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US surfer Kelly Slater wins his 10th ASP world championship, the most by any surfer at the Rip Curl Pro Search in Puerto Rico. | Kelly Slater has clinched an unprecedented 10th world surfing title with victory in his quarter-final heat at the Rip Curl Pro Search in Puerto Rico.
Thousands of fans crowded Middles Beach in the Aguadilla region of the island and were treated to a surfing exhibition as Slater destroyed Brazilian Adriano De Souza with a two-wave score of 18.87 points out of 20.
Slater described his week as a story of two extremes.
On Tuesday he discovered his greatest ever rival Andy Irons had passed away aged 32, and on Saturday he became a 10-time world champion.
Speaking immediately after coming out of the water, Slater declared he would trade his titles just to have Irons back.
The 38-year-old began his career way back in 1991 and wasted little time achieving success, claiming his first championship in 1992.
The Floridian then won consecutive crowns from 1994 through to 1998, before carrying his dominance through a second decade by taking out titles in 2005, 2006, 2008.
Slater had tears in his eyes after clinching the title, but the champion showed class in sending messages of support to Irons' family back in Hawaii.
"I just want to send my condolences to Andy's family, I'm a little overwhelmed right now but I want to dedicate this to Andy," he said.
"It's like exact opposites. This doesn't really offset that, I'd give this title away in a second if Andy could come back, but it's nice because Andy was one of the last guys I saw in Portugal and he gave me a big hug and he said, 'I want you to win this thing and I'm really pulling for you and I'm really proud of you.'
"Even last week before I came to Puerto Rico he called one of my friends in Hawaii and said the exact same thing and he sent me that message and all I can say is I got that message.
"When a friend asked me if I'd decided to win 10 after a couple of contests this year and I told him, 'yeah ok.'
"It seemed like Jordy was the guy to beat from early on.
"To have all these things come together I knew something special was happening."
Slater used to surf regularly in Puerto Rico as a teenager and said Middles Beach seemed like a second home, with his mother Judy and brother Skippy in attendance.
"It's nice, it's great, I haven't been surfing in this part of the island since about '88," he said.
"I used to come here a lot, it used to be like a second home to me, it was like my little Hawaii."
Asked if he planned on extending his record beyond 10 titles, Slater said he wanted some time to think that through.
"Give me a second buddy, I'm wet still," he said.
- AAP
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AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Sports Competition | November 2010 | ['(AAP via ABC News Australia)'] |
The International Cycling Union provisionally suspends Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador, the current Tour de France champion, after he was found to have tested positive for a small amount of clenbuterol, a banned substance, on July 21. He blames food contamination for the positive sample. , | Alberto Contador, a three-time winner of the Tour de France, tested positive for a banned substance on the final rest day of the Tour in July, according to a statement sent Wednesday by his spokesman, Jacinto Vidarte.
Contador, a Spaniard formerly on the Astana team, could lose the title he won this year and face a two-year suspension.
He learned about the positive test for the banned drug clenbuterol, a weight-loss and muscle-building drug, on Aug. 24, nearly a month after winning the Tour, the statement said. He had tested positive for the substance on July 21, one day before the race’s decisive mountain stage.
Contador, who has signed to ride for the Saxo Bank team next year, said he ingested the drug accidentally.
“The experts consulted so far have agreed also that this is a food-contamination case, especially considering the number of tests passed by Alberto Contador during the Tour de France,” his statement said.
Pat McQuaid, president of the International Cycling Union, did not immediately return phone calls, but the cycling union released a statement saying that Contador had been provisionally suspended and that his urine sample had a “very small concentration” of the banned drug.
“This case required further scientific investigation before any conclusion could be drawn,” the statement said.
Contador, 27, is widely known as the best stage racer in the world, having won each of cycling’s top three races: the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España. Despite a very public and testy battle with Lance Armstrong, his teammate at the time, for leadership of their Astana team, he won his second Tour in 2009.
This year, even after Armstrong took nearly the entire Astana team with him to his Team RadioShack, Contador won the Tour again, beating Andy Schleck by 39 seconds and retaining his spot as the sport’s top rider.
Contador, a national hero in his native Spain, is scheduled to speak about his positive test Thursday at a news conference in Pinto, his hometown. Though he never failed a drug test before, Contador in 2006 was initially implicated in a large-scale blood-doping ring in Spain. Later, the International Cycling Union cleared him of any wrongdoing.
At last year’s Tour, Contador reportedly set a speed record during one climb, prompting questions including ones from the three-time winner Greg LeMond about whether he was clean. In response, Contador said he had never taken performance-enhancing drugs and was against the doping that had weakened his sport’s credibility.
One of the biggest doping controversies hit the sport in 2006, when Floyd Landis won the Tour, then was stripped of the title after testing positive for synthetic testosterone. Landis had insisted that he had never used performance-enhancing drugs, but this spring he admitted using them.
If Contador is stripped of his Tour title, he will become the second rider to lose the title because of doping. And it looks as if he will have an uphill battle to retain that title.
The presence of the drug in an athlete’s system means that the athlete is disqualified from the day of the positive test forward, according to World Anti-Doping Agency rules. But if it is proven that the ingestion of the drug was unintentional and that the athlete was not at fault, that ban could be reduced to zero in rare cases, antidoping experts say.
Traces of clenbuterol have been found in nutritional supplements. The swimmer Jessica Hardy missed the 2008 Olympics after testing positive for the drug; she said she had taken a contaminated supplement. An arbitration panel later ruled that her claim was true and reduced her two-year ban to one year.
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If you have a critical piece of feedback for us, you can always reach the newsroom via the Reader Center. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | September 2010 | ['(Sydney Morning Herald)', '(AAP via The Australian)', '(New York Times)', '(Reuters)'] |
Pope Benedict XVI announces his resignation, effective February 28 at 8pm CET . He will become the first pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415. |
By Rachel Donadio and Nicholas Kulish
VATICAN CITY — The decision, delivered in Latin and in unemotional tones by Pope Benedict XVI to a gathering of cardinals on Monday, came “like a bolt out of the blue,” one of the participants said, and it soon ricocheted around the world.
During what was supposed to be a routine meeting to discuss the canonization of three potential saints, Benedict read a statement that said, in part, that after examining his conscience “before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise” of leading the world’s one billion Roman Catholics. He was resigning on Feb. 28, he said, becoming the first pope to do so in six centuries. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | February 2013 | ['(7pm UTC)', '(BBC)', '(The Guardian)', '(The New York Times)'] |
Benazir Bhutto is released from house arrest bringing to an end a day long stand-off between the former prime minister and security forces. | RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (CNN) -- A house arrest order for Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has been lifted, police sources told CNN Friday, bringing to an end a day-long standoff between the former Pakistani prime minister and security forces.
Hundreds of police who had lined up outside her home Friday left after the order was withdrawn. A smaller number of police who had previously been outside her home providing security remained.
The lifting of the order came as Pakistan suffered its first deadly blast since a declaration of emergency by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
The attack, possibly a suicide bomb, at the house of Amir Muqam, Minister for Political Affairs in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan killed four people Friday, police told CNN. The minister escaped unharmed.
Earlier Friday Washington had called for restrictions on Bhutto to be lifted. Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, said: "Former Prime Minister Bhutto and other political party members must be permitted freedom of movement and all protesters released. It is crucial for Pakistan's future that moderate political forces work together to bring Pakistan back on the path to democracy." Bhutto and her supporters had spent much of the day in a standoff against security forces, who placed barbed wire and barricades around her Islamabad home, preventing her attending a planned rally banned by the government, she told CNN. Watch Zain Verjee report on the showdown »
Riot police began beating Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party supporters when around 50 attempted to cut through the cordons of wire placed around her home. An armored car carrying Bhutto approached the breach, where she -- speaking with a megaphone -- told several hundred police and security forces: "We are not the enemy; give us way."
Bhutto told the security forces: "Don't stop us, we are not the enemy. Even you in uniform are my brothers." However, the security forces refused to back down or let her through, and Bhutto returned to her home.
But she did manage to address her supporters, saying: "This barbed wire is against the hopes and peoples of Pakistan." She said that she did not want Pakistan to suffer the extremism that had affected both Afghanistan and Iraq and urged Muslims and non-Muslims to work together. "We as a nation must save Pakistan from these extremists," she said, adding: "The message of Islam is peace." Watch Bhutto address the crowds » Bhutto was trying to leave her compound to attend a rally in nearby Rawalpindi -- a city outside Islamabad where Pakistan's military is based -- against the state of emergency.
The former prime minister has been hoping fellow opposition parties will put their differences aside and participate as a challenge to Musharraf's government.
But in Rawalpindi Pakistani security forces fired tear gas and wielded batons to disperse opposition supporters for defying a ban on public gatherings, police sources told CNN.
"There are blockades and there are barbed wires," Bhutto said, speaking earlier to CNN by phone. Watch Bhutto speak to CNN »
"Police cannot expect us not to overcome the physical barrier. They're watching us as (supporters of her Pakistan People's Party) break the barbed wire with their bare hands."
Earlier, CNN's Elise Labott in Islamabad reported seeing several protesters being dragging away and pushed into waiting vans. Some chanted slogans "down with Musharraf... bullets and batons will not last... Benazir for prime minister." Both the bomb attack and the arrests are likely to inflame tensions. CNN's Mohsin Naqvi, reporting on the attack in northwestern Pakistan, said: "This is what we were expecting -- that militants or the people in the tribal areas, wherever they are, would be targeting something related to the government.
"We can't say how this is linked to the protests or whether it's a message to the government because militants have been targeting the government for the last two years." Earlier Friday PPP spokeswoman Sherry Rehman said in a statement that the area around Bhutto's home was in a "virtual lockdown" and about 5,000 of Bhutto's supporters have been rounded up in efforts to foil the attempted mass protest against emergency rule. Only members of the provincial assembly have been permitted to see the former prime minister, Rehman said. "Thousands of PPP workers have gone underground. Roads are blocked," the statement said, adding more than 25 PPP parliament members have been detained in various police stations in Rawalpindi as they arrived from other provinces.
In addition Friday, the government also took CNN and British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) off air for a second time as part of a media blackout, CNN's Mohsin Naqvi in Islamabad reported.
The re-imposition of a blackout on CNN and BBC comes just 24 hours after the ban on the two broadcasters was lifted.
There were fears on both the opposition and government sides that the planned rally could become violent. "The last time when there was a rally, there was a lot of bloodshed," Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri told CNN's Zain Verjee. "Maybe because of that the home department of the Interior Ministry feel that they wish to make sure that such ghastly incidents are never repeated again." Last month a suicide attack on Bhutto's homecoming motorcade in Karachi left more than 130 people dead.
In Rawalpindi police sources told CNN all highways feeding into the city from Punjab and North West Frontier Province (NWFP) had been barricaded and closed, with police and army rangers posted heavily throughout.
Reporting from the area where the rally was supposed to take place, CNN's Dan Rivers said the city was "basically deserted" and checkered with numerous checkpoints and hundreds of police and soldiers.
"A truckload of people were taken away in the back of a truck shouting 'Benazir! Benazir!' as we passed by," he said, adding those were the only arrests he saw.
Shops were closed, no vehicles were on the streets and major intersections were blocked off Rivers said, adding he witnessed "people wandering around not knowing what to do...very quiet indeed."
Meanwhile, Bhutto spokesman Wajid Hasan in London said that water and electricity had been cut off at the location for the rally. He said the doors to the venue had been welded shut to keep supporters out.
In enforcing the emergency order, Pakistani forces have arrested thousands of opposition leaders, lawyers, and human rights activists. Police told CNN they were working around the clock, enforcing the emergency order during the day and rounding up targeted activists at night.
Five opposition politicians -- including the head of the National Party -- were charged with treason Thursday in Karachi, a government official told CNN. E-mail to a friend CNN's Mohsin Naqvi, Elise Labott, Zain Verjee and Ed Henry contributed to this report. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | November 2007 | ['(CNN)'] |
Ireland's Green Party agrees to go into government with Fianna Fáil as part of Ireland's 30th Dáil when it opens on 14 June. (RTÉ) | Of the 510 members who voted, 441 voted to accept the deal after studying the draft programme for government.
67 voted against and there were two spoiled votes.
Trevor Sargent has resigned as leader of the party following tonight's vote. Mr Sargent, who had strongly supported entering government, said this was the proudest day of his life and said courage had won out over caution. He said he would serve as acting leader until a replacement is elected and that in a spirit of partnership he would second the nomination of Bertie Ahern as Taoiseach tomorrow. He said he would not accept a cabinet position in the incoming government but would be prepared to act as a junior minister if a position was offered.
He also said the Green Party would continue to work on behalf of the people of Iraq and of those who wish to reroute the M3 Motorway away from the Tara Valley. FF gives backing for coalition deal
The Fianna Fáil parliamentary party has also given its approval to the deal.
Following a meeting with the parliamentary party this afternoon, Fianna Fáil's Deputy Leader, Brian Cowen, told reporters that there had been unanimous backing from the meeting for the deal.
Speaking on RTÉ's Six One news this evening, Mr Cowen confirmed that the proposed coalition deal included the Progressive Democrats. Asked if the deal included the PDs in government, specifically Mary Harney at the cabinet table, Mr Cowen replied, 'yes'. The Taoiseach's objective, he said, from the outset was to provide a broad-based coalition that would have the support of the three parties and Independents.
Meanwhile, Independent TDs, Finian McGrath and Michael Lowry have both confirmed they will vote for Bertie Ahern as Taoiseach when the Dáil meets tomorrow. Independent TD Jackie Healy-Rae has also concluded a deal with Mr Ahern.RTÉ.ie Special features | Government Policy Changes | June 2007 | ['(Comhaontas Glas)'] |
After eleven consecutive draws, a record for the 132-year-old championship, Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana are tied 5.5 points each in the best-of-12-games match. | Here’s Bryan’s report off today’s game, which you can replay below. Adds Carlsen during the post-game press conference: “I wasn’t pleased from the opening and then after that I just wanted to play it safe. I was trying to push a little bit, but it was nothing real. In this match situation I thought there was no reason to go crazy.” Updated
at 7.20pm GMT
25 Nov 2018
18:01
“There’s a lot riding on the last game,” says Caruana when asked about Monday’s Game 12, where he will play with white. “It will be very tense for both of us. I’m not going to go crazy or anything, of course, but I will try to put pressure on him.”
The players will have an extra rest day between now and then, which the American says he’s grateful for. “I’ll try to rest,” he says. “The final game and potentially a tie-break will really be decided by nerves and by whose head is working best in the end. Rest is very important for this. I’ll try to get some relaxation in.”
As for today’s game: “Not much really happened today.”
Updated
at 6.09pm GMT
25 Nov 2018
17:46
“I’m not thrilled, obviously,” Carlsen says. “I got surprised in the opening and just decided to shut it down. It wasn’t great but it’s no disaster. Now I’ve just got to play well in one more classical and see what happens.”
He’s asked what he expects from Monday’s Game 12: “We’ll see what happens. A lot depends on what (Caruana) wants to do. If he wants to shut it down then that’s fine by me, we’ll play rapid. Otherwise we’ll have a fight.”
Updated
at 6.04pm GMT
25 Nov 2018
17:36
One last move for both players (55. Bf2 Bc2) and it’s official: Game 11 is a draw after two hours and 13 minutes. The shortest contest of the fortnight leaves the best-of-12-games world championship match deadlocked at 5½-all after 11 indecisive results. Caruana will have the white pieces in Monday’s Game 12. Says the American: “There’s a lot riding on the last game. It will be tense for both of us.”
25 Nov 2018
17:31
A few more moves, happening more quickly now: 47. ... Ba2 48. Kg5 Bb3 49. Kf6 Ba2 50. h4 Bb3 51. f4 Ba2 52. Ke7 Bb3 53. Kf6 Ba2 54. f5 Bb1. A handshake should come soon. 25 Nov 2018
17:28
On they go: 36. ... Bg4 37. c4 Be6 38. Kd4 bxc4 39. bxc4 Bg4 40. c5 Be6 41. Bh6 Bd5 42. Be3 Be6 43. Ke5 Bd5 44. Kf4 Be6 45. Kg5 Bd5 46. g4 hxg4 47. Kxg4. The action is petering out toward a draw. “I’ll take a short break because nothing is happening and nothing is going to happen,” Russian grandmaster Alexander Grischuk says. 25 Nov 2018
17:13
No real progress after the last few moves: 32. Kd4 g6 33. g3 Be2 34. Bf8 Kc6 35. b3 Bd1 36. Kd3. Carlsen is still up a pawn and trying to convert it, but Caruana is holding strong. Here’s what we’re looking at. 25 Nov 2018
16:57
Another rush of moves sees Caruana surrender a pawn: 27. a3 Kf8 28. Bc7 b5 29. Bd6+ Ke8 30. Bxc5 h5 31. Ke3 Kd7. The Sesse evaluation engine, running Stockfish, gives Carlsen a slight advantage, though Caruana should be able to hold for a draw. Says Judit Polgar in the commentary booth: “When we talk about the fact that it’s a dead draw, it’s a dead draw if you know how to do it. So you still have to be careful if you’re not familiar with these kind of theoretical positions in principle.”
25 Nov 2018
16:45
Another rook exchange as Game 11 trudges toward a peaceful result: 25. ... Rxd2 26. Kxd2 a6 27. a3. Caruana has spent 12 minutes (and counting) pondering his response. While all signs point toward a draw, white is slightly better due to black’s exposed pawns on the queenside; indeed, the Norwegian supercomputer Sesse indicates a number of endings where white has an extra pawn. So Caruana, with more than an hour to make 14 moves before the time control, is correct to take his time and make sure he gets it right. 25 Nov 2018
16:32
Another rush of moves including a rook exchange: 21. Rxd6 Rxd6 22. Bxd6 Rd8 23. Rd2 Bxc4 24. Kc1 b6 25. Bf4. We’re heading toward an opposite-colored bishop endgame. Only an hour and a half into the match and the end appears near. 25 Nov 2018
16:23
The position simplifies after a quick flurry of moves: 15. ... Rfe8 16. Ng6 Ng4 17. Nxe7+ Rxe7 18. Re2 Ne5 19. Bf4 Nxd3 20. Rxd3 Rd7. “Another miserable preparation by Magnus with white,” Russian grandmaster Alexander Grischuk says. 25 Nov 2018
16:04
Carlsen plays 15. Nh4. He’s more than a half hour behind on time right now. 24 Nov 2018
15:51
Caruana plays 14. ... h6, which prevents Ng6 and stunts the position even further. Carlsen has spent more than 10 minutes considering his response and Caruana has stepped away from the board. Disappointing how fast this line fizzled out. Barring any inaccuracies a draw should be forthcoming. 24 Nov 2018
15:41
Carlsen offers up a queen exchange with 13. c4 and the ladies are off the board (13. ... Qxd2 14. Bxd2)! Oh boy. “It’s clear without queens black is fine,” says Sergey Karjakin, who pushed Carlsen to the limit in the world title match two years ago, from the commentary booth. “I think it’s going to be a draw. At the same time it’s not like Magnus was playing for the draw, but it just happened because he did not expect Fabiano would play this line.”
13. c4 Qxd2 14. Bxd2 Carlsen cannot help himself. He wants to head to endgame immediately. No risk grinding! It seems that both sides are satisfied with what they have ? pic.twitter.com/WPqZ14qIUc
Updated
at 4.07pm GMT
24 Nov 2018
15:31
Carlsen plays 12. Kb1 after 12 minutes and Caruana quickly responds with 12. ... Qa5. The champion has spent 23 minutes on his last two moves. He’s about 25 minutes down on time already. Magnus Carlsen after 10...c5. What exactly convinced him not to go for a sharper line such as 12.Bg5? He spent almost 11 minutes on 11.Rhe1 and 12 minutes and a half on 12.Kb1. pic.twitter.com/gFVWZKedCr
Updated
at 4.09pm GMT
24 Nov 2018
15:27
A few more moves: 8. Qd2 Nd7 9. O-O-O Nf6 10. Bd3 c5 11. Rhe1 Be6. A promising double-edged position takes shape. Caruana moving with incredible pace, clearly still in his preparation, with nearly four more minutes than what he started with. Here’s what we’re looking at. Updated
at 4.48pm GMT
24 Nov 2018
15:13
The parallel lines extend for Carlsen’s first seven moves (3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. Nc3 Nxc3 6. dxc3 Be7 7. Be3). Caruana is first to deviate from their Sinquefield Cup game, playing 7. O-O instead of Nc6. 24 Nov 2018
15:08
We have 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 and another Petroff! They’re blitzing out the opening and so far it’s identical to their August meeting at the Sinquefield Cup. It was former world title challenger Sergey Karjakin who made the ceremonial first move with b4, which Carlsen left on the board for a tantalizingly long time before going with e4. “A small suggestion for you, Magnus”... 1.b4! #carlsencaruana2018 @theworldchess pic.twitter.com/FuL8VjTDc9
Updated
at 4.07pm GMT
24 Nov 2018
14:49
We’ve written heaps about today’s Game 11, Monday’s Game 12 and the prospect of a tie-breaker. | Sports Competition | November 2018 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
U.S. President Donald Trump's speech at a rally in Orlando, Florida is billed as the official launch of his re-election campaign for the 2020 United States presidential election. He previously filed on January 20, 2017 paperwork with the Federal Election Commission officially announcing his bid for the 2020 presidential election. , , | About the author: David A. Graham is a staff writer at The Atlantic. How many times can Donald Trump announce his 2020 campaign? At least five, by my count.
The president is traveling to Orlando, Florida, today for what news outlets are calling a rally to “officially” or “formally” launch his reelection bid. It’s hard to know what those adverbs mean. Not only is today not the first time Trump has said he was starting his campaign, but he never really stopped campaigning in the first place.
If anything was official, it came on January 20, 2017, when, within hours of his inauguration, Trump filed documents with the Federal Election Commission to run for reelection. By then, he’d already told The Washington Post about his slogan for the reelection campaign: “Keep America Great.”
Just 29 days later, Trump threw the first rally of his reelection campaign. It’s probably not a coincidence that that rally was also in the crucial swing state of Florida—in Melbourne, about an hour from Orlando. There’s nothing all that unusual about a president hosting a rally; what was unusual was that Trump was advertising and paying for the event through his campaign, a decision that perplexed campaign-law experts I spoke with at the time. Some presidents have opted to separate events that are baldly political from those that are more presidential, but Trump doesn’t bother with that. (See, for example, his attacks on Speaker Nancy Pelosi in front of graves at Normandy, or his swipes at Joe Biden while in Japan.)
Read: Trump is kicking off his reelection campaign 29 days into his presidency
The president continued to host sporadic campaign-style rallies over the next year. Then, in March 2018, while House Republicans were scrambling to hold back a Democratic wave, Trump decided to pitch in for the effort by … announcing his new slogan for the 2020 race. Only it was the same slogan he’d previewed to the Post in January 2017. (This did not prevent the media from dutifully reporting he had unveiled a new slogan.)
Two months later, in May 2018, Trump once again presented the slogan as a brand-new reveal. “By the way, this is the first, for Indiana,” he said. “Our new slogan for 2020. You know what it is? ‘Keep America Great.’ Because we’re doing so well that in another two years, when we start the heavy campaign, ‘Make America Great Again’ wouldn’t work out too well.” Reporters once again gave him credit for novelty. Six months later, Trump’s allies were whomped at the polls. Meanwhile, his reelection campaign has rolled on, with Orlando its latest stop.
When Trump went to Florida in February 2017, I identified the rally as an example of the “permanent campaign”—a notion dating to the 1980s and since ensconced, in which officeholders maintain some of the methods and tactics of the campaign while remaining in office, from rallies to poll testing. It’s a staple for every president now. Bill Clinton, the president most associated with the permanent campaign, had the earliest “official” launch in recent memory, according to NPR—but Trump will edge him by three days.
But labeling Trump’s rally a part of the permanent campaign turned out not to be prescient so much as an egregious understatement. The point of a campaign launch used to be to signal that the period of governing—of passing legislation and enacting policy—was largely wrapping up, and that the focus would shift back to electoral politics. In the permanent-campaign paradigm, a president would run a policy track and a politics track in parallel.
Read: ‘Keep America Great’ and the power of the small lie
Trump has fully unified them. He can’t turn back to campaigning from governing, because he never really bothered to start governing in the first place. With the exception of cutting taxes and especially building a wall on the Mexican border, he’s never shown much interest in learning how the levers of power work or in using them. Whereas Barack Obama held rallies in early 2009 to support the passage of his health-care bill, Trump held rallies in early 2017 for the purpose of being reelected nearly four years later.
The problem with skating from crisis to crisis with few accomplishments to show for it is that eventually the public becomes fatigued. There are signs of growing public boredom with Trump. A newsy, blockbuster interview with George Stephanopoulos this past weekend drew disappointing ratings. The New York Times publisher A. G. Sulzberger has noted declining reader interest in political news. The president’s outlandish remarks generally make a smaller splash than they once did. He seems to have tried to compensate for that by tweeting more, but the result is something like inflation in a market flooded with currency: Every tweet is less valuable.
As the incumbent, Trump enjoys advantages he did not in 2016, but his most important political tool remains his ability to control the discourse. With other methods losing some potency, repeated campaign launches—aided by obligingly credulous coverage—are one way to generate attention. If today’s event draws enough coverage, maybe he’ll officially launch his campaign a few more times. But sooner or later, campaign launches will have to give way to new methods of attracting attention, which are likely to be less decorous than elaborate campaign rallies. | Famous Person - Give a speech | June 2019 | ['(FEC)', '(The Guardian)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(The Atlantic)'] |
A shallow strong quake with magnitude of 7.1 jolts Papua province in easternmost Indonesia, killing 3 people and causing damage in Serui and Biak, in Yapen district. | JAKARTA, June 16 (Xinhua) -- At least two people have been seriously injured after a 7.1-magnitude quake hit Papua of Indonesia on Wednesday, officials said. "Two people have been evacuated to General Hospital in Biak as they got serious injuries in the quake,"head of crisis center of the Health Ministry Mujiharto told Xinhua over phone.
Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency has lifted a tsunami warning imposed after the major quake that hit Papua in the easternmost of Indonenesia on late Wednesday morning.
The mainshock was followed by two afterschocks of 6.6 and 5.3 on the Richter scale respectively, the agency said.
Jerry Purba, an official with the agency, said several buildings have collapsed in Biak of Papua.
"We got reports from the meteorology office in Biak that several buildings have collapsed," Jerry Purba told Xinhua.
The metro television also reported that several buildings cracked.
Several buldings in Biak has been is reported collapsed, the agency said.
The 7.1-magnitude quake struck at 10:16 a.m. Jakarta time (0316 GMT) with the epicenter 123 km southeast Biak of Papua and the depth of 10 km under sea bed. | Earthquakes | June 2010 | ['(Xinhua)', '(SINA)', '(ABC)', '(CNN)'] |
Lynette Fromme, a former member of the Manson family, is released after serving 34 years in prison. | Aug. 14, 2009— -- Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, the would-be assasin who took aim at President Gerald Ford 34 years ago and the chief disciple of serial killer Charles Manson, was released from a federal prison in Texas this morning, said a prison spokeswoman.
Fromme, 60, had previously completed her sentence for the assassination attempt in July 2008, but was ordered to serve additional time for a 1987 prison escape.
"Lynette Fromme was released about 8 a.m. today," prison spokeswoman Maria Douglas told ABCNews.com. She had finished her term at from the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas.
Douglas said that Manson's former right-hand acolyte will be supervised by the U.S. Parole Commission.
When asked whether Fromme had remained in contact with Manson, she said, ""We can't release that information, but it may be a parole stipulation" that she not contact him.
Tom Hutchinson, spokesman for the U.S.Parole Commission, declined t reveal Fromme's whereabouts but said she will have to check in with her supervising officer within 72 hours and after that at least monthly, and sometimes more often.
He said that Fromme will be on parole for the duration of her sentence, which in her case is for the rest of her life.
Fromme took aim at Ford with a semi-automatic .45-caliber pistol Sept. 5, 1975. There were four bullets in the gun's magazine, but none in the chamber and an alert Secret Service agent grabbed the gun from Fromme.
At the time of the assassination attempt, Manson and several of his followers were serving life terms for killing nine people in his grisly Helter Skelter plot to start a race war.
Fromme told her defense attorney that she targeted Ford because she wanted to garner attention for a new trial for Manson.
Her trial lawyer, John Virga, told ABCNews.com that he hadn't heard from Fromme since her conviction and did not know where she would be going when she got out of prison. But she had to have arranged a place to go before prison officials would release her.
Seventeen days after Fromme's assassination attempt, Sara Jane Moore also tried to kill the president. Moore was released from prison earlier this year.
Fromme's release comes just days after the 40th anniversary of the murder of actress Sharon Tate and nine others during a bloody weekend of slaughter that was ordered by Manson.
Though technically slated to be released on Aug. 16, Fromme was likely set free today because her official release date falls on a Sunday.
Her release has raised questions inside the law enforcement community about whether time in prison can temper the impulses of serious criminals.
"The greatest predictor for potential violence is a history of violence," Eugene O'Donnell, a professor of law and police science at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, previously told ABC News. "Any time you release someone with a violent past it's a gamble. We just have to keep our fingers crossed."
"That said, it is relatively rare to see someone of advanced age committing serious crimes," he added.
Fromme was one of Manson's earliest followers and remained devoted to him. During his murder trial, Fromme and other female followers camped outside the courthouse, and when Manson showed up in court with an X carved into his forehead, Fromme carved an X into her forehead.
During the trial, Fromme was convicted of trying to prevent other "Family" members from testifying and of contempt of court for refusing to testify herself. She was given short jail terms.
The prosecutor who put Charles Manson behind bars 40 years ago said Fromme remained a danger and said she should not be released from prison.
"If you do something like that against the president of the United States, the need for deterrence increases when you're talking about the most important person," said, Vincent Bugliosi, the former Los Angeles County assistant district attorney.
"She was the main gal in the family. Once Manson left the ranch, if he was anywhere else she was in charge," Bugliosi said.
During her own incarceration for the Ford assassination attempt, Fromme attacked another inmate in 1979 with a claw hammer and was transferred out of the women's prison in Dublin, Calif.
In 1987, Fromme became so upset at the news that Manson had testicular cancer that she broke out of the Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia in an attempt to reach Manson. She was captured two days later. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | August 2009 | ['(ABC News)'] |
The Spanish Royal Household announces that Emeritus King Juan Carlos I has informed King Felipe VI that he is leaving the country motivated by "the public repercussion that certain past events are generating". His finances are being judicially investigated by a Swiss judge and the Spanish Prosecutor's Office for alleged financial dealings from Haramain high-speed railway construction and his accounts in tax havens. | Spain's former King Juan Carlos has left the country for an unknown destination, weeks after he was linked to an inquiry into alleged corruption.
Juan Carlos, 82, announced the move on Monday in a letter to his son, Felipe, to whom he handed power six years ago.
He said he would be available if prosecutors needed to interview him. In June, Spain's Supreme Court opened an investigation into the alleged involvement of Juan Carlos in a high-speed rail contract in Saudi Arabia.
The former king had most likely already left when the letter was released on Monday, Spain's El País newspaper reports. It is unclear where Juan Carlos is, though some Spanish media report he is in the Dominican Republic.
It is a humiliating exit for a king who had once seemed set to go down in history as the leader who skilfully guided Spain from dictatorship to democracy after the death of General Franco in 1975, BBC Europe correspondent Nick Beake says.
Juan Carlos abdicated in 2014 after nearly 40 years as king following a corruption investigation involving his daughter's husband and a controversial elephant hunting trip the monarch took during Spain's financial crisis.
In the letter, the former monarch wrote that he was making the decision "in the face of the public repercussions that certain past events in my private life are generating" and in the hope of allowing his son to carry out his functions as king with "tranquillity".
"Guided by the conviction to best serve the people of Spain, its institutions, and you as king, I inform you of my decision at this time to leave Spain.
"A decision I make with deep emotion but with great serenity," the letter said.
The statement from the Zarzuela palace said that King Felipe VI had conveyed "his heartfelt respect and gratitude" to his father for this decision.
In March, King Felipe VI renounced the inheritance of his father. The royal palace also said at the time that Juan Carlos would stop receiving an annual grant of €194,000 ($228,000; £174,520).
Spain's Supreme Court has said it aims to establish Juan Carlos's connection with the Saudi project after his abdication in June 2014. At that point he lost his immunity from prosecution.
Spanish firms won a €6.7bn (£6bn) deal to build a Mecca-Medina rail link.
The probe involves Swiss banks too.
Spanish anti-corruption officials suspect that the former king kept some undeclared funds in Switzerland, and a Swiss investigation is under way. The Spanish government has said that "justice is equal for all" and it would "not interfere" in the inquiry.
Spain's monarchy shaken by ex-king's Swiss fortune
Spain ex-king probed over Saudi rail deal
King Felipe renounces father's inheritance
Spanish princess cleared in tax trial
Why is King Juan Carlos abdicating?
Spain king sorry for hunting trip
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. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | August 2020 | ['(El Mundo)', '(The Washington Post)', '(BBC)'] |
The Supreme Court of Israel upholds a law banning Palestinians who marry Israelis from gaining Israeli citizenship. | Israel's Supreme Court has upheld a law banning Palestinians who marry Israelis from gaining Israeli citizenship.
Civil rights groups had petitioned the court to overturn the law, saying it was unconstitutional.
"Human rights do not prescribe national suicide," Judge Asher Grunis wrote in the judgement. The law was introduced in 2003, with its backers citing security concerns and the need to ensure Israel remains a Jewish-majority state.
Human rights activists and Arab politicians condemned the court's decision.
The court "had failed the test of justice", said Arab-Israeli MP Jamal Zahalka of the Balad party. "It is a dark day for the protection of human rights and for the Israeli High Court," lawyers from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel told AFP.
"The ruling proves how much the situation regarding the civil rights of the Arab minority in Israel is declining into a highly dangerous and unprecedented situation", Arab-Israeli civil rights group Adalah, one of those that brought the petition, said in a statement.
The Citizenship and Entry Law was passed in 2003, during the second Palestinian intifada (uprising), as waves of suicide bombings targeted Israel. Many were launched from the West Bank, some with the help of Israeli Arabs. Initially, the law was emergency legislation which has since been extended periodically.
It was amended in 2005, allowing women over 25 and men over 35 to apply for temporary permits to live in Israel, but still ruling out citizenship for all but a handful of cases. In 2007, it was expanded to apply to citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Families fight 'racist' Israeli citizenship law
Israeli cabinet backs Jewish oath
| Government Policy Changes | January 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
John Mark Karr is arrested in Bangkok for the 1996 murder of U.S. child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey. | Hours after a 41-year-old man confessed to the 1996 killing of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey, legal experts became skeptical of the claims made by John Mark Karr, arrested Wednesday by Thai officials. In the latest twist of a case characterized by aberrant developments, Karr’s confession to Thai officials is being widely disputed. Veteran Denver defense attorney Phil Cherner, who has represented clients who have falsely confessed, said he recognizes elements of duplicity in Karr’s words and behavior. “This guy seems to be not just confessing, but openly inviting everyone to a microphone to hear him confess. That raises questions in my mind as to his guilt,” Cherner said. He pointed out that “every credible and incredible fact” about the Ramsey murder “has found its way into the public domain. If there are facts not known, I’d be surprised.” The details that Karr has described, he said, are widely available. “The ability to make up a story that jibes with the government’s evidence is greater, in this case, than in many, many other cases. That’s why all this matters,” he said. Longtime Colorado defense attorney Larry Pozner said he firmly believes Karr did not murder JonBenét Ramsey, pointing out that the details of Karr’s account fail to jibe with known evidence. “The guy says he picked her up at school,” Pozner pointed out. JonBenét’s body was found in the Ramsey’s basement on the day after Christmas 1996. “He said he drugged her. There is no evidence to support that. There is no reason to think it is true.” Like JonBenét’s father, John Ramsey, and the family’s lawyer, Lin Wood, Pozner cautioned against leaping to conclusions of Karr’s guilt. Pozner interpreted Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy’s Thursday press conference as a carefully-worded announcement that Karr’s arrest was more relevant to concerns about his imminent teaching job at an international school than it was to the Ramsey investigation. Noting Karr’s refusal to explain how he entered the Ramsey house that Christmas night, or why his account of drugging the girl is contradicted by the coroner’s report that found no drugs in her system, Posner finds more holes than corroborating evidence. Credible murderers, including the BTK killer in Wichita, provide minute details and chapter-and-verse descriptions of their modus operandi, Pozner said. The only thing Karr has done, he observed, is say “I confess.” “He is a footnote in history, but now he gets to be famous,” Pozner said. The sad case of the raped, tortured and murdered little beauty pageant girl has held the public rapt for nearly 10 years. Public sentiment divided between suspecting the child’s wealthy parents, and others associated with the Ramseys and their neighborhood. Karr’s confession satisfied many eager for a resolution. The fact that he once lived about 35 miles from the Ramseys’ suburban Atlanta home, along with a 2001 arrest for possessing child pornography, initially seemed plausible. Karr told Thai officials that he inadvertently killed the girl, said Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, head of Thailand’s immigration police. Thai and U.S. authorities arrested Karr Wednesday at his apartment on the 9th floor of a rundown building in a seedy Bangkok neighborhood. “I was with JonBenet when she died,” Karr told reporters on Thursday, visibly nervous and stuttering. “Her death was an accident.” Asked if he was innocent of the crime, Karr said: “No.” Karr refused to answer questions Thursday about how he knew JonBenet Ramsey. An attorney for the Ramsey family said Wednesday that Karr once lived near the family in Conyers, Ga. Suwat said Karr insisted that he meant to kidnap JonBenet for $118,000, but that the girl died when kidnapping attempt that went awry. “He said it was second-degree murder. He said it was unintentional,” Suwat said. “He said he loved this child, that he was in love with her. He said she was very pretty, a pageant queen. She was the school star, she was very cute and sweet.” A senior Thai police officer said Karr also told investigators he drugged and had sex with the 6-year-old beauty queen before accidentally killing her. An autopsy done a day after the girl’s body was discovered indicated no drugs or alcohol in her system but
found vaginal abrasions. As officials escorted Karr to pick up his belongings at the apartment, Karr told the AP: “I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet. It’s very important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much, that her death was unintentional, that it was an accident.” Asked what happened when JonBenet died, he said: “It would take several hours to describe that. It’s a very involved series of events that would involve a lot of time. It’s very painful for me to talk about it.” He told the AP he made “several efforts to communicate with Patricia before she passed away,” referring to JonBenet’s mother, Patsy Ramsey, who died June 24 of cancer, “and it is my understanding that she did read my letters.” No evidence against Karr has been made public beyond his own admission. U.S. and Thai officials did not directly answer a question at the news conference Thursday about whether there was DNA evidence connecting him to the crime. Officials described his arrest as the result of a months-long investigation targeting Karr, whom they said knew telling case details so far unreleased to the public. Karr was given a mouth-swab DNA test in Bangkok, according to a law enforcement official who
spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. The results of that test are still pending.
Karr will submit a second DNA sample for testing when he returns to the United States, the official said. Investigators have DNA evidence from the initial investigation when JonBenét’s body was discovered. The day before being taken into custody, Karr was beginning a job as a 2nd grade teacher at the International School system in Bangkok, according to Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy who spoke at a Boulder press conference today. Karr, a former substitute teacher in California, was arrested in California for possessing child pornography. He has traveled extensively since leaving the United States several years ago. He arrived in Bangkok on June 6, after leaving Malaysia, reportedly seeking work as a teacher. Working with officials in Thailand and the U.S., the Boulder D.A.’s office spent months locating, finding and arresting Karr. Lacy said she expects even more work on the case, now that Karr is in custody, Lacy said. Lacy emphasized that Karr is presumed innocent, and no charges against him have been filed at this time. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | August 2006 | ['(Denver Post)', '(USA Today)', '(MSNBC)'] |
Twelve of the thirteen suspects in Norway's NOKAS robbery case from 2004, are found guilty and given sentences from 4 – 19 years in prison. | The 13 men convicted in the case faced the appeals jury's decision at Gulating Court of Appeals on Friday morning. Eleven of the defendants were charged with grand larceny with death resulting, two, Thomas Oscar Ingebrigtsen (27) and William Pettersen (58), were only charged with complicity in grand larceny.
The commando-style raid on the Norwegian Cash Service headquarters in downtown Stavanger on April 5, 2004 was the most brutal robbery in Norwegian history. The thieves made of with NOK 57 million (USD million) and police officer Arne Sigve Klungland (53), was shot to death during the getaway.
The resulting investigation was the most expensive and extensive in Norwegian history, and became linked to the theft of the Munch masterpieces Madonna and The Scream, which apparently were stolen in order to overload the resources of national police.
David Toska, (31), the so-called mastermind of the robbery, and Kjell Alrich Schumann (40) are the only two who have admitted guilt to the charges. Only Thomas Oscar Ingebrigtsen has admitted to the charge of being a member of a criminal group.
In the original trial all 13 defendants were found guilty. The appeals trial began in the autumn of 2006
On Friday the jury acquitted one of the accused, Thomas Thendrup, who had originally been sentenced to 16 years in preventative custody. This decision was not accepted by the professional judges that oversee Norwegian appeals trials by jury. The judges found unanimously that Thomas Thendrup was guilty beyond reasonable doubt and so he faces a new round in court to establish his guilt or innocence.
When sentencing takes place the convicted will be hoping to avoid forvaring, indefinite preventative custody that in practical terms can be a life sentence, and which extends beyond the maximum prison term of 21 years. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | January 2007 | ['(Aftenposten)'] |
At least 6 people are killed and at least 15 others are injured in a suicide attack in Baladruz, Iraq. | A suicide bomber has blown himself up in the eastern Iraqi town of Baladruz, killing at least six people and injuring 15, officials say.
The bomber targeted a mosque in the town, 90km (55 miles) north-east of Baghdad in Diyala province, a security official told Reuters.
The attack took place soon after evening prayers at about 2015 local time (1715 GMT).
Violence has waned in recent years but attacks in Iraq continue almost daily.
The attack took place in the town's Imam al-Hussein mosque.
At least 30 other worshippers were injured in the blast, officials said.
All the casualties were believed to be men.
Diyala remains restive, with a divided Shia-Sunni Muslim population.
In March, at least nine soldiers were killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Iraqi army base in Kanaan in Diyala. | Armed Conflict | April 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Annise Parker is elected Mayor of Houston, which becomes the largest United States city with an openly gay person elected mayor. |
HOUSTON -- Annise Parker became Houston's mayor Saturday night beating Gene Locke with 53 percent of the vote in the hotly contested mayoral runoff. Parker's win makes Houston the largest U.S. city ever to have an openly gay mayor. "I acknowledge that. I embrace that. I know what this win means to many of us who never thought we could achieve high office," Parker told an energetic crowd of supporters in her victory speech. Parker then called on Houstonians to come together "as one community." "We're united in one goal, and that is making Houston the city that it should be, could be, can be and will be," Parker said. Later, she clasped the hand of longtime partner, Kathy Hubbard, introducing her and their three children to the crowd. Locke conceded the race just after 10 p.m.
"I want to thank Annise Parker. She ran a wonderful race," Locke said to supporters. "I am proud that she is now the winner. I congratulate her." Locke called on his supporters to stand behind Parker. "Let's unite and work together, bringing all people together," he said. "The future of Houston is great only if its people work together." The mayoral election battle leading up to Saturday’s balloting was marked by fierce campaigning and anti-gay rhetoric. Parker is a lesbian who has never made a secret or an issue of her sexual orientation. But that orientation became focus of the race in recent weeks after anti-gay activists and conservative religious groups endorsed the 61-year-old Locke and sent out mailers condemning Parker’s "homosexual behavior." Meanwhile, gay and lesbian political organizations nationwide rallied to support the 53-year-old Parker by raising money for her campaign and making calls urging people to vote. Locke, who would have become the city’s second black mayor if elected, tried to distance himself from the anti-gay attacks while courting conservative voters who could tip the race in his favor. Although Locke condemned the divisive rhetoric, two of his key supporters contributed money to a conservative political action committee that sent out an anti-gay mailer earlier this month, urging voters not to pick Parker because she was endorsed by the "gay and lesbian political caucus." Campaign finance reports show Ned Holmes, finance chairman of Locke’s campaign, and James Dannenbaum, a member of the campaign’s finance committee, each gave $20,000. Parker and Locke, both Democrats in the nonpartisan race, made it to the runoff after garnering more votes than two other candidates on Nov. 3. They battled to replace Bill White, who was term-limited after serving six years and is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor. Several smaller U.S. cities have openly gay mayors, including Portland, Ore., Providence, R.I., and Cambridge, Mass. Houston, the country’s fourth largest city, is predominantly Democratic and about 25 percent black and one-third Hispanic. About 60,000 of its 2.2 million residents identify as gay or lesbian. In other results, Ronald Green squeaked by M.J. Khan with 51 percent of the vote in the race for city controller. Jolanda Jones, Sue Lovell and Stephen Costello won runoffs for at-large city council positions. Click here for the latest results. Previous article Cheap, potentially unsafe foreign shrimp driving U.S. shrimpers out of business
bearfoot said on December 11, 2009 at 6:14 PM
Yes , we're already for the same old liberal song and dance. yipee
changagent said on December 11, 2009 at 11:58 PM
Farewell Gene Locke, esq. It's been nice seeing you wheel and deal in this campaign! Maybe next time. daisymay said on December 12, 2009 at 3:57 AM
IMHO, he looks sort of "special". Best luck to Annise. Nothing worse than a desperate campaign going after someone's personal life, which has absolutely nothing to do with job performance. removeobama said on December 12, 2009 at 9:28 AM
today is the big day ,at last ,can"t voat here in west ft,bend co. but thay will be off my t.v. raymon said on December 12, 2009 at 9:45 AM
Why hasn't Q-Ball endorsed Locke? Did they tell him to keep his mouth shut? insidetheloop said on December 12, 2009 at 11:30 AM
Parker is far and away the stronger candidate, so if you have not voted, head to your precinct polling location and vote for Annise Parker! thinkpeoplethink said on December 12, 2009 at 12:18 PM
The run-off is today; it is just too bad there isn't a REAL choice. bearfoot said on December 12, 2009 at 2:37 PM
Morales for mayor. These 2 are the same old sad tale. rightwingnut said on December 12, 2009 at 5:44 PM
raymon said on December 12, 2009 at 9:45 AM - Why hasn't Q-Ball endorsed Locke? Did they tell him to keep his mouth shut? Why would he endorsed Locke? dubie said on December 12, 2009 at 6:50 PM
if whoever wins ,are we going to see a difference ? allison18 said on December 12, 2009 at 7:37 PM
Humm. Who has the better track record of public serice to the City of HOuston? Annise all the way! raymon said on December 12, 2009 at 8:01 PM
Uncle Tom has to go down! raymon said on December 12, 2009 at 9:59 PM
Locke, if you sleep with dogs, you get fleas! depeche said on December 12, 2009 at 10:35 PM
Setting aside her sexuality, I believe Annise Parker would do a better job as Mayor of Houston hands-down compared to Gene Locke. willyp3 said on December 12, 2009 at 11:00 PM
I have known Annise Parker for almost 20 years. She is incredibly intelligent, honest and trustworthy. I think she will do a better job running Houston than any mayor we have had in recent memory. markgartner said on December 12, 2009 at 11:15 PM
The "HOTZE HEX" lives on! Any candidate that receives the Hotze endorsement in the future should RUN THE OTHER WAY! Congratulations Mayor Parker! noitall said on December 12, 2009 at 11:45 PM
YEA !! LOTS OF WOMEN IN FLANNEL SHIRTS
petejones said on December 12, 2009 at 11:53 PM
personally i don't apreciate out of state people getting in on a local election just because of a persons sexual preference. just doesn't seem right. do we houstonians call, and campaign for a particular candidate in san fransisco ? i don't think so. just ain't right. kudos to locke for not calling the gay card. he very well could have. city's going to hell now. harley2 said on December 13, 2009 at 12:17 AM
take care of business and put good people to work. get to work on the crime. i dont care about your sexel prevance . clean the city up good luck
alvingirl said on December 13, 2009 at 1:00 AM
city isnt going to hyell, what a crock, congrats mayor
2536313 said on December 13, 2009 at 3:23 AM
Well I see that the citizens of Houston have decided that the lesser of two evils for Mayor was the gay woman. daisymay said on December 13, 2009 at 4:57 AM
I'm very happy for her, as I thought she was the better candidate. I was extremely disappointed with her acceptance speech though. She just kept harping on the gay theme. I don't care she's gay. No one should care she's gay, that has absolutely nothing to do with running this city. I was upset because Locke (imho) called out the gay card first with his fliers. Then she sunk to his level and kept bringing it up at the speech. Introducing your loved ones and your family is wonderful but stop bringing it up. Straights don't do that. No one cares what you do at home. We want to hear how you're going to tackle all the problems in store for you in your new job. /ranting.. LOL Feels better. petey1 said on December 13, 2009 at 6:32 AM
you have just heard the start of the gay thing... thats is all she will talk about from here on so just get used to it... you put her in office
bullitt50 said on December 13, 2009 at 7:49 AM
WHAT, SHE'S GAY ? *&^%$#@ Had I known that... I would have STAYED HOME !! :)
spencer1952 said on December 13, 2009 at 8:38 AM
It is a sad day for Houston, and it is an extremely sad day for Houston's church community. We have allowed through our complacency and apathy, and through rebellion against the Creator an openly gay woman to become the most powerful person in the city. The Houston Chronicle should be greatly ashamed of itself because this newspaper purposely and deliberately through negative reporting against Mr. Locke guided the voters to lean towards electing Parker. Why? In order to have the dubious distinction of being the largest city in America with an openly gay mayor. And hoping to capitalize nationally by calling this farce a history making event. What is a stench in the nostrils of God, is a sweet fragrance to the ungodly of this city. But to those who placed her in office with their votes and to the editorial staff of the Chronicle, beware!! Because God will not be mocked and the chickens will come home to roost. avoice said on December 13, 2009 at 8:49 AM
Good day! I'm curious to hear about this "PROVEN TRACK RECORD" that everyone seems so fixed upon.....the city of HOUSTON is in a tremedous downslope currently, has she not been in an elected position for the past decade??? Why is it that I did not hear anything from Parker concerning corrective measures needed during her campaign....does she not have a front row seat to the cloudy days ahead that we will all face as HOUSTONIANS. Get beyond the smoke and mirrors and GET YOUR PEOPLE out to vote, that's the bigger issue in all of this. kneedeep said on December 13, 2009 at 9:17 AM
I don't understand why the media has to keep calling her openly gay when they bring up her accomplishments, or the fact that she won the election, she has been a class act through this whole campaign, and not played that card. She may not be the best thing to happen to Houston, but I can bet the farm that she will be a whole lot better than the openly "Black" crook who was the alternative. Him along with the openly "Stupid," Quanell X, and then outgoing openly "Idiot" Bill White are making a mockery of the Great city of Houston. Good luck Anise
hmcretired said on December 13, 2009 at 9:21 AM
I really do not care one way or the other about her orientation. I do wonder why she used it as a political tool however. If she is so openly homosexual then why did she not give her lover a big hug and kiss on national television when she was elected. I have yet to see a heterosexual couple NOT do that after the election was no longer in doubt. The best we get from parker is a hand hold. Pitty. vivazebool said on December 13, 2009 at 10:18 AM
How about that? the lowest budget campaign, not to mention (gasp) LIBERAL, suck it all you zealots and bigots. hnrast said on December 13, 2009 at 10:38 AM
The wicked have taken over America, while nominal wimpy Christians are too preoccupied with their feelings, worshiping the trinity of self, composed of “ME, MYSELF, and I” and in search for a Jesus that is more in touch with their feelings, and for a Jesus that is more harmonious with their own perversions. They don’t see Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords; they see Jesus as Wimp of Wimps and Dumb of Dumbs. These so-called wimpy Christians talk the talk but they do not walk the walk. They know all the songs, and the Christian lingo, but they wobble and fall down when they are supposed to stand up against the wicked, therefore they are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked, and separated from Christ. The proof is all around you, we live in a nation technologically advanced in the midst of religious freaks gone wild, who in reality are like spiritually undeveloped babbling baboons, easily manipulated by the vultures of Washington DC, and the buffoons of the mainstream News Medi
hnrast said on December 13, 2009 at 10:42 AM
The wicked have taken over America, while nominal wimpy Christians are too preoccupied with their feelings, worshiping the trinity of self, composed of “ME, MYSELF, and I” and in search for a Jesus that is more in touch with their feelings, and for a Jesus that is more harmonious with their own perversions. They don’t see Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords; they see Jesus as Wimp of Wimps and Dumb of Dumbs. These so-called wimpy Christians talk the talk but they do not walk the walk. They know all the songs, and the Christian lingo, but they wobble and fall down when they are supposed to stand up against the wicked, therefore they are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked, and separated from Christ. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | December 2009 | ['(CBS News)', '(New York Times)'] |
Ten FARC dissidents are killed and three others are wounded when the Colombian Army bombs a base housing them in Calamar, Guaviare. | Colombian army bombs a base housing dissidents from the former FARC rebel group in Calamar, southeast Colombia.
Bombing by the Colombian military has killed 10 and injured three at a base used by dissidents from the former FARC armed group in southeast Colombia, according to the minister.
Defence Minister Diego Molano said on Twitter on Tuesday the military action had “neutralised” 13 FARC dissidents under the command of a man who goes by the alias “Gentil Duarte”. He did not say when the assault happened.
A source told AFP news agency that 10 died and three were wounded.
The dissidents had distanced themselves from Colombia’s 2016 peace pact, which ended a half-century civil war and saw the then-FARC disarm the following year.
The bombing was conducted in the municipal area of Calamar in the jungle of southeastern Colombia, where former FARC dissidents still operate.
“These narco-criminals are responsible for the recruitment of minors, attacks against our public forces, kidnapping and illegal mining,” said Molano.
He added the government will “not rest” until it finds Duarte, one of the most wanted rebel commanders in Colombia.
Last Friday, the country launched a 7,000-strong elite force to fight rebels financed by drug trafficking and other illegal activities.
It said the force would pursue members of the ELN the last active rebel group in Colombia as well as drug gangs and ex-FARC rebels who have abandoned the peace terms.
In December, the UN said the Colombian government had killed 244 former FARC fighters since the signing of the peace accords.
Colombia continues to battle a multi-faceted armed conflict involving left-wing fighters, drug-traffickers and right-wing paramilitaries competing for control of the lucrative cocaine and illegal mineral extraction industries.
In February, President Ivan Duque accused Venezuela of “protecting” the remaining rebel fighters.
His counterpart Nicolas Maduro responded that his country would “respond with force” if Colombia’s new elite force or Duque “dared to violate the sovereignty of Venezuela”.
More than nine million people have died, disappeared or been displaced thanks to fighting against rebel forces in Colombia since the 1960s.
The new unit consisting of 7,000 personnel will be deployed to border with Venezuela and to drug trafficking hotspots.
Trubunal unveils first criminal charges against former FARC fighters since the 2016 peace deal.
Attacks against the LGBTQ community have caused many to flee as a new wave of armed conflict violence frightens locals. | Armed Conflict | March 2021 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
At least 15 people are killed after two trains collide in Al–Ayyat, near Cairo, Egypt. | Rescuers using heavy lifting equipment have untangled the wreckage of two passenger trains which crashed near Cairo, killing at least 18 people.
Officials said at least 50 people were also injured. The trains collided at Al-Ayyat in Giza, 50km (31 miles) south of the Egyptian capital. The accident happened when a train heading to Fayoum stopped after apparently hitting an animal, and a second train went into the back of it. The second train, destined for Assiut in upper Egypt, badly damaged its front carriages on impact, crushing the rear carriages of the train in front. The military was brought in to help emergency services work through the night searching for bodies and injured passengers. Subsequent pictures from the scene showed the mangled wreckage of the two trains moved from the track by heavy lifting machinery. 'Deafening screech'
Eyewitnesses described how the first train made the unplanned stop after hitting an animal. One eyewitness, named only as Mohammed, said: "The train hit a water buffalo. The gas pipeline broke, and the train stalled. The other one came from behind quickly and hit it. "The people at the doors all fell, and people fell beneath the train tread." Resident, Samhi Saleh Abdel Al, told AFP: "I was sat near the road... when I heard a deafening screeching, then shouts and I saw passengers jumping from the train". Egypt rail network has a long history of rail accidents. The most deadly occurred at Al-Ayyat in 2002, when a train fire left more than 370 people dead. More recently, dozens were killed when a train crashed into vehicles at a level crossing north-west of Cairo in July 2008, and more than 50 died when two commuter trains collided near the capital in August 2006. | Train collisions | October 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
The Thai army moves into the Bangkok CBD to block the path of protesters. |
The Thai army has moved hundreds of soldiers into the business district of Bangkok to prevent anti-government protesters entering the area.
The protests by the "red-shirts", now in their fifth week, are currently focused in the city's shopping hub. The red-shirts are trying to force Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to step down and call an election. They had said they might move to Bangkok's financial district but later said they would not do so. The government's supporters, known as the yellow-shirts, have vowed to hold their own protests if security forces do not clear the red-shirts within seven days. Government figures said the aim of moving troops into place in Bangkok was not to attack the protesters, but simply to block any attempt they might make to enter the area.
There's a slightly surreal feel to all this today. Some of the protesters are manning a barricade looking out across the intersection. On the other side of that intersection are some soldiers with assault rifles. Every few 100 metres there are either riot police or soldiers and some razor wire that's been set up across the pavement and some military trucks. But the traffic is flowing freely down the middle of the road and there are people going about their business. The shops are all open. There are some rather bemused looking tourists that are having to make their way around the razor wire. And on the upper walkways, I can see lots of people up there, just curious onlookers, taking photographs. The music in the background is being played by the soldiers ... to try and calm the atmosphere. Every now and then people bring up cold drinks to the soldiers and the police. It is ferociously hot here today and they're standing in their full gear in the heat of the day. Everybody is going about their normal daily lives but with this significantly increased militarised presence on the streets.
Late on Friday, Mr Abhisit put the army commander-in-chief, Anupong Paojinda, in charge of national security. The general held a meeting of military commanders on Sunday, issued warnings to the red-shirt protesters to avoid the business district, and moved his troops into the area before dawn on Monday. Soldiers are on patrol in the city's famous red light district of Patpong, and along Silom Road, where the headquarters of Bangkok Bank is located along with many other office buildings. The bank is a target of the protesters' ire due to its establishment links. Head of the Privy Council and former prime minister Gen Prem Tinsulanonda is an adviser to the bank. "There are several units currently armed to prevent themselves from attacks from terrorists who are hiding among protesters," said government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn. The government uses the word "terrorist" to refer to an alleged militant hard-core of the anti-government movement, which has been largely peaceful. The army spokesman, Sunsern Kaewkumnerd, said that the troops - in their first deployment since last weekend's failed crackdown - were carrying live ammunition. "The authorities have their right to protect themselves," Mr Sunsern told AFP. An army spokesman told the BBC that plans were being formulated to bring the current crisis to an end. But, he said, any action would be proportionate. The BBC's South East Asia correspondent, Rachel Harvey, says that after weeks of reacting to the protesters' changing tactics, Thailand's security forces seem to have decided that pre-emptive moves might be more effective. Yellow threat
On Sunday, leaders of Thailand's yellow-shirt movement, which supports the political establishment, gave the government a week to end the red-shirts' protests or warned they would hold their own demonstrations. The Peoples' Alliance for Democracy (PAD), the formal umbrella for the yellow-shirts, had last week called for martial law.
Some members had expressed frustration that the attempted military crackdown of 10 April failed to end the red-shirt protests. Twenty-five people were killed and more than 800 wounded. The group has been largely silent since it closed down the country's airports in December 2008 and helped usher in the current government. Other much smaller groups, claiming to be "no colour", have also held gatherings in recent days, calling for an end to the political confrontation. Despite calls from some hard-line parts of the establishment, Gen Anupong has advocated a political solution and said his troops were not planning further crackdowns. The army plays a prominent role in Thai politics - former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted by the military in 2006. Many of the red-shirt protesters want Mr Thaksin to return. In a telephone interview with Reuters news agency, Mr Thaksin said the prime minister had to call a snap election in order to end the stand-off. Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, a former prime minister and head of the main opposition Thaksin-allied Puea Thai party, said he was seeking an audience with the Thai king to ask him to intervene to end the stand-off. The stock market began falling after the 10 April bloodshed, going down 6.8% last week and continuing its fall by another 1.7% by midday on Monday. | Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Japan Today)', '(Melbourne Age)', '(The Washington Post)'] |
In Cambodia, opposition leader Sam Rainsy is stripped of his parliamentary immunity. He may face libel charges, and has fled the nation. | One MP has already been arrested after Thursday's ruling, and Sam Rainsy himself has left the country. Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni has promised not to enter into his country's often murky political arena.
But a Sam Rainsy Party spokesman said he would send a letter to the king to ask that the MPs' immunity be restored.
"They should not have been stripped as parliamentarians when all they did was express their own opinions," Eng Chhay Eang said.
The government "have kicked out the opposition voice", he said, adding that Sam Rainsy Party MPs were planning to boycott parliament for a period of time in protest.
On Thursday Cambodia's National Assembly achieved the two-thirds majority it needed to overturn rules protecting Sam Rainsy and his colleagues Cheam Channy and Chea Poch from prosecution.
SAM RAINSY
1949: Born in Phnom Penh
1965: Leaves Cambodia for France
1989: Becomes Funcinpec's European representative
1993: Back in Cambodia, becomes finance minister
1994: Expelled from Funcinpec
1995: Founds the Khmer Nation Party, later renamed the Sam Rainsy Party
2003: Party polls 22% in general election
2005: Leaves the country after losing parliamentary immunity
As a result of the decision, the three men could face a series of defamation charges - which could force them to pay hefty fines or even spend time in jail.
Hours after the decision, Sam Rainsy left the country and is believed to have travelled first to Bangkok and then to Paris.
Cheam Channy was taken into custody by police on Thursday afternoon, and has reportedly been charged with starting an anti-Hun Sen militia.
Chea Poch is thought to be in hiding.
US condemnation
Prime Minister Hun Sen first filed a libel suit against Sam Rainsy last year, for accusing the government of plotting to kill its political rivals.
The other party in the coalition government, Prince Norodom Ranariddh's Funcinpec Party, has also begun defamation action against Sam Rainsy.
Sam Rainsy alleged that Prince Ranariddh took bribes to join forces with Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party to form the government - a move Funcinpec denies. A US senator said in a statement late on Thursday that Washington should take tough action against Cambodia for stripping Sam Rainsy of his immunity.
After parliament's decision, Prime Minister Hun Sen was unrepentant Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell said the move was "outrageous and unacceptable", and urged the US State Department to respond in "a forceful and appropriate manner".
The US embassy in Phnom Penh also condemned the parliament's decision on Thursday.
"We are deeply concerned that the National Assembly has chosen to occupy itself with political activity that appears to be designed to silence the opposition," it said in a statement.
But Prince Ranariddh was unrepentant. "I think this a Cambodian domestic issue. We have the full right to solve it according to the rule of the laws of Cambodia," he is quoted as saying by Reuters news agency on Friday. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | February 2005 | ['(Reuters AlertNet)', '(BBC)'] |
In auto racing, Charlie Kimball, Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas from Chip Ganassi Racing team win 2013 24 Hours of Daytona. | Ganassi's winning Riley-BMW MkXXVI, which Montoya shared with Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and Charlie Kimball, briefly dropped to fourth position after the final restart with less than an hour to go.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup star quickly took back third from AJ Allmendinger's Michael Shank Racing Riley-Ford and then moved up to second when Joao Barbosa pitted in the Action Express Coyote-Chevrolet to take a penalty for avoidable contact with the MSR car.
Montoya then needed less than a lap to hunt down and overtake Max Angelelli, who had moved into the lead when the Wayne Taylor Racing squad opted not to change tyres on his Dallara-Chevrolet DP01.
The lead Ganassi entry, which was the fastest car throughout the 51st running of the 24 Hours, then pulled away into a 20-second lead. Splash-and-dash fuel stops for the leaders in the closing minutes had no bearing on the overall result.
Angelelli, who shared with Jordan Taylor and Ryan Hunter-Reay took the chequered flag nearly 22s in arrears.
Angelelli claimed that the BMW engine in the Ganassi Riley gave the winning crew a clear advantage and left rivals no chance to fight for victory in the final reckoning.
"What could I do?" he said. "The #01 car was in another league: it was in the A class and we were in the B class."
The victory means that team leader Pruett has now equalled sportscar legend Hurley Haywood's record tally of five overall Daytona victories.
Team boss Chip Ganassi paid tribute to veteran Pruett after the race. "When you look at Hurley's record and see a name like Scott's up there with it, it is quite a feat," said Ganassi. "Hurley asked me to make sure Scott retires now..."
The MSR Riley-Ford Allmendinger shared with Justin Wilson, Oswaldo Negri Jr, John Pew and Marcos Ambrose ended up third, despite dropping as far as eight laps off the lead.
Last year's winning team was able to fight back onto the lead lap, but an off-road excursion as Allmendinger tried to overtake Barbosa straight after the restart resulted in an unscheduled pitstop to clean out the radiators.
Barbosa, who shared his Action Express car with Mike Rockenfeller and Burt Frisselle, ended up fourth after his penalty.
Audi upset the form book to finish one-two in the GT class with the Alex Job Racing R8 Grand-Am team heading home the APR Motorsport squad's identical car.
The AJR car in the hands of Filipe Albuquerque finished the race with the APR car in the hands of Rene Rast.
Daytona 24h: Chip Ganassi Racing holds top spots after first hour
Race of my Life: Stephane Peterhansel
Joey Mawson made waves in the middle of the last decade, beating future Haas Formula 1 driver Mick Schumacher - among other highly-rated talents - to the 2016 German F4 title. A run in F1's feeder GP3 category only caused his career to stall, but now back in Australia Mawson's S5000 title success has set that to rights
OPINION: The greed-driven push for a European Super League that threatened to tear football apart is collapsing at the seams. Motor racing's equivalent, the football-themed Superleague Formula series of 2008-11, was everything that the proposed ESL never could be Having had the door to F1 slammed in his face and come within three laps of winning the Indianapolis 500, the collapse of a Peugeot LMP1 shot meant Japan was Bertrand Baguette's last chance of a career. But it's one which he has grasped with both hands
From Formula 3 to truck racing, Dakar and EuroNASCAR via a winning stint in the DTM, there's not much Ellen Lohr hasn't seen in a stellar racing career that highlights the merit in being a generalist. But she believes her career came too early...
The lightweight sportscar manufacturer has not rewritten the rulebook with its latest machines, but the new SR3 XX and SR10 still provide a step forward on its previous successful models
The forthcoming Netflix film linking the world of underworld crime and motorsport plays on a theme that isn't exactly new. Over the years, several shady figures have attempted to make it in racing before their dubious dealings caught up with them
The New Zealand Grand Prix's mix of rising talent and big-name stars thrilled the crowds (yes, remember crowds?) assembled for the Toyota Racing Series meeting at Hampton Downs last weekend and left distant observers craving a repeat
OPINION: The 67th edition of the Macau Grand Prix might have been a largely muted affair to the outside world without its international influx and star line-ups, another victim to the COVID-19 pandemic, but organisers deserve huge credit for keeping the party going | Sports Competition | January 2013 | ['(Autosport)', '(Motorsport)'] |
An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the moment magnitude scale hits the Turkish city of İzmir, injuring 15 people and causing one fatal heart attack. This is the fourth strong tremor this week. | About 15 people were brought to hospitals with minor injuries or heart attacks brought on by the quake, CNN-Turk reported. Oguz Kagan K Joksal, governor of Izmir province, said there were no immediate reports of deaths. "Everyone is in the streets," Koksal said, according to the Anatolia news agency. He said five buildings were damaged in Izmir, Turkey's third largest city. The quake was centered in Seferihisar, Turkey, the Istanbul-based Kandilli Observatory said, but was felt in Istanbul and the Greek islands of Chios and Mytilini near the Turkish coast. Seferihisar is 190 miles south of Istanbul. Three quakes of similar magnitudes shook Izmir earlier this week. | Earthquakes | October 2005 | ['(AFP)', '(AP)', '(USGS)'] |
Strikes in France: Transport workers strike for the fifth consecutive day, rejecting an offer by public railway company SNCF. | The country's largest rail union said the offer by state rail firm SNCF "did not respond to all the issues".
Crippling transport strikes were therefore set to extend to a fifth day.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon said that unions must first return to work before any negotiations could begin on the rail workers' privileged pensions.
"We demand, for negotiations to resume, that there is a call by the unions to return to work," he told a press conference on Saturday.
"It is not possible to strike and negotiate at the same time," he said.
President Sarkozy, Mr Fillon and Labour Minister Xavier Bertrand held another round of talks on Saturday evening, officials said.
Severe disruption
The proposals by SNCF suggested month-long talks should start on Wednesday. The country's fourth largest railway union has recommended suspending action, as it says the strike is losing support, but all other unions are in favour of the stoppages.
Benefits 1.6m workers, including 1.1m retirees
Applies in 16 sectors, of which rail and utilities employees make up 360,000 people
Meanwhile, the SNCF warned that transport services would remain severely disrupted on Sunday, with only 250 of the country's 700 high-speed TGV trains operating. It said Paris metro lines would see one train in five run, and that bus and tram services would be cut to 40%.
The industrial action is costing the French economy 400m euros ($590m; £295m) a day, French newspaper Le Figaro reported.
The strike, which began on Tuesday night, was triggered by plans to scrap "special" pensions privileges enjoyed by 500,000 workers, mainly in the rail and energy sectors, as well as 1.1 million pensioners.
The French government last tried to overhaul "special" pensions in 1995. The move sparked three weeks of strikes that forced then-President Jacques Chirac to climb down.
But the polls have so far broadly supported Mr Sarkozy, who says France can no longer afford to let some public sector employees retire on a full pension as early as 50.
The deadlock over the transport systems comes ahead of planned - but separate - strikes by civil servants, lawyers and magistrates on Tuesday. What are these? | Strike | November 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
China dispatches 2,500 People's Liberation Army soldiers to Yunnan province to search for hundreds of people missing after the earthquake. | China has deployed 2,500 soldiers to the south-western province of Yunnan to help search for survivors after an earthquake killed at least 398 people.
More than 1,800 people were injured when the magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck on Sunday.
Attempts to reach the epicentre have been hampered by heavy rain, with some rescuers forced to travel on foot.
State broadcaster CCTV said the earthquake was the strongest to hit the mountainous province in 14 years.
President Xi Jinping called for "all-out efforts" to find survivors as he dispatched soldiers to the area.
They joined more than 300 police and firefighters from Zhaotong and about 400 emergency workers and sniffer dogs from across Yunnan province in the rescue operation.
But rescuers trying to deliver the much-needed supplies are struggling to reach the area, reports the BBC's Celia Hatton in Beijing. Unrelenting rain and continuing landslides have left many roads in the region too damaged to use, she adds. Firefighters managed to rescue 32 people, including a five-year-old boy, who had been trapped inside a residential block, the official Xinhua news agency reports.
Bodies pulled out of collapsed buildings in Longtoushan, the epicentre of the earthquake, were laid out in the street wrapped in blankets or planks of wood, AFP reports.
Premier Li Keqiang has travelled to the area to oversee the rescue operation. According to AFP, quoting Xinhua, he had to walk for "over three miles" (5km) to reach the worst-hit village in Yunnan on Monday.
Xinhua said its reporters in Ludian county - which includes Longtoushan - "saw drenched survivors sit along the muddy roads waiting for food and medication. Some half-naked survivors were quivering in the rain".
Equipment brought to the area included life-detection instruments and digging equipment to help with rescue efforts. At least 12,000 houses were reportedly destroyed in the earthquake, with another 30,000 damaged.
The government had sent 2,000 tents, 3,000 folding beds, 3,000 quilts and 3,000 coats to the disaster zone, Xinhua said.
Chen Wangchang, head of Ludian County hospital in Yunnan's Zhaotong City, said temporary tented medical facilities had been set up. "All the houses had already collapsed when we arrived. Dead bodies were everywhere and there were a lot of injured people."
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the focus of the earthquake was at a relatively shallow depth of 10km (six miles) below the Zhaotong region, in the north-east of the province. It hit at 16:30 local time (08:30 GMT) on Sunday. State television broadcast footage of people fleeing their homes after the earthquake, which knocked out electricity supplies and communication lines in the region. "The walls of several buildings crumbled, and water pipes were ruptured," one local resident wrote on Weibo, China's Twitter-like service. Another local told Xinhua that the streets there were like a "battlefield after bombardment", adding that her neighbour's house, a new two-storey building, had collapsed.
A spokesman for UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the secretary-general was "saddened by the loss of life", while the White House offered its condolences and said the US "stands ready to assist." South-west China lies in an area that is prone to earthquakes. An earthquake in Sichuan in 2008 killed tens of thousands of people while a magnitude 7.7 quake in Yunnan in 1970 killed at least 15,000.
| Earthquakes | August 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
A new disease, progressive inflammatory neuropathy , is found in pig slaughterhouse workers in southeastern Minnesota. | On October 29, 2007, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) was notified by a tertiary-care provider of unexplained neurologic illnesses among workers in a swine slaughterhouse (plant A) in southeast Minnesota. As a result, MDH initiated a detailed investigation at plant A to characterize the outbreak. This report describes the ongoing investigation and outbreak-control measures undertaken by state public health officials and CDC. Plant A, located in southeastern Minnesota, employs approximately 1,200 workers and processes 18,000 pigs per day. After being notified of the illnesses, MDH investigators initiated active case finding, interviewed workers at plant A, and reviewed the plant's occupational health and employment records. As of January 28, 2008, a total of 12 workers at plant A had been identified with confirmed (eight workers), probable (two), or possible (two) progressive inflammatory neuropathy (PIN) (Box). Illness onset ranged from November 2006 through November 2007. Median age of the 12 patients was 31 years (range: 21--51 years); six patients were female. All 12 patients reported being healthy before the onset of neurologic symptoms. Symptoms ranged from acute paralysis to gradually progressive symmetric weakness over periods ranging from 8 to 213 days. Severity ranged from minor weakness and numbness to paralysis predominantly in the lower extremities affecting mobility. Eleven patients had evidence of axonal or demyelinating peripheral neuropathy by electrodiagnostic testing. Cerebrospinal fluid was obtained from seven patients. All seven had elevated protein levels (median: 125 mg/dL; range: 75--231 mg/dL [normal: 14--45 mg/dL]) with no or minimal pleocytosis (median: 1 cell/dL; range: 1--73 cells/dL in a nontraumatic tap); five patients had evidence of inflammation on spinal magnetic resonance imaging (four patients in peripheral nerves or roots and one patient in the anterior spinal cord). All 12 patients reported either working at or having regular contact with an area where swine heads were processed (known as the head table), which was located within a larger processing area in plant A known as the warm room. A case-control study was conducted among plant A workers to identify specific risk factors associated with illness. The 10 patients with confirmed or probable cases were included in the study, along with two stratified control groups: 1) a random selection of 48 healthy warm-room workers and 2) all 65 healthy head-table workers. Statistically significant (p<0.05) differences were calculated by chi-square test. Blood samples and throat swabs were collected from all consenting case-patients and controls. As of January 30, laboratory investigations had not identified any infectious agent from the blood and throat-swab specimens that would explain the occurrence of PIN.
Results of the case-control study indicated that case-patients (seven of 10, 70%) were significantly more likely to have worked at the head table than the warm-room controls (12 of 48, 25%) (odds ratio [OR]: 7.0; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.3--42.2; p = 0.009). Case-patients also were more likely to have removed brains or remaining skeletal muscle from the pig head (a process known as backing heads) (four of 10, 40%) than controls (two of 46, 4%) (OR: 15.3; CI = 1.8--163.4; p = 0.006). Among head-table workers, case-patients were significantly more likely to have removed brains or skeletal muscle from the head (four of seven, 57%) than head-table controls (eight of 65, 12%) (OR: 9.50; CI = 1.40--70.2; p = 0.01). Illness was not determined to be associated with previous travel outside or within the United States; exposure to chemicals, fertilizers, or insecticides; use of medications; or receipt of previous vaccinations. An environmental assessment of the plant was conducted on November 28, 2007. Standard personal protective equipment (PPE) used by workers at plant A included hard hats, laboratory coats (including some that were short-sleeved), boots, hearing protection, eye protection, and specialized gloves that varied with the particular task of the worker. A compressed air device was used in the plant to harvest brain tissue from pig heads at the head table. The device was placed into the skull of the pig through the foramen magnum, and the force of the air disrupted the brain material into a liquefied form that made it easier to remove (a technique known as "blowing brains"). This technique caused generation of small droplets and splatter, possibly including aerosolized brain material, to which workers operating the device and others nearby might have been exposed. In response to the investigation, plant A voluntarily suspended harvesting of brains and instituted additional mandatory PPE on November 28, 2007, including face shields and long sleeves, for workers stationed at the head table and other workers who chose to use additional PPE. A survey of the 25 federally inspected swine slaughterhouses with >500 employees in the United States indicated that only three plants (plant A in Minnesota and plants in Nebraska and Indiana) reported recent use of compressed air to extract pig brains. To date, no cases of PIN have been identified in association with workers at the Nebraska plant. However, several workers at the Indiana plant have been preliminarily identified with neurologic illnesses and similar histories of exposure to head-processing activities at that slaughterhouse. Further assessments of these patients, and additional measures to identify other workers with illness, are being conducted in Indiana. As a result of this investigation, all three plants have stopped using compressed air to extract brain material.
Reported by: D Lachance, Mayo Clinic, Rochester; S Goyal, PhD, Univ of Minnesota, St. Paul; R Danila, PhD, A DeVries, MD, R Lynfield, MD, Minnesota Dept of Health. J Howell, DVM, J Wyatt, MPH, Indiana State Dept of Health. T Safranek, MD, Nebraska Dept of Health and Human Svcs. E Belay, MD, J McQuiston, DVM, L Schonberger, MD, J Sejvar, MD, Div of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases; S Brueck, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; J Adjemian, PhD, B Buss, DVM, J Gibbins, DVM, S Holzbauer, DVM, EIS officers, CDC. This report summarizes an ongoing investigation of PIN, a syndrome that appears to be associated with swine slaughterhouse workers who process pig heads. Several clinical and laboratory features of this illness and the distinctive epidemiology associated with patients appear unique. Pigs slaughtered at plant A have passed inspection by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service, and the investigation has not identified any foodborne risk to the general population. The investigation in Minnesota indicates that PIN appears associated with having worked at the head table, where a compressed-air device was used to extract pig brains. In the process of blowing compressed air into the pig skull, brain material might have been splattered or even aerosolized, and workers might have been exposed through inhalation or contact with mucous membranes. One hypothesis for development of PIN is that worker exposure to aerosolized pig neural protein might have induced an autoimmune-mediated peripheral neuropathy (1,2). Additional investigation of the characteristics and causes of PIN is under way. Whether compressed-air devices are being used for pig-brain extraction in other slaughterhouses or processing facilities, in the United States or internationally, is unknown. Clinicians should provide CDC with information regarding swine slaughterhouse workers who might have illnesses similar to PIN, including patients with peripheral neuropathy, myelopathy, or features of both. Clinicians who identify such patients should report the cases to their state health department and contact CDC at 770-488-7100. Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.References to non-CDC sites on the Internet are provided as a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute or imply endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content of pages found at these sites. URL addresses listed in MMWR were current as of the date of publication.
Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
| Disease Outbreaks | January 2008 | ['(PIN)', '(CDC)'] |
Rwanda president Paul Kagame's rival Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza is released one day after her arrest on charges of terrorism and genocide denial but banned from leaving Kigali and ordered to report to authorities twice a month. | Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza was accused of collaborating with a terrorist group and denying the genocide. Ms Ingabire, who plans to challenge President Paul Kagame in August's election, has been ordered to report to the authorities twice a month. She is also banned from leaving the capital city, a Kigali court ruled on Thursday. Ms Ingabire, an ethnic Hutu, was said to be propagating genocide ideology after she called for action to be taken against those responsible for killing Hutus during the 1994 conflict. The majority of those killed in the genocide were Tutsis. President Kagame is a Tutsi former rebel leader who came to power to end the killings. His forces have been accused of massacring Hutus after the genocide ended. A police spokesperson said she had committed serious crimes. Ms Ingabire, who leads the Unified Democratic Forces party, has previously said she had been harassed since returning from exile in January. Correspondents say the travel restrictions imposed on her could have a severe impact on her campaign. President Paul Kagame has said in the past he respects people's rights but will not tolerate anyone undermining peace and stability. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announces plans to open the Technological University Dublin, a new university in Dublin, Ireland, in January 2019. The new university will be an amalgamation of three existing institutes of technology – DIT, ITB, and IT Tallaght. (RTÉ) | The new university will comprise of a merger between the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), and the Tallaght and Blanchardstown institutes of technology.
It is expected to be created by January of next year.
The institutes' existing campuses, including those at Tallaght and Blanchardstown, will remain.
The three Dublin ITs had submitted a joint application for technological university status.
Three other groups of ITs, in Munster, the southeast and Connacht-Ulster have also applied, but the Dublin consortium is the first to have its bid approved by an international panel.
The criteria governing technological universities was laid down in legislation that was put in place earlier this year.
The merging of existing Institutes of Technology was a requirement.
The new universities must also have "particular regard to the needs of the region" they are based in, according to the legislation.
As their status as "technological" universities suggests, they must maintain their current industry-focused approach, combining research and third-level "excellence" with programmes "that reflect the needs of individuals, enterprise, the professions" as well as "local interests and other stakeholders in the region".
| Organization Merge | July 2018 | [] |
Two attackers of Eid al-Adha prayers in an Imambargah at Shikapur district, Sindh, injure at least ten people including five policemen. One assailant blew himself up and authorities arrested the other one. | The district police said four suicide attackers infiltrated Khanpur and reached Shikarpur district of Sindh province.
Two of the attackers targeted an Eid prayer ground where one assailant blew himself up, injuring 10 people, two of whom were policemen. The other attacker fled, police sources said.
Two other attackers targeted an imambargah but were stopped by police at the entrance on account of appearing suspicious. One of the attackers blew himself up after he was stopped by guards for a search, whereas the other was arrested, police said.
The second attacker, a would-be suicide bomber, was shot and wounded at the scene, after which the officers arrested him.
On the other hand, according to the reports in local media, the second attacker was overpowered by the people and also tortured before handed over to the police.
Three police officers were wounded in the explosion. One of the wounded officers was reportedly in critical condition.
Those injured in the blast have been admitted to hospitals in Shikarpur for treatment.
Additional contingents of police have been deployed at the blast site.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Sindh Inspector General of Police AD Khawaja reached Shikarpur and inspected the blast site. He also visited the injured admitted in different hospitals. The IGP announced Rs1 million financial aid for those who were seriously injured.
Bakhtwar Bhutto Zardari took it to Twitter to appreciate the policemen who showed great courage.
| Armed Conflict | September 2016 | ['(Daily Pakistan)', '(The Express Tribune)'] |
Russia successfully tests its new RS–24 ICBM, purportedly designed to defeat present and future anti–missile systems. | May 29 (Interfax-AVN) - The training and combat blocks of
Russia's new RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile with independently
targeted reentry vehicles hit the designated target at the Kura test
site in Kamchatka, the press service of the Russian Missile Strategic
Forces told Interfax-AVN.
"The test launch of the RS-24 missile took place at 2.20 p.m.
Moscow time from the Plesetsk test site. The training and combat blocks
hit the designated area at the Kura test site in Kamchatka on time," the
press service said.
© 1991-2007 Interfax | Military Exercise | May 2007 | ['(RIA Novosti)', '(Interfax–AVN)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Hong Kong pro–democracy activist Nathan Law says he is in the United Kingdom after fleeing persecution from a controversial security law implemented by the Hong Kong government. | One of Hong Kong's most prominent young pro-democracy activists says he is in London after fleeing the territory following a sweeping, controversial security law imposed there by China.
"I boarded my night flight... My destination: London," Nathan Law wrote on Twitter, a week and a half after saying he had left Hong Kong. He said he had spoken with reporters and was living in a "little apartment".
Activists say that China's new law erodes Hong Kong's freedoms. But Beijing has dismissed the criticism, saying that the law is necessary to stop the type of pro-democracy protests seen in Hong Kong during much of 2019. Mr Law is a one-time student leader who rose to prominence during mass protests in 2014.
He was also a local legislator who co-founded the Demosisto Party with another well-known activist, Joshua Wong. The party disbanded when China imposed the new law.
It is not clear from his social media posts on Monday when he arrived in the UK. Writing on social media, Mr Law said that he faced "many uncertainties", but had made the decision to leave Hong Kong "in the face of political upheaval". "We don't even know if our next protest, next court hearing, will be followed by imprisonment," he said, adding that he had put himself in "danger". "I've kept a low profile on my whereabouts in order to mitigate the risks."
In one post, which appeared to include a aerial photo of London from the window of a passenger plane, he said he had a message for Hong Kongers: "We aren't fractured. On the contrary, we're well-equipped to face the next difficult battle."
Earlier this month, Mr Law told the BBC that he would continue his advocacy work from abroad, and that the people of Hong Kong would not give up their fight. "I think the movement is still pretty much alive," he said.
On 1 July, the 27-year-old spoke via video link to a US Congressional hearing on Hong Kong. He told American politicians he was worried about returning to the territory, for fear of being imprisoned by Beijing.
"Merely speaking about the plight of Hong Kongers on an occasion like this, contradicts the new national security law," he told the hearing. "So much is now lost in the city I love: the freedom to tell the truth."
Hong Kong's sovereignty was handed back to China by Britain in 1997 and certain rights were supposed to be guaranteed for at least 50 years under the "one country, two systems" agreement.
Last month, China passed a wide-ranging new security law for Hong Kong which makes it easier to punish protesters and reduces the city's autonomy.
It gives the Chinese state new powers over the city, allowing it to target secession, subversion and terrorism with punishments of up to life in prison. The decision to implement the measure has drawn widespread international condemnation.
Elements of the new, wide ranging law include:
China's new law also states that it will apply to non-permanent residents of Hong Kong and to people "from outside" the territory.
| Government Policy Changes | July 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Astronomy: A total lunar eclipse is visible from Europe, the Americas and most of Africa from 01:46 to 05:34 GMT Nasa 1, Nasa 2. | --- Live Webcast of Eclipse! --- The first eclipse of 2003 occurs on the evening of Thursday, May 15 (in Europe, the eclipse occurs during the early morning hours of Friday, May 16). This event is a total eclipse of the Moon which will be visible from North and South America as well as Europe, Africa and Antarctica. During such an eclipse, the Moon's disk can take on a dramatically colorful appearance from bright orange to blood red to dark brown and (rarely) very dark gray. An eclipse of the Moon can only take place at Full Moon, and only if the Moon passes through some portion of Earth's shadow. The shadow is actually composed of two cone-shaped parts, one nested inside the other. The outer shadow or penumbra is a zone where Earth blocks some (but not all) of the Sun's rays. In contrast, the inner shadow or umbra is a region where Earth blocks all direct sunlight from reaching the Moon. If the Moon passes through only part on the umbra, a partial eclipse is seen. However, if the entire Moon passes through the umbral shadow, then a total eclipse of the Moon occurs. For more information on what, why, how, when and where of lunar eclipses, see the special web page
lunar eclipses for beginners. May's lunar eclipse is well-placed for North and South America as well as western Europe and Africa. From the United States, the eastern half of the country will see the entire eclipse (weather permitting). From the western half of the USA, the partial phases begin before moonrise. From the Pacific Northwest (Oregon and Washington), the Moon will rise already in total eclipse. Unfortunately, strong evening twilight will interfere with eclipse watching until the sky grows dark enough, by which time the total phase will be over. The southern panhandle of Alaska will miss totality entirely but will catch the last stages of the partial eclipse as the Moon rises. The rest of Alaska will see none of the eclipse since it ends before the Moon has risen. The eastern half of Canada also witnesses the entire eclipse while the western sections miss the early stages. From western Europe, the eclipse occurs during the early morning hours of Friday, May 16. The Moon sets before totality begins from most of Scandinavian and eastern Europe. From Germany, Switzerland and Italy, the Moon sets during the total phase of the eclipse. England, Ireland and France will catch all of totality since the Moon sets during the final partial phases. Finally, western Spain and Portugal will see the entire eclipse which ends shortly before moonset. The map above shows the exact geographic regions of visibility for each phase of the eclipse. The entire eclipse is visible from start to finish in the white (unshaded) portion of the map, while none of the eclipse can be seen from the dark gray areas. For anyone located in the blue shaded region labeled Eclipse at Moonrise, this means that the Moon will rise while some phase of the eclipse is already in progress. The contact curves labeled P1, U1, U2, U3, U4, and P4 represent each phase of the eclipse (see the key above). If you are west (left) of a particular curve, that phase occurs before moonrise and you will not see it. However, if you are east (right) of a curve, that phase occurs after moonrise and you will see it (weather permitting!). Let's use southern California as an example. On the above map, southern California lies west (left) of the U1 curve (partial eclipse begins) and east (right) of the curve U2 (total eclipse begins). This means that the partial eclipse begins before moonrise from southern California. In fact, the Moon will rise while the partial eclipse is in progress. For observers located within the second blue shaded region labeled Eclipse at Moonset, the situation is reversed. Here the Moon sets while some phase of the eclipse is still in progress. If you are east (right) of a particular curve (P1, U1, U2, U3, U4, or P4), that phase occurs after moonset and you will not see it. However, if you are west (left) of a contact curve, that phase occurs before moonset and you will see it (weather permitting!). All total eclipses start with a penumbral followed by a partial eclipse, and end with a partial followed by a penumbral eclipse (the total eclipse is sandwiched in the middle). Since the penumbral phases of the eclipse are so difficult to see, we will ignore them. From start to finish, May's lunar eclipse lasts about three hours and fifteen minutes (not including the penumbral phases which are very difficult to see). The partial eclipse begins as the Moon's eastern edge slowly moves into the Earth's umbral shadow. During the partial phases, it takes just over an hour for the Moon's orbital motion to carry it entirely within the Earth's dark umbra. Since no major volcanic eruptions have taken place recently, the Moon will probably take on a vivid red or orange color during the total phase. After the total phase ends, it is once again followed by a partial eclipse as the Moon gradually leaves the umbral shadow. The total phase of a lunar eclipse is called totality. At this time, the Moon is completely immersed within the Earth's dark umbral shadow. During the May 15-16 eclipse totality will last about 53 minutes. This is considerably shorter that the maximum duration possible of 1 hour and 47 minutes (see: Total Lunar Eclipse of July 16, 2000). The major phases of the eclipse occur as follows (all times are GMT or Greenwich Mean Time). The partial eclipse commences with first umbral contact at 02:03 GMT. Totality begins at 03:14 GMT and lasts until 04:07 GMT. The partial phases end at 05:18 GMT. Eclipse times for time zones in the United States and Canada are shown in the following table. The table above provides times of the major eclipse phases for North American time zones, Greenwich Mean Time and several European time zones. Eclipse times for other time zones can be calculated by taking the difference between local time and Greenwich and adding it to the tabulated GMT times. If you live somewhere that does not use "Daylight Time" in the summer months, you can convert the above times for your Time Zone from "Daylight Time" to "Standard Time" simply by subtracting 1 hour. For more information, see Time Zones. Note that military style time (0-24 hours) is used instead of civilian time (am & pm). Times greater than 12:00 can be converted to civilian time by subtracting 12 hours. For example, the time 22:03 is equivalent to 10:03 pm (23:03 - 12:00 = 10:03 pm). To calculate the Moon's altitude from your city at each stage of the eclipse, visit the U. S. Naval Observatory's Lunar Eclipse Computer. The following diagrams show the Moon's path through Earth's shadows (higher resolution versions of the above figure). The times of major stages of the eclipse are given for a number of time zones. Please choose the diagram for your own time zone. Each diagram is a GIF file with a size of 36k. Some people may be puzzled that the Moon's motion is from west to east (right to left) in these diagrams, instead of its daily east to west (left to right) motion in the sky. However, the Moon actually moves WEST to EAST (right to left) with respect to the Earth's shadow and the stars. Permission is freely granted to reproduce these eclipse diagrams when accompanied by an acknowledgment:
At the instant of mid-totality (03:40 GMT), the Moon will lie in the zenith for observers in southern Brazil near its western border with Bolivia and Paraguay. At this time, the umbral eclipse magnitude peaks at 1.134. From the diagram above, it is clear that the southern (bottom) edge of the Moon will dip much deeper into the Earth's shadow than will the northern (top) edge. Since the Earth's umbral shadow is darker in the center than at the edge, the Moon's appearance will likely change dramatically with time. A large variation in shadow brightness can be expected and observers are encouraged to estimate the Danjon value at different times during totality ( Danjon Brightness Scale). Note that it may also be necessary to assign different Danjon values to different portions of the Moon at different times. This could be an excellent opportunity for budding astronomers and students to test their observing skills. Try recording your estimates of the Moon's brightness every ten minutes during totality using the Danjon Scale. Compare your results with your companions and classmates and discover how the Moon's appearance changes during the total eclipse. The brightness of the totally eclipsed Moon is very sensitive to the presence of volcanic dust in Earth's atmosphere. As part of a continuing research project, Dr. Richard Keen has been using reports of lunar eclipse brightnesses to calculate a history of optical thicknesses of volcanic dust layers (see: What Will 2003's Lunar Eclipses Look Like?). If you'd like to help Dr. Keen by making eclipse observations, you can contact him at Richard.Keen@Colorado.EDU. The amount of dust in Earth's atmosphere also has an effect on the diameter of the umbral shadow. Amateur astronomers with telescopes can make careful times of when some of the Moon's major craters enter or exit the umbra. Such observations are valuable in determining the enlargement of Earth's shadow. A table of crater predictions identifies twenty well-defined craters useful for this purpose. For more information, see: Crater Timings During Lunar Eclipses. An eclipse of the Moon also presents a tempting target to photograph. Since the Moon appears quite small in the sky, you'll need a fairly powerful telephoto lens (400 mm or more) or even a small telescope to attach your camera to. A typical 400 speed color film (either slides or negatives) is a good choice. For more information on equipment, film, recommended exposures and additional tips, see lunar eclipse photography. Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are completely safe to watch. You don't need any kind of protective filters. It isn't even necessary to use a telescope. You can watch the lunar eclipse with nothing more than your own two eyes. If you have a pair of binoculars, they will help magnify the view and will make the red coloration brighter and easier to see. A standard pair of 7x35 or 7x50 binoculars work fine. During totality, the spring constellations will be well placed for viewing. Spica (mv = +0.98) lies 32° west of the eclipsed Moon, while Arcturus (mv = -0.05) is 43° to the northwest. Jupiter will appear low in the west in Cancer. Although total eclipses of the Moon are only of minor scientific value, they are remarkably beautiful events which can be seen without expensive equipment. They help to cultivate interest in science and astronomy in our children and to provide a unique learning opportunity for families, students and teachers. To the nature lover and naturalist, the lunar eclipse can be appreciated and celebrated as an event which vividly illustrates our connection and place among the planets in the solar system. The three dimensional reality of our universe comes alive in a graceful celestial ballet as the Moon dances with the Earth's shadow. May your skies be clear, dress warmly and enjoy the spectacle! During the five millennium period from 2000 BC through AD 3000, there are 7,718 eclipses1 of the Moon (including both partial and total eclipses). There are anywhere from 0 to 3 lunar eclipses (partial or total) each year. The last time that three total lunar eclipses occurred in one calendar year was in 1982. Partial eclipses slightly outnumber total eclipses by 7 to 6. The last total lunar eclipse visible from all of the United States occurred on Jan. 20, 2000. The last total lunar eclipse occurred on Jan. 09, 2001 and was visible from Europe, Africa and Asia. North Americans won't have another opportunity to see a total lunar eclipse until Nov. 8-9, 2003. The table below lists every lunar eclipse from 2003 through 2007. Click on the eclipse Date to see a map and diagram of an eclipse. Although penumbral lunar eclipses are included in this list, they are usually quite difficult to observe because of their subtlety. The penumbra is a partial shadow which still permits some direct sunlight to reach the Moon. The Umbral Magnitude is the fraction on the Moon's diameter immersed in the umbra at maximum eclipse. For values greater than 1.0, it is a total eclipse. For negative values, it is a penumbral eclipse. The Total Duration is the duration of the total phase (total eclipses only). Two weeks after the May 15-16 total lunar eclipse, a solar eclipse will occur on May 31. | New wonders in nature | May 2003 | [] |
President of Palau Tommy Remengesau Jr. announces he will be hosting an in-person meeting with the leaders of Kiribati, Nauru, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. Nauru's President Lionel Aingimea says the leaders agreed to attend Palau's Independence Day on October 1 as the five Pacific countries remain free of COVID-19. | Palau President Tommy Remengesau has confirmed his country will host an in-person meeting among the leaders of Kiribati, Nauru, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.
President Tommy Remengesau delivers his final state of the republic address, April 30 amid the pandemic Photo: Office of the President of Palau
Mr Remengesau said while details of the planned Micronesian Presidents' Summit were still being ironed out, the leaders were aiming to meet in October.
Nauru's President Lionel Aingimea said the other leaders agreed to a proposal from Palau to attend the Independence Day celebrations on 1 October and use the occasion to also convene a special leaders meeting.
A request had been made for Nauru Airlines to run a service across the five island countries to 'pick up' delegates for the meeting in Palau,
President Aingimea said Remengesau highlighted the importance of the face-to -face meeting.
"In the words of Palau President Thomas Remengesau Jr, hosting the MPS either in Palau or Nauru, we still have the message of solidarity of the Micronesian group.
"We can also showcase that economy is important but also the health of our people is important," Aingimea said.
The Micronesian group of islands remains free of the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the Micronesian states recently re-affirmed their backing for the Marshall Islands' ambassador to the US, Gerald Zackios, to become the new secretary general of the Pacific Islands Forum.
Zackios is up against Tonga's candidate Amelia Kinahoi-Siamomua, who is head of the Commonwealth Secretariat's Gender section in London; as well as the outgoing Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna; former Pacific Community head Dr Jimmie Rodgers from Solomon Islands and former Fiji Foreign Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola.
The leaders of the Micronesian states in the Pacific Islands Forum have re-affirmed their backing for the Marshall Islands' Gerald Zackios to become the new secretary general.
The Marshall Islands has suspended non-essential outbound air travel in the wake of skyrocketing coronavirus infections in Hawai'i and Guam. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | September 2020 | ['(RNZ)'] |
A fire at the Jizan General Hospital in Jizan, Saudi Arabia, kills at least 24 people and injures over 100. The blaze began on the first floor of the hospital which contains the maternity ward and intensive care unit. Government–controlled Al Ekhbariya television reports the cause of the fire seems to be electrical. | At least 25 killed and more than 100 injured in blaze in Jizan, which began on floor housing ICU and maternity ward.
At least 25 people have been killed and 107 injured in a fire at a hospital in Jizan, Saudi Arabia, authorities said.
The Saudi civil defence directorate said in a post on Facebook that the fire at the Jizan General Hospital started at about 2.30am local time.
It is not yet known what caused the blaze, which began on the first floor of the hospital.
The intensive care unit and maternity ward are both on the first floor.
Saudi Arabian authorities are on the scene investigating.
At least 20 brigades from the civil defence directorate were deployed to fight the blaze, which has now been brought under control.
Dr. Ahmad Alsum, an emergency doctor at Jizan’s King Fahd Hospital, told Al Jazeera that most of those injured in the fire were patients.
Patients were transferred to a number of other nearby public and private hospitals.
Alsum said early indications were that the blaze was an electrical fire.
“Twenty-five people died in this fire. It is very devastating,” he said.
Jizan is the capital of the Jizan region in southwest Saudi Arabia, located immediately north of the Yemen border.
At least one person killed and 16 others injured in attack at Shia mosque in Najran city in southeast of the country.
Judge throws out case filed by victims’ families, saying Saudi Arabia cannot be sued due to sovereign immunity.
| Fire | December 2015 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(The News Tribe)', '(Reuters)', '(Pakistan Today)'] |
Islamist militants attack a Niger Armed Forces base in the village of Inates, near the border with Mali, with two car bombs and gunmen, killing 18 soldiers. They also kidnapped four Nigerien soldiers and stole dozens of vehicles. | At least 18 soldiers have been killed in western Niger in an attack by suspected Islamist militants on a military base. The attack began with the detonation of two car bombs, officials said, before gunmen on motorbikes joined the raid.
Air strikes by US and French forces helped to drive the insurgents back, the government said.
Islamist militants are active in the region and killed 28 Nigerien soldiers in a similar raid in May.
Niger is due to host the African Union summit at the end of the week.
In a statement, the defence ministry said Monday's raid took place at Inates, near the border with Mali.
It said that as well as the 18 soldiers killed, four were missing. A lorry was destroyed by the air strikes and several "terrorists neutralised", the statement added.
Niger and other countries in the Sahel region of Africa have been facing a growing threat from militants including the Islamic State group and affiliates of al-Qaeda.
The groups are most active in Mali but often stage cross-border raids.
Niger is part of a five nation anti-insurgency force operating in the Sahel that includes Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Mauritania.
Despite deployments of French, US and UN forces, the region - including Niger - remains restive.
| Armed Conflict | July 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
Saudi Arabia joins the International Maritime Security Construct. | RIYADH: Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it has joined a US-led military coalition to secure the Middle East's key waterways for shipping.
The coalition, which includes Australia, Bahrain, and the UK, was set up to counter threats to vessels after a string of attacks against ships entering and leaving the Arabian Gulf.
Known as the International Maritime Security Construct, the coalition aims to protect commercial ships and provide safe navigation. Its area of operation covers the Strait of Hormuz, Bab Al-Mandab Strait, Sea of Oman and Arabian Gulf.
"The Kingdom's accession to this international alliance comes in support of regional and international efforts to deter and counter threats to maritime navigation and global trade," a statement on the Saudi Press Agency said.
The decision comes amid heightened tensions with Iran after a drone and missile attack at the weekend hit two key oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. The US blamed Iran for that attack and also a a number of attacks on shipping in or near the Strait of Hormus in recent months. Iran also seized a British flagged oil tanker in July that it has still not released.
RIYADH: The Arab coalition said it had intercepted a Houthi drone targeting Saudi Arabia’s Khamis Mushait, Al Ekhbariya TV reported early Saturday.
The coalition, which is fighting to restore the legitimacy of the internationally recognized government in Yemen, said it will take all measures to protect civilians in accordance with international law.
The Iran-backed Houthi militia have consistently launched attacks against the Kingdom. | Join in an Organization | September 2019 | ['(Arab News)'] |
The Democratic Republic of the Congo announces the end of the second outbreak of Ebola in the country, which has killed more than 2,200 people. | KINSHASA (Reuters) - The second-largest Ebola outbreak on record is over after nearly two years and more than 2,200 deaths, Democratic Republic of Congo said on Thursday, even as a separate flare-up of the virus continued on the other side of the country.
Despite effective vaccines and treatments that dramatically boosted survival rates, the outbreak dragged on as first responders struggled to gain access to virus hotspots in Congos restive east.
Compared to previous outbreaks, this last one was the longest, the most complex and the deadliest, Health Minister Eteni Longondo told reporters.
Congo has suffered 11 Ebola outbreaks since the virus was discovered near the Ebola River in 1976, more than double any other country.
Its equatorial forests are a natural reservoir for the virus, which causes severe vomiting and diarrhoea and is spread through contact with body fluids.
This outbreak saw 3,463 confirmed and probable cases and 2,277 deaths.
It wasnt easy and at times it seemed like mission impossible, said Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organizations Africa regional director.
Even as health officials celebrated the end of one Ebola epidemic, they face another, unrelated one more than 1,000 km (620 miles) away in the western city of Mbandaka.
That outbreak, declared on June 1, has seen up to 24 cases so far, including 13 deaths.
Longondo he said he expected the response there to be easier because it is in a more stable part of the country where a previous epidemic in 2018 was quickly controlled.
In eastern Congo, some community leaders and local residents were suspicious of the response because they believed Ebola did not exist or resented being overlooked by donors.
Treatment centres were attacked by militia fighters who are active near Congos borders with Uganda and Rwanda, and by angry local residents.
The largest Ebola outbreak in history occurred in West Africa from 2013-2016. It killed over 11,300 people mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Reporting by Stanis Bujakera and Hereward Holland; Editing by Aaron Ross, William Maclean
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
| Disease Outbreaks | June 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
North Korea says that at least fifteen people are missing and thousands left homeless in the city of Hoeryong after the Tumen River floods. | SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday that 15 people were missing in the northern city of Hoeryong and thousands were left homeless by flooding caused by heavy rain in recent days.
The official KCNA news agency said flooding of the Tumen river, which forms a border with China, had damaged or destroyed 17,180 houses, and 44,000 people were left homeless in North Hamgyong province.
Widespread deforestation makes North Korea prone to flooding.
Reporting by Tony Munroe; Editing by Kim Coghill
| Floods | September 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Dutch populist politician Geert Wilders is convicted for hate speech. | The Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders has been found guilty of inciting discrimination against Dutch Moroccans in a verdict that is expected to intensify the debate about migration in the Netherlands.
A panel of three judges ruled that the Freedom party (PVV) leader’s comments in a post-election speech in 2014 were “demeaning and thereby insulting towards the Moroccan population”. Hendrik Steenhuis, chairman of the judges, said the remarks were clearly aimed at an ethnic population group and delivered in a televised speech for maximum effect.
However, the court cleared Wilders of the charge of inciting hatred and imposed no fine or sentence, ruling that a criminal conviction was sufficient punishment for a politician in Wilders’ position.
Neither Wilders nor his lawyer, Geert-Jan Knoops, were in court to hear Friday’s verdict. Immediately afterwards Wilders issued a press release saying he would appeal and describing the court’s decision as “a great loss for democracy and freedom of expression”. The verdict comes three months before Dutch voters go to the polls in a general election in which Wilders has vowed to put migration and “Islamisation” at the heart of the campaign. His party’s draft manifesto includes pledges to close every mosque in the Netherlands and ban the Qur’an from public buildings.
Latest opinion polls put the PVV in front, on about 24% of the vote. Since the election of Donald Trump in the US, Wilders has pulled ahead of his nearest rival, the Liberals (VVD) led by the prime minister, Mark Rutte.
Rutte has repeatedly said he would not go into government with the PVV unless Wilders withdrew his remarks on Moroccans, and the other main parties have ruled out cooperation. But under the Dutch proportional representation system the leader of the largest party is conventionally given the first shot, and if Wilders has a clear lead it might be impossible to build a coalition without him.
The public prosecution service charged Wilders after police received nearly 6,000 complaints about a speech he gave following local elections in March 2014. After his party had narrowly failed to become the largest group on The Hague’s city council, Wilders asked a roomful of supporters if they wanted to have “more or fewer Moroccans” in the country. When the crowd shouted back “Fewer!”, he replied: “Well, we’ll take care of that.”
Wilders denounced the trial from the outset as politically motivated and an attack on free speech, and initially boycotted the hearings at the high-security court complex in Schiphol. In a video message posted on his Twitter feed on Friday, he attacked the “shameful sentence” and vowed he would “never be silent”.
“The Netherlands have become a sick country,” he said. “I am not a racist and neither are my voters. This sentence proves that you judges are completely out of touch. Support for the Party for Freedom is stronger than ever and keeps growing every day. The Dutch want their country back.
“Today I was convicted in a political trial which, shortly before the elections, attempts to neutralise the leader of the largest and most popular opposition party. But they will not succeed, not even with this verdict, because I speak on behalf of millions of Dutch.” It was the second time Wilders had been taken to court over remarks made in the political arena. In 2011 he was acquitted of discriminating against Muslims after describing Islam as a “fascist” religion in various interviews. On that occasion he described the verdict as a “victory for free speech”.
Political commentators have warned that Friday’s outcome could polarise the debate on migration in the Netherlands still further and harden support for Wilders among his core vote. “To these voters this is the ultimate proof of how far we have fallen in the Netherlands,” sociologist Koen Damhuis told the NRC newspaper. “They won’t walk away from Wilders if he’s found guilty. Moreover, PVV voters think he should be given a statue for the stance he has taken.” | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak makes a televised speech in contrast to concerns for his health. | Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has addressed the nation in a speech partly designed to give reassurance about his health.
The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo said Mr Mubarak appeared healthy but thinner than usual, and spoke standing up for more than 10 minutes. President Mubarak, 82, had gall bladder surgery in Germany in March.
Concerns about his health resurfaced when a series of meetings was postponed last week.
Since then, Mr Mubarak has followed a busy schedule, meeting world leaders and attending public events almost daily.
Mr Mubarak has been in power for 29 years and his fifth six-year term ends in 2011. However, he has not made it clear whether he intends to stand in the elections.
In his speech on the eve of Egypt's annual Revolution Day, President Mubarak spoke about the economy, democracy, human rights, the Palestinian question, and Egypt's place in the world.
"Economic growth and social justice summarise the many goals we aim for today, tomorrow and after tomorrow," he said.
"While I look forward to parliamentary elections that push forward our democratic experience, I call on all political parties to come up with ideas and visions to deal with these priorities - on which there is no disagreement."
Correspondents say Mr Mubarak's health is a taboo topic in Egypt and a cause of political and economic uncertainty, because he has no obvious successor. The annual speech commemorates the anniversary of the military coup that toppled the monarchy in 1952.
| Famous Person - Give a speech | July 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
The number of worldwide confirmed cases of COVID-19 surpasses six million. The United States remains the global epicenter, accounting for approximately 29% of all reported and confirmed cases in the world. | Extremely vulnerable people who have been "shielding" in Great Britain ?staying at home at all times and avoiding any face-to-face contact ?will be allowed outdoors from Monday, the UK government said in a statement ahead of the official announcement on Sunday.?
Communities Secretary?Robert Jenrick?will announce that 2.2?million?clinically extremely vulnerable people will be able to go outside with members of their household, while continuing to follow social distancing guidelines, according to the government statement. The updated guidance says those who live alone can meet outside with one other person from another household.
This is seen as a boon for the most clinically vulnerable, including many who have not had any face-to-face contact since they were first advised to shield 10 weeks ago. However, it comes at a time when members of the scientific advisory board to the UK government C SAGE C are warning that a premature easing of the coronavirus lockdown could lead to a "significant" number of new cases and deaths across the country.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan also on Saturday urged citizens to "act with caution" as the government prepares to relax lockdown measures on Monday, expressing his concerns that the country is rushing to ease restrictions.
However, the government advised those shielding: "The average chance of catching the virus is now down from 1/40 to 1/1000, delivering greater reassurance that it is safe to cautiously reflect this in the guidance for those who have been advised to shield." It added that people who are shielding should remain at a two-meter distance from others when outside, should only leave the house once a day and should not go to work or the shops. They should also avoid crowded places where they cant social distance.?
Johnson thanked those who have helped deliver medicine and shopping or checked in on people who are isolating. "We have been looking at how we can make life easier for our most vulnerable,?so I?am happy to?confirm?that those who are shielding?will be able to spend time outside with someone else, observing social distance guidelines," Johnson said. I will do what I can, in line with the scientific advice, to continue making life easier for you over the coming weeks and months.
"Thanks to the sacrifices made across the country, which have protected the NHS and saved lives, its now time to begin lifting restrictions, step by step, and while we must all stay alert, we can now start to resume a sense of normality,"?Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.
During his speech at the government's daily press conference on Sunday, Jenrick is expected to set out a plan to review shielding guidance at the same time as the government reviews its?social distancing measures. The next review will take place later this month.??
From CNNs Taylor Barnes
The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in?Peru?rose to 155,671 on Saturday, a jump of 7,386 from the previous day, according to the country's health ministry.?
The country reported 141 new coronavirus-related deaths, taking the national death toll to 4,371, according to the ministry.
Peru?has the second-highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Latin America, behind Brazil.
From CNN's Elise Hammond
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed a bill that gives death benefits to families of frontline workers who died battling the coronavirus pandemic.
"We grieve for your loss, and we?will always be there for you the?way you were there for us.?Thank you," the governor added.
From CNN's Sheena Jones
At least five regions in upstate New York have entered phase two as of Friday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during his Covid-19 news briefing Saturday.
Next week, the capital region and western New York will end 14 days of being in phase one and will have to make a decision if they will move to phase two of the reopening, the governor said.
From CNN's Kristina Sgueglia
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was asked to what extent he expects a rise in Covid-19 cases as a result of the demonstrations and large gatherings around the city.
De Blasio said you cannot see overt racism, you cannot see overt racist murder and not feel something profoundly deep, so I understand that."
"But the last thing we would want to see is members of our community harmed because the virus spread in one of these settings," de Blasio said. Its a very very complicated reality."
From CNN's Elise Hammond
At least 67 people in New York state have died from coronavirus on Friday C the same number as the day before.
The number of total hospitalizations, new hospitalizations and intubations have all decreased, Cuomo said.
"That is all good news," he said.
From CNN's Eva Tapiero and?Zahid?Mahmood The number of coronavirus patients hospitalized in France continues to decline, according to figures released by the French Health Ministry on Saturday.??
There are currently 14,380 hospital patients with the virus, a decrease of 315 from Friday, the ministry said.
The statement said the number of Covid-19 hospital deaths has risen by 57 from Friday.
France has reported 28,717 coronavirus-related deaths in total, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.
From CNNs Sarah Dean
At least 215 people died from coronavirus in the United Kingdom in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to approximately 38,376, according to UK Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden.
Dowden, speaking at the daily Downing Street press conference on Saturday, said roughly 127,722 tests were carried out on Friday.? | Disease Outbreaks | May 2020 | ['(CNN)'] |
Todd Muller defeats Simon Bridges to become the new leader of the National Party, and the Leader of the Opposition. | Todd Muller has been confirmed as the new leader of the National Party, and Nikki Kaye is confirmed as his deputy. The Bay of Plenty MP will take the helm for the 2020 election after receiving more votes than incumbent leader Simon Bridges during an emergency caucus meeting on Friday afternoon. They will not be revealing what proportion of National's 56 caucus members voted for Muller. The meeting was organised earlier in the week after Muller confirmed he was vying for Bridges' position after a devastating Newshub-Reid Research poll showed Labour would, as it stands, run away with the 2020 general election. Bridges had been the leader of National for two years. 3:11pm - The press conference has now finished. 3:10pm - Bridges says he feels "deeply privileged" to have been the leader of the opposition and is looking for the silver lining in his departure. 3:04pm - "It's been a blast, I have no regrets." Bridges has thanked his family for their support and says he is looking forward to being able to spend more time with them. 3:01pm- Simon Bridges is fronting the media and has congratulated the newly elected leader. He has acknowledged Paula Bennett, along with other staff who have helped him during his term. "It's been a heck of a ride and a rollercoaster of highs and lows." 2:53pm - During his press conference Muller said: "Our number one priority is the recovery of this country, the defence and rebuilding of jobs and communities and ensuring through that we have strong families". 2:50pm - The press conference had ended. Simon Bridges will address the media at 3pm. 2:46pm- Muller says he is the first to "admit and acknowledge that the Government's handling of COVID-19 was overall impressive". "I think most New Zealanders would feel the same. But to measure your performance as a Cabinet on your ability to manage a crisis in eight weeks in a health context against the threshold of do you have the capacity sitting around a Cabinet to design an economic recovery when all your performance measures in the previous two and a half years have been a failure, I think that doesn't work, I think the country knows that doesn't work." 2:44pm- ACT Leader David Seymour says he welcomes the election of Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye. "We face a pivotal moment as a country. The fallout from Covid-19 represents the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression, with the potential for 250,000 jobs to be lost over the next two years. Having a strong alternative coalition is essential for New Zealand democracy. "National has chosen to tack towards the centre, taking on Jacinda Ardern at close quarters. It is critical that New Zealanders who want free speech, lower taxes, less red tape, and greater personal freedom have a voice in any future centre-right coalition." 2:40pm - The new National leader has not ruled out working with Winston Peters and NZ First political party. 2:37pm - Muller confirms Paul Goldsmith with continue as National's finance spokesperson. 2:34pm- Nikki Kaye: "I believe that part of his strength is that he manages to bring together a diverse range of views so I have confidence that he can unite both the conservative people in our caucus and those people that are liberals". 2:25pm - Hard work, enterprise, and entreprenuership are qualities Muller says supporters are wanting and what the new leaders will provide. 2:22pm - "What drives me is community, the people who help their elderly neighbours with the lawns on the weekend, the dad who runs the food stall at the local school fair, the mum who coaches a local touch rugby team." 2:20pm - Muller says they will not reveal the number of votes in his favour. But says everyone is unified in the decision to support him as leader. 2:18pm- Muller says his National Government will focus on the economy. "We will focus on the economy of the community...
"I'm about what's best for you and your family not what's wrong with the Government." "You have made many sacrifices, you have put a lot on the line to get us through this crisis and now we must begin taking another step forward to rebuild our country, to rebuild our economy, and to restore the livelihoods of New Zealanders," Muller says. 2:15pm - Muller is addressing the media. He thanked Simon Bridges and Paula Bennett for leading the party, saying they have worked hard. "Now we must begin taking another step forward together with confidence." 2:05pm - Muller and Kaye are going to front a press conference in 10 minutes, at 2:15pm. They will be followed by Simon Bridges at 3pm. More information on the new leaders:
1:43pm - MP Matt King has taken to Twitter to congratulate the new leader of the National Party. 1:31pm- It is official, Todd Muller has been elected leader of New Zealand's National Party. Nikki Kaye has been elected as his Deputy. "There is no Team Todd, there is no Team Nikki, or anyone else – there is only Team National," Muller said in a press release. "National has always been a coalition of city and country, business and community, conservatives and liberals – National is the party for all New Zealanders. "New Zealanders need a National Government with the experience and management skills to get our country through the worst crisis since the end of the Second World War. "My focus as leader is our country’s economic recovery and the strengthening of every community throughout New Zealand." 1:30pm - Newshub's Live Special has now finished. All of the details will be on newshub.co.nz. 1:27pm - Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye are expected to front a press conference at 2:15pm. 1:10pm - Newshub understands Nikki Kaye has been elected deputy leader, but this has yet to be confirmed. 1:05pm - The meeting now appears to be over with members leaving the caucus room. Former National and New Zealand First MP Tau Henare says Winston Peters is open to talking to National about a possible coalition. 1pm - We are still waiting for MPs to come out of caucus, where they have been voting for leader and deputy leader. 12:40pm - Sources have told Newshub Simon Bridges has lost the vote. Newshub understands the vote has been won by Todd Muller. Ryan Bridge has just revealed this on the Newshub special. Tova O'Brien says the caucus has gone with the unknown candidate, Muller. 12:35pm - We are still waiting to see which candidate receives at least 28 votes. Here are some photos of the MPs entering the caucus room. 12:20pm - Jonathan Coleman says Bridges' biggest issue has been tone. He pointed to Bridges' comments earlier this week about hair dye that were widely criticised. "I think there is concern in the public that he just won't be able to get that tone right in a way that can ever compete with the Prime Minister's popularity." Former MP Peter Dunne tells Newshub it's hard to see Winston Peters working with National under either leader. He said it might be too much for National Party supporters to see Peters work with National after he chose Labour in 2017. He said he was surpised by the contest due to the discipline the National Party normally shows. Bridges' role became impossible to sustain during the pandemic because of the attention on Ardern, Dunne said. On Muller, Dunne said he seems to be a "genuine guy" with clear views and a strong streak of determination. He noted Muller's bi-partisan work on climate change action. "How he would come across in public is another question. You have a high-profile, a very engaging Prime Minister. He is a bit more laid back, a bit more cautious and controlled, and whether he would provide a more disciplined contrast I don't know," he said. "Simon Bridges' problem has been that he has looked a bit too much like a terrier dog, snapping and snapping and snapping." Dunne doesn't believe Muller's lack of public profile matters. The former United Future leader thinks Muller will win, but it will be close. He said that is dangerous because it means the caucus is split and could postpone another "day of reckoning" to later this year or next year. 12:10pm - Right-leaning commentator Trish Sherson is picking Muller. She has had "several conversations" with people with the numbers. Former National Health Minister Jonathan Coleman says it is too tight to call. "It is going to be extremely tight." MPs will be considering their own self-interest, Coleman tells Newshub. Coleman says the first challenge for the leader after the contest is bringing the party together. He said it will be difficult for Bridges to keep Muller in the fold considering the Bay of Plenty MP doesn't believe the incumbent can win the election. 12:05pm - The door to the caucus room has closed. We will have the result as soon as it comes through. 12pm - The Newshub special begins now. Watch the livestream here or see the video above. MPs are entering the caucus room right now. We can see Judith Collins enter. "It is hyper, it is tense, it is subdued," Newshub Political Editor Tova O'Brien said. "Both sides, both Simon Bridges' and Todd Muller's camps, are equally confident that they have got this." 11:40am - Nicola Willis and Chris Bishop have now arrived. Willis is a list MP while Bishop holds the marginal seat of Hutt South. Bishop wouldn't say who he is supporting. He has been raising money for charity by wearing a mullet. But he didn't have that on when driving onto Parliament grounds. Nathan Guy, who is retiring from Parliament, told media he would be deciding who to vote for "shortly". 11:30am - Lawrence Yule is another National MP who has turned up for the meeting. He has made up his mind, but wouldn't tell media. He said any political party wouldn't like a poll showing support at 29 percent, but is confident that the party can come back. "It's serious, but I think we will sort this today and we will be very competitive." He called the contest a "short-term distraction". Jian Yang doesn't have a preference yet. He also reckons the party can bounce back. 11:10am - Judith Collins is back in Wellington. She was tight-lipped and said she wouldn't be running for leadership. "I just think that everyone needs to focus on the people, get back to work, keep focused on the job and stop talking about ourselves." She criticised Bridges' communication skills, but he was a "very good leader". "We have quite a lot of very good leaders in our team." Collins said: "Whoever wins will be the person who I vote for". 11:05am - Todd Muller and his wife have arrived at Parliament. He said he was excited for the "momentous" day for his party. 10:55am - Maggie Barry has said she's backing Muller. "I don't know what the mood of the caucus is. I’ve made up my mind I'll be voting for Todd Muller for the leader and Nikki Kaye as the deputy, but the decision remains with caucus as it rightly ought to." 10:45am - Maureen Pugh has no preference for leader yet and is keeping an open mind. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | May 2020 | ['(Newshub)'] |
Gunmen open fire in Thailand's majority Muslim Pattani Province killing five people and injuring three people. | PATTANI, Feb 3 Suspected insurgents early Thursday fired on a Buddhist community in the southern border province of Pattani, killing five people and wounding four others.
Among those killed included Pongsak Phetch, an education supervisor in the Pattani Educational Service Area Office.
Five assailants on a pickup truck with an unknown license plate drove into Khok Krabue village in Panare district. Armed with machine guns and handguns, they shot at passers-by and villagers in their homes.
The police failed to locate the suspicious vehicle after the daunting attack occurred amid numeous witnesses during a scheduled rotation of village defence volunteers and soldiers.
No security personnel were guarding the area when the assailants attacked and left.
In a separate incident, a rubber tapper, Abduloh Kabo, 49, was clubbed on his head and slashed in the neck while he drove his motorcycle home from a rubber plantation in Pattani’s Yarang district at 3.30am Thursday.
The shooting and the killing occurred after presumed insurgents burned tyres and public telephone booths at seven spots in Pattani on Wednesday night.
Fire emergency personnel put out the fires, which caused slight damage. Police said the actions were aimed at creating disturbance. (MCOT online news) | Armed Conflict | February 2011 | ['(AFP via ABC News)', '(Thai News Agency)'] |
Typhoon Mawar makes landfall at Chiba city, just east of Tokyo, having weakened from super–typhoon strength. | Typhoon Mawar brought winds of 108km/h (67mph) and heavy rain, triggering flood warnings for the Tokyo region.
A large number of flights, express trains and ferry services in and out of the capital were cancelled.
The prefectures of Chiba and Shizuoka, on the east and west of Tokyo, were worst hit. Thousands of households were left without power.
Some 27 million people live in Tokyo and its surrounding prefectures.
A 55-year-old man died after falling from the roof of his house and at least two other men were injured in Shizuoka prefecture, west of Tokyo, police said.
More than 3,500 households lost power in Chiba, just east of Tokyo.
Hundreds of families were evacuated as rising water levels flooded homes and trigged seven landslides in the two prefectures.
Flooding concerns
Typhoon Mawar hit Chiba city at around 0430 on Friday (1930 GMT Thursday), the Meteorological Agency said.
The storm was heading north-east at 25km/h (15mph) and was expected to head back out to the Pacific Ocean, becoming a tropical depression early on Saturday, the agency added.
Winds up to 150 km/h (95mph)
Moving at 15 km/h
"Since the typhoon's moving speed is slow, there are concerns that heavy rains and winds might occur in the areas where the typhoon stays," a spokesman for the Japan Meteorological Agency told AFP news agency.
Residents were warned to expect as much as 35cm (14in) of rainfall within 24 hours.
The cancellation of dozens of flights affected some 7,000 passengers on Thursday, airlines said.
Japanese television reports showed fishing boats returning to port as giant waves hit the coastline before the typhoon struck.
Japan is hit by two to three typhoons each year, but as many as 10 - the last of which alone killed 90 people - struck the country in 2004. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | August 2005 | ['(11W)', '(BBC)'] |
The UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid announces that medicinal cannabis products are to be legalized by the end of this year, allowing cannabis treatments to be legally prescribed by specialist doctors following several high profile cases. | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is to allow doctors to prescribe medicinal cannabis, following a relaxation of the law governing drugs derived from the banned plant.
Interior minister Sajid Javid said on Thursday that specialist physicians would be able to prescribe cannabis-derived medicinal products from the autumn. Recreational use will remain prohibited.
The decision follows the high-profile case of a 12-year-old boy with severe epilepsy who was denied access to cannabis oil, which prompted a national debate and reviews by experts.
“Recent cases involving sick children made it clear to me that our position on cannabis-related medicinal products was not satisfactory,” Javid said.
“Following advice from two sets of independent advisers, I have taken the decision to reschedule cannabis-derived medicinal products – meaning they will be available on prescription.”
Scientists say evidence is growing that cannabis can ease epilepsy and other conditions - such as chronic pain, multiple sclerosis and chemotherapy-induced nausea - prompting renewed interest in the field.
Last month GW Pharmaceuticals, which has spent 20 years developing medicines from cannabis, won U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the first marijuana plant-derived drug.
Several countries, including Germany, Italy and Denmark, already allow the prescription of medicinal cannabis and last month Canada became the second country in the world to fully legalize marijuana, ending 90 years of prohibition.
| Government Policy Changes | July 2018 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
The right-wing coalition led by Erna Solberg wins its second term in office in the Norwegian parliamentary election held late yesterday. | Norway's Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg appears set for a second term after claiming victory in the country's general election.
Ms Solberg's ruling coalition with the Progress Party is slated to win 89 of 169 seats, with 95% of votes counted.
The opposition Labour Party appears to have maintained its position as the largest single group in parliament.
Ms Solberg said voters had given her "a mandate for four more years" but urged caution as results were being counted.
"It looks like a clear victory," Ms Solberg said to a group of her supporters in Oslo, adding: "Our solutions have worked; we have created jobs." Confirmation of the win would make Ms Solberg, 56, the first centre-right leader in three decades to be re-elected Norway's prime minister.
Her conservative coalition with the anti-immigration Progress Party ran a campaign promising tax cuts, which it said would help to boost economic growth. The opposition Labour Party, led by 57-year-old former foreign minister Jonas Gahr Store, campaigned on a promise to raise taxes for the wealthiest in a bid to improve public services. The party, which has been the biggest political party in Norway since the 1920s, was projected to take 80 seats.
Norway has not seen a Conservative-led government retain power in an election since 1985.
| Government Job change - Election | September 2017 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Sergei Skripal is discharged from hospital after two months. | Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal has been discharged from hospital, two months after being poisoned with a nerve agent in Salisbury.
The 66-year-old was found slumped on a park bench in the city on 4 March, with his daughter Yulia. They were taken to Salisbury District Hospital's intensive care unit, where they were stabilised after being exposed to Novichok. Ms Skripal was released on 9 April and was moved to a secure location.
It is not known whether Mr Skripal has been taken to the same location as his daughter.
BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said he understood that Mr Skripal is able to walk, and has talked to police at length, but is not completely recovered.
He said police sources indicated that the investigation could take months of carefully piecing together movements of people and cars from mobile phone records, CCTV, automatic number plate recognition and passenger flight records.
The Metropolitan Police said its investigation into the attack continued and it would not "be discussing any protective or security arrangements that are in place".
Director of nursing Lorna Wilkinson said treating the Skripals had been "a huge and unprecedented challenge". She added: "This is an important stage in his recovery, which will now take place away from the hospital."
Russian ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko welcomed the news that Mr Skripal had been discharged, and repeated his demand for consular access to the former spy and his daughter.
At a news conference at his official residence in London, Mr Yakovenko said: "We are happy that he is all right."
The Russian ambassador has previously claimed the UK is violating international law by not granting access to the Skripals.
"If they don't want our assistance, that's fine, but we want to see them physically," he said.
Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats in response to the attack in Salisbury, but Mr Yakovenko and others remain.
DS Nick Bailey - the police officer who first attended the Skripals on the day of the poisoning - was also treated for exposure to the nerve agent, but was discharged in March.
Clinicians at the hospital had to keep the Skripals alive while their bodies could produce more enzymes to replace those that had been poisoned.
By Leila Nathoo, BBC News home affairs correspondent
When Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were left in a critical condition, it seemed improbable that the two would survive. Now, less than three months on, both have been discharged from hospital. Their personal safety will be a priority for the police - the two have been taken to a secure location.
Detectives are continuing to investigate the attempted murder of the Skripals, though so far no suspects have been named.
They will have spoken at length to both Sergei and Yulia about what happened and why they may have been targeted.
But police say they are still working to establish the full facts of the attack.
The UK government has blamed Russia for the attack, with Prime Minister Theresa May describing the incident as "brazen" and "despicable".
But the Russian government denied any involvement and has accused the UK of inventing a "fake story".
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is due to speak at a conference in Paris on Friday intended to fight against impunity for the use of chemical weapons.
Speaking before the conference, he said: "Assad's brutality in Syria and the attempted murders in Salisbury pose a grave threat to the Chemical Weapons Convention and to the rules-based order that keeps us all safe."
In 2006 Mr Skripal, a former Russian colonel, was jailed in Russia for 13 years for passing on the identities of Russian spies in Europe to the UK intelligence services. But in 2010 he was part of a prisoner swap between Moscow and the United States. He eventually settled in Salisbury.
When Ms Skripal was released she refused assistance from the Russian embassy, who claim they had been denied consular access to a Russian national. Recently the director general of MI5, Andrew Parker, publicly blamed Russia for the "reckless" poisoning, accusing the Kremlin of "flagrant breaches of international rules".
The investigation into the nerve agent attack saw the closure of areas of Salisbury, as police and specialist investigators identified where the Skripals were poisoned. The highest concentration of the Novichok was found at the Skripals' front door. A multimillion pound operation to decontaminate nine locations in the city is under way. Two places that the Skripals visited - the Mill pub and a Zizzi restaurant - are among the places deemed to be still at risk. | Famous Person - Sick | May 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
The sole survivor of the Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 crash in Libya is informed of the death of his family members. | The Dutch boy who was the sole survivor of a plane crash in Libya that killed 103 people has flown back to the Netherlands on a Libyan air ambulance.
Ruben van Assouw was accompanied by his aunt and uncle on the flight from Tripoli to Eindhoven, officials said. The nine-year-old was told on Friday that his parents and brother had died. The Afriqiyah Airways Airbus 330 crashed short of the runway at Tripoli airport on Wednesday, as it flew in from Johannesburg in South Africa. The head Libyan investigator has said the pilot reported no problems during the plane's approach to land. Ruben's aunt and uncle said their nephew was doing well under the circumstances. "We have explained to Ruben exactly what happened," they told journalists in Tripoli. "He knows his parents and brother are dead. The whole family is going to bear the responsibility for Ruben's future." Ruben had been on holiday in South Africa with his parents, Trudy and Patrick van Assouw, and his older brother, Enzo. "The time ahead will be a difficult period for us. We hope that the media will respect our privacy," his aunt and uncle added. The family had been celebrating the parents' 12-and-a-half-year wedding anniversary, a Dutch custom. Sedig Benzala, the head of the medical team caring for him, said Ruben was recovering well after a four-and-a-half hour operation to repair multiple fractures to his legs. The Airbus 330 - carrying 93 passengers and 11 crew - crashed on Wednesday morning . The plane's flight recorders have been sent to Paris for examination. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Aftermath of the plane crash at Tripoli airport
It is not clear what caused the plane to crash just short of the runway as it approached Tripoli airport. The head of the investigation team said the pilot had not reported any problems. "Until the very last moment things were normal between the pilot and the control tower," Neji Dhaou told the AFP news agency. Dutch, French, South African and US experts are helping Libya with the investigation. Dutch forensic experts are helping to identify the bodies. Most of the passengers on the flight were from the Netherlands. | Air crash | May 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Fox News)', '(Sky News)', '(The Guardian)'] |
The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif resigns after the Supreme Court disqualifies him from holding public office following a verdict that he had been dishonest in not disclosing his employment in the Dubai-based Capital FZE company in his nomination papers. (Dawn ) | Nawaz Sharif has resigned as prime minister of Pakistan following a decision by the country's Supreme Court to disqualify him from office.
The ruling came after a probe into his family's wealth following the 2016 Panama Papers dump linking Mr Sharif's children to offshore companies.
Mr Sharif has consistently denied any wrongdoing in the case.
The five judges reached a unanimous verdict in the Islamabad court, which was filled to capacity.
"Following the verdict, Nawaz Sharif has divested himself of his responsibility as prime minister," a spokesman for Mr Sharif's office said in a statement. However, it said he had "serious reservations" about the judicial process.
There was heightened security in the capital, with tens of thousands of troops and police deployed.
The court's ruling stated that Mr Sharif had been dishonest in not disclosing his earnings from a Dubai-based company in his nomination papers during the 2013 general election.
One of the judges, Ejaz Afzal Khan, said that Mr Sharif was no longer "eligible to be an honest member of the parliament". Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan earlier advised Mr Sharif to accept Friday's verdict.
The court has recommended anti-corruption cases against several individuals, including Mr Sharif, his daughter Maryam and her husband Safdar, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and others.
By M Ilyas Khan, BBC News, Islamabad Pakistan has repeated history. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is resigning. He was the 18th prime minister of Pakistan. Not a single one of the 17 prime ministers that preceded him have completed their full term in office.
Many believe that the Supreme Court has started a process of cracking down on corruption, which augurs well for democracy. Others see this as part of a long history of political manipulation through which the country's powerful military establishment has sought to control civilian decision-making.
The case hearings - spread over nearly 15 months - have been marred by controversy. The case belongs in a criminal court. The Supreme Court, which is an appellate body, initially refused to hear it. But then it not only admitted the petition for hearing, it also took the unusual step of instituting its own investigation into the case, with a dominant role for military intelligence services.
Many believe that while across-the-board action against corruption may remain a pipe dream, this verdict will open the gates of power for a new set of politicians - as has often happened in the past. Mr Sharif, who was serving as prime minister for a record third time, was less than a year away from becoming the first in Pakistani history to complete a full term in office.
He served as prime minister from November 1990 to July 1993 and from February 1997 until he was toppled in a bloodless coup in October 1999.
Allegations of corruption have dogged Mr Sharif since the 1980s. And much of what the Panama Papers revealed was the subject of a federal inquiry in the mid-1990s.
It is not immediately clear who will succeed Mr Sharif, but his brother Shehbaz, who is chief minister of Punjab province, is seen as a strong contender for the job.
Pakistan's ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), will be permitted by the speaker of the National Assembly to select an interim prime minister to rule until the 2018 general election. The PML-N, which has the most seats in parliament, is expected to deliver a statement later on Friday.
Opposition parties will also have the opportunity to put forward their own candidates for the position.
Meanwhile, the court has directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the main anti-corruption body, to compile and send four references to accountability courts against Mr Sharif and others.
The NAB has been directed to file these references within six weeks. The accountability courts have been directed to complete hearings in these cases in six months.
The leaks in April 2016 revealed that three of Mr Sharif's children owned offshore companies and assets not shown on his family's wealth statement.
The companies were allegedly used to channel funds to acquire foreign assets, including some apartments along Park Lane in London's Mayfair area.
Despite documents from the Panama Papers suggesting that the beneficial owner of the luxury central London flats was Mr Sharif's daughter Maryam, she later claimed that she was only a trustee - and that it was her brother who was the beneficial owner. To prove her point, Maryam Nawaz produced a trust deed signed by both her and her brother dated February 2006.
But a British forensic expert later said the document was "fake" or had been "falsified" because it was typed in the Calibri font, which was not commercially available until 2007.
The insinuation that the offshore companies were meant to hide or launder ill-gotten wealth or to avoid taxes called Mr Sharif's credentials into question.
Local media on Friday showed crowds assembled outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad cheering the court's verdict. As the verdict was announced, opposition supporters erupted in applause, rushing into the street chanting slogans and handing out sweets, according to reports. The vice-chairman of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, called it an "historic day" and praised the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) for "not succumbing to the enormous pressure and serving the cause of justice."
The verdict was announced amid heightened security in the capital, with about 3,000 armed police and members of the Pakistan Rangers paramilitary force deployed near and around the Supreme Court. The ruling represents the peak of a drama that has fuelled news coverage and social media debates for months, attracting both scorn and ridicule as well as trenchant support for the prime minister. The divisions fall largely along party lines but amid the febrile accusations, many have also expressed concerns over Pakistan's political culture. The Wikipedia profile of the prime minister has also been littered with obscenities and accusations.
Mr Sharif is not the first prime minister to lose his position following the leaking of documents from the Panamanian law firm. Iceland's prime minister was forced to resign after documents appeared to reveal that he and his wife concealed millions of dollars' worth of investments in an offshore company. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | July 2017 | ['(Pakistan)', '(BBC)'] |
French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announces an architectural competition to redesign and rebuild the spire of the Notre–Dame de Paris cathedral after it was destroyed by fire. | LONDON -- France's prime minister has announced "an international architecture competition" to rebuild the iconic arrow-like spire atop the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which caught fire on Monday evening.
“Should we reconstruct an arrow? The same? Adapted to the techniques and challenges of our time? An international architecture competition for the reconstruction of the cathedral spire will be organized," French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe wrote on Twitter Wednesday.
The 300-foot spire toppled over in flames on Monday night as a massive fire engulfed the world-famous medieval Catholic cathedral, an 850-year-old landmark situated in the middle of the Seine river on a tiny island within the French capital. Firefighters battled the blaze for nine hours before quelling the flames.
No one was killed in the fire, the cause of which is under investigation.
The cathedral was partially encased in scaffolding while undergoing a $170 million renovation at the time of the blaze. Much of the ribbed oak roof, made up of centuries-old wooden beams, was destroyed.
Yet, despite the extensive damage, which will take years to repair, the facade of the historic edifice appears to be mainly intact with its belfries and many other iconic features spared.
Msgr. Patrick Chauvet, who was at the cathedral when the flames erupted during a mass, told reporters the famous 18th-century organ, which boasts 8,000 pipes, and three rose-stained glass windows, which date back to 1250, both survived the inferno.
A bronze rooster that sat atop a cross on the spire was also found only slightly damaged, according to Chauvet.
Valerie Pecresse, president of the Ile-de-France region that encompasses Paris, called it a "miracle" that the walls of the Gothic cathedral are still standing.
Firefighters remained on site Wednesday working to secure the structure, dampening potential hotspots and removing priceless artwork, artifacts and relics, according to a spokesperson for the Paris Fire Brigade.
French President Emmanuel Macron said in a televised address Tuesday that he wants to see the fire-gutted cathedral restored in five years and it will be "even more beautiful." Nearly $1 billion in donations from worshipers and billionaires around the world has already been pledged to help rebuild it.
The blaze came at the start of Holy Week, the busiest and most important period of the liturgical year. Easter is on Sunday.
Bells at all of the churches and cathedrals across France will ring out in unison on Wednesday evening in honor of the Notre Dame Cathedral.
ABC News' Clark Bentson, Ben Gittleson, Angus Hines, Bill Hutchinson, Julia Jacobo, Mikey Kay, James Longman and Phoebe Natanson contributed to this report. | Fire | April 2019 | ['(ABC News)', '(MassLive)'] |
In architecture, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, cofounders of the firm SANAA, win the 2010 Pritzker Prize. | A duo of Japanese architects, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, have won the most coveted award in architecture, the Pritzker Prize, the jury has announced.
The 2010 winners were praised for using everyday building materials to create ethereal structures that shelter flowing, dreamlike spaces. Their art museums, university buildings and designer-label fashion boutiques span Japan, the US and Europe. The prize will be awarded formally in May in New York. Sejima and Nishizawa, who are partners in the architectural firm Sanaa, said they did not see themselves as working within any sort of distinct Japanese architectural tradition. But they acknowledged being influenced by the austere construction methods, lightweight materials and porous boundaries between inside and outside space that characterise traditional Japanese buildings. "If you see Japanese temples made of wood, you can see how the architecture is made up," Nishizawa said. "They have a clear construction and transparency and they are quite simple. I think this is one of the big things that we are influenced by." Among the projects mentioned by the Pritzker jury were the Christian Dior Building in Tokyo's Omotesando shopping district and the Toledo Museum of Art's Glass Pavilion. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology's newly opened Rolex Learning Centre was also cited; it is a single-storey slab-like concrete and glass structure that undulates over a four-acre site, punctured in places to let light enter the massive open space that makes up its interior. | Awards ceremony | March 2010 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Rioting and looting take place in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, following the death of African-American man George Floyd during his arrest by Minneapolis Police Department officers. Several buildings are looted and burned down, and riot police have been deployed. | Follow NBC News The mayor of Minneapolis asked the state National Guard to move in after protests over the death of George Floyd escalated Wednesday night with a fatal shooting, widespread looting, fires and the police deployment of tear gas.
"I cannot risk the safety of innocent people and so that is what I've been sworn to uphold and that is what I am dedicated to do," Mayor Jacob Frey told NBC affiliate KARE. "We can have both things. We can have peaceful demonstrations, but I also have to ensure the safety of everyone in the city."
The second night of demonstrations near the site of Floyd's death began peacefully but grew violent as the night went on. Gov. Tim Walz late Wednesday called it an "extremely dangerous situation" and urged residents to leave the area.
Full coverage of George Floyd's death and protests around the country
Frey pleaded with residents for calm.
"I'm imploring our city, imploring our community, imploring every one of us to keep the peace. Let's honor George Floyd's memory," Frey told KARE11 in a phone interview.
One person was in custody in the shooting death near the site of the protests, police said. Officers responded to a report of a stabbing at 9:05 p.m. and found a man who wasn't breathing lying on the sidewalk, police said in a statement Thursday morning.
The unidentified victim was rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center. At the hospital, it was discovered the victim had been shot.
Multiple fires were reported, and several businesses were looted. Minneapolis police were assisted by officers from nearby St. Paul, state police and metro transit police.
Beyond the shooting, there were no known injuries to protesters or police, and no additional arrests, Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder said at a news conference early Thursday.
"Tonight was a different night of protesting than it was just the night before," Elder said.
A reporter for NBC affiliate KARE11 of Minneapolis who was livestreaming the protest reported that an AutoZone and Target had been looted. A Cub Foods and a Dollar Tree also showed signs of damage and looting.
Video showed the AutoZone with broken windows and spray paint. One bystander was warning people against damaging the business, saying it had nothing to do with Floyd's death.
A fire broke out at the AutoZone, a fire department official confirmed Wednesday night.
"Initially ... it was just being looted, but at some point, a fire started," Ricardo Lopez, a journalist for the Minnesota Reformer news organization, told KARE11, adding he wasn't sure how it began.
Protesters set other fires in the street.
Early Thursday, a reporter from The Minneapolis Star Tribune tweeted images of a housing complex construction site that appeared fully engulfed in flames and video of a liquor store that was trashed with shattered glass and boxes littering the sidewalk.
Housing complex construction site on 29th/26th is on the verge of collapse. Heat is so intense you can feel blocks away. pic.twitter.com/sXbmQyzHCz
Elder, the police spokesman, confirmed "a large fire from an apartment building that is under construction" but he did not have a count of how many fires were burning early Thursday.
Police Chief Medaria Arradondo told the local FOX 9 TV station that he ordered the use of tear gas after violence and looting. He said that he is committed to protecting the rights of people to demonstrate and most did so peacefully, but there have been groups committing criminal acts.
Arradondo made a call for peace and patience to let investigations play out Wednesday night.
"Justice historically has never come to fruition through some of the acts that we're seeing tonight, whether it's the looting, whether it's the damage of property and other things," Arradondo said in the FOX interview.
Protesters also gathered Wednesday evening at the suburban home of the officer seen kneeling on Floyd's neck as well as the Minneapolis home of Mike Freeman, the Hennepin County prosecutor who would make a charging decision in the case. No violence was reported in those protests.
Hundreds of protesters also gathered in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, NBC Los Angeles reported. At times, the demonstrators blocked traffic on the 101 freeway.
Some surrounded two California Highway Patrol vehicles and damaged them.
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CHP said when it attempted to disperse a crowd on the freeway, "they were immediately surrounded" and someone broke the rear window of a patrol car with a skateboard.
A CHP officer tried to leave, and a protester jumped on the car's hood before jumping off into the roadway, officials said. That person is said to have suffered moderate injuries.
A second CHP patrol vehicle stopped to help that man but that vehicle was also surrounded and had its rear window shattered and that officer also left, the CHP said.
Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died Monday after a white Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground and put his knee on his neck for about eight minutes.
His detainment was captured on video, and he can be heard pleading with the officer, "Please, please, please, I can't breathe."
The four police officers involved in Floyd's detainment, which stemmed from a report of a forgery, were fired Tuesday. The officer seen with his knee on Floyd has been identified as Derek Chauvin.
Minneapolis police identified the other officers as Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng.
The Minneapolis mayor on Wednesday called for charges to be filed against Chauvin. Police had said Floyd resisted arrest, but Frey said "I saw nothing that would signal that this kind of force was necessary."
His death is being investigated by the FBI and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Please, Minneapolis, we cannot let tragedy beget more tragedy. The area along Lake has become unsafe. We are asking for your help in keeping the peace tonight. https://t.co/kRZuWGJY29
Video of Floyd's death has sparked outrage, including from the apparent Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, who tweeted about it on Tuesday and on Wednesday called it a "tragic reminder that this was not an isolated incident, but a part of an ingrained systemic cycle of injustice that still exists in this country.”
President Donald Trump also weighed in on Wednesday. "My heart goes out to George’s family and friends. Justice will be served!" he tweeted.
Bridgett Floyd, Floyd's sister, said on NBC's "TODAY" show Wednesday morning that she wants all of the officers at the scene to be charged with murder.
"They murdered my brother. He was crying for help," she said.
The Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, which represents the department's 800-plus rank-and file officers, asked the public not to rush to judgment before all video can be reviewed and a medical examiner's report released.
On Tuesday, clashes broke out between police and some protesters in Minneapolis, and police deployed tear gas.
"We cannot have members of our community engaging in destructive or criminal types of behavior," said Arradondo, the Minneapolis police chief. | Riot | May 2020 | ['(Fox News)', '(NBC News)'] |
The Groups for the 2006 FIFA World Cup to be held in Germany are finalized. Both Group C and Group E have been dubbed "groups of death". , (Globe&Mail), | At some point you knew it would happen: The U.S. would draw into a Group of Death at the World Cup.
It finally happened on Friday as the No. 8-ranked Yanks were placed in Group E with three-time world champion Italy, the Czech Republic (ranked No. 2 in the world) and rising African power Ghana.
Even worse, the U.S. will have to face the Czechs first and Italy second, leaving the lower-regarded Ghanaians until the end.
The Italy matchup is the most intriguing in my mind because it offers a chance to see an Old Europe soccer power (the Azzurri) against a rising New World soccer power. Can the U.S. take out the three-time world champs when it counts? When they met in 1990 in Rome, Italy dominated and won 1-0. Can the Americans earn more bona fides from the world soccer community? Here's their opportunity.
Here are my instant reactions to the U.S.'s draw:
FIFA ranking: 12
U.S. take: Of all the top seeds the U.S. could have drawn, I would have had Italy as the second-most favorable (after Spain). The Italians aren't quite the power they once were, but with standouts like Francesco Totti, Gianluigi Buffon and Luca Toni, they are a cultured, experienced team that will test the U.S.'s organization and toughness. One mistake against the Italians can mean disaster. Should also be fun to see the Italian press dissect Italian-American U.S. head coach Bruce Arena in the pink pages of La Gazzetta dello Sport.
FIFA ranking: 50
U.S. take: Of the five African teams in the draw, Ghana was the one I rated the best. The Ghanaians have tons of talent led by Chelsea destroyer Michael Essien, and they were good enough in qualifying to keep 2010 World Cup host South Africa from making the field of 32. How soon will we start seeing news angles on Ghanaian-born Yank Freddy Adu, who's still hoping to make the U.S. team?
FIFA ranking: 2
U.S. take: Yikes. Only Holland would have been a tougher draw for the U.S. from Pot 3. The Czechs haven't been to a World Cup since 1990 (when Czechoslovakia waxed the U.S. 5-1), but they've been very good in recent European championships, reaching the semis in '04 and the final in '96. Pavel Nedved is one of the world's classiest central midfielders, and I can already see a fun matchup between gigantic forward Jan Koller and U.S. defensive stalwart Oguchi Onyewu. Opening against the Czechs reminds me a lot of the U.S.'s '02 opener against a highly-rated Portugal team. This time it's hard to believe the U.S. will be overlooked, however.
• With four teams left to draw, I figured the U.S. had a 25 percent chance of being drawn into a tough group, and that's exactly what happened. Awfully unlucky, but that's what happens when only eight teams are seeded and there's so much variance in the draw possibilities.
• One good thing for the Americans: They don't play their first game until the fourth day of the World Cup, allowing nerves to settle and giving players a chance to see how games will be refereed.
• If the U.S. finishes in the top two of Group E and reaches the second round, it would face one of four teams from Group F: Brazil, Croatia, Australia or Japan. In other words, if the U.S. wants to match or improve on its quarterfinal run in '02, it should really hope to win its group. Otherwise, the likely second-round foe would be defending world champ Brazil.
• When I spoke to Arena last week, he pulled out his book on the '02 World Cup and read through the groups for me, asking me which teams I would have expected to come out. Then he reminded me which teams actually made it to the second round. His point: Don't leap to conclusions about anything. | Sports Competition | December 2005 | ['(BBC)', '(SI)', '(ChicagoTribune)', '[permanent dead link]'] |
A U.S. federal judge blocks a Missouri law banning abortions eight weeks after conception from going into effect. | A federal judge in Missouri temporarily blocked a ban on abortions at or after eight weeks of pregnancy that was set to take effect on Wednesday. The proposed law would penalize physicians who perform abortions after the eight-week threshold—before many women know that they are pregnant. It does not include exceptions for rape or incest. Similarly restrictive abortion laws have also been stopped in Arkansas, Ohio, North Dakota, and Iowa. “The various sections specifying prohibitions on abortions at various weeks prior to viability cannot be allowed to go into effect on August 28, as scheduled,” District Judge Howard Sachs wrote in his 11-page opinion. Sachs’ decision allows for a lawsuit challenging the ban, filed by Planned Parenthood and the state’s American Civil Liberties Union, to play out in court. The joint lawsuit argues that the law is unconstitutional and is in violation of Roe v. Wade. Missouri has just one abortion clinic left in the state, and is already home to some of the most restrictive abortion regulations in the country. SHOWDOWN
Executive Editor
Defying appeals from the Vatican, Catholic bishops in the U.S. have voted to a draft a statement that could lead to a rebuke for President Joe Biden and other Catholic politicians who support abortion rights but also take Communion. The Associated Press reports that the White House had no immediate comment on the 168-55 decision announced Friday by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The debate over the document exposed deep fissures among the bishops on whether it should go after politicians when two-thirds of Catholics don’t have an issue with the president, who rarely misses Sunday mass and has often spoken of his faith. Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego said the statement could unleash “weaponization of the Eucharist,” the Associated Press reported. Bishop Donald Hying of Madison, Wisconsin, said rank-and-file Catholics are confused about the disconnect between Biden and the church on abortion and need clarification. The Vatican had urged the American bishop to avoid taking action that would prevent Biden from taking Communion.
| Government Policy Changes | August 2019 | ['(The Daily Beast)'] |
The composer and pianist Elton John cancels his third concert in several days due to flu. | Sir Elton John has postponed the final concert of his UK tour at Liverpool's Echo Arena on Wednesday - the fourth he has had to shelve because of flu.
He had previously scrapped gigs in Sheffield on Friday, Newcastle on Saturday and Tuesday's Wembley Arena leg after doctors advised him to rest. Promoters are trying to reschedule the gigs for dates in December. A spokesman for the singer-songwriter, 62, said he was "terribly disappointed" at not being able to perform. Sir Elton and Billy Joel were forced to cancel US dates after Joel fell ill back in July. Joel was told to rest after coming down with "flu-like symptoms" and "extreme fatigue". Sir Elton and Joel had been touring together for two months under the banner Face 2 Face, selling out arenas across the US. | Famous Person - Sick | October 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(The Daily Telegraph)', '(CBC)'] |
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi summons Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia Xiao Qian to express concerns about the alleged human rights violation of Indonesian workers aboard Chinese fishing vessels. This comes after a video showing Chinese sailors throwing the body of a dead Indonesian crew member overboard went viral. |
The deaths of four Indonesian crew members with links to the same Chinese fishing vessel have raised concerns about working conditions on the vessel and others like it.
The case first entered the public eye after a video allegedly showing Chinese sailors throwing the body of a dead Indonesian crew member overboard went viral.
The footage was first featured on a news segment on South Korea’s Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) on Tuesday.
The video shows what appears to be an orange body bag being thrown off a fishing vessel by a group of men. One man can be seen praying in front of the body bag moments before it is thrown overboard.
Two unidentified Indonesian sailors who worked on the vessel spoke to MBC about their experience, claiming that those aboard the ship had endured poor living conditions.
“We had to [work] for around 30 hours. We were given a meal break every six hours. We would just sit around during the breaks,” one of the sailors said.
The other sailor said they were made to drink filtered sea water during work, which eventually took a toll on their health.
“We became nauseated. We could no longer drink [sea water]. There was one time when our throats became clogged with phlegm,” he said, adding that some even experienced breathing difficulties.
In a press briefing on Thursday, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi confirmed that, in the past few months, four Indonesian sailors who had been registered to Chinese fishing vessel Long Xin 629 had died.
One of the sailors, identified only as EP, died at the Busan Medical Center in South Korea on April 27. Another sailor, identified as AR, died on Chinese fishing vessel Tian Yu 8 on March 30. Two other sailors died on Long Xin 629 in December 2019.
“On April 26, the Indonesian Embassy [in Seoul] was informed that a citizen with the initials EP was sick. When they contacted him, he said that he had long suffered from difficulty breathing and had coughed up blood,” Retno said. “The Busan Medical Center said that he died from pneumonia.”
Retno said that, according to a statement from Tian Yu 8, AR had fallen ill on March 26 and was moved from Long Xin 629 to Tian Yu 8 to be taken to port for treatment. However, AR died before the ship reached port and was buried at sea on the morning of March 31.
“According to the embassy, the ship had informed AR’s family and received approval for a burial at sea on March 30,” she said.
The two sailors who died in December were said to be buried at sea after dying of an infectious disease.
The Migrant Care advocacy group criticized the treatment of Indonesian crewmen on the Chinese vessels, saying that the harsh work environment infringed on their basic human rights.
“What these Indonesian crewmen experienced was a violation of their human rights. They were robbed of their freedom by working in an inappropriate environment. They were deprived of their right to information and, ultimately, they were robbed of their right to live,” Migrant Care executive director Wahyu Susilo said in a statement, adding that the case was a form of slavery in modern times.
Retno said the Foreign Ministry had summoned Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia Xiao Qian on Thursday to express concerns about the alleged mistreatment of Indonesian workers aboard Chinese fishing vessels.
“In regard to the burial at sea for the three Indonesians, the Indonesian government has again demanded clarification on whether the burials followed the ILO [International Labor Organization] standards. The Indonesian government also expressed concerns over the poor living conditions on the ships that allegedly caused the death of the four Indonesian crew members,” she said.
She also demanded that Chinese authorities conduct an investigation on the working conditions of the fishing ships.
“If the investigation has found that there’s a violation, then we want the Chinese authorities to uphold enforcement that is fair,” she said.
Indonesia also asked the Chinese government to help ensure that Chinese companies fulfill the workers’ rights, including their salaries, and provide safe working conditions.
In his response, the Chinese ambassador assured Indonesian officials that his government would make sure the companies would be accountable to regulations and contracts. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | May 2020 | ['(The Jakarta Post)'] |
Australia's Senate approves a $42–billion economic stimulus package. | Australia's Senate has passed the Labor government's A$42bn ($27bn; £19bn) stimulus plan after the bill was blocked during an earlier vote.
It was approved after the government reached a deal with an independent senator who had earlier joined the Liberal Party-led opposition.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the bill is vital to boost the economy amid a global economic slowdown.
On Friday the Australian Senate backed the bill by 30 votes to 28.
Labor does not have a majority in the Senate, and some compromise had been expected.
'National interest'
The approval came after the government agreed to A$1bn in extra funding for water projects.
"I'm pleased to say I believe we have been able to reach a compromise, which while not giving everybody what they want, may give everyone what they need," said independent senator Nick Xenophon, who had blocked the plan a day earlier.
Treasurer Wayne Swan, who led the negotiations with Mr Xenophon, said: "We are prepared to act in the national interest.
"That's what governs the fiscal stimulus package in the first place."
The bill had already passed once through the House of Representatives, the Senate's lower chamber, where Labor has a large majority.
It will now return to the lower house in its amended form for a further vote.
The plan proposes spending A$28.8bn on schools, housing and roads over four years.
In addition, it wants to dedicate A$12.7bn on tax breaks for small firms, and cash handouts for eligible workers and students.
The opposition has called the stimulus plan financially irresponsible.
Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull had said the government was treating parliament with "disingenuous contempt", accusing it of refusing to negotiate a less expensive package.
But business leaders had expressed their frustration at the Senate's earlier rejection of the stimulus plan.
"No other nation's parliament has refused a major stimulus package in the current environment of unprecedented global economic downturn," said the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. | Government Policy Changes | February 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
President Trump signs an executive order limiting refugees and immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The order also prioritizes the vetting of Christian refugees of the Syrian Civil War. | President Donald Trump has banned the entry of Syrian refugees into the US until further notice. He has also halted the issuing of visas to the nationals of six other mainly Muslim countries, including Iran, Iraq, Yemen and Libya, for three months. Mr Trump said the measures were part of new measures to "keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the US".
Rights groups have condemned the move, saying there is no link between Syrian refugees in the US and terrorism. Under Mr Trump's wide-ranging executive order, all refugee admissions have been suspended for four months.
Mr Trump signed the order at the Pentagon after a ceremony to swear in Gen James Mattis as defence secretary.
During the ceremony, he said: "I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people."
The text of the order was released several hours after it was signed. Among the measures are:
However, a mention of creating "safe zones" within Syria, seen in an earlier draft, was removed from the final order. The order also said all immigration programmes should include questions to "evaluate the applicant's likelihood of becoming a positively contributing member of society."
In a TV interview broadcast earlier on Friday, the president said Christians would be given priority among Syrians who apply for refugee status in the future.
Other measures include a broad review of the information required from all countries to approve a visa; a review of visa schemes between nations to ensure they are "truly reciprocal" for US citizens; and the immediate suspension of the Visa Interview Waiver Programme.
But the document says exceptions to most restrictions could be made on a case-by-case basis.
President Trump also signed an executive order aimed at rebuilding the military by "developing a plan for new planes, new ships, new resources and new tools for our men and women in uniform".
Last year, Mr Obama's administration admitted 10,000 Syrian refugees into the US. Neighbouring Canada - whose population is a ninth of that of the US - took in 35,000.
During the election campaign, Mr Trump suggested a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on".
But he has made no mention of this since his victory last November. The executive order has been met with criticism from rights organisations, Democrats and notable figures.
Democratic Senator Kamala Harris noted that the order had been signed on Holocaust Memorial Day. "Make no mistake - this is a Muslim ban," she wrote.
"During the Holocaust, we failed to let refugees like Anne Frank into our country. We can't let history repeat itself," she said.
And New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was "profoundly saddened" and the president had sent "a shamefully different message" than the country's founding beliefs. Malala Yousafzai, the teenage Nobel Peace Laureate who was shot by the Taliban following her advocacy for women's education in Pakistan, wrote that she was "heartbroken".
"America is turning its back on a proud history of welcoming refugees and immigrants - the people who helped build your country, ready to work hard in exchange for a fair chance at a new life," she added.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg also posted a lengthy note, saying he was "concerned" about the president's executive orders, and noting that he, like many Americans, is the descendant of immigrants.
The head of American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) condemned the use of the words "extreme vetting", saying it was a "euphemism for discriminating against Muslims".
"Identifying specific countries with Muslim majorities and carving out exceptions for minority religions flies in the face of the constitutional principle that bans the government from either favouring or discriminating against particular religions," Anthony Romero said in a statement.
| Government Policy Changes | January 2017 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
In tennis, Rafael Nadal wins the men's singles at the 2012 French Open. | The man they call "Rafa" won his record seventh French Open title Monday, returning a day after getting rained out to put the finishing touches on a 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 victory over Novak Djokovic. He denied Djokovic in his own run at history — the quest for the "Novak Slam."
Also Read: Who is Nadal? | Nadal hails 'unforgettable' triumphThe match ended on Djokovic's double-fault, a fittingly awkward conclusion to a final that had plenty of stops and starts, including a brief delay during the fourth set Monday while — what else? — a rain shower passed over the stadium.They waited it out and Rafael Nadal wound up as he has for seven of the past eight years: down on the ground, celebrating a title at a place that feels like a home away from home for the second-seeded Spaniard. He broke the record he shared with Bjorn Borg, improved to 52-1 at the French Open and beat the man who had defeated him in the last three Grand Slam finals."This tournament is, for me, the most special tournament of the world," Nadal said.After serving his fourth double-fault of the match, the top-seeded Djokovic dropped his head, slumped his shoulders and walked slowly towards the net — an emotional two-day adventure complete, and not with the result he wanted.He was trying to become the first man since Rod Laver, 43 years ago, to win four straight major titles. He came up short just as Roger Federer twice did in seeking four in a row — his pursuit also halted by Nadal at Roland Garros in 2006 and 2007."It was a very difficult match against the best player in the world," Nadal said. "I lost three Grand Slam finals — Wimbledon, the U.S. Open last year, and the Australian Open this year. I'm very happy, very emotional."Nadal won his 11th overall Grand Slam title, tying him with Borg and Laver for fourth among the all-time leaders.Next up on Rafael Nadal's list: Chris Evert? Yes. Before Monday, Evert was the only player, man or woman, to win seven titles at Roland Garros, and Nadal would break that record next if he wins No. 8."He's definitely the best player in history on this surface and the results are showing that he's one of the best-ever players to play this game," Djokovic said.A match with so much of tennis history riding on it proved awkward and frustrating for both players.Unable to solve Nadal's mastery of the clay, Djokovic was throwing rackets around early in the final. A bit later on Sunday, Nadal was complaining bitterly as the rain picked up, the tennis balls became heavy and officials refused to stop the match.Djokovic rolled through the third set as the rain turned the heavy red clay into more of a muddy paste. He had all the momentum when play was halted, up a break early in the fourth. The weather cleared well before dusk Sunday and Djokovic said he was sitting around the changing room, ready to play. But officials decided to call it a washout, setting up the first non-Sunday finish at the French Open since 1973, when Ilie Nastase wrapped up his title on a Tuesday."I said, 'Good, we've had some luck. If we hadn't stopped, we were going home,'" said Nadal's uncle and coach, Toni Nadal. "Because Rafael was a bit blocked and Djokovic wasn't missing any balls. He was hitting them all well. So we had some luck."When Nadal and Djokovic came back to Roland Garros on Monday under cloudy skies, they shook hands as they passed each other on the practice court. A bit later, the match resumed. Both the surface on Court Phillippe-Chartier and the tennis balls had dried out, and Nadal looked more like he usually does — sliding into his stops, spinning his powerful, looping shots, moving Djokovic around, always getting one more ball back."I'm not going back, saying it's your fault and your fault because I lost," Djokovic said. "It's unfortunate because I was playing better, feeling better on the court in the third set yesterday. Today, he started strong. I started slower. I was a little bit unfortunate in that first game and things turned around."On the restart, Nadal broke serve right away to tie the set at 2-2 and the frustrated Djokovic was back — slamming himself in the head with his racket after missing an easy forehand that gave Nadal the break point.It was one of 15 unforced errors in the set for Djokovic, who went back to trying to end points early and blunt the huge advantage Nadal has sliding around on clay. When the surface was muddy, the evening before in the third set, Djokovic only made eight unforced errors."But I don't find an excuse in that," Djokovic said, speaking of the decision to halt play Sunday night. "The better player won today, so congratulations on that."Play was nearly stopped with Nadal ahead 5-4 in the fourth, but the players sat under umbrellas for a few minutes while a rain shower passed, then they went back out. Both men held serve and Djokovic needed to hold once more trailing 6-5 to force a tiebreaker.Nadal hit a big forehand winner to set up match point, and Djokovic, who had saved four of those in a quarterfinal win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, had no more magic. He double-faulted and dropped to 0-4 against Nadal at the French Open.Nadal fell to his knees and buried his head in his hands, then clambered into the stands to hug his family. | Sports Competition | June 2012 | ['(NDTV SPORTS)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
A U.S. District Judge sentences the back office director, Daniel Bonventre, to ten years. | Bernard Madoff's former back office director was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Monday for helping the convicted fraudster conceal his massive Ponzi scheme for decades.
Daniel Bonventre, 67, is the first of five former Madoff employees to be sentenced over the next week, nine months after their conviction by a Manhattan federal jury of securities fraud, conspiracy and other charges.
U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ordered Bonventre to forfeit more than $155 billion, a symbolic sum for which he would and the other defendants who worked at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC would be jointly responsible.
"Mr. Bonventre, you lived a prestigious and luxurious life," Swain said at a hearing. "We now all know it was supported by a massive fraud."
In the first criminal trial stemming from Madoff's fraud, Bonventre was found guilty in March of all counts, as were former portfolio managers Annette Bongiorno and Joann Crupi and former computer programmers Jerome O'Hara and George Perez.
Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence after pleading guilty to running the unprecedented scheme, which cost investors more than an estimated $17 billion in principal losses.
Prosecutors accused the five aides of helping Madoff to hide his fraud from auditors, government regulators and the public through fake documents and bogus transactions.
The employees' lawyers said Madoff fooled their clients into believing the investment advisory business at his firm was legitimate.
"I was used by the ultimate con man," Bonventre told Swain on Monday.
But prosecutors called Bonventre one of the "core perpetrators of the massive fraud" and sought a sentence of more than 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Bonventre helped Madoff create false documents to deceive auditors and facilitated the transfer of nearly $800 million in clients' money from the fraudulent asset management unit to the firm's failing market-making and proprietary trading businesses.
Prosecutors also said Bonventre committed fraud while helping Madoff file false tax returns.
Bonventre's lawyers asked for home confinement or at most a short prison sentence, saying he was essentially a victim of a psychopath with a talent for deception.
In a surprise move, he took the witness stand during the trial, testifying that he had simply followed orders.
Fifteen people have been convicted in connection with the fraud. Bongiorno and O'Hara are scheduled for sentencing on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond and Joseph Ax; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn) | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2014 | ['(Reuters via FOX Business)'] |
Abdellatif Midras, a member of the Moroccan Parliament, is shot dead in Casablanca. | RABAT (Reuters) - A Moroccan lawmaker was shot dead in front of his home on Tuesday night in Casablanca in what appeared to be a personal dispute.
Abdellatif Mirdas, 53, member of parliament for the liberal Constitutional Union Party, was shot three times in his car, according to a police statement carried by MAP state news agency.
A 27-year-old man suspected of being linked to the murder was arrested, the statement said. It said he had threatened Mirdas over a “personal dispute of a private nature”.
Mirdas’ party condemned the killing.
Almost five months after elections in October, Morocco is caught in a political deadlock between its Islamist party prime minister and coalition partners over the formation of a new government he will lead.
| Famous Person - Death | March 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane is convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice. | The Pennsylvania's state attorney general was convicted Monday of all nine counts in a perjury and obstruction case related to a grand jury leak.
Attorney General Kathleen Kane showed little emotion as jurors announced their verdict late Monday. The jurors agreed the first-term Democrat leaked information about a 2009 grand jury probe to embarrass a rival prosecutor.
Earlier, a lawyer for Kane in closing arguments blamed her former top aides for the leak of grand jury material, which found its way to a newspaper. Kane wanted the public to know her predecessor had failed to prosecute a case involving an NAACP official, but she never authorized the leak of secret criminal files, said her lawyer, Seth Farber.
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Instead, he said, Kane's chief deputy, Adrian King, abused his power when he sent the files to a reporter through Kane's political consultant. King and the consultant, Josh Morrow, testified against Kane last week.
Morrow, who had a grant of immunity, said he and Kane devised a cover-up story that framed King for the leak. He acknowledged telling the lie to a grand jury.
"Those are two witnesses who will say whatever they need to in order to protect themselves," Farber said. "You would not even buy a used car from either one of them."
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele noted, though, that Kane had chosen the men as confidants. Text messages and phone records show frequent interactions among them on key days in the prosecution's timeline: when the documents changed hands, when the Philadelphia Daily News article appeared and when a grand jury started to investigate the leak.
A top deputy told the jury he was alarmed when he saw the June 2014 article. He testified Kane told him it was no big deal.
"Who would say that other than the person that is responsible for it?" Steele asked.
The leak grew out of Kane's feud with former office prosecutor Frank Fina, he said. According to trial testimony, Kane believed Fina had planted a story that showed she had dropped a statehouse sting.
"She was just hell-bent on getting back at Frank Fina," Morrow testified last week, describing Kane as "unhinged" at the time.
Kane did not testify or call any defense witnesses after three days of prosecution evidence. The jury began deliberations Monday afternoon.
Kane, 50, was once a rising star in the state's Democratic party, using her then-husband's trucking fortune to run for statewide office after stints as a Scranton prosecutor and a stay-at-home mother. But an early honeymoon period in office, when she spoke out for the legalization of gay marriage, was soon marred by turmoil as she sparred with officials inside and outside the office.
She staunchly described the charges as payback for her efforts to take on an "old-boys network" in state government that traded offensive, mildly pornographic emails. Her investigation led two state Supreme Court justices and others to resign.
However, the trial judge did not let her lawyers wade into that argument.
Public officials convicted of official misconduct in Pennsylvania typically don't have to resign until they are sentenced. Kane could stay in office while she appeals, the governor's office said.
Perjury, the only felony charged, can bring up to seven years in prison. The misdemeanor charges Kane faced included conspiracy, official oppression and false swearing.
Kane, the first Democrat and first woman elected to the office, lost her law license over the charges and did not seek re-election this year. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2016 | ['(WCAU–TV)'] |
Bank of Moscow, the fifth largest bank in Russia, in record bailout of $14 billion, after the discovery that almost a third of the bank's assets are "problematic," the Central Bank of Russia said. | Russia's fifth largest bank, Bank of Moscow, has been given the biggest bail-out in Russian history.
The $14bn rescue came after another bank, VTB, gained control through a hostile bid, only to uncover bad loans valued at $9bn - a third of the bank's assets.
Bank of Moscow's former head, Andrei Borodin, has fled the country, and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.
The bank was used by ex-Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov to fund property projects.
Mr Luzhkov was sacked by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last year.
In a statement issued in London, Mr Borodin said he was shocked at the size of the bail-out, and claimed that VTB's takeover of the bank was politically motivated.
VTB, for its part, accused Bank of Moscow of committing "fraudulent lending" under Mr Borodin's control, while Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has called for a criminal investigation.
Under the rescue deal, the Russian central bank will provide a 295bn rouble ($10.6bn) 10-year loan at a negligible interest rate to Bank of Moscow.
Meanwhile, VTB will invest a further 100bn roubles to recapitalise the bank - taking its ownership share from 46% to 75%, enough to qualify for state aid.
VTB, Russia's second-biggest lender, had itself to be rescued by the Russian state to the tune of $6.4bn during the financial crisis.
| Financial Aid | July 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(Moscow Times)'] |
In Farrukhabad, Uttar Pradesh, India, a man is shot and killed by police after taking more than 20 children as hostages for more than 10 hours. Angry locals later beat the hostage–taker's widow to death. It is unknown whether she was involved in her husband's plan. | An Indian man who arranged a fake birthday party for his one-year-old daughter, then held more than 20 children hostage, has been shot dead by police.
Local media identified the man as Subhash Batham - saying he was accused of murder but out on bail.
Locals in Uttar Pradesh's Farrukhabad district later beat his wife to death.
Police tried to negotiate with him during a 10-hour stand-off before forcing their way into the building. The hostage-taker was killed in a shootout. All of the children, aged between six months and 15 years were brought to safety.
Batham's wife, who has not been named, was then attacked as she apparently tried to flee. Police said locals threw bricks and stones.
"She had head injuries and was bleeding when she was taken to hospital," senior police officer Mohit Agarwal told India's NDTV.
The woman later died of her injuries. It is unclear if she was involved in the hostage-taking or not.
Local reporter Deepak Kumar Srivastava told the BBC that residents spent the night in terror.
"There was fear in the neighbourhood and nobody slept. Everybody was worried about the safety of the children. "The police tried to convince him to surrender for several hours. They called special forces when their attempt failed," he said.
Batham had invited children from his village in Farrukhabad to a birthday party for his daughter. But instead of a party, he held everybody hostage in the building.
"He believed that locals were responsible for his arrest in the murder case and he wanted to take revenge," Mr Srivastava added.
Only one six-month old girl was allowed out, when Batham handed her to a neighbour from a balcony, seven hours into the hostage-taking.
When neighbours alerted authorities and police arrived at the scene, he began shooting from the house. "On learning that he had firing capabilities and after his bomb-threats, all senior police officials decided to attack him," said Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police Om Prakash Singh. "We tried entering the house...Subhash was killed during the encounter." During the shootout, his wife, two policemen and one bystander were injured.
According to India Today, Batham had earlier sent a letter to the local district magistrate, complaining about the lack of toilet facilities in his house, and saying he had been denied government housing. He said he was a labourer and had an ailing mother who had to defecate in the open.
During the drama of the hours-long siege, several television channels appealed to Batham to contact them if he wanted to get his demands to the government or authorities. Why is India passing more death sentences? | Riot | January 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Microsoft agrees to buy professional networking site LinkedIn for $26.2 billion (£18 billion). | The software giant will pay $196 a share - a premium of almost 50% to Friday's closing share price.
The deal will help Microsoft boost sales of its business and email software. Microsoft said that LinkedIn would retain its "distinct brand, culture and independence". Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight, said the deal would give Microsoft access to the world's biggest professional social network with more than 430 million members worldwide. Watch: LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman's business secrets
"That's a valuable asset that can be deeply integrated with a number of Microsoft assets such as Office 365, Exchange and Outlook. That said, Microsoft has stated that the company will continue to operate as an independent business, so we'll have to see how deeply the integration occurs," Mr Wood said.
Ever had one of those annoying LinkedIn emails inviting you to "endorse" a contact for some skill or another? Perhaps LinkedIn chief executive Jeff Weiner and its founder Reid Hoffman deserve to be endorsed for salesmanship after today's deal. After a tricky period in which the shares have fallen amid widening losses, they have persuaded Microsoft to make its biggest deal. The software giant is paying a 50% premium on Friday's closing share price to buy LinkedIn, a price which amounts to $250 (£170) for every active user. To put that into context, that's about the market value of Sky, or eight times as much as Daily Mail owner DMGT - and they are both profitable.
But this deal is about more than money: it is meant as a powerful signal of where Satya Nadella is now taking Microsoft. He sees its future as a cloud computing business providing all sorts of professional services to clients - including a social network to connect them to each other. "We are trying to ride the wave of the new technologies," Mr Nadella told me from Seattle. "It's about AI, it's about mobile, it's about cloud and we're trying to bring those things together."
However, the deal to buy Nokia's mobile phones division had a similar logic - and the entire value of that purchase was written off just a year later. So Microsoft's investors may look at that $26bn price tag nervously, while anyone with a few LinkedIn shares may be using the network to send a message of congratulations to their board.
Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said he had long admired LinkedIn: "I have been thinking about this for a long time." The deal was "key to our bold ambition to reinvent productivity and business processes", he added.
The company planned a different approach to integrating LinkedIn to preserve its culture and brand, Mr Nadella said: "That's what's going to be very very different about this."
Microsoft had a long record of successfully integrating acquisitions, he explained, citing Minecraft - the video game whose maker it bought in 2014 for $2.5bn - as well as its very first purchase: the presentation software PowerPoint for $14m in 1987. LinkedIn shares soared 47%, or $61.50, to $192.60 in New York following the announcement of the deal.
Shares in the company, which floated in May 2011, have fallen by more than 40% this year.
The stock plunged by a quarter in February after the company issued a profit warning for the first quarter and reported an annual loss of $166m.
Ivan Feinseth, analyst at Tigress Financial Partners, said that LinkedIn was a great business "even though the company stubbed their toe back in February. It's a premium company and it deserves a premium valuation."
Shares in Microsoft fell 2.6% to $50.16, bringing the decline this year to almost 10%. Jeff Weiner will remain chief executive, reporting to Mr Nadella. He and Reid Hoffman - the chairman, co-founder and controlling shareholder of LinkedIn - both backed the deal.
"Today is a re-founding moment for LinkedIn," said Mr Hoffman. "I see incredible opportunity for our members and customers and look forward to supporting this new and combined business."
LinkedIn has been trying to expand by offering users more messaging options, mobile apps and a revamped "newsfeed" to help boost engagement.
Last year, the site pledged to send less frequent and "more relevant" messages after numerous user complaints.
The takeover is by far the biggest acquisition made by Microsoft, which paid $8.5bn for Skype in 2011 and bought Nokia's mobile phone business for $7.2bn in 2013.
The LinkedIn acquisition also eclipses the $19bn that Facebook paid for WhatsApp in 2014.
Despite having a cash pile of about $92bn, Microsoft said it would pay for LinkedIn mostly by issuing new debt.
| Organization Merge | June 2016 | ['(CNET)', '(BBC)'] |
Theresa May, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, announces March 2017 as the deadline for triggering Article 50 and says that her government will introduce a "Great Repeal Bill" that will repeal the European Communities Act 1972 once the United Kingdom leaves the European Union. | The UK will begin the formal Brexit negotiation process by the end of March 2017, PM Theresa May has said.
The timing on triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty means the UK looks set to leave the EU by summer 2019.
Mrs May told the Tory Party conference - her first as prime minister - the government would strike a deal with the EU as an "independent, sovereign" UK.
Voters had given their verdict "with emphatic clarity", she said, and ministers had to "get on with the job".
In a speech on the first day of the conference in Birmingham, she also gave details of a Great Repeal Bill which she said would end EU law's primacy in the UK.
She attacked those who "have still not accepted the result of the referendum", adding: "It is up to the government not to question, quibble or backslide on what we have been instructed to do, but to get on with the job."
She told delegates: "We are going to be a fully independent, sovereign country - a country that is no longer part of a political union with supranational institutions that can override national parliaments and courts.
"And that means we are going, once more, to have the freedom to make our own decisions on a whole host of different matters, from how we label our food to the way in which we choose to control immigration."
Mrs May said a "truly global Britain is possible, and it is in sight", adding: "We don't need - as I sometimes hear people say - to 'punch above our weight' because our weight is substantial enough already."
Reacting to Mrs May's comments about Article 50:
The PM, who had previously only said she would not trigger Article 50 this year, ended speculation about the government's timetable on BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday morning. She said it would be done by "the first quarter of 2017", marking the start of a two-year exit process.
The process of leaving the EU would be "quite complex", she said, but added that she hoped there would now be "preparatory work" with the remaining EU members so that "once the trigger comes we will have a smoother process of negotiation".
She added: "It's not just important for the UK, but important for Europe as a whole that we're able to do this in the best possible way so we have the least disruption for businesses, and when we leave the EU we have a smooth transition from the EU."
The PM also said June's vote to leave the EU had been a "clear message from the British people that they want us to control movement of people coming into the UK".
Theresa May has appeared dozens of times on Tory conference platforms before, but before she had uttered a word, this afternoon marked an occasion that will matter to the party's history.
She may not have been elected as prime minister, but with four years until the next general election, far from sticking to David Cameron's plan, she plans not to waste a minute implementing her agenda.
It will be far from easy - former ministers are already muttering about her direction. She has a tiny majority, and no individual mandate for her reforms.
But on the biggest challenge before her - taking the UK out of the European Union - Theresa May still is characteristically reticent.
Mrs May also promised a "Great Repeal Bill" in the next Queen's Speech, to remove the European Communities Act 1972 from the statute book and enshrine all existing EU law into British law.
The repeal bill will enable Parliament to amend and cancel any unwanted legislation and also end the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in the UK.
Mrs May said this was an "important step", adding: "That means the UK will be an independent sovereign nation, it will be making its own laws."
The repeal of the 1972 act will not take effect until the UK leaves the EU under Article 50.
| Government Policy Changes | October 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Pakistani Army kills approximately 60 Taliban militants during Operation Black Thunder. | Pakistani troops killed up to 60 militants as a punishing ground and air offensive against Taliban fighters in the country's northwest ran into fierce resistance on Friday, the military said.
The army pounded Taliban positions for a sixth day since launching its latest assault under US pressure after the Islamist hardliners advanced to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of the capital Islamabad.
As the fighting raged, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates appealed to Congress to free up money for military aid to Pakistan, which is central to Washington's strategy for stopping the insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Between 55 to 60 militants were killed in the last 24 hours in the district of Buner, where the "operation is continuing successfully," military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told a briefing update at army headquarters.
Based on combined tolls released by the military, nearly 200 militants have been killed in Operation Black Thunder since tanks, fighter jets and helicopter gunships swung into action in Buner and neighbouring Lower Dir.
The deaths could not be independently confirmed.
The Pakistan government ceded control of the nearby Swat valley in February, signing a deal to allow religious hardliners to enforce Islamic law in the region in order to end a bloody two-year rebellion led by a radical cleric.
But instead of disarming as required under the deal, the Taliban instead pushed further south towards Islamabad, taking over large swathes of Lower Dir and Buner -- and prompting the latest army offensive.
People living in Buner said Friday that the fighting was heavy.
"I can't sleep in my bedroom because my house keeps rattling all night due to heavy shelling," said 60-year-old Habibulah Khan, who runs a pharmacy in Nawagai, where he said all but four villagers had fled.
Hazrat Khan, 26, a teacher in Sultanwas, said he, his wife and four children had been holed up at home for four days, with food running low.
"I can see through chinks in the door that Taliban are everywhere out there. I can't move because of the curfew and shelling. I appeal to the authorities to evacuate us," he said.
Early Friday, more than 50 armed Taliban stormed a local paramilitary headquarters in Upper Dir -- a district so far shielded from the military offensive -- and snatched 10 security forces personnel, officials said.
The 10 were released unharmed later in the day.
Taliban fighters have kidnapped scores of security personnel in their increasingly brazen insurgency inside Pakistan, where US counter-terrorism experts say nearly 2,300 people were killed in militant attacks last year.
Security officials said Pakistani artillery also targeted hideouts in Maidan and Chakdara villages in Lower Dir late Thursday, although the army had said the battle in that district had been won.
Provincial authorities said Friday they had rejected a request from the pro-Taliban cleric who negotiated the February deal to halt the offensive after talks between the two camps resumed.
Cleric Sufi Mohammad, who does not speak for the Taliban fighters, suspended talks with the local government on Monday over the new Pakistan offensive.
"The operation will be halted when the armed people lay down their weapons because the government has to establish its writ at any cost," said information minister of North West Frontier Province, Mian Iftikhar Hussain.
The militant campaign has proved to be a serious challenge for the government of President Asif Ali Zardari, who pledged this week not to let the country's nuclear weapons arsenal fall into the hands of militants.
US President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he was "gravely concerned" about the Taliban's advances in Pakistan.
Dozens of missile strikes from suspected unmanned US planes have targeted militant positions in Pakistan's northwest along the border with Afghanistan, in attacks Pakistan publicly says are a violation of its sovereignty.
But the United States says Al-Qaeda, Taliban and other militants who have found a relative safe haven in Pakistan border areas outside government control are the biggest single terror threat to the West.
Gates, the US defence secretary, said Washington would start running out of money to give Pakistan for military assistance in mid-May unless Congress quickly approved releasing more aid.
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Residents flee Pakistan's troubled Buner district on April 30. Pakistani troops have killed up to 60 militants as a punishing ground and air offensive against Taliban fighters in the country's northwest ran into fierce resistance.
2007 AFP Tariq Mahmood
Pakistani troops have killed up to 60 militants as a punishing ground and air offensive against Taliban fighters in the country's northwest ran into fierce resistance.
2007 AFP Tariq Mahmood
Local residents flee Pakistan's Buner district on April 30. Pakistani troops have killed up to 60 militants as a punishing ground and air offensive against Taliban fighters in the country's northwest ran into fierce resistance.
2007 AFP Tariq Mahmood
Pakistan has launched 'Operation Black Thunder' against Taliban fighters in the Lower Dir and Buner districts. Pakistani troops have killed up to 60 militants as a punishing ground and air offensive against Taliban fighters in the country's northwest ran into fierce resistance.
2007 AFP Pakistani security personnel patrol during a ground and air operation against Taliban in Buner district on April 30. Pakistani troops have killed up to 60 militants as a punishing ground and air offensive against Taliban fighters in the country's northwest ran into fierce resistance.
2007 AFP Tariq Mahmood
| Armed Conflict | May 2009 | ['(France24)'] |
A boat carrying up to 200 asylum seekers capsizes north of Christmas Island, between Indonesia and Australia with 110 survivors rescued. | Hope is fast fading for as many as 100 people still missing after their boat capsized en route to Australia.
Indonesian and Australian authorities have rescued 109 people, including a 13-year-old boy, but have also pulled three bodies from the water.
Between 90 and 100 people are unaccounted for.
Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare says aircraft over the search and rescue area had spotted more bodies but no more survivors.
"We need to brace ourselves for more bad news," Mr Clare said on Friday.
The boat, crowded with asylum seekers, capsized about halfway between the Indonesian island of Java and Christmas Island on Thursday afternoon.
Most of the survivors were taken to Christmas Island on Friday. Three men were receiving medical treatment at the island's hospital.
The search, led by HMAS Larrakia and HMAS Wollongong and assisted by a number of merchant vessels and several aircraft, was continuing into Friday night.
Mr Clare revealed that the boat's crew first made a distress call to Australian authorities on Tuesday night and another early on Wednesday.
Australian officials told them to turn around and head back to Indonesia, before telling Indonesian authorities of the boat's location.
A Customs and Border Protection surveillance plane spotted the boat on Wednesday afternoon but reported no visual signs of distress.
Mr Clare dismissed suggestions that Australian authorities could have saved lives by acting sooner.
"I'm not going to second-guess today the action they have taken other than to say it looks like they took proactive steps," he said.
Nonetheless, a full investigation into the incident would be undertaken, he said.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority emphasised that the vessel was in Indonesia's search and rescue zone "at all times".
Asylum-seeker policy has been a hot political issue, with the government and opposition both blaming the other for an increase in boats since talks aimed at finding a bipartisan solution collapsed in January.
The government needs opposition or Greens support for a bill to underpin its Malaysian people-swap deal, which it believes would stop the boats.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said on Friday it was not the time to reignite the political debate.
"There'll be time enough in the days and weeks ahead to talk about what policy lessons might be drawn from it," Mr Abbott told reporters.
But senior Liberal backbencher Mal Washer said both parties were responsible for the political impasse that had led to the disaster.
"Somewhere in the cloud and smoke of politics of hung parliaments we got screwed up and we couldn't get the decency above the politics," Dr Washer told Sky News.
Dr Washer, the member for Moore in Western Australia, hinted he would consider crossing the floor to help get the government's bill through the House of Representatives.
But the bill would still stall in the Senate without wider support from the opposition or the Greens.
Independent MP Tony Windsor called for compromise.
"Surely the real issue is about saving people's lives and the best way of doing this is to discourage people from getting on a boat in the first place," Mr Windsor said.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the disaster underlined the dangers of people-smuggling boat journeys.
"The UNHCR calls on Australia and countries in the region to redouble their efforts to provide safer and more secure options for people to find protection other than through these dangerous and exploitative boat journeys," it said in a statement.
The Refugee Action Coalition's Ian Rintoul said more timely action by Australian authorities might have averted the disaster. | Shipwreck | June 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(AAP via Brisbane Times)'] |
Tens of thousands of people take part in a landmark European gay rights rally in Warsaw, the first time Europride is being held in Central and Eastern Europe. | Several thousand people have attended a European-wide gay rights parade in the Polish capital Warsaw. It was the first time the annual EuroPride march was being held in Central or Eastern Europe. Several small counter-demonstrations were also held and some people hurled eggs and abuse at those in the parade. A BBC correspondent says gay people in staunchly Roman Catholic Poland find it hard to be open about their sexuality.
Church leaders and politicians regularly speak out against homosexuality, Adam Easton reports from Warsaw. EuroPride's organisers say they want to fight discrimination against homosexuality and promote a debate about legalising same-sex relationships in Poland. The colourful parade began to the sound of pounding drums and vuvuzelas, our correspondent says.
Floats covered in rainbow flags and balloons carried politicians from Poland and across Europe. One person was dressed in a devil mask and horns - a cheeky reference, perhaps, to the controversy this year's EuroPride has caused in Poland, our correspondent says. "We feel like they are 20 years behind the Netherlands," said Ad Bakker, a 39-year-old from Holland who travelled to Warsaw to show solidarity with Polish friends. "But the atmosphere is good and we hope that EuroPride will help," he told the Associated Press news agency.
A Polish friend of his, Sebastian Blaszczyk, 36, said the situation was improving every year but Poland still had far to go in accepting gay people.
While EuroPride's organisers had hoped a minimum of 20,000 people from across Europe would join the event, police estimates put the figure at several thousand.
By comparison, more than a million people attended a gay pride march in Madrid three years ago, our correspondent adds.
Warsaw's authorities were given a petition with more than 50,000 signatures from anti-gay groups demanding the cancellation of the event. In a recent survey, almost two-thirds of respondents said homosexual couples should not be open about their sexuality. It is extremely rare to see gay couples holding hands even in Warsaw, Poland's most cosmopolitan city, our correspondent says. Those who do face verbal or physical violence, such as Ryszard Giersz, 25, from a small town near the German border. He won a small amount of damages in court last year after neighbours repeatedly verbally abused him and threw tomatoes and stones at him. The UK's ruling Conservative Party sent its most senior openly gay member to the event.
Nick Herbert told the BBC his presence at the parade illustrated Britain's support for human rights.
"Equality, respect for human rights, is fundamental for the ethos of the European Union and I think it's entirely appropriate and right that the British Government should be represented here by me and the ambassador in saying that we stand full square behind these values," he said.
Mr Herbert said his party and its coalition partner the Liberal Democrats had a "really ambitious programme of reform and entrenching equality for LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] people". | Protest_Online Condemnation | July 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Millions of young people take to the streets and numerous businesses worldwide go on strike days before the UN Climate Summit, demanding that further action be taken to confront climate change. | Follow NBC News If you've got a hankering for an ice cream cone to cool off Friday, you won't be able to get one at Ben & Jerry's — at least for part of the day. The company, along with several other brands and retailers, will temporarily close its doors in support of the Global Climate Strike.
The strike, which begins three days before the U.N. Climate Summit, hopes to put pressure on politicians and policy makers to combat climate change. Sixteen-year-old Swedish activist, Greta Thunberg, will lead the worldwide movement in New York on Friday. A second wave of protests is also scheduled for Sept. 27.
Over 6,000 websites are also striking on Friday including Tumblr, Imgur and World Press. These websites are donating ad space, spreading the world on social media, and adding a banner to their websites in solidarity with Thunberg and other young people striking for climate change.
"It is becoming clear that climate is a crisis right now and it affects every single person. Every corner of the world needs to take action," said Shuo Peskoe-Yang, with Fight for the Future, a digital rights organization. "Companies and websites are seeing the writing on the wall."
Companies like Burton and Patagonia will be shutting down both their online and physical stores. For 24 hours, Burton.com will not take orders or make any sales worldwide — the site will re-direct users to the Global Climate Strike website to help build awareness for the cause. In addition, all of their owned stores will be used as a community space for strikers. Patagonia will close its doors worldwide to empower employees to join their local demonstrations.
"For decades, many corporations have single-mindedly pursued profits at the expense of everything else — employees, communities and the air, land and water we all share," Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario wrote in a LinkedIn post. "Now we face a dangerously hot and fast-changing climate that is exacerbating natural disasters, causing food and water shortages, and speeding us toward the biggest economic catastrophe in history. The plain truth is that capitalism needs to evolve if humanity is going to survive."
She says that while it is encouraging to see some of the world's most powerful corporations — including JP Morgan Chase & Co, General Motors, and Amazon — acknowledge that they have responsibilities to the state of the environment, they must put their words into action.
Amazon employees are planning to take action against their employer. More than 1,400 Amazon employees are expected to strike against the company's practices that have contributed to the current climate crisis, marking the first walkout at the company's Seattle headquarters.
Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, the group behind the protest, lists three specific demands: zero emissions by 2030, zero custom Amazon Web Services (AWS) for fossil fuel companies, and zero funding for climate politicians and lobbyists who deny climate change.
"Amazon is one of the world’s most innovative companies. We pride ourselves on being a leader. But in the face of the climate crisis, a true leader is one who reaches zero emissions first, not one who slides in at the last possible moment," the group wrote in a Medium Post. "We know that reaching zero emissions by 2030 won’t be easy. But this is not the time to shy away from the challenge."
Google and Microsoft employees are also planning to protest on Friday.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Google Workers for Action on Climate tweeted that over 400 employees have committed to join a local climate strike.
"I support climate actions because we only have one earth and keeping it alive and healthy is one of the biggest responsibilities that we have," one Google employee shared on the twitter account. "I don't want my kids to look at me in 20 years asking how could you screw up like this."
While few major companies have made the pledge to strike in solidarity with protesters, employees are hoping to send a message to their corporations: to take responsibility for their impact on the planet and its people. | Strike | September 2019 | ['(Reuters)', '(NBC News)'] |
President Donald Trump signs a US$484 billion interim coronavirus relief bill that will add another $310 billion to the small-business Paycheck Protection Program, as well as provide billions in aid to hospitals and for testing. | President Trump signed a $484 billion interim coronavirus relief bill on Friday that will add another $310 billion to the small-business Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), as well as provide billions in aid to hospitals and for testing.
What's next: Now that the bill has been signed into law, Congress and the Trump administration will focus on how quickly that money, particularly the replenished PPP funds, can get out the door.
The big picture: House members returned to Washington for a vote on the bill Thursday, passing it 388-5. Details: The vast majority of the funds — $310 billion — is for replenishing the PPP, which dried up last week. Roughly $60 billion of that total will be allocated to small lenders and community banks. The rest includes:
President Trump and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci during an April daily coronavirus task force briefing at the White House. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
President Trump called out Anthony Fauci Saturday in a comment retweeting a video of the NIAID director explaining why coronavirus cases have been surging in the U.S. Driving the news: In the video of Friday's testimony, Fauci explained that while European countries shut 95% of their economies, the U.S. "functionally shut down only about 50%." Trump responded, "Wrong! We have more cases because we have tested far more than any other country, 60,000,000. Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
President Trump at the White House on Friday. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
The vote on renominating President Trump will be held in private this month with no media present because of coronavirus "restrictions and limitations" in place in North Carolina, a Republican National Convention spokesperson told AP Saturday.
The big picture: The vote is due to take place at the convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug. 24. When Trump announced on July 23 that he canceled plans to hold the convention in Jacksonville, Florida, over COVID-19 concerns, he said he'd give an acceptance speech "in a different form." | Government Policy Changes | April 2020 | ['(Axios)'] |
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others are arraigned at Guantanamo Bay detention camp under the Military Commissions Act of 2006, and charged with crimes related to the September 11, 2001 attacks. | In this photograph of a sketch by courtroom artist Janet Hamlin, reviewed by the U.S. Military, four of the Sept. 11 attacks co-conspirator suspects, at left, attend their arraignment inside the war crimes courthouse at Camp Justice, the legal complex of the U.S. Military Commissions, at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba, Thursday, June 5, 2008. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Waleed bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, and Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, known as Ammar al-Baluchi.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the reputed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, told a military judge at his arraignment Thursday that he welcomes the death penalty as a way to martyrdom and ridiculed the proceedings as an "inquisition."
In his first public appearance since his capture five years ago, Mohammed wore dark-framed prison-issue glasses, a turban and a bushy, gray beard, and was noticeably thinner a stark change from the slovenly man with disheveled hair, unshaven face and T-shirt from the widely distributed photograph after his seizure in Pakistan.
He and four other detainees accused of plotting al-Qaida's 2001 attack were at turns cordial and defiant at their arraignment, the first U.S. attempt to try in court those believed to be directly responsible for killing 2,973 people in the bloodiest terrorist attack ever on U.S. soil. All five said they did not want attorneys and would represent themselves.
The arraignment is the highest-profile test yet of the military's tribunal system, which faces an uncertain future. It also threatens to expose harsh interrogation techniques used on the men, who were in CIA custody before being transferred to Guantanamo in 2006.
A sound feed to journalists from the courtroom was turned off twice. The first time, a soldier told reporters it was because a detainee was discussing a medication he had been given, which was a privacy issue.
But his defense attorney, Navy Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, told The Associated Press later that the prisoner had been discussing his five years as a prisoner of the United States.
The sound was also turned off when another defendant discussed early days of his imprisonment. Judge Ralph Kohlmann said that in both cases sound was turned off because classified information was discussed.
The arraignment, in which no pleas were entered, indicated that hatred for the United States among some of the defendants remains at a boil.
One defendant said he deeply regrets not joining the hijackers who crashed passenger airliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.
"I have been seeking martyrdom for five years," said Ramzi Binalshibh, the alleged main intermediary between the 19 hijackers and al-Qaida leaders. "I tried for 9/11 to get a visa but I could not."
Asked if he understands that he could be executed if found guilty, Binalshibh said: "If this martyrdom happens today, I welcome it. God is great. God is great. God is great."
Calmly propping his glasses on his turban to peer at legal papers, Mohammed grinned at times and insisted he would not be represented by any attorneys. The other detainees quickly followed suit and said they too wanted to represent themselves.
One defense attorney said his client, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, was pressured by the other four to snub his defense team. Kohlmann then barred the detainees from talking with each other.
The U.S. is seeking the death penalty for all five defendants, who sat at separate tables with their defense teams in a high-tech courtroom on this U.S. Navy base. Binalshibh's ankles were chained to the floor.
Mohammed was careful not to interrupt Judge Ralph Kohlmann. He lost his composure only after the Marine colonel ordered several defense attorneys to keep quiet.
"It's an inquisition. It's not a trial," Mohammed said in broken English, his voice rising. "After torturing they transfer us to inquisition-land in Guantanamo."
The former No. 3 al-Qaida leader explained he believes only in religious "Sharia" law and railed against U.S. President George W. Bush for waging a "crusade war." The judge, wearing a crewcut and black robes, warned Mohammed that he faces execution if convicted of organizing the attacks on America. But Mohammed said he welcomes the death penalty.
"Yes, this is what I wish, to be a martyr for a long time," Mohammed declared. "I will, God willing, have this, by you."
Mohammed said he would represent himself at his war crimes trial and two other detainees quickly followed suit: Binalshibh and Waleed bin Attash, who allegedly selected and trained some of the hijackers.
"It hardly comes as any surprise that after holding individuals in solitary confinement for five years and subjecting them to torture, these detainees would reject the legal system and offers to represent them," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union in New York.
The Bush administration has acknowledged that Mohammed was subjected to harsh interrogation techniques including waterboarding a technique that gives the sensation of drowning in secret CIA custody before he was transferred to Guantanamo in 2006.
Mohammed is the most valuable al-Qaida official in U.S. custody and the central figure in a trial that will put the Pentagon's military tribunals under an intense spotlight. The tribunals have faced repeated legal setbacks, including a Supreme Court appeal on the rights of Guantanamo detainees that could produce a ruling this month halting the proceedings.
Defense attorneys harshly criticized the military commissions, which were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2006 before being resurrected in an altered form by Congress and President Bush.
"I think the American people, if they ... understood the ramifications in the long term to our Constitution, to their Constitution, I think they would be ashamed," Lachelier said outside the heavily guarded courtroom.
The defense attorney tried to raise another pending Supreme Court decision in the courtroom, on the benchmark when defendants can be allowed to represent themselves, but Kohlmann told her to keep quiet.
"What part of 'no' do you not understand?" the judge said, peering down from the bench. "Sit down."
Binalshibh's civilian attorney, Thomas Durkin, said the men should be tried in U.S. federal courts.
"We have had many terrorism cases in our federal court system," Durkin said. "I think it is a shame that for whatever reason the Bush administration has put on what we think is a show trial."
The military commissions plan to allow coerced testimony, although evidence obtained by torture is not allowed. Attorneys for Mohammed have said they will challenge evidence obtained through harsh interrogations.
Air Force Brig. Gen. Tom Hartmann, a top tribunal official, told reporters it was up to the judge to determine whether to allow as evidence statements obtained during waterboarding. Hartmann said waterboarding has not officially been classified as torture.
Mohammed said he was tortured after being captured in Pakistan in 2003 but didn't elaborate, indicating he understood he should not discuss it in the courtroom.
"I can't mention about the torturing," said Mohammed, who received an engineering degree from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. "I know this is the red line."
Kohlmann said he would try to minimize the chance that classified information will come out, in part by delaying closed-circuit video and audio of the proceedings by 20 seconds.
The defendants spoke with each other in Arabic, appeared to pass notes among them and at one point looked back and chuckled at reporters watching from behind a courtroom window.
All appeared to be in robust health except for al-Hawsawi, who allegedly selected and trained some of the 19 hijackers. He looked thin and frail and sat on a pillow on his chair.
The other defendants are Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, known as Ammar al-Baluchi, a nephew and lieutenant of Mohammed; Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, a Saudi who allegedly helped finance the hijackers; and Waleed bin Attash, who allegedly selected and trained some of the hijackers.
As the arraignment ended in the early evening, the judge said he would set the next court date later.
About 35 journalists watched on closed-circuit TV in a press room inside a converted hangar, while two dozen others watched through a window from a room adjacent to the courtroom. No photographs were allowed inside the courtroom, but a sketch artist was allowed to draw the scene.
Mohammed saw the sketch made of him when it was given to the defense team and he complained that it made his nose look too big. The artist said she would alter the sketch accordingly.
With less than eight months remaining in Bush's term, presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain both say they want to close the military's offshore detention center.
Obama also opposed the Military Commissions Act, which resurrected the military commissions in 2006. McCain supported it. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2008 | ['(AP via Google News)'] |
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is acquitted of breaching ethics clauses in the Constitution, allowing him to remain in power. | A nine-judge panel agreed with the army that retired senior officers such as Prayut are allowed to stay in army housing in recognition of their service.
Thailand’s highest court on Wednesday acquitted Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha of breaching ethics clauses in the country’s constitution, allowing him to stay in his job.
The Constitutional Court ruled on a complaint brought by the Pheu Thai party, the largest opposition grouping in Parliament, that Prayut had broken the law by continuing to live in his military residence after he retired as army commander in September 2014.
The complaint alleged that he broke constitutional articles barring government ministers from receiving special benefits from state agencies or enterprises because that would amount to a conflict of interest. If a minister is found guilty of violating ethical standards, the official is to be disqualified and forced to step down.
The nine-judge panel agreed with an army explanation that retired senior officers such as Prayut are allowed to stay in army housing in recognition of their service. The judges ruled unanimously in Prayut’s favor.
The ruling comes as Prayut has been dealing with a persistent student-led pro-democracy movement that has been holding frequent well-attended rallies demanding that he and his government step down, charging that they came to power illegitimately.
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Even before the court convened Wednesday. the protesters had called a rally to respond to the verdict.
“Thailand’s justice system has completely lost its integrity. The court’s verdict today shows they look down on the people. This will fuel people’s anger and be the condition that drives our rallies to a higher level,” a protest leader, Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak, told The Associated Press.
Get briefed on the story of the week, and developing stories to watch across the Asia-Pacific.
The rally attracted several thousand people, and like many other recent ones had a carnival atmosphere at times. But there was also an angry tone, as when Parit tore up and burned a book written by one of the judges. He said he did not mean to disrespect the book or its contents, but destroyed it to show he no longer respected the author, Nakharin Mektrairat, who in the past decade has become a prominent defender of conservative Thai ideology.
As army commander, Prayut led a coup in May 2014 that ousted an elected government led by the Pheu Thai party. He then headed the junta that ruled for five years and was also prime minister in the military-guided government.
A general election last year brought to power a proxy party established by the military, which with its allies selected Prayut to serve again as prime minister. The ongoing protests charge that the 2017 constitution established under military rule gave the proxy Palang Pracharath Party an unfair advantage in the election.
When Prayut and several of his Cabinet ministers faced a censure debate in Parliament in February, opposition leader Sompong Amornwiwat of the Pheu Thai party raised the issue of whether Prayut had acted illegally by continuing to live at his army residence at a base in Bangkok.
Prayut’s defense has been that the official residence of the prime minister is undergoing renovation, and also that he faces security concerns.
The army argued on his behalf that his military housing is actually a VIP guest house, though critics suggest that if he did not pay at least for water and electricity, he may be breaking the law.
The court said that senior officers such as Prayut were entitled to live in military housing as special guests in honor of their military careers. Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan and Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda were given the same privilege, former army chief Gen. Apirat Kongsompong declared before his retirement this past September. The court also said the current chief, Gen. Narongpan Jittkeawtae, had explained that the army’s regulations allow it to pay for utilities and other necessary costs in such instances.
In the past 12 years, court rulings have ousted three Thai prime ministers.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2020 | ['(The Diplomat)'] |
West Point graduate, billionaire businessman, and philanthropist Vincent Viola withdraws his name from consideration as Secretary of the Army because of Defense Department rules concerning his family businesses. | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vincent Viola, an Army veteran and founder of a high-speed trading firm nominated by U.S. President Donald Trump to be secretary of the Army, withdrew his name from consideration on Friday, a U.S. official said.
“Secretary Mattis is disappointed but understands and respects Mr. Viola’s decision,” a Pentagon statement said, adding that Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis would recommend another candidate soon.
The Military Times, which first reported the news, cited Viola’s inability to get around Defense Department rules concerning his family businesses as the reason for withdrawing his name.
Viola is a former chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange and is a leader in electronic trading. Along with Virtu CEO Douglas Cifu, he bought the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League in 2013. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | February 2017 | ['(Reuters)', '(Military Times)', '(Reuters)'] |
Former professional basketball player Mateen Cleaves is acquitted of several sex crimes in a court in his hometown of Flint, Michigan. | “I’m truly grateful that I had a great team fighting for my life and the truth finally came out," he said.
FLINT, MI – Mateen Cleaves was found not guilty on all counts Tuesday, Aug. 20 after he was first charged with sexually assaulting a woman nearly four years ago.
Cleaves, 41, faced single counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, third-degree criminal sexual conduct, unlawful imprisonment, and assault with intent to commit sexual penetration for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman on Sept. 15, 2015 at the Knights Inn in Mundy Township.
The verdict comes after six days of testimony from the alleged victim, her former boyfriend and police officers who responded to the scene.
Closing arguments took place for several hours Tuesday, Aug. 20 before Genesee Circuit Judge Celeste D. Bell’s packed courtroom.
The jury deliberated for less than three hours before returning their verdict around 4:20 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug, 20. The jury was comprised of 10 woman, four men. Two jurors were randomly dismissed. They were first sent out to deliberate at 1:44 p.m.
Cleaves was arraigned in March 2016 on multiple felony charges, including counts of unlawful imprisonment and criminal sexual conduct.
Now-retired Genesee District Judge M. Cathy Dowd dismissed all charges in December 2016 saying that although security camera footage shows Cleaves pulling the woman back into the hotel room, “there are a number of factors that led (her) to believe something else was going on.”
Charges were later reinstated by now-retired Genesee Circuit Judge Archie Hayman on appeal from prosecutors. He ruled in April 2017 that Dowd “did abuse her discretion of power” in dismissing the case.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | August 2019 | ['(MLive)', '(WJRT–TV)'] |
Colombian government and FARC representatives meet in Havana, and President Juan Manuel Santos will meet with presidential predecessors Álvaro Uribe, the accord opposition leader, and Andrés Pastrana Arango, to continue negotiations to end the 52-year war that has killed around a quarter of a million people. , | HAVANA/BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia’s government and Marxist guerrillas went back to the drawing board on Tuesday after a peace deal they painstakingly negotiated over four years was rejected in a shock referendum result.
In a vote that confounded opinion polls and was a disaster for President Juan Manuel Santos, Colombians narrowly rebuffed the pact on Sunday as too lenient on the rebels.
Lead negotiators Humberto de la Calle and Sergio Jaramillo were back at a Havana convention center on Tuesday meeting counterparts from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to see what the rebels are willing to do, the government said.
The Cuban capital had been the venue since 2012 for talks between the two sides that reached an accord to end Colombia’s 52-year war, which has killed around a quarter of a million people.
All sides, including “No” voters, who carried the day on Sunday by less than half a percentage point, say they want an end to war, and the two parties have kept their ceasefire.
But there is vehement opposition - led by hardline former President Alvaro Uribe - to major planks of the previous deal, including guaranteed congressional seats for the FARC and immunity from traditional jail sentences for leaders.
A renegotiation seems to depend on whether the FARC would accept tougher conditions, maybe combined with a softening of Uribe’s demands. After years of refusing to meet negotiators, Uribe has now said he is willing to seek a joint solution.
Santos and Uribe will meet on Wednesday morning, the president’s office said.
Santos late on Tuesday decreed that a government ceasefire put in place in August would be extended until the end of the month in a bid to allow time to salvage the deal. The original ceasefire was nullified when the peace accord was rejected in the plebiscite. He did not say if the ceasefire would be extended further.
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“I hope we can advance with the accord and with the dialogue so we can solidify the corrections and the agreements that will allow us to move forward on a solution to this conflict,” Santos said in a statement.
The statement appeared to worry rebels, who questioned what would happen after Oct. 31.
“From then on, does the war continue?” FARC leader Timochenko tweeted, while rebel commander Pastor Alape advised rebel fighters to seek safe positions to avoid provocations.
Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin said the decision whether to officially renegotiate the accord lies with the FARC.
On Monday the rebels said they would remain “faithful” to the negotiated accord, and Twitter messages from FARC leadership appeared to suggest reluctance to change the terms at this stage.
“The thing is, just as the government has its deal breakers, so does the FARC, so we have to see if it is willing to reopen the accord,” Holguin told reporters. “There was no Plan B, we believed the nation wanted peace.”
Three representatives from Uribe’s right-wing Democratic Center party are to pore over details with three from the government. In what may turn into a dual negotiation process, those meetings are to commence once de la Calle returns from Cuba.
Colombian financial markets fell on Monday as investors worried that the limbo over the peace deal would hold up fiscal reforms such as tax changes.
Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas, however, said the tax reforms would go ahead.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | October 2016 | ['(Reuters)', '(Deutsche Welle)'] |
"Marathon Man" Stefaan Engels sets a new world record by completing 365 marathon races in a year. | A Belgian runner has set a new world record by completing 365 marathon races in a year.
Stefaan Engels, dubbed "Marathon Man", began his challenge in Belgium a year ago and has since run a marathon every day across seven countries.
He crossed the finish line in the Spanish city of Barcelona after running 15,000km (9,569 miles) in a year. "I don't regard my marathon year as torture. It is more like a regular job," the 49-year-old said.
He averaged about four hours to complete a marathon. He said his best time was 2 hours and 56 minutes.
Engels suffered from asthma as a child and had been told by doctors to avoid sport.
Before Engels, the record marathon man was Akinori Kusuda of Japan - who ran 52 races in a row at the age of 65 in 2009.
| Break historical records | February 2011 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Georgian troops are forced to withdraw from Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia by Russian army. According to Georgian field commanders, some units of Georgian army still stay in South Ossetia to fight with Ossetian and Russian forces. Georgia withdraws forces that entered South Ossetia on Thursday, August, 7 after suffering heavy casualties. | TBILISI, Georgia (AP) A Georgian minister says Georgian troops have pulled out of Tbilisi the capital of the breakaway province of South Ossetia under massive Russian shelling.
Georgia's Reintegration Minister Temur Yakobashvili says the troops left Tskhinvali on Sunday to change their location. Yakobashvili says Georgian troops remained in South Ossetia.
He says the pullout will help provide a humanitarian corridor to evacuate those wounded from Tskhinvali.
The city has been ravaged by fierce battles since Friday when Georgian troops launched an offensive to regain control over South Ossetia.
TBILISI, Georgia (AP) Russia expanded its bombing blitz Sunday against neighboring U.S.-allied Georgia, targeting the country's capital for the first time as Russian and Georgian troops continued battling for the contested province of South Ossetia.
Russian jets raided a plant on the eastern outskirts of Tbilisi that builds Su-25 ground jets used by Georgia in the conflict. The attack inflicted some damage to its runways but caused no casualties, said Georgia's Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili.
"We heard a plane go over and then a big explosion," said Malkhaz Chachanidze, a 41-year old ceramics artist whose house is located just outside the fence of the factory, which has been running since the Soviet era. "It woke us up, everything shook."
Russian jets have been roaming Georgia's skies since Friday. They raided several air bases and bombed the Black Sea port city of Poti, which has a sizable oil shipment facility.
The Russian warplanes also struck near the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline which carries Caspian crude to the West, but no supply interruptions have been reported.
U.S. President George W. Bush called for an end to the Russian bombings and an immediate halt to the violence.
"The attacks are occurring in regions of Georgia far from the zone of conflict in South Ossetia. They mark a dangerous escalation in the crisis," Bush said in a statement to reporters while attending the Olympic Games in Beijing.
Georgia President Mikhail Saakashvili called it an "unprovoked brutal Russian invasion."
A Russian raid on Gori near South Ossetia Saturday which apparently targeted a military base on the town's outskirts left numerous civilian casualties.
An Associated Press reporter who visited the town shortly after the strike 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.
Russian officials said they weren't targeting civilians, but Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Georgia brought the airstrikes upon itself by bombing civilians and Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia. 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.
Saakashvili on Saturday proposed a cease-fire, but Russia said it wants Georgia to first pull its troops from South Ossetia and sign a pledge not to use force against the breakaway province.
The diplomatic standoff continued Saturday in the U.N. Security Council, which met for the third time since late Thursday night to try to help resolve the situation. Another meeting requested by Georgia was scheduled for Sunday afternoon.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged "all parties to immediately end hostilities and to engage, without delay, in negotiations to achieve a peaceful settlement," his office said in a statement late Saturday.
Georgia, a U.S. ally whose troops have been trained by American soldiers, launched the major offensive to regain control over South Ossetia overnight Friday. Heavy rocket and artillery fire and air strikes pounded the provincial capital, Tskhinvali.
Lavrov told reporters Saturday that some 1,500 people had been killed in South Ossetia since Friday, with the death toll rising. The figures could not be independently confirmed.
But Tskhinvali residents who survived the bombardment by hiding in basements and later fled the city estimated that hundreds of civilians had died. They said bodies were lying everywhere.
Utiashvili, the Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman, said the Georgian troops were still in control of Tskhinvali on Sunday morning but added that Russian troops were attacking the city from several directions.
A Russian general said Saturday that his troops had driven the Georgian troops out of the city, but another Russian officer, Maj. Gen. Marat Kulakhmetov, admitted in televised remarks Sunday that the fighting in the city was continuing.
Alexander Lomaia, secretary of Georgia's Security Council, estimated that Russia sent 2,500 troops into Georgia. The Russian military would not comment on the number of troops.
In Saturday's meeting with refugees in the city of Vladikavkaz across the border, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin described Georgia's actions as "complete genocide. Putin also said Georgia had effectively lost the right to rule the breakaway province an indication Moscow could be preparing to fulfill South Ossetians' wish to be absorbed into Russia.
The risk of the conflict setting off a wider war also increased when Russian-supported separatists in another Georgia's breakaway region, Abkhazia, launched air and artillery strikes on Georgian troops to drive them out of a small part of the province they control. The separatists told 15 U.N. military observers to evacuate.
Georgia's Foreign Ministry said the country was "in a state of war" and accused Russia of beginning a "massive military aggression." The Georgian parliament approved a state of martial law, mobilizing reservists and ordering government authorities to work round-the-clock.
Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev said that Moscow sent troops into South Ossetia to protect its peacekeepers and civilians on a mission to "enforce peace." He said that Russia would seek to bring the Georgian attackers to criminal responsibility.
Medvedev said he was ordering the military prosecutor to document crimes against civilians in South Ossetia.
Georgia borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia and was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the breakup of the Soviet Union. Today, Russia has approximately 30 times more people than Georgia and 240 times the area.
Both South Ossetia and Abkhazia have run their own affairs without international recognition since splitting from Georgia in the early 1990s and have built up ties with Moscow. Russia has granted its passports to most of their residents.
Russia also laid much of the responsibility for ending the fighting on Washington, which has trained Georgian troops. Washington, in turned, blamed Russia.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Bush had spoken with both Medvedev and Saakashvili. But it was unclear what might persuade either side to stop shooting both claim the other violated a cease-fire declared Thursday.
Georgia said it has shot down 10 Russian planes, including four brought down Saturday, according to Lomaia. It also claimed to have captured two Russian pilots, who were shown on Georgian television.
Russian Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the General Staff, confirmed Saturday that two Russian planes had been shot down, but did not say where or when.
Russian military commanders said 15 peacekeepers have been killed and about 150 wounded in South Ossetia, accusing Georgian troops of killing and wounding Russian peacekeepers when they seized Russian checkpoints. The allegations couldn't be independently confirmed.
Russia's Vesti 24 television reported that its crew of three were wounded in a Georgian shelling of a Russian military convoy near Tskhinvali which also left a Russian general wounded.
In Abkhazia, the separatist government said it intended to push Georgian forces out of the Kodori Gorge. The northern part of the gorge is the only area of Abkhazia that has remained under Georgian government control.
Lomaia, the Georgian security chief, said that Georgian administrative buildings and two villages in the Kodori Gorge were bombed, but he blamed the attack on Russia. He said there were no casualties.
Lomaia said that Russians also raided a Georgian military faciliy in the Zugdidi region just south of Abkhazia, inflicting no casualties.
Associated Press writers Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili in Tbilisi, Georgia; Douglas Birch on the Russian-Georgian border; George Abdaladze in Gori, Georgia; and Jim Heintz, Vladimir Isachenkov and Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this report. | Armed Conflict | August 2008 | ['(AP via Google News)', '(The Times)', '(Bloomberg)'] |
One person is killed and 16 people are injured, four with life-threatening injuries, after a New York City Subway caught fire near the Central Park North–110th Street station in Harlem. The fire has been treated as suspicious. | Follow NBC News A New York City subway train conductor was killed and at least 16 other people were hurt in an underground fire Friday morning, officials said.
More than 100 firefighters responded to the train blaze in Harlem, just above Central Park, at 3:18 a.m., New York City Fire Department Deputy Assistant Chief Fred Schaaf said during an early-morning news conference.
Police, fire marshals and federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were at the subway station at 110th Street and Central Park North on Friday investigating.
Authorities are treating the blaze as suspicious, and investigators were questioning an apparently emotionally disturbed person, two senior law enforcement officials told NBC New York. A statement from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it is offering an up to $50,000 for information leading to an arrest.
Among those hurt in the fire were four people who suffered life-threatening injuries and one with serious injuries, according to the fire department. In addition, 11 people, including four firefighters, sustained minor injuries.
The conductor was identified by his union as Garrett Goble, 36. He died at a hospital.
“This is a terrible tragedy ... a young man serving the public during a national crisis was killed at just 36 years of age," said Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Tony Utano in a statement. "This is a sad day for our entire City. We’re devastated.”
He said Goble had "acted heroically to move passengers to the platform out of danger."
"For this to happen, after we lost two of our union brothers to the Coronavirus, is hard to comprehend," Utano added. “These may be the darkest days that TWU Local 100 has gone through.
"We’ve been some tough times together. We’ve had more than our share of tragedies. This is different. We can’t grieve together. We can’t mourn together, at least not physically, as we have done in the past. But we remain a family," he said.
The MTA also said that Goble, and another conductor, helped passengers escape the train and the platform.
"Our colleague was a young man who had served the people of New York City at Transit for many years. The entire MTA family mourns his death alongside a grateful city," MTA Chairman and CEO Patrick J. Foye said in a statement.
Schaaf said heavy fire came from at least one train car, and that firefighters were met with challenging high-heat conditions. Two cars were quickly evacuated.
Large plumes of smoke could be seen billowing out of street grates near where the train halted. The fire had started at Broadway and 96th Street, police said.
The fire, which broke out in a northbound train, affected service through the morning and afternoon, according to the MTA. Far fewer commuters are using the subway system during the coronavirus pandemic, but the MTA has also greatly decreased the number of trains that are running.
Elisha Fieldstadt is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.
Jonathan Dienst is a reporter for WNBC-TV in New York, leading its investigative reporting team and covering justice and law enforcement issues. | Fire | March 2020 | ['(NBC News)'] |
Serbians protest for a fourth consecutive day; the protest initially started out against the government COVID-19 measures but would morph into anti-government protests. 71 people are arrested. |
Hundreds of protesters in Serbia clashed with the police in front of the parliament building in Belgrade on Friday, as protests rocked the country for the fourth consecutive day. Serbia faces a new wave of coronavirus infections, which the protesters blame on the government's pandemic policy.
Despite the ban on mass gatherings, thousands rallied in Belgrade and other major cities. Groups of protesters threw bottles, rocks and flares at the police guarding the parliament. The rioters also used the protective metal fence around the building as a weapon in the scuffles with the police.
The police fired tear gas at the protesters and prevented people from entering the building.
Fourteen police officers were injured in the rioting, and 71 people have been detained so far, said police director Vladimir Rebic. Several reporters have also been hurt.
Protesters gathered outside the parliament building in Belgrade
The protests happened hours after President Aleksandar Vucic said that he was not worried about losing political power despite the unrest. Vucic also told RTV Pink, a pro-government news channel, that protesters attacking "brave" policemen would be arrested.
Some opposition leaders in Serbia alleged that Friday's attack on the parliament was orchestrated by demonstrators controlled by the government.
The most intense protests since 2000
Serbia is in the grip of the most intense protests since 2000, over the Vucic government's coronavirus measures.
The government had imposed draconian lockdown measures in the earlier stages of the outbreak, but then lifted all coronavirus restrictions as the country was nearing a parliamentary election.
In the days following the election, top medical officials and Vucic himself raised the alarm over the galloping infections and the increasing strain on the country's ineffective healthcare system.
Read more: Serbia's Vucic backs down on coronavirus curfew after Belgrade protests
On Tuesday, Vucic announced gatherings of over five people would be banned starting on Wednesday, and that a curfew would be reintroduced from Friday evening until Monday morning, but did not specify if the decision would apply to the whole country.
He has since changed his mind, with the country's emergency coronavirus council declaring a ban on mass gatherings but stopping short of a curfew.
Protests began on Tuesday against the government's measures, stretching into a fourth consecutive day on Friday.
Protesters briefly managed to breach the parliament building during hourslong unrest on Wednesday. Vucic has described protesters against his government as "criminal hooligans." | Protest_Online Condemnation | July 2020 | ['(DW News)'] |
Nearly 100,000 Italian women sign a petition after Silvio Berlusconi says a female politician is "more beautiful than intelligent" on live television. | Nearly 100,000 Italian women have signed a petition expressing anger over an insult by PM Silvio Berlusconi to a female politician on live television.
Mr Berlusconi said the woman, 58-year-old Rosy Bindi, was "more beautiful than intelligent". The prime minister says his comments were a joke, but he has been accused of chauvinism. Some view the backlash as a new feminism taking root in a traditionally conservative country. Others say that it is another example of Mr Berlusconi's ability to offend women, whether he means it or not. Mr Berlusconi's now infamous comment came as he spoke on a late-night TV discussion programme. He had phoned into the show after Ms Bindi, of the opposition Democratic Party, had attacked him following the recent court decision to remove his immunity from prosecution. Ms Bindi - a bespectacled, matronly figure - sat and listened as Mr Berlusconi made his cutting remarks. "You are more beautiful than intelligent," he told her, in a sarcastic swipe at her looks and intellect. "I am not a woman at your disposal," Ms Bindi replied, in an apparent reference to his recent scandals involving young women. 'Cretinisation of women'
Mr Berlusconi's comments have caused uproar. Some 97,000 women have now signed a petition saying they were offended by his remarks. One commentator said: "We protest against this cretinisation of women." Senator Patrizia Bugnano called him a chauvinist, saying: "Someone tell Berlusconi he is no George Clooney." Opinion poll companies say Mr Berlusconi's comments will probably not do him too much harm, as his female supporters are used to such colourful remarks. But his cutting comment against Ms Bindi has stirred a rare public outpouring from thousands of Italian women who, until now, have kept largely silent about Mr Berlusconi's scandal-ridden year. | Protest_Online Condemnation | October 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
Three people are arrested for their involvement in the killing of six Copts as they left a church in southern Egypt. | Egyptian police say they have arrested three suspects in a drive-by shooting that killed six Coptic Christians and one security official.
The shooting came as worshippers left a church in Naga Hamady, southern Egypt after a midnight mass on Coptic Christmas Eve on 7 January. On Thursday protesters clashed with police at the hospital in Naga Hamady. More than 1,000 Christians had gathered at the hospital to collect the bodies of six of the victims. The drive-by shooting is thought to be in revenge for the alleged rape of a 12-year-old Muslim girl by a Christian man. Following the reported rape in November there were five days of riots in the town, with Christian properties set on fire and damaged. The most serious cases are usually in poor, rural areas where the trigger is often a dispute over land or women, which spills over into sectarian violence. Whole communities can become involved.
Local authorities' handling of such cases is often criticised. Police are accused of delaying their response to reports of fighting and then simply arresting equal numbers of individuals from each faith. Sometimes criminal investigations are dropped in favour of informal reconciliation meetings.
Three people are reported to have pulled up outside the church in Naga Hamady on 7 January, killing at least six Coptic Christians and a security official and injuring 10 others, including two Muslim passers-by. The church's Bishop Kirollos said there had been threats in the days leading up to the Christmas Eve service - a reason he decided to end his Mass an hour earlier than normal. "For days, I had expected something to happen on Christmas Eve," he told the Associated Press. He said he left the church minutes before the attack. "A driving car swerved near me, so I took the back door," he said. "By the time I shook hands with someone at the gate, I heard the mayhem, lots of machine-gun shots." Witness Youssef Sidhom told the BBC that the attack shocked everyone, including police guarding the church. Harassment claims
Naga Hamady is 40 miles (64km) from Luxor, southern Egypt's biggest city. Coptic Christians - who make up 10% of Egypt's 80 million population - have complained of harassment and discrimination. Some Copts argue that previous attacks on them have gone unpunished or have resulted in light sentences. Most Christians in Egypt are Copts - Christians descended from the ancient Egyptians. Their church split from the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches in AD451 because of a theological dispute over the nature of Christ, but is now, on most issues, doctrinally similar to the Eastern Orthodox Church. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | January 2010 | ['(AFP)', '(BBC)'] |
A rocket hits and injures several people at the Damascus International Fair. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says five people have died. | A rocket has struck close to the entrance of a trade fair in the Syrian capital, Damascus, Syrian media say.
The Damascus International Fair is being held for the first time since the Syrian conflict broke out in 2011.
Syrian TV said the rocket had caused casualties. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said five people had died.
The fair, which has another 10 days to run, had been a key business event before the Syrian conflict broke out.
Its general director, Fares al-Kartally, told AFP news agency earlier in the week that holding the fair, which opened on Thursday, reflected "the return of calm and stability in most regions" and would "signal the start of [the country's] reconstruction".
State television reported the attack without giving specific casualties.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said about a dozen people had been injured in addition to the five dead.
Damascus has been spared the worst of the conflict, which recent de-escalation zones have eased further, but has suffered missile attacks from rebels.
Syria's war has left more than 330,000 people dead and has displaced millions more.
| Armed Conflict | August 2017 | ['(Daily Mail)', '(BBC)'] |
Voters head to the polls in Turkey to vote on metropolitan and district municipal mayors along with provincial and municipal councillors. The election is believed to be contested on challenging the current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. | The party of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lost control of the capital, Ankara, in local elections, in a blow to his 16-year rule. The main opposition is also slightly ahead in the contest for mayor of Istanbul, figures published by the state-run Anadolu news agency suggest. But the president's AKP party is challenging the result in both cities.
Municipal elections were held across the nation on Sunday and an AKP-led alliance won more than 51% of the vote. The elections, considered a verdict on Mr Erdogan's rule, have been taking place during an economic downturn.
The currency, the lira, has been losing value recently and the economy went into recession in the last three months of 2018. The AKP - or Justice and Development Party - alleges "invalid votes and irregularities in most of the 12,158 polling stations in Ankara".
Its general secretary, Fatih Sahin, said on Twitter: "We will use our legal rights to the fullest, and we will not allow the will of our citizens to be altered in Ankara."
The AKP says it will also challenge the result in Istanbul - the largest city - and the eastern province of Igdir. Commenting on the results in a speech on Sunday, Mr Erdogan looked ahead to national elections in 2023: "We have a long period ahead where we will carry out economic reforms without compromising on the rules of the free-market economy.
"If there are any shortcomings, it is our duty to correct them," he said. More than 57 million people in the country were registered to vote for mayors and councillors. Turnout was high at just under 85%. The opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) candidate Mansur Yavas won in Ankara, officials said. With almost all votes counted, he was on nearly 51% and the AKP's Mehmet Ozhaseki had won the support of just over 47%. Both CHP and the AKP claim victory in Istanbul, which has been in the hands of parties linked to Mr Erdogan since 1994, when he was elected the city's mayor. The election commission said the CHP's Ekrem Imamoglu was leading there by less than 0.5%, but that the results of more than 80 ballot boxes were being challenged. Results carried by Anadolu put the margin even narrower, at less than 0.25%. The AKP had been saying its candidate, former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, was ahead by 4,000 votes. He later conceded his opponent had a narrow lead, only for the AKP to again claim victory.
The third largest city, Izmir, went to the CHP.
"The people have voted in favour of democracy. They have chosen democracy," CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said.
Analysis by Mark Lowen, BBC Turkey correspondent
Electoral figures show Istanbul falling to the opposition by a whisker, although the ruling party has challenged the result and refused to concede. Ekrem Imamoglu, who's already changed his Twitter profile to "mayor of Istanbul", has vowed to serve all sides - those who voted for and against him - without discrimination. President Erdogan's setbacks deepened elsewhere, losing the capital, Ankara, and several other cities as his conservative voters punished him for an economic crisis.
Local elections are important here. Parties build their base at grassroots level; Mr Erdogan himself gained power after being mayor of Istanbul.
He turned this poll into, in effect, a referendum on himself. Now his image of invincibility has been broken and an opposition long seen as hopelessly divided has got a new lease of life. Swathes of Turkey still adore Mr Erdogan, but the half of the country that detests its polarising president are starting to believe he's beatable.
This was the first municipal vote since Mr Erdogan assumed sweeping executive powers through last year's presidential election.
The AKP, with its roots in political Islam, has won every election since coming to power in 2002.
Mr Erdogan, whose two-month campaign included 100 rallies, said the poll was about the "survival" of the country and his party.
With most media either pro-government or controlled by Mr Erdogan's supporters, critics believe opposition parties campaigned at a disadvantage. Mr Erdogan's rallies dominated TV coverage. The opposition pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said the elections were unfair and refused to put forward candidates in several cities.
Some of its leaders have been jailed on terrorism charges, accusations they reject.
| Government Job change - Election | March 2019 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Former English Premier League player Dalian Atkinson dies after being tasered by police in Telford, Shropshire. | A man who died after being Tasered by police in Telford, Shropshire, has been named as former Aston Villa footballer Dalian Atkinson.
Mr Atkinson died early on Monday morning after officers responded to an alert "for the safety of an individual" at a home in Meadow Close around 1.30am.
The 48-year-old was given medical treatment but died about 90 minutes later, West Mercia Police said.
Ipswich Town paid tribute on its Twitter feed, saying: "Terribly sad news about our former striker. Our thoughts are with Dalian's family and friends at this tragic time."
Sheffield Wednesday said on the social media site: "The thoughts of everyone at Wednesday are with the friends and family of Dalian Atkinson this morning. RIP".
Former team-mate Tony Daley, who played for Aston Villa at the same time as Mr Atkinson, tweeted: "Devastating news...RIP Dalian" with an image of a broken heart.
Another former player, Ian Taylor, said: "Just heard news re my old team mate Dalian. Deepest condolences to his family. Only spoke to him last week as well. Sad sad news."
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Mr Atkinson's father, thought to be in his 80s, lives in Meadow Close and the footballer was believed to have been visiting him when police were called.
Neighbours said the retired star, who drives a Porsche, was well-known among people in the street, making frequent visits to the short cul-de-sac.
Local resident Paula Quinn said Mr Atkinson appeared to be "almost staggering" in the street before he was Tasered.
Miss Quinn, who lives in a first-floor flat above a barber's shop, claimed Mr Atkinson went down "like a lead balloon" after being hit by the Taser.
The witness added: "I heard shouting and something smashing, which is what alerted me to look out of the window.
"I am feeling a bit sick knowing that the poor lad has passed. I don't care what anybody has done. Nobody deserves to die as a result of something like that."
West Mercia Police said in a statement: "West Mercia Police can confirm that officers responded to a report for the concern for the safety of an individual at approximately 1.30am this morning at an address in Telford.
"Upon arrival Taser was deployed and a 48-year-old man, who subsequently received medical attention, was pronounced dead at approximately 3am.
"West Mercia Police are unable to comment any further as the incident has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) as is normal procedure, and will assist the IPCC with their inquiries."
Mr Atkinson was a top flight striker in the 1990s, with a goal for league runners-up Aston Villa against Wimbledon, which followed a mazy run from inside his own half, being voted 1992-1993 goal of the season.
He went on to score at Wembley in 1994 as Villa beat Manchester United to lift the League Cup.
Starting his career at Ipswich he played for Sheffield Wednesday and Spanish team Real Sociedad before moving to Villa.
He scored more than 20 Premier League goals for the Birmingham side between 1991 and 1995 before going on to play less successfully for teams including Turkish side Fenerbahce and Manchester City.
He ended his career playing in South Korea in 2001.
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: "We were called by West Mercia Police to an address in Meadow Close in the Trench area of Telford at about 1.45am this morning.
"An ambulance was dispatched and upon arrival found a man who had been Tasered.
"As he was being conveyed to Princess Royal Hospital, his condition deteriorated and he went into cardiac arrest.
"Despite the efforts of the crew and hospital staff, it was not possible to save him and he was confirmed dead at hospital, shortly after arrival."
His death follows that of ex-soldier Spencer Beynon in June, after he was Tasered by police in Llanelli, South Wales, after stabbing a dog and then himself.
Friends said he had suffered mental health problems after leaving the military.
Last year, police use of Tasers, which are intended as a non-lethal weapon, went up slightly towards the end of 2015 with 10,329 uses by forces in England and Wales, a two per cent rise on the previous year.
However, of those, 19 per cent (1,921) were discharges; a decrease of three per cent from the previous year.
Between January 2014 and November 2015, police forces in England and Wales used Tasers on minors at least 407 times, including 57 times against children aged 14 or younger.
Additional reporting by PA
Anton Want/Allsport/Getty
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. | Famous Person - Death | August 2016 | ['(The Independent)'] |
In response to the floods in Guyana, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs launches a Flash Appeal to cover both immediate and transitional needs of the affected people. The floods, a result of the torrential rains that occurred during the middle of January, continue to affect over 290,000 people, or roughly 39% of the population. The torrential rains were the worst for the region in roughly a century. | In January 2005, torrential rains caused serious flooding along the coastal region, which is the most densely populated area of Guyana. As a result, the Government declared Regions 3 (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara), Region 4 (Demerara/Mahaica) and Region 5 (Mahaica/Berbice) disaster areas. The coastal stretch between the capital Georgetown and Mahaica on the east bank of the Demerara River was particularly hit. The flooding affected around 290,000 people (39% of Guyana’s population); over half of them are women and almost one third are children under nine years. This is the largest disaster to hit Guyana in the last century. Overnight, thousands were forced to flee their homes in the capital and coastal villages and close to 5,000 people have had to stay in temporary shelters. Meanwhile, a large proportion of the affected families became trapped in their homes, depending on daily delivery of food and water and highly exposed to disease and environmental health problems. Three weeks after the peak of the emergency, an estimated 92,000 people still have water in their homes. Many areas remain accessible only by boat and the water level is reportedly still as high as 1.2-1.5 metres in some villages, while rivers have swollen alarmingly. The risk of disease remains a major threat to the well being of the population in the affected areas. In effect, poor sanitation, waste management systems and vector proliferation have rendered the waters highly infectious. The intensity of the crisis has had a serious impact on the normal coping mechanisms of families and communities, as many of the worst affected areas are also among the poorest. Because of the current vulnerabilities, the new rainy season due in three months could generate new floods of catastrophic consequences in the affected areas. Since the onset of the emergency, the United Nations system in Guyana has been working closely with the Government and other humanitarian partners to provide relief and assistance to those most affected by the floods. United Nations Agencies have been able to use immediately available resources as well as initial funding provided by the donor community. This appeal covers the emergency and transitional response of the United Nations to the flood disaster in Guyana for a period of six months. The activities will address the humanitarian and community recovery needs identified in close collaboration with the Government and aid partners in Guyana, and particularly the following:
Immediate relief needs:
2.1 CONTEXT
In January 2005, torrential rains caused serious flooding along the coastal region, which is the most densely populated area of Guyana. As a result, the Government declared Regions 3 (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara), Region 4 (Demerara/Mahaica), and Region 5 (Mahaica/Berbice) disaster areas. The coastal stretch between the capital Georgetown and Mahaica on the east bank of the Demerara River was particularly hit. The flooding affected around 290,000 people (39% of Guyana’s population); over half of them are women and almost one third are children under nine years. Overnight, thousands were forced to flee their homes in the capital and coastal villages and close to 5,000 people have had to stay in temporary shelters. Meanwhile, a large proportion of the affected families became trapped in their homes, depending on daily delivery of food and water and highly exposed to disease and environmental health problems. Three weeks after the peak of the emergency, an estimated 92,000 people still have water in their homes. Many areas remain accessible only by boat and the water level is reportedly still as high as 1.2-1.5 metres in some villages, while rivers have swollen alarmingly. The flooding has been compounded by the problem of drainage in the affected area, which is located between two dams – the sea wall and a dyked water conservancy with a catchment area of 500 km2. The conservancy dyke spilled over and the water level has since been dropping very slowly (4 cm a day) because of the limited pumping capacity and poor maintenance of the drain channels. Many of them are either overgrown with vegetation, filled in, or have culverts blocked by garbage. An additional serious threat is the possibility of a collapse or breach of the conservancy dyke. This would mean an additional one meter of water, catastrophic in areas already under water. The United Nations Country Team has supported the coordination of relief efforts working closely with the Government, the Civil Defence Committee (CDC) and the Joint Operations Centre (JOC), as well as with donors and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). This included:
The flood-affected area is home to close to one half of the country’s population. Of this population, at least 50% are women, around one-third is between 0-9 years old and 6% are over 60 years old. It can be considered that the total population of 290,000 persons (39% of the total population) in 113 villages were affected in some way by the flooding. An estimated 192,000 people experienced flooding in their homes. The national authorities have identified three levels of threat:
A number of health facilities became inaccessible and damaged because of the floods. It is estimated that 66% of the health centres were flooded, 33% are out of operation, and 8% have limited functional capacity. The MoH undertook the task of organising mobile health teams to ensure medical assistance to the flood victims and to prevent the outbreak of diseases such as diarrhoea. Access to safe water has also been a key element in the relief effort. Public education campaigns have focused on the prevention of diseases, treatment of diarrhoea and safe water. The school system has also been disrupted due to the floods, because many schools are used as shelters. Forty-three registered temporary shelters are being supported by the Guyana Defence Forces and NGOs to accommodate vulnerable families, especially from Level 3 threat. The shelters are being closed as waters recede, and a major concern will be to clean up the schools and ensure that they are safe for children to resume classes. Although a full agricultural assessment is yet to be done, it is already evident that small farmers have lost much of their means of production, crops, livestock, and in some cases access to their farms. As the water begins to recede in some areas, the challenge will be to support families as they begin the business of cleaning up and regaining their livelihoods. In particular, it is critical that children can return to school, not only to resume education but also to overcome the trauma of recent events. Once waters recede, another major concern will be the cleanup and rehabilitation process in floodaffected communities, as well as the rehabilitation of environmental health. The lingering waters littered with waste from sceptic tanks and latrines, dead animal carcasses and other waste could have a devastating effect in the aftermath of the disaster. 3. RESPONSE PLANS
The United Nations Country Team, in collaboration with the Government and civil society groups, has identified the following priority sectors:
The floods have given rise to extensive health threats for the affected population, especially those most vulnerable, namely children, pregnant women and the elderly. In addition, resumption of services is severely hampered by damage to the health facilities. Objective 1
The risk of diseases and outbreak of epidemics due to the impact of the floods and exposure to floodwater is reduced. Activities
1. Support the establishment of sentinel surveillance systems at selected locations, clinics in the affected areas and strengthen epidemiological surveillance capacity, including surveillance protocols and manuals, laboratory testing facilities and supplies, training of surveillance and laboratory personnel. 2. Support development, publication and broadcasting of public health education and awareness campaigns especially targeted at vulnerable groups such as children, adolescents, and pregnant women, to promote a healthy and safe environment. 3. Vector control programme to prevent dengue through the distribution of impregnated bed nets and public education activities. Objective 2
Rapid recovery of health services in flood-affected communities and coping mechanisms of communities and families ensured. Activities
1. Establish temporary facilities to provide basic health services and support disease surveillance activities. 2. Rehabilitate existing health facilities, including removal of debris, cleaning and sanitizing, repair of damage to physical structure, replacement of damaged and unusable equipment and furniture, water and electrical facilities, and restock drugs, medical and office supplies. 3. Re-establish mother and child health services and reproductive health care for women and adolescent girls. Expected impact
1. 200,000 people have access to basic health services, of whom 90,000 children have access to curative and preventative health care. 2. Reduction of incidences of communicable and water-related diseases. Psycho-Social Support
The massive and prolonged flooding meant that affected families experienced the trauma of the floods as well as the disruption of their daily lives, the loss of personal belongings and damage to their homes. For children especially this can create a sense of insecurity and confusion. The trauma linked to the floods and the fact that many people now live in congested settings also is a source of stress and can possibly contribute to violence and abuse, especially against women and children. Objective
Reduce the negative psycho-social impact of the disaster on families, especially children, as well as on care-givers and aid workers. Activities
1. Provide training for teachers, health workers, community leaders and care givers in psychosocial skills. 2. Support the integration of psycho-social and mental health services in the primary health care system and schools in the flooded communities. 3. Strengthen the National Mental Health Care institutions to ensure supportive supervision of front-line workers and ensure effective referral systems. 4. Ensure the creation of child-friendly environments in the temporary shelters, schools and community spaces to ensure children recover rapidly from the trauma. Expected impact
40,000 women, children and their families affected by the flood have access to psycho-social support through the educational system and community services. Mental health care services integrated into 24 local health centres serving the affected population of about 200,000. Supervision and referral system in place. 3.2 EDUCATION
83,000 children and adolescents are unable to attend classes, due to unsafe and unhealthy school environments, and have had their lives and social contacts disrupted. Objective
Rehabilitation and creation of safe and healthy learning environments for children and adolescents in flood affected areas. Activities
1. Cleaning up and rehabilitation of nursery, primary and secondary schools in affected areas. 2. Development of a rehabilitation programme for sanitation and environmental health at schools in affected areas in collaboration with school authorities, Parent-Teacher Associations, Village Democratic Councils and NGOs. 3. Expansion of existing healthy schools programmes, including developing teaching materials and training of teachers, implementing education programmes on healthy practices for healthy children and communities, including the promotion of safe water, dental health, vision, deworming and food safety. 4. Through the healthy schools initiative and health and family life education, ensuring post-flood psycho-social support to children and their families. Expected impact 82,000 children and adolescents in affected areas have access to safe, healthy and stimulating learning environments. 3.3 WATER AND SANITATION
The floods have rendered four drinking water pumping stations out of operation and reduced the operating capacity of the GWI by 25%. Drinking water has to be distributed by trucks to temporary community water storage tanks. Most of the sanitary facilities, septic tanks and latrines have become inoperable, and indiscriminate disposal of human excreta adds to the health threats. Objective
Children, families and communities in flood-affected areas have access to adequate amounts of safe drinking water and sanitary environment. Activities
1. Rehabilitate disinfection unit at the water treatment plant and four water pumping station of GWI. 2. Improve temporary water storage/collection facilities in collaboration with GWI, i.e. deploy 400 US gallons water tanks on ramp with at least four tap points. 3. Train locally recruited water marshals with mandate to supervise the communal water storage and distribution facilities. 4. Campaign to clean up and disinfect water storage facilities at community level. 5. Promote and support the improvement and expansion of a sustainable water disinfection programme. 6. Strengthen capacity to monitor drinking water quality, chemical, physical and bacteriological parameters, in distribution system and at household level. 7. Construction of temporary sanitation solutions at the community level according to the different scenarios in the flooded areas and with adaptations for small children. Users will take responsibilities for the management and maintenance of the facilities in an equitable way. 8. Construction or rehabilitation of latrines, bathing and washing places and drainage on a self help basis with material and tools in collaboration with the Village Democratic Council, churches and NGOs. 9. Support a clean-up campaign to remove debris from affected areas after the floods recede, including distribution of cleaning tools and cleansing products to the most vulnerable families. 10. Develop and support a community awareness campaign on water quality, sanitation and hygiene practices, accompanied by distribution of family hygiene kits to vulnerable communities and families based on needs identified at the local level by the Village Democratic Councils, churches and community-based non governmental organisations. | Floods | February 2005 | ['(OCHA)', '(Jouvay)', '(Guyana Outpost)'] |
Former media mogul Conrad Black is released from prison in Miami after being locked up for just over three years for defrauding investors. | Former media mogul Conrad Black has been released from prison in Miami after serving just over three years for defrauding investors.
His wife greeted him at their home in Toronto, Canada, and he was seen on the estate grounds by 14:00 (16:00 GMT).
Black, 67, who controlled an empire including the Daily Telegraph in the UK, and US papers including the Chicago Sun-Times, left prison early on Friday.
Earlier, Canada said he would be allowed to live there upon his release.
Black was born in Canada but renounced his citizenship in 2001 to accept a peerage in Britain's House of Lords. He is a British citizen.
The move to grant Black a one-year temporary residence permit stirred debate in Canada's House of Commons.
Tom Mulcair, leader of the New Democratic Party, said Black had received special treatment.
"No-one else has ever been in that situation, of being still in jail, having his dossier marched around all the offices of the minister and getting his approval before even getting out of the slammer," Mr Mulcair said, according to CBC News.
But Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney countered that approval of Black's application had been processed by "highly trained, independent members of our public service" and had not been subject to political interference.
In 2007 Black was convicted of defrauding Hollinger International shareholders of $6.1m (£3.8m), by paying himself a tax-free bonus from the sale of newspaper assets without the approval of the company's board.
He had been forced out of the company by shareholders in 2003.
After his conviction, Black was sentenced to 78 months in prison. He was released two years later while he pursued a partially successful appeal, in which a judge cut his sentence down to 42 months, including the 29 months he had already served.
Black reported to prison in September to complete the remainder of his sentence but was released after eight months on good behaviour.
Upon his release, Black was transferred to the custody of US immigration authorities before he travelled to Canada.
As a British citizen, he could have returned to Britain.
Black, who became Lord Black of Crossharbour, was known for his extravagant lifestyle.
It was reported that he had two apartments on Park Avenue in New York - one for himself and his wife, writer Barbara Amiel, and one for his domestic staff.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | May 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Swedish musician Avicii dies in Oman at the age of 28. | Swedish DJ Avicii, one of the world's biggest dance music stars, has died in Oman at the age of 28.
Avicii's club anthems include Wake Me Up, Levels, and recently, Lonely Together with Rita Ora.
His representative said in a statement: "It is with profound sorrow that we announce the loss of Tim Bergling, also known as Avicii.
"The family is devastated and we ask everyone to please respect their need for privacy in this difficult time."
No cause of death was announced, and Avicii's representative said no further statements would be issued.
The electronic dance music (EDM) star, who reportedly made $250,000 (£180,000) a night on tour, had struggled with some health issues in the past, having his gall bladder and appendix removed in 2014.
He announced his retirement from touring in 2016, partly because of the health problems.
"I know I am blessed to be able to travel all around the world and perform, but I have too little left for the life of a real person behind the artist," he said at the time.
He later announced a return to the studio, and released a new self-titled EP in 2017.
The EP, Avĩci (01), was nominated for a Billboard music award for top electronic album just days before his death.
As well as working with the likes of Aloe Blacc and Rita Ora, Avicii collaborated with artists including Madonna and Coldplay.
Former Radio 1 DJ Judge Jules, who often performed alongside him, said his biggest achievement was being the first electronic dance star to break America.
"He was the first huge commercial star," Judge Jules told the BBC. "He really became someone who couldn't go out on the street, he was so heavily recognised." Other leading electronic artists wrote tributes to Bergling after the news of his death.
Devastating news about Avicii, a beautiful soul, passionate and extremely talented with so much more to do. My heart goes out to his family. God bless you Tim x
Singer Dua Lipa tweeted: "Such sad news to hear about Avicii passing. Too young and way too soon. My condolences go out to his family, friends and fans."
US band Imagine Dragons tweeted: "Working with him was one of my favourite collaborative moments. Far too young. The world was a happier and fuller place with his presence and art."
"No words can describe the sadness I'm feeling right now, hearing about Avicii passing away," offered DJ Zedd, while singer Adam Lambert, who collaborated on the track Lay Me Down, called him "a brilliant composer and a gentle spirit."
Analysis by Mark Savage, BBC Music reporter
At Avicii's last ever show in August 2016, one crazed fan climbed a 100ft-high (30m) scaffolding tower, just to get a better view.
Craziest moment from avicii last night was when this guy climbed up on this.. #tennentsvital #avicii pic.twitter.com/bK03WK0K0n
That's not something that happens that often during a DJ set (who needs to see the stage anyway?) but it was a testament to Avicii's ability to enchant an audience.
Confetti cannons and bass drops aside, his shows encapsulated the inclusive, everyone-welcome philosophy that led him to collaborate with Coldplay, Nile Rodgers and Antony and the Johnsons as well as bluegrass and metal musicians in the studio.
That final show, at Ushuaia Ibiza, was a two-hour greatest hits set, featuring crowd pleasers like Levels and Wake Me Up alongside his remixes of Robyn and Dizzee Rascal.
But the DJ, who famously let the cat out of the bag when he revealed most major DJs pre-programmed their sets (comments he later walked back), was also known for dropping unexpected, whimsical tracks into his performances. A bit of Smokey Robinson here; a dash of Chicago there.
He approached it all with an energy and optimism that permeated his own recordings. It's no surprise he was one of the most beloved DJs on the circuit.
Avicii announces retirement from touring
Avicii - | Famous Person - Death | April 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
A bomb destroys a transmission tower in Pagalungan leaving much of the Philippine provinces of Maguindanao and North Cotabato without power. | The bomb, which is planted on the post of Tower 26 in the town of Pagalungan, detonates at around 9:10 in the evening
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DAVAO CITY, Philippines Several areas in North Cotabato and Maguindanao including Cotabato City were swallowed in darkness on Tuesday evening, January 13, after an improvised explosive device toppled a power transmission tower in Pagalungan town.
The bomb, which was planted on the post of Tower 26 in the town of Pagalungan, was detonated at around 9:10 in the evening, said 6th Infantry Division spokesperson Capt. Joan Petinglay.
"As of the moment most areas in Maguindnanao and North Cotabato is experiencing black out," Petinglay said.
Power distributer Cotabato Light posted on its Facebook page that the power outage was caused by a problem on the supply line.
State security forces were immediately deployed to secure the blast site and to facilitate the investigation to identify the perpetrators behind the incident.
Meanwhile it is still unknown if the power supply will be repaired and restored immediately.
Pending investigation, the military has not yet identified any possible angles but it has in the past consistently blamed the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters for the IED attacks in the province.
Abu Misry Mama, spokesman of the BIFF, denied the accusations claiming that they do not have gains in attacking civilians and non-military installations.
Presently leading an armed insurgency for the creation of an Islamic State in Mindanao, the BIFF broke away from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front after serious disagreements on the conduct of the peace negotiations with the government. | Armed Conflict | January 2015 | ['(Rappler)'] |
25 people die and 120 others are injured in a suicide attack while attending a football match in the Iraqi city of Tal Afar. | A suicide bombing at a football stadium in northern Iraq has killed 10 people and injured 120 others, police say.
An attacker detonated explosives hidden inside a vehicle at the entrance to the stadium in Tal Afar, a mainly Shia Turkmen town west of Mosul. Witnesses said the blast was followed by at least one other. Some said up to three suicide bombers were involved. Earlier, the militant umbrella group, the Islamic State of Iraq, warned Shias of "dark days soaked with blood". "What is happening to you nowadays is just a drizzle," said Al-Nasser Lideen Allah Abu Suleiman, the group's so-called minister of war. Abu Suleiman succeeded Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed along with ISI leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in a joint operation by US and Iraq forces in April. Political stalemate
No group has yet said it carried out the bombings in Tal Afar, but correspondents say the method was similar to past al-Qaeda attacks and the group remains active in the area.
"Many people were gathered to watch the match," Hussein Nashad, who attended the game, told the AFP news agency by telephone from a hospital in Tal Afar where he was being treated for shock. "We heard a loud explosion and the people behind me shielded me from the shrapnel. I ran away, but then I heard someone shout 'Allahu Akbar', and then there was another explosion," he said. Another spectator, Ali Jaafar, told the Reuters news agency: "Suddenly we saw a pick-up in the middle of the field. The players were suspicious so they ran and as expected it turned out to be a suicide car bomber. The spectators began to run away but two suicide bombers were in the crowd." On Monday, more than 100 people were killed in a series of apparently co-ordinated attacks blamed on al-Qaeda and its allies. | Armed Conflict | May 2010 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(BBC)', '(France24)', '(Xinhuanet)'] |
New laws against age discrimination in the workplace – officially titled the Employment Equality Regulations 2006 – come into force in the United Kingdom. | The new laws - the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 - are the result of a European directive on employment.
They make it unlawful to discriminate against workers under the age of 65 on the grounds of age. The rules will affect recruitment, training, promotion, redundancy, retirement, pay and pension provision.
It's going to require quite a fundamental change in mindset
Jane Amphlett, who specialises in employment law, told the BBC the changes would be far-reaching.
"I know that employment lawyers have a reputation for trying to whip up a bit of a storm and a bit of business out of any new legislation that comes in, but I think the key issue here is that it's going to cover anyone from application for a job right through to retirement and beyond," she said.
"It's going to require quite a fundamental change in mindset."
Under the new laws, workers will have the right to request that they work beyond age 65, while employers will have to give their staff six months notice of when they expect them to retire.
They will also have to treat all workers equally when it comes to training, regardless of age
Phrases in adverts seeking "enthusiastic young staff" or "mature individuals", for example, will be banned.
Recruitment schemes aimed at graduates will have to be changed, while sifting job applications by age must also end. Employment tribunals
From now on anyone who feels they have suffered because of their age will be able to take a case to an employment tribunal, where the penalty will be an unlimited fine.
Some employers fear they will face many more tribunal cases.
A recent survey by the Employers Forum on Ageing found that 40% of employers in the UK think that once the new laws come in, age discrimination will be a feature of more than half of tribunal cases.
Despite the attention given to older people being forced out of the workforce, the laws will apply just as much to young people.
Dumping the youngest workers into the lowest paid jobs while they are allegedly "learning" could be challenged.
Not all of the government's plans are being implemented in one go.
It recently decided to postpone until the start of December the changes that will be required by pension funds. There will now be a further period of consultation before new guidance is published and the pension element of the new laws comes into effect.
There could be some unintended consequences for other benefits offered by employers.
For instance those who offer benefits like health or life insurance up to a current retirement age of 60 may find they are now charged much more by insurance firms to cover their staff to 65.
"All employers who offer any protection benefits for their staff will have to make sure the schemes are written to 65 or they could end up denying benefits to older workers," says Peter Coussens, of financial advisers Kynaston-Carnoustie. | Government Policy Changes | October 2006 | ['(Age)', '(BBC)'] |
At least 18 people drown after an overloaded boat sinks north of Benin's commercial capital Cotonou. | COTONOU, Dec 17 (Reuters) - At least 18 people, most of them children, drowned after the overloaded boat carrying them sank in a river north of Benin's commercial capital Cotonou, officials said on Monday.
The boat was taking passengers across the H??lou River to a market in the town of Togba when it capsized late on Saturday night.
"The boat that capsized had capacity for eight passengers but was transporting 27, their baggage and four motorcycles," the mayor of the nearby Abomey-Calavi district, Patrice Hounsou-Guede, told Reuters.
Benin's Interior Minister Benoit Degla suspended non-motorised traffic on the river pending an investigation into the tragedy.
Boat accidents are common in much of West Africa, where poor road conditions often make river travel the only viable means of transporting goods and passengers. Enforcement of safety regulations is often lax.
Around 20 school children drowned in October when an overloaded ferry sank on the Okpara River in northern Benin. (Reporting by Samuel Elijah; Writing by Joe Bavier)
| Shipwreck | December 2012 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Kuwait claims that the suicide bomber responsible for the attack that killed 27 people was Fahd Suleiman Abdulmohsen al-Qaba'a, a citizen of Saudi Arabia. | A suicide bomber who carried out a deadly attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group on a Shiite mosque in Kuwait was a Saudi national, Kuwait's interior ministry said.
In a statement carried by the official KUNA news agency, the ministry identified the attacker as Fahd Suleiman Abdulmohsen al-Qaba'a.
The ministry said that Qaba'a entered the country through Kuwait Airport at dawn on Friday, the same day as the bombing.
The ministry statement provided no further details about the bomber.
Islamic State claimed the attack, which killed 26 and wounded 227 worshippers at the Al-Imam Al-Sadeq mosque in Kuwait City. The attack came on a day of bloodshed worldwide, with at least 37 gunned down at a beach resort in Tunisia and a suspected Islamist launching an assault on a gas factory in eastern France.
Earlier on Sunday, the ministry said that security services arrested the driver of the car that transported the bomber to the site of the attack. Authorities have also detained the owner of the house where the bomber was staying. He was described by the interior ministry as a Kuwaiti national who subscribes to "extremist and deviant ideology".
The driver, named as Abdulrahman Sabah Eidan Saud, was described as an illegal resident.
Authorities on Saturday arrested the owner of the car, Jarrah Nimr Mejbil Ghazi, also listed as a stateless person.
| Armed Conflict | June 2015 | ['(AFP via ABC News Australia)'] |
American comedienne Phyllis Diller dies at the age of 95. | One of the true legends of the comedy world, Phyllis Diller, has died in Los Angeles.
"She died peacefully in her sleep with a smile on her face," her longtime manager, Milton Suchin, tells the Associated Press.
Diller, known for her loud cackle laugh, died at her L.A. home, surrounded by family members. She was 95. She had recently fallen, hurting her wrist and hip, and her health had been on the decline ever since, according to TMZ. She had been living in hospice care at her home.
Diller suffered a heart attack in 1999 and was later fitted with a pacemaker.
Phyllis began her career in 1952 and rose to fame with her TV specials alongside Bob Hope in the 1960s.
Comedians, and other entertainers, are paying tribute to the funny lady via Twitter. Among the celebs:
Ellen DeGeneres: "We lost a comedy legend today. Phyllis Diller was the queen of the one-liners. She was a pioneer."
Whoopi Goldberg: "A true original has died. Phyllis Diller There was NOOne like her, no 1looked like her sounded like her. A FUNNY FUNNY. Classy& Smart RIP"
Joan Rivers: "I'm beyond saddened by the death of Phyllis Diller. We were friends - Melissa and I had a wonderful time with her at lunch just a month ago."
Ruth Buzzi: "Phyllis Diller, thank you for what you did for all women in comedy who followed your path. My dear friend, rest in peace; I'll miss you."
Marie Osmond: "What a voice. What a presence. She was an all-out comedian. We will miss Phyllis Diller."
Dane Cook: "Phyllis Diller passed away - age 95. Legend. Inspiration. A funny human being that brought tons of laughs to this world. #RIP"
Jim Gaffigan: "RIP Phyllis Diller. Comedy legend. Always made me laugh"
Henry Winkler: "PHYLLIS DILLER : a painter on canvas and in humor of the human condition MAY REST IN PEACE making GOD laugh"
Reba McEntire: "Gonna miss Phyllis Diller. Rest in peace my friend. The world is a better place because of you. Happy Trails."
And Barbra Streisand released this: "I adored her. She was a wondrous spirit who was great to me." | Famous Person - Death | August 2012 | ['(USA Today)'] |
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.
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 - Arrest | December 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(IOL)', '[permanent dead link]'] |
The first direct Indonesian presidential election is held, with Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expected to win with one–third of the vote. If no candidate wins at least 50 percent of the vote, the two top finishers will compete in a September runoff. The race for second place, between President Megawati Sukarnoputri and former army chief General Wiranto, is still too close to call. | In Indonesia, an independent monitoring group projects that former Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has placed first in Monday's presidential elections, with one-third of the vote. This means that a run-off election will be necessary, but the monitoring group also says that the race for second place, between President Megawati Sukarnoputri and former army chief General Wiranto, is too close to call. The head of the National Democratic Institute, Paul Rowland, says the projection confirms public opinion polls published on the eve of the election. "That means that we have a clear first place finisher and a second and third that is very, very close," he said.
If no candidate wins at least 50 percent of the vote, the two top finishers will compete in a September runoff. But Mr. Rowland says his group cannot project who will face Mr. Yudhoyono. President Megawati Sukarnoputri and her former military commander, General Wiranto, are within one percentage point of each other, making the race for second place too close to call.
The projection, based on a statistical survey of 1,500 polling stations across Indonesia, has predicted previous election results within one percentage point.
If confirmed, the runoff will pit Mr. Yudohoyono and his appeal as a force for change against the status quo as represented by President Megawati, or nostalgia for the relative prosperity under the military government as represented by retired General Wiranto. Mr. Wiranto is the candidate of the party that dominated during that era.
A large number of votes were invalidated when voters folded their ballots and mistakenly punched more than one hole in them.
Wimar Witoelar, speaking for a group of 30 monitoring organizations, known as the JPPR, called on the national election commission, the KPU, to recount all the damaged ballots.
"The JPPR is requesting, is demanding that the KPU clear this up first, because the credibility and the perception of fairness is more important than what actually transpired at the polls," he said.
Voters went to the polls in large numbers Monday, and said the voting was smoother and simpler than in earlier votes.
Thousands of international monitors observed the balloting. One of these, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, had high praise for the process. "This is a wonderful transition from authoritarian rule to pure democratic rule in just six years," he said. | Government Job change - Election | July 2004 | ['(VOA)', '(PolitInfo)'] |
Jacintha Saldanha, a nurse at a London hospital, who took a hoax call from 2Day FM prankers about the Duchess of Cambridge, is found dead in a suspected suicide. | A nurse at a London hospital who took a hoax call about the Duchess of Cambridge has been found dead.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge said in a statement they were "deeply saddened" by the death of the nurse, named as Jacintha Saldanha.
King Edward VII hospital paid tribute to "a first class nurse who cared diligently for hundreds of patients".
Details of the pregnant duchess's medical condition were unwittingly revealed to two Australian DJs.
Mel Greig and Michael Christian, from Sydney radio station 2Day FM posed as the Queen and Prince Charles in a call early on Tuesday morning.
Rhys Holleran, chief executive of SCA, the company which owns the station, said in a statement the pair will not return to their show until further notice out of respect for Mrs Saldanha.
The duchess had been admitted on Monday for acute morning sickness, and was discharged on Thursday.
BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt said he understood Mrs Saldanha - who was staying in hospital accommodation close to King Edward VII hospital - was the person who answered the call from the Australian DJs and was not the nurse who discussed the duchess's medical condition.
Mrs Saldanha, a duty nurse who was married with two children, answered the telephone because it was 05:30 GMT and there was no receptionist on duty.
The BBC understands Mrs Saldanha had not been suspended or disciplined by the hospital.
The BBC's Nicholas Witchell said it had been suggested to him that she had felt "very lonely and confused" as a result of what had happened.
The St James's Palace statement said the duke and duchess "were looked after so wonderfully well at all times by everybody at King Edward VII Hospital, and their thoughts and prayers are with Jacintha Saldanha's family, friends and colleagues at this very sad time".
A palace spokesman later added that "at no point did the palace complain to the hospital about the incident".
"On the contrary, we offered our full and heartfelt support to the nurses involved and hospital staff at all times."
In a statement outside the hospital, King Edward VII chief executive John Lofthouse said: "We can confirm that Jacintha was recently the victim of a hoax call to the hospital.
"The hospital had been supporting her throughout this difficult time."
He said Mrs Saldanha, who had worked at the hospital for more than four years, "was an excellent nurse and well-respected and popular with all of her colleagues".
"Everyone is shocked by the loss of a much loved and valued colleague," he added.
Royal College of Nursing chief executive Dr Peter Carter, meanwhile, said it was "deeply saddening that a simple human error due to a cruel hoax could lead to the death of a dedicated and caring member of the nursing profession".
Scotland Yard said officers were called at 09:35 GMT on Friday after reports of a woman found unconscious at an address in Weymouth Street, central London. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said the death was not being treated as suspicious.
In a statement, Mrs Saldanha's family said they were "deeply saddened by the loss of our beloved Jacintha". They have requested privacy from the media.
The prank call was pre-recorded before it was assessed by lawyers and broadcast on 2Day FM.
Speaking on their show, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, called it the "easiest prank call ever made" and described their mock British accents as "terrible".
In the call, another nurse was tricked into revealing specific confidential information about the duchess's medical condition.
The DJs later apologised saying they were "very surprised that our call was put through".
"We thought we'd be hung up on as soon as they heard our terrible accents.
"We're very sorry if we've caused any issues and we're glad to hear that Kate is doing well."
The Twitter accounts of both presenters have been deleted and all references to the prank call recording removed from the 2Day FM website.
SCA said on its Facebook page the company was "deeply saddened by the tragic news" and had extended "our deepest sympathies to her family and all that have been affected." On Tuesday, hospital chief executive John Lofthouse said he had "received advice that what the Australian broadcasters did may well have broken the law".
But he added: "On the other hand they've apologised for it so we're going to have a long and careful think about what, if anything, we do."
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) has said it had received complaints about the call.
Radio station 2Day FM has previously been in trouble with Acma for incidents including one when a 14-year-old girl revealed on air that she had been raped.
Hoax call fools duchess hospital
One Covid vaccine dose cuts hospital risk by 75%
But the number of Delta variant cases recorded in the UK has risen by 79% in a week, figures show. | Famous Person - Death | December 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(The Independent)', '(Daily Mail)'] |
California Highway Patrol says a crash that left five dead and three children missing after a car fell off a cliff into the sea may have been intentional. | Follow NBC News The car crash off a California cliff presumed to have killed all eight members of a family from Washington state — including a teenage boy who gained attention in a viral photo — appears to be no accident, authorities said Sunday.
The crash one week ago in Mendocino County may have been intentional based on the absence of skid marks, data from air bag controllers and other information, the California Highway Patrol said.
A CHP spokesman told reporters that the GMC Yukon's on-board computer indicated that the vehicle stopped and then suddenly accelerated off Highway 1 — plunging about 70 feet down to the rocky shoreline of the Pacific Ocean.
"Pure acceleration all the way," said CHP spokesman Cal Robertson.
He confirmed reports that the speedometer was at 90 mph at the time of the crash, but he said it could have moved during impact or accidentally been manipulated during the investigation.
"Certainly, that does not mean the vehicle was going that fast," Robertson said.
Acting Assistant CHP Chief Greg Baarts said a full vehicle inspection had yet to be completed, but he told reporters that the "complete lack of ... physical evidence" of an accident, like skid marks, was striking.
The bodies of parents Jennifer and Sarah Hart, both 38, and their children Markis, 19, Jeremiah, 14, and Abigail, 14, were found at the site.
Three other children — Devonte, 15, Hannah, 16, and Sierra, 12 — have not been found, but are presumed dead, officials said. Devonte, a young black boy, was photographed in 2014 crying in the arms of a white police officer during a protest in Oregon over the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri.
"Three children are still missing and could be in the ocean," Baarts said. "We are trying to determine a timeline, path of travel, and if there were any stops."
He told NBC News that California authorities were "tirelessly searching for the missing children along the coastline," while authorities in California and Washington were "conducting interviews and attempting to establish a timeline and routes of travel in an effort to rule out any other possibilities."
According to neighbors and court records, the family has had troubles in the past, carrying over to a recent investigation into abuse or neglect with the Washington Department of Social and Health Services.
Sarah Hart was charged with a misdemeanor offense of domestic assault against her daughter Abigail in 2011, and neighbors claimed that Devonte would often ask them for food. He said his parents would withhold food as punishment.
The household had previously been visited by Child Protective Services, and neighbors claimed to have called the agency again to report on the family on March 23, before the Harts left on the trip that resulted in the fatal crash.
The state's Department of Social and Health Services said in a statement that the children who were killed would be identified "as potential victims of alleged abuse or neglect."
The Clark County Sheriff's Office obtained a search warrant Thursday to retrieve items like computers, credit cards and bank statements to help determine a probable cause. Baarts said a felony may have been committed. | Road Crash | April 2018 | ['(NBC News)'] |
More than twenty protesters are arrested after disrupting debate in the House. | More than 20 protesters were arrested Monday afternoon after causing a disruption in the House gallery as lawmakers debated the debt-reduction deal negotiated by the White House and congressional leaders.
Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said 22 protesters were arrested and charged with disruption of Congress.
The protesters, who were sitting in one of the visitors’ galleries overlooking the Republican side of the chamber, unfurled a large black banner and began chanting against the debt-limit compromise.
They chanted several slogans, including: “Boehner, get off it; it’s time to tax corporate profits.” It appeared that after one officer tried to yank the banner from the group, a protester either took a tumble or dove over the row of seats in front.
“We have an injury!” someone said.
The protesters could be heard chanting even after they were brought into the hallway outside the gallery. According to reports by CNN and the Hill, the protest included members of the groups Vocal New York and National People’s Action.
The protest was the latest sign that some liberal Democrats are unhappy with the debt compromise, on which Congress is expected to vote later Monday ahead of a deadline of midnight Tuesday.
After a lengthy meeting with House Democrats in an effort to round up support for the deal, Vice President Biden left the Capitol on Monday afternoon. His message to the group, he said, was that the deal allows Democrats to continue to make the case for their spending priorities in the coming months — and avoids default now.
“If we don’t do this, we’re going to let the economy of the United States default. We’re going to see interest rates climb . . . we’re likely to have a double-dip recession. That’s now behind us — if this passes,” Biden told reporters.
But several Democrats emerging from the meeting said the group was disappointed and perplexed by the concessions their leaders had made.
“They’re frustrated,” said Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.). “They feel like they don’t have options.”
| Protest_Online Condemnation | August 2011 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
Hawaii District Judge Derrick Watson extends the definition of "close family members" to include grandparents, aunts, and uncles, thereby exempting them from President Donald Trump's travel ban on six Muslim-majority nations. | Critics of President Trump's travel ban hold signs during a news conference with Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin on June 30 in Honolulu.
Critics of President Trump's travel ban hold signs during a news conference with Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin on June 30 in Honolulu.
Updated at 10:30 p.m. ET
The Trump administration has filed a motion with the Supreme Court, asking for clarification of the justices' order upholding a version of the travel ban. The justices' order allowed the administration to restrict entry by people from six mostly Muslim countries, except for those who have what's judged to be a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States, including close family members.
A federal judge in Hawaii this week expanded those relationships beyond what the Trump administration approves — grandparents, for example.
The filing with the Supreme Court says the lower court's expansion encompasses "virtually all family members," and "reads the term 'close' out of the (Supreme) Court's decision."
The administration asks either for a clarification of the court's meaning of close family, or a promise to rule on the question later, but with a stay of the Hawaii order in the meantime.
In an order issued late Thursday, Federal District Court Judge Derrick Watson not only added a list of relatives but also found that any refugees with ties to resettlement agencies in the U.S. that are preparing to receive them should be exempt from the travel ban.
That was another legal setback for President Trump's executive order that's been tied up in court for months.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that a scaled-back version of the ban on people seeking to travel here from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen could proceed. But the high court said it could not be enforced against those who have a "bona fide relationship" with people in the U.S.
The Trump administration said that would include parents, spouses, fiances, sons, daughters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law or siblings. But the government excluded grandparents and grandchildren from its definition of "close family," along with brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins.
In his ruling, Judge Watson did not accept the administration's distinction.
"[T]he Government's definition represents the antithesis of common sense," Watson wrote. "Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents. Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members. The Government's definition excludes them. That simply cannot be."
Watson's order is also a win for refugee resettlement agencies. They argued that their relationship with refugees who have already been approved to travel to the U.S. should count as "bona fide" under the Supreme Court's order. Lawyers for the Trump administration argued otherwise, because the State Department acts as an intermediary until the refugee actually arrives in the U.S.
But the judge rejected the administration's argument.
"An assurance from a United States refugee resettlement agency, in fact, meets each of the Supreme Court's touchstones: it is formal, it is a documented contract, it is binding, it triggers responsibilities and obligations," Watson wrote. "Bona fide does not get any more bona fide than that."
Watson's decision could open the door for tens of thousands of additional refugees who have been approved for travel, but would have been barred from entry into the U.S under the travel ban. Earlier this week, the refugee program reached the cap of 50,000 refugees — not necessarily with family ties — for the 2017 fiscal year that was imposed by the executive order.
Thursday's ruling came in response to the state of Hawaii's request for an injunction against the Trump administration's enforcement of the ban on expanded family members and refugees.
In a statement, Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin said, "The federal court today makes clear that the U.S. Government may not ignore the scope of the partial travel ban as it sees fit. Family members have been separated and real people have suffered enough. Courts have found that this Executive Order has no basis in stopping terrorism and is just a pretext for illegal and unconstitutional discrimination. We will continue preparing for arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in October."
In Washington, Attorney General Sessions released a statement saying, "once again, we are faced with a situation in which a single federal district court has undertaken by a nationwide injunction to micromanage decisions of the co-equal Executive Branch related to our national security." He said he wants the Supreme Court to "vindicate the rule of law and the Executive Branch's duty to protect the nation." | Government Policy Changes | July 2017 | ['(The Washingon Post)', '(NPR)'] |
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda meets with UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon, explaining to him that the islands are "Japan's inherent territory" and that "there is no territorial dispute as such". | NEW YORK--Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Wednesday afternoon he will not make any compromises with China in the recent row over the Senkaku Islands, such as retracting the nationalization of three of the islets.
Speaking at a press conference at a New York hotel, Noda also called on the Chinese government to resolve the problem peacefully.
Regarding the Japanese government's purchase of the three islands, Noda said: "The government decided to buy [islands] that were originally owned by a Japanese. It's simply a [domestic] transfer of ownership."
Noda also called on Beijing to engage in talks on the issue.
"We want to have dialogue [with China] at various levels and through various channels," the prime minister said. "We'll firmly maintain a rational and level-headed response to the issue so as not to negatively affect the overall [Japan-China] relationship."
The row between Japan and China over the Senkaku Islands in Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture, has intensified in recent weeks, with events marking the 40th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between the two countries being postponed. The Japanese government is trying to ease the tensions as early as possible through a series of bilateral talks, observers said.
Earlier in the day, Noda delivered a speech at a U.N. General Assembly session in which he denounced unilateral action.
"Any attempt to realize a country's ideology or claim by unilateral use of force or threat is inconsistent with the fundamental spirit of the U.N. charter and is against the wisdom of humanity, thus absolutely unacceptable," Noda said. He was apparently referring to the Senkaku spat as well as a territorial row between and Japan and South Korea over the Takeshima islands in Shimane Prefecture.
Noda meets with U.N. chief
By Kentaro Nakajima Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda sought understanding of Japan's stance on the Senkaku Islands from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon at a meeting Wednesday morning.
"[The Senkaku Islands] are Japan's inherent territory, and there is no territorial dispute as such," Noda told Ban during their meeting at the U.N. headquarters.
Earlier in the day, Noda met with Vuk Jeremic, president of the U.N. General Assembly and former Serbian foreign minister, and explained the current state of Japan-China relations. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | September 2012 | ['(Yomiuri Shimbun)'] |
The floods in Queensland, Australia, worsen further with 20,000 properties in the capital Brisbane expected to be flooded and 4,000 homes flooded in the nearby city of Ipswich. | Brisbane is preparing for the full impact of its worst flooding in more than 100 years, with officials warning almost 20,000 homes in the city will be flooded by early tomorrow morning.
Thirty-five Brisbane suburbs and 3,000 homes in the nearby city of Ipswich are already submerged by rapildy rising floodwaters.
This morning the death toll from this week's flash flooding in the Lockyer Valley was revised up to 12 after search teams found two more bodies.
A huge tide of brown water is surging down the swollen Brisbane River as authorities continue to release water from the overloaded Wivenhoe Dam.
The crisis is expected to be at its worst about 4:00am tomorrow morning, when the flood peak in Brisbane is expected to touch 5.5 metres, slightly higher than the city's 1974 flood peak.
Houses and businesses in Ipswich's CBD are underwater and thousands of properties are being evacuated in Brisbane as entire streets are submerged.
Adding to the misery, more than 60,000 homes through the region are without power.
The number of people missing after flash flooding in Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley was revised down this morning, with 67 people still unaccounted for.
But Premier Anna Bligh has warned the hopes of many will be crushed as search teams reach areas of the Lockyer Valley, where they are expecting to find bodies.
"This incident is not a tourist event. This is a natural disaster," she said this morning.
"If you are not going to be affected, reach out to a neighbour. Reach out to friends and family.
"The fact that this is peaking today does not mean we won't see very dangerous scenarios today," she added.
"Don't take any comfort from the fact that we have blue sky today."
Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson says no more bodies have been found in the Lockyer Valley this morning, but he expects the death toll to rise.
"Part of the difficulty of this is the conditions ... some of these homes have been demolished and we fear that some people have been swept from their homes," he said.
"So we'll need to do aerial searches in case they've been swept out to paddocks."
Commissioner Atkinson says there are grave fears for about 18 people who are still missing in the Lockyer Valley area.
Ipswich is being swamped this morning and the Bremer River there is now expected to peak today at 20.5 metres, slightly lower than the devastating 1974 floods.
Floodwaters have covered all but the tops of shops in the Ipswich CBD and the city's mayor Paul Pisasale expects about 4,000 homes to be flooded.
Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes last night, with around one-third of Ipswich expected to go under today.
In Brisbane, several low-lying suburbs as well as the CBD are already affected and the situation will worsen as the flood level is expected to reach 4.5 metres about 2:30pm (AEST).
The waters are then expected to peak again at approximately 5.5 metres about 4:00am AEST on Thursday morning and stay high until Saturday.
About 62,000 homes are without power in south-east Queensland and eight people have been rescued from a rooftop at Lowood west of Brisbane.
Power has been cut to Ipswich, while low-lying parts of Brisbane, including Oxley and the CBD, are now without electricity as Energex moves to protect the grid.
Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman this morning said new modelling helped generate a revised list of homes that will be affected.
"There are 19,700 residential properties across Brisbane where there's projected to be flooding across the whole block of land," he said.
"I can't tell you about the depth... there's a further 3,500 commercial premises across the city that will see flooding across the entire block of land as well."
Suburbs including Jindalee, South Bank, Toowong and Milton were flooded this morning and a total of 2,100 Brisbane streets will be affected by flooding under the new modelling.
Brisbane's bus system will start to be closed down from about 1:00pm today.
The South Brisbane train station is closed and there are no trains west of Darra.
The Port of Brisbane is closed.
One resident says many homes in Haldane Street in Graceville are under water, including his own.
"I went to check on my property because we slept in our car last night, and as we were there my mailbox disappeared under water, so it's actually rising quite quickly," he said.
Council says more than 6,500 people will need to housed in evacuation centres at the RNA Showgrounds and QEII Stadium.
Apart from inner-city residents, there are few people in the centre of Brisbane and it is uncharacteristically empty and silent.
Supermarkets were open last night but shelves that stock fruit, vegetables, bread and milk were largely empty.
More than 1,200 people spent the night at an evacuation centre in Ipswich and 200 in Brisbane.
Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale says floodwaters have covered all but the overhead signs and billboards above many shops in the CBD.
"The water's rising and it's swallowing up your city - it makes it very hard," he said.
"But it's most important to get a message out to the community that these are only floodwaters and the most important thing is our safety and I want to make sure no other lives are lost."
Search and rescue teams will go to Grantham and Murphy's Creek to begin the grim task of searching destroyed properties for bodies.
Ms Bligh says it is going to be a very hard day for the community.
"Families who are still holding out hope some of them are likely to have their hopes tragically crushed," she said.
"So I think it's going to be a tough and emotional day in the Lockyer Valley as those search and rescue teams get in there for the first time."
A telephone hotline - 1300 993 191 - has been set up for people seeking information on friends and relatives caught up in the flooding disaster.
Search any location in Australia to find nearby active incidents
Stay up-to-date with local coverage on ABC Radio, the emergency broadcaster
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced.
AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Floods | January 2011 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
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