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Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad registers to run in next month's election for a non-consecutive third term, according to state media. | Former two-term President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, a fierce conservative who was in power during a harsh crackdown on dissenters before seemingly falling afoul of Iran's supreme leader, has registered to run in next month's presidential vote.
It is unclear whether the powerful vetting body that routinely bars hundreds and even thousands of potential candidates from elections will approve his bid.
And he suggested his April 12 appearance was merely an attempt to raise the profile of a controversial political ally who registered alongside him for the race, Hamid Baghaei.
But Ahmadinejad's registration flies in the face of a public appeal by the country's highest political and religious authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Ahmadinejad left office in 2013 amid rumors of a falling-out with Khamenei and with the opposition still simmering over mass arrests and violence in a crackdown following protests over alleged irregularities in Ahmadinejad's reelection in 2009.
"If his candidacy is approved, then he hasn't been eliminated from Iran's political circle," Paris-based analyst Taghi Rahmani told RFE/RL's Radio Farda. "Ahmadinejad seems to believe he has nothing to lose. If he's disqualified, he believes that it would bring him honor in the future for standing up to [Khamenei]."
Khamenei was said to have indirectly cautioned Ahmadinejad last year against a new bid for the presidency, saying he had told "someone" who approached him for guidance to stay out of the election "both for his own good and also for the good of the country."
"I told him I do not find it advisable for him to participate," the 77-year-old Khamenei added in what was reported by Iranian media in September to be a reference to Ahmadinejad. His candidacy could hint at a failure by conservatives and hard-liners to mount a unified challenge to incumbent President Hassan Rohani, who has not officially registered but held a wide-ranging press conference on the eve of the five-day registration period to tout his perceived achievements.
A former prosecutor with hard-line credentials who is also said to be a consideration to eventually replace Khamenei, Ebrahim Raisi, recently announced his own candidacy.
On April 12, Ahmadinejad told reporters that Khamenei had not expressly forbidden him from running. "The supreme leader recommended that I not participate in the election as a candidate. I accepted that, although his advice was not a ban. He said, 'I am not telling you whether to register or not,'" Ahmadinejad said.
Ahmadinejad said he was registering in support of former Vice President Baghaei, who applied to be a candidate alongside his former boss but could be excluded by the powerful Guardians Council over an arrest in 2015.
"Despite massive pressure from the people for me, a servant of the people, to enter the [race], I remain committed to my moral promise and I merely registered here to support my dear brother, Baghaei," Ahmadinejad told reporters after submitting his name.
Another member of Ahmadinejad's inner circle, former aide Esfandiari Rahim Mashaei, who was himself disqualified from the presidential race in 2013, was also present at the April 12 registration.
Hossein Rassam, a former adviser to the British Foreign Office, says he regards Ahmadinejad's move as an effort to impress on the authorities the potential price of a disqualification of Baghaei.
"It's an explicit warning, not just to the Guardians Council but also to Khamenei himself, that he would [be willing to renege] on the commitment he made on not running" if Baghaei is eliminated.
Rassam says the message was: "You stick to your side of the deal and I will stick to mine. [So] let Baghaei run." Ahmadinejad's reelection in 2009 led to mass street protests amid allegations of extensive vote rigging. The establishment responded with a crackdown that left dozens of opposition protesters dead and thousands more people in jail, and allegations of widespread torture of those in custody.
But he also frequently traveled to Iran's regions with a populist message and promises of economic assistance from Tehran.
Ahmadinejad's presidency was marked by increasing domestic quarrels and tensions with the West.
He had said last week that he was not planning to run and would support Baghaei.
If allowed to run, Ahmadinejad could split the hard-line vote, Rassam says. "Ayatollah Khamenei wanted to avoid a polarized election when he asked Ahmadinejad not to run so that [Ahmadinejad] would not be representing one end of the [political] spectrum while Rohani is representing the other end," he says.
The Guardians Council has a record of disqualifying those it regards as a threat to the clerical establishment, including unelected officials like the supreme leader.
In 2013 it prevented ex-President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died earlier this year, from running again for the same office.
Baghaei was jailed for several months in 2015 on charges that remain unclear.
A final list of the candidates cleared to run is due to be released by April 27. | Government Job change - Election | April 2017 | ['(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)'] |
Former child actor Gary Coleman is hospitalised in a critical condition in the United States. | Former child star Gary Coleman is reportedly in a critical condition in a Utah Hospital after falling and hitting his head.
Coleman's brother-in-law told TMZ.com the 42-year-old actor was in a critical condition, but details of the incident remain unclear.
Media outlet CBC reported he has undergone emergency surgery.
A Utah Valley Regional Medical Centre spokeswoman said Coleman was admitted to the Provo facility but she couldn’t release any other details.
Coleman's manager told E! News: "We're just getting bits and pieces right now, so there's really nothing to report."
His latest health scare comes after he was twice hospitalised earlier this year after suffering seizures.
Coleman came to prominence through TV show Diff'rent Strokes, which aired from 1978 to 1986.
But since the show has ended, Coleman has been beset with a string of financial, relationship and legal problems.
He was arrested earlier this year on domestic assault charges and has previously pleaded guilty to reckless driving after he hit a pedestrian. He was also charged with punching a woman in 1998.
Despite earning as much as $US100,000 an episode during his time on Diff'rent Strokes, Coleman filed for bankruptcy in 1999. | Famous Person - Sick | May 2010 | ['(CNN)', '(The Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
President Donald Trump is expected to nominate Columbia University law professor Robert Jackson to be a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission. | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to nominate Columbia University law professor Robert Jackson to be a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a person with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.
Jackson is expected to be formally nominated on Friday, the source said. He would fill a vacant spot reserved for a Democrat on the five-member panel.
His appointment follows the administration’s decision to nominate Hester Peirce as a Republican commissioner in July and would bring the SEC to full strength and paving the way for Chairman Jay Clayton to push ahead on an agenda of reducing public companies’ regulatory burdens.
Jackson could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
Jackson is known for his advocacy work in trying to advance new rules at the SEC that would force public companies to disclose their political spending to investors.
Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Writing by Eric Beech; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Lisa Shumaker
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | August 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A small plane crashes into a crowd near Fulda, Germany, killing three people and injuring eight others. | The single-engine Cessna hit a group of people clustered by an airfield on Wasserkuppe mountain near the town of Fulda in Hesse state on Sunday.
The plane was trying to gain height after a failed landing and crashed through an airport fence onto a road at about 15:45 (13:45 GMT).
A police statement said five people were injured, including all four on board the plane. Police are still working to identify the three victims, the statement said, although local media report the boy could have been as young as 10.
The 56-year-old pilot and three passengers were taken to hospital with slight injuries, and an eyewitness suffered severe shock. The weather was reportedly fair at the time, and the cause of the crash is not yet known. Police are investigating.
Emergency services are at the scene, which has been cordoned off. Hesse state prime minister Volker Bouffier and interior minister Peter Beuth said they were "deeply affected" by the crash on the state chancellery Twitter page, and thanked the emergency services for their commitment. The aircraft is reported to have been privately owned.
Wasserkuppe mountain is the highest peak in the Rhön Mountains and is popular among fliers of light aircraft and gliders.
As it happened: 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. | Air crash | October 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
As nationwide protests over fuel price hikes continue in Jordan, unidentified gunmen storm a police station in the northern town of Irbid, leading to the fatal shooting of 22–year–old civilian, and injuries to 13 police officers and 4 protesters. Protests and sporadic looting are reported from Al Karak, Salt and Madaba. | The violence over fuel price hikes in Jordan has escalated, as growing anger threatens to plunge the kingdom into a wave of unrest.
One armed civilian was killed and several policemen injured, some critically, when gunmen stormed a police station in Irbid, in the country’s far north, and fired on officers there on Wednesday night.
Another police station came under attack in the northern Amman suburb of Shafa Badran, where automatic weapons were used. One police officer was reportedly critically injured. A police official said the attackers took advantage of the protests to pursue a violent agenda.
In Salt, northwest of capital Amman, protesters set fire to a civil affairs office.
The scene was less deadly in Amman itself on Wednesday night, although up to 1,000 people had spilled onto the streets.
Hundreds of young men gathered at a usually busy road junction in the capital, facing off with riot police, who shot tear gas as tensions rose.
The unrest was not confined to the country’s north, as about 2,000 protesters in the city of Karak, about 140km south of Amman, shouted: “Down, down with you, Abdullah,” and “Get out and leave us alone” as they marched through the town on Wednesday, shattering shop windows, witnesses and police said.
Origins
The violence started on Tuesday night after news spread of the price increases, under which the cost of household gas will rise by 53 per cent and petrol around 12 per cent. The measure aims to rein in a bulging budget deficit and secure a $2bn loan from the International Monetary Fund.
Minutes after state television announced the price rises, several thousand Jordanians poured into the streets.
The hikes, followed by an 11 per cent increase in public transport fares, drew sharp condemnation from the opposition, which warned of civil disobedience in the run-up to January general elections.
“The street is seething with anger and an explosion is coming,” said Zaki Bani Irsheid, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Jordan’s most powerful opposition group.
“We want to create a Jordanian Spring with a local flavour – meaning reforms in the system while keeping our protests peaceful.”
Nationwide protests
In Amman, around 500 demonstrators clashed on Tuesday with anti-riot police and hurled stones at them after they were prevented from holding a sit-in near the interior ministry on Gamal Abdel Nasser Circle.
They set tyres and garbage containers ablaze and tried to block the main road between there and nearby Firas Circle in Jabal Hussein neighbourhood, but police prevented them and fired tear gas, an AFP journalist reported.
“Jabal Hussein is a popular shopping area. Now all shops are closed. It has turned into a ghost town,” a resident told AFP.
Violent demonstrations broke out earlier this week across all 12 of Jordan’s governorates, police said.
Protesters burned tyres to block traffic, torched police and private cars and at least 20 government offices, including court buildings. Police said at least 120 people have been arrested nationwide.
In the northwestern city of Salt, tens of protesters unsuccessfully tried to storm the residence of Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur, while in the southern city of Maan, demonstrators fired in the air to force riot police out of town, wounding one officer, police said in a statement.
Protesters have demanded the resignation of Nsur and his 36-day-old government. Police used tear gas and water cannons to break up the protest outside his home in Salt on Tuesday night.
Jordan has been hit by frequent, but small, anti-government protests over the past 23 months, but these demonstrations have squarely shifted the focus from the government to the king.
| Riot | November 2012 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
Voters in Uruguay go to the polls for the second round of voting in the presidential election with former President Tabaré Vázquez of the ruling Broad Front winning another term in government. , | Uruguay's leftist candidate Tabare Vazquez has easily beaten rival Luis Lacalle Pou in a presidential run-off.
Final results gave Mr Vazquez, from the governing Broad Party, 52.8%, compared with 41% for Mr Lacalle Pou, of the right-wing National Party. Mr Vazquez, 74, is a cancer doctor who served as president from 2005-10.
He won the first round of voting in October with more than 46% of the vote but it was not enough for an outright majority. Incumbent President Jose Mujica was barred by the constitution from running for a second consecutive term. Speaking late on Sunday, Mr Vazquez called on the opposition to join him in a national accord to tackle the key issues the country was facing.
"I want to be able to count on all Uruguayans, but not so that they follow me but so that they guide me, accompany me," he said. In the capital Montevideo, thousands of his cheering supporters poured into the streets to celebrate.
Mr Vazquez has pledged to boost social spending and keep the economy in its current good shape.
He also wants to reform the education system and fight crime - two of the weakest points of Mr Mujica's government, the BBC's Ignacio de los Reyes in Montevideo reports.
Mr Mujica, who is also a member of the Broad Party, remains popular for leading the country through a period of economic growth and introducing social reforms such as legalisation of marijuana, abortion and gay marriage.
Mr Mujica refused to live in a palace when he became president four years ago and instead stayed at his humble farm in the outskirts of Montevideo, where he grows his own vegetables.
His down-to-earth style has put Uruguay in the international spotlight and his shoes will be hard to fill, our correspondent says.
| Government Job change - Election | November 2014 | ['(BBC)', '(CNN)'] |
A senior intelligence officer in Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, Payenda Khan, is killed in a bombing in Kunduz Province. | Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A senior Afghan intelligence official was killed Thursday when a bomb exploded in the country's northern Kunduz province, according to a provincial council chief.
Payenda Khan -- who headed up a district in Kunduz for the National Directorate of Security -- was killed, and three children were injured in the blast, said Mahbobullah Mahbob.
Khan was killed in the Afghan district of Bander Khanabad, and the Taliban has claimed responsibility for attack. His death is latest in a series of high-level officials who have recently been killed across the country. The most high-profile strike occurred in July when the Taliban also claimed responsibility for the death of the president's half-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai.
The Kandahar provincial council chief was considered an influential power-broker and key presidential ally in the country's southern provinces. Last week, militants stormed the compound of the governor of Afghanistan's Uruzgan province.
A least 19 people were killed and 37 wounded, including three police officers, in that attack.
The governor, Muhammad Omar Shirzad, managed to escape after being surrounded by security guards, while a gun battle raged for several hours. | Famous Person - Death | August 2011 | ['(CNN)'] |
The University of Sydney's Australian Archaeological Mission, excavating at a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the southwest coast of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, discover Cyprus's oldest theatre. Located in the ancient city of Nea Paphos , it is a Hellenistic–Roman structure believed to have been in use for about six and a half centuries, from c. 300 B.C. until its final destruction in the earthquakes of A.D. 365. The Roman columns are made of granite from quarries in Troad, Turkey. (AFP, via MSN) | An Australian archaeological team in Cyprus has uncovered a theatre dating from 300 BC, the oldest structure of its kind yet unearthed on the Mediterranean island, the antiquities department said Friday.
"The Australian team has uncovered the oldest theatre in Cyprus: a structure that was used as a venue for performance and spectacle for over six-and-a-half centuries from c. 300 BC until its final destruction in the earthquakes of AD 365," said the statement. "More recent excavations have attempted to position the theatre within its ancient urban context, by understanding the surrounding ancient structures including a second century AD nymphaeum (water fountain)," it added.
Excavations at the site of the Hellenistic-Roman theatre of Nea Paphos, on Cyprus' southwestern coast, were conducted by the Australian Archaeological Mission from the University of Sydney. The Australian team has been excavating at the UNESCO World Heritage site for two decades. In September the team conducted a geo-mapping survey of the ruins of the town's Roman colonnades. Excavations immediately to the south of the theatre revealed a Roman paved road, approximately 8.4 metres (28 feet) wide, which was the main traffic thoroughfare to access the theatre, the antiquities department said.
"The existence of this road also confirms that ancient Nea Paphos was laid out on a typical Hellenistic grid plan. The discovery of numerous fragments of granite columns on the theatre site (over 30 to date) confirms the importance of the paved road," said the statement.
The columns are made from granite from quarries in Troad in Turkey and reflect Roman trade in monumental architectural elements.
The largest, and least common, of Troad granite columns stood 24 Roman feet (over 7 metres) tall. "Troad granite columns are known from colonnades across the Mediterranean. As the capital city of Cyprus at the time, it is not surprising that Nea Paphos would be adorned with this architectural demonstration of Roman civic order."
The ancient theatre was recorded for the first time using pole photography and photogrammetric programs which stitched together over 2,000 individual high resolution photos. | New archeological discoveries | November 2015 | ['(capital of Cyprus at the time)'] |
Somalia's Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon, who lives in Kenya, appoints a new 10–member cabinet, including Somalia's first female Foreign Minister, Fowsiyo Yussuf Haji Aadan. | Somalia is to get its first female foreign minister in a cabinet formed by new Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon.
Fauzia Yusuf Haji Adan is among 10 politicians joining a cabinet that has been significantly reduced in size.
She described her inclusion as "historic" for both the country and Somali women in particular.
However, correspondents say Mr Shirdon may struggle to get his choices through parliament because some clans feel they have not been properly represented.
Mr Shirdon, an ex-businessman, took office last month after his nomination - by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud - was approved by MPs.
The election of Mr Mohamud in September was considered the first fair poll in the capital Mogadishu for 42 years.
They take on a country that has been without effective central authority for more than 20 years while clan-based warlords, Islamist militants and Somalia's neighbours all battled for control following the 1991 overthrow of President Siad Barre. "After long discussions and consultations, I have named my cabinet which consists of only 10 members. Among them is a female foreign affairs minister for the first time in Somali history," the prime minister said.
Ms Adan hails from the self-declared independent state of Somaliland and lived for a long time in Britain, the AFP reports.
"My nomination as the foreign minister is historic for the Somali country and particularly for the women of Somalia, it turns a new page for the political situation of our country and will lead to success and prosperity," she said.
The biggest challenge facing Somalia's new UN-backed leaders is the al-Qaeda-aligned Islamist group, al-Shabab.
Despite losing key towns over the last few months, the militants still control large areas of rural southern and central Somalia.
Al-Shabab supporters have carried out a number of suicide attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, since the group was driven out of the city by African Union and pro-government forces last year - including several since Mr Mohamud's election. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | November 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
NASA unveils the prototype of a lunar mining robot called the Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot . | NASA engineers are working on a prototype lunar soil excavator that comes equipped with sturdy digging equipment, can take on a wide array of different shapes to complete its various tasks, and is reliable enough to operate on a daily basis for several years.
The robot, which is known as the Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot or RASSOR (pronounced “razor”), uses a pair of digging bucket drums — one at each end of its body — that rotate in opposite directions, giving one end traction and allowing the opposite to dig through the soil, the US space agency said in a statement on Friday.
RASSOR, which NASA has referred to as “a blue collar robot,” is in an early state and will not be ready to go into space anytime soon, but even at this point they report that it has shown signs of promise. Rachel Cox, a Kennedy Space Center engineer involved on the project, said that she and her colleagues were “surprised” what could be accomplished with the machine thus far.
“The primary challenge for any digging robot operating off Earth is that they have to be light and small enough to fly on a rocket, but heavy enough to operate in gravity lower than that of Earth,” NASA explained. “RASSOR tackles this problem by using digging bucket drums at each end of the robot’s body that rotate in opposite directions, giving enough traction on one end to let the opposite side dig into the soil.”
The RASSOR team has constructed a weight off-loading harness that simulates operating in the moon´s one-sixth gravitational field, the agency said. A concept mission for the digger would involve the approximately 100-pound instrument, as well as a one-ton payload that would be used in part to process the lunar soil the machine delivers.
RASSOR´s drum also includes “staggered shallow scoops that shave the soil a bit at a time rather than scoop large chunks of it all at once, the way bulldozers do on Earth,” NASA said, adding that it looks similar to “a small tank chassis with a drum at either end, each attached with arms.”
“The drums are perhaps the robot’s most innovative feature,” they added. “Because they are mounted on moving arms, they can act almost as legs letting the robot step and climb over obstacles.” Thanks to the way the robot is constructed, it can “safely drive off the lander and right itself, flip itself over to get unstuck from fine soil and lift the whole body off the ground to let its treads run smoothly to remove built up soil.”
RASSOR can transform its body into a Z-shape in order to place the earth it collects into a hopper, and stands about 30 inches tall when the drums are positioned above its main body. It is being designed to skim lunar soil, dumping it into a device that extracts ice and water out the dirt, then converting chemicals into rocket fuel or oxygen for astronauts working on the surface of the moon, according to NASA.
That device would be part of the lander that would transport the robot to the moon, making it so that RASSOR “would be the feeder for a lunar resource processing plant, a level of industry never before tried anywhere besides Earth,” NASA´s statement explained. If they could use it to produce water and fuel directly on the moon, it would “save the tremendous expense of launching the supplies from Earth, since 90 percent of a rocket´s mass normally consists of propellant, which can be made on the moon.”
In theory, the same thing could also be done on Mars, as the soil on that planet is believed to contain massive amounts of ice, especially at the poles, engineers said. However, in order to obtain enough materials to create a useable amount of resources, the robot would have to operate 16 hours per day for a total of five years.
“Devising a robot for such demands called for numerous innovations, and the team says it has at least one major decision to make before it begins construction of the second generation RASSOR prototype: keep going with tracks like those that tanks use, or switch to wheels,” NASA said. “The tracks showed some flaws in recent testing, mostly relating to the pebbles and sand particles clogging the gears and making the track slip off.”
“The group tried out RASSOR on several surfaces at Kennedy, including the crushed river rock dug up from the crawlerway,” they added. “The rock, even though pulverized by the gigantic crawlers, is not a great substitute for lunar soil, the engineers said, but as long as the robot handles that matter well, they say they know it will manage whatever the moon soil offers.” | New achievements in aerospace | January 2013 | ['(RASSOR)', '(The Verge)', '(The Atlantic)', '(Red Orbit)'] |
At least 69 people are reported dead from flooding caused by Tropical Depression Usman in the Philippines. | The storm struck the Philippines shortly after Christmas, with the number of fatalities expected to rise
Last modified on Mon 31 Dec 2018 11.16 GMT
The death toll from a storm that struck the Philippines shortly after Christmas rose to 68 with the number of fatalities expected to climb even higher, civil defence officials said Monday.
Fifty-seven people died in the mountainous Bicol region, southeast of Manila, while 11 were killed in the central island of Samar, mostly due to landslides and drownings, the officials said.
“I am afraid this [death toll] will still go up because there are a lot of areas we still have to clear,” said Claudio Yucot, Bicol civil defence director.
The weather disturbance locally named Usman hit the country on Saturday. While it did not have powerful winds it brought heavy rains that caused floods and loosened the soil, triggering landslides in some areas.
Many people failed to take necessary precautions because Usman was not strong enough to be rated as a typhoon under the government’s storm alert system, Yucot said.
“People were overconfident because they were on [Christmas] vacation mode and there was no tropical cyclone warning,” he told AFP.
Although Usman has since moved westward away from the country, many affected areas were still experiencing seasonal rains, hampering rescue and recovery efforts, he added.
At least 17 people are still missing and more than 40,000 were displaced nationwide due to the storm, the civil defence office said.
An average of 20 typhoons and storms lash the Philippines each year, killing hundreds of people and leaving millions in near-perpetual poverty.
The most powerful was Super Typhoon Haiyan which left more than 7,360 people dead or missing across the central Philippines in 2013. | Floods | December 2018 | ['(Stuff.co.nz)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Investigations into a far-right organization whose members were arrested in Germany three days earlier reveal a plot, inspired by the Christchurch mosque shootings in March 2019, to carry out simultaneous, large-scale attacks on mosques across the country during prayers. | Muslim communities in Germany have called for more police protection after the arrest of members of a rightwing extremist group that is believed to have been plotting large-scale attacks on mosques around the country.
Twelve men who were arrested following police raids on Friday had been planning attacks using semi-automatic weapons on worshippers during prayers in 10 German states, said to have been inspired by those carried out in New Zealand last year, according to a government spokesman.
Investigators had been following the men for months, monitoring their conversations and online activity, after suspecting them of having formed a terror group.
They eavesdropped on a meeting in North Rhine-Westphalia earlier this month in which the alleged ringleader, 53-year-old Werner S, outlined the group’s concrete plans for “commandos” to attack Muslims in small communities across the country. Two of the men were elected to acquire weapons, and all members were expected to contribute towards a €50,000 (£42,000) fund to finance the operation.
German prosecutors spoke of the planned attacks as “mosque massacres” inspired by the attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in spring 2019, in which 51 people were killed by a gunman.
According to the men’s discussions, the attacks were intended to provoke revenge attacks and to evolve into a civil war, authorities said. Four of the arrested men are being treated as suspected terrorists, eight as accomplices, including an administrative police clerk.
The plot came to light after a police informer managed to infiltrate the group.
Björn Grünewälder, the interior ministry spokesman, said while there was relief that the plot had been foiled, he was alarmed by the speed in which the group had formed. “It’s shocking what has come to light here, and that there are cells which appear to have become radicalised in a very short length of time,” he said.
Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, insisted the government was committed to protecting religious groups. “It is the task of the state and naturally of this government, to protect the free practice of religion in this country, regardless of what religion that might be,” he said.
“Anyone practising their religion in Germany within our legal framework should be able to do so without being endangered or threatened,” Seibert added.
Police had raided homes of the would-be attackers early on Friday morning, aware that they might already have acquired weapons.
An attack last June on Walter Lübcke, a conservative local politician who had spoken out in defence of refugees, and the October attack on a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle have made German authorities increasingly aware of the threat of rightwing extremist crime.
Police are watching the activities of 53 men and women associated with the extreme right, who they say are capable of carrying out violence. In 2016, it was 22.
Der Spiegel reported that the group had formed last autumn, the majority of them meeting at an old saw mill in Baden-Württemberg, where the discussion focused on weaponry and how to obtain it. Werner S, who was nicknamed Teutonico by the group, tried to recruit like-minded men who he said had to be “intelligent, hard, brutal and fast”.
He talked about wanting to build an underground army, modelled on the so-called Freikorps or free corps – the irregular German military volunteer units, which existed from the 18th century but were at their most powerful in the early 1900s fighting on behalf of the government against Soviet-backed German communists during the Weimar Republic.
Police investigators said to what extent the men just talked, and to what extent their intentions might have been realised, would be revealed during their investigation.
Among the finds during the raids was a 9mm pistol and ammunition at Werner S’s house. At other properties they seized homemade egg-shaped hand grenades, axes, crossbows, spiked maces and several knives. The group had intended to acquire “slam guns” as used by the antisemitic attacker in Halle. In their discussions, according to Spiegel, the men had used the codeword “electro-scooters” to describe the weapons, and referred to the accompanying munition as “batteries”.
The chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, Aiman Mazyek, said the planned attacks were “very alarming” and called for more security at the country’s mosques. He told the Berlin daily Taz: “Without state protection, the situation is getting ever more dangerous. What are the security authorities waiting for?”
Mohammad Dawood Majoka, a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, called for an “increased attentiveness by the police”. Zekeriya Altuğ, a spokesman for Ditib, the umbrella organisation for a large number of mosques in Germany, said the arrests highlighted “the seriousness of the situation … the point of no return is getting ever closer,” he said. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | February 2020 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Fiji's military stage exercises around the capital Suva and close off the city's army barracks as tensions rose due to fears of a coup d'état. Fiji's military chief, Frank Bainimarama, has threatened to force the Prime Minister of Fiji Laisenia Qarase to resign unless the Prime Minister drops two Bills, one which will offer amnesty to some of those involved in a 2000 coup led by George Speight. | Fiji's military staged exercises around the capital Suva and closed off the city's army barracks as tensions rose in the South Pacific island nation amid fears of a military takeover. Fiji's outspoken military chief, Frank Bainimarama, has threatened to force Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase to resign unless he drops two contentious Bills, one which will offer amnesty to some of those involved in a 2000 coup. Mr Qarase has said he will deal with Commodore Bainimarama when the military chief returns from a tour of the Middle East, where he is visiting Fijian troops. Commodore Bainimarama is expected back in the country on Thursday, coinciding with a planned march of about 3,000 army reservists through Suva. A Fiji online media service said the Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF) had said the Suva exercises were not threatening. "The RFMF has confirmed that it is conducting exercises at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks and in the greater Suva area and there is no cause for alarm," said the website. Fiji's police commissioner has refused to release a shipment of 7.5 tonnes of ammunition to the military until commanders give a commitment that it will not be used against the Government. The ammunition has been acquired from South Korea, local media said. "I need the military to give its assurance that the ammunition at the wharf will not be used to destabilise the Government," Andrew Hughes told the Fiji Times newspaper. Commissioner Hughes, an Australian, is due to meet military officers later on Tuesday to discuss the ammunition issue. "I warn Hughes to act sensibly and release the ammunition because if anything happens, he will pack his bag and fly back to Australia leaving the country in a mess," Commodore Bainimarama told the Fiji Sun newspaper from the Middle East.
"His action is unnecessary because now the people will think that there is a rift between the police and the army. There is no such rift because in Fiji. We are related in one way or another." Fiji has suffered three coups and a failed mutiny since 1987. The coups have been racially fuelled, with indigenous Fijians fearful of losing political control of their island nation to ethnic Indian Fijians, who dominate the sugar and tourism-based economy. Australia has issued a new travel advisory for Fiji, warning citizens of rising tensions between the military and Government. "You should avoid demonstrations, street rallies and any public gatherings. Such events could become catalysts for civil disorder," the Department of Foreign Affairs' advisory said.
The United States has warned its citizens "to be aware that civil-military unrest in November is possible". - Reuters
In Fiji, tensions between the military and the Government are steadily rising, with the Government refusing to alter several pieces of controversial legislation and observers fearing another coup.
| Military Exercise | October 2006 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
Two strong earthquakes hit Asia; a 7.6 magnitude quake off the Indian Andaman Islands and a 6.5 magnitude quake in the Tokyo area of Japan, killing one and injuring dozens. | . CCTV cameras captured the moment the quake struck
A strong earthquake has struck Tokyo and central Japan, halting train services, closing motorways and causing a nuclear power station to shut down.
At least 43 people were injured by the magnitude 6.4 quake, many of them by falling objects, officials said. No deaths have been reported. Separately, there was another powerful earthquake off India's Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. Both earthquakes triggered tsunami alerts, which were later cancelled. 'Huge tremble'
In Japan, the magnitude 6.4 quake shook buildings, threw objects from shelves and jolted people from their sleep in Tokyo area at 0507 (2007 GMT Monday). The quake was centred in the Pacific Ocean, about 170km (105 miles) south-west of Tokyo, the US Geological Survey reported. Of those injured, at least three people are thought to be in a serious condition. "It was a huge tremble, like nothing I had experienced before," said Tadao Negami, a 69-year-old resident of Mishima city in Shizuoka.
"I couldn't stay seated on a chair. My daughter and my grandchildren were scared and surprised and they rushed downstairs," AFP news agency quoted him as saying. A large landslide triggered by the quake damaged a highway at Makinohara, Shizuoka, causing long traffic jams, television footage showed. The Hamaoka nuclear plant in Shizuoka immediately shut down two reactors after the quake, and the Shinkansen bullet train service was briefly suspended. 'Big one' expected
While officials said there was no risk of a tsunami in Japan, another earthquake in India's Andaman Islands, prompted tsunami warnings there. The US Geological Survey said the quake - unrelated to Japan's - with a 7.6 magnitude hit the Indian Ocean about 257km (160 miles) north of Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. A tsunami watch called for India, Burma, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh was later lifted without any tsunami being recorded. An earlier earthquake of magnitude 6.9 hit Japan on Sunday, but caused no damage or casualties. Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, and experts believe Tokyo has a 90% chance of being hit by a major quake over the next 50 years. | Earthquakes | August 2009 | ['(Press Association)', '(Associated Press)', '(BBC)'] |
Fra' Marco Luzzago is elected the new Lieutenant of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. The Order also postpones election for Grand Master. |
Friar Marco Luzzago will be the leader of the Order of Malta, after being elected as the Lieutenant of the Grand Master.
The Magistral Palace, one of the two institutional seats of the Order of Malta in Rome, hosted the meeting of the Council Complete of State, the institution's electoral body.
After receiving a majority of votes, the new lieutenant was sworn in by Card. Silvano Maria Tomasi, the pontifical delegate before the Order of Malta.
“I cannot hide my great excitement. The Holy Spirit has turned its gaze on me. Thank you for trusting me.”
Friar Marco Luzzago, a relative of Pope Paul VI, will have the same authority as the Grand Master and will remain in charge for one year. Before the end of that period, he must convoke the Council Complete of State to elect a Grand Master.
One of his responsibilities will be to move forward with the reform process of the Order of Malta to strengthen the spiritual aspect of the institution and avoid new periods of crisis.
The electoral process has respected the safety measures in place because of the coronavirus.
When the voting concluded, the results were relayed to Pope Francis and to the 110 states that hold diplomatic relations with the Sovereign Order of Malta. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | November 2020 | ['(Rome Reports)'] |
Clashes between protestors and security forces at a protest camp in Beirut leave dozens of people injured. | Security forces use rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon to disperse anti-government demonstrators in Beirut.
Dozens of people were injured in Lebanon‘s capital as security forces fired rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon to disperse anti-government protesters from the city centre.
Sunday morning’s violence around the epicentre of the protest site in Beirut was some of the worst since the demonstrations began two months ago.
Clashes brought the central area to a standstill for more than eight hours as security forces fired a stream of tear gas canisters at hundreds of protesters, who set fires in rubbish bins on the main streets, in part to mitigate the effects of the gas.
The Red Cross and the Lebanese Civil Defence said at least 46 people were injured and transported to hospitals. More protests are expected later on Sunday.
The protesters chanted slogans against security forces and government officials and pelted police with stones in scenes not seen in the capital since the demonstrations began on October 17.
At one point, the scuffles reached the headquarters of one of the main Lebanese political parties, the Kataeb, where many protesters were taking cover.
Samy Gemayel, the head of the Kataeb, appeared on local TV stations as he tried to separate the protesters from advancing security forces.
Lebanon is facing one of its worst economic crises in decades, and the protesters accuse the ruling political class in place for 30 years of mismanagement and corruption.
The violence comes just two days before the president holds talks with different parliamentary blocs to name a new prime minister.
The government headed by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned on October 29, two weeks after the nationwide protests began.
Political groups have been unable to agree on a new candidate while protesters have called for a government unaffiliated with established political parties.
Local TV station LBC showed dozens chanting against Hariri, who has emerged as the favourite candidate despite all the political bickering.
The protesters also chanted: “The people want to bring down the regime.” They accused government forces of excessive force.
The trouble started on Saturday when dozens of men, some wearing masks, threw stones and firecrackers at security forces on one edge of the protest camp in central Beirut.
They were supporters of the Shia Hezbollah and Amal groups, angered by some of the criticism of their leaders by anti-government protesters.
It was the second time this week the groups tried to attack the protest camp.
The National News Agency said one member of security forces was injured. Local leaders, including a mosque preacher, appealed for calm.
Hours later, hundreds of anti-government protesters, including women, gathered outside Parliament, hundreds of metres away from the protest camp.
Chaos ensued with reports of an attack on the anti-government rally, leading to a confrontation with security forces who tried to disperse the protesters.
For the first time since the protests erupted in Beirut, anti-riot police fired rubber-coated bullets as they chased the demonstrators away from the area.
It was not clear what caused the crackdown. The parliament speaker is the head of the Shia Amal group.
The clashes spread to streets surrounding the protest camp, engulfing the area in thick, white smoke and the odour of tear gas.
Security forces chased protesters around central Beirut, some firing rubber bullets and several volleys of tear gas from armoured vehicles.
Dozens of protesters had travelled to Beirut from the northern city of Tripoli to take part in the rally outside the parliament building.
The National News Agency reported some shop windows in the commercial part of central Beirut were smashed by vandals.
One officer was injured in the eye when a protester hit him with a stone, according to an Associated Press reporter.
Early on Sunday, nearly a dozen riot police stood over two protesters and beat them with batons. The two were later taken away to be treated by medics.
Tension has been building in the protest camp. Some accused activists who organise discussions in the camp under the name “the Hub” of hosting critics of Hezbollah and calling for normalisation of ties with Israel.
The tent was attacked earlier in the week with firecrackers, burning it down. On Saturday, a rally to support the Hub was cancelled shortly before the attempted attack on the protest camp.
Uprising could bring the death of Lebanese political system where power is shared among religious groups, analysts say.
Opponents of anti-gov’t protesters clash with riot police, throwing rocks and firecrackers against volleys of tear gas.
As prime minister’s post remains vacant, deadlock is widening sectarian divide, leading to rise in violence.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | December 2019 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
EU leaders meet in Brussels to try to agree on the draft European constitution amid the showing of popular discontent with national governments in the recent European Parliament election. | A voting rights dispute among other things scuppered a summit six months earlier, but some heads of government went into the talks with optimism.
Just as difficult will be the choice of successor for Romano Prodi, the Italian President of the European Commission.
Talks halted on Thursday evening, but are due to resume before midnight.
Earlier, both French President Jacques Chirac and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, who is chairing the talks, told journalists they felt they were close to an agreement.
The heads of government are having to confront an intensely personal problem as most of the potential candidates are around the table themselves, the BBC's Tim Franks notes. Face to face
The British have been outspoken in their opposition to the leading contender, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. LEADING CANDIDATES
Guy Verhofstadt, Belgian PM
Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg PM
Antonio Vitorino, EU Commissioner
Pat Cox, European Parliament President
Bertie Ahern, Irish PM
Chris Patten, EU Commissioner
Candidate profiles
A surprise candidate has also emerged in the form of a UK commissioner, Chris Patten, whose name has been forwarded by the conservative group in the European Parliament, known as the European People's Party.
However, France is one of several states which oppose Mr Patten's candidacy and prefer Mr Verhofstadt.
Mr Chirac told reporters on Thursday that he did not think it was a good idea to have a candidate from "a country which doesn't take part in all European policies".
The remark appears to be a veiled reference to the UK and Denmark, both of which have yet to join the European single currency, the Euro.
Mr Prodi has said there is no obvious successor to him. Voting row
At the December summit in Brussels, Poland and Spain blocked the agreement because they would have lost more favourable deals secured previously.
Some leaders arrived predicting success
The political situation in both countries changed recently - Spain has a new government and Poland is in the grip of a political crisis.
However, a group of about 10 smaller EU states, including Finland and Austria, say they will reject new proposals for the EU's system of taking decisions.
The new plan calls for measures to be approved when supported by states that make up 55% of the states in the EU and 65% of the total population. The small states think that formula gives too much influence to countries with large populations.
This dispute risks becoming a repeat of the stand-off which led to the failure of the constitution talks last time, the BBC's William Horsley reports. Other new proposals by the EU presidency include: 'No natural successor'
Mr Prodi is stepping down as president of the European Commission when his five-year term ends in October.
Apart from Mr Verhofstadt and Mr Patten, names touted for the job include Mr Ahern, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, former Nato chief Javier Solana, Portuguese commissioner Antonio Vitorino and European Parliament President Pat Cox.
But Mr Prodi told a news conference on Wednesday that there was no majority yet for any candidate. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | June 2004 | ['(BBC)', '(Guardian)'] |
Mohsen Pourseyyed Aqaei, Managing Director of the Iran's Railways resigned and his resignation was accepted by Akhoundi. | Speaking to IRIB news on Saturday night, Pourseyyed Aqaei said the Minister of Road and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi has accepted his resignation.
In the meantime, Iranian lawmakers are working on a plan to impeach Akhoundi for what they call his weak performance that led to the terrible train crash.
In a message on Saturday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei voiced deep sorrow over the incident, blaming it on the negligence and imprudence of those involved.
The incident’s death toll has risen to 45, while dozens of others were wounded in the crash, which occurred at around 8 a.m. Friday in a mountainous area near Haft-Khan station, on the railroad linking the cities of Semnan and Damghan.
A passenger train travelling between capital Tehran and the northeastern holy city of Mashhad was stopping near the station when another train hit it from behind, setting a number of cars ablaze. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | November 2016 | ['(Tasnim)'] |
Egyptian state television forments the unrest by reporting that "Israeli spies" have infiltrated Cairo, leading to an increase in antisemitic sentiment among the pro-Mubarak forces attacking people and journalists on the streets. | The conventional wisdom goes, when it’s too dangerous to film on the streets, you can always do an interview with someone inside a building.
Not in Alexandria you can’t. Not today. We had arranged to interview a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood in his apartment, but the neighbours sitting by the door on the street, snarled like guard dogs when we arrived. They didn’t want foreigners inside their building, they said, and saw us off.
We retreated down the street to our car. A group of young men approached, armed with baseball bats, sticks and machetes. They were the neighbourhood Popular Committee.
For the past few days, these groups have been smiling and friendly to us but this lot started shouting and banging on the roof of our car. They demanded to see our passports.
I think I know why. Last night and today, Egyptian state TV had been broadcasting of Israeli spies disguised as western journalists roaming the country.
It’s a wicked rumour to spread because it puts any westerner or any Egyptian working with westerners at risk of a beating or worse. It’s cynical to say the least.
This government did a deal with Israel, but it still stirs up anti-Zionist feelings when it suits and that’s one reason so many journalists have been attacked in Cairo today.
Yesterday, our mob experience was worse. We were trying to get a shot from the window of our car as we passed the military headquarters where families were queuing to get news of relatives who had been arrested during the demonstrations.
Someone spotted us and didn’t like it whereupon a screaming crowd of about sixty descended upon us. Banging on the car, trying to drag us out and reaching through the open windows of the front to hit our driver and cameraman.
I clamped my left hand on the old fashioned stick lock on the back door and dug the nails of my right hand into the arms reaching around trying to force it open.
I looked at the baying mob through the window and the man staring at me made a throat-slitting gesture.
Not nice.
We were grateful to be arrested by the military who managed to calm the crowd after about 10 minutes.
And this is nothing to what colleagues have witnessed and experienced in Cairo. Why are passions so volatile here? Partly because political expression has been repressed for so long, I suppose, and because people are frustrated with the lack of freedom in their lives.
Also, because conspiracy theories are so widely circulated and believed. When you have a government that’s as un-transparent and hypocritical as this one, no wonder people don’t know what to believe.
The result is that anti-government protestors give credence to government propaganda that journalists are all spies out to destroy Egypt.
There were protests in Alexandria today, but we didn’t film them for obvious reasons. There haven’t been any major clashes as it seems that pro-government supporters haven’t been able to attack the anti-government groups in the same way they have in Cairo.
We are holed up in a safe place where we can see the place where people are expectedto gather for more protests tomorrow. But we’re unlikely to venture out to see if they still think we’re Israeli spies.
| Armed Conflict | February 2011 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)', '(Channel 4 News)'] |
Saudi Arabia lifts its ban on women being allowed to drive. | JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia – The sound of revving engines filled roadways and parking lots at shopping malls early Sunday as this desert kingdom became the world's last country to lift its ban on women driving.
“As an independent woman, driving is one of the main aspects of my life that’s been missing,” said Shefa Mohamed Aldwelah, 26, as she prepared to take to the road in her car.
She admitted being afraid of driving for the first time, as is every other first-time licensed driver around the world. But getting behind the wheel means "I will be able to open the door to new horizons.”
Parking spaces were painted pink before this historic move. Car companies such as Ford and gasoline retailer Shell launched advertising campaigns that featured female drivers who are now potential customers.
"Our sisterly women drivers, we wish you continued safety," flashed roadside digital signs operated by the Saudi government's Department of Motor Vehicles. Police officers handed out roses to women entering highway ramps at midnight.
Saudi Arabia's King Salman lifted the ban as part of a package of changes designed to loosen the rigid rules governing the Muslim country's society and economy. The king’s son and successor, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, spearheaded the changes amid unstable oil prices that threaten to destabilize the country’s political order.
Lifting the driving ban might already be paying dividends.
"We are already seeing more women in our showroom," said Maram al Hazar, a manager at Al Jazirah Vehicles, a Ford dealership in Riyadh. "Many of them say that they are on waiting lists for drivers’ education classes that are already booked for the first half of 2018."
Saudi women have sought the right to drive for years.
“I’ve waited long enough, and now, to know that my daughter-in-law and granddaughters will have a normal life, I feel at peace," said Layla Moussa, 67, who has three granddaughters. “I didn’t think it would happen in my lifetime.”
Civil rights activists noted that Saudis who fought to overturn the ban remain imprisoned for challenging it.
“There can be no real celebration on June 24 while the women who campaigned for the right to drive and their supporters remain behind bars,” Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
Human Rights Watch said Saudi authorities arrested and detained a handful of men and women who campaigned for women's rights and to end the driving ban.
Many Saudi women were less concerned about civil rights and more elated about the practical means of being able to drive.
“It’s going to make things much, much easier – going to work, dropping the kids off to school and just having the choice to go out whenever we want to,” said Nada Farsi, a dental school instructor at King Abdulaziz University and mother of two.
“Before, we’d have to wait for the Uber driver if it was too hot to walk. It could take up to an hour to wait," she said. "Now a 10-minute drive is exactly that: a 10-minute drive.” | Government Policy Changes | June 2018 | ['(USA Today)'] |
Roughly half of the staff of index.hu, Hungary's biggest news site, resign in protest of the firing of the editor–in–chief last week. The termination happened months after 50% of the site's advertising was purchased by media executive Miklos Vaszily, who has close ties to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. | The concentration of control of the media in Hungary by the government is part of a troubling pattern in Central Europe, where Poland’s press also faces pressure following a presidential election.
By Benjamin Novak and Marc Santora
BUDAPEST — Hungary’s most widely read news site was thrown into disarray this week after the organization’s editor in chief was fired and scores of journalists quit in protest as the government moved closer to near-complete control over the country’s media landscape.
A decade into Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s quest to transform Hungary into an “illiberal” nation, where he controls nearly all levers of the state and uses them to maintain his grip on power, the takeover of Index.hu’s advertising unit by an Orban ally was part of a broader effort to limit dissenting voices and silence critics.
The potential loss of the news site as a check on the government was a particularly painful blow to the small but determined coterie of independent journalists left working in the country.
The site was one of many independent media outlets in Central Europe that have come under sustained financial and political pressure from governments bent on controlling public discourse.
More than half the staff at Index, some 70 employees, announced their resignations on Friday after the firing of the editor, Szabolcs Dull.
“We have emphasized for years that we have two requirements for Index to continue operating independently: that there be no outside interference in Index’s content or in the composition or structure of Index’s staff,” the group said in a statement. “The firing of Szabolcs Dull violated the latter of these requirements. His dismissal was a clear interference in the composition of the staff.”
The steady decline of independent news outlets is part of the slide toward autocratic rule in Hungary and, to a lesser extent, in Poland. Those concerns were key sticking points in the debate over the European Union’s $857 billion pandemic recovery plan and whether Hungary and Poland should be penalized financially.
In the end, recovery money was not tied in a significant way to the behavior of member states, appeasing Poland and Hungary, and setting up a possible clash as the deal moves to the European Parliament for final approval.
Earlier this month, Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, narrowly won re-election after a bitter campaign in which the media was a frequent target.
Mr. Duda accused Germany of trying to influence the result through media outlets owned by German companies. The government even summoned Germany’s charges-d’affaires to complain about the matter, and has yet to approve Germany’s incoming ambassador.
After the election, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of the ruling Law and Justice Party, vowed to press ahead with plans to limit media ownership by foreign companies.
“The media in Poland should be Polish,” the party leader declared after the victory.
Since coming into power in 2015, Law and Justice has transformed state television into a propaganda arm of the government, applied financial pressure on Polish media by preventing all state-related entities from advertising with critical outlets, and waged aggressive campaigns against journalists critical of the government.
Poland fell to 62nd place out of 180 countries ranked in the World Press Freedom Index in 2020, dropping from 18th in 2015.
The election results are being challenged in the country’s Supreme Court, with one of the accusations being that the Law and Justice party’s control over state television created an unfair playing field.
The Polish government has often followed the path set by Mr. Orban, who has transformed the media landscape in Hungary despite European Union pressure to change course.
When Mr. Orban returned to power in 2010, he and his allies immediately went to work overhauling the country’s democratic framework. A landslide victory at the polls in 2010 allowed them to unilaterally rewrite Hungary’s constitution and change its electoral laws to favor their party. Since then, they have secured constitutional supermajorities in two subsequent elections, despite receiving less than 50 percent of the popular vote.
The Constitutional Court has been stacked and lower courts overhauled, public media and most of the country’s private media have come under the control of the prime minister’s allies, and independent watchdog institutions have been stripped of influence.
In late 2018, hundreds of nominally independent media outlets controlled by the prime minister’s allies were given to another foundation controlled by Mr. Orban’s confidants. Media and competition regulators were barred from scrutinizing the transactions, according to a decree issued by Mr. Orban in early December 2018, on grounds that the ownership changes were of “strategic national interest.”
Index, which traces its roots to the advent of internet news in Hungary, had largely weathered many political storms over the past decade.
It has reported critically of Mr. Orban’s government, prominently featuring stories of Russian meddling in Hungary, alleged graft involving politicians and individuals close to Mr. Orban’s inner circle, and by chronicling other government policies widely condemned as assaults on democratic institutions.
In March, as Europe struggled to contain the coronavirus, Miklos Vaszily, a media executive with close ties to Mr. Orban’s allies, acquired 50 percent of Index’s advertising business.
The move prompted concern from journalists and free press advocates, not least because of Mr. Vaszily’s role in overhauling media outlets, including Origo, a site once regarded as one of Hungary’s most reputable independent news organizations.
On June 21, local media reports indicated the leadership at Index planned to overhaul the website’s staff, essentially turning reporters into outside contributors. The staff declared the plan a threat to its independence, warning of a concerted attempt to expose the publication to heightened political interference. Within days, the editor in chief was removed from the company’s board, its chief executive officer resigned, as did an incoming C.E.O.
The matter remained at a standstill until Wednesday, when Mr. Dull, the chief editor, was fired by Laszlo Bodolai, head of the foundation that exercises ownership of the publication. Mr. Bodolai accused Mr. Dull of being unable to quell internal anxiety at Index, endangering the business.
In a statement released after his departure, Mr. Dull said he always acted with the interests of his staff in mind.
“It is no coincidence that Index’s staff felt at risk,” he wrote, adding that the recent events have convinced him that Hungary needs a newspaper where content is not decided by “outside powers.”
A last-ditch attempt by the news outlet’s staff failed to convince the organization’s management to rehire the dismissed editor in chief.
“We don’t know what is happening,” Veronika Munk, the deputy editor in chief, said Thursday afternoon. “I firmly feel that for many in the staff work has ended at Index.”
Through a windfall of state advertising contracts, which often promote conspiracy theories and attacks on the European Union, media entities under the control of Mr. Orban’s allies have flourished. They have been instrumental in promulgating sweeping state-funded propaganda campaigns that tap into anti-Semitic tropes reminiscent of the interwar period.
“Imagine all the media in a U.S. state were to come under the ownership of a single political group,” says Gabor Polyak of Mertek Media Monitor, a media think tank, “and all of these media outlets are funded by taxpayer money.”
In 2018, the European Parliament voted resoundingly to initiate proceedings against Mr. Orban’s government for what critics say are systemic threats to Hungary’s rule of law and democracy. The process could strip Mr. Orban of his vote in the European Council. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | July 2020 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
The White House announces that the United States and China agree to halt new trade tariffs for 90 days to allow for talks. | US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have agreed to halt new trade tariffs for 90 days to allow for talks, the US says.
At a post-G20 summit meeting in Buenos Aires, Mr Trump agreed not to boost tariffs on $200bn (£157bn) of Chinese goods from 10% to 25% on 1 January.
China will buy a "very substantial" amount of agricultural, industrial and energy products, the US says.
Meanwhile, Beijing says the two sides agreed to open up their markets.
It was the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since a trade war erupted earlier this year. The dispute broke out after Mr Trump complained China was doing nothing to cut its large surplus in bilateral trade.
At the summit in Argentina's capital earlier on Saturday, the G20 leaders agreed a joint declaration that notes divisions over trade
but does not criticise protectionism.
Mr Trump and Mr Xi held a "highly successful meeting", the White House says in a statement.
It says the US tariffs on Chinese goods will remain unchanged for 90 days, but warns: "If at the end of this period of time, the parties are unable to reach an agreement, the 10 percent tariffs will be raised to 25 percent."
The US says China agreed to "purchase a not yet agreed upon, but very substantial, amount of agricultural, energy, industrial, and other products from the United States to reduce the trade imbalance between our two countries".
Both sides also pledged to "immediately begin negotiations on structural changes with respect to forced technology transfer, intellectual property protection, non-tariff barriers, cyber intrusions and cyber theft", the White House says.
President Trump said earlier this year he wanted to stop the "unfair transfers of American technology and intellectual property to China".
According to the US, China has also signalled it will allow a tie-up between two major semiconductor manufacturers which Chinese regulators have been blocking. The White House statement said China was "open to approving the previously unapproved Qualcomm-NXP deal".
Qualcomm - the world's biggest chipmaker - had abandoned its $44bn bid for Dutch rival NXP
Semiconductors after Chinese opposition.
The US also says Beijing agreed to designate Fentanyl as a controlled substance. The opioid - much of it thought to be made in China - is driving a huge rise in drug addiction in the US.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters after the talks that "the principal agreement has effectively prevented further expansion of economic friction between the two countries".
He hailed "new space for win-win co-operation", while Chinese state TV said negotiations would continue.
Both sides have imposed tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of goods. The US has hit $250bn of Chinese goods with tariffs since July, and China has retaliated by imposing duties on $110bn of US products.
Mr Trump had also said that if talks in Argentina were unsuccessful, he would carry out a threat to hit the remaining $267bn of annual Chinese exports to the US with tariffs of between 10 and 25%.
US-China trade divisions meant an Asian economic summit earlier this month was unable to agree a formal leaders' statement
for the first time in its history.
Returning from the G20 summit on Air Force One, Mr Trump told reporters "it's an incredible deal" that would have an "incredibly positive impact on farming". "What I'd be doing is holding back on tariffs. China will be opening up. China will be getting rid of tariffs," Mr Trump said.
Stephen McDonell, BBC China correspondent in Beijing
China has pretty much given up nothing in this deal because the future tariffs threatened from the Beijing side were retaliatory in nature and only to be applied if the United State escalated.
For this it has gained a 90-day reprieve, during which time both sides have pledged to ramp up talks.
When China's Foreign Minster Wang Yi spoke to reporters after the meeting he said the two leaders had agreed to open up each other's markets and that this process could lead to the resolution of "legitimate" US concerns.
This was either an acknowledgment that Washington does have legitimate concerns or a way of differentiating those American concerns which are reasonable from those which are not actually "legitimate".
This is not a suspension of the trade war but a suspension of the escalation of the trade war.
Big questions remain about the preparedness of Beijing to allow international access to this enormous market to a level that would satisfy the Trump administration prompting a complete halt in the trade war.
On other issues, the US president announced he would be "formally terminating Nafta [the North American Free Trade Agreement] shortly".
This would give lawmakers six months, he said, to approve a new trade deal agreed with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts on Friday or revert to trade rules from before 1994, when Nafta took effect.
He also said he was likely to meet North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un in January or February and three locations for their second meeting were being considered.
Mr Trump added that he would also invite Mr Kim, with whom he has "a good relationship", to the US at some point.
French leader Emmanuel Macron told reporters that the World Trade Organization, the body that regulates trade disputes, needed to be modernised.
A senior US official told Reuters that it was the first time that the G20 had recognised that the WTO was "currently falling short of meeting its objectives" and needed reform.
On Friday Mr Trump briefly met Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20, a Russian official told Reuters.
Earlier the US president said he had postponed a planned press conference "out of respect for the Bush family", following the death of former President George HW Bush, at the age of 94. | Government Policy Changes | December 2018 | ['(BBC)', '(NBC News)'] |
At least 11 people die following the collapse of a three–story girls' dormitory due to an explosion in the village of Balcilar in Konya Province in central Anatolia, Turkey. | ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A three-story girl's dormitory collapsed in central Turkey early Friday, killing 11 students and injuring at least 20, a local emergency services official said. An estimated six other students were still under the rubble.
A large gas canister explosion is believed to have caused the collapse in the village of Balcilar in Central Konya province, said Mayor Mehmet Demirgul.
Besides the fatalities, at least 20 students were brought out of the debris with injuries, said Galip Sef, an official with the local emergency services. Three of the students sustained severe burns, he said.
Demirgul said an estimated six more students were waiting to be rescued.
An estimated 40 girls, aged between 8 and 16, were staying at the dormitory. The students were attending Quran courses during the school summer break.
Television footage showed local residents, some using their bare hands, trying to remove the rubble from a flattened, concrete building. One girl in pajamas could be seen being carried to a hospital.
Demirgul said authorities believe the building collapsed when the gas canister used in the canteen exploded. | Gas explosion | August 2008 | ['(AP via Google News)'] |
In tennis, American Serena Williams defeats Maria Sharapova of Russia in straight sets in the Women's Singles final. It is the sixth Australian Open crown and 19th Grand Slam singles title for the current world #1. | Serena Williams has continued her relentless march to sporting immortality with another demoralising Australian Open final triumph over Maria Sharapova.
Adding another chapter to tennis's most one-sided rivalry, Williams outclassed the Russian 6-3 7-6 (7-5) on Saturday night to clinch a record sixth Open crown and the 19th grand slam title of her illustrious career.
Continuing an 11-year domination of Sharapova, Williams surpassed legends Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert as America's most prolific grand slam singles champion and edged ever closer to Australian Margaret Smith Court's all-time benchmark tally of 24 career majors.
Commentating for ESPN, Evert backed Williams to land at least three more to catch Steffi Graf's open-era record haul of 22 majors "if she stays healthy, if she stays motivated".
The blockbuster final was billed as the first title showdown in more than 11 years featuring the world's top two players, but Williams swept to glory in straight sets in one hour and 51 minutes.
The victory - her 16th straight over the Russian - repeated Williams' 6-1 6-2 mauling of Sharapova in the 2007 decider at Melbourne Park and, yet again confirming her love of the big stage, was the all-conquering American's 11th straight tour final win.
Williams is also now six from six in Australian Open finals and she hasn't lost a grand slam title match of any sort since Samantha Stosur somehow defeated the home favourite in New York on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
No matter what the surface, nor the colour - grass, cement, green clay, red clay, Rebound Ace and now Plexicushion blue - Williams has owned Sharapova for more than a decade.
© Rob Griffith/AP Photo
Serena Williams holds the trophy with runner-up Maria Sharapova after winning the women's singles final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne.
The Russian pin-up may be the most-photographed and highest-earning female on the planet, but Williams is rapidly becoming the most successful women's athlete of all time.
The 33-year-old is the oldest Open champion of the professional era, yet the ageless champion is showing no signs of slowing down.
Williams has now won six of the past 13 majors since turning 30 and, even more remarkably, since recovering from a life-threatening blood clot on her lungs in 2011.
The game's fiercest competitor spent almost 12 months laid up after slashing her foot celebrating her 2010 Wimbledon triumph and then suffering a pulmonary embolism before her extraordinary renaissance.
"I was on my death bed at one point, quite literally," Williams recalled after the terrifying ordeal.
The world No.1 spent much of the past fortnight in bed too, fighting a nasty head cold that led to a coughing fit during a 15-minute rain stoppage in the opening set on Saturday night.
But after a quick consultation with the tournament doctor, Williams returned to Rod Laver Arena and its closed roof to peel off the next six points to continue where she'd left off.
Sharapova rode an unbeaten 10-match winning streak into the final, but Williams wasted no time showing once more who's boss in a head-to-head "rivalry" the American now leads 17-2.
Stalking Sharapova's timid second serve like a lioness, Williams clubbed a ferocious forehand return winner and then broke the second seed on a double-fault in the opening game of the match.
Sharapova steadied and briefly threatened to get back on serve until the stoppage seemingly stalled her fightback with Williams serving at 4-2 and 30-all.
But instead of breaking back on the resumption, Williams reasserted her superiority to surge ahead 5-2 before closing out the first set with another crunching backhand winner.
Unbeaten in 16 previous grand slam finals after pocketing the opening set, Williams was never going to yield as she eyed Open title No.6.
Sharapova saved two match points but the delay was nothing more than a stay of execution as the world No.1 kept her cool and thundered down her 18th ace to seize the tiebreaker - and the trophy. | Sports Competition | January 2015 | ['(AAP via MSN)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Russian warships in the Mediterranean Sea fire cruise missiles at sites near Aleppo. The Russian Defense Ministry claims the strikes targeted the Islamist militant group Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. | BEIRUT/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian warships in the Mediterranean Sea fired cruise missiles at targets near Aleppo on Friday, a further sign of Moscow’s broadening military effort in Syria days after it began to fly bombing missions from an airbase in Iran.
Russian air power had helped Syrian President Bashar al-Assad make steady advances against rebels seeking to oust him since Moscow’s intervention a year ago, but a recent insurgent advance in Aleppo has checked that momentum.
In northeastern Syria, warplanes from a U.S.-led coalition flew patrols on Thursday to protect local ground forces they back against Syrian government airstrikes that are targeting the Kurdish city of Hasaka, the Pentagon said.
“The Syrian regime would be well advised not to interfere with coalition forces or our partners,” Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said.
Russia’s three cruise missile launches were its first against targets in Syria from the Mediterranean, with previous ones made from its Caspian Sea fleet. On Tuesday Russian bombers began flying missions in Syria from Hamedan air base in Iran.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the strikes targeted the Islamist militant group Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, known as the Nusra Front until it broke formal ties with al Qaeda last month before playing a big role in the sudden rebel advances in Aleppo.
The upsurge in fighting and airstrikes in and around the city, split between government-held west and rebel-held eastern sectors, has prompted growing international concern, galvanized by pictures on Thursday of a dazed, bloodied child.
The plight of civilians in Aleppo has been aggravated in besieged areas by dire shortages of basic goods, leading the World Food Programme to warn of a “nightmarish” situation.
In Daraya, a suburb of Damascus, rebels and a war monitor said the Syrian army’s helicopters had dropped incendiary barrel bombs early on Friday, putting the opposition-held town’s only hospital out of action.
Related Coverage
On Thursday Russia, Assad’s most powerful military ally, said it supported a proposal for a weekly 48-hour pause in fighting in Aleppo to allow aid to reach the besieged areas and that it was ready to start the first one next week.
On Friday, the main umbrella group for the Syrian opposition also cautiously welcomed the idea provided the U.N. monitored the truce and enforced compliance. During a previous humanitarian pause this year, both sides complained the other had broken the truce as fighting escalated again.
On Friday Syrian Kurdish authorities evacuated thousands of civilians from Kurdish areas of Hasaka following government air strikes, a spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia, an integral part of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said.
The SDF is at the heart of Washington’s military campaign against Islamic State group and last week seized the town of Manbij from the militant organization, part of a growing swathe of northern Syria it controls.
The U.S.-led coalition aircraft arrived at Hasaka as two Syrian SU-24s, which had carried out the strikes, were leaving. “This is very unusual, we have not seen the regime take this kind of action against YPG before,” the Pentagon’s Davis said.
Hasaka is divided into zones of Kurdish and Syrian government control and fighting between them has killed dozens of civilians in the past 48 hours, YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said.
The YPG and the government have mostly avoided confrontation during the multi-sided war that has turned Syria into a patchwork of areas held by the state and an array of armed factions.
The Syrian army said on Friday that this week’s fighting was caused by Kurdish security forces attempting to take over Hasaka, prompting it to return fire on armed groups.
Assad, backed by Russia and Iran, has focused mostly on fighting Sunni Arab rebels who have been battling to oust him in western Syria with support from countries including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United States.
The YPG, or People’s Protection Units, has meanwhile prioritized carving out and safeguarding predominantly Kurdish regions of northern Syria. The group has ties to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels in Turkey.
While the YPG controls most of the northeast, the Syrian government has maintained footholds in the cities of Hasaka and Qamishli at the border with Turkey.
The SDF seizure of Manbij from Islamic State last week raised the prospect of possible advances towards al-Bab, near Aleppo.
Families of Islamic State fighters in al-Bab and another nearby town, Jarablus, were evacuated to the militant group’s stronghold of Raqqa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitoring group, said.
Rebel groups, including Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, stormed a Syrian army complex in southwest Aleppo two weeks ago, breaking a siege on opposition-held parts of Aleppo and prompting fierce counter-attacks.
A senior rebel commander said there was a “positive atmosphere” surrounding talk of a ceasefire. “But so far there are no details.”
Syrian warplanes had carried out 46 sorties in the last 24 hours, including strikes in Aleppo that destroyed a tank, a vehicle loaded with ammunition and three mortar emplacements, and killed dozens of rebel fighters, a military source said.
Continuing clashes between rebels and the Syrian army and allied militias were fiercest in the southwest of city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitor of the five-year-old civil war, said on Friday.
It added that air strikes and shelling in and around Aleppo had killed 422 civilians, including 142 children, this month.
“We need a 48-hour pause, we need it now,” WFP spokeswoman Bettina Luescher told a briefing in Geneva on Friday. While the rebel advance this month opened a narrow corridor into opposition-held areas of Aleppo, access remains very limited and dangerous, meaning aid supplies are scarce.
“It’s crucially important that we go in there because people are absolutely desperate,” Luescher added. “From both sides, these sieges have to stop - it’s inhumane, awful, disgusting, nightmarish. Not necessarily U.N. words, but that’s what it is.”
Reporting by Angus McDowall and Tom Perry in Beirut, Polina Devitt in Moscow, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; editing by Ralph Boulton and Richard Balmforth
| Armed Conflict | August 2016 | ['(Pravda)', '(Reuters)'] |
France defeats Croatia to win the Men's World Handball Championship. | FRANCE - CROATIA 24 : 19 (11:12) FRANCE: Fernandez 2, Dinart, Gille, Narcisse 6, Karaboue, Karabatic 2, Kempe, Junillon, Omeyer (10), Abati, Abalo 2, Sorhaindo 2, Guigou 10, Ostertag
SELECTOR: Claude Onesta
CROATIA: Losert (1), Balic 1, Duvnjak 2, Lackovic 4, Kopljar, Vori 2, Gojun, Horvat, Sprem 3, Spoljaric, Metlicic 1, Valcic, Alilovic (6), Cupic 6
SELECTOR: Lino Cervar
REFEREES: Olesen and Pedersen (Denmark)
EXCLUSIONS OF THE PLAYERS:
FRANCE: 4 minute
CROATIA: 6 minuta
7-meter:
FRANCE: 7/7
CROATIA: 4/4
Thanks to Didier Dinart the French were stronger in the Finals. Dinart has certainly meant a lot, since he is the best defensive player. On the other hand, the Croatian selector, Cervar, didn’t chose the left wing, Hrvatin, among the 14 players, instead of him played Goran Sprem. France had the first attack and it was immediately evident that Onesta tried to surprise the opponents. In the back line instead of Narcisse started G. Gill, so Karabatic started on the left back. Croatia started with the best defense, 3-2-1, while France, played 5-1. It was a little strange that the Danish referee immediately at the beginning, excluded Metlicic for 2 minutes, without the prior warning. France took advantage of it and took the lead 2:1. Sprem equals the result, but Giugou managed to score from 2nd 7-meter attack in a row and France takes lead again.
It was clear from the beginning, as expected, that this is going to be the match where the defense will decide the final result. In the 12th minute Sprem took lead with his 2nd score 5:4. The same player misses a sure shot just a minute later and Guigou equals to 5:5. The referees have excluded Dinart. Lackovic uses this situation and Croatia leads again 6:5. In 19th minute Balic got injured and instead of him in the game returns Duvnjak. Afterwards French couldn't have done anything from the back, but they had few fast actions, with help of Gouiguo and Abalo kept the score equal. Since Karabatic didn't score in the first 20 minutes, Onesta introduces Narcisse, who immediately scores and France takes a lead 8:7, however Lackovic draws: 8:8.
Daniel Narcisse speed up the French game, and achieved 3 scores in a row, but Ivan Cupic scores twice in 27th minutes and Croatia leads 11:10. The French selector returns Karabatic in the game, but it was obvious that this was not his day, at least in the 1st half-time, he got 0:3. After his exclusion Croatia had the opportunity to advance for +2 points, but Sprem misses 3 time and makes it easier for Narcisse to equals the result with his 4th goal; 11:11. However, Cupic, after 7-meter shot, scores and Croatia takes a lead 12:11. This was the final result of the first half-time.
Second half was opened with Lackovic's 2nd goal and Croatia in the 32nd minute for the first time led with 2 differences, 13:11. Croatia in continuation went with the defense 6-0, but Guigou with 3 goals brought France into the lead 14:13. Ivano Balic, who entered instead of Metlicic, achieved 14th hit for Croatia. In 39th minute his first goal hits Nikola Karabatic. Sprem misses from the wings, but hits from the counter for new Croatian leadership, 16:15. In 44th minute Danish referees do not judge clean foul on Balic, which uses Guigou and brings France into the lead, 18:17.
Between 45th and 50th minute Croatia wasn't able to find solutions for a solid French defense and the French through Guigou and Karabatic fled to +2, 20:18. Omeyer has defended on the way several strokes and Narcisse in 55th minute raises to 21:18. Lackovic reduces to 21:19, and after another declared brake-through in the attack, Abalo rises to 22:19.
Fernandez has, after pushing Sprem with a 6 meters line, achieved a hit for the lead of the French 23:19 and then the question of the world Champion was solved. Due to complaints, Danish referees have assigned a red card to Igor Vori, and the French did the work routinely by the end and won the match, 24:19.
PRESS CONFERENCE OF THE SELECTORS AND PLAYERS OF CROATIA AND FRANCE AFTER THE END OF THE MATCH:
Lino Cervar (selector of Croatia):
- Usually the coach is sad after such match, but we must find strength and congratulate to the rival. We played well up to 50th minute, after that we just could not more. On the two World Championships we have lost only 2 matches, and won only one, the silver medal. For a couple of days we will realize that the silver in the World Championship in a great success and therefore I can only congratulate to my players.
Claude Onesta (selector of France):
- We are happy for the Gold and I have to congratulate to my players because of all that was shown in such a difficult ambient for us. I congratulate to the colleague Cervar and to Croatian players, which are the true ambassadors of handball in the world. I also congratulate to the organizers, which have made all that this World Championship is fantastic organized. I must commend fans too, which have made that this championship successful by their supporting, they made a great atmosphere.
Thierry Omeyer (the best goalkeeper of the World Championship):
- I think this was a great match and great Finals and we are very proud of this Gold. All the 60 minutes we played well, as well as the Croats, and it was a truly magnificent finale. I must commend all supporters who have made an excellent atmosphere.
Igor Vori (the best player of the World Championship):
- I congratulate to the French at another one medal. We gave our best, but they were simply better. I hope that we have not disappointed anyone, today, and through all these 15-16 days. The French have been better today, and we must admit that. | Sports Competition | February 2009 | ['(Croatia 2009)'] |
Recovery efforts continue in the US city of Oakland, California, after a fire at a music party in a converted warehouse kills at least nine people with dozens missing. | Follow NBC News Anxious families were awaiting word Saturday on whether their loved ones had escaped a raging inferno in Oakland, California, after at least nine people were killed during a late-night party at a converted warehouse.
At least two dozen people remained unaccounted for, officials said. "We expect the number of deceased to go up," said Alameda County sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly. "This is a very, very sensitive time."
Emergency responders have had to delicately trudge through the rubble in the search for more victims, Kelly said. He described a twisted mass of beams, wires, and wood that he called a "maze."
During the fire at the building — known as the Oakland Ghost Ship — the roof collapsed onto the second floor where the party was held, and parts of the second floor collapsed onto the first floor, officials said.
Fire Department Operations Chief Mark Hoffman said he saw no evidence of sprinklers. The first floor was an artists’ collective made up of divided workspaces that Hoffman described as a "labyrinth."
Recovery crews were pulled out after the structure began to shift and became unsafe but later resumed.
"The building is very, very tricky to work," Kelly said, who expected crews to continue to work for the next 48 hours. "We have water that's still coming down on top of our people. There’s beams, there’s all sorts of wreckage and debris that we have to maneuver through."
The blaze happened at about 11:24 p.m. PT Friday (2:24 a.m. ET Saturday), while a party was being held in the "warehouse-type structure," Oakland Fire Department Chief Teresa Deloach Reed said. At least 25 people were unaccounted for, she added.
Hospitals received very few injured victims, Kelly said. "It appears that people either made it out, or they didn’t make it out," he told reporters.
Related: Former Occupant of Warehouse Said Building Was 'Sketchy' and 'Unsafe'
Bob Mulè, a witness, told NBC News the building is a 24-hour artist collective. He said people started to smell smoke during Friday night's party.
"We were trying to figure out where the smoke was coming from and we saw where the fire was, it was on the back left corner of the space," he said. "It all happened really quickly. The fire went up really really quickly."
Mulè suffered burns and was still waiting to hear whether his roommate escaped the blaze.
Most of those who attended the party were in their 20s and 30s, and some were visiting from other countries, officials said, complicating identification efforts.
The building was last designated as a warehouse and did not have permits to serve as either a residence or an event space,Darin Ranelletti, the interim director of Oakland's Planning and Building Department, said.
Ranelletti confirmed his department had opened an investigation into the building Nov. 13 because of reports of blight and illegal construction inside the building. They were able to confirm the reports of blight, but they had not ascertained whether the reports of construction there were credible.
"We had an inspector attempt to enter the building," he said, adding that the inspector had made a visit Nov. 17. "The inspection had not concluded, and it was still underway."
Danica Estrella told NBC News her 32-year-old brother, Brandon Chase Wittenauer, had been at the event and was still missing as of Saturday. The family was calling local hospitals trying to find Wittenauer, who is a full-time musician.
Also among the missing was Feral Pines, an immediate family member confirmed to NBC News. Pines had also been at the event.
Other relatives and friends were posting about their loved ones on Facebook, listing them as either safe or missing to spread the word.
Distraught families gathered at an assistance center set up at the sheriff's substation. Dan Vega, whose brother is missing, told the San Jose Mercury News from the assistance center that the wait for answers was agonizing.
"I have my work boots, I have gloves, I just want to find him," he said.
No smoke alarms went off after the fire, officials said. There were two known exits from the building, Kelly said.
The owner of the building told NBC Bay Area through a family member that they rented the building for the last couple of years but did not regularly communicate with the tenants. The owner said they were "so sorry to hear about the tragedy and those injured and killed," and were trying to figure out what happened, but declined to comment further for legal reasons.
A task force was assembled to investigate the cause of the blaze.
"There’s no reason yet to suspect arson, however you have to work these investigations at the worst-case scenario, and then downgrade from there," Kelly said. "Something as simple as a cigarette could cause a fire that could lead to something like this."
Oakland police were looking into the history of the building and its occupancy.
"We’re not going to find out all those answers right now. We're very much focused on identifying those who are still missing, locating those who have suffered loss inside who are deceased," said police spokeswoman Johnna Watson.
According to records obtained by NBC Bay Area, the building was already under investigation for structural deficiencies before Friday's fire.
The Oakland Planning and Building Department launched an investigation into the habitability of the warehouse less than a month ago, citing an "illegal interior building structure."
Also in November, a "housing habitability complaint" was filed describing how trash piles up in front of the building, creating a blight in the neighborhood, a search of enforcement records on the Oakland Department of Planning and Building website shows.
Firefighters said "some victims may have been trapped in Friday’s fire since they couldn’t escape down a makeshift, one-way stairwell leading to the second floor that was built out of wooden pallets," NBC Bay Area reported. Authorities said the pallet stairwell caught fire and was instantly incinerated.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf called the fire an "immense tragedy." She met with a roomful of people who have loved ones who are missing and said she was unable to give them much comfort.
"It is painful to tell them that it will be a considerable amount of time before we can give them the information and the closure that they deserve," she said.
Nine bodies have been recovered and officials are working to identify them, Kelly said, but it is expected more bodies will be found as firefighters access a "maze" of twisted metal, wires and wood fallen on top of each other. Most of the nine bodies found were on the second floor, officials said.
Fingerprints of those found were being rushed for identification, and officials are discussing bringing in cadaver dogs and robots to aid in the search, Kelly said. Many of those at the warehouse were in their 20s and 30s, he said.
"Several dozen people that were thought missing here have been located and are alive," Kelly said. "So that’s the good news that we have to offer at this time."
The recovery effort is expected to take at least 48 hours, possibly longer, Kelly said at a 6 p.m. news conference. Excavators will be punching holes into walls to allow access.
The Oakland Athletics tweeted a link for donations for those affected and said it would match donations up to $20,000. The amount was later increased to $30,000.
THANK YOU to every Oakland A's fan for helping us support our community. We will now match to $30,000. #OaklandBoundhttps://t.co/xYHSzfb3Lz
Another fundraising effort by the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts quickly surpassed its fundraising goal of $10,000 to help those impacted by the fire. Executive Director Josette Melchor said the campaign has raised more than $60,000 as of Saturday evening, and the money will help pay for burial costs and medical expenses.
Elizabeth Chuck is a reporter for NBC News who focuses on health and mental health, particularly issues that affect women and children. | Fire | December 2016 | ['(NBC News)', '(East Bay Times)'] |
Thousands of people protest in Tirana, demanding a recount of votes from last June's parliamentary elections. | Organisers claimed there were up to 200,000 people at the rally
Tens of thousands of people have marched in Albania's capital to demand reopening ballot boxes from last year's election, amid claims of vote-rigging.
The demonstrators vowed to stay in Tirana's main square until the government gave in to their demands. Prime Minister Sali Berisha's conservatives narrowly won the general election in June 2009. Hundreds of policemen guarded the square as the government dismissed the protesters' demands as illegal. 'The final moment'
Socialist leader Edi Rama called on the demonstrators to show "peaceful resistance" during Friday's march, which ended outside the main Albanian government building. Mr Rama, who is also mayor of Tirana, urged a campaign of disobedience against the government until the demand for a recount was met. "We must all tell the government that its fate begins and ends with our call: open the ballot boxes or leave," Mr Rama was quoted as saying by the AP news agency. Mr Berisha's Democrats and allies control 75 of parliament's 140 seats. The Socialists are demanding a recount of several ballots, and have been boycotting parliament for months. Organisers claimed there were up to 200,000 people at the rally, although there was no official figure. It was the largest street protest against the election result so far. "This is the final moment," Gramoc Ruci, a Socialist leader, told the crowd. The BBC's Mark Lowen in Tirana says a sea of protesters were waving Socialist Party flags and that banners accusing the prime minister of fraud and of damaging the economy lined their route. Albania is facing serious political deadlock, which is damaging its hopes of moving towards European Union membership, he adds. | Government Job change - Election | May 2010 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(BBC)', '(Deutsche Welle)', '(France24)'] |
A court in Japan sentences Satoshi Uematsu to death for one of the country's worst mass murders, in which he killed 19 disabled people. | A Japanese man has been sentenced to death for a stabbing rampage in 2016 which resulted in the death of 19 disabled people at a care home. Satoshi Uematsu said people with disabilities who were unable to communicate well had no human rights, said broadcaster Kyodo.
The 30-year old had once worked in the care facility, located near Tokyo. The case is one of Japan's worst mass killings and has shocked people in a country where violent crime is rare.
In an earlier interview with Japan's Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, Uematsu had said there was "no point in living" for people with mental disabilities and that he "had to do it for the sake of society". The Yokohama District Court on Monday ordered him to death by hanging.
Uematsu previously said he did not plan to appeal against any verdict or sentence.
During the trial earlier this year, the former employee of the Sagamihara care home did not dispute that he stabbed his victims. But his defence team pleaded not guilty, citing their client's mental state. They said he had been under the influence of drugs at the time. "He abused marijuana and suffered from mental illness," his lawyer said. "He was in a condition in which either he had no capacity to take responsibility or such a capacity was significantly weakened."
There were traces of marijuana found in his blood after the attack. Prosecutors though insisted Uematsu was mentally competent and that the rampage was "inhumane" and left "no room for leniency".
The attack has also raised the issue of how disabled people are treated in Japan. The identities of most of those killed have not been revealed by their families, reportedly because some do not want to reveal they had a disabled relative. Before the start of the court hearing, however, one mother whose 19-year old daughter was killed in the attack revealed that her first name was Miho.
"Even the most extreme penalty is light for you," the mother said according to public broadcaster NHK. "I will never forgive you."
"Please bring back my most precious daughter... you're still alive. It's not fair. It's wrong. I demand capital punishment," she added.
On 26 July 2016, Mr Uematsu drove to the Tsukui Yamayuri-en care facility outside of Tokyo, armed with several knives.
He entered one of the buildings by breaking a window and began attacking sleeping residents one by one in their rooms, according to the prosecution.
His 19 victims were aged between 19 and 70, according to Japanese news agency Kyodo. Another 25 people were wounded, 20 of them seriously.
Soon after the attack, Mr Uematsu handed himself in at a police station.
The facility, set in extensive grounds, had about 150 residents at the time of the attack, according to local officials. Nine staff members were on duty at the time.
It later emerged that a few months before the attack Mr Uematsu had taken a letter to Japan's parliament saying he would kill 470 severely disabled people if authorised.
"I want Japan to be a country where the disabled can be euthanised," he said.
He was subsequently taken to hospital but released after two weeks. Since his arrest, he had shown no remorse. Japan carries out rare execution of foreigner
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | March 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
The United Kingdom's Royal Air Force ends its involvement in Iraq. | The RAF has ended its involvement in Iraq, after 19 years of operations that began with the 1990 Gulf War.
From today, most British air personnel remaining in the country will return to the UK. The RAF Ensign - flown at Basra Airport in southern Iraq since 2003 - has been lowered at a ceremony for 903 Expeditionary Air Wing. A total of 22 RAF personnel died in Operation Telic, the name given to the UK military mission in Iraq since 2003. The RAF was deployed on operations in the Gulf in August 1990, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. 'Justifiably proud'
It enforced the northern and southern zones for 12 years before playing a key role in the invasion of Iraq and the subsequent six-year British military mission. Combat operations officially drew to a close at the end of April, with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown hailing their "success story". On Friday, Wing Commander Ian Richardson, officer commanding 903 EAW, took the salute as the ensign was lowered. Basra airfield had officially been handed over to Iraqi control in January as part of moves to wind down Britain's commitments in the country. Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy, said: "The RAF can be justifiably proud of what it has achieved over many years in Iraq and I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the personnel who have been involved in the various phases of this long campaign." | Armed Conflict | May 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
The wreckage of An-32 aircraft was found in Arunachal Pradesh with all 13 people on board killed. India Today | An Indian Air Force (IAF) team on Thursday recovered black box of An-32 aircraft which went missing on June 3.
The An-32's black box was recovered from crash site in Arunachal Pradesh.
The flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder are part of the block box that will help in investigations into the crash.
The flight data recorder can store up to 30 parameters.
These parameters include details of engine, speed and other things to assess what possibly triggered the crash.
The cockpit voice recorder can be extremely crucial in getting more crash details as it will have the conversations the pilot had with the ground staff minutes before the crash.
A team, comprising four Indian Air Force personnel, reached the crash site this morning with the remaining nine personnel joining them a later.
The IAF will now assess the damage black box sustained.
"If the damage is not much and the equipment are intact, retrieving the data will not be a problem," an IAF officer said.
A team of four, out of a group of 15, reached close to the crash site on Thursday evening but because of the poor light could not go further and access the wreckage and waited for daylight.
"They had to rappel and get to the An-32 that is stuck at a steep gradient," the officer said.
The next big challenge is to get back the mortal remains of the IAF personnel. According to an ANI report, the choppers would be used to ferry the bodies from the crash site in Arunachal Pradesh.
The wreckage of the An-32 aircraft of the Indian Air Force was spotted in a heavily forested mountainous terrain by an IAF Mi-17 helicopter, eight days after it went missing with 13 people on board on June 3.
There were no survivors in the crash of An-32 aircraft, wreckage of which was found in Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday, Indian Air Force confirmed.
The Russian-origin An-32 aircraft was going from Jorhat in Assam to Menchuka advanced landing ground near the border with China on June 3 when it lost contact with ground staff at 1 pm, within 33 minutes of taking off.
A total of eight aircrew and five passengers were on board the aircraft.
Click here for IndiaToday.in’s complete coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
PM Modi's approval rating fell 20 pts over last year, now at 66%, finds US firm | Air crash | June 2019 | [] |
World Trade Organization trade talks in Geneva collapse after disagreements between developed and developing nations over access to agricultural markets. | Germany has reacted with disappointment at the collapse of global trade talks in Geneva, saying a new deal would have sent an important signal to the world economy at a time when it's beset with problems.
The failure has scuppered a deal between banana exporters in Latin America and the EU
After nine days of haggling and discussions, some 40 ministers were unable to reach a compromise agreement on lowering global trade barriers and opening up agricultural markets. World Trade Organization (WTO) Chief Pascal Lamy said talks had collapsed because key powers were unable to bridge their differences on food tariffs. "There is no use beating around the bush, this meeting has collapsed, members have simply not been able to bridge their differences," Lamy told journalists. He said the 153 members of the WTO needed time to decide on how to proceed.
"We will need to let the dust settle a bit, it's probably difficult to look too far into the future at this point," he said. "WTO members will need to have a sober look at if and how they bring the pieces back together," he added. Germany voices deep disappointment
Germany said it was bitterly disappointed at the collapse of the Doha Round, saying it would press for the talks to reopen.
"An agreement at the multilateral trade negotiations would have been an important boost at the right moment for the world economy," said Bernd Pfaffenbach, state secretary at the Economics Ministry in Berlin.
He said the German government would work insistently on a resumption of the talks as soon as possible.
"We cannot afford any lengthy idle period," said Pfaffenbach, saying that all WTO members would benefit if markets were opened.
Ludwig Georg Braun, president of the Federation of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce DIHK, called the breakdown a "harsh setback" for business. "A major opportunity has been wasted, especially considering that the world economy is clouding over," he said.
EU fears job losses
Before the talks ended, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson appealed to delegations to hammer out a deal on the opening of agricultural markets, an issue many observers thought had been resolved last Friday.
"If people don't want this deal, there's no better deal coming along and we just have to consider, if this fails, what they will lose," he said earlier on Tuesday.
European Carmakers say the pact's failure could force them to cut jobs in the EU
European automakers and trade unions said the talks' failure could put European industrial jobs at risk. "The result could be major job losses in the European Union, at the level of the manufacturers, but also in the supply chain," Peter Scherrer, General Secretary of the European Metalworkers' Federation said in a statement.
USA vs. China, India
The agriculture row escalated when India and China refused to further open their agriculture markets, not wanting to entirely weaken the applicable mechanisms protecting their farmers. Delegates said negotiations stumbled on proposals for so-called SSM measures to protect poor farmers that would have imposed a special tariff on certain agricultural goods in the event of an import surge or price fall. The two countries, saying they are speaking for some 100 developing countries, argued for a customs arrangement to protect farmers in poor countries against excessively high food imports.
The differences have pitted the United States on one side and India and China on the other.
Schwab said the USA was still committed to the Doha round of talks
US trade representative Susan Schwab accused the two countries of undermining the hard-fought compromise package, saying the United States had made great concessions especially in regard to the removal of its cotton subsidies.
"We were so close to getting this done," Schwab told reporters at WTO headquarters after countries failed to compromise over measure to protect farmers in poor countries.
Time for a change of focus?
Some WTO representatives sympathized with the two developing countries, saying that in light of the still enormous numbers of poor that China and India have to care for, agricultural and food security in these countries had to be strengthened, not weakened by cheap imports.
Energy issues are currently less heated than agriculture disputes
A large portion of poorer developing countries supported the Indian-Chinese position.
With a new president taking office in the United States, changes in the European Commission, and a possible election in India all occurring next year, the future of the Doha round trade talks could be in jeopardy as leaders set new trade priorities, according to experts cited by the Reuters news agency.
"This fourth collapse after Cancun, Hong Kong and Potsdam suggests that the WTO members may need to rethink the agenda rather than try again with the same program," Edward Gresser, of the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington, told Reuters. "In particular, they might move agricultural reform out of the center for a few years, and focus instead on big newly emerging industries … where attitudes are less entrenched and emotional."
A dispute between the US and EU and two huge emerging economies, over cutting farm subsidies and industrial tariffs threatens to scupper marathon talks in Geneva to seal a new world trade deal. (28.07.2008)
A key round of talks in Geneva aimed at reviving the World Trade Organization's Doha Round will continue after concessions were made the previous day above all by industrialised states, diplomats said on Saturday. (26.07.2008)
Crunch world trade talks in Geneva showed signs of a breakthrough Friday after negotiations between seven key countries, raising the possibility of a new pact on global trade after seven years of gridlocked negotiations. (25.07.2008) | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | July 2008 | ['(Deutsche Welle)'] |
A draft Climate Change Bill is published in the United Kingdom, outlining a framework for achieving a mandatory 60% cut in carbon emissions by 2050. | The draft Climate Change Bill calls for an independent panel to set ministers a "carbon budget" every five years, in a bid to cut emissions by 60% by 2050.
If they miss the figure, future governments could be taken to court.
The Tories and Lib Dems welcomed the proposals, but said carbon budgets should be set annually.
Mr Miliband has said annual targets would be too rigid to make allowances for climate variations.
He hailed the draft bill as "the first of its kind in any country", and said Britain was "leading by example". 'Rolling targets'
The draft legislation will go to public and parliamentary consultation before becoming law next year, but environmental campaigners want to raise the 2050 target to 80% and set annual 3% cut targets to ensure compliance.
Current government support for renewable energy has descended into a farcePeter Ainsworth, for the Conservatives, said the proposals were a "welcome step forward," although he said some "key elements" were missing at present.
"We would like to see a system of rolling annual rate of change targets - rather than targets set for five-year periods - to ensure that the UK remains on track towards a low carbon economy and to ensure true accountability.
"There is a danger that the five-year approach will enable responsibility for failure to be shunted on from one government to another." But he added it would be a "great help" in international climate change negotiations "to be able to say, 'look we are making binding legal commitments".
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The carbon reduction targets will be based on advice by an independent committee.
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If future governments fail to achieve the targets, they could be taken to court, with a judicial review deciding what punishment - if any - to hand out.
The draft bill does not stipulate how the cuts should be made, or give specific reduction targets for individual businesses, councils and households.
Mr Miliband said there were "big decisions" to be made on issues such as using nuclear power.
He added: "In the end I don't care where the carbon reduction comes from. It's about the public interest and the market finding it."
The government plans include: Future policies to control emissions would also be made "quicker and easier" to introduce.
Flights
A full Climate Change Bill is set to be published in the autumn.
At the weekend, the Conservatives unveiled environmental proposals including VAT or fuel duty on domestic flights.
But Mr Miliband said more focus was needed on cutting carbon emissions from homes, citing government plans to make all new houses carbon-neutral by 2016 and encourage the use of energy-efficient light bulbs.
The Liberal Democrats said they broadly supported the aims of the climate change bill but urged closer monitoring of a government's green progress.
'Dangerously unambitious'
The party's environment spokesman Chris Huhne said: "There is a possibility here that the government wouldn't really be held to account for what it had done or had failed to do until after it had faced the electorate again and that's not a satisfactory situation." The Green Party said setting a legal framework for carbon emissions was a "massive opportunity" but the proposed targets were "dangerously unambitious".
Principal speaker Sian Berry added: "We have heard the rhetoric about renewables and energy efficiency many times before. "It won't happen without real action, and current government support for renewable energy has descended into a farce."
'Special relationship'
Former environment minister and Labour leadership hopeful, Michael Meacher, said that although the bill had long-term goals, it lacked short-term targets "as evidence that we are actually on track".
He said it was also "disappointing" that the draft bill lacked policies on airport expansion, car emissions and carbon allowances for private households.
Meanwhile, former minister Peter Kilfoyle has called on Britain to co-operate with American states, such as California which has led efforts to reduce pollution, rather than its central government in Washington.
He told MPs in a Westminster Hall debate the "special relationship" between the two countries was beneficial when it came to the environment. | Government Policy Changes | March 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
The death toll in the town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee rises to 14. | Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Elaine Brown was involved in a single-vehicle accident on Wears Valley Road in Pigeon Forge while fleeing the Sevier County wildfires. It also corrects the first name of Marilyn Tegler.
As the smoke clears and authorities work to evaluate the damage done, the death toll in the historic Gatlinburg fires continues to climb. At least 14 people are now confirmed to have died during the firestorm, National Park Service spokeswoman Dana Soehn said Sunday.
Elaine Brown, 81, of Sevierville, "sustained a medical event causing a single-vehicle accident" on Wears Valley Road in Pigeon Forge while fleeing the fires, Soehn said.
City officials are now allowing property owners and renters to return to their homes and businesses between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily, with all traffic going through one check point at East Parkway at Glades Road and the post office. The restriction shall remain in effect until the city reopens to the public.
Wiley Oakley Drive and Greystone Heights Road are still closed as crews work to clear the areas.
The disaster began on Nov. 28 when hurricane-force winds topping 90 mph spread embers from a then-500 acre fire near the Chimney Tops in the Great Smoky Mountains. Downed power lines and felled trees started several new fires, and in the span of a quarter-hour, the flames raced toward Gatlinburg and beyond, forcing mandatory evacuations of the resort town and parts of Pigeon Forge.
Officials now estimate 1,684 structures have been damaged or destroyed by the fires, and at least 134 people have sustained injuries.
Roaring Fork congregation stands tall after fire destroys church
Nearly an inch of rain fell in the mountains as of Sunday afternoon, helping to suppress the blazes that continue to burn in the mountains.
"The rain is doing wonders knocking down the fire behavior," said Mike Proud, an incident meteorologist from South Carolina who is currently stationed in Pigeon Forge. "(It's) cooling some of the warm spots, but we still expect bigger logs and stumps to retain heat."
Meteorologists forecast strong wind gusts at speeds of 40-50 mph at higher elevations beginning at 10 a.m. Sunday. Around 2:30 p.m., Proud said firefighters stationed around 3,000-4,000 feet of elevation had reported average wind speeds between 15-20 mph, with gusts around 35 mph. But due to the rain, the wind "isn't such a factor," Proud said.
"We haven't had any reports of any debris issues. The rain has slowed down here, so it's a really nice light, steady rain which is allowing it to soak in, and that will help cool any hot spots that are out there and some of the smaller fuels at this point."
Sevier officials admit fire evacuation alert not issued
The wind and rain have helped improve air quality in the area, pushing out much of the smoke that had settled in.
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation reported the air quality in Knoxville, Chattanooga and the Great Smoky Mountains as "green" or posing "little or no risk."
The Chimney Tops fire, which spans 17,006 acres, was listed at 38 percent contained Sunday morning. Twenty-three crews, 46 engines, six helicopters, five bulldozers and 713 total personnel are being employed to fight the inferno, according to a joint news release.
The nearby Cobbly Nob fire covers 803 acres and is listed as 41 percent contained.
"This is really an important time," said Great Smoky Mountains National Park spokesman Warren Bielenberg. "We can make a lot of headway on hot spots in the area and get those knocked down, and then hopefully start sending folks home from here pretty soon."
Demobilizing the firefighters at Chimney Tops and the 91 assigned to the Cobbly Nob fire could begin midweek if everything goes well, Bielenberg said.
Another batch of rain is expected to move into the area Monday evening, bringing another three-quarters to one inch, said Meteorologist Jeremy Buckles with the National Weather Service in Morristown.. Newfound Gap also recorded 0.7 inches of snow, Buckles said.
While the rain has been helpful, both Buckles and Bielenberg warned that they will need more assistance from Mother Nature to keep the momentum going.
"Even though (we've been) having this heavy rain, it took many months for these large dead and downed trees to dry out, so it's going to take almost and equal amount of rain to get the moisture back up," Bielenberg said. "The other main thing now is hazardous tree removal along the roads and watching with the rain, the potential for mudslides. Because there's no vegetation to hold the soil now, if we get really heavy rains, that's a potential hazard."
Twelve of the victims, including two children, had been identified by authorities as of Sunday night. They include Bradley Phillips, 59, whose body was found at 412 Long Hollow Road; the Rev. Edward Taylor, 85, who has been widely credited with helping kick off the tourist town's wedding-chapel industry; and Constance Reed, 34, and her daughters, Chloe, 12, and Lily, 9.
UPDATE: List of missing from Gatlinburg wildfires grows
Alice Hagler, who had gone missing from Chalet Village, was found in that neighborhood along with Memphis couple Jon and Janet Summer, both 61, and Canadian vacationers John Tegler, 71, and Marilyn Tegler, 70. May Vance died of a heart attack due to smoke inhalation while fleeing the fire.
Authorities have not provided a list of those still missing, but a hotline manned by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-TBI-FIND has helped agents track down more than 150 leads. That number does not necessarily correspond to the number of people missing. | Fire | December 2016 | ['(The Tennessean)'] |
President Donald Trump is refusing to concede to Biden and has vowed to challenge the results in court, alleging widespread electoral fraud. | White House advisers have warned President Trump of his narrow chances in any legal fight. The Biden team turned its focus to the transition. And world leaders offered their congratulations to the president-elect. Biden’s plan for Day 1 in the White House. Republicans are split over whether to call the election over. Trump has remained out of sight except on social media, where his messages were flagged for inaccuracy. Michigan’s governor advises Democrats to focus on ‘dinner table issues.’
View from abroad: Europe welcomes a Biden presidency, but is also wary. Farmers fear a growing strain on their livelihoods, no matter who is in charge. ‘Get Joe on the phone’: Biden and McConnell have a history of deal-making. What’s next for Trump’s family business? As the Trump campaign continued to pursue long-shot legal challenges and top Republicans remained split on whether to congratulate President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on his projected victory, Democrats took steps on Sunday toward planning for a Biden administration. Mr. Biden unveiled his official transition website as he prepared to unleash a series of executive actions on his first day in the Oval Office aimed at unwinding Mr. Trump’s domestic agenda and signaling a wholesale shift in the United States’ place in the world. On the website, buildbackbetter.com, Mr. Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris pledged to be ready on Day 1 to tackle four main priorities for the new, Democratic administration after four years under Mr. Trump: Covid-19, economic recovery, racial equity and climate change. “A Biden-Harris administration, propelled by the foundation laid by the transition, will lead a just and equitable recovery that rebuilds a strong, inclusive middle class and builds an economy for the future,” they said on the website. In the first hours after he takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, Mr. Biden has said, he will send a letter to the United Nations indicating that the country will rejoin the global effort to combat climate change, reversing Mr. Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord with more than 174 countries. He has also vowed that on Day 1 he will move rapidly to confront the coronavirus pandemic by appointing a “national supply chain commander” and establishing a “pandemic testing board,” similar to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s wartime production panel. He has said he will restore the rights of government workers to unionize. He has promised to order a new fight against homelessness and resettle more refugees who are fleeing war. He has pledged to abandon Mr. Trump’s travel ban on mostly Muslim countries and to begin calling foreign leaders in an attempt to restore trust among the United States’ closest allies. On the campaign trail, Mr. Biden repeatedly said that he was campaigning as a Democrat but would govern “as an American.” But he and members of his party are eager to systematically erase what they view as destructive policies that the president pursued on the environment, immigration, health care, gay rights, trade, tax cuts, civil rights, abortion, race relations, military spending and more. Some of that will require cooperation with Congress, which may remain divided next year. But Mr. Biden may be able to achieve some of his goals with nothing more than the stroke of a pen. He has signaled that his top priority will be demonstrating a much more muscular federal approach to the pandemic than Mr. Trump’s leave-it-to-the-states strategy. Aides said he would use the power of his office to invoke the Defense Production Act — the Korean War-era law that allows the president to order businesses to manufacture products necessary for national defense — to build up supplies more aggressively than Mr. Trump had. He has also said that he will require masks on all federal property and on “all interstate transportation.”
The president-elect has also repeatedly derided Mr. Trump’s lack of ethical standards, accusing him of waging an extensive assault on Washington’s norms and traditions. Mr. Biden’s response to that will probably take the form of an ethics pledge to impose tough new requirements on the people who serve in his government. Mr. Biden has also made it clear that he will immediately begin using the levers of executive authority to re-establish former President Barack Obama’s agenda of environmental regulations that Mr. Trump systematically shredded during his tenure. — Michael D. Shear and Lisa Friedman
As top Republicans remained divided Sunday over congratulating President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and declaring the election over, President Trump’s closest advisers continue to brief him on possible “legal remedies,” according to a White House official. That path has been encouraged most strongly by Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, while most other Trump advisers have said privately that the chances of changing the results of the election through various court challenges are exceedingly slim. Mr. Trump’s campaign announced on Sunday that Representative Doug Collins of Georgia will lead its recount team in the state, where the effort will begin as soon as the canvassing of ballots has concluded. Some within the Republican Party have made it clear that it was time for the president to concede. On Sunday, former President George W. Bush became the highest-profile Republican to publicly declare the election over in defiance of Mr. Trump’s refusal to accept the results. “I extended my warm congratulations” to Mr. Biden “and thanked him for the patriotic message he delivered last night,” Mr. Bush said in a statement released after he spoke with Mr. Biden by telephone. “I also called Kamala Harris to congratulate her on her historic election to the vice presidency. Though we have political differences, I know Joe Biden to be a good man who has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country.”
Although Mr. Bush said Mr. Trump had “the right to request recounts and pursue legal challenges,” his statement made clear that he did not think those efforts would succeed. Mr. Bush’s position could encourage other Republicans to speak out and increase pressure on Mr. Trump to stop fighting the results with unsubstantiated claims. “The American people can have confidence that this election was fundamentally fair,” Mr. Bush said. “Its integrity will be upheld, and its outcome is clear.”
Mr. Trump has falsely asserted that the election was stolen without any evidence, leaving his party in the awkward position of following a president refusing to accept the reality that other Republicans have, even if they do not say so out loud. Republican leaders like Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky have refused to publicly acknowledge Mr. Biden’s victory without necessarily embracing Mr. Trump’s wild claims. Many of them have either remained silent or have straddled the line with statements calling for all legal votes to be counted, suggesting that the president should be permitted to file any lawsuits or call for any recounts allowed under the law. Only a few well-known Republicans, like Senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have congratulated Mr. Biden. Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota lashed out at Democrats and the news media on the ABC program “This Week,” insisting that “computer glitches” and reports of “dead people voting in Pennsylvania” were examples of widespread fraud. “When you break the process on which we elect our leaders, you will break America forever,” Ms. Noem said, even though voting went smoothly and it is Mr. Trump’s refusal to concede that flouts the normal process. Senator Roy Blunt, the Republican from Missouri who will oversee planning for the inauguration at the Capitol on Jan. 20, referred to Mr. Biden as the former vice president, not the president-elect, and insisted that preparations are underway to make sure “that the person who is sworn in on inaugural day sees it as a great day.”
Former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a Republican and a friend of Mr. Trump’s, said on ABC that his party’s reluctance to acknowledge Mr. Biden’s victory was a result of the president’s behavior. Mr. Christie urged Republicans to embrace the message he had delivered to Mr. Trump: “If your basis for not conceding is that there was voter fraud, then show us. Show us. Because if you can’t show us, we can’t do this. We can’t back you blindly without evidence.”
— Maggie Haberman, Michael D. Shear, Maggie Astor and Peter Baker
President Trump and his allies continued to raise baseless claims of fraud and irregularities in the election as they pushed ahead on Sunday with an aggressive fund-raising, media and legal campaign, which proceeded with no apparent recognition of his successor’s efforts to start planning a smooth transition. From midnight until noon on Sunday — after President-elect Joseph R. Biden’s victory speech on Saturday night — the Trump campaign sent out a flurry of solicitations to supporters asking for money to fund its legal battles. The emails went out at the rate of almost one every hour, reflecting the growing desperation among the president and his close aides and associates as they refuse to concede defeat. The emails contained the same bellicose language and unsubstantiated charges that the president has used, and called on Trump supporters to come to his defense. “We need YOU to step up,” one email demanded. The occasional digital message remained the only way the president has communication with the public since news organizations called the race for Mr. Biden on Saturday morning. Mr. Trump continued to get pushback Sunday on his preferred medium, Twitter, which flagged several of his messages as factually disputed. One of Mr. Trump's tweets cited Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally who was the former Republican speaker of the House, as saying of Democrats, “These people are thieves.”
— Jeremy W. Peters
Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory was especially sweet for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, who served as a national co-chair of his campaign and was on Mr. Biden’s short list for vice president. Four years after voting for Donald Trump, her state gave Mr. Biden a win. With most of the votes counted on Sunday, the president-elect had a lead of more than 145,000. Ms. Whitmer talked with The New York Times about the path to the presidency and her hopes for the new administration. What are your thoughts on Mr. Biden’s win? I have two daughters and the fact that for eight years of their life, we had Barack Obama as our president and now watching Kamala Harris, on the national stage, these are things that I never saw as a young woman and the incredible change and optimism really gets you in the gut. What was the difference in Michigan? I always said the road to the White House runs through the state of Michigan. And you can’t get on this road without going through the city of Detroit. And I loved how Joe Biden last night acknowledged how important African-American voters were in this election. And how Kamala Harris recognized how important female voters were in this election. This was a coalition that I think came together because of the personal stake every one of us has come to appreciate we have in this moment. How do you keep Michigan blue? Joe Biden is a very experienced leader. He has worked with people on both sides of the aisle. He understands the challenge ahead of us in terms of Covid-19 and our economy, the climate crisis, the health care crisis, so he is the perfect person at this moment in American history. I believe that they will be able to get some very important things done because of the experience he brings to the table. How do you avoid overreaching with a progressive agenda? The most important thing our leaders can do is to have an agenda that really addresses the dinner table issues for the people they serve. Whether it is infrastructure, which Joe Biden cares a great deal about, which is wonderful news for us, or it’s health care, or it’s the pandemic that is threatening our lives and our livelihood, these are the dinner table issues of 2020. And I do believe by staying focused there, you meet the needs of the majority of people on both sides of the aisle. — Kathleen Gray
In the “America First” landscape that President Trump created, Joseph R. Biden Jr. was an outdated romantic trans-Atlanticist. So there is relief in Europe about having a well-disposed friend in the White House who is more likely to support than to berate, harangue and insult. A former French ambassador to Washington, Gérard Araud, said that “every single European leader has had an appalling conversation with Trump.” Referring to the German chancellor and the former British prime minister, Mr. Araud said: “He insulted Angela Merkel, he insulted Theresa May. He attacked them. It was surreal. And it’s over.”
Civility will be restored, with Biden planning to rejoin the Paris climate accord and to remain in the World Health Organization. He will offer warm words about NATO and US. allies, and probably embark on early visits to Germany and possibly to Brussels, analysts close to the Biden campaign suggested. There will be less confrontation on trade, fewer punitive tariffs and an early effort, Mr. Biden himself has said, to create a kind of “global summit for democracy” — especially in the face of a rising China that is promoting its authoritarian capitalism — as well as a more unified stance against Russia. David O’Sullivan, former European Union ambassador to the United States, said he looked forward to a renewal of American leadership — if not the hegemony of the past, then at least “America’s role as the convening nation” for multilateral initiatives and institutions. But there will still be wariness among European leaders — about what Mr. Biden may ask of them, especially with the knowledge that he may be a one-term president and that the populist impulse that animated Trumpism has hardly gone away. “What is difficult to repair is the fear that this could happen again,” said Stefano Stefanini, a former Italian ambassador to NATO. “If you worry about a one-term presidency, you hold back a lot, which is why Congress will matter. If a Republican Senate tries, as under Obama, to block everything Biden does, Europeans will say, ‘OK, Biden’s fine, but let’s be careful.’”
— Steven Erlanger
DENVER — Karen Grube and her husband dutifully voted for President Trump, like more than 80 percent of the voters in their farming community of Mercer County, Ohio. But her heart wasn’t in it. “People thought he’d be the savior for farmers, but he didn’t help,” said Ms. Grube, who keeps the books for the family farm while her husband, Charlie, rises before dawn to milk and feed the cows. “We’re still hanging on, but whether we’ll be here next year, I don’t know.”
Mr. Trump had promised to revive American farms, but years of trade wars with China and Europe, falling crop and milk prices, rising bankruptcies and the coronavirus pandemic took their toll. Farms went under even as the Trump administration plowed billions of dollars in federal aid into traditionally Republican agriculture belts in the South and Midwest. Now farmers across the country who largely supported Mr. Trump’s re-election are expressing a mixture of hope and trepidation about the victory of Joseph R. Biden Jr. Some worried that a Biden administration would tighten rules on water pollution and limit how they use fertilizer and chemicals to grow crops. “We have a responsibility to care for our land and water and all the things we’ve been blessed with,” said Ray Gaesser, a Republican corn and soybean farmer in Iowa who voted for Mr. Trump. “But we also need to make a living. If the regulations are severe and drive our costs up, you’re going to put our small farmers out of business.”
But others in farm country celebrated Mr. Biden’s win, including groups that represent farmers of color, small farms and migrant workers. They expressed hope that Democrats would shift agriculture policies that they said were skewed to favor huge corporate farming operations throughout Mr. Trump’s presidency. The National Farmers Union, whose members tend to run smaller farms, urged Mr. Biden to take action on climate change, expand rural internet service and confront racism in their industry. John Wesley Boyd Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association, had endorsed Mr. Biden and said he was gratified on Sunday as he prepared land to plant winter wheat. “Farmers like myself, I just don’t think we could have stood four more years of Trump,” he said. Mr. Boyd said he wanted Mr. Biden to diversify the top ranks of the Agriculture Department, which has a long history of discrimination against minority farmers. Mr. Boyd said he has struggled to get equal access to federal programs and payments, and recently got a letter telling him he did not meet the standards for a new federal relief payment. “We always manage to help large-scale white farmers,” Mr. Boyd said. “The relief programs are designed to help corporate farms. They’ve got to find a way to make sure the little guy can still stay on the farm.”
— Jack Healy
In late July 2011, with a Treasury default only a few days away and Congress flailing, Senator Mitch McConnell received a phone call on a Saturday from Joseph R. Biden Jr., then the vice president. “I think it’s time we talk,” Mr. Biden told Mr. McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, who was then the minority leader. That opening, recounted by Mr. McConnell in his memoir, “The Long Game,” initiated the second in a series of one-on-one negotiations that produced agreements that rescued the government from imminent fiscal disaster while drawing mixed reviews from fellow Democrats. President-elect Biden could be making a lot more of those phone calls in the years ahead. Unless Democrats pick off two Senate seats in Georgia to be decided in runoff elections on Jan. 5, Mr. Biden will have to navigate a Senate narrowly controlled by Mr. McConnell. The two men have personal ties: Mr. Biden has a track record of working with the Senate leader to strike deals, and the Kentuckian has described Mr. Biden not only as someone he liked but also as a man of his word who understands how congressional negotiations work. “There’s a reason ‘Get Joe on the phone’ is shorthand for ‘time to get serious’ in my office.” Mr. McConnell said in 2016. Rohit Kumar, who once served as deputy chief of staff to Mr. McConnell, sat in on the three Biden-McConnell negotiations from 2010 to 2013. “My memory is that they actually get along reasonably well,” he said. “It helps that they speak the same language. They are senators.”
Much has changed in the Senate in the four years since Mr. Biden left public office, and even more in the decade since he left the chamber, where relations between the two parties are now hostile and Mr. McConnell has abandoned legislation in single-minded pursuit of the confirmation of conservative judges. | Government Job change - Election | November 2020 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
At least seven people are killed and more than 80 others injured after a train derails in Bouknadel, Morocco. | At least seven people were killed and about 80 injured when a train was derailed near the Moroccan capital Rabat on Tuesday morning, a medical source said.
At least one wagon overturned in the incident near Sidi Bouknadel, a town 10 km (six miles) north of Rabat, on a coastal line connecting the city of Kenitra to the commercial hub of Casablanca.
“I heard the very loud sound of the accident and rushed to the site, where I saw people screaming in fear and pain, while others were jumping out of the train windows,” a witness told Reuters.
Many of the injured were taken to the Moulay Abdellah hospital in Sale, near Rabat.
“Some people lost their arms and legs in the accident,” the medical source there said. Relatives of the victims wept at the hospital.
Some cases were treated at the Mohammed V military hospital in Rabat, state news agency MAP reported.
National railway operator ONCF said investigations into the cause of the crash were under way.
The royal court said King Mohammed VI would pay the funeral and burial expenses of the deceased.
| Train collisions | October 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Iran announces it has launched a satellite launch–capable Safir rocket. | Iranian TV aired footage which it said showed the satellite launch
Iran says it has successfully launched a rocket capable of carrying its first domestically built satellite.
Officials said only the rocket had been fired, correcting state media reports that the communications satellite itself had been sent into orbit.
The White House voiced concern, saying the technology could also be used for launching weapons. Tehran has pursued a space programme for years, despite international concern over its nuclear plans.
In February it sent a probe into space as part of preparations for the launch of the satellite.
Long-held ambition
Footage aired on Irinn (Islamic Republic of Iran News Network) showed the launch of the Safir rocket in darkness.
The presenter said that the satellite launch was a trial which was successful. State and military officials confirmed the launch had taken place.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was at the event, said one report.
In October 2005 a Russian-made Iranian satellite named Sina-1 was put into orbit by a Russian rocket.
Sunday's launch comes amid a long-running dispute over Iran's nuclear activities.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: "The Iranian development and testing of rockets is troubling and raises further questions about their intentions.
"This action and dual use possibilities for their ballistic missile programme are inconsistent with their UN Security Council obligations."
The US and some European countries have demanded that Iran curtail uranium enrichment - but Iran protests that its purposes are peaceful and says it has a right to continue. | New achievements in aerospace | August 2008 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC News)'] |
Unpopular Chief Executive Tung Chee–hwa of the former British colony of Hong Kong reportedly resigns, with reluctant approval from Beijing. , ,, (Globe&Mail), , , . | Sources in Beijing say the Chinese Communist Party's politburo has accepted his resignation as chief executive due to poor health and stress.
The beleaguered Tung will announce his departure immediately after his nomination as vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is approved on March 12.
The resignation has sparked intense debate in Beijing over how to handle the succession. Crucial articles of the Basic Law are unclear in the face of what is an unprecedented political crisis.
Poised to take over the job is Chief Secretary for Administration Donald Tsang, the sources added, although no firm decision has been made.
The same sources say there is opposition by some pro-Beijing political parties in Hong Kong to Tsang.
Tung handed in his resignation before the Lunar New Year. It was approved following an emergency meeting of the politburo.
The resignation ends days of intense speculation that began when it was learned that Tung would become a vice-chairman of the CPPCC, a position equivalent to that of a state leader.
The position is seen as a face-saving gesture to Tung for eight years of loyal service to the mainland.
In the corridors of power, there were heated debates over whether to let Tung serve out his remaining two years in office or pick a new chief executive through the Election Committee for a five-year term.
A source told The Standard Tung wanted to quit on more than one occasion after the last July 1 mass demonstration.
He told top officials his health has been deteriorating and that he took painkillers just before he delivered his policy address in January this year.
Earlier attempts by Tung to quit were rejected, but central authorities decided to let him go, hoping the move would lead to more popular support for the government in Hong Kong.
By stepping down, Tung saves Beijing from having to defend an increasingly unpopular leader whose tenure in office has been marked by policy failures, popular discontent and massive public protests increasingly focused on his inept rule.
Tsang, consistently rated as one of the territory's most popular officials, is a professional civil servant and a logical choice to succeed Tung because he carries little of the baggage of failure that has marked the current administration.
Hints of Tsang's elevation first came in December last year when President Hu Jintao publicly shook hands with him in Macau, echoing the famous gesture offered by former president Jiang Zemin to Tung in 1996, shortly before Tung was tipped to be Hong Kong's first post-colonial ruler.
Since he was handpicked by Jiang, it is unlikely that a change in Hong Kong could have occurred prior to Hu consolidating his power in office late last year.
Beijing has grown increasingly frustrated with Hong Kong's political troubles.
Calls for universal suffrage and the continuing popularity of pro-democracy politicians at the polls have underscored the failure of Tung's government to secure popular support and led Beijing to worry openly about his effectiveness. In December, Hu gave Tung's government a rare and embarrassing public dressing down in Macau, calling for unity, greater competence and improved governance.
Through it all, Tung has remained stoic to the point of stony silence in the face of his critics, while never breaking ranks with his superiors in Beijing.
In keeping with usual practice, Tung's office remained silent on his future and refused to comment again Tuesday.
In order for Tsang to take over and serve out the remainder of Tung's second term, sources said, he will step down as chief secretary and stand for office under the current electoral rules for a term that will end in 2007.
If Tsang is able to serve until 2007, then the constitutional reform process that is currently underway to amend the rules for the election of the chief executive could still go forward, sources said.
Beijing is faced with one major headache in finalizing a transition: the legalities of choosing a successor.
Mainland experts specializing in the Basic Law have been instructed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) to study Article 52 and Article 53 of Hong Kong's mini-constitution to search for a way forward.
``Beijing is still undecided on which way to go to choose a chief executive. Some key advisers argue that the next chief executive should only serve until 2007,'' a source said.
The source said an interpretation of Articles 52 and 53 by the NPC is a must and will prevent any legal challenge.
Others disagreed, arguing that under the Basic Law, the Secretary for Justice can map out the electoral arrangements for the new chief executive who would then serve a full five-year term.
According to the Basic Law, if the chief executive resigns, a successor will be picked by the Election Committee within six months. But there is no provision for a new chief executive to serve out just the remaining term.
If Tung's successor is to serve only until 2007, when the next election is scheduled to be held, sources said, the Basic Law could need to be reinterpreted.
There is heated debate over this point in Beijing, sources said.
Time is also running short because the five-year term of the current 800-strong Election Committee will expire on July 13.
Tung will arrive in Beijing today to attend the CPPCC plenary session starting tomorrow.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | March 2005 | ['(The Standard)', '(BBC)', '(CBC)', '(Reuters)', '(CNN)', '(BBC)'] |
Two men are arrested in the Netherlands after plans were uncovered to commit a jihadist attack with explosive belts and car bombs. | Two men were arrested in the Netherlands on Monday, accused of preparing to carry out a terrorist attack using at least one car bomb and bomb vests, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) revealed on Tuesday. The suspects were allegedly plotting to carry out an attack in the Netherlands by the end of the year.
Authorities said it was not yet clear what was targeted in the attack. Intelligence agency AIVDfirst found out about the men because the two"suspects intendedto commit a jihadist attack. They wanted to make use of explosives, and to receive training for this purpose," the OM stated.
The men are aged 20 and 34. Both are from Zoetermeer, a Zuid-Hollandcity just east of The Hague. One of the two was taken into custody on a street in the Hague, while the other was captured at his home.
"No firearms or explosives were found on the suspects," the OM said. Their homes were searched following the arrests, which turned up a throwing ax, a dagger, a mobile phone and several SIM cards.
Undercover police were assigned to gather evidence against the men, after they became known to the AIVD. The AIVD tipped off Dutch police in early October, which prompted a criminal investigation. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | November 2019 | ['(NL Times)'] |
A French judge hands preliminary charges to one of French President Emmanuel Macron's top security aides after video surfaced showing him attacking a protester at a May Day demonstration. | PARIS A French judge handed preliminary charges Sunday to one of President Emmanuel Macron’s top security aides after video surfaced that showed him beating a protester at a May Day demonstration.
The initial charges against Alexandre Benalla came the same day French authorities opened a judicial investigation of the assault. The multiple alleged offences included violence, interfering in the exercise of public office and the unauthorized public display of official insignia.
The video made public by Le Monde newspaper on Wednesday has sparked the first major political crisis for Macron since he took office last year. Lawmakers and the president’s political opponents have questioned why Benalla was not fired and referred for prosecution when presidential officials learned about the beating months ago.
The recording shows Benalla, who is not a police officer, wearing a police helmet at the May 1 protest. Surrounded by riot police, he brutally dragged a woman from the crowd and then repeatedly beat a young male protester on the ground.
The man was heard begging Benalla to stop. The officers did not intervene.
Four others were also charged Sunday night: Vincent Crase, who worked for Macron’s party and was with Benalla on the day of the protest, and three police officers who were suspected of illegally passing footage from the event to Benalla.
Crase was handed preliminary charges of violence and prohibited possession of a weapon.
Benalla, 26, handled Macron’s campaign security and remained close to France’s youngest president after his election. The presidential palace initiated proceedings to fire Benalla Friday and investigators raided his house Saturday.
Macron’s office has said Benalla only was supposed to be accompanying officers to the May protest as an observer.
However, the president’s office has been heavily criticized since it revealed that it knew about the assault before last week. Macron pledged as a candidate to restore integrity and transparency to the presidency.
Lawmakers were aghast to learn that Benalla initially received only a two-week suspension and still had an office in the presidential palace 2 1/2 months after the beating.
Suspicion about a possible coverup surfaced after what appeared to be inconsistent answers from Macron’s office. It said last week that since May, Benalla had been working in an administrative role instead of security. But Benalla was photographed by the president’s side as his bodyguard during France’s July 14 national holiday.
Macron’s political adversaries have seized the opportunity. Les Republicans party leader Laurent Wauquiez said the government was “trying to conceal a matter of state”.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen tweeted: “If Macron doesn’t explain himself, the Benalla affair will become the Macron affair.”
Macron has remained silent about the behaviour captured on video. Lawmakers plan to question Interior Minister Gerard Collomb this week. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2018 | ['(Canoe.com)'] |
At least 44 people are killed amid a Yemeni government offensive to retake Zinjibar and Jaar from Islamist militants. Among the casualties are three soldiers and at least 11 civilians. | Members of Ansar al-Sharia, an al Qaeda-affiliated group, are seen near a tank taken from the army during recent battles, as they guard a road leading to the southern Yemeni town of Jaar April 28, 2012. REUTERS/Stringer
* Yemen trying to wrest control of south from Islamists
* Heavy overnight fighting near Jaar
* Twin air strikes on Jaar kill 16, including 6 civilians
* Zawahri calls on militants to fight for Islamic state (Adds al Qaeda leader remarks, updates toll)
By Mohammed Mukhashaf
ADEN, Yemen, May 15 (Reuters) - At least 44 people including 30 Islamist militants were killed overnight in Yemen, officials and residents said on Tuesday, as the government pressed ahead with a new U.S.-backed offensive against insurgents in the south.
The Islamist rebellion is of serious concern to the United States and to Yemen's much bigger neighbour Saudi Arabia, which both fear that instability could give al Qaeda's Yemen-based regional wing a bigger foothold near oil shipping routes through the Red Sea.
Residents and local officials said heavy fighting erupted late on Monday between the army and militants in an area called al-Jabalain in the south, as troops tried to advance on the militant-held city of Jaar.
The clashes continued until early on Tuesday, killing at least eight militants and one Yemeni soldier, they said, adding that the army had captured two Somali Islamist fighters.
Since the start of anti-government protests in early 2011, Islamist militants calling themselves Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law) have expanded their influence in Yemen, seizing several towns and swathes of territory in the south.
Although the group is inspired by al Qaeda, the precise nature of their operational ties is unclear.
Both seek the application of Islamic law and Ansar al-Sharia this month said it had released more than 70 captured Yemeni soldiers on orders from Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the head of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
United Nations agencies and non-governmental organisations working in Yemen called in a statement on "involved parties to take all necessary steps to avoid civilian casualties and to minimise collateral damage".
ZAWAHRI CALLS FOR ISLAMIC STATE
In an Internet message on Tuesday, al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri said a power transition deal that eased long-ruling President Abdullah Saleh from power was a "great plot" by the United States and Western-allied Saudi Arabia to prevent Islamic militants from taking over in Yemen.
"All of the corrupt forces have agreed to fight the Mujahidden under the American flag and with Saudi funding," Zawahri said in the audio recording, posted on Islamist websites, whose authenticity could not be independently verified.
"The popular movement ... should be determined in cleansing the country from corrupt politicians who suck the people's blood like vampires ... and moving towards building a Muslim Yemen governed by God's law," he said.
On Tuesday morning, an air strike hit two suspected militant vehicles in Jaar, killing seven passengers and three others in a nearby house, residents said.
As people gathered to assess the damage, a second strike killed six of them, all civilians, the residents added.
Near the southern town of Lawdar, 12 militants, five government-allied tribal fighters, and two soldiers were killed in clashes in an area called Jebel Yasuf, according to a member of one of the tribal committees that have sprung up in the south to fill a security vacuum and fend off Islamist fighters.
Washington has also stepped up its drone attacks in Yemen since President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi took office in February, and the Pentagon said last week it had resumed sending military trainers. | Armed Conflict | May 2012 | ['(Trust.org via AP)'] |
At least 21 people are killed and over 19,000 displaced as flash floods hit the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. | At least 21 people have died in flooding in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, after the city had its most intense rainfall for at least 24 years.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) measured 377mm (14.8 inches) of rainfall in a day at an airport in East Jakarta.
That's the most rain in a single day since at least 1996, when records supplied by the agency began.
"The rain falling on New Year's Eve... is not ordinary rain," said the agency.
The agency said the intensity of the rain was due to several factors, including the monsoon season, as well as a high amount of water vapour in the air.
At least 62,000 people have been evacuated out of the city. Some people spent the night on the roofs of their buildings while awaiting rescue.
The heavy rainfall is expected to continue until the weekend.
Elsewhere in East Jakarta, 335mm was recorded, while in Bekasi, further east, 259mm fell.
Rainfall above 150mm per day is considered extreme by the agency.
The intense rain began on New Year's Eve and continued through the night, leading to parts of the city being submerged and landslides on the outskirts.
The victims ranged in age from eight to 82. Some died of hypothermia, while others drowned or were killed by landslides. One 16-year-old boy was electrocuted by a power line.
The electricity has been switched off in many districts of Jakarta as a precaution, and some railway lines are also shut.
On Twitter, President Joko Widodo blamed delays in flood control infrastructure projects for the severity of the damage. | Floods | January 2020 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Saturday Night Live alumnus Darrell Hammond is chosen to be the new announcer of the long running U.S. variety show following the death of Don Pardo in August. | To replace a legend that began with the start of “Saturday Night Live” in 1975, Lorne Michaels has reached back to a different era in the show’s history: Darrell Hammond will be the announcer this season of “S.N.L.,” stepping in for the late Don Pardo.
NBC will make the appointment official in an announcement Thursday morning.
Mr. Hammond served longer than any other performer in the history of the NBC broadcast, working in the cast from 1995 until 2009. He also had the distinction of quietly subbing for Mr. Pardo on several occasions when the announcer could not do the show for health reasons. Mr. Hammond, who was among the best impressionists in the history of “S.N.L.,” read in the introductions in the famous Pardo voice.
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | September 2014 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
The death toll in Nigeria's worst violence since November 2008 reaches over 250. | Nigerian troops are tracking down remnants of an Islamic fundamentalist sect who went on a violence spree killing more than 250 people in the Muslim-dominated north.
The offensive came after soldiers shelled the mosque and home of Mohammed Yusuf in Maiduguri, the capital of northern Borno state, to end an uprising by the self-styled Nigerian "Taliban" which has said it wants to lead an armed insurrection and rid society of "immorality" and "infidelity."
President Umaru Yar'Adua said late on Tuesday the group would be hunted and punished.
The military operation under way will "contain them once and for all", he said, adding: "They will be dealt with squarely and forthwith."
Fresh fighting broke out here late Tuesday after the assault. An AFP correspondent witnessed soldiers shooting three young men dead at point blank range close to the city's police headquarters.
The men, who had just been arrested, were seen kneeling and pleading for their lives before being shot.
During the assault, security forces overran the home of the elusive sect leader Yusuf and a nearby mosque used by his followers.
"We are not sure whether he has been killed in the shelling or has managed to escape," a police officer said of Yusuf.
"It is the first time in my life that I hear this kind of mortar shelling," exclaimed one man in a hushed tone, as he huddled in Maiduguri's police station to seek shelter along with dozens of others.
"I thought they targeted my house," he said, bringing along his wife and three daughters.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed alarm over the latest bloodbath in Nigeria, one of Africa's most volatile nations, and called for those guilty to be brought to book.
"The secretary general ... condemns the unnecessary loss of human life and the destruction of property," a UN statement noted, adding that Ban had urged Abuja to take steps to ensure that sectarian violence did not flare up again.
The fighting began on Sunday in nearby Bauchi state before spilling over into Yobe, and authorities said 55 were killed in both states.
However, most of the casualties appear to have been in Maiduguri, the northeastern city known as the birthplace and stronghold of the Islamic fundamentalist group.
Clashes between security forces and radical Islamists there on Monday alone killed at least 206 people, a police source told AFP.
An AFP reporter counted 30 bodies strewn across the grounds of the police headquarters on Tuesday before 10 more were brought in. Dozens of other bodies which littered the compound earlier had been taken away.
Yar'Adua had earlier placed security forces on maximum alert late Monday as the death toll mounted.
The unrest is the deadliest sectarian violence in Nigeria since November last year when human rights groups say up to 700 were killed in the central city of Jos in direct clashes between Muslims and Christians.
The fighting in the north erupted Sunday in Bauchi state, when police hit back at militants after a foiled attack at a police station, and spread rapidly to neighbouring states.
The Nigerian extremists emerged in 2002 in Maiduguri before setting up in 2004 a camp - dubbed "Afghanistan" - in Kanamma village in Yobe, on the border with Niger, from where it attacked three police outposts and killed police officers.
Troops then moved in to raze the camp during battles in which scores were killed. Many were arrested while others went underground. Remnants re-emerged in Maiduguri.
Northern Nigeria is mainly Muslim, although large Christian minorities have settled in the main towns, raising tensions between the two groups.
Since the return of a civilian regime to Nigeria's central government in 1999, 12 northern states have adopted Islamic Sharia law. The latest attacks, which independent security analysts say were co-ordinated, affected a third of these states. | Armed Conflict | July 2009 | ['(The Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
Iran's state news agency announces that a monkey was sent successfully into space by the Iranian Space Agency and returned safely aboard the Pishgam rocket. | The primate travelled in a Pishgam rocket, which reached an altitude of some 120km (75 miles) for a sub-orbital flight before "returning its shipment intact", the defence ministry said.
Iranian state TV showed images of the monkey, which was strapped into a harness, being taken to the rocket.
Western nations have expressed concern that Iran's space programme is being used to develop long-range missiles.
Such missiles could potentially be used to carry nuclear warheads.
Iran denies it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons and insists its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.
Satellite technology expert Pat Norris told the BBC that Iran's claim to have sent a monkey into space was not a major advance on what its space programme had already achieved.
The achievement was similar to launching a missile at 4,828km/h (3,000mph) and having its warhead survive the flight - something Iran had done in several tests in recent years, he noted.
However, the survival of the monkey, without incurring any injuries, would demonstrate that the acceleration and deceleration of the rocket were not too severe, Mr Norris added.
In 2010, Iran successfully sent a rat, turtle and worms into space. But an attempt to send a monkey up in a rocket failed in 2011.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced in 2010 that the country planned to send a man into space by 2019. | New achievements in aerospace | January 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Malaysian navy commandos foil a ship hijack attempt by Somali pirates, rescuing 23 crew and capturing 7 pirates in the Gulf of Aden. | Malaysia says its navy commandos have foiled an attempted hijacking of a ship in the Gulf of Aden, rescuing 23 crew and capturing seven Somali pirates.
It says the commandos injured three pirates during a gun battle on board the Malaysian-flagged MT Bung Laurel chemical tanker on Friday.
The navy was alerted by a distress signal from the vessel's crew. Kuala Lumpur is now considering whether the pirates should face trial in Malaysia. "We will determine what we should do, whether we are going to bring them here to be tried or take any other appropriate action," Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said. He also said he was "proud of our navy, which acted with full efficiency and demonstrated courage".
The Malaysian Royal Navy said an attack helicopter was also involved in the rescue operation about 555km (300 miles) east off the coast of Oman.
No-one among the commandos or the crew was injured.
Pirates took a record 1,181 hostages in 2010, despite increased patrolling of the seas, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said in its report released earlier this month.
It described as "alarming" the continued increase in hostage-taking incidents - the highest number since the IMB began monitoring in 1991. It also said that 53 ships were hijacked worldwide - 49 of them off Somalia's coast - and eight sailors were killed.
Overall, there were 445 pirate attacks last year - a 10% rise from 2009.
Although naval patrols - launched in 2009 in the Gulf of Aden - had foiled a number of attacks, Somali pirates were now operating farther offshore, the IMB added. Malaysian government | Armed Conflict | January 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's president, offers an immediate ceasefire to South Ossetian authorities. | Georgian forces and South Ossetian separatists have been exchanging heavy fire just hours after agreeing to a ceasefire and Russian-mediated talks.
Russian media reports said Georgia had launched a tank-led attack on the separatist stronghold of Tskhinvali, and airstrikes on rebel positions.
Georgia says it aims to finish "a criminal regime" and restore order.
At least 15 people are reported dead. Moscow called on the world community to work "to avert massive bloodshed".
At Russia's request, members of the UN Security Council are holding a rare emergency session to discuss a response to the escalating violence.
The BBC's Matthew Collin in Tbilisi says there has been a series of huge explosions and rocket fire in and around Tskhinvali.
Hundreds of fighters from Russia and Georgia's other breakaway region of Abkhazia are reportedly heading to aid the separatist troops.
'Perfidious step'
South Ossetian rebel leader Eduard Kokoity told Russia's Interfax news agency that Georgia had launched an all-out attack on the town of Tskhinvali, in what he called "a perfidious and base step".
The Georgian Minister for Integration, Temur Yakobashvili, said Georgia's aim was not to take over the territory but to finish "a criminal regime".
Days of fierce conflict have raised fears of a new war in the volatile Caucasus.
In a televised address, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili earlier called for the bloodshed to end, but also warned the Russian-backed separatists not to try Tbilisi's patience.
A truce was later announced, with emergency talks set for Friday, but by nightfall, both sides were trading heavy fire.
Georgia accuses Russia of arming the South Ossetian authorities - who have been trying to break away since the civil war in the 1990s. Moscow denies the claim.
President Saakashvili has vowed to restore Tbilisi's control over South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The Ossetians have traditionally had good relations with Russia, and North Ossetia is part of the Russian Federation.
Russia is hostile to Georgia's ambition to join Nato and has accused Georgia of building up its forces around the breakaway regions, where Russian peacekeeping troops are deployed.
BBC website readers have been giving their reaction to the current situation in the region:
Our government did everything not to answer shooting from separatists, but they continued even after Saakashvili's declaration. They were shooting for over 2 hour and our side was not responding.. I live in Gori, it is very near from Tskhinvali. I heard all the shooting. Even now I can hear some shooting. I'm praying everything will be OK. I hope our military army will kick out the criminals from our land. Mikheil Sukhitashvili, Gori, Georgia
The Georgian nation and Georgian refugees from its breakaway regions, have been waiting for 17 years to return to their homes, but Russian FSB trained breakaway region leaders of south Ossetia and Abkazia did nothing to bring peace in the region. I believe Georgia has full constitutional right to bring law and order on its world recognised sovereign territory. Otto, London
There are hundreds of "volunteers" infiltrating into the region from the Russian side. Russia does everything to stop Georgia form entering NATO and it is because of widespread ignorance of western Europe in recent years. That is what appeasement does. David, Tbilisi
We all Georgians are for peace, but sometimes it is getting difficult to get peace without the battle. War is something rational in the sense of its aims and goals, but the results might be destructive not only for Georgia, but for whole region. The democratic world should contribute in solving this problem. By the way, the neglect of this problem from Western countries propagated the processes. God is with us! lasha Chochua, Tbilisi
Unfortunately for international peace efforts in South Ossetia the recent Kosovo precedent has created conditions for South Ossetian independence and unilateral secession from Georgia. A independent South Ossetia is now both easily facilitated and there is no incentive for the South Ossetians to stay in union with Georgia. In edition there is no credible standing for Georgia to resist this under international law. Mihilo, Buffalo, Ny
I applaud Georgia's decisiveness to finally restore the order at home and get rid of Kokoity, this local self-proclaimed "tzar" whose ambitions only led to suffering of his own people. As a Ukrainian, I believe that now it is time for Kyiv to fulfil its strategic partnership with Tbilisi by announcing its readiness to help Georgia militarily if Abkhazia decides to open their so-called "second front". Ukraine's involvement, on the other hand, will help cool down many hot heads in Moscow who advocate that Moscow gets involved in Georgia's affairs on the basis that many South Osetians and Abkhazians have Russian passports. Dmitry Koublitsky, Detroit, USA
Georgia says: "I offer you an immediate ceasefire and the immediate beginning of talks"?!! Don't trust them!!! Army use heavy guns and MLRS "GRAD" against civilians: they are attacking Tskhinval right now. Words to you at the morning, swords to us at the night. | Armed Conflict | August 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Gunmen in Egypt's western desert province of New Valley Governorate attack a military checkpoint, killing at least 21 soldiers. Egypt reportedly declares a state of emergency on its border with Sudan. , | Gunmen killed 21 Egyptian soldiers on Saturday during an attack on a border checkpoint in Egypt’s western desert region near Libya, a military statement said, in one of the most deadly attacks since Islamist President Mohammad Mursi’s ouster last year.
The attack took place in the western desert governorate of Wadi al-Gedid, on the Farafra Oasis Road, located close to both Libya's and Sudan's border.
Three of the attackers, who took the checkpoint by surprise, were killed during ensuing clashes with the guards, military officials said.
Egypt declared a state of emergency on its border with Sudan, a few hours following the attack, a security source at the Red Sea security directorate said, reported Egypt’s state-owned daily al-Ahram on Saturday.
In protective measures, authorities placed several security ambushes on main and narrow streets, and imposed tightened security measures in ports and airports of the province.
Around 20 smugglers, said to be linked to al-Qaeda, used guns and rocket-propelled grenades to carry out the offense, highlighting a growing security challenge for authorities, who believe Islamist militants have been moving weapons across the area.
Tribal smugglers told Reuters they charge up to $140,000 to move weapons in vehicles along desert routes to comrades in Egypt, which faces an Islamist insurgency centralized in the Sinai Peninsula near Israel.
Egypt’s state television announced three days of mourning for the victims of the assault.
“We stopped airing TV series on several satellite channels, on the state television, private sector’s specialized channels, and the regional channels,” state-owned Egyptian TV chief Magdy Lashin told Egypt’s Youm7 website.
Instead of the series and normal programming, the channels will air excerpts of national songs and documentaries highlighting the achievements of Egyptian soldiers, and the military, according to Lashin.
Egypt’s presidency and the interior ministry released a statement mourning the victims of the attack, and confirmed that the culprits will be punished by law, adding that terrorism will be rooted out from all of the country.
“Egypt will not forget its martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for it,” the presidency’s statement concluded.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattal al-Sisi had reportedly expressed concerns that the militants who caused chaos in Libya are setting up operations along the borders, which poses a threat to Cairo’s government.
Libyan officials have long said that they know about security problems along the border, and that they cooperate with Egyptian authorities.
A few days before he was elected as Egypt’s president in May, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi discreetly visited tribesmen living along the border with Libya.
But security officials say militants based alongside the Libyan border have similar ambitions to those of ISIS. They want to topple Sisi and create an Islamic caliphate in Egypt.
The Egyptian army arrested one of the assailants involved in the attack, and is currently questioning him, a top military official said, reported al-Watan news website.
The source added that a military funeral would take place tomorrow at the Almaza Military Airport, before delivering the bodies of the killed soldiers to their families.
(With AFP, AP and Reuters)
Gunmen killed 21 Egyptian soldiers on Saturday during an attack on a border checkpoint in Egypt’s western desert region near Libya, a military statement said, in one of the most deadly attacks since Islamist President Mohammad Mursi’s ouster last year.
The attack took place in the western desert governorate of Wadi al-Gedid, on the Farafra Oasis Road, located close to both Libya's and Sudan's border.
Three of the attackers, who took the checkpoint by surprise, were killed during ensuing clashes with the guards, military officials said.
Egypt declared a state of emergency on its border with Sudan, a few hours following the attack, a security source at the Red Sea security directorate said, reported Egypt’s state-owned daily al-Ahram on Saturday.
In protective measures, authorities placed several security ambushes on main and narrow streets, and imposed tightened security measures in ports and airports of the province.
Around 20 smugglers, said to be linked to al-Qaeda, used guns and rocket-propelled grenades to carry out the offense, highlighting a growing security challenge for authorities, who believe Islamist militants have been moving weapons across the area.
Tribal smugglers told Reuters they charge up to $140,000 to move weapons in vehicles along desert routes to comrades in Egypt, which faces an Islamist insurgency centralized in the Sinai Peninsula near Israel.
Egypt’s state television announced three days of mourning for the victims of the assault.
“We stopped airing TV series on several satellite channels, on the state television, private sector’s specialized channels, and the regional channels,” state-owned Egyptian TV chief Magdy Lashin told Egypt’s Youm7 website.
Instead of the series and normal programming, the channels will air excerpts of national songs and documentaries highlighting the achievements of Egyptian soldiers, and the military, according to Lashin.
Egypt’s presidency and the interior ministry released a statement mourning the victims of the attack, and confirmed that the culprits will be punished by law, adding that terrorism will be rooted out from all of the country.
“Egypt will not forget its martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for it,” the presidency’s statement concluded.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattal al-Sisi had reportedly expressed concerns that the militants who caused chaos in Libya are setting up operations along the borders, which poses a threat to Cairo’s government.
Libyan officials have long said that they know about security problems along the border, and that they cooperate with Egyptian authorities.
A few days before he was elected as Egypt’s president in May, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi discreetly visited tribesmen living along the border with Libya.
But security officials say militants based alongside the Libyan border have similar ambitions to those of ISIS. They want to topple Sisi and create an Islamic caliphate in Egypt.
The Egyptian army arrested one of the assailants involved in the attack, and is currently questioning him, a top military official said, reported al-Watan news website.
The source added that a military funeral would take place tomorrow at the Almaza Military Airport, before delivering the bodies of the killed soldiers to their families. | Armed Conflict | July 2014 | ['(Reuters)', '(Al-Arabiya)'] |
The death toll of Indian children who have died due to an acute encephalitis syndrome outbreak reaches 100. | More than 100 children have now died in an outbreak of suspected encephalitis in India's Bihar state, officials say. At least 200 patients, many of whom are below the age of 10, are still being treated at two hospitals. State officials have said that many victims had died due to hypoglycaemia, or low blood sugar.
Thousands of children have died of encephalitis in Bihar and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh since the first case was detected in the late 1970s.
The state has announced that it will bear the cost of treatment for all those affected.
The Indian government has said that it will "extend all possible support" to the state and affected families.
The outbreak since the beginning of June has seen the most number of deaths in the city of Muzaffarpur.
The disease usually occurs during the monsoon season and children are the worst affected.
Until 2005, doctors say that the the majority of deaths were caused by Japanese encephalitis, a mosquito-borne virus.
But in the past decade or so, children have been dying of other forms of viral encephalitis and the exact cause of which is unclear.
The disease causes headaches and vomiting and can lead to coma, brain dysfunction, seizure and inflammation of the heart and kidney.
Doctors say children between the age of six months and 15 years are the worst affected and a fifth of the children who survive have to live with neurological weaknesses. "It is difficult to say with certainty if children are dying due to encephalitis because there could be a number of reasons behind these deaths," Dr Mala Kaneria told BBC Hindi's Priyanka Dubey. "It could also be due to malnutrition, insufficient levels of sugar and sodium or electrolyte imbalances."
Dr Kaneria added that some of these deaths could also be caused by eating lychees on an empty stomach. Lychees contain toxins that inhibit the body's ability to produce glucose, which could affect young children whose blood sugar levels were already low because they were not eating dinner.
BBC Hindi's Priyanka Dubey in Muzaffarpur
The thin glass door of the paediatric intensive care unit in the Shri Krishna Medical College cannot contain the sound of cries coming from inside. Babia Devi was snivelling and crying as her five-year-old daughter, Munni, lay beside her in a corner inside the special ward. Her mother, whose face is tear-stained, is convinced that her young daughter will not make it out of this hospital alive. "The doctors have confirmed that Munni will not live. But I don't know what happened to the Munni I knew - who was healthy and playful," she tells me. Neither she nor the doctors know what happened - they are unsure if Munni is a victim of encephalitis. "All I know is that she was perfectly fine a day ago," she says. They rushed to the hospital from their village on Saturday after Munni awoke with burning fever. "There has been no improvement in her condition. She hasn't opened her eyes since we got to the hospital."
At another hospital in Muzzaffarpur, the mood is just as sombre. Four-year-old Tamanna Khatoon lay on a bed inside the intensive care unit at Muzzaffarpur Medical College. Her mother, Ruby Khatoon, is sobbing outside the room. "In the last two days, no child from this hospital has recovered. All of them have died," she says. "Did I painstakingly bring up this girl only to watch her die like this?"
In 2012, at least 390 people, mostly children, died in an outbreak of viral encephalitis in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. More than 2,000 patients were admitted to hospital. And in 2011, more than 460 people in northern India, mostly young children, died in one of the country's worst outbreaks of encephalitis.
In 2005, a virulent outbreak of Japanese encephalitis in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh killed 1,000 people, mostly children. This was the worst outbreak since 1978. | Disease Outbreaks | June 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
Italian police arrest fugitive Camorra crime boss Antonio Iovine. | Italian police have arrested a fugitive mafia boss who had been on the run for 14 years.
Officials said that Antonio Iovine, a senior figure in the Naples-based Camorra crime syndicate, was one of Italy's most wanted men.
The 46-year-old was arrested in a small villa in Casal di Principe, the gang's heartland north of Naples.
He is reported to have been discovered hiding in a wall cavity, and tried to jump off a balcony to evade arrest.
"It's a big success. A big blow [for the Camorra]," Naples police chief Santi Giuffre said.
He said his force had been preparing for the arrest of Iovine, considered a leader of the Casalesi clan, for some time. Iovine was sentenced to life in prison in absentia earlier this year along with 15 other Camorra bosses, one of whom is still on the run.
They were found guilty of multiple counts, including murder and extortion.
Italy's Interior Minister Roberto Maroni called it a "great day for the fight against the mafia". Italian PM vows to defeat mafia
Italy police in mafia crackdown
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | November 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Protesters demonstrate against the Iraq war and possible military actions against Iran in New York City. | NEW YORK -- Tens of thousands of protesters marched Saturday through lower Manhattan to demand an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, just hours after this month's death toll reached 70.
Cindy Sheehan, a vociferous critic of the war whose soldier son also died in Iraq, joined in the march, as did actress Susan Sarandon and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
"End this war, bring the troops home," read one sign lifted by marchers on the sunny afternoon, three years after the war in Iraq began. The mother of a Marine killed two years ago in Iraq held a picture of her son, born in 1984 and killed 20 years later.
One group marched under the banner "Veterans for Peace."
The demonstrators stretched for about 10 blocks as they headed down Broadway. Organizers said 300,000 people marched, though a police spokesman declined to give an estimate. There were no reports of arrests.
"We are here today because the war is illegal, immoral and unethical," said the Rev. Al Sharpton. "We must bring the troops home."
Organizers said the march was also meant to oppose any military action against Iran, which is facing international criticism over its nuclear program. The event was organized by the group United for Peace and Justice.
"We've been lied to, and they're going to lie to us again to bring us a war in Iran," said Marjori Ramos, 43, of New York. "I'm here because I had a lot of anger, and I had to do something."
Steve Rand, an English teacher from Waterbury, Vt., held a poster announcing, "Vermont Says No to War."
"I'd like to see our troops come home," he said.
The march stepped off shortly after noon from Union Square, with the demonstrators heading for a rally between a U.S. courthouse and a federal office building in lower Manhattan.
The death toll in Iraq for April was the highest for a single month in 2006. At least 2,399 U.S. military members have died since the war began. An Army soldier was the latest victim, killed Saturday in a roadside explosion in Baghdad.
That figure is well below some of the bloodiest months of the Iraq conflict, but is a sharp increase over March, when 31 were killed. January's death toll was 62 and February's 55. In December, 68 Americans died. | Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2006 | ['(Washington Post)', '(The Hindu)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
The English Wikipedia will be shut down on Wednesday in protest against anti–piracy legislation proposed by the United States Congress. | Wikipedia, one of the world's most popular websites, has confirmed it will "go dark" on Wednesday when the site pulls the plug in a 24-hour protest against highly-contentious US online piracy legislation.
The online encyclopedia is the sixth most popular destination on the internet and attracts 25 million visitors a day. Starting at midnight on Tuesday the company said its English-language version will be unavailable in protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and Protect IP, two bills aimed at attacking online piracy.
Wikimedia, the foundation behind the site, discussed the move with "Wikipedians" – the authors of its entries – and the company said the majority favored action. Similar blackouts are planned by other websites including Reddit, the popular news sharing site, and the Cheezburger websites, which attract 16.5 million visitors a month to look at funny cat videos and photos.
"Today Wikipedians from around the world have spoken about their opposition to this destructive legislation," said Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. "This is an extraordinary action for our community to take – and while we regret having to prevent the world from having access to Wikipedia for even a second, we simply cannot ignore the fact that Sopa and PIPA endanger free speech both in the United States and abroad, and set a frightening precedent of Internet censorship for the world."
Wales has been a persistent critic of Sopa, calling it "the worst internet legislation I have ever seen."
Before the decision was made Wales tweeted: "Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday! #sopa".
Wales made the announcement as the threat of SOPA seemed to be receding. Other tech leaders were less enamored of his move. In a tweet, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo called Wikipedia's plans to pull the plug on its website "foolish" and "silly".
Via Twitter, Radar correspondent Alex Howard asked Costolo, Google's Eric Schmidt and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, whether they would have the 'cojones' to follow in Wikipedia's protesting footsteps. "That's just silly. Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish," Costolo replied.
The spat was the first sign of tension amid the major tech players who have so far shown a united front as they have fought Hollywood and the music industry over regulation of the internet. Over the weekend the tech community won a key battle when President Barack Obama came down on their side. Sopa now looks un-passable in its current form.
But Wales and others fear that while Sopa now looks severely damaged, Protect IP is still up for a vote on 24 January and there is widespread support among politicians for tighter control of the internet.
So far, the Sopa battle has been largely fought out in the tech, media, and business pages. All that could change Wednesday when Wikipedia goes dark. | Protest_Online Condemnation | January 2012 | ['(Wikimedia Foundation)', '(The Guardian)'] |
The U.S. Treasury Department announces new regulations to curb tax-avoiding corporate inversions, i.e., where U.S. companies slash their tax bills by claiming a new tax home overseas, though their core operations and management remain in the United States. The pending $160 billion merger of Pfizer Inc. and Allergan, Plc could be cancelled because of these new rules. | Business On Monday, the Treasury announced new regulations intended to further discourage so-called inversions, which have been on the rise in recent years. After a U.S. company inverts, it may change the address of its headquarters to a foreign country but still operate in the United States. "Many of these companies continue to take advantage of the benefits of being based in the United States -- including our rule of law, skilled workforce, infrastructure, and research and development capabilities -- all while shifting a greater tax burden to other businesses and American families," said Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. The new set of rules aim to do a few things: Prevent so-called "earnings stripping." Until now, U.S. companies that invert have been able to cut their tax bills on future earnings through "earnings stripping." It can work like this: The foreign parent makes a large and unnecessary loan to the U.S. subsidiary strictly for tax purposes. The interest on that loan is deductible, and those deductions can largely offset -- or even wipe out -- the taxes that the U.S. subsidiary owes Uncle Sam on its earnings, according to Steven Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. The new rules will discourage foreign-parent companies from loading up their U.S. branches with unnecessary debt because the interest paid by subsidiaries will no longer be deductible. Stop companies from flouting existing curbs on inversions. Existing rules state that any shareholders of an acquired U.S. firm must own a certain percentage of the merged company. But some foreign companies have grown by acquiring multiple, small U.S. firms in a short period of time. That then makes it easier for them to buy a much larger U.S. company without violating the ownership thresholds. The new rules will make such "serial inversions" less attractive because Treasury will calculate the ownership percentage of the foreign company by excluding stock attributable to smaller purchases made within the past three years. These rules may help curb tax-driven inversions, but Lew has stressed repeatedly that no amount of Treasury regulations will put a stop to the activity. For that, lawmakers need to act. "Only new anti-inversion legislation can stop these transactions," he said. While lawmakers have introduced anti-inversion bills, none have been passed. And the chance that Congress will embark on business tax reform this year are very slim. | Government Policy Changes | April 2016 | ['(CNN Money)', '(Reuters)'] |
The office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announces that 10 individuals, including assistant coaches at four NCAA Division I men's basketball programsArizona, Auburn, Oklahoma State, and USChave been arrested on federal corruption charges. The accused are alleged to be part of a scheme by which coaches accepted bribes to steer NBA-bound college players toward certain agents and financial advisers. Court documents also allege that an apparel company later identified as Adidas paid $100,000 to the family of an unnamed player to ensure his signing with an unnamed Division I school, which was later confirmed as the University of Louisville. |
Joon H. Kim, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, details the corruption and bribery charges brought by the FBI against multiple people, including NCAA assistant basketball coaches.
Four assistant basketball coaches from Arizona, Auburn, Oklahoma State and Southern California were charged Tuesday morning in a federal corruption investigation, and that might be only the tip of the iceberg in a three-year FBI probe that focused on coaches being paid tens of thousands of dollars to steer NBA-bound players toward sports agents, financial advisers and apparel companies.
Federal prosecutors in New York announced charges of fraud and corruption against 10 people, including Auburn's Chuck Person, Oklahoma State's Lamont Evans, Arizona's Emanuel "Book" Richardson and USC's Tony Bland.
Each of the coaches is charged with bribery conspiracy, solicitation of bribes, honest services fraud conspiracy, honest service fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and Travel Act conspiracy. The U.S. Department of Justice said each of the coaches faces a maximum sentence of 80 years in prison.
Person was released on $25,000 bail. Bland appeared in a Florida court, did not enter a plea and said he needs a lawyer. Prosecutors recommended Bland be released on $100,000 bail with the understanding he must appear Oct. 10 in federal court in New York for another hearing. Richardson appeared in U.S. District Court in Tucson, Arizona, and was released on a $50,000 bond.
The FBI also arrested James Gatto, director of global sports marketing for Adidas; Merl Code, another Adidas employee; Christian Dawkins, a former NBA agent who was recently fired from ASM Sports; Munish Sood, a financial adviser; Jonathan Brad Augustine, president of The League Initiative and program director of the Adidas-sponsored 1 Family AAU program; and Rashan Michel, a former NBA official who founded Thompson Bespoke Clothing, a custom clothier for athletes.
The offices of ASM, which represents NBA players, were raided Tuesday, sources confirmed. Phone lines have been cut off and employees were told not to come to work.
"For the 10 charged men, the madness of college basketball went well beyond the Big Dance in March," said Joon H. Kim, acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, during a Tuesday news conference. "Month after month, the defendants exploited the hoop dreams of student-athletes around the country, allegedly treating them as little more than opportunities to enrich themselves through bribery and fraud schemes."
The FBI conducted an elaborate undercover operation, starting in 2015, and managed to keep it a secret. The NCAA wasn't made aware of the investigation until Tuesday morning. Using wiretaps, surveillance video, undercover agents and cooperating witnesses, the FBI was able to document coaches accepting bribes to steer their players to certain financial advisers and/or business managers. In other cases, high-ranking Adidas employees worked with others to pay prospective student-athletes' families to ensure the players signed with Adidas-sponsored schools and then signed with Adidas once they turned pro, the complaint alleges.
FBI assistant director Bill Sweeney had a warning Tuesday for other coaches who might be involved in similar schemes, saying: "We have your playbook. Our investigation is ongoing. We are conducting additional interviews as we speak." The FBI and U.S. Attorney's office said they have established a hotline for information related to the investigation.
Kim said the managers and financial advisers were "circling blue-chip prospects like coyotes" and that "employees of one of the world's largest sportswear companies [was] secretly funneling cash to the families of high school recruits."
Louis Martin "Marty" Blazer III, a former Pittsburgh financial adviser who was accused of stealing $2.35 million from five clients by the Securities and Exchange Commission, was the cooperating witness who helped the FBI in its investigation of the basketball coaches and other defendants, according to U.S. Department of Justice documents obtained by ESPN.
Blazer, who founded Blazer Capital Management, was accused of investing money into movies and entertainment ventures without his clients' knowledge between 2010 and 2012. As part of his plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney's office, Blazer agreed to plead guilty to securities fraud, aggravated identity theft, false statements and documents, and two counts of wire fraud, according to the Sept. 19 cooperation agreement.
Among other charges, Blazer was accused of "a scheme to commit wire fraud in or about 2000 through in or about 2013 by making payments and loans to NCAA athletes in order to induce the student-athletes to retain the defendant as a financial advisor and/or business manager."
The FBI complaint against Gatto and others also included a reference to a "public research university located in Kentucky," identified as "University-6" in the complaint, and University of Louisville interim president Gregory Postel confirmed in a statement it is the school mentioned. There was also a reference to a private research school in Florida, and sources told ESPN it is the University of Miami.
The allegations against the unnamed school in Kentucky include payments of $100,000 from Adidas to the family of an unnamed player, identified as "Player-10," to ensure he signs with the school.
According to the complaint, Gatto, Code, Dawkins and Sood worked together to funnel $100,000 to the player's family in early June, and Dawkins told the others that he did so at the request of a Louisville coach. "Player-10," who is described in the complaint as a top recruit, is believed to be Brian Bowen, a five-star guard/forward who signed with Louisville on June 5. The FBI said telephone records show Gatto spoke directly with the unnamed coach multiple times in the days before the player publicly committed to play for the Cardinals.
The complaint said another high school player was paid to sign with the Cardinals, and Dawkins paid the money by funneling it through Augustine.
"These allegations come as a complete shock to me," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said in a statement. "If true, I agree with the U.S. Attorneys Office that these third-party schemes, initiated by a few bad actors, operated to commit a fraud on the impacted universities and their basketball programs, including the University of Louisville. Our fans and supporters deserve better and I am committed to taking whatever steps are needed to ensure those responsible are held accountable."
The FBI alleged Gatto, Code, Dawkins and Augustine attempted to broker a deal to send another high school player to Miami, an Adidas-sponsored school, for $150,000. According to the complaint, "the payments from [Adidas] to Player-12 were allegedly requested specifically by a coach at [Miami] (Coach-3), who allegedly called Gatto directly and who, according to Dawkins, Code, and Augustine, 'knows everything' and, in particular, 'knows something's gotta happen for' Player-12 to commit to attending University-7."
Person, a former Auburn basketball star, is accused of accepting $91,500 in bribes to steer two players toward a financial adviser. He said he gave more than $18,000 to the players' families. Person was suspended without pay, effective immediately, Auburn officials announced Tuesday afternoon.
"This morning's news is shocking. We are saddened, angry and disappointed," the school said in a statement. "We are committed to playing by the rules, and that's what we expect from our coaches. In the meantime, Auburn is working closely with law enforcement, and we will help them in their investigation in any way we can."
Evans, the Oklahoma State assistant, is accused of soliciting $22,000 from Blazer and Sood to steer two of his players toward them. Richardson was accused of accepting more than $20,000 from them, and Bland received about $13,000, according to the complaint. Evans was suspended with pay.
Arizona said Richardson had been suspended immediately and relieved of all duties. In a statement, the university said it was "appalled" by the allegations.
USC athletic director Lynn Swann said in a statement, "We were shocked to learn this morning through news reports about the FBI investigation and arrests related to NCAA basketball programs, including the arrest of USC assistant coach Tony Bland. USC Athletics maintains the highest standards in athletic compliance across all of our programs and does not tolerate misconduct in any way. We will fully cooperate with the investigation and will assist authorities as needed, and if these allegations are true, we will take the needed action."
Bland was placed on immediate administrative leave, USC said.
Later on Tuesday afternoon, USC vice president for compliance Mike Blanton said in a statement that the university had hired former FBI director Louis J. Freeh to assist it in conducting an internal investigation into the matter.
Oklahoma State issued a statement Tuesday saying, "We were surprised to learn this morning of potential actions against one of our assistant basketball coaches by federal officials. We are reviewing and investigating the allegations. We are cooperating fully with officials. Let it be clear we take very seriously the high standards of conduct expected in our athletic department. We will not tolerate any deviation from those standards."
School officials who have spoken with ESPN's Jake Trotter say they didn't get advance warning of the arrests. They found out through news reports.
The Oklahoma State coaching staff, including Evans and head coach Mike Boynton, have been on the road recruiting but were called back to Stillwater. Athletic director Mike Holder, who was attending the Big 12 meetings in Washington, is also returning to the school.
"The nature of the charges brought by the federal government are deeply disturbing," NCAA president Mark Emmert said in a statement. "We have no tolerance whatsoever for this alleged behavior. Coaches hold a unique position of trust with student-athletes and their families and these bribery allegations, if true, suggest an extraordinary and despicable breach of that trust. We learned of these charges this morning and of course will support the ongoing criminal federal investigation."
In a statement Tuesday, Adidas said it was unaware whether Gatto was allegedly arranging to pay high school players. "Today, we became aware that federal investigators arrested an adidas employee," the company said. "We are learning more about the situation. We're unaware of any misconduct and will fully cooperate with authorities to understand more."
Person, 53, is Auburn's associate head coach; he joined the staff in April 2014. Person averaged 18.3 points per game in four seasons at Auburn and was the NBA Rookie of the Year for the Indiana Pacers in 1987. He played for five NBA teams over 13 seasons.
Evans joined the Oklahoma State staff last season and was promoted to associate head coach and recruiting coordinator for the upcoming season. He coached previously at South Carolina and Kansas State. He averaged 8.5 points as a senior for Drake in 2000-01.
Richardson joined the staff at Arizona in the spring of 2009. He played at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.
Bland, an associate head coach, joined the USC staff in 2013-14. He played for Syracuse and San Diego State. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2017 | ['(ESPN)'] |
A new video released by the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram claims to show 100 girls they kidnapped last month as they seek a prisoner exchange. | Islamist militants Boko Haram have released a video apparently showing about 130 girls kidnapped from a school in northern Nigeria on 14 April.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said the children would be held until all imprisoned militants had been freed. Interior Minister Abba Moro rejected the deal, telling the BBC that it was "absurd" for a "terrorist group" to try to set conditions.
Boko Haram abducted more than 200 girls and threatened to sell them. The BBC's John Simpson in the northern city of Maiduguri says Boko Haram's comments show signs that the group is willing to negotiate. Three of the girls - wearing full-length cloaks - are shown speaking in the 27-minute video, obtained by French news agency AFP.
Two girls say they were Christian and have converted to Islam, while the other says she is Muslim. "These girls, these girls you occupy yourselves with... we have indeed liberated them. These girls have become Muslims," Abubakar Shekau says in the video.
He said his offer to swap the girls for imprisoned militants only referred to the children who had not converted to Islam.
It is thought the majority of the abducted girls are Christians, although there are a number of Muslims among them.
A man who is related to three of the abducted girls said the video at first gave him hope, but then made him anxious and tearful.
"Maybe they are converted into another religion by force, so it truly is a kind of terrifying situation," said the man, who did not want to be named.
Some 136 girls are shown in the video, just under half of the 276 pupils abducted from their school in the northern state of Borno.
Our correspondent says this could mean those abducted had been split into smaller groups to help avoid detection. Local officials said they had started making copies of the video to show relatives and friends of the abducted girls in an attempt to identify them.
Boko Haram, which means "Western education is forbidden", had previously said the girls should not have been at school and should get married instead. The militants have been engaged in a violent campaign against the Nigerian government since 2009.
The government has faced heavy criticism of its response to the mass abduction.
President Goodluck Jonathan said on Sunday that assistance from abroad had made him optimistic of finding the girls. The UK and US already have teams helping on the ground in Nigeria and an Israeli counter-terrorism team is also on its way to the country.
| Armed Conflict | May 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
The number of deaths from MERS in South Korea rises to 32, with the number of cases stabilizing at 182. | SEJONG, June 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea reported an additional death from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome on Sunday, bringing its death toll to 32.
However, the number of people diagnosed with the potentially deadly disease continued to stand at 182 as the country reported no additional infection case overnight, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
The deceased was a 55-year-old patient, whose identity was withheld for privacy reasons.
Ministry officials said the death marked one of the rare cases with the deceased having no existing health conditions.
Out of 32 MERS-related deaths, 29, or 90.6 percent, involved people of old age or those with existing health conditions, such as diabetes or cancer, that were apparently worsened by MERS.
With the latest MERS death, the fatality rate of the disease in the country climbed to 17.6 percent, still lower than the over 40 percent tallied globally until the outbreak here.
Out of the 182 people diagnosed with the disease so far, 59 still remained hospitalized with 15 of them currently in unstable conditions, the ministry said.
So far 91 people previously diagnosed with MERS have been discharged from the hospital following complete recoveries.
Since the country confirmed its first or index case on May 20, over 15,500 other people have been subject to isolation for possible infection after coming in close contact with MERS patients.
As of Sunday, 2,562 people still remained in isolation, mostly at their own homes, as suspected cases, according to the ministry. The number slightly increased from 2,467 on the previous day.
MERS is a viral respiratory disease first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012. There currently exists no vaccine or treatment for the disease, apparently one of reasons for such a high fatality rate of the disease, at least until the outbreak here. | Disease Outbreaks | June 2015 | ['(Yonhap)'] |
Hurricane Tomas heads into the Caribbean after hitting the Lesser Antilles becoming a Category 2 hurricane. , | Miami, Florida (CNN) -- Tomas continued to lose brawn in the Caribbean Sea on Monday morning after pummeling the island of St. Vincent over the weekend, the National Hurricane Center said.
As of 5 a.m. ET Sunday, Tomas, a tropical storm with sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph), was located about 135 miles (220 kilometers) northeast of Curacao, according to the Hurricane Center. The storm was moving west at about 14 mph (22 kph).
Tropical storm-force winds extended outward up to 175 miles (280 kilometers) from the center of Tomas.
Tomas moved over the Caribbean Sea after leaving heavy rain and wind on St. Vincent. More than 1,000 people entered shelters on St. Vincent as Tomas struck the island, an emergency official said. Two people were injured, including one critically, when they tried to repair roof damage during the storm, said Michelle Forbes, acting director of National Emergency Management.
Tomas also left downed trees that blocked many roads, Forbes said, and large areas of the island lacked power. More than 100 homes sustained roof damage, she said, and authorities expected the number to rise.
The main hospital on the island, Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, lost power temporarily but was able to get a generator up and running, according to Forbes. Tomas was forecast to continue heading west over the next day or two. The Hurricane Center said restrengthening could begin by late Tuesday. A projection map shows the storm turning north later this week. Tomas could approach Haiti on Friday, possibly as a hurricane. Tomas could deal a harsh blow to Haiti as the impoverished nation is still recovering from a devastating earthquake in January and is currently dealing with a cholera outbreak.
But "Tomas could still hit anywhere from the Dominican Republic to eastern Cuba," CNN meteorologist Taylor Ward said. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | October 2010 | ['(AP)', '(CNN)'] |
Riots occur after Baloch National Movement President Ghulam Mohammed Baloch is discovered dead near Turbat, Pakistan. | . Clashes broke out on Thursday after the bodies were discovered
A policeman has died in riots that have broken out following the discovery of the bodies of three ethnic leaders in Pakistan's Balochistan province.
The policeman was killed by protesters' gunfire in the town of Khuzdar. Protesters say the three Baloch nationalist leaders were detained by security forces last Friday and had been missing since. There has been a long-waged insurgency in Balochistan for a greater share of natural resources and more autonomy. Set on fire
The mutilated and decomposed bodies of the three leaders were found by police before dawn near Turbat. The three were named as Ghullam Muhammad Baloch, Lala Munir Baloch and Sher Muhammad Bugti. The BBC's Azizullah Khan in Quetta says Ghullam Muhammad Baloch was a leader of his own faction of the Balochistan National Movement and a key member of the committee set up to try to secure the release of abducted UN worker John Solecki, who was freed last Saturday. Sher Muhammad Bugti was a leader of the Balochistan Republican Party. The three were allegedly detained last Friday by security forces from the offices of a lawyer in Turbat who represents opposition parties in Balochistan. After the bodies were found riots broke out in provincial capital Quetta, Khuzdar and a number of towns in the Makran division. A number of banks and offices have been set on fire. In Quetta, three policemen were injured when a grenade was thrown at a police van. Police and paramilitary forces have been deployed to control the riots and tear gas has been fired at protesters in Quetta. Police spokesman Ayaz Baloch told the BBC an investigation was under way but it was unclear who carried out the killings. Balochistan Chief Minister Mohammad Aslam Raisani has ordered a judicial inquiry into the leaders' deaths. Opposition activists had been demonstrating since the leaders disappeared on Friday, setting up a protest camp outside the press club in Quetta. In August 2006, Balochistan experienced widespread rioting and strikes after the killing of tribal leader Nawab Akbar Bugti. Hundreds were arrested. Writing recently on Balochistan, BBC columnist Ahmed Rashid pointed to the worsening situation in the province, where the wide-ranging political and economic grievances of the alienated Baloch people have remained largely forgotten and unaddressed. | Armed Conflict | April 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Chile becomes the first Latin American country to ban the commercial use of single-use plastic bags. | President Sebastian Pinera says the country is taking a "giant step" towards being cleaner as it phases out plastic bags.
By Lucia Binding, news reporter Friday 3 August 2018 18:26, UK
Chile has joined a growing number of countries to ban the commercial use of plastic bags.
It became the first country in Latin America to enact the new law on Friday.
"I want to share with you the joy that as of today we're enacting the law," said President Sebastian Pinera at a public ceremony in Santiago.
He later handed out cloth bags to passers-by.
It comes after Mumbai became the largest Indian city to ban single-use plastics in June.
Residents in the Indian city caught using plastic bags, cups or bottle could face penalties of up to 25,000 rupees (£250) and three months in jail.
In Chile, large businesses have six months to phase out the use of plastic bags.
Smaller ones will be given two years to adapt to the new rules.
It means that any form of plastic bag other than those constituting primary packaging "necessary for hygiene or to prevent food wastage" are prohibited.
Those who disobey the new law will be subject to a 370 peso (44p) fine in a country where $800 (96p) is the minimum wage.
"Without a doubt we're taking a giant step towards a cleaner Chile," added Mr Pinera.
Companies will be limited to handing out a maximum of two plastic bags per transaction in the meantime.
Taiwan, Zimbabwe, Australia and the UK are some of the other countries to ban plastic bags.
From August last year, anyone in Kenya found using, producing, or selling plastic bags could face four years in jail.
:: Sky's Ocean Rescue campaign encourages people to reduce their single-use plastics. You can find out more about the campaign and how to get involved at www.skyoceanrescue.com | Government Policy Changes | August 2018 | ['(Sky News)'] |
Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar of the Tobruk-based House of Representatives meets with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and has scheduled a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron for next week. | - French President Emmanuel Macron will meet eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar in the middle of next week to discuss how to resume peace talks in the country, a French presidential source said on Thursday.
Macron last week called for a ceasefire in the month-long battle for Libya’s capital Tripoli after meeting U.N.-backed Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj.
“They will discuss the situation in Libya, the conditions for a return to political dialogue following the visit of Serraj and in co-ordination with the United Nations and partners,” the source told Reuters.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte met Haftar on Thursday as European powers seek to put an end to fighting after troops loyal to Haftar launched an offensive on the capital breaking months of U.N.-led peace negotiations.
“Prime Minister Conte reiterated the need to agree to a ceasefire as soon as possible to avoid a humanitarian crisis in the country and safeguard the already difficult conditions of the Libyan people,” his office said.
Tripoli is home to the internationally-recognized administration but some European countries such as France have also supported eastern military commander Haftar as a way to fight militants in a country in chaos since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
A day after meeting Macron last week, Serraj’s administration asked 40 foreign firms including French oil major Total to renew their licenses or have their operations suspended. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | May 2019 | ['(Libya Observer)', '(Reuters)'] |
The Secretary–General of the United Nations Ban Ki–moon orders a full evaluation of the needs of North Korea after severe floods hit the country. Up to 300,000 people may have been left homeless. | SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean authorities have indicated flooding may have left up to 300,000 people homeless, a U.N. aid agency spokesman said on Wednesday, while the communist state warned of a poor harvest this year due to the heavy rain.
North Korea, which has suffered chronic food shortages for years, said hundreds were dead or missing after flooding over the past several days that washed away thousands of structures and ruined cropland in the country’s agricultural bread basket.
The North’s official KCNA news agency quoted an agricultural ministry official as saying on Wednesday the damage to farm crops was heavier than in previous floods, with more than 11 percent of paddy and maize fields submerged, buried or swept away.
“Unprecedented torrential rains have poured down in the DPRK for days in succession from August 7, throwing a shadow over (the) prospect of the agricultural production,” the agency said. DPRK is North Korea’s official name.
“It is hard to expect a high grain output owing to the uninterrupted rainstorms at the most important time for the growth of crops in the country.”
Paul Risley, Asia spokesman for the U.N. World Food Programme, said a U.N. assessment team has visited one flood-hit area near Pyongyang, and added that North Korea was seeking international help.
“There was great concern that because these floods occurred during the period of pollination, that it is likely that these floods will have a very significant impact on the quantity of harvest,” Risley said by telephone from Bangkok.
North Korean officials who met the assessment team said they believed that 200,000 to 300,000 people have been dislocated by the floods and are in dire need of shelter and food, Risley said.
More U.N. assessment teams will visit other flood-ravaged areas in the coming days, he said.
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“The primary need will be for emergency food rations, shelter material and medicine,” Risley said.
KCNA said North Hwanghae Province, south of its capital, was hit the hardest, with pumping stations, agricultural structures and waterways destroyed. It added its government was taking measures against the flood damage.
In New York on Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a South Korean, promised at a meeting with North Korean Ambassador Pak Gil Yon that the world body would do all it could to help.
The South Korean government has said it was ready to aid its neighbor, but has yet to receive a request. The United States was also considering aid.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry said it expected damage to be worse than last year, when three big storms hit North Korea. A pro-Pyongyang newspaper reported that more than 800 people were killed or went missing in the resulting floods.
The ministry said it does not believe the flooding will delay a planned summit of the leaders of the two Koreas set for August 28-30 in Pyongyang.
In a late Tuesday dispatch, the North’s official KCNA news agency said the floods “are causing an enormous damage to the various sectors of the national economy”.
A video grab shows footage of floods from around the country in North Korea August 14, 2007. North Korean authorities have indicated flooding may have left up to 300,000 people homeless, a U.N. aid agency spokesman said on Wednesday, and crop losses may be severe in the impoverished state that has battled famine. REUTERS/KRT Television via Reuters TV
It said landslides have wrecked railway lines and roads while electric lines have snapped in a country which does not generate enough power to keep street lights on at night in most places.
Official news broadcasts in the secretive state showed images of collapsed bridges and civilians digging with shovels and their hands for material to build embankments. The broadcasts were monitored in Seoul.
North Korea’s infrastructure outside of showcase projects in Pyongyang is mostly in shambles. North Korea has few funds for building and still uses power and rail lines built during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule.
Even with a good harvest, North Korea still falls about 1 million tonnes short of the food it needs to feed its 23 million people, experts have said.
The flooding has hit most of the southern half of North Korea and includes the capital and some of its most productive agricultural regions. More rain is forecast for those areas over the next few days.
Additional reporting by Kim Yeon-hee in Seoul and Patrick Worsnip at the United Nations
| Floods | August 2007 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
The municipal intermediate people’s court for the eastern city of Dongying convicts Ni Fake, former Vice–Governor of Anhui province in China, on charges of bribery and "amassing wealth of unclear origin", and sentences him to seventeen years in prison. | Ni Fake found guilty of taking more than $2m in bribes, as senior military official loses immunity from prosecution by being booted from parliament
Last modified on Sat 28 Feb 2015 07.32 GMT
A former Chinese vice-governor known for his appetite for jade and the arts was sentenced to 17 years in prison on corruption charges on Saturday, a Chinese court said.
Ni Fake, former vice-governor of the eastern province of Anhui, was found guilty of taking more than $2m (£1.3m) in bribes, the municipal intermediate people’s court for the eastern city of Dongying said in a statement.
He also failed to explain the sources for nearly $1m of additional assets, the court said.
China is in the midst of a sweeping anti-graft campaign under President Xi Jinping, who has warned that widespread corruption has threatened the rule of the Communist party.
The campaign, now in its third year, has shown no sign of relaxing, with the party’s disciplinary officials vowing to root out the scourge that has alienated the party from the public.
Ni was known for his connoisseurship of jade and arts, and those seeking his favours bribed him with the precious stone and scrolls of calligraphy and paintings, in addition to cash, according to the court. It said that Ni confessed and would not appeal the verdict.
Meanwhile, Liu Zheng, a senior military official embroiled in a corruption scandal, has been booted from the Chinese parliament, state media reported on Saturday.
The move means Liu Zheng has been stripped of immunity from prosecution as a member of parliament, state media said, citing a statement from the standing committee of the National People’s Congress, the largely rubber-stamp legislature. Liu, a former deputy director of the powerful General Logistics Department of the People’s Liberation Army, is under investigation, the Ministry of Defence said in January, accused of “seriously violating party discipline” – a common euphemism for graft. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | February 2015 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
2011 Yemeni protests: six people are killed and hundreds injured in Yemen violence. | (CNN) -- Yemeni protesters and military and pro-government gangs clashed in several areas Tuesday, with at least six killed and hundreds more injured, as the future of President Ali Abdullah Saleh remained uncertain.
The United States has no intention of stopping its military aid to Yemen, despite the unrest, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Tuesday. The aid, in support of Yemeni counterterrorism efforts, continues to be essential because of the "real threat" from al Qaeda in the country, he said.
In Sanaa, the capital, eyewitnesses and field medical teams told CNN that security forces and anti-riot police used batons to attack protesters among 40,000 people marching on Zubairy Street Tuesday evening. In addition, pro-government gangs attacked protesters on Tuesday near a military base.
Four people were killed -- three pro-government demonstrators and one anti-government demonstrator. Windows were shattered on an ambulance carrying some of the 56 injured protesters to a hospital, witnesses said.
"The government forces are killing us," said Abdullah Salem, a youth activist who was at the protest. "Saleh and his militia will not succeed, and every blood spilt will be accounted for in international courts."
In the city of Taiz, meanwhile, at least two anti-government protesters were killed when security forces and Republican Guards fired on protesters, according to medical teams. Hundreds of people were injured, 55 of them from gunshot wounds. The security chief in Taiz denied his forces fired on demonstrators.
"Security forces did not attack protesters," said Abdullah Qiaran. "We were dispersing pro and anti-government protesters after we saw that both sides were clashing."
An estimated 30,000 demonstrators marched near the presidential palace in the port city of Hodeida Tuesday evening, witnesses said.
The violence comes as the United States is helping to mediate a transition out of office for Saleh, who has been facing popular protests for weeks, according to two Yemeni officials.
The timing is delicate, officials said, because they want to avoid any steps that could further destabilize Yemen or interrupt counterterrorism efforts in a country that U.S. officials believe is home to some of the world's most active al Qaeda operatives.
The White House said in a statement Tuesday it "strongly condemns the use of violence by Yemeni government forces against demonstrators in Sanaa, Taiz and Hodeida in the past several days. The Yemeni people have a right to demonstrate peacefully, and we remind President Ali Abdullah Saleh of his responsibility to ensure the safety and security of Yemenis who are exercising their universal right to engage in political expression."
The statement called upon Yemen's government to investigate and hold those responsible accountable. "The United States strongly supports the Yemeni people in their quest for greater opportunity and their pursuit of political and economic reform that will fulfill their aspirations," the statement said. "President Saleh needs to resolve the political impasse with the opposition so that meaningful political change can take place in the near term in an orderly and peaceful manner."
On Sunday, the state-run Saba news agency reported clashes there caused the deaths of 10 people and injured a number of other demonstrators. According to Saba, witnesses said the opposition had deployed armed militias in the city.
Taiz Gov. Hamoud al-Soufi said protesters had attacked the governor's building and the presidential palace in Taiz, and that he was forming a committee to investigate the incident.
"We express our deep regret for the deviation of peaceful protests," he said.
The U.N. human rights office on Tuesday called on Yemen to halt the use of force against protesters, citing more than 100 deaths since the protests began.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague also said he was appalled by the reports of further deaths this week.
"In early March, President Saleh promised to maintain maximum restraint in the use of the Yemeni security forces in controlling peaceful demonstrations. We strongly urge him to keep that promise," he said.
Earlier, an Obama administration official told CNN that the United States has been working behind the scenes, trying to determine the best way forward.
"Whatever timeline they develop, we can accept -- but it needs to be worked out. That's the problem that's making people anxious," he said. "There has to be a path forward, it can't be a situation where he thinks that, week to week, he can sort of continue to hold on without making some kind of accommodation."
Saleh offered to step down by the end of the year after constitutional reforms and new elections, but the opposition, led by the Joint Meeting Parties bloc, is demanding he leave immediately. A plan unveiled by the bloc Saturday called for Saleh to hand over all authority to Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi in the interim. But Saleh is not offering any further concessions, and protests by the opposition continue.
U.S. officials said various groups, including al Qaeda and secessionist elements, are exploiting the political turbulence and splits within the military and security services for their own gain.
The rapidly deteriorating situation presents a major problem for the Obama administration.
Saleh has been in power since 1978 and has been a staunch U.S. ally in the fight against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Saleh argues he should remain in office because he is the only one who can effectively continue that fight against terrorism. One U.S. official said Yemen presents a serious challenge for the administration, as the government is "preoccupied with political unrest," and little is being done on the counterterrorism front.
A counterterrorism official said there is concern over Yemen's pursuit of terrorists. "The ability of what's left of the government to manage internal security which includes (al Qaeda) is in question," said the official. A weakened security system in the country "provides an opportunity to be exploited" by al Qaeda, the official said. CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom, Jill Dougherty, Pam Benson and Elise Labott contributed to this report | Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2011 | ['(CNN)'] |
A U.S. federal grand jury in Washington indicts former Major League Baseball superstar pitcher Roger Clemens on charges of making false statements to Congress about his alleged use of performanceenhancing drugs. | Roger Clemens, considered the greatest pitcher of his generation, now faces the possibility of becoming the first baseball player to be sentenced to prison for his role in the game's steroid scandal.
Clemens was charged on Thursday with six counts of allegedly lying to Congress about using performance-enhancing drugs and faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine if convicted. He told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in February 2008 that he never used steroids or human-growth hormone, contradicting what former trainer Brian McNamee said to the committee, federal agents and investigator George Mitchell.
Earl Ward, one of McNamee's attorneys, called the indictment a "vindication." Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young winner, said it is an injustice, according to his verified Twitter account.
"I look forward to challenging the government's accusations," Clemens tweeted, "and hope people will keep an open mind until trial."
Clemens' attorney, Rusty Hardin, said federal prosecutors made Clemens a plea offer but he rejected it. Hardin declined to comment on details of the proposed plea deal, which ordinarily involves admitting to a crime while avoiding the scenario of a multiple-count indictment as happened in the Clemens case.
Hardin said that although many have argued that Clemens should simply admit he took steroids, "the problem is nobody ever talks about what he should have done if he didn't do it."
Yet, the indictment may have only confirmed what most people believe.
"I figured this (indictment) would happen," said David Segui, a former workout partner of McNamee's, who testified this year in front of the grand jury investigating Clemens. "I told them I didn't know what Roger did. I never saw him do it. But I do know what (McNamee) told me. We talked about it a million times. And I know he kept the needles that he used (on Clemens). He told me all of that before their falling-out, which, I think, was a key for the timeline in this.
"Everyone feels bad about this, especially (McNamee). He begged Roger to stop. Now, it's reached the point where it's going to ruin people's lives."
Clemens joins home-run king Barry Bonds as baseball's biggest stars to be indicted for allegedly lying under oath about the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Bonds was indicted in 2007 on making false statements before a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO). Bonds, who with Clemens retired in 2007, is scheduled to go on trial in March 2011.
"The case against Clemens is far stronger than the case against Barry Bonds," said Victor Conte, founder and president of BALCO. "Brian McNamee is an eyewitness who will testify against Clemens and there appears to be strong physical evidence against him as well. The government simply does not have this type of evidence against Bonds. I believe Roger Clemens is in a lot of trouble."
No date has been set for Clemens' initial court appearance, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Washington. The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, who presided over the perjury and obstruction trial of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
In his testimony to congress Clemens said, "I've been accused of something I'm not guilty of. ... I have never taken steroids or HGH."
But longtime friend and former teammate Andy Pettite told congressional investigators that Clemens confided to him that he had used HGH. Clemens said Pettite was wrong.
"I believe Andy has misheard" the conversation, Clemens responded.
"When a witness, such as Roger Clemens, lies, as I think he did, he should be held accountable," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the House committee's chairman at the time of the baseball star's testimony.
Former Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, who was the top Republican on the House panel, called the indictment "a self-inflicted wound" by Clemens.
"Clemens was not under subpoena. He came voluntarily. He wanted to come to the committee and clear his name," Davis said. "And I sat there in the office with (committee chairman) Henry Waxman and said, 'Whatever you do, don't lie.'"
Earlier this year, Rangers president Nolan Ryan said he felt for Clemens.
"I've talked to him a few times," baseball's all-time strikeout leader told USA TODAY. "He tries to put up a brave front, but it's so tough on him with this turn in his life creating all of this unrest for him. What he's accomplished in baseball, and his status as a sports celebrity, it's sad to see him in this position."
Clemens won his seven Cy Young Awards during a 24-year career with Boston, Toronto, the Yankees and Houston. He went 354-184 and stands third on the all-time strikeout list with 4,672. The former University of Texas star helped the Longhorns win the College World Series and also won World Series crowns with the Yankees in 1999 and 2000.
Clemens last pitched in 2007 after he returned to the Yankees following three years with the Astros. He hasn't played since Game 3 of the first-round series against Cleveland when he left after 2 1/3 innings with a sore hamstring.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2010 | ['(The New York Times)', '(USA Today)'] |
The Australian team of Stephanie Rice, Bronte Barratt, Kylie Palmer and Linda Mackenzie wins the 800 metre freestyle relay breaking the existing world record by six seconds. China and the United States finish second and third respectively. | BEIJING (AP) — Stephanie Rice has led Australia to a gold medal in the women's 800-meter freestyle relay at the Beijing Olympics, smashing the world record by nearly 6 seconds.
Rice, Bronte Barratt, Kylie Palmer and Linda Mackenzie touched in 7 minutes, 44.31 seconds Thursday, lowering the old mark of 7:50.09 set by the U.S. at last year's world championships in Australia.
Rice earned her third gold medal of these games, having swept both individual medleys with world-record times.
The Chinese team of Yang Yu, Zhu Qianwei, Tan Miao and Pang Jiaying took the silver in 7:45.93.
The U.S. team of Allison Schmitt, Natalie Coughlin, Caroline Burckle and Katie Hoff earned the bronze in 7:46.33, the first time the Americans have lost the event since it began in 1996. | Break historical records | August 2008 | ['(AP via Google News)'] |
The U.S. Treasury Department announces new regulations to curb tax-avoiding corporate inversions, i.e., where U.S. companies slash their tax bills by claiming a new tax home overseas, though their core operations and management remain in the United States. The pending $160 billion merger of Pfizer Inc. and Allergan, Plc could be cancelled because of these new rules. | WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department took new steps on Monday to curb tax-avoiding corporate “inversions,” with the pending $160 billion merger of Pfizer Inc and Allergan Plc seen as a potential casualty.
The changes, less than a year before President Barack Obama ends his term, follow sharp political criticism of Pfizer’s and Allergan’s merger, which would be the largest inversion deal ever. While the rules did not single out this deal, one of the provisions takes aim directly at it.
Shares of Dublin-based Allergan fell 22 percent in after-market trading, while shares of New York-based Pfizer rose 3 percent.
The companies said they were reviewing the Treasury Department’s notice. “Prior to completing any review, we won’t speculate on any potential impact,” the companies said in a joint statement.
The federal government has grappled with a wave of inversions in recent years as U.S. companies have sought to slash their tax bills by redomiciling overseas, though their core operations and management usually remain in the United States even as they claim a new tax home. Several U.S. presidential candidates, including Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, have seized on the issue in their campaigns.
Obama, a Democrat, has called repeatedly for action by the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress on inversions, but lawmakers have done little. He repeated his appeal to Congress on Monday and said he welcomed the Treasury’s action.
The Treasury said in a statement it will impose a three-year limit on foreign companies bulking up on U.S. assets to avoid ownership limits for a later inversion deal.
“In simple words, Allergan’s key deals in the prior 36 months won’t be counted (as far as meeting the inversion threshold is concerned) when doing the ownership math for the Pfizer-Allergan deal,” Evercore analyst Umer Raffat wrote in a note.
These deals include the $66 billion merger of Allergan Plc and Actavis Plc, the $25 billion purchase of Forest Laboratories and the $5 billion takeover of Warner Chilcott.
“The real issue is not so much what Allergan may prove or disprove, or whether Treasury overstepped its authority. The real question is whether Pfizer reads today’s regulations as reason enough to not continue to pursue the deal,” Raffat wrote.
Under the agreement between Pfizer and Allergan, either party may terminate the deal if an adverse change in U.S. law would cause the combined company to be treated as a U.S. domestic corporation for federal income tax purposes. The terminating party would have to pay the other company up to $400 million for its expenses, according to the merger agreement.
Treasury also said it is proposing rules to tackle a practice known as earnings stripping that is often undertaken following an inversion.
Earnings stripping covers a range of financial dealings that shrink the taxable U.S. profits of multinationals. A common strategy is to load up the U.S. unit of a redomiciled foreign company with debt and then shift U.S. profits to the new lower-tax foreign jurisdiction through interest payments.
The new Treasury rules would restrict related-party debt for U.S. subsidiaries in dealings that do not finance new investment in the United States. As part of these proposed regulations, the Internal Revenue Service would also be able to divide debt instruments into part debt and part equity, Treasury said.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said the new actions would “further rein in” inversions, while he repeated his call that only legislation in Congress could prevent such deals.
But at least one business group, the Organization for International Investment, which advocates for foreign-based companies, condemned the new rules.
“Treasury’s action would increase the cost of investing and expanding across the United States for all foreign companies and put at risk more than 12 million American workers that are supported by foreign direct investment in the United States,” Nancy McLemon, the group’s chief executive, said in a statement.
Such tax avoidance schemes have long been a thorn in Treasury’s side. The proposed deal between Pfizer and Allergan, which would create the world’s largest drugmaker, prompted renewed scrutiny.
Pfizer plans to redomicile in Ireland, where Allergan is based, and the companies expect to complete their merger in the second half of this year.
Last November, following the announcement of the Allergan-Pfizer deal, Treasury clamped down on inversions by limiting a U.S. acquirer’s ability to set up a new foreign parent in a third country and to “stuff” assets into a foreign parent to meet post-inversion ownership limits.
On Treasury’s latest steps, Senator Charles Schumer of New York, who has been a co-sponsor of legislation to curb inversions, said in a statement: “These regulations will make potential inverters and foreign acquirers think twice before making the leap, and those bad actors should be on notice that we intend to clamp down even further.”
(This story has been refiled to correct syntax in headline. It was earlier refiled to add dropped word “Pfizer” in paragraph 3)
Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir in Washington, D.C. and Carl O’Donnell in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
| Government Policy Changes | April 2016 | ['(CNN Money)', '(Reuters)'] |
As part of an ongoing investigation, British police arrest six people in connection with Monday's deadly explosion, including a 23-year-old man who was taken into custody Tuesday. (Reuters²) | MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Police scrambled to close down a network around the Manchester suicide bomber with arrests in Britain and Tripoli on Wednesday, as details about the investigation were leaked to U.S. media, infuriating authorities who fear a second attack is imminent.
Troops deployed around London's Westminster as part of 'Operation Temperer'
00:54
British-born Salman Abedi, 22, who was known to security services, killed 22 people at a concert venue packed with children on Monday.
Authorities believe he had help in building the bomb, which photographs published by the New York Times showed was sophisticated and powerful, and that his accomplices could be ready to strike again.
Manchester police arrested five men and one woman on Wednesday, bringing the total held for questioning to seven, and searched multiple addresses in northern and central England.
Explosives were found at one site, the Independent reported, citing security service sources.
A source said British investigators were hunting for anyone who may have helped build the suicide bomb.
“I think it’s very clear that this is a network that we are investigating,” police chief Ian Hopkins said outside Manchester police headquarters.
“And as I’ve said, it continues at a pace. There’s extensive investigations going on and activity taking place across Greater Manchester as we speak.”
Abedi, who was born in Manchester in 1994 to Libyan parents, blew himself up on Monday night at the Manchester Arena indoor venue at the end of a concert by U.S. pop singer Ariana Grande attended by thousands of children and teenagers.
Police in Tripoli on Wednesday arrested Abedi’s younger brother and his father, who said he did not expect the attack.
“I spoke to [Salman Abedi] about five days ago ... there was nothing wrong, everything was normal,” Ramadan Abedi told Reuters, moments before he was arrested.
A spokesman for the local counter-terrorism force said his brother Hashem Abedi was arrested on suspicion of links with Islamic State and was suspected of planning to carry out an attack in the Libyan capital.
The first arrest made in Britain on Tuesday was reported by British and U.S. media to be Abedi’s older brother.
Earlier, interior minister Amber Rudd said the bomber had recently returned from Libya. Her French counterpart Gerard Collomb said he had links with Islamic State and had probably visited Syria as well.
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Authorities in Britain have become increasingly angered by U.S. leaks from the investigation, including the bomber’s name on Tuesday and the photos of blood-stained fragments from the bomb on Wednesday.
British police chiefs said the breaches of trust between security service partners were undermining their efforts.
Rudd had earlier scolded U.S. officials for leaking details.
“The British police have been very clear that they want to control the flow of information in order to protect operational integrity, the element of surprise, so it is irritating if it gets released from other sources, and I have been very clear with our friends that should not happen again,” she said.
But, hours after the warning, the New York Times published the detailed photographs.
A government source told the Guardian newspaper, “Protests have been lodged at every relevant level between the British authorities and our U.S. counterparts.”
British Prime Minster Theresa May will meet U.S. President Donald Trump at a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday, but officials said she would cut short the second leg of her trip to the G7 summit in Italy.
The Manchester bombing has raised concern across Europe.
Cities including Paris, Nice, Brussels, St. Petersburg, Berlin and London have suffered militant attacks in the last two years.
The 22 victims in Manchester included an eight-year-old girl, several teenage girls, a 28-year-old man and a Polish couple who had come to collect their daughters.
Britain’s official terror threat level was raised to “critical”, the highest level, late on Tuesday, meaning an attack was expected imminently.
But with just over two weeks to go until a national election, May’s Conservatives and political parties said they would resume campaigning in the coming days.
The Manchester bombing was the deadliest attack in Britain since July 2005, when four British Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people in coordinated attacks on London’s transport network.
Rudd said up to 3,800 soldiers could be deployed on Britain’s streets, taking on guard duties to free up police to focus on patrols and investigation. An initial deployment of 984 had been ordered, first in London and then elsewhere.
Soldiers were seen at the Houses of Parliament, May’s Downing Street residence and at the London police headquarters at New Scotland Yard.
The Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace, a draw for tourists, was canceled because it requires support from police officers, which authorities decided was not a good use of resources given the threat level.
A source close to the bombing investigation told Reuters that the focus was on whether Abedi had received help in putting together the bomb and on where it had been done.
The bomb used in the attack appeared to contain carefully packed shrapnel and have a powerful, high velocity charge, according to leaked photographs from the investigation published by the New York Times.
The BBC reported that security services thought the bomb was too sophisticated for Abedi to have built by himself.
Police arrested three people in South Manchester, one woman in North Manchester, a man in the nearby town of Wigan, and another man in the central English town of Nuneaton.
Ariana Grande’s representative said on Wednesday she was suspending her tour to assess the situation and to “pay our proper respects to those lost”. The U.S. singer had been scheduled to perform two shows at London’s O2 arena this week.
Chelsea soccer club said it had canceled a victory parade that had been set to take place on Sunday to celebrate its Premier League title.
Several high-profile sporting events are coming up in Britain, including the soccer FA Cup final at London’s Wembley Stadium and the English rugby club competition final at Twickenham on Saturday and the UEFA Champions League final at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on June 3.
Britain also has a national election scheduled for June 8.
All campaigning was suspended after the attack, although major parties said they would resume some activities on Thursday and national-level campaigning on Friday.
The government said a minute’s silence would be held at all official buildings at 1000 GMT (6.00 a.m. ET) on Thursday.
Greater Manchester Police said they were now confident they knew the identity of all the people who lost their lives and had made contact with all the families. They said they would formally name the victims after forensic post-mortems, which would take four or five days.
The bombing also left 64 people wounded, of whom 20 were receiving critical care for highly traumatic injuries to major organs and to limbs, a health official said.
France, which has repeatedly been hit by devastating militant attacks since 2015, extended emergency powers.
(For a graphic showing where the blast hit, click tmsnrt.rs/2rbQAay)
Additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, Costas Pitas, Kate Holton, Alistair Smout and Kylie MacLellan in London, and Mark Hosenball in Washington, Writing by Estelle Shirbon, Paul Sandle and William James; Editing by Angus MacSwan, Toni Reinhold
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Exclusive: Fed’s Neel Kashkari opposes rate hikes at least through 2023 as the central bank becomes more hawkish | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | May 2017 | ['(ABC News)', '(Reuters)'] |
The Saudi–owned news channel Al Arabiya shuts its offices in Beirut, Lebanon and dismisses 27 employees in a sudden move reflecting tensions between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon–based Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran. Saudi Arabia interpreted Lebanon's lack of public solidarity as a sign that it had become beholden to Hezbollah. | The Saudi-owned news channel Al-Arabiya shut its offices in Beirut and dismissed 27 employees in a sudden move reflecting tensions between Riyadh and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
The channel on April 1 cited employee safety as the reason for closing its office and that of its sister channel Al-Hadath. Some other Saudi news outlets in Beirut have been hit with protests recently.
Al-Arabiya, one of the main Arabic language broadcasters in the Middle East, said it will "continue to closely cover Lebanese affairs" and will help laid-off employees find jobs elsewhere.
The move reflects ongoing tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran's allies. Last month, Riyadh cut $3 billion in military aid to Lebanon after the Lebanese government failed to condemn an attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran in January.
The Sunni Gulf monarchy interpreted Lebanon's lack of public solidarity as a sign that it had become beholden to Hezbollah. | Organization Closed | April 2016 | ['(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)'] |
Iranian police launch an investigation following another suspicious explosion, this one at an industrial complex south of Mashhad. | Police in Iran are investigating the cause of a fire that broke out at an industrial complex in northeast Iran, state news reported on Monday.
Citing the semi-official Mehr news agency, Reuters quoted Javad Jahandoust, fire chief at the Kavian Fariman industrial complex, who said the fire was under control after a storage tank exploded. He said the incident at the industrial zone, which is located south of the city of Mashhad, is under investigation.
A string of suspicious fires has rocked the country since late June. Iran’s Defense Ministry confirmed an industrial gas tank exploded near a military complex in Tehran on June 26. That was followed by another gas explosion on June 30 at a private medical clinic that left 19 people dead.
Days later, Iranian officials confirmed there was an “incident” at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant. Two intelligence officials told The New York Times the complex was left in “charred ruins” and could take up to two years to return to its previous production capacity.
On Sunday, a fire caused by an oil leak erupted at a petrochemical facility in southwest Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported. The governor of Mahshahr County said there were no casualties or significant damage.
The blasts come as the Islamic Republic continues to deal with a worsening coronavirus outbreak. Despite more than 13,000 deaths from COVID-19, President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday the sanctions-battered economy could not afford to close down again. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | July 2020 | ['(Al-Monitor)'] |
U.S. President Barack Obama and the First Family begin their three-day visit to Havana, Cuba, to mark the end of 54 years of tensions in Cuba–United States relations. Obama is the first sitting U.S. president to visit the country since Calvin Coolidge in 1928. | open-minded writing HAVANA TIMES — Barack Obama became the first US president to visit Cuba after the 1959 revolution. He arrived in Havana in the afternoon for a three-day visit during which he will meet with his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro, reported dpa news.
The Twitter account of President published a first message of greeting to Cubans moments after Air Force One touched down at 4:18 p.m. local time. ¿Que bolá? said the message, a popular slang greeting often used by younger Cubans.
“Just landed here, waiting to meet and hear directly from Cubans,” the president said in English.
Expectations about Obama’s visit through Tuesday are enormous. In addition to seeing Raul Castro, the US leader will meet with Cuban dissidents and deliver a nationally televised speech from the Havana Grand Theater, in the heart of the city.
According to White House staff, Obama has no plans to see former President Fidel Castro.
The visit is a milestone in the historic thaw the two countries announced in December 2014, after decades of ideological hostilities, which also negatively affected Washington’s relations with Latin America.
Washington and Havana resumed diplomatic relations in July 2015 with the subsequent reopening of embassies in the respective capitals.
Obama arrived on the island with his wife, Michelle, and daughters Sasha and Malia, as well as a large delegation of senators, congress and business people and athletes.
After meeting with officials at the US Embassy, the Obamas will begin their visit with a stroll through the colonial center of Old Havana. The president will also meet at the Cathedral with the Archbishop of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, one of the few negotiators recognized by the Communist Party outside the Castro government apparatus on the island.
Dissidents arrested before Obama arrived
Dozens of dissidents were arrested hours before the arrival of Obama. The arrests took place around noon in the neighborhood of Miramar, during the march organized every Sunday by the Ladies in White opposition group.
“There is a deliberate climate of political repression on the island for the visit of President Obama,” human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez told dpa, in a telephone conversation.
Obama’s official program begins in Havana on Monday.
After laying a wreath to the Cuban national hero Jose Marti in the Plaza of the Revolution, Obama will then meet with his counterpart Raul Castro in the neighboring Palace of the Revolution.
In the afternoon the US leader will hold a forum with representatives of the emerging private sector of the island. The meeting is to take place at the artistic space Cuban Art Factory and is one of the events with which Obama wants to show his support for an opening of the economy by the Castro government.
Since Raul Castro took over from his brother Fidel in 2006, he has opened limited spaces to small private enterprise after decades of a full state monopoly. Roughly 5% of Cubans have taken out licenses to work as “self-employed”, according to official figures.
On Tuesday morning, Obama will deliver an unprecedented speech to Cubans from the Havana Grand Theater. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said that the address will be broadcast live on state television even if it contains criticism of the Castro government.
Obama will meet later with a dozen opponents of the Castro government at the US embassy. The president had indicated on several occasions that meeting with dissidents was a must if he traveled to Havana.
On Tuesday afternoon Obama will attend a baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national team. Baseball raises passions on both sides of the Florida Straits.
The rapprochement with Cuba is part of a new policy of Obama during his last year in office. The US president wants to promote greater openness on the island through dialogue. Meanwhile, Cuba says it will continue “updating” its socialist system.
| Diplomatic Visit | March 2016 | ['(Havana Times)', '(Jamaica Observer)'] |
According to exit polls, Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal will meet in the second round of the French presidential election on May 6. François Bayrou and Jean–Marie Le Pen are believed to have received the third and fourth most votes respectively. | With all the votes counted in Sunday's first round, Mr Sarkozy had 31%. Ms Royal, bidding to be France's first woman leader, got nearly 26%.
Centrist Francois Bayrou had 18%, and far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen almost 11%.
Voting reached near-record levels, with turnout put at almost 85% - the highest for nearly 50 years.
Disillusionment with politicians and their promises did not translate into apathy, reports the BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Paris. Instead, young and old alike queued at the polling booths at schools and town halls, although in their choices they remained as divided as ever. FIRST ROUND RESULTS
Nicolas Sarkozy - 31.1%
Segolene Royal - 25.8%
Francois Bayrou - 18.6%
Jean-Marie Le Pen - 10.5%
Voters turned out in such high numbers that the authorities decided to allow more time for people who were still queueing. Of the main candidates, Mr Sarkozy, a former interior minister, promised a "rupture" with the past and real economic reform, while Ms Royal has pledged a fairer society. Both are controversial figures who have divided the French. Mr Sarkozy is hated by the left as a reformer who many fear would change the French way of life by making the nation work harder and longer and by cutting back on its generous welfare state. French voters' views
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Ms Royal is also regarded with suspicion, seen as too authoritarian and conservative by some Socialists. Addressing a cheering crowd at his election headquarters, Mr Sarkozy said France had chosen to have a real debate between two different types of politics. "The debate should be a real debate of ideas," he said. He went on to appeal to all voters, saying: "I invite all French people, whatever their origin, whatever their beliefs, whatever their party to unite with me."
Ms Royal also stressed that voters now had a clear choice on 6 May.
She represented those who wanted to "reform France without brutalising it", she told supporters. "You have given me the responsibility of continuing the fight for change in order that France rises up."
Centre ground The centrist Francois Bayrou, who said he would bring together left and right in a government of national unity, failed to capitalise on early hopes.
NEXT STAGE OF ELECTION
27 April: Campaigning restarts
2 May: Televised debate
6 May: Second round poll
10 May: Final official results
But Mr Sarkozy and Ms Royal will be bidding to win over the political centre that he energised well enough to turn the election briefly into a three-way race.
Several million French people had opted for change, Mr Bayrou told his supporters.
"From this evening, French politics have changed and will never be as before," he said. Observers said it was a disappointing result for 78-year-old Mr Le Pen - whose prediction that he would win through to the second round, as he did in 2002, failed to materialise. The far-right leader has, however, seen many of his ideas on patriotism and immigration filter into the mainstream campaigns. Mr Le Pen blamed the media for his defeat and said he would announce on 1 May his position for the second round.
Together Mr Bayrou and Mr Le Pen accounted for some 30% of the votes. Six other left-wing candidates won a total of about 10%, while two other conservative candidates together picked up more than 3.5% of the vote. The most read story in Africa is: Saudi 'reprieve' in sorcery case | Government Job change - Election | April 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Turkish media reports that the Turkish Army has sent troops into Syria to evacuate troops and artefacts from the Tomb of Suleyman Shah in the Aleppo Governorate which has been under threat from Islamic State for several months. One soldier has reportedly been killed. , | ISTANBUL The Turkish Army launched an operation into Syria to evacuate soldiers guarding the Tomb of Suleyman Shah, which has been besieged by Islamic State militants, and move the tomb’s remains, an official and Turkish news media reported on Sunday.
The military then destroyed what was left of the site to prevent the militants from using the enclave, and one soldier was killed by accident during the operation, CNN Turk said Sunday, citing military officials. | Armed Conflict | February 2015 | ['(New York Times)', '(Hurriyet Daily News)'] |
Virginia becomes the 23rd U.S. state to abolish the death penalty, and the first Southern state to do so. | RICHMOND — Gov. Ralph Northam signed a bill Wednesday banning the death penalty, making Virginia the first of the old Confederate states to do so.
Over the past 400 years, Virginia has executed more prisoners than any other state. It is the second-most-prolific death-penalty state of the modern era, behind Texas.
Northam (D) signed the bill at the Greensville Correctional Center near Jarratt, site of the state’s execution chamber.
Virginia is about to abolish the death penalty. It was a long, surprising road to get there.
“Signing this new law is the right thing to do. It is the moral thing to do,” Northam said Wednesday afternoon, speaking to a gathering of lawmakers and prison officials under a tent outside the correctional center before signing the bill.
Northam said he had just toured the execution chamber.
“I know that experience will stay with me for the rest of my life,” Northam said.
He described how his thinking on capital punishment has changed over the years. As a young man, he said, “I believed in an eye for an eye.” But as he got older, he said, he came to understand that the system was fundamentally flawed.
“It is not fair,” he said. “It is applied differently based on who you are. And the system has gotten it wrong.”
Citing the long history of racial disparity in the way the death penalty has been applied, with Black defendants far more likely to be executed than White ones, Northam said the system can no longer be justified.
“There is no place today for the death penalty in this commonwealth, in the South or in this nation,” he said.
Virginia juries have largely stopped handing out death sentences in recent years. The state’s last execution was in 2017, and only two inmates remained on the state’s death row after years with a population in the double digits.
The Democratic-controlled General Assembly passed the ban on capital punishment earlier this year with some bipartisan support. Two GOP delegates and one senator joined in the vote.
Lawmakers vote to make Virginia first Southern state to abolish death penalty
Other Republicans said they would have supported ending the death penalty if the bill had included a sentence of life without the possibility of parole as an alternative, but Democrats insisted on preserving flexibility for sentencing.
Sen. Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax), who sponsored the Senate version of the bill and has worked against the death penalty for more than a decade, cited Virginia’s history as both the birthplace of the Bill of Rights during the Revolution era and a land of racism and violence against Black people during the time of Jim Crow.
The connection between the lynching of Black men and the advent of the death penalty is “undeniable,” Surovell said. Northam’s action, he added, would “restore Virginia to its position of leadership not just in the county but in the world as a society, a government that values civil rights.”
The ban highlights Virginia’s sharp political pivot in recent years, as the once-conservative state has become more diverse and increasingly blue. Democrats won their majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly in 2019 after a generation of Republican control.
After last year’s protests over racial inequity, driven by the killing of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, Virginia Democrats enacted a slate of changes to the state’s criminal justice system.
Those include requirements for police training and oversight, allowing defendants convicted by a jury to be sentenced by a judge and legalizing recreational use of small amounts of marijuana by 2024.
| Government Policy Changes | March 2021 | ['(The Washington Post)'] |
Pro-democracy demonstrators and the Hong Kong Police Force clash outside the headquarters of the Government of Hong Kong. Dozens of people are arrested. , | Fear rippled through the protest camp, with some leaders defending a decision to confront the police.
The clashes threw into question how much longer the Hong Kong government would tolerate the protesters.
Many protesters wore masks and goggles, worried that the police would use pepper spray.
Sunday night began with rousing speeches and calls for peaceful disobedience, before giving way to chaos and fear.
By Chris Buckley and Austin Ramzy
HONG KONG — Pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong suffered a setback on Monday, when their attempt overnight to besiege government offices collapsed and the police thrust into the protesters’ biggest street camp.
The reversal came after a night of seesaw clashes in the political heart of the city, ending weeks of anxious calm at the protesters’ main street camp and throwing into question how much longer the Hong Kong government would tolerate hundreds of tents only a stone’s throw from the city’s administrative and legislative complex. | Riot | December 2014 | ['(New York Times)', '(AP via Fox News)'] |
Three residents of the U.S. state of Michigan are arrested at Gerald R. Ford International Airport for allegedly conspiring to support the Islamic State. | Muse Abdikadir Muse, 20, was arrested by law enforcement officers during security screening at the Gerald R. Ford Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after checking in for the first of a series of flights to Mogadishu, Somalia. His 23-year-old brother, Mohamud Abdikadir Muse, and their 26-year-old brother-in-law, Mohamed Salat Haji, were arrested in the airport terminal soon after, according to a criminal complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan.
All three men are naturalized U.S. citizens who were born in Kenya and currently reside in Lansing, Michigan.
The family first came to the attention of the FBI in April 2016 when a review of Mohamud Abdikadir Muse's public Facebook page "revealed frequent posts of photos, videos, and statements and commentary that were pro-ISIS in nature and what can be described as violent, extremist propaganda," the complaint states.
An undercover FBI employee posing as an ISIS recruiter began communicating with the former Nebraska resident via Facebook in June 2017. Mohamud Abdikadir Muse said he wanted to join the terrorist group, was saving his money to travel to Syria and that he "planned to die with a gun in his hand fighting for ISIS," according to the complaint.
Search warrants later revealed that his younger brother, Muse Abdikadir Muse, and their brother-in-law, Haji, allegedly discussed with each other via Facebook "their desire to fight for ISIS and support for the killing of non-believers." The pair also allegedly talked about the possibility of using a car "as a weapon for a planned attack" here in the United States if they could not travel overseas to fight for the terrorist group, the complaint states.
Another undercover FBI employee posing as a man in Somalia started communicating with Muse Abdikadir Muse in the fall of 2018. Muse Abdikadir Muse said he planned to travel to Somalia and sent a video pledging his allegiance to ISIS, according to the complaint.
The undercover operative told Muse Abdikadir Muse that he presented the oath video to ISIS leadership in Somalia and it was accepted. Muse Abdikadir Muse later sent oath videos from his brother and brother-in-law, which the agent confirmed were also accepted by ISIS leadership, according to the complaint.
After Muse Abdikadir Muse requested $1,200 from ISIS to help pay for airfare to Somalia's capital, the funds were sent by the FBI -- posing as ISIS -- in increments to the three relatives as well as a third undercover FBI employee whom they believed planned to accompany them on the journey. Earlier this month, Muse Abdikadir Muse purchased his ticket to Mogadishu via a series of connecting flights, according to the complaint.
During a shopping trip at a Walmart in Lansing last week to prepare for the upcoming trip, Muse Abdikadir Muse and Haji told the undercover operative "that if they failed in their attempt to join ISIS, they would conduct an attack or martyrdom operation," the complaint states.
The two brothers traveled with Haji to the airport in Grand Rapids on Monday. Following their arrests, federal agents executed search warrants at the siblings' residence, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
All three men have been charged with engaging in a conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, which is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2019 | ['(ABC News)'] |
Sudanese forces announce they have gained control of a rebel held area in Darfur after killing more than 150 members of the Justice and Equality Movement. | Sudanese TV broadcast footage of senior military officials visiting the former rebel stronghold
Sudan's military says it has seized control of a key rebel stronghold in the western region of Darfur.
An army spokesman, Al-Sawarmi Khaled, said more than 100 rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) had been killed in the Jebel Moon area. The rebels say they left the area last month to avoid civilian casualties. The insurgents signed a preliminary peace deal and ceasefire with Khartoum in February, but then pulled out after accusing the government of acts of war. The BBC's James Copnall, in Sudan's capital Khartoum, says the Darfur conflict has flared up in the last few weeks after calming down in recent years. Huge change
There has been a huge change in the situation in Darfur as the rebels now appear to be dispersed in small groups throughout the area, including the neighbouring region of Kordofan, our correspondent says. Sudanese television broadcast footage on Saturday of senior military officials visiting the former rebel stronghold. The military is claiming it scored a major victory over one of the two most significant rebel groups a day earlier. "We have liberated Jebel Moon from the Justice and Equality Movement and killed 108 members," army spokesman Mr Khaled told reporters in Khartoum. "We have detained 61 rebels and confiscated 16 cars and three large trucks." But a senior Jem official told the BBC his men had voluntarily withdrawn from the area three weeks ago, to redeploy as mobile units. He said there had been no combat in the last few days in Jebel Moon as his fighters had already left. However, both sides agreed there had been clashes farther south on the Nyala to Ed Daein road in South Darfur on Thursday. Our correspondent says again there is disagreement about how many people were killed and it is difficult to verify what happened. Some 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur, according to the UN, and more than 2.6 million displaced since ethnic rebels took up arms in 2003. | Armed Conflict | May 2010 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(AP)', '(BBC)', '(The Times of India)', '(France24)'] |
President Manuel Merino resigns five days after taking office as two demonstrators are shot dead and most of his Cabinet step down. | Peru's interim president has resigned, a day after two people died during protests against his government.
Manuel Merino, former speaker of Congress, had been in the post less than a week. He replaced President Martín Vizcarra, who last Monday was removed in an impeachment procedure over bribery allegations, which he denies. Politicians had called for Mr Merino's resignation after a violent crackdown on demonstrations against him. Twelve ministers from his recently appointed cabinet resigned earlier on Sunday in protest against police brutality and his handling of the crisis.
Congress failed to agree a replacement for Mr Merino when it met on Sunday, rejecting a team led by Rocío Silva Santisteban, a writer and former human rights activist. A new list, made up of an interim president and senior politicians from across the spectrum, was being drafted.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators - many of them young - have been taking part in protests against Mr Vizcarra's removal in recent days.
They accuse Congress of staging a parliamentary coup. Mr Vizcarra, 57, has enjoyed continued support among many voters for his attempts at reform. Saturday's protests in Lima were largely peaceful but clashes broke out towards the evening between police and protesters. Police reportedly fired tear gas and shotgun pellets to repel demonstrators, some of whom had thrown fireworks and stones.
Two students, Jack Pintado, 22, and Inti Sotelo, 24, were killed in the protests. "I want to let the whole country know that I'm resigning," Mr Merino said in a televised address. There are concerns of a growing political crisis as Peru faces a severe economic downturn brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
Peru imposed one of the earliest and strictest lockdowns in Latin America to stop the spread of coronavirus - but has still seen cases rise rapidly.
It has so far reported nearly 935,000 infections and more than 35,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University - making it the country with the third highest rate of deaths per 100,000 people in the world. Mr Merino had been expected to retain the presidency until July 2021 - when Mr Vizcarra's term was due to end.
Mr Vizcarra has been embroiled in a bitter battle with Congress, which is dominated by rival parties, since he took office in March 2018. He has denied allegations that he accepted bribes worth 2.3m soles ($640,000; £487,000) when he was governor of the southern Moquegua region.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | November 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Paperwork filled on behalf of Aurora shooting suspect James Holmes states that he plans to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. | Defense lawyers for James E. Holmes, who is charged with opening fire in an Aurora movie theater last summer, said in court filings Tuesday that he intended to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. Mr. Holmes is accused of killing 12 people and wounding dozens more. Earlier this year, after Mr. Holmes’s defense team said it was not ready to enter a plea, Judge William B. Sylvester entered a standard not guilty plea on Mr. Holmes’s behalf. A new judge in the case, Carlos A. Samour Jr., will rule on the plea change. | Armed Conflict | May 2013 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
After six years, Google reaches a deal with a publishing group that opposed its scanning and publishing of books online. | Google has reached a deal with a publishing group to allow the scanning and publishing of books online - ending a six-year legal battle.
A court ruled in 2009 that the search company was in breach of copyright infringement after it digitised a number of French books.
But now an agreement has been made to allow publishers to opt in to being digitised by Google.
Publishers' group SNE said the deal respected the "rights of the author".
"This announcement marks a positive advance for updating France's print heritage under copyright and contributes to expanding the availability of digital books," it said in a statement.
A Paris court had ordered Google to pay 300,000 euros (£240,000) to three French publishers.
Google had appealed against the decision - but has now struck a deal.
"The authors will be able to say yes or no to the indexing of their works," SNE president Antoine Gallimard said.
"It is now up to each publishing house to decide if it wants to sign a framework accord with Google on authorship rights or not."
The SGDL, which represents French authors, said the agreement would protect their rights on the internet.
As part of the deal, Google will give money to a scheme helping primary school children learn to read.
Google Books France director Philippe Colombet said: "All conditions are now in place for Google to participate in developing digital books in France and contribute to spreading French culture."
The legal battle was just one of the tussles Google has faced over its books project.
The company has said it wants to digitise every book in the world by the end of the decade. So far, it has managed 20 million.
Last year, a deal between Google and US publishers to allow publication of books online was quashed by the US courts.
A judge said Google would gain a significant competitive advantage for "engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission". | Sign Agreement | June 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Leaders of north and south Sudan reach a deal on a referendum for the south's independence in 2011. | The two main political parties in Sudan’s north and south reached agreement on Sunday on democratic reforms, defusing a row that threatened to undermine a peace accord.
The south’s dominant Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) joined a coalition government with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s northern National Congress Party (NCP) as part of a 2005 accord to end more than two decades of war.
Relations between the former foes have been strained, most recently last week when Khartoum authorities arrested two senior SPLM officials and scores of their supporters during a protest.
Analysts have warned of a risk of a return to conflict if the parties could not agree terms for laws supposed to pave the way to elections, due in April, and a referendum on southern independence in 2011. Both were promised under the peace deal.
“We have reached agreement on three very important laws which have been grounds for serious disagreements between the two parties,” SPLM secretary general Pagan Amum told reporters.
He was speaking after a meeting between President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who heads the NCP, and south Sudan’s president and SPLM leader Salva Kiir.
Amum said the laws covered the national referendum, a consultation exercise for people living in boundary areas between north and south Sudan and a referendum on whether the oil-producing region of Abyei should join the south.
NCP official Nafie Ali Nafie also confirmed a deal on those issues had been reached during the meeting.
Amum said the two sides also agreed to form a committee to discuss remaining issues, including differences over a security bill which the SPLM has argued gave too many powers to security services.
Both sides have met repeatedly over the past year to try to break a deadlock on the bills. The parties have announced breakthroughs before that failed to end long term wrangling over the details of the peace accord.
| Sign Agreement | December 2009 | ['(AFP)', '(Reuters)'] |
Gazans launch a kite carrying a firebomb over the Israeli border near Kibbutz Kissufim, starting a fire in a field. It is the fourth such incident this week. Local authorities alert residents to be vigilant for potential repeat attacks. | Palestinians on Sunday flew a kite carrying a fire bomb over the border from Gaza into Israel, where it caused a small fire in an agricultural field adjacent to the Hamas-controlled territory.
The Molotov cocktail started a fire in a field outside Kibbutz Kissufim, a Jewish community bordering the central Gaza Strip. Firefighters extinguished the blaze, preventing major damage. No injuries were reported.
Immediately after the incident, the Eshkol regional council issued a stark warning to residents, telling them to be on alert for repeat attacks.
“In the last 24 hours, there have been several cases of kite flying with Molotov cocktails from the strip to our territory,” the council said in a statement. “In all cases, the bottles fell close to the border and caused fires, without casualties… The public is asked to be alert and to report on any unusual incident of fires in the area.” | Fire | April 2018 | ['(The Times of Israel)'] |
At least 13 passengers are killed in a head–on bus collision in Tver, Russia. The bus driver and another passenger are injured. | At least 13 passengers have been killed in a head-on bus collision some 170 kilometers north of Moscow on Friday.
A Ford Transit wagon carrying 14 passengers from the city of Tver to a nearby town drove into the oncoming lane and hit a public transportation bus at around 8 a.m. Moscow time, the state-run TASS news agency cited the Ministry of Emergency Situations as saying.
All but one of the minibus passengers were immediately killed in the head-on collision, with one 19-year-old passenger hospitalized in serious but stable condition.
The bus driver and its only passenger are being treated for various injuries.
Investigators have opened a criminal case into the violation of safety requirements that resulted in multiple deaths.
More than 19,000 people died in traffic accidents in Russia last year, according to an online service that tracks the incidents. | Road Crash | October 2018 | ['(The Moscow Times)'] |
British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, former girlfriend of American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on suspicion of grooming victims of Epstein. She has also been charged with assisting Epstein's abuse of minors by helping to recruit and groom victims known to be underage. | British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, an ex-girlfriend of convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, has been charged in the US after being arrested by the FBI.
She is accused of assisting Epstein's abuse of minors by helping to recruit and groom victims known to be underage.
After being arrested in New Hampshire, she was brought to court and remanded in custody, for transfer to New York. Ms Maxwell, 58, has previously denied any involvement in or knowledge of Epstein's alleged sexual misconduct.
Epstein died in prison on 10 August as he awaited, without the chance of bail, his trial on sex trafficking charges.
He was arrested last year in New York following allegations that he was running a network of underage girls - some as young as 14 - for sex. His death was determined to be suicide.
Prosecutors allege that between 1994 and 1997 Ms Maxwell helped Epstein groom girls as young as 14.
The charges say she would build a rapport with them - including by taking them shopping or to the movies - and would later coax them into giving Epstein massages during which they were sexually abused.
"Maxwell played a critical role in helping Epstein to identify, befriend and groom minor victims for abuse," said Audrey Strauss, acting US attorney for the southern district of New York.
Five of the six charges brought against her each carry a sentence of five years with the sixth - transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity - punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Four of the charges relate to the years 1994-97 when Ms Maxwell was, according to the indictment, among Epstein's closest associates and also in an "intimate relationship" with him. The other two charges are allegations of perjury in 2016. The indictment says Ms Maxwell "assisted, facilitated, and contributed to Jeffrey Epstein's abuse of minor girls by, among other things, helping Epstein to recruit, groom and ultimately abuse victims known to Maxwell and Epstein to be under the age of 18".
Specifically, she is charged with:
She is accused of grooming multiple minor girls to engage in sex acts with Epstein. She allegedly attempted to befriend them by asking about their lives and families and then she and Epstein built the friendships by taking minor victims to the cinema or shopping.
Having built a rapport, Ms Maxwell would "try to normalise sexual abuse for a minor victim by... discussing sexual topics, undressing in front of the victim, being present when a minor victim was undressed, and/or being present for sex acts involving the minor victim and Epstein".
"Maxwell and Epstein worked together to entice these minor victims to travel to Epstein's residences - his residence in New York City on the Upper East Side, as well as Palm Beach, Florida, and Santa Fe, New Mexico," Ms Strauss told reporters. "Some of the acts of abuse also took place in Maxwell's residence in London, England."
The perjury counts relate to depositions she gave to a New York court on 22 April and 22 July 2016. The charge sheet says she "repeatedly lied when questioned about her conduct, including in relation to some of the minor victims".
"Maxwell lied because the truth, as alleged, was almost unspeakable," said Ms Strauss. Allegations against Epstein had dated back years before the parents of a 14-year-old girl said he had molested her in 2005. Under a legal deal, he avoided federal charges and since 2008 was listed as level three on the New York sex offenders register.
But he was arrested again in New York on 6 July 2019 and accused of sex trafficking of underage girls over a number of years.
Some of Epstein's alleged victims have accused Ms Maxwell of bringing them into his circle to be sexually abused by him and his friends.
One told the BBC's Panorama that Ms Maxwell "controlled the girls. She was like the Madam". Ms Maxwell has denied any wrongdoing.
Nada Tawfik, BBC North America reporter
The charges against Ghislaine Maxwell were not a surprise, and it shows that the investigation into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is not losing steam, even after his death. Numerous victims in civil and criminal cases had identified Ms Maxwell as the lead person who groomed them and delivered them to Epstein. In fact, after he was arrested, there was a frenzied search, not just by investigators, but by the media too, for the British socialite who quickly went into hiding.
Legal experts say as a charged co-conspirator, Ms Maxwell is just as liable for Epstein's crimes and faces the same potential punishment. Prosecutors probably have numerous witnesses ready to testify - girls who are now women reliving the trauma of what happened to them decades ago and fighting for justice.
The questions on everyone's mind is who else might be implicated in Epstein's crimes, and whether Ms Maxwell will give the authorities new information. Besides connecting Epstein to young girls, she also connected him to her influential social circle.
Earlier this year she sued Epstein's estate seeking reimbursement for legal fees and security costs. She "receives regular threats to her life and safety", court documents in that case said.
Another of Epstein's alleged victims, Virginia Giuffre, has accused Ms Maxwell of recruiting her as a masseuse to the financier at the age of 15.
Details of that allegation against Ms Maxwell emerged in documents unsealed by a US judge last August in a 2015 defamation case but are not part of the charges against Ms Maxwell unveiled in July 2020.
Ms Maxwell is the daughter of late British media mogul Robert Maxwell.
A well-connected socialite, she is said to have introduced Epstein to many of her wealthy and powerful friends, including Bill Clinton and the Duke of York (who was accused in the 2015 court papers of touching a woman at Jeffrey Epstein's US home, although the court subsequently struck out allegations against the duke).
Buckingham Palace has said that "any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors" by the duke was "categorically untrue". Ms Maxwell has mostly been out of public view since 2016.
In a BBC interview last year, the Duke of York said he had met Ms Maxwell last year, before Epstein was arrested and charged. However they did not discuss Epstein, he said.
Last month a US prosecutor said Prince Andrew had "sought to falsely portray himself" as eager to co-operate with the inquiry into Epstein.
US attorney Geoffrey Berman said Prince Andrew had "repeatedly declined our request" to schedule an interview.
The duke's lawyers previously rejected claims he had not co-operated, saying he offered to help three times.
Prince Andrew stepped away from royal duties last year.
Asked about the prince on Thursday, acting Attorney Strauss said: "I am not going to comment on anyone's status in this investigation but I will say that we would welcome Prince Andrew coming in to talk with us, we would like to have the benefit of his statement."
A source close to Prince Andrew's lawyers told BBC News: "The Duke's team is bewildered by the DoJ's [Department of Justice's] comments earlier today as we have twice reached out to them in the last month and have received no reply."
. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Pakistani journalist Zaman Mehsud is shot dead by two motorcycle–riding gunmen in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the country's northwestern tribal region. According to a 2014 report, at least 56 journalists have been killed in Pakistan since 1992. | TANK, Pakistan, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- A local journalist was shot dead Tuesday by militants in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the country's volatile northwestern tribal region.
Muhammad Zaman Mehsud was traveling in the province's Tank district when two motorcycle-riding gunmen opened fire, police say. He was rushed to a local hospital and pronounced dead.
Zaman Mehsud reportedly worked as a senior journalist for Umaat, and Urdu daily newspaper, and served as president and secretary general of the Tribal Union of Journalists in South Waziristan, where he lived.
According to a report last year by the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 56 journalists have been killed in Pakistan since 1992.
The Tank district is in the southern portion of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which lies east of seven federally administered tribal agencies along the Afghan border where militants with the Taliban, al-Qaida and affiliates of the Islamic State are known to operate.
Last week, firing from across the border in Afghanistan killed at least seven Pakistani soldiers at a post in the South Waziristan tribal region. | Riot | November 2015 | ['(UPI)', '(Xinhua)'] |
The heads of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus sign a treaty forming the Eurasian Economic Union. | Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus signed a treaty Thursday forming a massive new trading bloc known as the Eurasian Economic Union, Reuters reports.
The treaty will come into effect on January 1, 2015 as long as it’s approved by the countries’ respective parliaments. It will create the largest common market across ex-Soviet states, which its signatories hope will challenge the might of the European Union, the U.S. and China. Russian President Vladimir Putin said shortly before signing the treaty that their meeting was of “epoch-making significance,” but that it was no attempt to recreate the Soviet Union. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said the treaty represented “a bridge between the East and the West.”
Ukraine refused to join the treaty considering the conflict currently shaking the country and Russia’s recent annexation of Crimea. Armenia and Kyrgyzstan are considering joining the bloc, but other countries have turned down the opportunity to do so.
The new treaty unites three countries which have a combined population of 170 million people and a gross domestic product of 2.7 trillion dollars. Two of those countries, Kazakhstan and Russia, are oil producers. The deal will guarantee free transit of goods, services, capital and workers. | Sign Agreement | May 2014 | ['(TIME)'] |
President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, speaking in Germany, says Russian investigators have identified the killer of human rights activist Natalya Estemirova and an "international search" is underway. | Russian investigators have identified the killer of human rights activist Natalia Estemirova, President Dmitry Medvedev has said.
During a visit to Germany Mr Medvedev said an "international search" was under way for the suspect.
The announcement comes after German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Russia to "find the truth" about the killing of the Chechen rights worker.
Ms Estemirova's body was found a year ago near the Chechen Capital Grozny. But Mr Medvedev did not identify the suspect - to avoid prejudicing any case against them, he said.
The human rights worker, who had documented hundreds of cases of abuse against civilians by government backed militias, had been abducted from her office before her body was found.
"It's wrong to say that there is no investigation, the perpetrator of this murder, the killer, has been uncovered and definitely identified," Mr Medvedev said.
"There is an international search under way for him, we are now searching for not only the killer but also the person who made the order for the heinous crime to be carried out."
Ms Estemirova had worked for the prize-winning campaign group Memorial since the second Chechen War in 1999.
On Wednesday her colleagues and family accused the authorities of ignoring vital leads in the investigation.
Elena Milashina, a reporter from the Novaya Gazeta newspaper who knew Ms Estemirova, said DNA clues had not been followed up.
"[She] must have struggled with her captors because investigators obtained DNA samples of three people from under her fingernails," Ms Milashina told London's Guardian Newspaper "Why have no samples been taken from the [local] police officers for comparative study?"
Investigators had previously said one of the people responsible for the murder was a rebel fighter who had been killed in a shootout with Russian special forces last autumn.
Her colleagues find that scenario far too convenient, the BBC's Rupert Wingfield Hayes in Moscow.
They believe her real killers are linked to the pro-Moscow regime of Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, and because of that will never be brought to justice, our correspondent says. | Famous Person - Give a speech | July 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(France24)', '(iafrica)'] |
Ichiro Suzuki, a Japanese baseball star now playing for Major League Baseball's New York Yankees, breaks George Sisler's 84–year–old record for hits in a season, prompting praise from Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi and celebrations in both Seattle and Tokyo. | SEATTLE (AP) -- No. 258 for Ichiro Suzuki was like so many others, a little ground ball up the middle. Only this one made history -- a hit cheered 'round the world.
Suzuki set the major league record for hits in a season Friday night, breaking George Sisler's 84-year-old mark with a pair of early singles as the Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers 8-3.
"Through my career, I think this is the best moment," Suzuki said through an interpreter. "I can't really put it into words."
Suzuki later got another hit, giving him 259 this season and a major league-leading .373 average.
Suzuki chopped a leadoff single in the first inning, then put himself in the record book with a bouncer in the third.
"I think that's the most emotional I've ever gotten in my life," said Suzuki, who is known for his steely, methodical approach.
Fireworks exploded after Suzuki's big hit reached the outfield, creating a haze over Safeco Field, and his teammates mobbed him at first base.
"Goose bumps aren't even the right word," Seattle manager Bob Melvin said. "That second hit almost brought tears to my eyes. ... If you're talking about sending a guy up for a hit, this guy is the best ever."
With fans still cheering, Suzuki ran to the first-base seats, bowed respectfully and then shook hands with Sisler's 81-year-old daughter, Frances Sisler Drochelman, and other members of the Hall of Famer's family.
"My father would have been delighted," Drochelman said later. "He would be so happy to know such a fine young man was doing so well."
Across the Pacific, fans in downtown Tokyo watched Suzuki in sports bars and on big-screen monitors.
"I would like to give him my heartfelt congratulations," Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said. "He has made extra efforts in addition to having a natural gift."
Added Suzuki's father, Nobuyuki: "You can tell how happy and proud I am just by looking at me. The tears just won't stop flowing."
Fans at the ballpark booed when plate umpire Joe West called a rare third strike on Suzuki in the eighth. Reliever Michael Tejera got the strikeout.
But fans were back on their feet when Suzuki left for substitute Hiram Bocachica with two outs in the ninth. Melvin made the move to let Suzuki get one more ovation, and the right fielder jogged in to cheers.
"I just hope people realize the monumental effort it took to surpass this record, which has stood so long," said Seattle hitting coach Paul Molitor, who joined the Hall of Fame this summer.
Sisler set the hits record in 1920 with the St. Louis Browns over a 154-game schedule. Suzuki broke it in the Mariners' 160th game
Ron Villone (8-6) allowed two runs in five innings to earn his second victory as a starter this season. His only mistake came on Mark Teixeira's two-run homer in the first. Texas added an unearned run in the eighth, but it wasn't enough to offset Seattle's 18 hits -- 17 of them singles.
Bret Boone had three hits and drove in two runs, including an RBI single that made it 8-3 in the eighth.
Suzuki's first two hits came off Ryan Drese (14-10), boosting Suzuki to 10-for-20 lifetime against him. Suzuki's sixth-inning infield single came off John Wasdin.
Drese ran the count full in the third, and Suzuki hit a bouncer up the middle, out of the reach of shortstop Michael Young. As the cheers got louder, Teixeira shook Suzuki's hand at first base.
"It was an honor to be here and see it," Rangers manager Buck Showalter said. "I wish I'd been in the stands instead of the dugout."
After Suzuki's 258th hit, he scored his 100th run of the season when the Mariners batted around in the third, taking a 6-2 lead on six hits. Suzuki batted twice, hitting a long fly that Laynce Nix caught on the run for the third out.
There was a scary moment for Suzuki in the top of the third. The Gold Glove right fielder chased a foul ball by Ken Huckaby that landed in the stands, and casually hopped up on the low, padded fence -- but then lost his balance.
Suzuki fell awkwardly and came down straddling the fence, but was OK.
"I was very excited tonight. Maybe I was going along with that. I'm glad nothing happened," he said.
The crowd was on its feet and players in both dugouts were standing at the top rail when Suzuki led off the bottom of the first. He quickly matched Sisler's mark, bouncing a single over the head of third baseman Hank Blalock.
Fans chanted "I-chi-ro! I-chi-ro!" and he acknowledged the ovation, briefly taking off his batting helmet.
Each member of the Sisler family was in high spirits, fully expecting Suzuki to claim the record over the weekend.
"I'd be totally shocked if Ichiro didn't get it," grandson Bo Drochelman said. "We're here to celebrate baseball and my grandfather."
Suzuki's first-inning single was his 919th hit in the majors, breaking the record for most hits over a four-year span. Bill Terry of the New York Giants set the previous record of 918 hits from 1929-32. Suzuki has 921 hits in four seasons.
The 30-year-old Suzuki, a four-time All-Star, was a huge star in Japan during his nine seasons with Orix in Japan's Pacific League. He got 1,278 hits playing in his home country, and he left Japan with a .353 hitting average.
Earlier this season, Suzuki became the first player to collect at least 200 hits in each of his first major league seasons. His 222 singles this year also are a major league single-season record.
Suzuki was the AL MVP and Rookie of the Year in 2001, his first season playing in the United States. He's also been a star with his defense in right field, winning three Gold Gloves in his first three seasons. Notes: Suzuki got a standing ovation before the game, recognized as the team's player of the year by the Seattle chapter of the baseball writers association. ... The crowd of 45,573 was the ninth sellout this season. ... The last time Seattle had seven hits to open an inning was June, 1, 2003, in the first at Minnesota. | Break historical records | October 2004 | ['(CNN/SI)'] |
Voters in Egypt go to the polls for the third round of voting for the lower house of the national parliament. | Egyptians voted in the third round of a parliamentary election today that has so far handed Islamists the biggest share of seats in an assembly that will be central in the planned transition from army rule.
Islamist groups came late to the uprising that unseated former president Hosni Mubarak in February, but were well placed to seize the moment when Egyptians were handed the first chance in six decades to choose their representatives freely.
The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) led after the first two rounds, and the strong showing by Islamist movements has sown unease among Western powers that only disowned Mr Mubarak when his three-decade rule was crumbling.
Many citizens see the first fair election they can remember as a chance to end the blight of incompetent leadership and a culture of venality among the powerful that enriched a few and left millions in poverty.
In an industrial region north of Cairo where labour disputes over low wages preceded the wider protests that brought down Mr Mubarak, optimism was high as residents lined up to vote.
"I am glad to be alive to witness this - a free election in Egypt," said Ahmed Ali al-Nagar, a carpenter in his late fifties from Mahalla el-Kubra. "Workers had a big impact on the political outcome we are living through these days."
Mahalla's streets were dotted with the posters of parties, especially the Brotherhood and hardline Islamist al-Nour party, promising an end to corruption.
The concluding vote to parliament's lower house takes in regions of the rural south, which has the largest proportions of Christian voters, the Nile Delta region north of the capital Cairo, and the restive Sinai desert region to the east.
The ballot was overshadowed by the deaths of 17 people last month in clashes between the army and protesters demanding the ruling military council hand power to civilians immediately. The army says the elections will not be derailed by violence.
Turnout in earlier rounds was far higher than in Mr Mubarak's day, when ballot stuffing, thuggery and vote-rigging guaranteed landslide wins for his party.
Brotherhood banners in Mahalla carried its motto "Islam is the solution" alongside its FJP party logo, in defiance of a ban on religious slogans.
Flyers for al-Nour carried names of influential local families who had lent their support. Residents said such sponsorship boosted the popularity of the ultra-conservative party, which has also opened shops carrying its name.
Monitors praised the first two rounds as relatively free of irregularities, while noting that many parties had defied a ban on campaigning outside polling stations in election day.
But police raids on pro-democracy and rights groups last week have disrupted the work of leading Western-backed election monitors and drawn accusations that the army was deliberately trying to weaken oversight of the vote and silence opponents.
The government said the raids were part of an investigation into illegal foreign funding of political parties and not aimed at weakening rights groups, which have been among the fiercest critics of the army's rule.
The United States called on Egyptian authorities to halt "harassment" of the groups involved. Egypt's government said some of the groups had no permits to operate in the country.
Egyptians turned out in unprecedented numbers in the first two rounds and parties ranging from hardline Islamists to liberals and secularists are competing hard for every vote.
Liberals say groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and the hardline Islamist Al-Nour party, which surprised with a strong showing in earlier rounds, flout the ban on religious electoral slogans and tell voters their rivals are ungodly.
Islamists accuse one of the party's top figures, Coptic Christian businessman Naguib Sawiris, and others of using media they control to mount a disinformation campaign against them.
Fourteen million eligible voters in nine regions were choosing who occupies 150 of the seats in parliament. The staggered lower-house election concludes with a run-off vote on January 10th and 11th, with final results expected on January 13th. | Government Job change - Election | January 2012 | ['(Reuters via The Irish Times)'] |
The 17th edition of the CAF African Youth Championship begins in South Africa. | South Africa have been named as the new hosts of the African Youth Championship originally scheduled for Libya.
The tournament was meant to begin on 18 March in Tripoli but was postponed because of the civil strife in the north African country. The Confederation of African Football (Caf) says the tournament will now take place from 17 April to 2 May. "We to decided to move the U20 finals to South Africa," Caf President Issa Hayatou said in a statement. "The Executive Committee took that decision on Tuesday." The decision means South Africa, who had not qualified for the tournament, will replace Libya in Group A. They will face Mali, Egypt and Lesotho in that group. Defending champions Ghana have been paired in Group B with Nigeria, Cameroon and The Gambia. The four teams in each group will meet in a round-robin format, with group winners and runners-up progressing to the semi-finals - and a place at the World Cup in Colombia in July. South Africa also hosted the World Cup last year. Libya has been embroiled in social unrest for about a month with protesters asking for the country's leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to step down. | Sports Competition | April 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Metropolitan Police launches Operation Tuleta to investigate allegations of computer hacking by News International journalists. | A new team of officers is to probe allegations of computer hacking, the Metropolitan Police has announced.
Operation Tuleta will examine breach of privacy claims received since January.
It comes as the private investigator at the centre of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, Glenn Mulcaire, says he acted on the orders of others.
The mother of murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne has said she was "very distressed" after being told her phone may have been hacked by Mulcaire.
Scotland Yard said the new team would investigate matters not covered by its phone-hacking inquiry, Operation Weeting, and report to Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers.
A spokesman said there had previously been a "consideration of allegations" of computer hacking rather than an investigation, but now "some aspects of that operation are being moved towards investigation".
The Met investigation is understood to include an examination of the covert use of "Trojan horse" computer viruses, which allow hackers to take control of third-party computers.
Last March, a BBC Panorama programme alleged that a senior News of the World executive obtained emails hacked into by a private detective. Panorama claimed the paper's then-Irish edition editor Alex Marunchak was sent ex-British intelligence officer Ian Hurst's private emails in 2006.
Mr Marunchak has denied any wrongdoing. He said: "I have never met with a private investigator whom I asked to hack into computers to obtain confidential emails or other information. "It is absolutely untrue any unlawfully obtained material was ever received by me at the News of the World's offices in Dublin."
The Sunday tabloid closed earlier this month following numerous phone-hacking revelations, claims that journalists paid police for information, and wider questions about press regulation and media ownership.
A public inquiry has been set up into the affair and another will follow once police have completed their investigation.
In other developments:
On Friday, Glenn Mulcaire's legal team said any suggestion he acted unilaterally for the News of the World newspaper was "untrue".
Mulcaire was jailed in 2007 after admitting to phone hacking while he was working for the paper.
In a statement they said: "As an employee he [Mulcaire] acted on the instructions of others.
"There were also occasions when he understood his instructions were from those who genuinely wished to assist in solving crimes.
"Any suggestion that he acted in such matters unilaterally is untrue. In the light of the ongoing police investigation, he cannot say any more."
Speaking for the first time on Friday evening, Ms Payne spoke of her distress but said she still had faith in those who had supported her.
"I am, as you can imagine, very distressed and upset by the news that my details have been found on Mulcaire's list and would like to thank everyone for their kind words of support," she said in a statement.
"I can confirm reports that I was given a phone by the campaign team and that my voicemail was only activated after my first aneurysm.
"Notwithstanding the bad apples involved here, my faith remains solidly behind all the good people who have supported me over the last 11 years. I will never lose my faith in them."
The then-editor Rebekah Brooks said it was "unthinkable" anyone at the paper knew.
Mrs Brooks said Ms Payne had become a "dear friend" during the News of the World's campaign for Sarah's Law. "The idea that anyone on the newspaper knew that Sara or the campaign team were targeted by Mr Mulcaire is unthinkable," she said in a statement on Thursday.
"It is imperative for Sara and the other victims of crime that these allegations are investigated and those culpable brought to justice."
News International has said it "takes this matter very seriously and is deeply concerned like everyone". Prime Minister David Cameron described the hacking scandal as "shocking in terms of the dreadful things that have happened".
There have also been allegations that the News of the World accessed the voicemails of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, relatives of victims of the 7/7 terrorist attacks and families of killed British soldiers.
Meanwhile, staff at the New York Post, also owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, have been told to save any information relating to phone hacking or bribery of government officials. The paper's editor Col Allan told staff the advice was in light of the NoW allegations and "not because any recipient has done anything improper or unlawful".
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Usain Bolt leads Jamaica to a victory in world–record time in the men's 400–meter relay in the Olympics. | U.S. decathlete Bryan Clay was walking slowly next to the Olympic Stadium track on a victory lap, and he reached the top of the homestretch just about the time Usain Bolt did while finishing the third leg of Jamaica’s 400-meter relay Friday night.
The man who had just earned the title of world’s greatest athlete saw the sprinter who has become the world’s fastest man speeding to his third OIympic gold medal, each in world-record time.
“It was unbelievable,” Clay said.
With former 100-meter world-record holder Asafa Powell on anchor, the Jamaicans clocked 37.10 seconds, blowing away the record of 37.40 that had stood since a U.S. relay team anchored by Carl Lewis set it at the 1992 Olympics.
Clay, 28, of Glendora, might have envied how little time it takes a sprinter to achieve greatness, even if he said, “I love the decathlon.”
Bolt altogether needed about 2 minutes and 10 seconds of running to win gold medals in the 100, 200 and relay. Clay had endured two 11-hour days of competition to join a line of U.S. decathlon champions that began at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics with Jim Thorpe.
King Gustav V of Sweden was so impressed with the results of the first OIympic decathlon that he told Thorpe, “Sir, you are the world’s greatest athlete.”
Every U.S. decathlete knows that story, knows about Bob Mathias’ winning two decathlon gold medals, about Rafer Johnson’s gold and silver, about Bruce Jenner getting on the Wheaties box. The last decathlon champion from the United States was Dan O’Brien in 1996.
“We still go back into the books and look at all the things they accomplished,” Clay said, after adding gold to the silver he won at the 2004 Olympics.
“Now we’ve got the title of ‘world’s greatest athlete’ back on U.S. soil. I know that means something to all the guys that went before us.”
They all belong to a fraternity of pain, never more so than Friday at the Bird’s Nest, where four decathletes were left prostrate on the track after the final event, the 1,500 meters. One was 2004 champion Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic, who had finished sixth after fighting leg injuries all season.
The first thing Sebrle did after getting back on his feet was raise Clay’s hand like a boxing referee introducing a new champion.
Sebrle first saw Clay at the 2003 world championships and thought he was too small (5 feet 11 and 185 pounds) to amount to much as a decathlete.
“That was a mistake,” Sebrle said, with a pleased smile, about a rival who has become his friend and houseguest.
Such is the respect decathletes have for one another that Sebrle regretted that his Olympic record of 8,893 points had not fallen to Clay, who led after each of the 10 events and won with 8,791 to 8,551 for silver medalist Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus.
“It stinks he didn’t make it, but he won the Olympic Games,” Sebrle said. “Now I know it is a little bit of a miracle [to win the decathlon], and he can be satisfied.”
Clay left with a comfortable lead after Thursday, when the decathletes faced a downpour in the morning, and the fifth event did not end until 10 p.m. He managed little sleep before returning to the track at 9 a.m. for a second day when the heat became overwhelming.
The weather extremes made it even harder to get through the two days than usual -- and usual is grueling.
“Being physically exhausted after the first day, knowing I was coming out here with only four hours’ sleep, it was tough,” Clay said. “In the pole vault [the eighth event], it must have been 100 degrees on the track.”
Clay wished there had been enough left in his legs for the 1,500 to chase not only Sebrle’s Olympic record but the American record of 8,891 that O’Brien set in 1992. To beat O’Brien, Clay needed to run almost 20 seconds faster than the 5:06.59 he managed.
“I tried to go out and stay on pace, but I knew it was going to be a struggle,” Clay said. “My main goal here was to win the gold medal.”
His was the fifth for the U.S. track team. The men’s sprint relay gave Jamaica a sixth gold, but they lost a chance for another when their heavily favored women’s team botched a baton exchange in the final.
“Jamaica did great in these Games,” Powell said. “We practically took it over.”
In the second week, Bolt took over the starring role that Michael Phelps relinquished after winning eight gold medals when swimming ended Sunday. The Jamaican sprinter’s exuberance has captured the imagination of the sellout crowds, who clearly don’t agree with International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge’s crusty complaint that Bolt’s behavior was “not the way we perceive a champion.”
“I’m a performer,” Bolt responded when asked about Rogge’s criticism. “I come out there and perform and let the public enjoy themselves.
“I won’t change. I will always be myself.”
So he kept running after passing the baton, racing to congratulate Powell after the record run, while Clay finished his trip down the straightaway at a leisurely pace that also was befitting of greatness.
--
Philip Hersh covers the Olympics for The Times and the Chicago Tribune.
--
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Americans who have won the decathlon at the Olympics
Bryan Clay became the first American man to win the 10-discipline event at the Olympics since 1996. He competed at Azusa Pacific and now joins the pantheon of Americans who have been crowned the “World’s Greatest Athlete”:
1921: Jim Thorpe
1924: Harold Osborn
1932: Jim Bausch
1936: Glenn Morris
--
1948: Bob Mathias
1952: Bob Mathias
1956: Rafer Johnson
1960: Rafer Johnson
--
1968: Bill Toomey
1976: Bruce Jenner
1996: Dan O’Brien
2008: Bryan Clay
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A Duke University medical helicopter crashes near Belvidere, North Carolina, killing four people. | By Megan Sheets For Dailymail.com Published: 20:15 BST, 8 September 2017 | Updated: 21:44 BST, 8 September 2017 7
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Four people are dead after a helicopter crash in eastern North Carolina.
The Duke Life Flight helicopter was part of a Duke University fleet used to transport patients in need of critical care. It went down at 11.45am on Friday.
No details about the victims have been released. It was also not clear where the helicopter was headed when it went down.
A helicopter like the one pictured crashed in eastern North Carolina killing four
It is unclear where the helicopter was headed when it crashed
Perquimans County, NC *Helicopter Crash* Duke Life Flight Chopper has crashed, fatalities reported. #NCfire pic.twitter.com/RjbxoFX0l5
The Perquimans County Sheriff's Office was handling the investigation at the crash scene.
Duke Health officials issued this statement:
'With deep sorrow we can confirm that a Duke Life Flight helicopter crashed early this afternoon near Belvidere, North Carolina. We are in the process of directly confirming information related to this incident and will share more information as it becomes available.'
Duke Health released a statement confirming the crash
| Air crash | September 2017 | ['(Daily Mail)'] |
Democracy Now! producers file a lawsuit against multiple law enforcement agencies for allegedly unjustifiably encroaching on their First Amendment rights at the 2008 Republican National Convention. | MINNEAPOLIS - Syndicated journalist Amy Goodman and two of her producers are suing St. Paul, Minneapolis and other defendants over their arrests while covering the 2008 Republican National Convention.
Goodman, host of the radio and TV news program "Democracy Now!" and her producers were among 40 to 50 journalists arrested covering protests at the convention in downtown St. Paul, along with about 800 demonstrators and bystanders.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Minnesota alleges that authorities violated the First Amendment freedoms of Goodman, her producers and other journalists by interfering with their rights to gather news.
They're seeking court orders to prevent similar actions in the future, plus unspecified monetary damages.
St. Paul's interim city attorney, Gerald Hendrickson, said his office had not been served with the lawsuit so he couldn't comment.
Goodman's program airs on over 750 stations.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2010 | ['(StarTribune)'] |
Trade unions in Greece call a general strike in protest against continuing austerity measures. | Greek police have fired tear gas to disperse anarchists throwing petrol bombs near parliament in Athens.
Dozens were arrested during the one-day strike against planned spending cuts of 11.5bn euros ($15bn; £9bn).
It was the first union-led action since a conservative-led coalition came to power in June.
The savings are a pre-condition to Greece receiving its next tranche of bailout funds, without which the country could face bankruptcy in weeks.
Greece needs the next 31bn-euro instalment of its international bailout, but with record unemployment and a third of Greeks pushed below the poverty line, there is strong resistance to further cuts.
The government of conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is proposing to save money by slashing pensions and raising the retirement age to 67.
But it has also urged the troika representing Greece's lenders - the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - to give it an extra two years to push through the austerity programme.
On Tuesday Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras put a price on that delay for the first time - saying it would in effect cost as much as 15bn euros.
The Greek protest follows a series of demonstrations in Spain and Portugal, which are also facing stringent austerity measures.
An estimated 50,000 people joined Wednesday's protests, including doctors, teachers, tax workers, ferry operators and air traffic controllers.
Banks and historic sites in Athens remained shut, with many shopkeepers expected to close up early so they could attend demonstrations.
Schools and government services also closed down, though buses were still running, reportedly to help ferry people to the protests.
"We can't take it anymore - we are bleeding. We can't raise our children like this," Dina Kokou, a teacher, told Reuters news agency.
"We won't submit to the troika!" and "EU, IMF out!", "People, fight, they're drinking your blood," protesters chanted.
A march past parliament turned violent as anarchists wearing black balaclavas and carrying sticks threw petrol bombs and broken bits of concrete at riot police on Syntagma Square.
Images showed a policeman on fire as the bombs exploded.
The strike was called by the country's two biggest unions, which between them represent half the workforce.
A survey conducted by the MRB polling agency last week found that more than 90% of Greeks believed the planned cuts were unfair and a burden on the poor.
Greece was given a 110bn-euro bailout package in May 2010 and a further 130bn euros in October 2011, backed by the IMF and the other 16 euro nations.
That money is paid in instalments, but correspondents say the lenders are reluctant to stump up the latest slice, as they feel Greece has not made enough effort to meet its deficit-reduction targets.
Greece needs the new money to make repayments on its debt burden. A default could result in the country leaving the euro.
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. | Strike | September 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
The United States holds midterm elections for all 435 House seats, for 35 Senate seats , for 39 state and territorial governorships, and for numerous state and local races. , | The key question in these elections is: will Republicans be able to keep control of both chambers of Congress? Just 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate, and all of the 435 seats in the lower House of Representatives are up for grabs. To take control of the legislative agenda and block Trump's ability to implement his programs, the Democratic party needs to control both houses. With a Senate majority, the Democrats would be able to block cabinet and supreme court appointments. But while they may be able to take the House, clinching the Senate will be much harder. Impeachment, by the way, requires a two-thirds majority in the Senate, so would require Republican votes even if the Democrats won every available seat in November.
Here comes the math: the Grand Old Party (GOP) does have a big advantage over the Democrats in this showdown, because the Democratic party is defending 26 seats (including two independents, who usually vote with them) while the Republicans only have to defend nine.
The Senate electoral system is also weighed against the Democrats. Each state gets two senators, irrespective of population, so Wyoming has as many as California, despite the latter having more than 60 times the population. The smaller states also tend to be the more rural, and rural areas traditionally favor the Republicans. One hopeful note for the Democrats is that Nevada and Arizona are both open races – in which the incumbent senator is not running – and both were only narrowly won by the Republicans in 2012.
Key race – Arizona The Senate seat held by Barry Goldwater and John McCain could be picked up by Democrats in 2018. After a tough primary, Republican Martha McSally has been pushed to the right and faces a tough race against Democrat Kyrsten Sinema in a state with a growing Latino population and with deep tensions between traditional business oriented Republicans like McCain and hard right Trumpists.
The Democrats have a much better chance of winning here. Representation in the House is (relatively) proportional to population, and the whole chamber is re-elected every two years. They need a net gain of 23 seats to win a majority. But in the last 50 years they've scored a net gain of that size only twice, in 1974 and in 2006. In the same period the Republicans have made a 23+ net gain only three times, but the most recent was in 2010, in the midterm elections of Barack Obama's first term.
American voters are usually reluctant to eject a sitting representative. So for Democrats, some of their best hopes are in seats where the incumbent is not standing again. The good news for Dems is that a record 39 Republicans – many of whom were anti-Trump – have chosen to bow out instead of contest their seats in November, and some of those are in key swing states such as Florida and Pennsylvania.
Key race – Pennsylvania's 17th district Democrat Conor Lamb won a shock special election win in March. Now, after court ordered redistricting, he'll face off against Republican incumbent Keith Rothfus in a far more friendly district. However, it's still a district Trump narrowly won. More key races
Each US state has a governor, who is like a local president. Their interactions with the federal government can be significant; they may have a large amount of sway, for instance, over local gun laws or the implementation of health insurance policies. But this year, Democrats think their salience is national because many of them have a veto over redistricting. Remapping of electoral districts happens in the US after every census. The next round will happen in 2022 when the 2020 census results are in. Governors elected this year who serve four-year terms will still be in office then. Democrats are hoping to win office in several swing states that have open races, such as Ohio, Nevada, Michigan and Florida, and thereby prevent gerrymandering that would affect congressional races as far away as to 2032.
Key race – Florida African American Democrat Andrew Gillum won an upset victory in the primary, bolstered by heavy financial support from Tom Steyer, a billionaire hedge-fund manager. The unabashed progressive will face off against Republican Ron DeSantis, an ardent Trump supporter, in what will be one of the marquee races of the midterms. | Government Job change - Election | November 2018 | ['(including two special elections in Minnesota and Mississippi)', '(The Guardian)', '(NPR)'] |
British Prime Minister David Cameron, in a speech to the House of Commons says that Islamic extremists have already threatened citizens of the United Kingdom and UK military airstrikes against ISIL in Syria will serve only to make the UK safer. Cameron also says that the UK cannot outsource its security and must stand by France in the wake of the November 2015 Paris attacks. | David Cameron says launching UK air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria will "make us safer".
The prime minister denied claims it would make the UK a bigger target for terror attacks, as he made the case for military action, in the Commons.
He told MPs the UK was already a target for IS and could not "outsource our security to allies".
Labour is split, with some shadow ministers backing bombing but leader Jeremy Corbyn opposing action.
David Cameron says he will hold a Commons vote on Syria air strikes if he thinks he can win it, possibly as early as next week.
He told MPs there was strong legal justification for extending the current military action in Iraq, on grounds of self-defence and the recent UN Security Council resolution.
He needs to persuade the backbench Conservative MPs who thwarted his first attempt launch air strikes in Syria in 2013, under very different circumstances, to change their minds and get enough Labour MPs on board to offset any rebellion on his own side.
Labour has yet to agree an official position, with leader Jeremy Corbyn against air strikes, but half of his frontbench speaking in favour of them at a shadow cabinet meeting, according to sources.
In the Commons debate, Mr Corbyn sought assurances the UK would not be dragged into a ground war and asked the PM whether UK air strikes would make any military difference.
He said there was "no doubt" the "so-called Islamic State group has imposed a reign of terror on millions in Iraq, Syria and Libya" and that it "poses a threat to our own people". But he added: "The question must now be whether extending the UK bombing from Iraq to Syria is likely to reduce, or increase, that threat and whether it will counter, or spread, the terror campaign Isis is waging in the Middle East."
Mr Corbyn stated his opposition to air strikes at shadow cabinet meeting following the Commons debate but he is under pressure to offer his MPs a free vote, although he is hoping his shadow cabinet can come to a "collective view" on the issue, when they meet again on Monday.
After the shadow cabinet meeting Shadow Foreign Secretary Hillary Benn told BBC News the arguments put in favour of action by the PM were "compelling".
But just over an hour later Mr Corbyn wrote a letter to all Labour MPs saying he cannot support the prime minister's proposals and was not convinced by his arguments.
Mr Cameron answered questions from 103 MPs during a marathon two hours and forty minutes debate as he sought to persuade them to back air strikes.
He told MPs "we face a fundamental threat to our security" and could not wait for a political solution, and that doing nothing "could make the UK more of a target for Isil attacks".
"That bomb in Paris, that could have been London. If they had their way, it would be London," said Mr Cameron. "I can't stand here and say we are safe from all these threats. We are not. I can't stand here either and say we will remove the threat through the action that we take. "But do I stand here with advice behind me that taking action will reduce and degrade that threat over time? Absolutely and I have examined my conscience and that's what it is telling me."
He added that taking action as part of a coalition would "help make us safer".
The prime minister sets out his case in detail in a 32 page response to a recent Foreign Affairs Committee report on the tests for military intervention.
The committee's Conservative chairman, Crispin Blunt, who had previously opposed military action, said he had now changed his mind, saying the "UK should play a full role in the coalition, to best support and shape the politics, thus enabling the earliest military and eventual ideological defeat of Isil".
If the prime minister gets his way and Parliament does give the go-ahead for Britain to join in air strikes against IS in Syria then there are a number of facts people should know. This will not lead to the immediate or even imminent demise of so-called Islamic State. It will simply add to the incremental damage being done over time to this proscribed terrorist group by other air forces already bombing in Syria. IS's centre of gravity is around Raqqa, in Syria. Britain is already at war with IS next door in Iraq, where the RAF has been hitting their positions for more than a year. So Britain is already a target for IS-inspired terrorist attacks, including some of the seven thwarted in the UK in the last year. But IS will be acutely aware of this very public debate and will very likely look to "punish" Britain in the way it has already targeted France. So in the short to medium term this would increase - but not initiate - the terrorist threat to UK.
Mr Cameron ruled out British "boots on the ground" - and insisted the RAF had specialist bombing capabilities that were needed by its allies.
He also addressed concerns about the downing of a Russian jet, insisting procedures were in place to reduce the risk of a similar incident.
He stressed that IS could not be defeated by air strikes alone, but they were a key part of a wider "comprehensive" strategy to deal with the threat, including the removal of President Assad and supporting the Free Syrian Army.
The prime minister said there would not be a vote in the Commons unless there was a majority for action "because we will not hand a publicity coup to Isil".
Some Labour frontbenchers want to see the text of any motion before deciding, the BBC understands, while others want more details about the 70,000 Syrian opposition fighters, who are not part of extremist groups, that Mr Cameron referred to. The SNP, which has 54 Westminster MPs, has said it will not back military intervention without a specific authorisation from the United Nations. The party's leader at Westminster Angus Robertson said he was not satisfied with the PM's response to the foreign affairs committee report. The party's foreign affairs spokesman and former leader Alex Salmond, who missed the debate, has been criticised for attending the unveiling of a new portrait of him in Edinburgh.
The Democratic Unionist Party, which has eight MPs, has suggested it could be open to backing air strikes - in 2013 five of its MPs voted against the government.
DUP leader Nigel Dodds launched a strongly-worded attack on Jeremy Corbyn, saying his "petulant" opposition to action was the response of the "irresponsible revolutionary bedsit".
Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said he was still considering the case for air strikes.
Can British forces make a difference in Syria?
'10,000 troops' to tackle terror attacks
PM to outline Syria plan within days
Cameron hails UN backing for IS action
Cameron warned against Syria vote
Hardliner Raisi set to be new Iran president
Cleric Ebrahim Raisi - Iran's top judge - has received most of the votes counted so far.
| Government Policy Changes | November 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
In a new filing, special counsel Robert Mueller accuses Paul Manafort of witness tampering. | Paul Manafort has already been indicted on 23 counts by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team but in a new filing Monday night, Mueller accused the former Trump campaign chair of yet more wrongdoing: attempted witness tampering.
Though Mueller hasn’t filed new charges yet, he moved to prevent Manafort’s release from house arrest on bail because, Mueller argued, the FBI had probable cause to believe Manafort has recently been attempting to tamper with potential witnesses.
Mueller claims that after Manafort was indicted on a second set of charges this February, he and a close associate “repeatedly contacted” two people they’d worked with in the past “in an effort to secure materially false testimony” in the case. The special counsel says he’s obtained encrypted messaging, call records, and witness testimony to back him up and that Manafort’s release should be blocked as a result. Since his initial indictment last October Manafort has been held on house arrest and trying to meet his $10 million bail by putting up various properties. In recent weeks, it looked as if he was finally close to making it. But now, Mueller says that because there’s probable cause to believe he committed a crime here, his release should be blocked. You can read Mueller’s whole filing here.
The underlying matter at issue here is not Russian collusion or interference with the campaign matters Manafort has not faced any charges over but Manafort’s work for the pro-Russian Ukrainian government several years back.
Mueller has charged Manafort with 5 counts in Washington, DC, and 18 in Virginia related to this lobbying work. The charges include, among other things, conspiracy to defraud the United States, acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign principal, filing false income tax returns, bank fraud, and failure to report foreign financial accounts. Manafort has pleaded not guilty on all of them.
Mueller’s team claimed in their February indictment that, as part of the Ukraine lobbying, Manafort paid a group of former senior European politicians that he called the “Hapsburg group” to advocate for Ukraine’s interests in the United States.
Manafort seemed to believe his strongest defense would be to claim that he did pay these politicians to advocate for Ukraine’s interests but only in the European Union, not the United States. And he wanted to make sure that two unnamed people from a PR firm with whom he’d worked on the project would stick to that story.
So, per Mueller, within days Manafort tried to reach out to one principal in that PR firm someone referred to as “Person D1” in the indictment. Mueller alleges that:
But Person D1 talked to the FBI instead. He said that, contra Manafort’s claims, he knew the Habsburg group worked in the United States too. And, Mueller alleges, Person D1 thought Manafort was trying to suborn perjury.
Another set of surreptitious communications came from a longtime associate of Manafort’s whom the special counsel calls “Person A.” Mueller claims that, in February and April of this year, this Manafort associate repeatedly tried to contact the two PR firm principals, on behalf of someone he called “my friend P.” This person also tried to emphasize Manafort’s message that the Hapsburg group “never lobbied in the US.”
The second PR firm principal, “Person D2,” also told the FBI that he knew this wasn’t true, and that the Hapbsurg group did in fact lobby in the US.
And it’s not even the first time Mueller has accused Manafort of trying to improperly influence the trial back in December, Mueller accused Manafort of secretly ghostwriting an op-ed piece by a Ukrainian politician about his work.
Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?
Millions turn to Vox to understand what’s happening in the news. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all. Please consider making a contribution to Vox today from as little as $3. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2018 | ['(Vox)'] |
The Emmy Awards are held in Los Angeles with Game of Thrones winning the Emmy for best drama series. | Game Of Thrones has won the Emmy for best drama, and Jon Hamm won best actor for his role in Mad Men.
Viola Davis also made history as the first African-American to win best lead actress in a drama, for How To Get Away With Murder.
Look back over all the action from the red carpet and the awards ceremony in our blog.
Before we wrap up, let's do a quick recap:
Game of Thrones has won best drama for the first time, after four years of being nominated.
Veep picked up the gong for best comedy, breaking juggernaut Modern Family’s five-year winning streak.
Jon Hamm (finally) picked up the award for best lead actor in a drama, after seven seasons of Mad Men.
Viola Davis became the first African-American woman to win best lead actress in a drama for How To Get Away With Murder.
| Awards ceremony | September 2015 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
The New South Wales Police arrests six people, including organizer Paddy Gibson, at a Black Lives Matter rally in Sydney; five of those were handed penalty infringement notices. They arrested them because they were breaching a public health order. | Police have arrested six people, including organiser Paddy Gibson, at a Black Lives Matter rally in Sydney.
Five of those arrested were handed penalty infringement notices.
Mr Gibson was put in the back of a police vehicle before the rally was due to start at 12:00pm.
After he was fined $1,000 for breaching a public health order, Mr Gibson was whisked into State Parliament through the back entrance by Greens MP Jenny Leong.
Police Commissioner Mick Willing said it was unfortunate that people had to be arrested, and he urged protesters to stop breaching public health orders.
"As we said all along, we are not anti the right to protest. This is about public safety. At the end of the day, we are in the middle of a pandemic," he said.
"The Supreme Court judge himself described the current situation in New South Wales as being on a knife's edge."
The rally was ruled unlawful by the NSW Supreme Court on the weekend, which was upheld at a last-minute appeal on Monday.
Supporters said they would march anyway while observing social distancing and other health and safety protocols like wearing masks.
"Stand on your own. Stand in a group that is smaller than 20," Mr Gibson said on Monday.
"Come and have your lunch in the Domain in Sydney tomorrow.
"It's not illegal to have your lunch in the park in the city of Sydney still even under the COVID-19 pandemic … we'll be continuing to raise our voice for justice."
Previously Mr Gibson told the ABC the protest was being held to demand justice for David Dungay Jr and other black people who have died in custody.
Mr Dungay died in Long Bay Jail in 2015 after five guards restrained him, and, a registered nurse gave him a powerful sedative. He was 26.
Following an inquest, NSW Corrections Commissioner Peter Severin acknowledged "systemic issues" and "clear failings"contributed to Mr Dungay's death.
There was a large police presence at the Domain in preparation for the rally, including riot and dog squads.
But just after noon, organisers said police move-on orders meant it was over before it could begin.
As demonstrators were marched out of the Domain by police, organisers told the crowds to "disperse, disperse".
Some protesters headed to Hyde Park, which is about a 10 minute walk from the Domain, but they did not congregate as police officers trailed them.
After the protesters were detained, a post on the event's Facebook page, Justice For David Dungay Jnr, instructed people on the way to the march to stay away instead.
"We are now appealing for people NOT to come to the Domain. "Please share spread the word the rally is OVER." ABC News: Jesse Dorsett
Lawyer Yashvi Shah watched the rally from the NSW Supreme Court and said she could see many more police officers than protesters.
"What I saw from many metres away were protesters socially distancing from each other, and every single one of the protesters I saw were wearing masks and were peaceful, not causing any chaos," she said.
Among the crowd on Tuesday was the nephew of Mr Dungay. The family of Mr Dungay presented a petition of signatures to the NSW Government this afternoon calling for charges to be laid against the guards involved in his death.
Mr Dungay's mother Leetona Dungay said the petition had "more than 100,000" signatures.
She said Tuesday's rally was "a bit scary".
"We showed them a sign that we weren't going to give up and [we would] get justice and charges and changes." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2020 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
Following yesterday's conviction of scientists for their failure to predict the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake, Luciano Maiani—head of Italy's disaster body—resigns in protest at the harsh treatment of his colleagues. | The head of Italy's disaster body, Luciano Maiani, has resigned in protest at prison sentences passed on seven colleagues over the 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila.
Six scientists and an ex-official were convicted of multiple manslaughter for giving a falsely reassuring statement.
Prof Maiani, a physicist, said the Serious Risks Commission could not work "in such difficult conditions".
The 6.3-magnitude quake killed 309 people and left the city in ruins.
Prof Maiani's decision to quit was announced by the Italy's Civil Protection Department, which said the commission's vice-president, Mauro Rosi, and emeritus president Giuseppe Zamberletti had also tendered their resignations.
"The situation created by yesterday's sentence... is incompatible with running the commission's work in a calm and efficient manner and with its role of giving high level advice to the organs of the state," Mr Maiani said in a statement on the department's website.
"A scientific committee has to give in its own judgement... The advice may be wrong. Or it may be imprecise. But if you have such a heavy punishment the committee will not act properly," he later told the BBC's Newshour. "A committee will tend to be, always, on the very, very conservative side. I think there is a definite danger that scientific communities will refrain from giving advice to the government."
Prof Maiani, a world-renowned physicist who was director general of the Cern nuclear research centre in Switzerland from 1999-2003, said the possibility of being judged for your scientific judgement was a "serious problem".
"In this condition, and with this precedent, I would not take the job," he added.
The group, all members of the National Commission for the Forecast and Prevention of Serious Risks, were accused of having provided "inaccurate, incomplete and contradictory" information about the danger of the tremors felt ahead of the 6 April 2009 quake.
At a meeting a few days before the deadly quake, they had told officials in L'Aquila that, while a major earthquake was not impossible, it was not likely.
On the night of the quake, many people are said to have remained in their homes and died because of the advice, while others who had decided to remain outside in the street survived.
In their closing statements at the trial in L'Aquila on Monday, prosecutors quoted a witness whose father had died. Guido Fioravanti called his mother straight after the first tremor. "I remember the fear in her voice. On other occasions they would have fled but that night, with my father, they repeated to themselves what the risk commission had said. And they stayed."
However, the six-year jail sentences have shocked the scientific community.
The prestigious science journal, Nature, said "the verdict is perverse and the sentence ludicrous". It called for protests against the sentence's severity and at scientists being criminalised "for the way their opinions were communicated".
Leading political figures in Italy suggested that the case had blurred the lines between science and public life.
"The risk is that doubt will no longer be allowed to form part of scientific judgement," Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri said. "The role of science is not the same as politics or administration."
The speaker of the lower house of the Italian parliament, Gianfranco Fini, was more blunt in his assessment of the verdict: "I trust it will be corrected on first appeal."
Among those convicted are some of Italy's most prominent and internationally respected seismologists and geological experts.
Their defence had called for their acquittal, arguing that it was impossible to predict an earthquake. More than 5,000 scientists said the same thing when they wrote an open letter to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano in support of the men in 2010.
Reacting to the verdict against him, Bernardo De Bernardinis, former vice-president of the Civil Protection Agency's technical department, said: "I believe myself to be innocent before God and men." While the seven men involved are appealing against their convictions - and remain free while they do so - all are facing the prospect of being barred from ever holding public office again.
Italy quake scientists convicted
L'Aquila quake scientists in dock
Can we predict when and where quakes will strike?
An extraordinary trial in L'Aquila
'Science did not do what was required'
La Repubblica.it - Homepage
Corriere Della Sera
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | October 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
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