learn more, he said.
And as athletic trainers, they were always treated like teammates.
"We were the first ones there and the last ones to leave," he said.
He fondly remembers how some coaches joked about Brons head butting an out-of-control mother during a tournament.
"Of course this was just them teasing Dayna because she’s such a nice person," he said.
"I think that’s what I would like to focus on — her smile in that moment."
Demmans said when the Broncos needed a new trainer, he suggested Brons and she joined them last year.
He knew she would have no problem working with a group of male hockey players.
Brons graduated from University of Regina, where she got a degree in Kinesiology and Health Studies. She also took an advanced certificate in Athletic Therapy at Mount Royal University in Calgary. | Famous Person - Death | April 2018 | ['(Sportsnet.ca)'] |
Following an appeal, 12-year-old Dima al-Wawi is freed from an Israeli prison. She is believed to be the youngest female Palestinian ever imprisoned. Israeli civil law, which does not allow anyone under 14 to go to jail, did not affect her imprisonment. Palestinian residents in the occupied territories are subject to military law that can sentence suspects as young as 12 to prison. | A 12-year-old Palestinian girl, imprisoned by Israel after she confessed to planning a stabbing attack on Israelis in a West Bank settlement, returned home Sunday after she was freed early following an appeal.
Dima al-Wawi is believed to be the youngest female Palestinian ever imprisoned.
Al-Wawi was greeted by about 80 relatives at her family's house in Halhoul, a village near Hebron, a West Bank city that has been a focal point of violence. Relatives decorated the house with balloons and posters. Banners by the Islamic militant group Hamas along with the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas adorned the walls.
"I am happy to be out. Prison is bad," al-Wawi told The Associated Press. "During my time in prison I missed my classmates and my friends and family."
According to court documents provided by the military, al-Wawi approached the West Bank settlement of Carmei Tsur on Feb. 9 with a knife hidden under a shirt.
A security guard ordered her to halt, and a resident instructed her to lie on the ground and told her to give up the knife, which she did. An amateur video clip shown on Israeli TV showed the resident asking the girl, who was wearing her school uniform, whether she had come to kill Jews, and she said yes. She later pleaded guilty to attempted manslaughter in a plea bargain and was sentenced to 4½ months in prison. She was freed early after an appeal.
Her case put Israel's military justice system in a tough spot because of her young age. Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war, and Palestinian residents there are subject to a system of military law that can sentence suspects as young as 12 to prison.
By contrast, Israeli settlers in the West Bank, as well as Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel, are subject to Israeli civil law, which does not allow anyone under 14 to go to jail.
The incident came amid seven months of violence in which Palestinians have killed 28 Israelis and two Americans in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks in Israel and the West Bank. At least 190 Palestinians have died from Israeli fire. Israel says most were attackers, and the rest died in clashes with Israeli security forces.
Many of the Palestinian attackers have been teenagers or in their early 20s.
Israel blames the attacks on incitement by Palestinian religious and political leaders that is compounded on social media sites that glorify and encourage attacks. Palestinian officials say it is the result of despair living under Israeli occupation and frustration over the prospect of ever reaching statehood. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | April 2016 | ['(AP via ABC News)'] |
Ugandan security forces raid the offices of the National Unity Platform in Kampala and arrest several people, including opposition leader and presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, allegedly for illegally housing army uniforms. Signatures to get Ssentamu on the ballot and his 1campaign materials were also seized. | Security forces arrested several supporters and seized Bobi Wine's presidential bid papers. Singer-turned-politician Bobi Wine is seen as a challenger to Yoweri Museveni, who has been ruling Uganda for over 30 years.
On Wednesday, Uganda's security forces detained opposition leader and presidential hopeful Bobi Wine, after raiding his office in the capital city of Kampala. The reason for the raid wasn't revealed.
"The police and the army raided the office of the NUP,sealed off the premises and all the roads leading to the place, before detaining Bobi Wine and other party officials," Wine's lawyer, Anthony Wameli, told AFP.
Wine was in a meeting with other leaders of his party, the National Unity Party (NUP), when police raided the office and cordoned off the area.
| Armed Conflict | October 2020 | ['(DW)'] |
In basketball, the Golden State Warriors defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 105-97 in Game 6 to secure their first title since 1975. Andre Iguodala is named the series MVP. , | GOLDEN State Warriors have claimed a first NBA title in 40 years, with Andrew Bogut becoming the fifth Australian to earn a championship ring.
The Warriors wrapped up the title with a third straight victory over Cleveland, winning Game 6 105-97 away from home on Wednesday to close out the series 4-2.
LeBron James’ game-high 32 points was not enough for the Cavaliers as league MVP Steph Curry and Andre Iguodala - who was crowned finals MVP - contributed 25 each for the victors.
The Warriors led by 15 early in the final quarter and Cleveland cut the margin to as little as four points in a tense finish.
“World champions,” Curry said.
“This is something special. This is a special group. From the start of the season this is what we envisioned. We’re going to remember this for a long time.” Bogut did not see any court time for the second straight game as coach Steve Kerr again went with a smaller mobile lineup but the big centre played a huge role in the Warriors’ dominant regular season and run to the finals. “This is what you play in this league for,” Bogut said as he celebrated with teammates. “It’s unbelievable.” He follows Luc Longley, Andrew Gaze and 2014 champions Patty Mills and Aron Baynes in the line of Australians to win an NBA title, beating out compatriot Matthew Dellavedova, who was vying for the title with Cleveland.
Dellavedova, who starred earlier in the series, had finished with his worst performance of the series, contributing just a single point and four rebounds in 25 minutes on court.
CHAMPION BOGUT JOINS EXCLUSIVE CLUB
Despite boasting the self-proclaimed world’s best player in James, Cleveland were always considered outsiders in the best-of-seven series.
They took a surprise 2-1 lead, with James and Dellavedova combing beautifully in games two and three, before the Warriors asserted their authority with a hat-trick of convincing victories.
Curry got the visitors off to a flying start on Wednesday, scoring nine first-quarter points as Golden State led by 13 points at the first break.
However James helped get the desperate Cavaliers back in the fight as they cut the margin to 45-43 at halftime.
Cleveland couldn’t keep the momentum going after the break, with Iguodala and Festus Ezeli impressive in the third quarter to help take the lead to 73-61.
Curry and co looked to be racing away with the title in the final quarter but they had to survive a late scare from the fast-finishing Cavs to claim a first championship since beating the Washington Bullets in the 1975 finals. Iguodala, who played a reserve role this season before becoming a starter in the finals, produced a season high in points.
It was his introduction into the series, at Bogut’s expense, that helped turn the Warriors’ fortunes around and Kerr said he was a worthy MVP.
“Guarding LeBron James has to be the hardest job in basketball. After the first three games we decided to start Andre because he was by far doing the best job on LeBron. But he was also contributing in a lot of other ways,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.
“You can make an argument it could have gone to Steph, it could have gone to LeBron, but for us it’s really fitting it went to Andre.”
Curry joined Magic Johnson and Bob Cousy as the only point guards to win the regular-season NBA Most Valuable Player award and capture the league title in the same season. Golden’s State’s win came despite none of their players having had any previous NBA finals experience while Kerr is the first rookie coach to win the title since Pat Riley with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1982.
“It’s a great feeling,” Kerr said.
“From the beginning we were in it to win it.”
James scored 32 points, grabbed 18 rebounds and passed out nine assists to lead the Cavaliers, who could not bring Cleveland its first sports title since 1964.
“Not every story has a happy ending but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good story for us,” Cavaliers coach David Blatt said.
“We played our hearts out, but the Warriors were better.”
James said injuries that sidelined star forward Kevin Love in the first round of the playoffs and star guard Kyrie Irving in the finals opener were too much to overcome. “There’s a lot of talent sitting in suits,” James said. “We ran out of talent. | Sports Competition | June 2015 | ['(Fox Sports)', '(AL.com)'] |
Senegal bans demonstrations in the capital Dakar ahead of planned opposition protests against the regime of President Abdoulaye Wade. | Senegal has banned political demonstrations in central Dakar ahead of protests planned to oppose President Abdoulaye Wade's re-election bid. His plans to seek a third term in office have sparked widespread criticism.
Mr Wade dropped proposed changes to the country's constitution after huge demonstrations last month. The ban has been criticised but protests set for Saturday have been moved out of the capital's centre.
Human rights activist Alioune Tine, a leader of the June 23 Movement (M23) behind the demonstrations, said the switch was being done to "appease" the situation, reports the AFP news agency.
The march had been due to take place in Independence Square in central Dakar, which is near the presidential palace.
Announcing the ban "for reasons of security", Interior Minister Ousmane Ngom said political protests were banned in much of central Dakar, citing several government buildings.
The June 23 Movement was formed after last month's countrywide protests - the most violent protests of Mr Wade's 11-year rule.
They led Mr Wade to drop his plans to reduce the proportion of votes needed to win a presidential election, and avoid a run-off, from more than 50% to 25%.
He had also wanted to create an elected post of vice-president.
Mr Wade's critics accused him of planning to use the new post to hand power to his son, already a powerful minister.
Both men have denied the claims.
Mr Wade, a veteran opposition leader, first came to power in democratic polls in 2000.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | July 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Obama Administration eases trade restrictions with Cuba, now permitting the sale of tools and equipment for private–sector use in Cuba. | MIAMI — As many Americans wonder how quickly they can travel to Cuba under new rules announced by the White House, business owners are more focused on how many products they could start shipping to the island.
One of the surprises in the rules that go into effect Friday allows U.S. companies to sell "tools, equipment, supplies and instruments for use by private-sector entrepreneurs" in Cuba.
Those who've done business with Cuba were surprised Thursday by the vague — and permissive — wording by the Commerce and Treasury Departments that seems to allow Americans to sell anything from scissors to private barber shops to tractors to private farmers.
"I don't think any of us expected something quite as wide as this," said Ron Oleynik, who heads the trade regulatory practice at the Holland & Knight law firm. "These are fairly careful people who drafted these (rules), so they didn't do it blindly. They did it with an eye to leaving them vague."
Despite the economic embargo that remains against Cuba, U.S. companies have long been able to export food, medicine and medical supplies there on humanitarian grounds. American businesses exported $273 million worth of goods to Cuba through the first 11 months of 2014 and have shipped as much as $712 million in goods there in 2008.
Many expected the Obama administration to expand and facilitate those transactions, and it did. Under the new rules, American banks can handle transactions from Cuban banks, making it easier for Cubans to pay for their goods. Cubans can pay upon delivery of products, eliminating the burdensome practice in which payment had to be received by American companies before they shipped their products.
The new rules open the door to a broad group of U.S. companies that may not have even imagined their products could end up in Cuba.
"Cuba is a potential market for John Deere products and services," company spokesman Ken Golden said. "We look forward to serving customers in Cuba as we do throughout Latin America and around the world."
The list of companies could include auto parts stores to supply mechanics, office supply chains to help start-up businesses and a "whole host of different industries," said Jake Colvin, vice president of global trade for the National Foreign Trade Council, a Washington-based business organization.
Still, there are several hurdles to overcome before exports can flow to the port of Havana and severe limitations when they do.
First is the legal question. Critics of Obama's changes, led by Cuban-American Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., say the trade rules may violate the economic embargo on Cuba. Rubio plans to hold hearings on whether Obama overstepped his authority.
"Clearly the administration is skirting a line here between what is still legally restricted by statute and what is within the discretion of the president ... to loosen these restrictions," said David Levine, a partner at the McDermott, Will & Emery law firm and a former Commerce Department official under President Reagan.
There are also questions about whether the everyday financial transactions needed to export items to Cuba can be resolved. The Cuban government must create its own rules to facilitate money transfers, and many worry Cuban officials will restrict or try to take large cuts of any large imports of money or materials.
"My experience is the Cubans want to control as much as they can," Colvin said. "They want a drip, not a flood of foreign trade and foreign investment, so they're going to do what they can to limit the process."
Because of uncertainty over the financial transactions and Cubans' ability to pay, Levine said, American business owners will be cautious about striking deals with Cuban entrepreneurs.
"A barber (in Cuba) is going to be able to call up and order something," Levine said. "But if I'm the supplier in the United States, I'm going to be reluctant to send a shipment to Joe Barber without some assurances that (I'm) going to be paid for it."
The U.S. government will start doing outreach soon to American businesses to explain the new process and recruit their services, a senior administration official said Thursday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the plans.
Figuring out potential profits available in the Cuban economy is a factor. The list of possible customers is severely limited by the Cuban government. Though the government has started allowing private enterprises to operate outside the traditionally state-run economy, it has approved fewer than 200 jobs that can be performed privately, mostly in the basic service industries. More than 500,000 people have been given private licenses.
Some have money coming to them from relatives in the USA, but many do not, meaning they have little ability to pay for major equipment upgrades. Cuban state workers generally make less than $20 a month, forcing many to scramble for food and basic necessities and limiting their ability to invest in their businesses.
"Interest in Cuba has always exceeded its potential as a market," Colvin said.
That could be where other rule changes come in. American businesses can provide microfinancing for Cuban entrepreneurs. Americans with no relatives on the island can send up to $2,000 a quarter to Cubans, up from the current $500. Americans can send an unlimited amount of money to Cubans who fall under certain categories, including private businesses.
Under easier travel rules for Americans looking to explore business possibilities, the first big wave in Havana will probably be business owners trying to figure out how it all works.
"Americans can actually go down there on a business trip, market their products, research the market," Oleynik said. "And they're already asking about it. I've got clients climbing out of the woodwork asking questions. It's a hopping day." | Government Policy Changes | January 2015 | ['(USA Today)'] |
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Julian Smith, Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom and Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers all leave the government. | Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith and Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom are among the early casualties as Boris Johnson begins a cabinet reshuffle.
Housing Minister Esther McVey and Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers are also out of the government.
Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, who attended cabinet, has resigned.
Senior figures such as Chancellor Sajid Javid, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Home Secretary Priti Patel are expected to remain in place. Most of the cabinet were appointed when Mr Johnson became prime minister in July.
In a statement confirming his resignation as the government's most senior law officer, Mr Cox said: "I have been truly privileged to have served as attorney general during the recent turbulent political times."
Known for his booming delivery and his legal advice that effectively scuppered Theresa May's Brexit deal in March last year, he said he had been asked to resign by the prime minister.
Mr Smith has been widely praised for his brief tenure at the Northern Ireland Office - he was in the role just 204 days.
His departure comes weeks after brokering the deal which restored the power-sharing administration in Stormont.
Mr Smith said on Twitter that it had been "the biggest privilege" to serve the people of Northern Ireland and he was "extremely grateful" to have been given the chance to serve "this amazing part of our country".
Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar called Mr Smith "one of Britain's finest politicians of our time".
"In eight months as secretary of state, Julian, you helped to restore power-sharing in Stormont, secured an agreement with us to avoid a hard border, plus marriage equality," he told the former minister in a tweet.
The prime minister left his cabinet largely untouched following the Conservative Party's decisive election victory in December, pending what sources suggested at the time would be a more significant overhaul after the UK left the EU on 31 January. Mr Johnson is expected to make changes at junior ministerial level - namely parliamentary under-secretaries of state - that could see a 50/50 gender balance in a push to promote female talent. Education minister Chris Skidmore and transport ministers Nus Ghani and George Freeman have been sacked.
There are expected to be promotions for a number of female MPs in government, including Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Suella Braverman and Gillian Keegan. Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden and International Development Secretary Alok Sharma are also expected to get more prominent roles.
Baroness Morgan is also expected to be among the departing ministers.
When she was re-appointed as culture secretary in December, she said she only expected to stay in the role for a couple of months, having stood down as an MP at the election and been appointed a peer. Among more junior ministers, those tipped for promotion include Victoria Atkins, Oliver Dowden, Kwasi Kwarteng and Lucy Frazer, while Stephen Barclay could make a quick return to cabinet after his role as Brexit Secretary was scrapped following the UK's departure from the EU.
Mr Johnson is expected to appoint a new minister to oversee the building of the HS2 rail line, final approval for which was given this week.
He also needs to find someone to run the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow later this year after its previous president Claire Perry O'Neill was sacked, and two former Tory leaders, David Cameron and Lord Hague, rejected the job.
In a statement on her Facebook page, Ms Villiers said: "What the prime minister giveth, the prime minister taketh away: just over six months ago, I was delighted to be invited by the prime minister to return to government after three years on the back benches. "This morning he told me that I need to make way for someone new."
She said she was "sad" no longer to be a part of the cabinet, but she said the prime minister would continue to have her "full support".
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | February 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
A Greek Orthodox priest is critically wounded after being shot twice while closing his church in Lyon, France. The attacker fled the scene. The victim, a Greek national, is being treated for life-threatening injuries. | A Greek Orthodox priest has been seriously wounded in a shooting in the French city of Lyon, officials say.
The gunman fled the scene, sparking a manhunt. A suspect resembling witness descriptions was later taken into custody. The motive for the attack remains unclear. Authorities have opened an investigation of attempted murder. The incident came days after three people were killed in a knife attack at a church in the southern city of Nice.
French President Emmanuel Macron called the killings an "Islamist terrorist attack" and deployed thousands of extra soldiers to protect public sites, including places of worship.
The shooting in Lyon happened at about 16:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Saturday when the priest was closing his church, officials said.
The attacker, who police said was armed with a sawn-off shotgun, fled the scene.
The French interior ministry said security and emergency personnel were on the scene, and urged people to avoid the area.
In a statement on Saturday night, Lyon's public prosecutor, Nicolas Jacquet, said "a person who could correspond to the description given by the initial witnesses has been placed in police custody".
He added that the suspect had not been carrying a weapon at the time of his arrest. Investigators are trying to determine his identity.
Lyon Mayor Gregory Doucet earlier told reporters: "We don't know at this stage the motive for this attack."
The priest has been identified as Nikolas Kakavelakis. He is in hospital and is reported to be in a serious condition.
The priest is said to have life-threatening injuries after being shot twice in the abdomen.
France Prime Minister Jean Castex said the government was determined to allow "each and everyone to practice their worship in complete safety and in complete freedom".
| Armed Conflict | October 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Towns in the U.S. state of Wisconsin evacuate residents due to flooding of the Wisconsin River. | (CNN) -- Authorities in Portage, Wisconsin, worked Sunday to evacuate residents as a levee along the Wisconsin River approached imminent failure after heavy rainfall soaked the Midwest last week.
"It could collapse at any time," said Greg Matthews, a spokesman for Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources.
An alert sent out by Columbia County Emergency Management on Sunday urged residents near Blackhawk Park to evacuate immediately ahead of the flooding, which is expected to wash out a main road leading to about 150 residences.
"Emergency vehicles including police, fire and EMS will not be able to reach residents," the statement said.
By 4 p.m. (5 p.m. ET), it was unclear how many residents remained in their homes, said Kathy Johnson, the deputy director of the county's emergency management department.
"Anyone in there right now won't be able to come out," she told CNN.
A Red Cross shelter was opened at a nearby church to accommodate displaced residents.
The Wisconsin River crested Sunday at 20.4 feet -- nearly 3.5 feet above flood level, according to the National Weather Service, putting major pressure on the 120-year-old Caledonia-Lewiston levee system. Officials with the Department of Natural Resources have been monitoring the levee all week and working to repair any problem areas, but Matthews said Sunday that "this is one problem we have not been able to contain and it's getting worse."
The levee system, built in the 1890s, was constructed from locally available materials -- mostly sand -- "without any engineering design or adherence to any standards," DNR said in a statement Friday.
"This is a 120-year-old relic," Matthews said. "It's made of sand. ... A modern levee that our engineers would be familiar with would be constructed of steel and concrete. So if it does fail we really quite frankly don't know the extent and scope of what might happen."
The river is expected to begin gradually falling Sunday evening before dropping below flood stage by Wednesday, the weather service said.
The levee's anticipated failure comes after a week of rainfall that dumped as much as 11 inches of rain in parts of Wisconsin and neighboring Minnesota.
Floodgates along the Menominee River in Niagara, Wisconsin, were opened earlier this week to ease pressure on dams. Video showed a torrent of water gushing from the overflowing dam.
"I have never seen the water rage down like it is," CNN iReporter Jason Asselin said.
In Northfield, Minnesota, authorities called late last week for large scale sandbagging in an effort to protect homes and businesses from the rising Cannon River Canal, according to iReporter Peter Holland.
And in Biron, Wisconsin, just north of Wisconsin Rapids in the central portion of the state, iReporter Tim Krause said Saturday that the flooding is "starting to get a bit scary. We have houses that are flooding in our neighborhood."
CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras said Sunday that there's no immediate end in sight to the flooding.
"Even though some of these rivers have crested ... keep in mind that they're still in flood, so this is going to be a problem for a couple of days," Jeras said. "Many of these rivers are all going to be dumping into the Mississippi River which then in turn will rise up and we'll see some flooding there, maybe in La Crosse and the Winona areas later in the week." | Floods | September 2010 | ['(CNN)'] |
Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is killed by Houthi forces in a roadside attack outside Sana'a after an earlier attack on his house. | A Houthi rebel fighter stands atop a cannon-mounted truck in front of the Sanaa residence of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Houthi rebels killed him in an attack Monday, and video purporting to show his corpse circulated on social media.
A Houthi rebel fighter stands atop a cannon-mounted truck in front of the Sanaa residence of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Houthi rebels killed him in an attack Monday, and video purporting to show his corpse circulated on social media.
Updated at 12:55 p.m. ET Tuesday
Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former Yemeni president who spent more than three decades in power before he stepped down in 2012, was killed after violence consumed the country's capital over the weekend. A member of Saleh's own party told NPR that Saleh had died, even as graphic video purporting to show his body circulated on social media Monday.
Houthi rebels, Saleh's erstwhile allies, ambushed and killed him during a rocket-propelled grenade attack on his vehicle as he tried to leave Sanaa.
NPR's Ruth Sherlock describes the images recorded in the attack's aftermath: "Houthi rebels shove his bloodied corpse onto the back of a pickup truck. They cheer and thank God over and over. They seem almost incredulous that he is dead in their hands."
Until recently, the Iran-backed Houthis observed an uneasy pact with Saleh's supporters united against both Saleh's successor, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, as well as the Saudi-led coalition that has backed Hadi with an airstrike campaign since 2015. But that tenuous alliance snapped in recent days after Saleh made gestures of reconciliation toward the Saudis, a move the Houthis called "a coup against our alliance and partnership."
The relationship devolved into door-to-door clashes on the streets of Yemen's capital, Sanaa, where at least 75 people reportedly have been killed in the past week. The Associated Press explains:
"The Sanaa street fighting seems to have split the capital in two parts, with the northern part under the Houthis and the southern under Saleh's fighters.
"Both sides have set up checkpoints, placed snipers on rooftops and sealed off entrances to the city, which slowed down street movement and traffic. Bombings and sporadic barrage of gunfire rocked the southern part of Sanaa on Sunday."
By Tuesday, it appeared the Houthis had consolidated power in the capital.
They celebrated Saleh's death as a significant victory amid the fighting. For that reason, Monday marked a "historic, exceptional and great day in which the conspiracy of betrayal and treason failed, this black day for the forces of the aggression," said Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi, according to Reuters.
It likely also marks a further slide deeper into the violent chaos that has engulfed Yemen for years and in the words of three major international aid agencies turned it into "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world."
Amid the civil war fought by Saleh and the Houthis against Hadi's internationally recognized government and the Saudi coalition supporting him, more than 20 million civilians in Yemen now need urgent humanitarian aid including more than 900,000 who are believed to have contracted cholera. A weeks-long Saudi blockade of Yemen's major points of entry implemented last month in retaliation for an attempted Houthi missile strike on Riyadh did nothing to help the crisis before that blockade was eased last week.
In many ways, Saleh's death also marks the end of an era for Yemen. For years, he led Northern Yemen, back when the country was divided in two. And he was the first president under a newly unified Yemen in 1990. It was not until late 2011, in the midst of the Arab Spring, that Saleh finally bowed to public pressure and agreed to leave office under a transfer-of-power agreement.
"He wasn't the classic dictator who ruled with the iron fist," Greg Johnsen, a Yemen scholar, told NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson. "He did much better at sort of gauging the opposition ... and then trying to create fractures and fissures among them instead of being centered on him, rather."
Many of those fractures persisted after his presidency ended. And now, the Yemen he leaves behind is also riven by the interests and support of competing regional rivals, the predominantly Sunni Saudis and Shiite Iran.
Peter Salisbury, senior researcher for the Middle East and North Africa for the Chatham House think tank, told Ruth he expects Saleh's death to intensify a conflict that's ground to a bloody stalemate. He said that with the Houthis in control of Yemen's northwest, right on the Saudi border, "I expect that the Saudis will take the gloves off in the way they fight the war."
For a war that has already left more than 10,000 people dead, any escalation on either side would prove significant. At the same time, Salisbury said it remains unclear exactly what's to come.
"Anyone who makes solid predictions about who's going to step in what's going to happen next, I think it is speaking to too soon," he said. "But what I can say with a relative degree of assurance is that the possibility of a peaceful resolution to the conflict in the near future looks looks increasingly unlikely."
Johnsen echoed that assessment in a tweet Monday.
"A lot of people are about to tell you what's about to happen in Yemen," Johnsen wrote. "The truth is no one knows. But it looks very dark." | Armed Conflict | December 2017 | ['(BBC)', '(NPR)'] |
The British Embassy in Baghdad confirms the rescue of three Christian Peacemaker hostages held in Iraq for nearly four months; Briton Norman Kember and Canadians Harmeet Singh Sooden and James Loney. They were freed during a British led multinational military operation involving American, British, Canadian and Iraqi forces. , , | Mr Kember, 74, of north-west London, James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, were three of four men seized in Baghdad in November.
Mr Kember said in a statement: "It is great to be free, and I'm looking forward to getting back to the UK."
The men's US colleague, Tom Fox, was found dead in Baghdad two weeks ago.
The three men are believed to have been rescued at 0800 local time (0500 GMT), following a weeks-long operation led by British troops and involving US and Canadian special forces.
Officials have revealed few details of the operation, but it is known that none of the captors was present, no shots were fired and no-one was injured.
I've demonstrated, but I feel that's what I'd call cheap peacemaking
Anita David, a member of the US and Canada-based peace group Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), which the men had been working for in Iraq when they were kidnapped, met Mr Kember and his two colleagues in Baghdad's high security Green Zone for lunch on Wednesday.
She described the men as "remarkably well" and said they had been eating ice-cream and drinking orange juice.
She told how they had tried to keep fit during their ordeal. "Harmeet told me that he did sit ups every day and that he ran the steps. "He ran up and down stairs each day as part of his commitment to physical good health. "He told me that Jim Loney did stretching exercises each day and I don't know whether or not they had books to read or anything like that. They really didn't mention anything like that." 'Reasonable condition'
According to BBC correspondent Andrew North, in Baghdad, they did not talk about the mens' rescue.
It's tremendously good and so unexpected - we really did fear that each one would be killed
Reverend Alan BetteridgeKember family friend
A US Army spokesman said the three men had been found tied up in a house in western Baghdad.
The rescue had followed intelligence obtained from a detainee, the spokesman said.
Mr Kember was said to be in a "reasonable condition", while the two Canadians were taken to hospital.
A spokeswoman at the British embassy in the Iraqi capital said Mr Kember was "quite relaxed", but all three men were still acclimatising to freedom.
The real good news here is that thankfully none of the families of the servicemen who rescued these people are receiving bad news of their loved ones
Ryan, Rome, Italy
Hostages freed: Your reaction
Mr Kember, who has spoken to his wife over the phone, is expected back in Britain in the next two days, according to British Embassy officials.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he had spoken to Mr Kember's wife Pat and that she was "absolutely delighted, elated with this news".
Brother Ian Kember, in Taunton, Somerset, said: "It's a wonderful thing, and it's obviously a great relief, but beyond that I haven't come to terms with it yet."
Mr Kember's family also said in a statement that it was grateful for all the support given "from so many people" since he was taken hostage. "We also thank everyone who has worked so hard for him to be set free," it added. There were signs Mr Fox had been beaten before being killed
Christian Peacemaker Teams co-director Doug Pritchard said: "Together we have endured uncertainty, hope, fear, grief, and now joy during the four months since they were abducted in Baghdad."
The Reverend Alan Betteridge, a friend of Mr Kember's for more than 40 years, told BBC Five Live: "It's tremendously good and so unexpected after the killing of Tom Fox a couple of weeks ago, when we really did fear that each one would be killed eventually."
Planned operation
Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was delighted by the news, and congratulated everyone involved in the operation.
It had followed "weeks and weeks of very careful work by military and coalition personnel in Iraq and many civilians as well", Mr Straw said.
Some of the grief and pain we have been through is a daily thing for Iraqis
Tim NafzigerChristian Peacemaker Teams
The four men were abducted on 26 November by a previously unknown group calling itself the Swords of Truth Brigade.
The group had issued threats to kill the men if the US and Iraqi authorities did not meet their demand of releasing all Iraqi prisoners.
Fifty-four-year-old Mr Fox was found shot dead on 9 March in the Mansour district of the Iraqi capital.
Following the rescue, Mr Straw said it remained "a matter of great sorrow to everybody" that Mr Fox had been murdered.
Massoud Shadjareh, of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said joy at the three men's release was mixed with sadness for other hostages and people being killed by continuing violence in Iraq.
"Norman went there to stop this madness and this madness is still continuing," he said.
Tim Nafziger, a London-based CPT member, said: "Some of the grief and pain we have been through is something that is a daily thing for Iraqis." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | March 2006 | ['(Channel 4 News)', '(BBC)', '(CTV)'] |
At least 15 people are killed and 40 are injured by the derailment of an Italian freight train and subsequent explosion of two wagons carrying liquified petroleum gas in Viareggio. |
At least 14 people have been killed and dozens injured in the explosion of a freight train carrying gas which derailed in northern Italy.
The carriages jumped the tracks and crashed into homes in the seaside town of Viareggio on Monday night. Several of the victims died when their houses collapsed. Firefighters are searching for people believed to be trapped. An investigation into the causes of the crash is under way. Local officials initially gave the death toll as 16, but the figure was revised later on Tuesday. However, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told a news conference that four people were still missing and the toll could rise. Guido Bertolaso, head of Italy's civil protection agency, said 13 wagons, each carrying a tank of liquefied petroleum gas, were still lying on or by the tracks. "The area is still at a really high risk level because the fire is still smouldering," he said. About 1,000 residents have been told to leave their homes, and police have warned there could be further evacuations. 'Terrifying explosion'
The explosion happened shortly before midnight local time (2300 BST) when one wagon of the train, travelling from La Spezia to Pisa, came off the tracks before ploughing into several homes near the station in Viareggio. "It was a derailment that caused the explosion of one of the rail cars filled with liquefied natural gas. It was a very strong explosion," Viareggio Mayor Luca Lunardini said. There is a containment operation going on - firefighters are trying to make sure none of the other gas tanks explode.
Viareggio is almost like a seaside town, full of tourist shops and gift shops. It's never known anything like this.
In the immediate area, many of the buildings were flattened and a rescue operation has been going on to pull people free and find survivors. The emergency services personnel are working in extremely dangerous conditions, bearing in mind that the train has not yet been declared safe.
"Two buildings collapsed and burned down, there are others in a serious condition," he said. A senior firefighter, Antonio Gambardella, said the force of the blast had turned cars on to their sides. "The gas spread out among the nearest houses before exploding," he told AFP. One witness described the scene as "apocalyptic". "A young man with a child jumped out of a window to save themselves - a scene I hope never to re-live because I was really afraid," he told Reuters. "People just couldn't do anything because with fire there is just nothing you can do, but we somehow managed to survive without any injury." Another witness, Penny Firth, told the BBC: "The explosion was terrifying. The whole sky turned orange and there was a huge mass of dense smoke, we could feel the heat intensify." Several of the victims, including at least one child, died when their homes collapsed with the force of the blast. At least two other people are thought to have been killed on the road next to the station. Three children were pulled alive from their burnt homes early on Tuesday. 'Miracle' escape
The Civil Protection Department called in specialist teams with equipment for dealing with nuclear, biological and chemical threats. Police say the incident may have been caused by damage to the tracks or a problem with the train's braking system. Railway unions are blaming old and obsolete rolling stock. The train's two engineers, who were only slightly injured, said they felt an impact about 200m (650ft) outside the station, shortly before the rear of the train derailed, officials say. One of them said it was "a miracle" that he managed to escape after his cabin filled with the liquid gas. Liquefied petroleum gas is a mixture of propane and butane that is used for cooking or as fuel for specially-adapted vehicles. | Gas explosion | June 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Cyclone Evan hits Fiji with winds as high as 230 km/h, amid reports of flooding and structural damage at resorts and private homes. More than 8,000 people spend the storm in emergency shelters, including many foreign tourists. | A boy sits on a table at the Christian Mission Fellowship church, which lost its roof during Tropical Cyclone Evan, in Malomalo December 18, 2012.
Dec 18 (Reuters) - More than 8,000 people, including foreign tourists, were evacuated to emergency shelters as Fiji was battered by a severe tropical cyclone, with winds topping 230kmh (140 mph) and floods damaging homes and resorts.
There were no reports of casualties as Tropical Cyclone Evan roared over the Pacific island nation on Monday, uprooting palm trees, tearing roofs off buildings and blowing down power lines.
A category four storm, the second highest level, when it hit Fiji, Evan had weakened and moved about 160km (100 miles) south of the main island of Viti Levu by Tuesday morning, the Fiji Metrological Service said. The storm was forecast to weaken further as it headed into cooler southern waters.
Cyclone Evan killed at least four people in the islands of Samoa last week before setting its sights on Fiji, which relies on tourism and sugar exports.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | December 2012 | ['(Reuters)', '(AAP via SBS)'] |
The Pentagon confirms a report in The New York Times that CIA chief George Tenet – who steps down from the post next month – was allowed by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to have an Iraqi prisoner secretly detained in alleged violation of the Geneva Convention. | Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, acting at the request of George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, ordered military officials in Iraq last November to hold a man suspected of being a senior Iraqi terrorist at a high-level detention center there but not list him on the prison's rolls, senior Pentagon and intelligence officials said Wednesday.
This prisoner and other ''ghost detainees'' were hidden largely to prevent the International Committee of the Red Cross from monitoring their treatment, and to avoid disclosing their location to an enemy, officials said.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | June 2004 | ['(BBC)', '(NYT)'] |
The President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva removes Defense Minister Waldir Pires, who is responsible for civil aviation, from his Cabinet and replaces him with former Justice Minister Nelson Jobim after two major crashes in ten months. | The president of Brazil today fired the country’s defense minister, who also oversaw civil aviation, after the worst airline disaster in Brazilian history.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s move came after he had appeared on television last week to assure Brazilians that he had ordered immediate changes in the country’s flawed civil aviation system. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | July 2007 | ['(New York Times)'] |
Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge topped all male runners and Ethiopian Tigist Tufa won the women's elite event in the 35th running of the London Marathon. | What is the London Marathon start time, where do the races begin and where is the finish line?
The 35th London Marathon gets underway from three different starting points around Greenwich Park and Blackheath this morning. The various races will start at four different timeslots within just over an hour. The elite wheelchair race kicks off proceedings at 9.00am, followed by athletes competing in the IPC Athletics Marathon World Championships at 9.05am. The elite women's race then starts at 9.20am. Finally, both the elite men's race and the mass race begin at 10.10am. All runners are destined for the same finish line, which this year will once again be on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace. With the capital's closed roads set to reopen at 7.00pm, the runners should all have ample time to make it round the 26-mile course. The first of the elite athletes should be finished before lunchtime, with defending women's champion (and likely favourite for this year) Edna Kiplagat of Kenya having set her personal best of 2:19.50 on this course in 2012. The men will not be far behind either, with defending Kenyan titleholder Wilson Kipsang sure to be pushed hard by compatriot and world record holder Dennis Kimetto. Paula Radcliffe, in her final London Marathon, may be some way further behind. The British distance-running legend will run with the main field rather than the elite women, and will be thankful just to make it to the finish after a tough and long-running battle through injuries. | Sports Competition | April 2015 | ['(The Telegraph)', '(ABC News)'] |
Four Israelis were shot and injured in a driveby shooting attack near Shilo, as a manhunt begins for the suspects. | Magen David Adom paramedics who arrived at the scene evacuated two of the wounded - one serious and one moderate to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jeruselm, and two others moderately wounded to the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem's Ein Karem. All four, in their 20s, are suffering from bullet wounds to both upper and lower bodies.
Attack site (: )
The seriously wounded man was operated on overnight at Shaare Zedek Medical Center. He was hospitalized in intensive care.
The car was reportedly travelling north bound when the perpatrators opened fire.
The IDF set up roadblocks and checkpoints in the area and large forces from the Judea and Samaria division, including fighters from the elite Special Forces Duvdevan Unit, were searching the area for any leads to the terror cell who committed the attack.
Initial investigation raised two possible lines of inquiry - one of a drive-by shooting, and the other that it was an ambush which included an escape vehicle for the cell members.
This is the fourth attack in four days and the sixth terror attack since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan ten days ago.
Acting Samaria Regional Council head, Yossi Dagan, said after the attack: "Recently we've been witnessing a concerning increase in serious terror attacks: The stabbing of the soldier this morning at Rachel's Tomb, the shooting on the MDA ambulance on Highway 60 over the weekend, Molotov cocktail being thrown at buses, and the cold-blooded murder of Danny Gonen near Dolev. We must stop this phenomenon before things deteriorate further. We will not allow terrorists to harm our citizens and we demand the Israeli government to allow the IDF to act without mercy against those savages who are turning civilians into targets. The term 'trickle' with regards to terrorism is a lie. We are not willing to get used to this situation in Judea and Samaria as it happens and has been happening for years with the rocket fire in the south."
Meanwhile, shortly after the attack, stones were thrown at an Israeli vehicle at the Hizma checkpoint on Highway 60. No one was hurt and security forces were searching the area for perpetrators.
On Monday morning, a Palestinian woman attacked a female IDF soldier, stabbing her in the neck at the Rachel checkpoint near Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem.
The attacker, 20-year-old Misoun Mussa from Bethlehem, was not known to security forces and does not have a criminal record.
Mussa was found to have two other knives on her person. During questioning by the Shin Bet, she said she arrived at the crossing to kill a soldier. The initial assessment was that she acted alone. | Armed Conflict | June 2015 | ['(YNet)'] |
The Royal Bank of Scotland will fire 14,000 staff as they retreat from geographic positions in US and Asian markets. | Ross McEwan wants to focus bailed-out bank on UK and reduce presence to 13 countries from current 38, shedding up to four in five investment-banking staff
Last modified on Wed 29 Nov 2017 22.26 GMT
As many as 14,000 staff in the investment banking arm of Royal Bank of Scotland face the axe in the coming years as the bailed-out bank retrenches from its expansion into the US and Asia.
The scale of the cutbacks – which would represent four in five jobs in investment banking – emerged after last week’s remarks by Ross McEwan, the boss of the 81%-taxpayer bank, that substantial numbers of jobs would be lost.
In the latest retrenchment of the investment bank, he wants to reduce RBS’s presence to 13 countries, compared with 38 at the end of last year, to focus on the UK. Many of the losses are expected at its offices in Stamford, Connecticut, where RBS has one of the largest trading floors in the world, and across Asia as it focuses its operations on Japan.
Last week, McEwan had said the changes mark “the end of a standalone investment bank at RBS”. The bank is expected to try to sell off some of its international operations rather than close down businesses altogether.
RBS would not comment on a report by the Financial Times about the extent of the job cuts planned. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | March 2015 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Thousands of homes in England remain without power following Wednesday's storms as the UK's Met Office forecasts fresh heavy rain and high winds for Friday. | A new band of heavy rain is expected to hit the UK on Friday, as engineers work to reconnect power supplies cut off by Wednesday's storm.
Forecasters expect the rain to reach the South West at about 06:00 GMT before moving north across the country.
But BBC Weather's Darren Bett offered some hope to flood-hit areas, saying this severe weather was "hopefully the last in a long line" to hit the UK. Very high winds are forecast for Friday evening and Saturday morning.
Our forecaster said there would be rain for most of the UK on Saturday, with up to 40mm (1.5in) in some parts of south-west England, where many areas are already flooded. This would fall as snow on hills in places including Wales, the Pennines, Northern Ireland and Scotland, he added.
High winds - with gusts of 60-70mph inland and up to 80mph on England's south coast - are expected from Friday evening until Saturday morning.
The Met Office has issued several amber and yellow weather warnings for rain, wind and snow.
Our forecaster said some showers and high winds were expected on Saturday, but Sunday should be "mostly dry" and next week's weather - while still "unsettled" - was not expected to be as wet or windy as in recent days.
In other developments:
5,800
homes flooded since December
130,000
homes lost power overnight Wednesday
112mph wind gusts recorded
319mm rain fallen in Thames Valley since mid-December Wettest January since 1776 The Energy Networks Association said 26,410 UK properties remain without electricity following Wednesday's hurricane-force winds.
Spokesman Tim Field said: "The pylons and the wires themselves are very resilient to strong winds.
Check if this is affecting your journey
"It is other airborne objects and debris - like uprooted trees - that cannot hold on in those sorts of 100mph winds. It is these things that are causing power lines to come down," he said.
Engineers were still working to restore power to customers who were still without it, he added.
Seventeen severe flood warnings are currently in force for parts of Berkshire, Surrey, Somerset and Gloucestershire.
Some parts of the Somerset Levels have been flooded for several weeks, while areas near the Thames in Berkshire and Surrey have seen major flooding in recent days.
The latest severe warning was for the River Severn at Alney Island, Gloucester. The Environment Agency has also issued more than 300 less serious flood warnings and alerts, mostly in southern England and the Midlands.
Train services in parts of the UK are cancelled and some roads are closed.
It comes after parts of the transport network struggled to cope during Wednesday's severe weather.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | February 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
Two Russian soldiers, escorting the military staff ceasefire monitoring convoy, are killed in Deir ez-Zor Province by ISIL shelling. | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Two Russian servicemen have been killed in Deir al-Zor province after Islamic State militants shelled a convoy they were escorting, the Russian Defence Ministry was cited as saying on Monday by the Interfax news agency.
The convoy was transporting Russian ceasefire monitoring military staff when it came under mortar attack, the ministry was quoted as saying.
One soldier was killed on the spot and the other died in hospital after sustaining serious injuries. Both were awarded posthumous military awards, the ministry said.
Russia said earlier on Monday that its air force was helping the Syrian army push ahead with an offensive on the Euphrates city of Deir al-Zor, where Islamic State has besieged 93,000 civilians and an army garrison for years.
Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Alison Williams | Armed Conflict | September 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Sun Microsystems announces the acquisition of MySQL AB, a leading open source relational database management system vendor, for US$1 billion. | By JORDAN ROBERTSON – 2 days ago SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to buy open-source software maker MySQL AB for $1 billion, beefing up the server maker's database offerings with a company whose technology is used by some of the world's biggest Web sites.
Sun, in a separate announcement before the market opened, said its second quarter revenue would narrowly exceed Wall Street estimates. It also said profit would fall at the high end of analysts' expectations. The company revealed its preliminary results ahead of schedule.
Santa Clara-based Sun is paying $800 million in cash and assuming $200 million in options to acquire MySQL. The Swedish company makes open-source database software used by companies such as online search leader Google Inc., popular Internet hangout Facebook Inc. and Finnish phone maker Nokia Corp.
Sun said the deal will help spread MySQL's software to large corporations, which have been the biggest customers of Sun's servers and software, and boost its distribution through Sun's relationships with other server makers such as IBM Corp. and Dell Inc.
Sun has tied its fortunes to open-source software. It believes it can sell more server computers and ring up higher maintenance fees by also offering software whose source code is publicly available for free.
MySQL competes with non-open-source offerings from Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp., which dominate database software for traditional businesses.
However, MySQL is the rapidly growing market leader in open-source database software, particularly among Web-based companies, where it commands about 80 percent of the global market, according to Sun Chief Executive Jonathan Schwartz.
Microsoft is less than 10 percent of that market, Schwartz said.
"We are really acquiring a database that customers and Web companies across the world have moved to at a breathtaking clip," Schwartz said in an interview. "The titans of the Web all use MySQL — banks, automobile companies, pretty much all of the Fortune 500 runs MySQL in their shops."
The acquisition, expected to close in the third or fourth quarter, takes pressure off Sun to spend some of the cash it's been accumulating. It also bolsters its software offerings with a well-known known name in Internet data retrieval.
"This gives us access to every hot Web company on earth, and every company that will be hot 5 years from now," Schwartz said. "For us, this is completely landscape-changing."
Sun also said it expects net income of between $230 million to $265 million, or 28 cents to 32 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting profit of between 22 cents and 38 cents.
Sun predicts $3.6 billion in sales during the second quarter. Analysts were expecting, on average, $3.58 billion in sales.
The company was expected to release its results January 24.
Despite financial difficulties that have plagued Sun since the dot-com meltdown in 2001, the company has been accumulating a cash horde that reached $5.9 billion at the end of the 2007 fiscal year.
In recent quarters, as Sun has returned to profitability under new management and tightened cost controls, investors have pressured the company to spend some of its war chest in ways that boost its value.
Still, some shareholders remain skeptical about the company's prospects.
Sun's stock price has slid about 25 percent since the company's 1-for-4 reverse stock split in November, an essentially cosmetic maneuver to remove the stigma of slumping shares.
In a reverse stock split, a company lowers the number of outstanding shares, boosting the value of each share, while keeping total market value unchanged.
As a result, Sun's share price jumped from around $5 to more than $20, but has fallen sharply since then, closing Tuesday at $14.98 before the acquisition and results were announced. | Organization Merge | January 2008 | ['(AP via Google News)'] |
A bushfire in Victoria state has destroyed 116 homes. The 2200-hectare Jamieson Track blaze razed 98 homes in Wye River and 18 at Separation Creek. The fire stopped just 500 meters short of Kennett River. A dousing of rain on Saturday was unlikely to do much in the long term as this blaze could continue into January or February, says emergency management commissioner Craig Lapsley. No injuries are reported. | A Christmas Day bushfire has destroyed more than 100 homes in Australia's Victoria state, officials say. Officials said 98 homes had been razed in Wye River and 18 at Separation Creek. No injuries are reported.
Hundreds of firefighters have been battling the blaze along the famous Great Ocean Road in Victoria's south-west, popular with holidaymakers. A change to cooler weather and rain has greatly reduced the threat, but some emergency warnings remain in place. Some 1,600 residents and tourists from the popular tourist spot of Lorne were evacuated on Friday amid fears that a wind change would push the fire towards the town, but were allowed to return on Saturday.
Many of those forced to leave their homes had to spend Christmas night in hastily-arranged shelters.
More than 500 firefighters, 60 tankers and 18 aircraft have been involved in fighting the flames.
Victoria Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Lapsley said they were "working around the clock to bring this fire under control".
He warned that although the immediate threat had eased, the fire had the "potential to burn" for weeks to come.
Thousands of tourists typically descend on the area in the days after Christmas to visit coastal towns. But many residents and holidaymakers were forced to flee, as festivities were abandoned when the scale of the threat became apparent.
"They (residents) were all prepared, putting their barbecues on, they were cooking away, and all of a sudden they could see the smoke coming over the hill," local resident Patrick Carey said. "They thought it was still four hours away according to what they'd heard. And then all of a sudden it was an hour away, and all of a sudden it was half-an-hour away. So, they just dropped everything, stopped cooking and hopped in their car."
Anyone still planning to travel to the area is being asked to check emergency warnings and to avoid the Great Ocean Road if possible. The Falls Music and Arts Festival, which is held annually near Lorne, may not go ahead because of the fires, its organisers said. The fire began with a lightning strike on 19 December and has been fanned by strong winds and intense heat in recent days, burning across 2,200 hectares (5,437 acres) so far.
Victoria is one of the most fire-prone regions in the world. Many bushfires are started by lightning strikes, while others are sparked accidentally by campers or discarded cigarettes. Some are the work of arsonists.
In 2009, more than 170 people died in Victoria during Australia's worst ever bushfire disaster.
Are you in Victoria? Have you been affected by the recent bushfires? If it is safe for you to get in touch, we'd like to hear your experiences. Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your stories.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. | Fire | December 2015 | ['(Sky News)', '(BBC)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Pakistan's cricket captain, Shahid Afridi, quits in controversy after losing his team's first Test to Australia. | Pakistan's first "home" Test against Australia ended in defeat and controversy after their captain, Shahid Afridi, resigned in a post-match interview.
Afridi, who was playing his first five-day match in four years, said next week's second Test at Headingley would be his last.
"I have struggled to adapt to this form of the game and the next Test will be my last," Afridi said after Pakistan capitulated at Lord's by 150 runs.
"I am struggling with a thigh injury and I need to get myself right.
The 30-year-old added: "This may be bold but I believe Salman Butt should take over as captain."
Afridi's comments came as a surprise to Butt, whose departure for 92 triggered Pakistan's collapse from 186 for two to 289 all out.
"I have not heard anything about this," he said. "The captaincy is a great honour and if it will come it will come but I have not given it any thought just yet." | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | July 2010 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Mark Zuckerberg publishes a new mission statement for his website, Facebook, including the development of artificial intelligence to identify potential tragic events such as suicides before they occur. | Alex Hern analyses the Facebook founder’s 5,700-word mission statement on the goals of Facebook and highlights what he really meant and what he left out
On our journey to connect the world, we often discuss products we’re building and updates on our business. Today I want to focus on the most important question of all: are we building the world we all want?
Mark Zuckerberg opens his missive with a grammatical ambiguity: who are “we”? Is this a letter to Facebook, or to the world? It can be read both ways. But regardless of the intended audience, there’s a subtext to the opening paragraph which informs the whole 5,700-word letter: for an increasing number of people, the answer to Zuckerberg’s question is “no”. Zuckerberg wants for more than Facebook to be an insanely profitable mega-corporation. He wants the company to be seen as a force for good in the world, and right now, he’s concerned that it isn’t.
History is the story of how we’ve learned to come together in ever greater numbers -- from tribes to cities to nations.
This is the Facebook theory of history, and it’s a long way from “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”. But it sets the scale of Zuckerberg’s thinking: he genuinely views Facebook as a new paradigm for the organisation of human civilisation.
I am reminded of my favorite saying about technology: “We always overestimate what we can do in two years, and we underestimate what we can do in ten years.”
Strangely, Zuckerberg declined to cite the author of this “saying”: Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who wrote those words in his 1996 book, the Road Ahead. Perhaps he wants to avoid comparisons between the two men, who are increasingly alike, just 20 years apart.
In times like these, the most important thing we at Facebook can do is develop the social infrastructure to give people the power to build a global community that works for all of us … Our job at Facebook is to help people make the greatest positive impact while mitigating areas where technology and social media can contribute to divisiveness and isolation.
This is the new mission statement for Facebook. It’s more nuanced than “connect the world”, and shows much greater self-awareness than “move fast and break things”. But is it too self-apologetic? It’s hard to imagine anyone at Facebook being motivated by such a caveated principle.
Building a global community that works for everyone starts with the millions of smaller communities and intimate social structures we turn to for our personal, emotional and spiritual needs. Zuckerberg identifies “five important questions” for Facebook to answer; the first is how to build “supportive communities”.
We recently found that more than 100 million people on Facebook are members of what we call “very meaningful” groups. These are groups that upon joining, quickly become the most important part of our social network experience and an important part of our physical support structure …
Going forward, we will measure Facebook’s progress with groups based on meaningful groups, not groups overall.
The first of the odd switches in tone, as Zuckerberg shifts from huge statements for how to change Facebook’s impact on the world to an announcement of a different internal metric. Those “very meaningful” groups certainly sound like a smart thing for Facebook to focus on, but it’s not immediately clear how much Facebook can influence their creation: how many of these groups are created by Facebook, rather than just being groups which would have existed since time immemorial, now being organised on Facebook?
We plan to build more tools to empower community leaders to run and grow their groups the way they’d like, similar to what we’ve done with Pages … We plan to expand groups to support sub-communities … We can design these experiences not for passive consumption but for strengthening social connections.
The odd shift in focus continues. A significant chunk of the letter is spent discussing fairly niche product refreshes. It might be important for Facebook’s long-term strategy, but it feels disconnected from the earlier lofty rhetoric.
To help during a crisis, we’ve built infrastructure like Safety Check so we can all let our friends know we’re safe and check on friends who might be affected by an attack or natural disaster. Safety Check has been activated almost 500 times in two years and has already notified people that their families and friends are safe more than a billion times
The letter shifts to something in the vein of a pre-emptive apology, basically here to remind you that Facebook is good. But Safety Check hasn’t been the PR slam-dunk it might seem it was. Initially, the product opened Facebook up to accusations of racism, since it had to be manually activated by Facebook staff, leading to a perception that attacks on developed nations received priority treatment. Then, when it was automated, it helped spread false reports of an attack in Thailand that never actually happened.
Looking ahead, one of our greatest opportunities to keep people safe is building artificial intelligence to understand more quickly and accurately what is happening across our community.
There are billions of posts, comments and messages across our services each day, and since it’s impossible to review all of them, we review content once it is reported to us. There have been terribly tragic events -- like suicides, some live streamed -- that perhaps could have been prevented if someone had realized what was happening and reported them sooner. There are cases of bullying and harassment every day, that our team must be alerted to before we can help out. These stories show we must find a way to do more.
Artificial intelligence can help provide a better approach. We are researching systems that can look at photos and videos to flag content our team should review. This is still very early in development, but we have started to have it look at some content, and it already generates about one-third of all reports to the team that reviews content for our community.
It will take many years to fully develop these systems. Right now, we’re starting to explore ways to use AI to tell the difference between news stories about terrorism and actual terrorist propaganda.
Here we have the first mention of artificial intelligence as the future solution for a myriad of problems. It is a recurring theme throughout the letter: a difficult problem gets punted to the AI team to be solved at some point that even Zuckerberg acknowledges may be far off. Some of these problems will be successfully tackled by improved AI, but others won’t. The propaganda problem, for instance, seems extraordinarily hard. Does the prospect of future solutions mean Facebook can get away with not acting in the meantime?
The two most discussed concerns this past year were about diversity of viewpoints we see (filter bubbles) and accuracy of information (fake news). I worry about these and we have studied them extensively, but I also worry there are even more powerful effects we must mitigate around sensationalism and polarization leading to a loss of common understanding.
Almost exactly in the middle of the letter, surrounded by explanations of all the good things Facebook does, we get on to the section which is why this letter exists in the first place. Facebook’s effect on the generation of fake news and filter bubbles has sparked consternation worldwide, with the site being directly blamed for “radicalisation” of the far right in multiple nations. It has concerned Facebook executives at the highest levels, including Zuckerberg. But the question is, do they accept the accusations? And what are they going to do about them?
Social media already provides more diverse viewpoints than traditional media ever has. Even if most of our friends are like us, we all know people with different interests, beliefs and backgrounds who expose us to different perspectives. Compared with getting our news from the same two or three TV networks or reading the same newspapers with their consistent editorial views, our networks on Facebook show us more diverse content.
This is a bold claim, and one many media experts would dispute. Facebook is good at giving multiple sources, but is it really good at giving “different perspectives”? Experiments designed to reflect political polarisation suggest maybe not: the newsfeed algorithm acts to concentrate viewpoints like little before. Even if you do have friends and family members with different interests and backgrounds, Facebook will hide those differences from you in order to give you the News Feed you’re comfortable with.
But our goal must be to help people see a more complete picture, not just alternate perspectives. We must be careful how we do this. Research shows that some of the most obvious ideas, like showing people an article from the opposite perspective, actually deepen polarization by framing other perspectives as foreign. A more effective approach is to show a range of perspectives, let people see where their views are on a spectrum and come to a conclusion on what they think is right. Over time, our community will identify which sources provide a complete range of perspectives so that content will naturally surface more.
Even if Facebook doesn’t actually show different perspectives, Zuckerberg is arguing, that may not be a problem. Maybe those different perspectives could lead to more polarisation, not less? It feels a bit like the classic lawyer’s argument: the discourse isn’t broken, and if it is, my client didn’t do it, and if they did, it was a good thing anyway.
Accuracy of information is very important. We know there is misinformation and even outright hoax content on Facebook, and we take this very seriously … Our approach will focus less on banning misinformation, and more on surfacing additional perspectives and information, including that fact checkers dispute an item’s accuracy.
The other side of the polarisation problem: “fake news”. Facebook is in a tricky position, and Zuckerberg knows it The firm can’t deny that it’s a problem that Macedonian teens can make up stories for an audience of millions, mediated almost exclusively by Facebook. But the term “fake news” is so contested that any solution will inevitably fall far short of satisfying everyone.
We noticed some people share stories based on sensational headlines without ever reading the story. In general, if you become less likely to share a story after reading it, that’s a good sign the headline was sensational.
Facebook’s News Feed tweaks can seem small, but their changes reverberate throughout the media world with enormous effects, bankrupting some outlets while heaping windfalls on others. This particular tweak seems smart.
A strong news industry is also critical to building an informed community. Giving people a voice is not enough without having people dedicated to uncovering new information and analyzing it. There is more we must do to support the news industry to make sure this vital social function is sustainable -- from growing local news, to developing formats best suited to mobile devices, to improving the range of business models news organizations rely on.
This feels like a nice sleight-of-hand. Unlike much of the rest of the letter, which follows pattern of acknowledging a problem before presenting a (potential) solution, this is just the problem: Zuckerberg doesn’t really have any ideas about how to solve it.
The vast majority of conversations on Facebook are social, not ideological. They’re friends sharing jokes and families staying in touch across cities. They’re people finding groups, whether they’re new parents raising kids or newly diagnosed patients suffering from a disease together. Sometimes it’s for joy, coming together around religion or sports. And sometimes it’s for survival, like refugees communicating to find shelter.
In other words, worrying about the corrosive effect of Facebook on political discourse is for the metropolitan liberal elite. Most of what Facebook is used for doesn’t as adverse effects, so just cheer up and click “like” on a baby photo.
Our society will reflect our collective values only if we engage in the civic process and participate in self-governance. There are two distinct types of social infrastructure that must be built: The first encourages engagement in existing political processes: voting, engaging with issues and representatives, speaking out, and sometimes organizing. Only through dramatically greater engagement can we ensure these political processes reflect our values. The second is establishing a new process for citizens worldwide to participate in collective decision-making. Our world is more connected than ever, and we face global problems that span national boundaries. As the largest global community, Facebook can explore examples of how community governance might work at scale.
This is how Facebook wants to be thought of when it comes to politics Rather than a passive funnel through which distorted news arrives at people’s screens, it wants to be an active location for political engagement. First, our community is evolving from its origin connecting us with family and friends to now becoming a source of news and public discourse as well …
Second, our community spans many countries and cultures, and the norms are different in each region …
Third, even within a given culture, we have different opinions on what we want to see and what is objectionable …
Fourth, we’re operating at such a large scale that even a small percent of errors causes a large number of bad experiences.
Zuckerberg has identified the problems faced by Facebook’s censorship regime. For some, there’s an easy solution, such as tweaking the community standards to allow more boundary-pushing imagery with strong news value. For others, there’s a more hand-wavy solution: AI again. At some point in the future.
The approach is to combine creating a large-scale democratic process to determine standards with AI to help enforce them …
With a broader range of controls, content will only be taken down if it is more objectionable than the most permissive options allow … It’s worth noting that major advances in AI are required to understand text, photos and videos to judge whether they contain hate speech, graphic violence, sexually explicit content, and more. At our current pace of research, we hope to begin handling some of these cases in 2017, but others will not be possible for many years.
Again, Zuckerberg acknowledges these are really hard technological problems and any easy AI-based solutions are a long way off. Zuckerberg seems to be hoping concerned users will accept “we’re trying” as an acceptable position for Facebook to take.
I am reminded of President Lincoln’s remarks during the American Civil War: “We can succeed only by concert. It is not ‘can any of us imagine better?’ but, ‘can we all do better?’ The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, act anew.”
Zuckerberg’s final section ends with a quote from Abraham Lincoln, which has renewed speculation that his new interest in addressing political problems is a lead-in to a presidential campaign in 2024. But the letter as a whole suggests a more nuanced reading: While the Facebook chief executive is undoubtedly considering an entry into political life, he is also recognising that running the world’s largest social network is effectively a political career in itself. Maybe in Zuckerberg’s vision of history, after tribes and cities and nations, comes Facebook. There, he is already the leader. | Famous Person - Give a speech | February 2017 | ['(Forbes)', '(The Guardian)'] |
A senior Vatican bank cleric, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, and two others are arrested on suspicion of smuggling €20 million into Italy from Switzerland. | A senior Italian cleric has been arrested in connection with an inquiry into a Vatican bank scandal over allegations of corruption and fraud.
Monsignor Nunzio Scarano works in the Vatican's financial administration. A secret service agent and a financial broker have also been arrested.
They are suspected of trying to move 20m euros ($26m; £17m) illegally.
Pope Francis ordered an unprecedented internal investigation into the bank's affairs in the wake of recent scandals.
Monsignor Scarano, 61, worked for years as a senior accountant for a Vatican department known as Apsa (the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See).
He was suspended from that position "about a month ago, after his superiors learnt about an investigation into his activities", Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.
Monsignor Scarano has been under investigation by Italian police for a series of suspicious transactions involving the recycling through the Vatican bank of a series of cheques described as church donations. Nunzio Scarano is a priest from Salerno in southern Italy, who is called "monsignor" in recognition of his seniority at the Vatican.
He was arrested along with two other men suspected of plotting to move 20m euros illegally from Switzerland to Italy. One, Giovanni Maria Zito, is described as an Italian secret service agent, and the other, Giovanni Carenzio, a financial broker. Earlier this month, the Pope named a trusted cleric to oversee the management of the bank, which has been beset by allegations of money laundering.
Officially known as the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), the bank is one of the world's most secretive. It has 114 employees and 5.4bn euros of assets.
Pope Francis has given the commission carte blanche, bypassing normal secrecy rules, to try to get to the bottom of scandals which have plagued the bank for decades.
Traditionally, the Vatican Bank has refused to co-operate with Italian authorities investigating financial crime on the grounds of the sovereign independence of the Vatican city state, the BBC's David Willey reports from Rome. But Pope Francis has shown that he is now determined to get to the bottom of long-standing allegations of corruption and money laundering involving the bank, our correspondent adds.
The Institute for the Works of Religion was a major shareholder in the Banco Ambrosiano, a big Italian bank which collapsed in 1982 with losses of more than $3bn.
Its chairman, Roberto Calvi, was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London - in a murder disguised as a suicide. Mr Calvi had close relations with the Vatican. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | June 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Two policemen are killed by unidentified gunmen at close range in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. | Two policemen were killed by militants in the Baghat area on high security airport road here on Friday, police said.
The militants shot the two policemen from close range, a police official said, adding they were taken to a hospital where both of them succumbed.
He identified the slain policemen as constables Sohail and Mohammad Yousuf.
Militant opens fire in Srinagar’s Baghat
They identified the slain policeman as constable Sohail.
Security forces have launched an operation to track down the assailants, the official said.
This is the second attack in the city in the past three days. Militants shot at and injured son of a restaurant owner in high-security Durganag area of the city on Wednesday.
The attacks in the city have come as a 24-member delegation of envoys from various countries visited Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday for assessing the ground situation in the union territory. | Armed Conflict | February 2021 | ['(The Indian Express)'] |
Australia's economy shrinks 1.2 per cent in the first quarter due to various disasters. | Unprecedented flooding and storms that hit key exports such as coal and iron ore caused Australia's economy to shrink by 1.2% in the first quarter of this year compared with the last quarter of 2010, government data showed on Wednesday.
It was the largest quarterly contraction in GDP since 1991, when Australia experienced its last recession. It is also the first time Australia's GDP has fallen since the last quarter of 2008, at the height of the global financial crisis.
Treasurer Wayne Swan said he was not surprised by data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics that showed flooding and cyclones had slowed annual growth to 1% up to March 2011. That was down from 2.7% in the 2010 calendar year.
Lost production totalled A$12bn (£7.7bn), with A$6.7bn of that in the March quarter alone.
Swan predicted a "strong rebound" in the quarter ending in June, due to the underlying strength of the economy.
A cyclone in Western Australia in February disrupted iron ore shipments while another cyclone and flooding in eastern Australia last November disrupted production at a majority of coal mines while damaging railway lines and ports.
While Australia was the only wealthy country to avoid recession during the global economic crisis, the data pointed to a weak spot in an economy heavily reliant on Chinese hunger for raw materials. China and other emerging Asian economies are major importers of coal, Australia's biggest export.
Opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey said while the result was expected, it also demonstrated that the economy was not robust enough to withstand government plans to impose new anti-pollution taxes on mining company profits or on high-income earners to pay for flood reconstruction.
"What is clear is this – if the mining boom has a cough, the Australian economy can suffer pneumonia," Hockey said. | Financial Crisis | June 2011 | ['(AP via The Guardian)'] |
Prime Minister Boris Johnson says up to three million Hong Kong residents will be offered citizenship in the United Kingdom, following the passing of a controversial new national security law by China. Under the British government's plans, Hong Kongers will be able to settle in the UK for five years under political asylum, and after a further year will be able to apply for citizenship. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says there will be "no limits on numbers or quotas", due to the UK's "historic commitment to the people of Hong Kong". | Up to three million Hong Kong residents are to be offered the chance to settle in the UK and ultimately apply for citizenship, Boris Johnson has said.
The PM said Hong Kong's freedoms were being violated by a new security law and those affected would be offered a "route" out of the former UK colony.
About 350,000 UK passport holders, and 2.6 million others eligible, will be able to come to the UK for five years.
And after a further year, they will be able to apply for citizenship.
British National Overseas Passport holders in Hong Kong were granted special status in the 1980s but currently have restricted rights and are only entitled to visa-free access to the UK for six months.
Under the government's plans, all British Overseas Nationals and their dependants will be given right to remain in the UK, including the right to work and study, for five years. At this point, they will be able to apply for settled status, and after a further year, seek citizenship. The PM said Tuesday's passing of a new security law by the Hong Kong authorities was a "clear and serious breach" of the 1985 Sino-British joint declaration - a legally binding agreement which set out how certain freedoms would be protected for the 50 years after China assumed sovereignty in 1997. "It violates Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy and threatens the freedoms and rights protected by the joint declaration," he said.
"We made clear that if China continued down this path we would introduce a new route for those with British National (Overseas) status to enter the UK, granting them limited leave to remain with the ability to live and work in the UK and thereafter to apply for citizenship. And that is precisely what we will do now."
Foreign Office permanent secretary Sir Simon McDonald expressed the government's "deep concern" about the new law to China during a meeting with the country's ambassador Liu Xioming.
The UK government has been raising concerns about the national security law and very publicly trying to pressure Beijing into a change heart.
That has clearly failed - so ministers are now fulfilling their promise to allow some three million British Overseas Nationals to come to the UK. This is a significant move and the government wants to send a strong message.
But there will be more pressure now to rethink other elements of our relationship with China - not least the deal to allow Huawei to build parts of the UK's 5G structures.
Many Tory MPs have been lobbying against that for some time - and this will only add to their concern.
Updating MPs on the details, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said there would be no limit on numbers or quotas and the application process would be simple.
"This is a special, bespoke, set of arrangements developed for the unique circumstances we face and in light of our historic commitment to the people of Hong Kong," he said.
Speaking to ITV's Peston programme, Mr Raab acknowledged there "would be little we could do to…cohesively force" China to allow British Overseas Nationals to come to the UK.
Downing Street said further details of the scheme will be detailed "in due course".
In the meantime, British National Overseas Passport holders in Hong Kong will be able to travel to the UK immediately, subject to standard immigration checks, the prime minister's official spokesman said.
They will also will not face salary thresholds to gain their visas, he added.
Hong Kong's new national security law, which targets secession, subversion and terrorism with punishments up to life in prison, came into effect on Tuesday.
By Grace Tsoi, BBC World Service, Hong Kong
I was born in Hong Kong before 1997, the year when Hong Kong was handed back to Chinese rule. That means I had a British National Overseas (BNO) passport as a child.
When the news broke that BNO passport holders were eligible for British citizenship after living and working in the UK for five years, and after spending another year of being granted settled status, many of my friends were excited. They say at least there's a way out for Hong Kongers after the national security law came into force.
But many questions remain. Currently there are 350,000 BNO passport holders, but about three million Hong Kong residents are eligible for BNO passports - and that doesn't appear to include dependants born after 1997.
Will the UK be ready to take in so many Hong Kong residents? Will there be enough jobs? Will BNO passport holders have recourse to public funds? And will they be covered by the NHS?
Some also say it's good that there's a lifeboat, but do they really want to leave their home?
Several people have already been arrested under the new powers, including a man carrying a pro-independence flag as police used pepper spray to disperse some protesters gathered to mark 23 years since British rule ended.
Critics say it effectively puts an end to the "one country, two systems" principle enshrined in the Joint Declaration. China has rejected criticism of its actions, saying they are internal matters.
The UK government has come under growing pressure to take a firm line with Beijing from MPs, who are worried about China's increasingly assertive role regionally and the security implications of Chinese firm Huawei's involvement in the UK's 5G network.
Mr Raab said he wanted a positive relationship with China but Beijing had "broken its promise" to the people of Hong Kong through its "flagrant assault" on freedom of speech and right of peaceful assembly.
Labour said it welcomed the government's action but said there must be no discrimination on those allowed into the UK on the basis of income or other factors. Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said the UK also had a responsibility to consider the welfare of those who were not able to re-locate or who wished to stay in Hong Kong.
She urged the government to work with its international partners, through the UN, to force an inquiry into police brutality in Hong Kong and also called for the UK to re-examine its commercial relationship with China.
"For too long in relation to China we've had no strategy at home and no strategy abroad. I hope he can give us a commitment today that this marks the start of a very different era," she said.
| Government Policy Changes | July 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
A former Venezuelan state oil executive at PDVSA, Juan Carlos Márquez, is found hanged in an apartment in Madrid. He had been taken into custody in connection with an investigation into corruption and money laundering. | Police in the Spanish capital, Madrid, are investigating the death on Sunday of Juan Carlos Márquez, a former executive at Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA.
Mr Márquez, 48, had appeared in court on Friday over his alleged involvement in a money-laundering scheme.
While he denied the allegations of money-laundering, he had reportedly agreed to collaborate with an investigation into corruption at PDVSA.
He was due back in court on Monday.
Police said Mr Márquez had been found hanged in a flat on the outskirts of Madrid. Mr Márquez was an executive at PDVSA from 2003 to 2014, when the oil company was at the heart of Venezuela's economy. While he is widely considered to have been an influential figure in the company with close links to PDVSA's president at the time, Rafael Ramírez, Mr Márquez kept a low profile and rarely appeared in the media. He was arrested at Madrid airport on Thursday after arriving on a flight from the US. He was taken to court on Friday in connection with an investigation into money laundering allegedly carried out by Socialist politician and former Spanish ambassador to Caracas Raúl Morodo.
Mr Morodo, 84, and his son Alejo are suspected of having laundered €4.5m (£4.1m) between 2008 and 2013, which they deny. Alejo Morodo was arrested in May along with his wife, his Venezuelan associate and the associate's wife. Police said they would not detain Raúl Morodo because of his age but ordered him to stay in Spain. Investigators allege that Alejo Morodo charged PDVSA millions of euros for "legal counsel and business advice" that he said two law firms he had links to would provide. He reportedly diverted some of the money he received into his father's account.
But the investigators say the two law firms never provided any counsel to the state-oil company and that the contracts were "fictitious".
Spanish daily El Pais, which has seen the contracts, reports that they were signed by Mr Márquez on behalf of PDVSA.
Sources close to the investigation told Spanish news agency Efe that Mr Márquez had agreed to collaborate with prosecutors following his arrest on Thursday.
The money-laundering case comes just months after 28 people, including two Venezuelan former deputy ministers, were charged with corruption in Andorra over bribes worth $2.3bn (£1.8bn) the suspects allegedly took from companies in return for lucrative contracts with PDVSA.
| Famous Person - Death | July 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
USS Devastator is damaged by fire while at a Bahrain dock. (Task & Purpose) | The Navy is still determining the extent of the damage to the ship caused by the fire.
By
Jeff Schogol
March 16, 2019
No sailors were injured when a fire broke out aboard the minesweeper USS Devastator on Thursday, according to 5th Fleet.
The ship was docked at Naval Support Activity Bahrain when the fire broke out about 8 p.m. local time, a 5th Fleet news release says. Sailors from four other ships and the base fire department were able to extinguish the blaze within an hour.
While the extent of the damage caused by the fire is still being determined, the Devastator is able to float on its own, the vessel did not take on any water, and its hull has not been compromised, 5th Fleet spokeswoman Lt. Chloe Morgan told Task & Purpose on Saturday.
“It's a never a great day when a ship catches on fire, but if there is anything good to be said about this, there was a lot teamwork,” Morgan said. “Everyone reacted very quickly. You have to remember this happened on a Thursday night in Bahrain. That's like a Friday night back in America, so there's not a lot of people there except those who are on duty. Well everyone pulled together. The pier was full of people all there to assist. Even the fire department helped refill air tanks.”
The Devastator is one of four minesweepers permanently stationed in Bahrain, she said. The other ships are the USS Sentry, Gladiator and Dextrous. Each mine sweeper has a crew of up to 88 sailors.
| Fire | March 2019 | [] |
Venezuelan security forces clash with opposition demonstrators in the so-called "Mother of All Marches" against President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas. Two students and a National Guard sergeant are shot dead. (Reuters²) | CARACAS/SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela (Reuters) - Two Venezuelan students and a National Guard sergeant died on Wednesday after being shot during protests against unpopular leftist President Nicolas Maduro, increasing turmoil in the volatile nation amid a devastating economic crisis.
Violence erupts in 'Mother of all marches' in Venezuela
01:39
Opposition supporters protested in Caracas and other cities in what they called “the mother of all marches,” denouncing Maduro for eroding democracy and plunging the oil-rich economy into chaos.
Crowds swelled to hundreds of thousands, including Maduro supporters who held a counter-demonstration in the capital at the urging of the president, and clashes were reported across the country during the most sustained protests since 2014.
Maduro says that beneath a peaceful facade, the protests are little more than opposition efforts to foment a coup to end socialism in Venezuela. The opposition says he has morphed into a dictator and accuses his government of using armed civilians to spread violence and fear.
The deaths mean eight people have now been killed during protests in Venezuela this month. The opposition blames the deaths on security forces and alleged paramilitary groups. Over 400 people were arrested during protests on Wednesday, rights group Penal Forum said.
The opposition called for another protest on Thursday, raising the specter of prolonged disruption in Venezuela.
“Same place, same time,” said opposition leader Henrique Capriles on Wednesday night. “If we were millions today, tomorrow we’ll be more.”
Wednesday’s dueling marches drew parallels to the clashes between pro and anti-government protesters in 2002 that triggered a brief coup against late President Hugo Chavez.
Carlos Moreno, 18, a student, was leaving his home to play soccer in Caracas when armed government supporters approached a nearby opposition gathering and fired shots, according to witnesses. He was shot in the head, they said, and three security officials said he later died in a clinic after undergoing surgery.
Later on Wednesday in the opposition hotbed of San Cristobal near the Colombia border, university student Paola Ramirez died after being shot by men pursuing her and her boyfriend, according to relatives and witnesses.
“We were on a motorbike and they were following us, shooting,” her boyfriend told Reuters. “I left her on a block where she was going to find her sister and I went to hide the bike. I heard shots and when I arrived she was on the ground. I tried to protect her as much as I could,” he added, sobbing in front of her body.
The public prosecutor’s office said it was investigating both cases.
The opposition attributed both deaths to groups known as “colectivos,” armed government supporters who are frequently accused of involvement in confrontations during protests.
There are few clear ways of identifying colectivos, who call themselves community groups but whom the opposition accuses of being violent paramilitary wings of the ruling Socialist Party.
A National Guard sergeant was killed by a sniper during “violent protests” in Miranda state and a colonel was injured, the human rights ombudsman Tarek Saab tweeted on Wednesday night.
“MADURO OUT!”
Waving the country’s red, yellow and blue flags and shouting “No more dictatorship” and “Maduro out,” demonstrators clogged a stretch of the main highway in Caracas. Troops fired tear gas in Caracas neighborhoods, San Cristobal, the depressed industrial city of Puerto Ordaz, and the arid northern city of Punto Fijo.
“We have to protest because this country is dying of hunger said Alexis Mendoza, a 53-year-old administrator marching in the Caracas neighborhood of El Paraiso. “There are a lot of people in the opposition and they are full of courage.”
The march followed a fortnight of violent protests triggered by a Supreme Court decision in March to assume the powers of the opposition-led Congress - which it quickly reversed under international pressure.
The court’s move nonetheless fueled long-simmering anger over the ruling Socialist Party’s handling of the economy. The OPEC country suffers from Soviet-style shortages of food and medicines and triple-digit inflation.
The opposition is demanding early elections, the freeing of jailed politicians, humanitarian aid, and respect for the autonomy of the opposition-led legislature.
The marchers gathered at more than two dozen points around Caracas, although some were stalled by authorities closing around 20 subway stops. Protesters had hoped to converge on the office of the state ombudsman, but as in previous attempts they were blocked by the National Guard. The protests trailed off with youths throwing rocks squaring off against security forces spraying tear gas.
MADURO SAYS “ANTI-CHRISTS” DEFEATED
Maduro has charged that the opposition is trying to relive the 2002 coup against Chavez, his predecessor and mentor, by blocking roads and vandalizing public property.
On Wednesday afternoon he addressed a cheering red-shirted crowd in Caracas to declare that a “corrupt and interventionist right-wing” had been defeated.
“Today the people stood by Maduro!” the president said, blasting his rivals as “anti-Christs.” “We’ve triumphed again! Here we are, governing, governing, governing with the people!” he added, before breaking into song and dance.
Analysts say there is less likelihood of a coup against Maduro because Chavez launched a broad purge of the armed forces following his brief ouster.
Some unhappy Venezuelans also steer clear of protests, fearful of violence, cynical that marches can bring about change, or too busy looking for food amid the recession.
Venezuela benefited for years from oil-fueled consumption and many poor citizens rose into the middle class. But the 2014 collapse in oil prices left the government unable to maintain a complex system of subsidies and price controls. Snaking grocery lines are now a common sight and people routinely say they skip meals and cannot find basic medication.
Further spurring outrage was a decision by the national comptroller’s office earlier this month to disqualify opposition politician Capriles from holding office for 15 years, dashing his hopes for the presidency.
The elections council, which is sympathetic to the government, has delayed votes for state governors that were supposed to take place last year.
Demonstrators also gathered on Wednesday in the eastern city of Puerto Ordaz, home to Venezuela’s struggling state-run mining companies, and the oil city of Maracaibo.
“I’ve just graduated ... and what I’ve got in the bank isn’t enough for a bottle of cooking oil,” said Gregorio Mendoza, a 23-year-old engineer in Puerto Ordaz. “We’re poorer every day.”
| Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A 6.4 magnitude earthquake hits Papua New Guinea's New Britain island, east of Kandrian at 1120 GMT. | (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit Papua New Guinea’s New Britain island, 186 km (115 miles) east of Kandrian, on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries from the quake which, USGS said struck at 1120 GMT, the Center added. Earlier reports measured the magnitude at 6.4
Writing by Andrew Heavens
| Earthquakes | March 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Four people are killed and four more are wounded after security forces open fire on protesters during election–related violence in West Bengal, India. Another person is killed when unknown gunmen fire at voters at a polling booth. | At least five people have been killed by gunfire in election-related violence in India’s West Bengal state, according to police.
Four people died and four others were wounded near a polling station in Cooch Behar district on Saturday when security forces opened fire to control a crowd, senior police officer Vishal Garg was quoted as saying by The Associated Press news agency. He gave no further details on what had sparked the clashes.
In a separate incident, unidentified gunmen fired at voters at another polling booth in the same district, killing one person. Garg said police were investigating the attack.
Security arrangements were tightened and nearly 80,000 security personnel were deployed across 16,000 polling stations in West Bengal for Saturday’s voting, reports said.
The eastern state, which has Kolkata as its regional capital, has been hit by election-related violence before, including deadly clashes between supporters of rival political parties.
The vote is seen as a contest between the state’s ruling All India Trinamool Congress and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
State Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee confirmed Saturday’s deaths, even as the rival parties blamed each other for inciting the violence and demanded a probe by the Election Commission.
The elections are seen as a crucial test for whether the BJP can gain a foothold in the northeast and south. The Hindu nationalist party controls a dozen of India’s 28 states, with alliance partners in several others, but it has never won power in West Bengal.
Modi and his top leaders have campaigned heavily to wrest power from the Trinamool Congress.
A defeat for Banerjee, a strong Modi critic, would deal a blow to the country’s already weak opposition.
Modi’s overall popularity remains unmatched in India, but his party has faced tougher than expected challenges in recent state polls.
| Riot | April 2021 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
The Eastern Bloc of the FARC-EP, a unit of the FARC rebel group, announces its rejection of the recent ceasefire signed by its leader Timoleón Jiménez and the Colombian government of President Juan Manuel Santos, declaring it will not lay down its arms and demobilize and will continue to fight the government. |
A unit of Colombia’s Farc rebel group has said it will not lay down arms or demobilize under a potential peace deal with the government, the first public sign of opposition to an accord from within the rebel ranks that may set back efforts to end five decades of war.
The statement by the Armando Rios First Front, a 200-strong guerrilla unit in the south-eastern jungle province of Guaviare, comes nearly two weeks after leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) and the government announced a ceasefire deal – the result of more than three years of peace talks.
“We have decided not to demobilize, we will continue the fight for the taking of power by the people for the people, independent of the decision taken by the rest of the members of the organization,” the unit said on Wednesday.
The First Front, which held ex-presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three American contractors hostage, said the deals being reached at talks in Cuba would not solve the social and economic problems which first motivated the Marxist group to take up arms in 1964.
President Juan Manuel Santos has said the peace talks, aimed at ending a conflict which has killed more than 220,000 and displaced millions, may conclude as early as this month. Any deal will be put to Colombians for approval in a plebiscite vote.
The First Front, which is known to have links to the drug trade, said it would respect any Farc rebels who agreed to peace, but called on other units to join forces to continue the fight.
“We invite all guerrillas and militia who are not in agreement with demobilization and the laying down of Farc weapons to join forces and continue united as an organization,” the statement said.
Santos said earlier on Wednesday that any Farc unit that did not adhere to a peace agreement would continue at war and be killed or jailed.
“Anyone with doubts, best leave them aside and join the peace accord, because it’s the last opportunity they will have to change their lives, because otherwise they will end up, I assure you, in a grave or jail,” Santos said.
Farc leaders negotiating in Havana did not immediately respond to the decision by the breakaway unit, but security sources said other units could also reject a peace agreement, and throw the process into doubt. | Sign Agreement | July 2016 | ['(Reuters via The Guardian)'] |
U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly in New York grants a stay of the executive order that allows people with valid visas who landed in the U.S. to temporarily remain in the country. | A federal judge granted an emergency stay Saturday to bar deportation of people with valid visas who landed in the U.S., following chaos and detentions after President Donald Trump’s executive order related to immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries.
The American Civil Liberties Union estimates it will affect between 100 and 200 people detained at or in transit to U.S. airports, though they do not have to be released from detention. It did not, however, appear to cover Trump’s full order, suspending visas from certain nations for 90 days. The ACLU and other activist groups filed a class action lawsuit on Saturday, seeking to challenge the president’s order, as acrimony widened over the policy and the number of detainees waylaid in transit appeared to swell. Demonstrations sprang up at airports around the country in response to the detentions. “This ruling preserves the status quo and ensures that people who have been granted permission to be in this country are not illegally removed off U.S. soil,” Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement. A senior Homeland Security official said Saturday that the agency is monitoring the litigation and has not seen the stay, but will implement any appropriate orders accordingly. The officer said 109 travelers were denied entry into the U.S., while another 173 were stopped from boarding flights in the first 23 hours of the order. Late Friday, the Trump administration announced that it would temporarily bar entry to refugees from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen due to terrorism concerns. The order seeks “extreme vetting” procedures for those it did allow to enter the U.S. In signing the order, Trump said he pledged to “keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America.”
In a habeus corpus petition filed Saturday in a New York federal court on behalf of two Iraqis detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the ACLU called Trump’s move “unlawful.” They were later released. The case’s two lead plaintiffs were held by authorities and threatened with deportation, the ACLU argued, even though both are authorized to enter the U.S. As a number of immigrants in transit were waylaid by the sudden shift in policy, spontaneous demonstrations erupted at JFK Airport on Saturday afternoon.
JFK tweet1
The ACLU’s briefing called the ban a part of a “widespread pattern applied to many refugees and arriving aliens” in the wake of Trump’s executive order. Critics have blasted it as a de facto ban on many Muslims entering the United States, though Trump denied that characterization Saturday. “It’s not a Muslim ban, but we were totally prepared. It’s working out very nicely. You see it at the airports, you see it all over,” Trump said. In a statement, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman pledged to pull out all the stops to assist anyone detained as a result of Trump’s “discriminatory and dangerous executive action.” Schneiderman said he had directed his staff to assist refugees at JFK Airport.
“President Trump’s executive action against war refugees represents a new low in modern American foreign policy and it is incumbent on us to fight back,” Schneiderman added.
Trump’s ban, issued barely a week after he took office, is the fulfillment of a campaign vow that briefly roiled his White House bid when he first floated as a candidate. Yet, put into practice just before a weekend, the moratorium has sown confusion and stoked widespread anger, while leaving a number of immigrant travelers in limbo. The number of detainees at JFK Airport has risen to at least 12, according to a CNN report. Protesters flocked to one of the airport’s terminals in a spontaneous protest.
JFK tweet
Governments around the world, particularly in the Middle East, have reacted angrily to the moratorium on refugees, which has affected travelers at several international airports.
Guardian tweet
Gulf states have provided financial and logistical assistance to migrants seeking refuge from the Syrian conflict — where, according to the Migration Policy Centre, nearly 11 million have fled to other countries since 2011, mostly Turkey and Europe — but have not offered sanctuary to the displaced. Last year, under former President Barack Obama, the U.S. took in about 10,000 Syrian refugees. According to data from the Migration Policy Institute, some 86,000 Syrian immigrants resided in the United States as of 2014, which then accounted for 0.2 percent of America’s 42.4 million immigrants. However, the majority of those Syrians arrive via family reunification rather than as asylum seekers or refugees, the organization said.
— Reuters contributed to this article.
| Government Policy Changes | January 2017 | ['(Reuters)', '(CNBC)', '(AP)'] |
A bus catches fire after falling into a ravine in Gansu province, China, killing 18 people and injuring 34 others. | LANZHOU - Rescuers have recovered six more bodies from the scene of a bus accident in Northwest China's Gansu province, bringing the death toll to 14, local firefighters said Saturday.
A new round of search and rescue efforts found the bodies, all charred, after 7:40 am, according to the rescue headquarters at the scene.
Photo taken on Feb 2, 2013 shows the damaged bus after an accident occured in Ningxian county of Qingyang city, in Northwest China's Gansu province. [Photo/Xinhua]
Thirty-two others were injured when the bus fall into a ravine and caught fire around 10 pm Friday near the county seat of Ningxian, Qingyang city, according to sources with the Gansu provincial government.
The bus, carrying mostly migrant farmers and their family members, veered off the road at a curve, tumbling into the ravine that is more than 10 meters deep and catching fire, sources said.
Six bodies were found shortly after the accident, and two others died in the hospital after rescue efforts failed.
The injured have been sent to local hospitals, but their conditions are not yet know.
The bus had a loading capacity of 47 people, and a total of 54 were onboard when it departed from Langfang city in north China's Hebei province, according to the provincial emergency response office.
The accident happened as China's transportation sector is gearing up for the Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, a time when hundreds of millions of people travel back to their hometowns for family reunions.
On Saturday morning, 13 people died and 21 others were injured when an overloaded coach turned over and crashed along a 100-meter slope in southwestern province of Guizhou.
On Friday afternoon, a coach carrying 29 people flipped over into a 100-meter-deep slope in Southwest China's Sichuan province, killing seven onboard and injuring 22 others.
Also on Friday, an expressway viaduct collapsed in Central China's Henan province when an explosion occurred on a truck carrying fireworks, leaving at least 10 people dead and injuring 11 others.
Setting off fireworks is a traditional way to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb 10 this year, and improper storage and transportation of the explosives are main reasons behind such accidents. | Fire | February 2013 | ['(Xinhua)', '(China Daily)', '(Global Times)'] |
A moderate earthquake strikes Indonesia's North Maluku province. | A moderate 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia's North Maluku province, the meteorology and geophysics agency said, but no tsunami warning was issued.
The quake struck at 14:12 pm (local time), 198 kilometres south-east of Labuha at a depth of 10 kilometres, according to the agency.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific "ring of fire", where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.
- | Earthquakes | September 2010 | ['(ABC Online)'] |
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports the Islamic State, on Sunday, executed three detainees in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra by strapping them to pillars and blowing them up with the antiquities. ISIL has yet to tell locals the identities of the three individuals or say why they had been killed. | Islamic State militants have killed three captives in Syria's ancient city of Palmyra by tying them to columns and blowing them up, activists say.
The identities of those reportedly killed on Sunday have yet to be given.
But they are thought to be the first to have been killed in that way since the jihadist group seized the ruins in May.
IS has destroyed two 2,000-year-old temples, an arch and funerary towers at Palmyra, one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.
The group believes that such structures are idolatrous. The UN cultural agency, Unesco, has condemned the destruction as a war crime.
Palmyra: Satellite images of the destruction
Why IS destroys ancient sites
IS threat to 'Venice of the Sands'
Understanding sadness at loss of sites
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that monitors the conflict in Syria, cited local sources in Palmyra as saying that on Sunday IS militants tied three detainees to Roman-era columns and then blew up the structures with explosives.
An activist from Palmyra, Khaled al-Homsi, said IS had yet to tell locals the identities of the three individuals or say why they had been killed.
"There was no-one there to see [the execution]. The columns were destroyed and IS has prevented anyone from heading to the site," he told the AFP news agency.
Another activist, Mohammed al-Ayed, said IS was "doing this for the media attention".
After overrunning the ruins of Palmyra and the adjoining modern town, also known as Tadmur, IS militants used the ancient theatre for the killing of 25 Syrian soldiers.
They also beheaded archaeologist Khaled al-Asaad, who looked after ruins for 40 years, after he reportedly refused to reveal where artefacts had been hidden.
Earlier this week, IS posted images online purportedly showing militants driving a tank over a captured soldier, who it alleged had himself driven over militants.
| Armed Conflict | October 2015 | ['(BBC)', '(USA Today)'] |
A suicide bombing kills at least 15 people at a wedding in the southern Shiite city of Kerbala. | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic State has claimed a suicide bombing that killed at least 15 people and injured 16 at a wedding party near the holy Shi’ite city of Kerbala late on Sunday.
Five assailants including the suicide bomber attacked the celebration in Ain al-Tamr, west of Kerbala in southern Iraq, firing machine guns and throwing hand grenades, the police said. All the attackers were killed by security forces.
The bombing is the first in the Kerbala region since Iraqi forces dislodged Islamic State militants from their stronghold in Falluja, 80 km (50 miles) north of city.
The ultra-hardline Sunni group has been retreating since last year in the face of government forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition and Iranian-supported Shi’ite militias.
But it remains in control of parts of northern and western Iraq and continues to claim bombings all over the country, targeting mainly Shi’ite districts and cities.
A statement on the Amaq news agency that supports Islamic State said the attack was carried out by four of its suicide fighters against a “gathering of Shi’ites”.
Initial reports in local media late, citing security sources, blamed the killings on a dispute between two tribes at the wedding party.
Islamic State claimed a truck bomb that killed at least 325 people in Baghdad’s Karrada shopping street in July, the deadliest attack since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Dominic Evans and Robin Pomeroy
. | Armed Conflict | August 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales appoints María Consuelo Porras as Attorney General and Chief of the Public Ministry to replace Thelma Aldana. | Guatemala President Jimmy Morales has chosen a new attorney general whose judicial independence has been questioned, a decision that comes as little surprise given the administration’s ramped-up efforts to derail the fight against graft.
In a statement posted on an official Twitter account on May 3, the Guatemalan government announced that Morales had chosen María Consuelo Porras Argueta to replace current Attorney General Thelma Aldana.
“I am convinced that the new attorney general fulfills the professional characteristics and qualifications inherent to the position, in addition to having a plan that will permit the strengthening and broadening of the capacities of the Attorney General's Office,” Morales wrote in the statement.
Aldana, and her predecessor Claudia Paz y Paz, led historic efforts to go after high level officials, former military officers and economic powers involved in graft, criminal schemes, and human rights violations. Ahead of the decision, several top officials in the Attorney General’s Office resigned their positions, although it's not clear if those departures were in response to Porras Argueta’s impending appointment as head of the country’s top prosecutorial body. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | May 2018 | ['(InSight Crime)'] |
Eleven people are killed after their vehicle and a lorry collide head–on in Thessaloniki, Greece. | Eleven people thought to be migrants have died after their vehicle and a lorry collided head-on in northern Greece.
Both the car and the lorry burst into flames but the lorry driver managed to escape without serious injuries.
The car was heading to the city of Thessaloniki and the lorry was travelling to Kavala when the crash occurred early on Saturday. Police said the car had previously been used for migrant smuggling.
Greece had been the frontline of the migrant arrivals, hitting a peak of more than one million from Turkey in 2015.
But the flow of irregular migrants fell dramatically after the EU and Turkey signed an agreement to send back to Turkey migrants who did not apply for asylum or whose claim was rejected.
Police said the car in question had failed to stop when officers tried to pull it over for a check earlier on Saturday.
The nationalities of the victims were not immediately known.
| Road Crash | October 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Cuba releases three dissidents, including leader Marta Beatriz Roque. 17 others are still incarcerated after crackdown in Friday | CUBA NEWS Yahoo! Cuba frees nine dissidents but still holds 17 others in crackdown HAVANA, 23 (AFP) - Cuba released nine detained political dissidents but continued to hold another 17 activists arrested in the largest crackdown on the opposition by President Fidel Castro's communist regime in two years, dissidents said. The nine, including the country's most prominent female dissident, Marta Beatriz Roque, were released Saturday morning a day after being rounded up in Cuba's latest move against the island's political opposition.
Roque, a 60-year-old economist, is president of the Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society, which had organized a protest in front of the French embassy here Friday to demand the release of political prisoners from Cuban jails.
Many of those detained Friday were leading figures in the group.
Pallid and visibly fatigued, Roque remained defiant and called for more protests against the government.
"The way is the street and we are going to use the streets across the country," Roque told foreign reporters in her Havana home.
Opposition groups "are waiting for a new order to launch onto the streets to demand the liberty of our imprisoned brothers," she said.
Another 17 people detained Friday remained in government hands, including such prominent dissidents as Rene Gomez Manzano and Felix Bonne Carcaces, said APCS spokesman Angel Polanco.
The group organized the protest at the French embassy, they said, because the dissidents had been excluded from joining the embassy's July 14 Bastille Day celebrations.
Meanwhile Cuban government officials were invited to the events, symbolizing the recent normalization of relations between the two governments.
On Saturday Francoise Hostalier, a French human rights advocate, encouraged Paris to press Cuba to free the remaining jailed dissidents.
"France is directly involved in these detentions," she said.
Vladimiro Roca, member of the opposition group Todos Unidos, said the government was nervous about increasing disquiet among the Cuban people over the weak economy, power outages and food shortages in advance of the country's July 26 national day festival.
"The social tension is climbing. The government is tense, even moreso because the main ceremony on July 26 - the day of the National Revolution - will be in Havana," said Roca.
The roundup of dissidents was the second this month. About 30 people were arrested in Havana on July 13 during a demonstration commemorating the drowning death in 1994 of 41 people who were trying to flee Cuba by boat. Six of the 30 are still behind bars, dissident sources said.
The roundups were the largest sweep since 2003, when the government jailed 75 members of the opposition.
Roque, founder of the APCS and the only woman among the 75, was sentenced at the time to 20 years in prison.
She was released for health reasons one year ago, suffering from diabetes, hypertension and partial paralysis of the face. She had already spent three years in jail between 1997 and 2000. Elizardo Sanchez, president of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, called the arrests Friday "absolutely arbitrary" and a "flagrant violation of human rights." In Washington, the United States also condemned the crackdown. "Their only crime was attempting to exercise their basic human rights and freedoms," said Adam Ereli, the State Department's deputy spokesman. "We call on the Cuban government to end this deplorable repression and immediately free all of those arrested. We urge other countries to join us in condemning these acts," Ereli added.
3 Cuban Dissidents Released After Roundup By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer. July 23, 2005. HAVANA - Cuba's top woman opposition leader and at least two other dissidents were released Saturday, one day after they and more than a dozen other opponents were detained in an apparent effort to quell an anti-government protest. Martha Beatriz Roque, known internationally for her organization of an unprecedented mass meeting of dissidents here in May, was released before dawn Saturday.
A government opponent for more than a decade, Roque spearheaded the highly publicized meeting of the Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society that drew about 200 dissidents on May 20.
At the time, dissidents and observers expressed surprise that Fidel Castro's government even allowed the meeting to be held. Several European lawmakers, dissidents and other observers who had hoped to attend were expelled.
"All members of the assembly agree on going into the streets," Roque said after her release. She added that she would continue her opposition activities.
Two other women detained in Friday's roundup were also released Saturday, said Elizardo Sanchez, a longtime rights activist.
Cuba's communist government has not commented on Friday's detention of as many as 20 dissidents who had planned to attend a protest that day outside the French Embassy.
The roundup was criticized Saturday by the U.S. State Department, which said the dissidents' only crime "was attempting to exercise their basic human rights and freedoms."
"We call on the Cuban government to end this deplorable repression and immediately free all of those arrested," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said in a statement.
By midday Saturday, those who still remained in custody included Rene Gomez Manzano and Felix Bonne, two other veteran dissidents who helped Roque organize the May assembly meeting in Bonne's back yard.
Sanchez, of the non-governmental Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, said up to 20 dissidents were detained Friday after chanting government supporters helped break up a protest they had planned outside the diplomatic mission.
Roque and others had been expected at the Friday morning protest outside the embassy, but she never showed and her whereabouts were unknown until Sanchez confirmed she and the others were detained.
Just a dozen dissidents showed for the morning protest to demand the release of political prisoners, far fewer than expected.
"Our objective is to demand that the European nations take an interest in the political prisoners of our country," opposition member Adolfo Lazaro Bosk said at the protest.
Sanchez also said government supporters from the dissidents' neighborhoods organized counterprotests around the homes of some, making it impossible for them to leave Friday. In other cases, dissidents planning to attend the protest at the diplomatic mission were visited and warned by state security agents not to go, Sanchez said.
In March 2003, the government arrested 75 independent journalists, opposition politicians, rights activists and others, accusing them of receiving U.S. aid to overthrow Castro's government and sentencing them to long prison terms.
Among those arrested in that earlier crackdown was Roque, who was released a year ago on medical parole.
U.S. authorities have repeatedly rejected charges by the Cuban government that it pays dissidents to help undermine Castro's rule.
New Cuban crackdown nets more than a dozen dissidents
HAVANA, 23 (AFP) - Cuba's most prominent female dissident, Marta Beatriz Roque, and more than a dozen other activists have been arrested in a new crackdown on the opposition by President Fidel Castro's regime, dissidents said. Roque, a 60-year-old economist, is president of the Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society, which had organized a protest in front of the French embassy here Friday to demand the release of political prisoners from Cuban jails.
Many of those detained Friday were leading figures in the group.
"She was detained by state security agents shortly after leaving her home. About 20 dissidents have been arrested," said Elizardo Sanchez, president of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
He called the arrests "absolutely arbitrary" and a "flagrant violation of human rights."
Roque herself was released hours later, and was at home resting early Saturday, the rights group's spokesman, Angel Polanco, said. Five others also had been released by early Saturday, but 14 of those detained Friday were still behind bars, including such prominent dissidents as Rene Gomez Manzano and Felix Bonne, the spokesman added.
Roque was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2003 but was released for health reasons exactly one year ago, on July 22, 2004, suffering from diabetes, hypertension and partial paralysis of the face. She had already spent three years in jail between 1997 and 2000.
Roque was the only woman arrested in 2003 in a crackdown that landed 75 dissidents in Cuban prisons. She founded the assembly, which groups some 360 Cuban opposition organizations, shortly before.
The group held its first national assembly in May, bringing 160 delegates from all over Cuba for a two-day meeting near Havana that unfolded without interference from Fidel Castro's regime.
James Cason, the top official at the US Interests Section in Havana, has twice participated in assembly activities, in a sign of the close link between Roque and Washington.
"We have indications that there were other arrests, but we are in the process of trying to verify the information. In most cases, authorities prevented dissidents from leaving their homes," Marco Lopez of the rights committee said earlier.
On Thursday, Roque said by telephone that the decision to demonstrate in front of the French embassy was to show dissidents' displeasure with the normalization of relations between Paris and Havana, which took place a week ago today.
"We will demand the liberation of the (Cuban political) prisoners, and we will show the European Union what happens with dialogue (with the Cuban government)," Roque had warned.
The EU sanctioned Cuba after Castro's regime cracked down on dissidents in 2003, but in January, the EU temporarily suspended the sanctions, and in June, it ratified re-establishment of political dialogue with Havana.
It also ordered a suspension of its practice of inviting Cuban dissidents to national celebrations, saying that, instead, a parallel dialogue should be established with the opposition.
France went one step further last week by inviting Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque to the French embassy's July 14 Bastille Day celebration.
About 30 people were arrested in Havana on July 13 during a demonstration commemorating the drowning death in 1994 of 41 people who were trying to flee Cuba by boat. Six of the 30 are still behind bars, dissident sources said.
US slams communist Cuba for latest crackdown on dissidents 2 hours, 44 minutes ago
WASHINGTON, 23 (AFP) - The United States condemned communist Cuba's authorities for their latest crackdown against dissidents. "Yesterday, July 22, the Cuban government arrested Rene Gomez Manzano and detained at least a dozen members of the Asamblea para Promover la Sociedad Civil (Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society), including Marta Beatriz Roque, the group's president. Their only crime was attempting to exercise their basic human rights and freedoms," said Adam Ereli, the State Department's deputy spokesman.
Roque, a 60-year-old economist, is president of the assembly, which had organized a protest in front of the French embassy in Havana Friday to demand the release of political prisoners from Cuban jails.
Ereli said "there are also credible reports that the homes of dozens of activists were surrounded by government-sponsored mobs, which used threats and intimidation to prevent members of the Asamblea from joining their colleagues in a peaceful demonstration. Cuban state security officials warned these activists to stay inside and not to leave their homes.
"We call on the Cuban government to end this deplorable repression and immediately free all of those arrested. We urge other countries to join us in condemning these acts," Ereli added.
Castro: I'm Honored to Be Elian's Friend
AP, Friday July 22, 2005.
Cuban President Fidel Castro said in a speech published Friday that he's honored to be a friend of Elian Gonzalez, the boy at the center of an international custody dispute five years ago. "I have the privilege to be his friend," Castro said Thursday night during Elian's sixth-grade graduation in the coastal city of Cardenas, east of Havana. The speech was broadcast on state television and published Friday in the Communist Party daily Granma. Elian, now 11, was the subject of a high-profile legal and ideological battle between his father in Cuba and family members in South Florida, both who claimed custody. Elian was taken to his relatives in Miami in November 1999 after he was found clinging to an inner tube in the waters off Florida. He was among three people who survived when their boat bound from Cuba to the United States sank. Elian's mother was among those who perished. After a seven-month battle, Elian returned with his father to Cuba in June 2000. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | July 2005 | ['(Cubanet)', '(Reuters)'] |
A 27–year–old American Christian missionary is killed upon landing on North Sentinel Island in an effort to convert the indigenous Sentinelese people. He is the first person killed by the isolated islanders since two Indian nationals in 2006. | An American man has been killed by an endangered tribe in India's Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Fishermen who took the man to North Sentinel island say tribespeople shot him with arrows and left his body on the beach.
He has been identified as John Allen Chau, a 27 year old from Alabama. Contact with the endangered Andaman tribes living in isolation from the world is illegal because of the risks to them from outside disease.
Estimates say the Sentinelese, who are totally cut off from civilisation, number only between 50 and 150.
Seven fishermen have been arrested for illegally ferrying the American to the island, police say.
Local media have reported that Chau may have wanted to meet the tribe to preach Christianity to them.
But on social media the young man presented himself as a keen traveller and adventurer. "Police said Chau had previously visited North Sentinel island about four or five times with the help of local fishermen," journalist Subir Bhaumik, who has been covering the islands for years, told BBC Hindi.
"The number of people belonging to the Sentinelese tribe is so low, they don't even understand how to use money. It's in fact illegal to have any sort of contact with them."
In 2017, the Indian government also said taking photographs or making videos of the aboriginal Andaman tribes would be punishable with imprisonment of up to three years.
The AFP news agency quoted a source as saying that Chau had tried and failed to reach the island on 14 November. But then he tried again two days later.
"He was attacked by arrows but he continued walking.
"The fishermen saw the tribals tying a rope around his neck and dragging his body. They were scared and fled," the report added.
Chau's body was spotted on 20 November. According to the Hindustan Times, his remains have yet to be recovered.
"It's a difficult case for the police," says Mr Bhaumik. "You can't even arrest the Sentinelese." Two Indian fisherman fishing illegally off North Sentinel Island were also killed by the tribe in 2006. | Famous Person - Death | November 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Hurricane Willa hits the coast of Western Mexico. It is also expected to become a nor'easter after it passes through the United States. | Hurricane Willa will move into Mexico Tuesday evening, and once it’s over land it will quickly lose its tropical characteristics. However, this is not the end of the storm. Weather knows no country boundaries, and this particular storm will move into the United States on Wednesday and then along the Gulf Coast before making the turn toward the Northeast late this week.
An active jetstream will capture what’s left of Willa and reform it into a fall nor’easter. Meteorologically, it’s quite interesting that the storm will take this track and will end up affecting Canada as well.
Since we haven’t had a nor’easter in several months, it’s worth reminding folks that the term doesn’t necessarily mean snow. It just means that a storm will move up the coastline and provide northeasterly winds. The strength of a nor’easter varies, and the precipitation type also can be quite different depending on the time of year and the location. Tides are, astronomically, somewhat high this weekend, so minor coastal flooding is possible.
If you’re making weekend plans, it appears that precipitation will move into Southern New England sometime during the day Saturday, and it may remain unsettled into Sunday and Monday. With several days until the storm really gets its act together, there will be changes to the forecast in terms of timing as well as the potential amount of rainfall. We could get by Saturday morning without rainfall, but it’s also possible the rain moves in earlier and all of Saturday is wet.
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Because there will be cold high pressure north of New England as the precipitation begins, there may actually be some wet snow in the higher elevations. Whether places like the Worcester Hills or the Berkshires see some wet snow is yet to be determined, but it’s not out of the question that this could end up as our first snow event for some.
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If the storm strengthens enough, we could also see quite a bit of leaf drop, marking the end of a very mediocre leaf-peeping season around here. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | October 2018 | ['(Boston Globe)'] |
Japan wins the 2012 Women's Baseball World Cup for their 3rd straight title. | The defending Women’s World Cup of Baseball champions defeated the U.S. 3-0 in last night’s gold medal final to sew up their third straight title.
“It was a very good game,” Japanese manager Hiroshi Shintani said through an interpreter. “I’m very happy with the win. Both teams played very well.”
Japan picked up four of its five hits in the third inning, chasing U.S. starter Jennifer Hunter in the process.
The U.S. loaded the bases in the second, but Caitlin Everett then struck out, squandering her team’s best opportunity to score.
Japan starter Yukari Isozaki went the distance, giving up seven hits with two walks and four strikeouts.
Isozaki had plenty of help behind her, particularly from third baseman Ayako Rokkuku who had six assists — half of them of the spectacular variety.
“She is a great player,” said Shintani. “She was very impressive and I’m lucky to have her on our team.”
Rokkuku was named the tournament’s most outstanding defensive player. Isozaki, who also pitched a complete game in Japan’s semifinal win over Australia Saturday, was named the tournament MVP.
Tamara Holmes of the U.S. finished as the tournament’s leading hitter, batting .679.
On Sunday, Holmes went one-for-three at the plate.
“We just couldn’t put two hits together to score a run,” said U.S. manager Ruben Felix.
“We had a strike three call with the bases loaded. With a girl throwing a lot of strikes, we just have to put the ball in play and see what happens.
“They’re the best defensive team here and they showed it tonight, especially the third baseman.
“She kept them in the game and their pitcher shut us out, so we have to take our hats off to them.”
. | Sports Competition | August 2012 | ['(Toronto Sun)'] |
The 24-year-old Tunisian who is suspected of driving the truck that smashed through a Berlin market is killed in a shootout in Milan. | MILAN (Reuters) - Italian police shot dead the man believed responsible for this week’s Berlin Christmas market truck attack, killing him after he pulled a gun on them during a routine check in the early hours of Friday.
The suspect - 24-year-old Tunisian Anis Amri - traveled to Italy from Germany via France, taking advantage of Europe’s open-border Schengen pact to cross the continent undetected.
As anger grew over the fact that Amri had escaped expulsion twice in 18 months thanks to bureaucratic loopholes, euroskeptic parties called for the reintroduction of border controls, while Germany said deportations had to be made easier.
Amri is suspected of ploughing a truck through a festive Berlin market on Monday, killing 12 people. In a video released on Friday after his death, he is seen pledging his allegiance to militant group Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“I call on my Muslim brothers everywhere... Those in Europe, kill the crusader pigs, each person to their own ability,” he says in the video posted on Islamic State’s Amaq news agency.
Amri had arrived in Milan’s main railway station from France at 1.00 a.m. (2000 EDT) and then traveled to the working class suburb of Sesto San Giovanni, where two young policemen approached him because he looked suspicious idling on a street.
Milan police chief Antonio De Iesu told a news conference his men had no idea that they might be dealing with Amri.
“They had no perception that it could be him, otherwise they would have been much more cautious,” De Iesu said. “We had no intelligence that he could be in Milan.”
He failed to produce any identification so the police requested he empty his pockets and his small backpack. He pulled a loaded gun from his bag and shot at one of the men, lightly wounding him in the shoulder.
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Amri then hid behind a nearby car but the other police officer managed to shoot him once or twice, killing him on the spot, De Iesu said. Amri was identified by his fingerprints.
De Iesu said that besides the gun, the suspect had been carrying a small pocket knife. He also had a few hundred euros on him but no cell phone and very few other belongings.
Amri once spent four years in jail in Italy and police were trying to work out if he knew someone in Sesto, which is home to a sizeable Muslim community. “He could have carried out other attacks. He was a loose cannon,” De Iesu said.
Islamic State had previously claimed responsibility for the Berlin killings and on Friday it acknowledged the death of the man it referred to as “the executor of the Berlin attacks.”
Leading euroskeptics were quick to blame the Schengen open borders pact for allowing the suspect to travel so easily.
“This escapade in at least two or three countries is symptomatic of the total security catastrophe that is the Schengen agreement,” said Marine Le Pen, who leads France’s far-right National Front party and is running for president.
Beppe Grillo, the founder of the 5-Star Movement, Italy’s main opposition party, said Schengen was allowing militants to cross Europe with impunity and had to be re-thought. He also said all illegal migrants had to be expelled from the country.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, under increasing pressure inside Germany to take a much tougher line on immigration after opening the country’s borders to waves of refugees in 2015, said the Berlin attack raised many questions and promised measures would be taken to improve security.
Amri originally come to Europe in 2011, reaching the Italian island of Lampedusa by boat. He told authorities he was a minor, though documents now indicate he was not, and he was transferred to Catania, Sicily, where he was enrolled in school.
Just months later he was arrested by police after he attempted to set fire to the school, a senior police source said. He was later convicted of vandalism, threats, and theft.
He spent almost four years in Italian prisons before being ordered out of the country after Tunisia refused to accept him back in 2015 because he had no identification papers linking him to the north African country.
He moved to Germany and applied for asylum there, but this was rejected after he was identified by security agencies as a potential threat. Once again he could not be deported because of a lack of I.D.
Merkel said on Friday she had told Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi during a phone conversation that her government wanted to speed up deportation of failed asylum seekers.
The attack, which echoed one in Nice in July that killed more than 80 people, has put Europe on high alert over the Christmas period.
Early on Friday, German special forces arrested two men suspected of planning an attack on a shopping mall in the western city of Oberhausen.
The men - two brothers from Kosovo, aged 28 and 31 - were arrested in the city of Duisburg on information from security sources, police said. A police spokesman said there was no link with the Amri case.
Additional reporting by Michael Nienaber, Victoria Bryan and Joseph Nasr in Berlin, Anneli Palmen in Duesseldorf, Emilio Parodi, Elvira Pollina and Ilaria Polleschi in Milan, Antonella Cinelli and Gavin Jones in Rome, Mohamed El Sherif in Cairo; Writing by Crispian Balmer; editing by John Stonestreet
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. | Famous Person - Death | December 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
At least 28 people are killed in Indiancontrolled Kashmir when a bus carrying Indian soldiers and family hits a landmine. Hizbul Mujahideen claim responsibility. | Indian soldiers walk past the wreckage of a bus after a landmine blast. (Reuters) By South Asia correspondent Geoff Thompson
At least 28 people have been killed in a landmine attack on a bus in Indian administered Kashmir. The attack comes at a sensitive time as India's new government finds its feet in its relationship with nuclear neighbour Pakistan. Cross border incursions by militants from Pakistan have dropped considerably since the announcement of a ceasefire and the beginnings of peace dialogue between India and Pakistan. But that does not mean that violence between militants and India security forces has diminished. This latest attack is a grim reminder of that. A bus carrying Indian soldiers and their relatives was ripped apart when it ran over a landmine about 75 kilometres away from the city of Srinigar. At least 28 people were killed and 15 others injured. Kashmir's leading militant group Hizbul Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it was payback for the killing of senior militant commanders in recent months.
| Armed Conflict | May 2004 | ['(ABC AU)'] |
Israeli airstrikes leave 22 Palestinians dead and dozens injured. | Netanyahu had announced mission accomplished ■ Fire continues after cease-fire with Islamic Jihad announced ■ 32 Palestinians die in Israeli strikes ■ Some 450 rockets launched at Israel since Tuesday
The Israeli military struck Islamic Jihad positions in the Gaza Strip, it announced late Thursday night. The strike follows a surge in fighting after a cease-fire was achieved between Israel and Palestinian factions in the Strip.
Israeli aircraft targeted an Islamic Jihad military compound used to construct missile components and a Khan Yunis Brigade command center whose offices were used by Islamic Jihad's commanders, an Israel Defense Forces statement said. It added that the IDF views the violation of the cease-fire as "very severe."
Hours after the cease-fire was declared, five rockets were launched from the coastal enclave, with two of them intercepted, the army said. The cease-fire came into effect 48 hours after the targeted assassination of top Islamic Jihad leader Baha Abu al-Ata, who was killed with his wife Asma.
Islamic Jihad announced the cease-fire around 6 A.M. The Home Front Command announced a return to normalcy throughout the country, however restrictions are still imposed on communities near the Gaza border.
The calm came after two days of hostilities that killed 32 more Palestinians in Israeli strikes in the Strip and wounded at least 111.The IDF Spokesperson Unit said the all the objectives of the operations, dubbed "Black Belt," were achieved.
Among the fatalities were eight family members, in what the Israeli military said was a strike targeting an Islamic Jihad commander, while neighbor's of the family said the military had misidentified the target and mistakenly killed the family of a different man.
Islamic Jihad launched some 450 rockets at southern and central Israel, but the army said its Iron Dome defense system intercepted 90 percent of them. Rockets were fired as far north as Tel Aviv, shutting schools and businesses and forcing one million Israeli children to stay at home, as well as causing some damages and minor injuries.
Read Wednesday's recap here■Netanyahu and Hamas chief in Gaza have emerged as unlikely allies■Netanyahu exploits Gaza flare-up to blast Joint List and isolate Israeli Arabs■Israel approved Abu al-Ata's assassination two years ago, but postponed it several times
LIVE UPDATES
12:46 P.M. Sdot Negev Regional Council announces return to normal routine after hours of calm
10:00 A.M. Weekly Gaza border protest cancelled
The organizing council for the weekly March of Return protests at the Gaza border said that they will be deferring this week's protest in light of the past week's security situation.
8:33 A.M Israeli army admits to killing eight Gaza family members: We thought the house was empty
The Israeli military admitted it made a mistake in targeting a Gaza building Wednesday night which housed a family of eight, all of whom died in the strike.
The army said it assessed that the building in the Deir al-Balah neighborhood was empty, not realizing itwas populated by a family...Read the full story
7:11 A.M. Palestinians say several lightly wounded in Israeli strike on Islamic Jihad positions overnight
Several people were lightly wounded and damage was caused to property in an Israeli strike onIslamic Jihad compounds in Khan Yunis and Rafah in Southern Gaza overnight Thursday, Palestinians report.
12:53 A.M. Military says it struck Islamic Jihad positions in the Gaza Strip
10:14 P.M. Military says two rockets fired from Gaza intercepted in southern Israel
10:02 P.M. Rocket sirens sound in Israeli communities near Gaza border and Sderot
8:46 P.M. Palestinians claim Israel misidentified Gaza jihadist, killing a family of eight
Neighbors and acquaintances said an Israeli strike that killed eight members of a Palestinian family in Gaza was a case of mistaken identity.
The military said it had targeted Rasmi Abu Malhous, commander of the Islamic Jihad’s rocket squadron in the central Gaza Strip, but acquaintances of the family say the strike had mistakenly killed the family of a man with the same name.
7:16 P.M. School canceled on Friday in Israeli communities near Gaza
Authorities in Israeli communities near the Gaza border say schools in the area will be closed on Friday in light of rocket fire on Thursday.
5:34 P.M. Military says rocket intercepted
A rocket fired from Gaza has been intercepted by the Iron Dome system, the military says. The rocket fire comes two hours after safety restrictions were lifted in Israeli communities near the Gaza border.
5:24 P.M. Rocket sirens sound in Israeli communities near Gaza border
Rocket sirens are sounding in Israeli communities near the Gaza border, just two hours after authorities lifted safety restrictions in the area.
3:30 P.M.Netanyahu: Operation's objectives fully achieved
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says operation has neared its end and that its objectives have been fully achieved. "Our enemies got the message we can reach anyone," Netanyahu says.
3:22 P.M. Restrictions lifted in communities near Gaza border
The military spokesman says safety restrictions have been lifted in communities near the Gaza border.
3:20 P.M. Safety restrictions lifted at Erez and Kerem Shalom border crossings
Authorities say that following a security consultation, safety restrictions have been lifted at the Erez and Kerem Shalom border crossings between Israel and Gaza. The permitted zone for fishing off the Gaza coast has been returned to 15 miles.
1:55 P.M. As calm maintains, Israel Police open all roads to traffic in south
1:15 P.M. Gaza rocket shrapnel found in kindergarten yard in Netivot, no casualties reported
Shrapnel of a rocket launched from Gaza was found in a kindergarten yard in the southern Israeli town of Netivot. The kindergarten remained closed on Thursday.
1:13 P.M. Both teams signal Argentina-Uruguay friendly match likely to take place as scheduled in Tel Aviv 12:46 P.M. Israeli foreign minister says Hamas' non-involvement 'is an achievement for Israel'
Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz said Hamas' non-involvement in thelatest Gaza flare-up is an achievement for Israel. "The momentHamasdid not join in there is definitely a matter of success here…." Read the full story 12:27 P.M. Gaza rocket falls in southern Israel, no casualties reported
A rocket launched from Gaza fell in an open area outside the Israeli southern town of Netivot. No casualties were reported and a police sapper was called to the scene.
12:25 P.M. Gaza's Labor Ministry says damage estimated at $0.5 million
Gaza's Labor Ministry said that the damage caused to the Strip's infrastructure in Israeli strikes is estimated at $0.5 million. 10:56 A.M. Hours after calm reached, five Gaza rockets launched at Israel
Five rockets were launched from Gaza towards Israeli communities, with the Iron dome Defense system intercepting two of them, the army said.
Earlier, rocket alert siren sounded in the southern Israeli town of Netivot, Eshkol Regional Council and Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council, several hours after a cease-fire was reached between Israel and Islamic Jihad.
9:32 A.M. Some 450 Gaza rockets launched at Israel since Tuesday, army says
Some 450 rocket were launched from Gaza towards Israel since the killing of Islamic Jihad leader Tuesday early morning, the army said.
Some 60 percent of the projectiles fell in open areas, and 90 percent of the rockets fired at built-up areas were successfully intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system, the army added.
9:40 A.M. Israeli defense minister says 'it's not over yet'
Newly-appointed Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said that "some 20 terrorists were killed in the past 48 hours, but it's not over yet. Only actions on the ground will determine [the future].
Bennett stressed that "the new rules of the game are clear: The army will have complete freedom of action, with no restrictions. A terrorist who tries to hurt Israel's civilians, won't be able to sleep in peace."
9:11 A.M. Israeli army names Gaza operation 'Black Belt'
7:38 A.M. Israeli objectives achieved, official says
An Israeli official said that Jerusalem has "achieved the objectives of the operation in Gaza, including significantly harming Islamic Jihad, destroying infrastructure, and liquidating over than 20 terrorists."
Israel won't shift its policy of hurting those who hurt us, said the official.
7:46 A.M. Gaza's Health Ministry says death toll rises to 8 in Israeli attack on Deir al-Balah attack, including five youths
7:34 A.M. UNMideastenvoy says both sided must show maximum restraint
UNMideastenvoy NickolayMladenov said that the "United Nations and Egypt worked hard to prevent the most dangerous escalation in an around Gaza from leading to war. The coming hours and days will be critical. All must show maximum restraint and do their part to prevent bloodshed. The Middle East does not need more wars."
7:30 A.M. Israeli Education Ministry director general says schools will remain closed in Israeli communities near the Gaza border, resume in rest of the country
7:25 A.M. Home Front Command removes restrictions for Israeli communities north of Ashkelon
The Home Front Command removed all restrictions for communities north of the southern town of Ashkelon. Southern council heads will hold new situation assessments before deciding on new instructions.
7:02 A.M. Barrage of rocket fired at Gaza border areas
Despite cease-fire announcement, rocket alarm sirens blare in Israeli areas near the northern Gaza strip.
6:26 A.M. Israelis, Palestinians wake up to mixed signals
Israeli local councils in the Gaza border area have decided to follow the Home Front Command's original orders.
6:11 A.M. Rocket alert sirens sound in the Gaza border area
Minutes after the cease-fire reportedly came into effect, rocket alert sirens rang out in Israeli communities near the Gaza border.
6:02 A.M. Islamic Jihad says Israel 'agreed to its conditions'
A spokesman for the movement confirmed that the cease-fire had come into effect, "after the occupation surrendered to the conditions of the resistance," according to Kan public broadcaster.
5:36 A.M. Israel, Islamic Jihad reach cease-fire agreement, report says
Israel and Islamic Jihad have reportedly agreed to cease hostilities in and around Gaza, according to Israeli public broadcaster Kan and Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera.
The calm, which was brokered by Egypt, would see the Gaza militant group immediately ceasing all violence, while Israel agrees to stop targeted assassinations and live fire against protesters on the Gaza border fence.
2:35 A.M. Another barrage of rockets hits Israeli town and villages northeast of Gaza
Alert sirens sounded in and around Sderot .
2:14 A.M. Death toll rises to 6, 12 wounded in Deir al-Balah attack
Gaza's Health Ministry said that six Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on Deir al-Balah and 12 were wounded.
All fatalities were civilians, According to medical sources on the ground.
1:35 A.M. Several dead in Israeli strike in central Gaza, Palestinian media reports
At least four Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah in Central Gaza, according to unconfirmed reports in Palestinian news outlets quoting the Red Crescent. Some reports mentioned that there were two women among the dead, and perhaps a small child.
At least 10 more were wounded, with responders still attempting to rescue survivors from the rubble.
1:21 A.M. Israel rescue services report eight injured from last volley of rockets on Ashdod
Eight Israeli civilians received medical attention, Magen David Adom said, including four people who were injured while seeking shelter, among them a young child, and four who were treated for anxiety.
12:40 A.M. Another barrage of rockets hits southern Israel
Rocket alert sirens sounded in and around the port city of Ashdod.
This follows sporadic rocket fire on Ashkelon and on other Israeli communities near the Gaza border.
11:49 P.M. Israeli airstrikes targeting Islamic Jihad posts
Airstrikes carried out by the Israeli forces hit Islamic Jihad positions in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
A compound used by the group's naval force as a training compound as well as a weapons storage facility were reportedly hit by the Israeli Navy.
11:38 P.M.'Islamic Jihad’s attempts to create a false impression of achievements' Israeli official says
An Israeli political source said “the Islamic Jihad wants a cease-fire, and therefore trying to create a false impression of its achievements. The [Islamic] Jihad’s demands prove that the Israeli action has succeeded.”
The source added that “the actions on the ground will determine” if calm is restored.
11:20 P.M. Israeli army resumes strikes on Gaza targets
The Israeli army resumed its attacks on Gaza, presumably in response to the latest rocket launched from the coastal enclave.
11:13 P.M. Rocket salvo hits as far north as Rehovot, 25 km from Tel Aviv
A barrage of rockets launched from Gaza has rained down on southern Israel, reaching as far as Rehovot, a city located less than 25 kilometers south of Tel Aviv.
No casualties were reported, according to Israel rescue services.
9:10 P.M.Islamic Jihad leader spells out cease-fire conditions,Beirut-based TV channel reports
Islamic Jihad leader Ziyad Nahala presented his group's conditions for a cease-fire in Gaza in an interview with the Beirut-based Al Mayadeen television.
Nahala demanded that Israel ends its targeted killings and halts live fire against Gaza border protesters, in addition to easing the blockade imposed on the coastal enclave.
The Islamic Jihad leader also noted that Egypt had engaged in mediation efforts immediately after al-Ata's killing.
"There is a draft agreement for the cease-fire and we expect an answer [from the Israelis] tonight," he said, adding that "Egypt is taking positive steps to promote calm." | Armed Conflict | November 2019 | ['(20 militants and 2 civilians)', '(Haaretz)'] |
The Taliban kill 22 policemen and kidnap 19 others, including the district’s security chief, during clashes with Afghan troops who kill 12 of the insurgents in the battle in Faryab Province in northern Afghanistan. | KABUL, Afghanistan Days after overrunning a major district in the northwestern Afghan province of Faryab, the Taliban killed at least 22 police officers and captured the district’s security chief along with many of his men after they ran out of ammunition, officials said on Tuesday.
The officials said that an Afghan Army base of several hundred soldiers and a road-construction camp housing Afghan police officers remained surrounded in the district, Ghormach, which has long been contested by the Taliban.
At least one-fifth of the country is controlled or contested by the Taliban.
| Armed Conflict | October 2015 | ['(New York Times)', '(Latin American Herald Tribune)'] |
Storm Angus brings strong winds and heavy rain to southern England and the Channel Islands. | The first named storm of winter - Storm Angus - is battering the south coast of England, with winds of up to 80mph forecast to sweep through some areas.
Storm Angus batters southern England. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | November 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Tens of thousands of people in northern Puerto Rico are ordered to evacuate after floodwaters from Hurricane Maria damage the Guajataca Dam. | SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO — Tens of thousands of residents in northwestern Puerto Rico were ordered to evacuate Friday amid fears that a dam holding back a large inland lake was in imminent danger of failing because of damage from Hurricane Maria’s floodwaters.
Officials worried that as many as 70,000 people could be in the path of a massive amount of rushing water in the event the Guajataca Dam releases into the Guajataca River, which flows north through low-lying coastal communities and empties into the ocean.
The dam suffered a “fissure,” Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said in a news conference Friday afternoon. Residents in the municipalities of Quebradillas, Isabela and part of San Sebastian could be affected if the dam collapses, he said, and it could be a catastrophic event.
“To those citizens … who are listening: Please evacuate,” Rosselló said. Buses were sent to ferry residents out of harm’s way. “We want your life to be protected … Please, if you’re listening, the time to evacuate is now.”
Abner Gomez, executive director of Puerto Rico’s emergency management agency, said in an interview late Friday night that the dam’s gates suffered mechanical damage during the storm, making it impossible for them to open and let out normal water currents. Officials worry that could cause the dam to spill over.
Gomez said that under current conditions, with water rising after the hurricane, “there is no way to fix it” right now. Additional water flowing into the lake could create sudden dangers, so emergency evacuation was the only option, he said. If the dam tops over or fails structurally, he said, “thousands of people could die.”
The urgent situation Friday came more than 48 hours after Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico’s southeastern coast as the most powerful storm to strike the island in more than 80 years. It was a reminder that Maria’s impact on Puerto Rico is far from over; officials still have little sense of the scope of the damage the island sustained as a communications and power blackout continued to affect nearly everyone in the U.S. territory.
Gomez characterized Maria as “one of the greatest natural disasters” in recent U.S. history, comparing it to Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. The destruction in some parts of the island “looked more like a tornado than a hurricane,” he said. Rescue and recovery could take months, he said, and a “return to normalcy” could take at least a year.
Authorities on Friday reported six deaths across the island. Three of the fatalities occurred in the municipality of Utuado as a result of mud slides, Puerto Rico’s public safety department said in a statement. Two others died in flooding in Toa Baja, and one other person died in Bayamón when a panel struck him in the head. More deaths are likely to be reported in coming days as search and rescue crews reach previously inaccessible areas, officials said.
“We are aware of other reports of fatalities that have transpired by unofficial means but we cannot confirm them,” said Héctor M. Pesquera, secretary of the public safety department.
Though damage assessments have been nearly impossible, early reports reveal an island ravaged by Maria’s high winds and torrential rains, with roofs peeled open like tin cans, neighborhoods waterlogged, and trees that were lush just days ago now completely stripped bare of leaves. The hurricane plowed through the entire 100-mile island, with the eye tracking diagonally from the southeast to the northwest.
“Every vulnerable house here made out of wood was completely or partially destroyed during the path of the eye of the hurricane,” Rossello said of an island where many homes are constructed of wood foundations and zinc roofs. “Puerto Rico has endured an horrific ordeal.”
The lack of communications has isolated rural areas of the island. Just 15 percent of the island’s communication towers are working, and some of the island’s transmission towers have collapsed. Up to 85 percent of its fiber cables are damaged.
Power remains completely out on the island, and just 25 percent of it has water service.
Shock has given way to frayed nerves as officials warned that it could be months before power is restored to some areas, and there is no indication of when communications infrastructure will be fixed. In the capital, streets were choked with traffic as people tried to find loved ones and spent hours waiting in line for gas.
The De La Cruz family could not find fuel on Thursday. On Friday morning they waited in line for six hours at one of the open stations here, and there were still 20 cars in front of them. Gabriel De La Cruz and his wife, Luisa, took turns fanning their 1-year-old son, Ismael, who sat sweating in the hot car, wearing only a diaper.
“This is all we have,” De La Cruz, a 30-year-old restaurant cook, said of the car. They lost their home and all their belongings in the storm.
Residents searching for loved ones in remote areas met downed trees, power lines and other debris. News was particularly scarce from the southern and central parts of the island, as well the tiny island of Vieques to the east.
“Even worse than not having power or water, which we’ve unfortunately become accustomed to, a communications blackout was the real anxiety-inducing feature … we haven’t really dealt with it before,” said Miguel A. Soto-Class, president of the Center for a New Economy, a San Juan-based think tank. “Are people dead and suffering or are people like we are, bruised but fine? The not knowing part is just terrible.”
Soto-Class stood on the roof of his home, the only place where he could get a cellphone signal, as Coast Guard helicopters buzzed overhead. He has not been able to get in touch with family on the island’s west coast and considered driving to find them. He abandoned the plan after realizing he does not know the condition of the roads.
Puerto Rico, with 3.5 million U.S. citizens, also is facing a crisis because of its geography: It is an island dependent on air and sea for supplies and volunteers. The immediate response that occurred after Hurricane Harvey in Houston, where volunteers from Louisiana headed in during the storm, or during Hurricane Irma in Florida, where utility trucks were pre-positioned to turn on power, is impossible here.
“It’s not like you can just drive a tractor-trailer,” said Melissa Mark-Viverito, the Puerto Rican-born president of the New York City Council. “That adds a whole other layer of logistical challenge to it.”
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and U.S. Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-N.Y.) flew here Friday, bringing 34,000 bottles of water and nearly 10,000 Meals Ready to Eat.
Hurricane Maria passed, but for two women in Puerto Rico, the terror was only just beginning
Photos taken from a helicopter surveying the damage in the southeast part of the island, encompassing an area that on a good day would be a two-hour drive from the capital of San Juan, show entire neighborhoods blanketed in murky water. Tops of buildings were sliced open, their rooms visible like dollhouses.
A building on a coastal luxury resort, once with enviable ocean views, is now partially floating over open air as rocks and mud crumbled under one corner and fell into the sea. Windmills broke and shattered, and solar panels shone like mirrors.
The enormity of what they had just been through — and what was yet to come — appeared to be sinking in for many people, including those who considered themselves hurricane-hardened.
“This storm was something,” said Geraldo Ramirez, 36, a resident of San Juan’s La Perla neighborhood. “I was here for Hurricane Georges back in ’98, and that was hard to believe, how badly it affected the island. But this, Maria, was something altogether different.”
Ramirez lives in a small three-story purple house near the waterfront on Calle San Miguel with his sister, her husband and their two children. His house, a sturdy cinder-block structure, was built 17 years ago and did not suffer much structural damage. But rain and ocean water managed to find its way into every room.
Asked when the power would likely return to his small neighborhood, he answered, without hesitating, “Three or four months, at least. Maybe six.”
“But it’s okay, we will make do,” he said. “We are used to it and it’s always the same. Georges, Hugo, we lose power and we lose water. But we know how to survive.”
‘I just need my mother’: The frantic quest to contact loved ones in Puerto Rico
Leaning against the wall of his carport in his light blue one-story home in coastal Loiza, Jorge Diaz, 72, had only one thing on his mind: his brothers and his sister, and how one day soon he would be with them in Orlando.
“There’s only one thing I’m waiting for,” he said. “The airport to open.”
“I just heard on the radio, eight months without electricity and water?” Diaz said. “That’s unreasonable. You can’t live like this … It’s a dark time now. A dark time for Puerto Rico.”
One block down and across the street, Lizmarie Bultron, 39, trudged through calf-high water to exit her home, about a block away from the beach.
“Everything I had is gone. I lost my whole house, the only thing left is the floor,” Bultron said. She looked at her feet, still ankle-deep in water. “And this, this water won’t be gone for at least a month. All we can do is wait. Wait for help to come. That’s the only choice. But no one has come yet. Not FEMA, not anyone.”
Cassady reported from Loiza, Puerto Rico; Somashekhar and Zezima reported from Washington. Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo in San Juan and Jesse Mesner-Hage in Washington contributed to this report.
The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2017 | ['(The Washington Post)'] |
Four female development workers are killed and their driver wounded when gunmen open fire on their vehicle in Mira Ali, North Waziristan, Pakistan. | At least four female development workers killed after unidentified assailants fired at their vehicle in restive North Waziristan, police official says.
Islamabad, Pakistan At least four female development workers have been killed in a targeted attack in the northwestern Pakistani district of North Waziristan, police say, the latest attack in an escalation of violence in an area that was once the headquarters of the Pakistani Taliban.
The attack took place at 9:30am (04:30 GMT) on Monday near the village of Ippi, a few kilometres east of the town of Mir Ali, senior police official Shafiullah Gandapur told Al Jazeera by telephone.
The workers’ vehicle was fired upon by unidentified assailants who then fled the scene, he said. and is being treated at a local hospital.
“This is a militancy-stricken district, the threat is here everywhere,” said Gandapur, when asked if there was a specific threat against development workers in the area.
“And in tribal culture, women roaming freely, it is considered not acceptable.”
North Waziristan was once the headquarters of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban), an umbrella organisation of armed groups formed in 2007 to attempt to overthrow the Pakistani government and establish a form of governance in line with their strict interpretation of religion.
Under the TTP, women’s freedom of movement was severely curtailed in areas under their influence, and most development activities by non-governmental organisations were banned.
In 2014, after a series of military operations, the Pakistani military launched a fresh push against the TTP in North Waziristan, succeeding in displacing the group’s leadership into eastern Afghanistan and degrading its operational capacity on Pakistani soil.
Since then, violence has dropped significantly, although sporadic attacks by the TTP continue to target civilians and security forces alike.
Since last year, there has been a sharp uptick in targeted attacks in North Waziristan, as internally displaced people (IDPs) returned to their homes after years away.
The attacks killed more than 58 people, including tribal leaders, security forces personnel and others last year, according to a tally derived from local media reports.
On Friday, a soldier and two people identified as “terrorists” were killed in an exchange of fire in North Waziristan district, according to a military statement.
Police official Gandapur said the area’s police force had launched a “search and strike” operation following Monday’s attack, and had cordoned off the area.
Asad Hashim is Al Jazeera’s digital correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim
The Pakistani military said two soldiers were also injured during the raid in Pakistan’s North Waziristan.
Army says one killed as Indian troops open fire across de facto border while three others killed in North Waziristan.
Military says two senior members of different factions of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan group killed in North Waziristan.
Foreign ministry says report ‘vindicates’ Pakistan’s position it is facing threats from Afghanistan-based armed groups.
. | Armed Conflict | February 2021 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
A magnitude 6.2 earthquake strikes the central Mexican state of Oaxaca killing at least five people and damaging housing and infrastructure already damaged by Tuesday's 2017 Central Mexico earthquake. , , | Rescuers are forced to temporarily suspend the search for survivors of a bigger, earlier tremor, amid fears of falling buildings.
Saturday 23 September 2017 18:32, UK
An aftershock with a magnitude of 6.1 has hit Mexico, just days after a devastating tremor left 295 people dead.
The US Geological Survey said it was centred about 11 miles (18km) from the town of Matias Romero in the southern state of Oaxaca.
Mexico's National Seismological Service recorded thousands of aftershocks just in the first nine and a half hours of Saturday, some of which measured 4.0 or greater.
Details on damage or injuries are not immediately clear, but Mexico City Mayor Miguel Mancera said residents were already on edge since last week's quake.
:: Why are there so many earthquakes in Mexico?
In the latest tremor, buildings swayed and a seismic alarm was set off in the capital where rescuers have been trying to reach people who remain buried in rubble from Thursday's quake.
Those rescuers have been forced to suspend their efforts.
"I heard the alarm and ran downstairs with my family," said Sergio Cedillo, a resident who was watching rescue efforts when the alarm sounded.
:: Who are the hero 'moles' of Mexico City?
Alejandra Castellanos, who was staying in a hotel in the area with her husband, said she was "frightened" when she felt the earth shake for the second time in two weeks.
"I was frightened because I thought: not again," she said.
Southern Mexico was hit on 7 September by a huge 8.1 magnitude tremor.
The total number killed in the first two earthquakes is thought to be more than 400.
:: The forgotten quake victims outside Mexico City
The Central American country suffers so much because of its position on a large grid of tectonic plates, on which all the Earth's countries and seas sit.
It also falls on the 'Ring of Fire', a horseshoe shaped area around the edges of the Pacific Ocean, from Australia to the Andes, along which 90% of all earthquakes occur. | Earthquakes | September 2017 | ['(Sky News)', '(Time and AP)', '(Reuters)'] |
Amidst ongoing protests against Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus abruptly closes its borders with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine, while leaving its border with Russia open. Lukashenko insists that the move is to restrict the spread of COVID-19. | KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Belarus’ authorities on Thursday shut the borders with several neighbors for most travelers amid the government’s efforts to end 2 1/2 months of protests demanding the resignation of the country’s authoritarian leader.
Belarus’ Border Control Committee said the closure of borders with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine is intended to stem the coronavirus infection. The move, however, follows Belarusian officials’ claims that its neighbors have tried to destabilize the situation in the country.
The movement of cargo across the border has continued unhindered, and the international airport in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, has maintained its usual operations. The border with Belarus’ giant eastern neighbor, Russia, has remained open.
Belarus has been swept by massive protests against President Alexander Lukashenko’s 26-year rule since the Aug. 9 election, in which he was declared the winner by a landslide. The opposition has rejected the official results as rigged and demanded that Lukashenko step down.
Police detained thousands and brutally beat hundreds of peaceful demonstrators during the first few days of post-election protests, drawing global outrage and prompting the U.S. and the European Union to introduce sanctions against Belarusian officials accused of vote fraud and the clampdown on demonstrations.
Lukashenko’s main election challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who left for Lithuania under pressure from authorities after the vote, had declared a nationwide strike starting Monday after her ultimatum for Lukashenko to resign expired Sunday.
Sunday’s rally in Minsk was one of the largest since the start of the protests, drawing nearly 200,000 people, but Tsikhanouskaya’s call for a strike has failed to halt production at major state-run plants and factories making up the core of the Belarus economy. While thousands of students and retirees marched in Minsk, and some small business owners closed their doors, most state enterprises have continued to operate as usual. On Thursday, Lukashenko reshuffled his top officials, appointing Interior Minister Yuri Karayev and Security Council Secretary Valery Vakulchik his envoys to the westernmost Grodno and Brest regions.
“I wouldn’t say publicly what action we are taking and will take on the border, but I need military people in charge there,” Lukashenko said during a meeting with officials. He first announced the closure of the borders last month, but they remained open until Thursday.
Tsikhanouskaya charged that the Belarusian government’s decision to shut the border and a reshuffle of top officials reflected Lukashenko’s nervousness.
“The closure of the borders and the latest appointments signal the weakening of his authority,” Tsikhanouskaya said, commenting on Lukashenko’s latest moves. “He makes inconsequent decisions because he’s in panic.” | Protest_Online Condemnation | October 2020 | ['(AP)'] |
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