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A former British Army commanding officer is accused of lying to a public inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa, an Iraqi civilian in his soldiers' custody. | A former Army commanding officer has been accused of lying to a public inquiry into the death of an Iraqi civilian in his soldiers' custody.
Colonel Jorge Mendonca said he saw nothing out of the ordinary when he checked on hotel worker Baha Mousa and his colleagues after their 2003 arrest.
But Rabinder Singh QC, counsel for Mr Mousa's family, questioned his account of events in Basra, southern Iraq.
He told the inquiry he must have not visited or had seen a "horrific scene".
Mr Mousa was held by the 1st Battalion the Queen's Lancashire Regiment in a temporary detention facility (TDF) with Iraqi colleagues. The 26-year-old father of two died in British Army custody on September 15 2003, having suffered 93 separate injuries.
Col Mendonca, the former commanding officer of the regiment, told the public inquiry in February that he had visited Mr Mousa and the other men held with him on the evening of Sunday September 14.
In a statement, he said: "If I had noticed any injuries to any detainees or any of them appearing to be in any distress I would have immediately queried the situation.
"However, there was nothing that alerted me to any type of problem."
In his closing submissions to the inquiry on Monday, Mr Singh raised questions about Col Mendonca's role in the abuse of Mr Mousa and other detainees.
He alleged the Iraqi prisoners were beaten by soldiers in the group, known as a "multiple", led by Lieutenant Craig Rodgers, before Col Mendonca claimed to have made his visit.
He said: "It's not just that he [Col Mendonca] was in overall charge and therefore must take responsibility for what happened on his watch as commanding officer.
"But also there is reason to doubt, frankly, his evidence to this inquiry...
"His evidence in effect was that the detainees were quiet and there didn't really seem to be anything worth troubling about.
"Either of two conclusions may be possible - that he has not told the full truth about what he saw because he must have seen a horrific scene and he should have done something about it.
"Or that he never went, as he claims to have done, and realised after the event that he should have done."
Mr Singh agreed with inquiry chairman Sir William Gage that the second possibility was more unlikely.
He said evidence to the inquiry showed many people passed the detention facility while Mr Mousa and the others were being abused, and that was indicative of the general environment at the detention facility.
Mr Singh said: "Many people at least could, and probably did, hear the abuse taking place, and that again tells one something about the culture of impunity the perpetrators seem to have felt."
Mr Singh singled out evidence to the inquiry that the Iraqi detainees were forced to scream in an orchestrated "choir".
"It is perhaps a terrible glimpse that we have seen at this inquiry of what human beings are capable of: an insight into our heart of darkness," he said.
The inquiry, which started public hearings in 2009, was told British soldiers used "conditioning" methods on Iraqi prisoners such as hooding, sleep deprivation and making them stand in painful stress positions.
These techniques were outlawed by the UK government in March 1972 after an investigation into interrogation in Northern Ireland.
But Timothy Langdale QC, counsel for Col Mendonca, said Mr Singh had made "wholly unwarranted" claims about his client.
He said in a written submission to the inquiry: "Those suggestions should plainly be rejected."
Col Mendonca became the most senior British officer to face a court martial in recent history when he was charged with negligently performing a duty in relation to the abuse.
He was cleared in February 2007 and left the Army seven months later, saying he believed he had been "hung out to dry" and made to feel like a "common criminal" by his commanders.
The inquiry will hear further closing oral submissions this week.
In October it will look at the lessons learned since 2003 and Sir William is expected to publish his report later in 2010. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Council of Representatives of Iraq elects Barham Salih as president. Salih then appoints Adil Abdul al-Mahdi as prime minister. | By Hamdi Alkhshali, Aqeel Najim and Sheena McKenzie, CNN Updated 1206 GMT (2006 HKT) October 3, 2018 Baghdad, Iraq (CNN)Iraq's newly elected president has appointed a 76-year-old economist and veteran Shiite politician as the country's new prime minister-designate, ending months of political uncertainty following elections in May.
Congratulations and best of success to @AdilAbdAlMahdi as he starts to form the new government of #Iraq. The #USA will work with the future PM to help his government meet the needs and aspirations of all the people of Iraq. @USEmbBaghdad @USAConsulBasrah @USConGenErbil
CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali reported from Atlanta and Aqeel Najim reported from Baghdad. Sheena McKenzie wrote in London. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | October 2018 | ['(CNN)'] |
Hungarian police use water cannon and tear gas to disperse a crowd of anti–government protestors in Budapest. | The trouble began when nationalist leader Gyorgy Budahazy, who has been wanted by the police since disturbances began last September, was detained. Police decided to clear the city centre using tear gas and water cannon as the crowd of demonstrators swelled.
Earlier thousands of supporters of the main opposition party held a peaceful mass rally to mark National Day.
There has been tight security, amid fears of a repetition of last October's clashes that marred the 50th anniversary of the anti-Soviet uprising. The unrest followed Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's admission that he had lied during the electoral campaign about the state of Hungary's finances. TV siege
The far-right rally began peacefully, with speeches from, among others, British historian David Irving, who was imprisoned until recently in Austria for Holocaust denial.
In pictures: City protests
The rioting began in the early evening after police identified and arrested Mr Budahazy, who is wanted in connection with the siege of a public TV station during last September's disturbances.
As the crowd grew to around 1,000, people converged on the centre of the city, with some clearly looking for a fight with police, others just curious, correspondents say.
There were no immediate reports of serious injuries, although eyewitnesses mentioned that some demonstrators had attacked journalists.
Police drove down the city's main boulevard firing water cannon and tear gas canisters in an attempt to break up the protest, which they consider illegal.
Protesters responded by throwing bottles and stones, and built and set fire to barricades to obstruct the police.
Flag row
At official ceremonies for the holiday, which marks Hungary's brief independence from Habsburg rule in 1848, Mr Gyurcsany was booed by a few hundred protesters, who shouted "Go, Gyurcsany, go!"
Later, Budapest Mayor Gabor Demszky, an ally of Mr Gyurcsany, had to be protected with an umbrella against eggs thrown by protesters during his speech.
The main conservative opposition party, Fidesz, held its own rally on Thursday afternoon, attended by tens of thousands of supporters. Fidesz made it clear it had nothing to do with the far-right protesters. Organisers asked participants at the Fidesz rally to carry only the official flag and not the traditional Hungarian Arpad flag, a modified version of which was used by the pro-Nazi government of 1944-1945. Yet some participants still carried the Arpad flag and sang songs lamenting the demise of Greater Hungary after World War I. Fidesz has been accused in the past of not dissociating itself from far-right elements. The party is in the main centre-right group in the European Union - the European Popular Party - and has vehemently denied that it harbours xenophobic or anti-Semitic views. | Protest_Online Condemnation | March 2007 | ['(AP via CNN)', '(BBC)'] |
Annette Schavan, the German Federal Minister of Education and Research, resigns after the University of Düsseldorf stripped Schavan of her doctorate for plagiarism. | German Education Minister Annette Schavan has resigned after a university stripped her of her doctorate for plagiarism.
Duesseldorf's Heinrich Heine University voted last Tuesday to remove her doctorate following a review.
Ms Schavan, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, insisted she would still fight the university's ruling.
In 2011, Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg also quit after allegations he plagiarised his thesis.
Johanna Wanka, the culture and science minister of the state of Lower Saxony, has been appointed as Ms Schavan's successor.
Part of the education minister's brief is to oversee German universities.
Addressing Mrs Merkel with the words "Dear Angela,", Ms Schavan thanked the chancellor for her friendship.
"I think today is the right day to leave my ministerial post and to concentrate on my duties as a member of parliament," the 57-year-old said.
"I will not accept the university's decision and will take legal action. I have never copied nor plagiarised. The accusations hit me very hard."
Ms Schavan added that her main priority was to protect her department and the government. "First the nation, then the party, then myself," Ms Schavan said, citing words used by former state prime minister Erwin Teufel.
"When an education minister sues a university, then that comes with strains, for my office, for the ministry, and for the Christian Democrats. I want to avoid just that."
The university of Dusseldorf decided to look into Ms Schavan's 1980 doctoral thesis after an anonymous blogger raised questions about it. The faculty committee found she had "systematically and intentionally" copied parts of her thesis, Person and Conscience.
In a statement declaring the doctorate invalid and withdrawing it from Ms Schavan, the faculty head Bruno Bleckmann said they had "decided by secret ballot, by 12 votes to two, with one abstention".
Ms Schavan had been scathing in her criticism of Mr Guttenberg when the scandal of his plagiarism broke.
"As someone who was herself awarded a doctorate 31 years ago and who has supervised several doctoral candidates, I am ashamed and not just behind closed doors," she told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung at the time.
Analysts say her resignation will be hugely embarrassing to Mrs Merkel.
The chancellor is facing federal elections on 22 September.
She said she accepted the resignation "with a heavy heart".
German minister stripped of thesis
Europe's plague of plagiarism
Germany country profile
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | February 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
President Benigno Aquino of the Philippines announces that the Philippine government has reached an outline peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front over the disputed Mindanao region. | The Philippine government has reached a framework peace agreement with the country's largest Muslim rebel group, President Benigno Aquino says.
The deal follows long negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to end a 40-year conflict that has cost more than 120,000 lives.
It provides for a new autonomous region in the south, where Muslims are a majority in a mainly Catholic country.
The MILF is "very happy" with the deal, a spokesman was quoted as saying. The agreement was reached after talks in Malaysia and is expected to be signed formally on 15 October in the Philippine capital, Manila. A copy of the framework deal says the parties commit to reaching a "comprehensive deal" by the end of the year. "This framework agreement paves the way for a final and enduring peace in Mindanao," President Aquino said in a speech to announce the deal, referring to the main southern region.
But he added: "The work does not end here. There are still details that both sides must hammer out." Correspondents say the agreement marks a major breakthrough, though previous peace efforts have broken down and negotiations with the MILF over the last 15 years were interrupted by violence.
The Philippine government's chief negotiator Marvic Leonen told the BBC that the new peace deal has more political support than previous agreements, after the negotiation panel held more than 100 consultations with Muslims, Christians, and local and regional governments.
The MILF's vice chairman for political affairs Ghazali Jaafar told AFP news agency: "We are very happy. We thank the president for this." It is hoped that the agreement could be implemented on the ground by the end of President Aquino's term in 2016.
'Casting aside distrust'
President Aquino said the new autonomous region would be named Bangsamoro, after the Moros living there. "This framework agreement is about rising above our prejudices," the president said. "It is about casting aside the distrust and myopia that has the plagued efforts of the past."
Sunday's agreement provides for the creation of a "transition commission" tasked with drafting a law to implement the framework deal.
The draft agreement would give the leaders of the Bangsamoro more political and economic powers, promises the people a "just and equitable share" of the region's abundant natural resources, and pledges to address the needs of poverty-stricken communities.
It also provides for the MILF to "undertake a graduated program for decommissioning of its forces" and says both sides would work for "reduction and control of firearms and the disbandment of private armies and other armed groups". Law enforcement would be transferred from the army to the Bangsamoro police in a "phased and gradual manner". The MILF, created after a split with another rebel group in 1977, had earlier dropped its demand for an independent Muslim state.
President Aquino acknowledged on Sunday that the current autonomous region in the same area, created in 1989, had been a "failed experiment". Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose country has brokered peace talks since 2001, said he was "delighted" at the "historic deal". "The rights, dignity and future prosperity of the Bangsamoro people will be protected, while at the same time the sovereignty and constitution of the Philippines will be preserved," he said.
The Philippines is made up of more than 7,000 islands, with a population of about 95 million. It has faced separatist movements in Mindanao, where the MILF is based, and in Jolo, home to the radical Islamist Abu Sayyaf group, which is reputedly linked to al-Qaeda.
Communist rebels have also waged a guerrilla over much of the country from 1969.
| Sign Agreement | October 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Prime Minister Bill English of the National Party wins a plurality of votes, but not enough for a majority, as the Labour Party led by Jacinda Ardern makes significant gains. Winston Peters becomes a kingmaker with his third-placed New Zealand First party, able to form a coalition government with either major party. | National leader Bill English will talk to Winston Peters today, campaign manager Steven Joyce says, as both National and Labour parties begin attempts to form a government.
National won the most votes last night - with 46 percent - but will still need other parties to govern and the balance of power rests with the New Zealand First leader.
Jacinda Ardern, Winston Peters and Bill English.
On last night's results, the party would get 58 seats in Parliament but even with the one seat of loyal support party ACT, will still be two short of an outright majority.
Labour, on just under 36 percent of the vote, would have 45 seats and the Greens seven - totalling 52 seats between them.
Leader Winston Peters said last night he would be speaking to the party's board and supporters and there would be no "hasty" decisions.
But he said a decision would be made either way by 12 October - the last day for the return of the writ.
National's campaign chairman Steven Joyce told RNZ this morning the Prime Minister would "undoubtedly talk to Winston later today".
"That'll be his call as to how that lays that out - I haven't had a chance to talk it over with him yet.
"The senior team will get together at a point through the day ... and we'll [see] how it plays out from there."
Mr Joyce said the party didn't see coalition discussions with Greens as a significant possibility.
"The Greens would have to show some sort of change of approach because in the past it's always been a shut the door thing."
Shane Jones, who will return to Parliament as a New Zealand First MP, said Mr Peters's decision would take time.
"You won't hear anything of any significance until Winston has assembled us together and we meet as a group."
New Zealand First president Brent Catchpole declined to say how the talks would unfold.
Apparently heeding Mr Peters, who last night urged his supporters not to say anything that would jeopardise coalition talks, Mr Catchpole said New Zealand First would have to have internal discussions before making a decision.
"We want the best for New Zealand and our policies," he told RNZ.
"It's not about roles in government or anything like that, it's about getting the best for New Zealand and our policies."
With a large number of special votes to be counted, the result was still indicative.
"There won't be any final decisions until we know the final results."
Senior National MP Judith Collins said the election result was a vote for stability and people would be very disappointed if National did not lead the next government.
"I can't tell you what Winston Peters is going to do. What I can tell you is that we've had increase in support and 46 percent of the party vote asking for a fourth term of government is unprecendent and a huge victory for Bill English."
Labour Party campaign manager Phil Twyford said the party was "back in the game".
He said Jacinda Ardern had delivered an incredibly strong campaign with a new style of leadership and Labour was now in a position to negotiate a deal with both the Greens and New Zealand First.
The party's negotiating team, led by Ms Ardern, would make contact soon with New Zealand First.
"I expect there'll be a phone call made in pretty short order."
Mr Twyford said National had lost its governing majority, and the majority of New Zealanders voted for change.
"When you look at the number of MMP governments over the last couple of decades there have been a range of different setups with minority governments ... and very small majorities."
Grant Robertson Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
The party's finance spokesperson Grant Robertson said he hadn't talked to Winston Peters this morning, but the party would be speaking with him "over the coming days".
Mr Robertson said Labour was "well and truly back" as one of the options for New Zealanders as a lead party of government.
"We wake up this morning and there's no confirmed government - so it's clearly not over."
Though many of New Zealanders had voted for change, the much talked of 'youthquake' perhaps hadn't happened. "Maybe a tremor," he said.
Green Party leader James Shaw said he would also be reaching out to Mr Peters, but Labour would have to take the lead given it was the largest party.
He was not concerned a three-party government would be difficult to keep going.
"If you look at the history of the Maori Party and the ACT party, they didn't have a whole lot in common but the managed to form a goverment over a number of years with the National Party."
"People are able to, for the sake of the country, work together on the things that they've got in common - and that's been my message to Mr Peters."
d
The outcome of yesterday's election is still not certain, with the balance of power now resting with New Zealand First.
The National Party has won the most votes, but will still need other parties to govern. | Government Job change - Election | September 2017 | ['(RNZ)'] |
President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev sets off for India for a two–day official visit to sign trade deals. | Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrives in India on Tuesday for a two-day official visit. He is the latest in a series of foreign leaders to travel to Delhi to push for business deals and closer ties. Nuclear and defence contracts worth billions of dollars are expected to be signed between the countries. They have been allies since the Cold War but observers say Mr Medvedev will be keen to ensure that Russian firms do not lose out to foreign competitors.
In the past six months, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already welcomed the leaders of China, France, the US and the UK to Delhi. Each has been accompanied by a large business delegation, and each has gone home boasting of billions of dollars of extra trade with one of the world's fastest growing economies, the BBC's Mark Dummett in Delhi reports. Two areas in particular have attracted interest - India's ambitions to greatly expand and modernise its air force, and its plans to build a series of nuclear power generators. It needs foreign technology and know-how for both, and the sums involved are massive, our correspondent says. Reports say high on the agenda for President Medvedev's trip will be a $30bn agreement to design and develop a stealth fighter jet for the Indian air force.
India to buy Russian fighter jets
Russia signs India nuclear deal
Are India and Russia no longer comrades? | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | December 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Defeated Sri Lanka presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka is charged with additional counts in addition to treason in the aftermath of his failed election bid. | The Sri Lankan government on Thursday made it known that fresh charges would be framed against the defeated opposition common consensus presidential candidate, retired General Sarath Fonseka, in civil courts under the Penal Code and Exchange Control Act in two weeks.
Minister of Export Development and International Trade G.L. Peiris told a news conference here that the former Army Chief would be charged on counts of fraud, condoning fraud, plotting against the government, creating unrest within the Army and keeping army deserters under his protection.
General (retired) Fonseka is in the custody of the military on a number of charges including treason.
The commander-turned-politician was picked up on the night of February 8 after a raid on his election office by a group of military personnel. The raid and the subsequent detention triggered a furore within and outside Sri Lanka.
One of the allegations faced by General Fonseka is that he had favoured the company partly owned by his son-in-law in award of contracts for defence supplies to the Army.
The CID had informed the local courts that when he was the Army Chief, the General had approved of four suspicious tenders to a firm allegedly run by his son-in-law Dhanuna Tilekeratne. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | February 2010 | ['(The Hindu)'] |
The United States Senate votes 84–15 to confirm Janet Yellen as Treasury Secretary, making her the first woman to serve as head of the Treasury Department. | Janet Yellen, the economist who came to Washington in 1994 to serve as a member of the Federal Reserve board of governors and took the town by storm, won Senate confirmation Monday to become the first female U.S. Treasury secretary in history.
The vote was 84-15, with 34 Republicans voting in favor. Analysts said Yellen is viewed by lawmakers as being in some sense above politics. This could come in handy as President Joe Biden fights to pass his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package and an infrastructure bill expected to be unveiled next month.
Many Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee said they wanted their vote in favor on Yellen to show they were willing to work with Democrats on economic issues.
At the same time, GOP members have reservations about some of Biden’s economic priorities, including the proposed $15-per-hour federal minimum wage. And Republicans also don’t want to see a reversal of tax cuts they passed in 2017.
Democrats are eager to turn the page on the economic policies of the Trump administration and believe they have an ally in Yellen. Yellen has urged lawmakers to “act big” now to save the economy and worry about the debt later.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and a Democrat from Ohio, said the U.S. was “done” measuring the economy by the stock market or corporate profits.
“We’re going to think about the economy the way workers and their families do — in terms of paychecks, and whether they can make rent or pay the mortgage this month, or afford child care, or pay for their prescription drugs,” Brown said.
After Yellen came to Washington to join the central bank, then headed by Alan Greenspan, she quickly earned a reputation for astute economic analyses. She even famously took on Greenspan in a debate over the path of interest-rate policy, something few on the central bank ever tried.
President Bill Clinton brought her to the White House to be the chair of his Council of Economic Advisers. After a stint as the head of the Fed’s San Francisco regional bank, she returned to the Fed as vice chair in 2010. Three years later, President Barack Obama nominated her to be the head of the Fed. After her four-year term ended in 2018, Yellen did not retire and move back to San Francisco, where she has a home, but instead worked at the Brookings Institution. Her name wasn’t mentioned often by the press as a possible Treasury secretary. Her biography led Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, to quip that Yellen belonged in the Senate confirmation “hall of fame.”
Yellen will need every ounce of her economic talents in her new post. The U.S. government remains on “war footing,” fighting an economic crisis caused by the coronavirus that is worse than the 2008 financial crisis, said Ken Rogoff, a leading economist and Harvard professor, in a recent interview. U.S. government debt held by the public is now over $21 trillion. As part of her new job, Yellen will meet regularly with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. The central bank has cut its policy rate to zero and is buying massive amounts of government securities to keep the financial markets stable. On Wednesday, Powell is expected to tell the markets that the Fed isn’t thinking about changing its policy stance even with stimulus from the new Biden administration and the two houses of Congress controlled by Democrats. Fed officials have said repeatedly that Congress and Treasury must do more to help workers and small-business owners through grants and other relief programs. Under the law, the Fed can only lend funds.
Initial jobless claims rose 37,000 to 412, 000 in the week ended June 12, the Labor Department said Thursday. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | January 2021 | ['(MarketWatch)'] |
North Macedonia and the United Kingdom sign a Partnership, Trade and Cooperation Agreement to continue preferential trade terms after the end of the UK's Brexit transition period on December 31. The agreement also strengthens political, economic, security, and cultural ties between both nations. | The Agreement strengthens the trading relationship between the UK and North Macedonia, worth £1.8 billion in 2019, by securing continued preferential access and paving the way for increased trade in future.
The UK has today (3 December) signed a Partnership, Trade and Cooperation Agreement with North Macedonia, the UK’s largest trading partner in the Western Balkans.
The preferential terms secured by this Agreement will enable British business to continue to trade as they do today after the Transition Period and in turn will help protect North Macedonia’s economic stability and prosperity.
The Agreement also sets out the UK and North Macedonia’s ambitions for our future relationship including the strengthening of our political, economic, security and cultural ties.
FCDO Minister for the European Neighborhood and the Americas Wendy Morton said:
I welcome the signing of the UK-North Macedonia Partnership, Trade and Cooperation Agreement which sets the foundations for an even more ambitious relationship between our countries. This includes future cooperation in tackling climate change, improving education, and standing up for human rights.
The Agreement will also strengthen our already substantial ties in trade and investment. North Macedonia is the UK’s largest trading partner in the Western Balkans and the UK is North Macedonia’s second largest import market. The signing of this Agreement gives exporters and consumers the certainty they need to continue trading freely and with confidence as the Transition Period ends.
International Trade Minister Ranil Jayawardena said:
Free and fair trade is vital as we work to recover from the economic impact of coronavirus, and so I am delighted that today we’ve secured our trading relationship with North Macedonia.
Today’s agreement gives certainty for business in both countries and demonstrates our commitment to building on our strong trade ties with North Macedonia and the Western Balkans region.
Her Majesty’s Ambassador to North Macedonia Rachel Galloway signed the Agreement with Minister of Foreign Affairs Bujar Osmani in Skopje.
Her Majesty’s Ambassador to North Macedonia, Rachel Galloway said:
Following North Macedonia’s accession to NATO, this Agreement is another positive step in strengthening UK-North Macedonia relations. North Macedonia offers great opportunities for UK companies and investors across a variety of industries and the signing of the Agreement marks a new era of increased investment in both our economies. The UK remains committed to North Macedonia’s Euro-Atlantic path and we will continue to stand together as NATO Allies.
The Agreement provides a framework for closer political dialogue and increased cooperation on important issues such as the environment, education, and human rights. By signing the Agreement, the UK has reaffirmed its commitment to a close relationship with North Macedonia and to playing a continued positive role in the region.
When the Agreement enters into effect at the end of the Transition Period, British businesses and consumers will continue to benefit from existing trading terms with North Macedonia, including the tariff-free trade of industrial products.
Trade between the UK and North Macedonia was worth £1.8 billion in 2019. Top UK exports to North Macedonia last year were non-ferrous metals (£1.1 billion), inorganic chemicals (£77 million) and textiles (£4 million). Meanwhile top imports to the UK from North Macedonia were metal ores & scrap (£49m), clothing (£16m) and furniture (£13 million).
| Sign Agreement | December 2020 | ['(Gov.uk)'] |
In a rare joint press release, European car makers warn that a no–deal Brexit, introducing administrative hassle and tariffs, would have a "seismic" impact on frictionless trading conditions and that it would deal a "severe" blow to the industry's just–in–time manufacturing supply chains, also potentially affecting "consumer choice and affordability on both sides of the Channel". | Carmakers fear disorderly exit would cripple the just-in-time supply chain, investment and lead to tariff barriers
Last modified on Mon 3 Feb 2020 11.47 GMT
The European car industry has warned of catastrophic effects of a no-deal Brexit, saying it would have a “seismic” impact on making cars in Europe.
In a rare joint statement, chiefs from 23 automotive business associations across Europe joined forces to caution against a brutal exit from the bloc by Britain, where auto giants BMW, Peugeot PSA and Japan’s Nissan have factories.
“Brexit is not just a British problem, we are all concerned in the European automotive industry, and even further,” said Christian Peugeot, head of French automotive industry association CCFA in the statement.
Reaping the benefits of the EU’s single market, carmakers have supply chains that criss-cross the English Channel and Britain is the destination of around 10% of vehicles assembled on the continent, according to industry data.
British prime minister, Boris Johnson, has rattled nerves with his vow to leave the European Union on 31 October come what may – with or without a trade deal with Brussels.
“The UK’s departure from the EU without a deal would trigger a seismic shift in trading conditions, with billions of euros of tariffs threatening to impact consumer choice and affordability on both sides of the Channel,” the joint statement said.
A chaotic Brexit would land a “severe” blow against the industry’s just-in-time supply chains that stretch across international borders and depend on zero administrative hassle, the associations warned.
“The EU and UK automotive industries need frictionless trade and would be harmed significantly by additional duties and administrative burden on automotive parts and vehicles,” said Bernhard Mattes, the head of Germany’s auto lobby VDA.
“Consequently, the UK and the EU should undertake all necessary steps to avoid a no-deal Brexit,” he said.
Britain’s largely foreign-owned car sector is already reeling from Brexit shocks, with French carmaker PSA warning in July that it could shut down its Vauxhall factory in Ellesmere Port in north-west England if it becomes unprofitable.
Carmakers are also slamming the brakes on investment in Britain, which fell 70% to £90 million (€98m euros) in the six months to June, the UK’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said in July.
The SMMT has also warned that the cost to auto companies of one minute of stopped production time in Britain would amount to 54,700 euros (£50,000). | Famous Person - Give a speech | September 2019 | ['(AFP via The Guardian)'] |
Global investment management company BlackRock says that it is buying eFront, the leading provider of management software for alternative investments, for $1.3 billion in cash. | said Friday it has agreed to acquire eFront from private-equity firm Bridgepoint and eFront employees for $1.3 billion in cash. eFront is an alternative investment management software company with more than 700 clients in 48 counties. "The combination of eFront with Aladdin, BlackRock's investment operating platform used by more than 225 institutions around the world, will set a new standard in investment and risk management technology," BlackRock said in a statement. The deal will be funded with a mix of existing cash and debt and will be minimally dilute to earnings per share. Separately, BlackRock said it has agreed to buy about 3.1 million of its own shares for $412.84 a share in a private transaction under its existing buyback program. Shares fell 1% in early trade and are down 20% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 SPX,
-1.31%
has gained 8%. The latest policy maker comments reinforced the narrative of a reflation trade in trouble. | Organization Merge | March 2019 | ['(MarketWatch)'] |
Sri Lankan Member of Parliament and former industry minister Rishad Bathiudeen is arrested, along with his brother, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act for having connections with the perpetrators of the 2019 attack. | COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s police arrested a top Muslim legislator Saturday in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks that killed 279 people, as pressure mounted to speed up the investigation.
Detectives took Rishad Bathiudeen, leader of the All Ceylon Makkal Party (ACMP) and a former minister, into custody under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), police spokesman Ajith Rohana said.
Bathiudeen and his brother Riyaaj were arrested in pre-dawn raids on their homes in Colombo.
“They were arrested under the PTA based on circumstantial and scientific evidence that they had connections with the suicide bombers who carried out the attacks,” Rohana said in a statement.
A lawyer representing the brothers said a presidential inquiry had found no evidence linking them to the bombers and the arrests were a political vendetta.
“The arrests are politically motivated,” lawyer Rushdhie Habeeb said in a statement, which highlighted how the ACMP had opposed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2019 elections.
The arrests came three days after the head of Sri Lanka’s Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, accused the government of allowing investigations to stall.
Nearly 200 people were arrested within days of the suicide attacks on hotels and churches by local Islamist extremists, but no one has been charged.
Ranjith, who led commemorations on the second anniversary of the Easter attacks on Wednesday, said he was “deeply saddened” by the lack of progress in the investigation.
He renewed his call for swift action against the perpetrators and said “political posturing and the need to safeguard alliances” was hindering the probe.
Bathiudeen’s party is a member of an opposition coalition, but three of his legislators defected to the government in October to amend the constitution and give Rajapaksa wider powers over the judiciary and legislature.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2021 | ['(Arab News)'] |
A suicide bomber kills two foreign tourists in a Cairo market and injures a further score of bystanders. A group called "Islamic Pride Brigades" claims responsibility. (Link dead as of 22:29, 14 January 2007 ), | A French woman and another person were killed in the blast from a bomb attack in the historic heart of Cairo. French, American and Italian tourists were among 18 people wounded when the bomb was thrown into a crowded market in the Egyptian capital. The attack, in a part of Cairo popular with tourists, is the first in the city for seven years.
There is no indication yet of who might have been behind the bombing. US embassy official Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm said several US citizens were among those injured in the attack, in a packed bazaar area in Cairo's old city.
Brig Gen Nabil al-Azabi, head of security in Cairo, said initial investigations suggested the explosive was a homemade nail-packed bomb that went off prematurely. He said the unidentified corpse may be that of the man carrying the bomb.
Egypt's interior ministry said nine Egyptians and nine foreigners were hurt. Doctors said many of the wounded had severe wounds from nails packed in the bomb.
Busy bazaar
The attack happened at about 1700 (1500 GMT) on Thursday, close to al-Azhar mosque, which is a major seat of Islamic learning. There is no indication yet of who might be have been behind the attack
The blast went off on al-Moski Street, a narrow street of tourist shops and clothes sellers - often crammed with foreigners and Egyptian shoppers, carts and peddlers - near the main bazaar of Khan al-Khalili. Rabab Rifaat, a woman shopping nearby, told the Associated Press news agency she heard a loud "boom", and saw a severed head flying through the air. Cairo's police chief denied earlier reports that the attacker had thrown the bomb from a motorbike, instead saying it had been tossed by a male pedestrian. US warning
The US embassy in Cairo issued a statement warning Americans to stay away from the area of the attack. The attack comes at a time when tourism is bringing in record revenues, says the BBC's Heba Saleh in Cairo. Many Egyptians will now be worried about its impact on the industry, she adds. Islamic militants in Egypt have staged attacks on tourist attractions in the past. In the most recent attack in October 34 people died, including 12 Israelis, when militants bombed two hotels in the Sinai peninsula. The government accused a group of Sinai residents, some of whom were killed in the attacks. Very little information has come out about them, though their leader was said to have had Islamist leanings. In 1997 the country's lucrative tourism industry was thrown into crisis when gunmen opened fire on foreigners in central Cairo and at a site near the southern Egyptian city of Luxor. A total of 68 people died in the two attacks.
Political change
Correspondents say Egypt may be entering a period of political change.
President Hosni Mubarak, who has been the country's leader since 1981, is under growing internal and external pressure to introduce political reforms.
In February, Mr Mubarak asked parliament to change the constitution to allow multiple candidates in presidential polls for the first time.
A political movement has emerged, partly centred on the al-Ghad (Tomorrow) party, with the slogan of Kifayah (enough). Thousands of Egyptian university students, mostly supporters of the banned Islamic Brotherhood, demonstrated earlier this week against the government, in the largest such protest yet to be staged. | Armed Conflict | April 2005 | ['(Haaretz)', '(UTC)', '(BBC)'] |
The Egyptian Army initiates a fatal crackdown in Tahrir Square, Cairo, on people protesting that ousted president Hosni Mubarak be prosecuted for corruption. | Egypt's army has cracked down on protests in Cairo's symbolic Tahrir Square, leaving at least one person dead and dozens injured.
The violence occurred overnight as the army tried to clear protesters calling for ex-President Hosni Mubarak and his family to be tried for corruption.
The injured suffered gunshot wounds but the army denies using live rounds.
Tahrir Square became the symbolic centre of protests that led to Mr Mubarak stepping down this year.
Egypt's health ministry has so far confirmed that one person died overnight and says 71 people were hurt.
Medical sources told news agencies that at least two people had died.
Protesters have now returned to the square following the army withdrawal and are continuing demonstrations.
In an apparent concession to the protesters the ruling military council announced on Saturday that it would replace a number of provincial governors appointed by Mr Mubarak - another demand of the demonstrators.
However, the army also said it was "ready" to use force to clear the square and allow normal life to resume.
"Tahrir Square will be emptied of protesters with firmness and force to ensure life goes back to normal," Major General Adel Emarah, of the military council, told a news conference.
The army had maintained a generally neutral role in the earlier mass demonstrations.
But about 300 troops moved into the square at about 0300 local time (0100 GMT) on Saturday to break up a camp in the centre.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
At least 15 people are killed and 90 injured in heavy fighting in Mogadishu, Somalia. | At least 15 people have been killed and 90 injured during the fiercest fighting in the Somali capital Mogadishu since a new president was elected last month.
The battle focused on the south of the city, with rebels firing mortars at the presidential palace and a base for African Union and government troops.
It came as Eritrea said all foreign troops must leave Somalia if national reconciliation was to be achieved.
Meanwhile Burundi vowed to send more peacekeepers to the AU mission.
Burundian Defence Minister Lt Gen Germain Niyoyankana told Radio France Internationale they planned to reinforce their presence with a battalion of 850 men as soon as possible.
The minister said his government would not be deterred by Sunday's suicide attack - claimed by the radical al-Shabab group - which left 11 Burundian peacekeepers dead at a barracks in Mogadishu.
The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in the capital says the newly-elected President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was understood to be at home at the time.
Our correspondent says it is the fiercest fighting since the moderate Islamist leader was elected late last month under a UN-brokered peace deal.
Insurgents also bombarded a base for AU and government troops in the Hodan district, while untargeted mortars rained down on the nearby Howlwadag district.
But our correspondent adds it was civilians as usual who bore the brunt of the battle, during which heavy machine gun fire was exchanged.
One resident, Abdirizak Mohamed, told Reuters news agency: "A mother and her baby died after a shell landed on their house. Their flesh was so mangled we did not know what to carry."
'End invasion'
The Islamic Party, a coalition of four insurgent Islamist groups, said its fighters had been involved in the fighting but blamed the government, which it said had sought to exert control over new areas.
"It is equally imperative to get rid of any force deployed in Somalia under the pretext of 'peacekeeping mission'."
Several Somali Islamist groups have operated out of Eritrea since they were ousted from Mogadishu after Ethiopian troops went in just over two years ago.
Ethiopian troops, which had been in the country since 2006 to support Somalia's fragile transitional government, pulled out at the end of January.
The AU's 3,400-force of Burundian and Ugandan peacekeepers - deployed since 2007 - are now the only foreign troops in the Somali capital.
Somalia has not had a functioning national government since 1991.
Some three million people - half the population - need food aid after years of fighting. | Armed Conflict | February 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Typhoon Haishen approaches Japan, threatening the coasts of Okinawa and the island of Kyushu. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga says the government is setting up a crisis response team and urges people to take precautions. Officials compare the typhoon to Typhoon Vera, which in 1959 killed more than 5,000 people. | Japan is bracing for a dangerously powerful typhoon approaching its southern regions this weekend on the heels of an earlier storm that injured dozens of people in the country and on the Korean Peninsula
TOKYO -- Japan is bracing for a dangerously powerful typhoon approaching its southern regions this weekend on the heels of an earlier storm that injured dozens of people in the country and on the Korean Peninsula.
Typhoon Haishen, or Sea God in Chinese, could bring nearly unprecedentedly severe rain, rough waves and high tides to Okinawa and Kyushu by early Sunday, Japan Meteorological Agency officials said.
Agency weather forecaster Yoshihisa Nakamoto, in a televised news conference, urged people in the typhoon's path to take precautions and secure extra stocks of water, food and other necessities.
The typhoon was moving north in the Pacific Ocean at a speed of 15 kilometers (9 miles) per hour. By Sunday it is projected to have winds of up to 198 kph (122 mph).
Officials said Haishen is comparable to a September 1959 typhoon that killed more than 5,000 people in central Japan.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the government is setting up a crisis response team and urged people to take precautions “to protect your own lives.”
He said water was being released from nine dams in Nagasaki, Kagoshima and other southwestern prefectures to lower the risk of flooding. More than 22,000 military troops, coast guard personnel, police and firefighters have been placed on standby.
Hundreds of residents of a cluster of southern islands were airlifted by military helicopters to Kagoshima city on the nearby main island as a precaution.
Typhoon Maysak hit the region earlier this week, injuring dozens of people, cutting power to thousands of homes and causing other damage. A search continued Friday for a livestock cargo ship carrying 43 crew members and 5,800 cows from New Zealand that capsized during the typhoon. Rescuers have found only two survivors. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2020 | ['(ABC News)'] |
Retail chain JC Penney announces plans to close between 130 and 140 stores, as well as 2 distribution centers, amid sagging store sales. | J.C. Penney finally lifted the lid on its plans to downsize its fleet, telling investors on Friday that it would close between 130 and 140 of its stores over the next few months.
The retailer made its comments while reporting fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street’s expectations, though revenue and same-store sales fell shy of expectations.
The company’s shares slipped roughly 9 percent in early trading amid doubts that the store closure plan would be enough to reinvigorate sluggish sales. Fueling that concern was the company’s 2017 outlook, which came up short of its previously announced three-year plan.
Here’s how Penney’s did during the quarter:— EPS: 64 cents a share, adjusted, versus 61 cents expected, according to Thomson Reuters’ consensus— Revenue: $3.96 billion, versus an expectation of $3.98 billion, according to Reuters— Same-store sales growth: down 0.7 percent, versus 0.3 percent drop expected, according to FactSet’s consensus
In last year’s fourth quarter, J.C. Penney reported earnings of 39 cents per share on $4 billion in revenue.
“Although JCP ended its fiscal year with a shrink in sales, it can take some comfort from the fact that the decreases are modest and that it managed to outperform its main department store rivals,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, in an email.
Saunders added that the company’s bottom line was also encouraging. “In our view, this alone serves as evidence that Marvin Ellison’s turnaround plan is delivering and that JCP is finally getting its house in order,” he said. Along with the stores Penney’s plans to close, it will shutter two distribution centers. The combined closures will help the retailer invest in its better stores, and “raise the overall brand standard of the company,” Ellison said.
The list of impacted stores will be released next month, once sales associates and other staff have been notified. Most of the closures will occur in the second quarter.
“We believe closing stores will allow us to adjust our business to effectively compete against the growing threat of online retailers,” Ellison said.
“During the year, it became evident the stores that could fully execute the company’s growth initiatives of beauty, home refresh and special sizes generated significantly higher sales, and a more vibrant in-store shopping environment,” the CEO said.
The locations Penney’s will shutter represent 13 to 14 percent of its store portfolio but generate less than 5 percent of annual sales. They would either require “significant capital” to meet the company’s brand standard or are minimally cash flow positive, the company said. Comparable sales in these locations were “significantly below” the remaining store base and operate at a “much higher” expense rate.
The retailer expects to save roughly $200 million a year by closing these stores. It will take a pretax charge of roughly $225 million related to the closures in the first half of fiscal 2017.
Penney’s will provide roughly 6,000 employees with a “voluntary early retirement program” for workers of a certain age and tenure. As a result, the company expects a net increase in hiring as the number of full-time employees expected to accept the package will “far exceed” the number of full-time positions affected by the store closures.
Ellison warned in January that the department store chain was getting ready to downsize its fleet. The news came on the heels of store closure announcements by Macy’s and Sears.
Yet even as he announced the company’s closures, Ellison reiterated the importance of bricks-and-mortar locations to its long-term strategy.
“Maintaining a large store base gives us a competitive advantage in the evolving retail landscape since our physical stores are a destination,” Ellison said. “It is essential to retain those locations that present the best expression of the J.C. Penney brand.”
For the year, Penney’s achieved its well-publicized goal of reaching $1 billion in EBITDA, marking a $477 million improvement. It was the first time the retailer achieved positive net income since 2010, Ellison said.
Yet revenue fell short in the holiday quarter. Sales at Penney’s established stores declined 0.7 percent, and heavier promotions weighed on its margins. The company had previously announced that comparable sales fell 0.8 percent in November and December.
Under Ellison’s leadership, J.C. Penney has been making strides in its efforts to recover the sales profitability it lost during a failed turnaround strategy. Since taking the helm in August 2015, the soft-spoken executive has taken expenses out of the business and refreshed the stores’ assortment. That includes the company’s return to appliances last year and a push into plus sizes.
For fiscal 2017, J.C. Penney expects comparable sales to fall within a range of negative 1 percent to positive 1 percent, and to earn between 40 cents and 65 cents a share, adjusted. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were predicting earnings of 56 cents a share for the fiscal year.
Back in August, Ellison laid out a three-year plan for Penney’s starting in fiscal 2017. He told investors that compounded annual comparable sales would grow 3 percent, and that earnings per share would hit $1.40 to $1.55 by 2019.
The company also dialed back Friday its conviction that EBITDA would hit $1.2 billion in fiscal 2017, as was previously outlined. While that is “not off the table,” the middle point of Penney’s outlook projects EBITDA of $1.1 billion, CFO Ed Record said. The retailer would need to generate comparable sales growth slightly north of 2 percent to reach its previously stated goal, Record said. | Organization Closed | February 2017 | ['(CNBC)'] |
The military government in Fiji issues new media restrictions targeting foreign ownership of media organisations in the country. | Fiji's military leaders have introduced new restrictions which target foreign ownership of media organisations. All media outlets must now be 90% Fijian-owned - meaning that the leading daily, the Fiji Times, will have to change its ownership or close. The Fiji Times is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Limited, whose chairman described the move as "an appalling assault on free speech". Fijian leader Frank Bainimarama has targeted the media since his 2006 coup. The latest restrictions also introduce heavy fines for media organisations that publish material deemed - by a government-appointed tribunal - to be against "national interest or public order". The Fiji Times now has three months to comply with the new foreign ownership rules. Any organisation that failed to comply with the restrictions "shall cease to operate as a media organisation, and shall also be liable for an offence under the decree", Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum told journalists. News Limited chairman and chief executive John Hartigan said the move was a blow to Fiji's economy and an "outrageous precedent" that would make other foreign investors nervous. "We will fight while we still can, but there is no doubt that this move is designed to force our hand in selling the business and pulling out of Fiji altogether," he said.
Mr Bainimarama ousted elected leader Laisenia Qarase in a bloodless coup in 2006, accusing him of corruption.
He promised elections to return the country to democracy but these have not taken place and it is not clear when they will. Several foreign journalists have been expelled. In April 2009 Mr Bainimarama ordered newspaper, television and radio editors not to publish or broadcast any material that showed the military in a bad light, after he suspended the constitution in order to be reappointed as prime minister. In a statement when the draft of the latest restrictions were made public, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said they appeared "designed to enable the military government to tighten its grip on the media".
| Government Policy Changes | June 2010 | ['(Hindustan Times)', '(BBC)', '(The Australian)'] |
Cyclone Phailin is expected to make landfall on the east coast of India today. | Tens of thousands of terrified villagers are bracing for the arrival of a massive cyclone bearing down on India's east coast, packing winds of up 220 kilometres an hour.
High waves were already pounding rain-drenched beaches and trees were bent double by strong winds ahead of the arrival of Cyclone Phailin, which was expected to make landfall Saturday evening accompanied by a storm surge of up to three metres.
The storm was set to hit in the same coastal area as a devastating cyclone which struck in 1999, killing thousands of people.
Authorities evacuated tens of thousands of people Friday from flimsy thatched shacks along the coasts of the states of Orissa and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh to relief camps.
Tens of thousands more were being shifted from the path of Cyclone Phailin, the Thai word for sapphire.
"The first priority will be to save people's lives, ensure food and electricity," Orissa's Disaster Management Minister Surya Narayan Patra said.
The Orissa government said it was setting a "zero casualty target" in the densely populated state of close to 40 million people and was seeking "100 percent" evacuation of people in areas likely to be hit by the storm.
The storm was bearing down on India's east coast just as Hindus were celebrating one of the most important religious festivals of the year.
"I thought we would be celebrating but now I am just worried about the storm," a teenager told India's NDTV.
Satellite photos showed an intimidating cloud mass barrelling across the Bay of Bengal as forecasters said the danger zone was about 150 kilometres wide and would hit coastal Orissa and Andhra Pradesh state.
In Orissa's capital Bhubaneswar, where trees were swaying in strong winds, panic buying saw many shops run low on food with memories still strong of the deadly cyclone which hit the same region 14 years ago.
"It's touch-and-go whether it turns into a supercyclone," the most powerful type of storm, India Meteorological Department director general Laxman Singh Rathore told a news conference late Friday.
"The storm has high damage potential, considering the windspeed," he added, calling the weather mass a "category 6" storm. He said the storm would be classed as a "supercyclone" if it crossed the 6.5 level.
The military has been called out to help relief efforts and India's air force said two emergency teams had been dispatched to Bhubaneswar while transport planes and helicopters were on standby.
The deadly 1999 cyclone which knocked out power lines, railway links and devastated forest areas, packed far higher speeds of up to 300 kilometres an hour and led to a storm surge of six metres.
A government report on the disaster published in 2009 put the death toll at 8,243, and 445,000 livestock perished.
Authorities were better prepared for this cyclone than the one in 1999, said Rathore, who said the weather office had been able to track the storm better.
"We have been given three very good days to warn people," Rathore said, noting that in 1999 authorities had only one day to make cyclone preparations.
The better preparedness "will definitely have a (positive) impact on property and life", Rathore said.
He said the cyclone was "voluminous" but dismissed media reports that it was the size of the country.
Some of the deadliest cyclones form in the Bay of Bengal around this time of year at the end of the steamy monsoon season, when sea temperatures are at their warmest.
A cyclone that struck Bangladesh in 1970 killed hundreds of thousands of people.
AFP
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AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | October 2013 | ['(AFP via Australia Network)'] |
Rwanda's incumbent President Paul Kagame wins the country's presidential election with 95% of the vote. | Rwandan President Paul Kagame won Monday's presidential election with 93% of the vote, the country's electoral commission has announced.
The full provisional result secures a second seven-year term for Mr Kagame and his party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).
Supporters began celebrating on Monday after early results had shown the president winning 92.9% of the ballot.
Turnout for the election, the second since the 1994 genocide, was 97.5%.
Election observers from the Commonwealth noted "a lack of critical opposition voices" during the campaign.
Mr Kagame's nearest rival, Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo of the Social Democratic Party, polled just 5.15% of the vote.
In third place was the Liberal Party's Prosper Higiro, who won only 1.37%.
But the Commonwealth observers agreed that voting had been peaceful.
And as he announced the full provisional results on Wednesday, Charles Munyaneza, the electoral commission's executive secretary, said the commission had not received any reports of voter intimidation.
Mr Kagame's supporters say he has brought stability and growth since the genocide but critics accuse him of suppressing opposition.
All three of his rivals in this election have links to the president's Tutsi-dominated RPF.
But as he cast his vote in Kigali on Monday, Mr Kagame said he saw no problem with the way the vote had been conducted.
"When I have seen how they have expressed themselves, the people of Rwanda... it has given the impression to me that the process has been very democratic," he said.
| Government Job change - Election | August 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(AFP)'] |
A 6.1 magnitude aftershock rocks Haiti a week after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. | Rescuers applaud as the children are pulled alive from the ruins
A strong aftershock has rocked Haiti, sending screaming people running into the streets, eight days after another quake devastated the country.
The extent of the damage is not yet known. The magnitude 6.1 tremor struck west of Port-au-Prince at 0603 local time (1103 GMT). An estimated 200,000 people died in last Tuesday's quake and another 1.5 million were made homeless. Despite an international aid operation, supplies are slow to reach survivors. However, international teams are still rescuing people alive from the rubble, including a 69-year-old woman pulled from the ruins of a church in the capital. The US military has defended its handling of the rescue operation, as aid groups complained of long delays in getting vital supplies of food, water and medicine. Haitian President Rene Preval said aid delivery was the main problem now. Help came "very fast," Mr Preval told a French radio station. "When it arrives, the question is: where are the trucks to transport it, where are the depots?" Fresh panic
The US Geological Survey said Wednesday's tremor was centred 35 miles (56km) north-west of the capital. It struck at a depth of 6.2 miles (9.9km), but was too far inland to generate any tsunamis in the Caribbean.
Some buildings already weakened by last week's quake collapsed and wails of terror filled the air as frightened survivors poured out of unstable buildings, a BBC correspondent in the region said. Although some aid has started to reach desperate survivors, hundreds of thousands are still without food or water, a full week after the disaster. Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said its cargo plane with 12 tonnes of medical supplies had been turned away from the congested Port-au-Prince airport three times since Sunday. It said five patients died from lack of the supplies it carried. "We were forced to buy a saw in the market to continue amputations," the group's Loris de Filippi told the Reuters news agency in Cite Soleil. But the US military has defended its efforts in the face of vast logistical challenges. "We're doing everything in our power to speed aid to Haiti as fast as humanly possible," said Gen Douglas Fraser, head of US Southern Command. He said they plan to start using two other airports, at Jacmel in Haiti and San Isidro in the neighbouring Dominican Republic, in the coming days. Amazing rescues
One full week after the magnitude seven quake devastated the country, search-and-rescue teams were emerging from the ruins with unbelievable success stories. Ena Zizi, 69, was rescued from the wreckage of the residence of Haiti's Roman Catholic archbishop on Monday, a day before crews recovered the body of the archbishop himself, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot. Another survivor, 25-year-old Lozama Hotteline, was rescued from beneath a collapsed supermarket with the help of teams from Turkey and France. Television pictures showed her smiling and singing as she was carried to safety. The United Nations said early on Wednesday that 121 people had been rescued by international teams since the 12 January earthquake - an extra 31 people on Tuesday. Aid challenges
In a bid to speed up the delivery of aid and stem looting and violence, US troops have stepped up their presence in the quake-ravaged country.
Haiti was extremely poor even before the earthquake, and this disaster has now broken all the basic services, like phones and electricity.
But Haitians are resilient. Everywhere there are volunteers filling some of the gaps created by the slow arrival of international aid.
A company which sells drinking water is distributing it free to people living in a school compound.
A Haitian Jesuit priest has mobilised local relief workers and international doctors to work together in a rural region just outside the capital.
In a slum area, a volunteer first-aider dressed the wounds of a girl who had been trapped in rubble.
These largely unsung heroes know they can't replace the big foreign aid agencies, but they're doing what they can to fill the gaps.
US Black Hawk helicopters swooped down on the grounds of Haiti's wrecked presidential palace on Tuesday, dropping scores of US troops who moved to secure a nearby hospital and set up aid distribution points. US Army Maj Gen Daniel Allyn, the deputy commander for relief operations in Haiti, said the military had delivered 400,000 bottles of water and 300,000 food rations since last Tuesday's earthquake. He said the number of US troops would grow to 10,000 in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council voted to temporarily boost its peacekeeping forces by 3,500 personnel. UN officials said they would accompany US troops as they delivered supplies. While military escorts are still needed to deliver relief supplies, the United Nations said fears of violence and looting had eased. Improved security
"The overall security situation in Port-au-Prince remains stable, with limited, localised violence and looting occurring," the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. So far, feared infectious diseases have not shown up, although many injured faced the immediate threats of tetanus and gangrene, and hospitals are overwhelmed.
The Pentagon said a navy hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, had received its first Haitian patients, even as it was still heading towards Haiti. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the military is sending additional ships to help with earthquake recovery in Haiti, including one that could remove debris blocking the main port. The World Food Programme said it was planning to bring in 10,000 gallons (40,000 litres) of diesel a day from the neighbouring Dominican Republic as Haitian fuel supplies dried up. Haitian officials say the death toll from the quake was likely to be between 100,000 and 200,000, and that 75,000 bodies had already been buried in mass graves. | Earthquakes | January 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(CBC)'] |
Fabiano Silveira, Minister for Transparency, Supervision and Control, resigns after leaked recordings suggested he tried to derail the Petrobras corruption investigation. This anti-corruption ministry was created on May 12, 2016, when Vice President Michel Temer was sworn in as acting president. The same tapes led to the resignation of Planning Minister Romero Jucá last week. | BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil’s Transparency Minister Fabiano Silveira resigned on Monday after leaked recordings suggested he tried to derail a sprawling corruption probe, the latest cabinet casualty impacting interim President Michel Temer’s administration.
Silveira, the man Temer tasked with fighting corruption since he took office on May 12, announced his plans to step down in a letter, according to the presidential palace’s media office. No replacement for Silveira has yet been named.
Silveira and Senate President Renan Calheiros became the latest officials ensnared by leaked recordings secretly made by a former oil industry executive as part of a plea bargain. The same tapes led to the resignation last week of Romero Jucá, whom Temer had named as planning minister.
Jucá’s resignation dealt a blow to Temer’s efforts to build a stable government in the wake of the May 12 suspension of leftist President Dilma Rousseff.
A government source had told Reuters on Monday that Silveira would stay in his job “for now,” without elaborating.
In parts of the recordings, aired by TV Globo late on Sunday, Silveira criticizes prosecutors in the probe focused on state-controlled oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras, which has already implicated dozens of politicians and led to the imprisonment of top executives.
In the conversation, recorded at Calheiros’ home three months before Silveira became a Cabinet minister, Silveira advises the Senate leader on how best to defend himself from the probe into Petrobras.
The former head of the transportation arm of Petrobras, Sergio Machado, who is under investigation as part of the graft probe and has turned state’s witness, recorded the meeting and conversations with other politicians to obtain leniency from prosecutors. Silveira was a counsellor on the National Justice Counsel, a judicial watchdog agency, at the time of the meeting.
In the report, Globo TV also said some audio indicated that Silveira on several occasions spoke with prosecutors in charge of the Petrobras case to find out what information they might have on Calheiros, which he reported back to the Senate leader.
Silveira is heard saying prosecutors were “totally lost.”
A spokesman for Silveira confirmed the conversation took place, but said the excerpts were taken out of context.
“Temer’s initial decision was that Silveira can continue in his post for now because he did not interfere in the investigation, he was just giving Calheiros advice,” the spokesman said. He said Silveira was meeting with his lawyers.
Earlier on Monday, Ministry of Transparency staff marched to the presidential palace in Brasilia to demand Silveira’s ouster and restoration of the comptroller general’s office, which Temer renamed to show his commitment to fighting corruption.
All employees with management duties at the ministry resigned their posts to press their demands, according to union leader Rudinei Marques.
Protesting employees had earlier prevented Silveira from entering the ministry building. They then washed its facade with soap and water to symbolize Temer’s need to clean up his government.
Temer, a centrist who was Rousseff’s vice president, will meet with Brazil’s prosecutor general later on Monday to discuss the leaked recordings.
Several members of Temer’s cabinet are under investigation in the Petrobras probe. Rousseff, facing an impeachment trial in the Senate on charges of breaking budget laws, and others have said Temer plotted her downfall to stifle the investigation.
Temer has strongly denied the allegation.
But the recordings add weight to the argument that the new government could face declining support for Rousseff’s ouster by the Senate, which needs a two-thirds majority to convict her in a trial expected to last through August.The two-year probe into billions in graft at Petrobras has led to jail time for executives from Brazil’s top construction firms as well as investigations of dozens of politicians, including several members of Temer’s Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, or PMDB, and Rousseff’s Workers Party.
Temer served as Rousseff’s vice president after she took office in 2011, and the PMDB was the strongest coalition partner for the Workers Party since 2006, when former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was in power.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | May 2016 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
Vicky Pryce, ex–wife of former UK Cabinet Minister Chris Huhne is convicted of perverting the course of justice after accepting speeding penalty points on Huhne's behalf. | The former wife of ex-cabinet minister Chris Huhne has been found guilty of perverting the course of justice by taking speeding points on his behalf. Vicky Pryce, 60, who had claimed Huhne had forced her to take the points over the incident on the M11 in 2003, was convicted at Southwark Crown Court. The judge warned the pair faced jail, while the Crown Prosecution Service said it would try to recover costs.
Huhne, 58, resigned as a Liberal Democrat MP after admitting the charge.
The verdict, after 12 hours of deliberations, came in a retrial.
The jury in a trial last month failed to reach a decision, prompting the judge to question its "fundamental deficits in understanding" of their role and the trial process.
Following Thursday's verdict, Mr Justice Sweeney said sentencing of Pryce, who is from Clapham, south London, and Huhne would take place at a later date. He granted her bail until the next hearing. "Obviously Ms Pryce was present when I indicated to Mr Huhne the inevitable consequences of a conviction for an offence of this sort," he said.
"She must be under no illusions that my granting of bail indicates any watering down of that provisional approach."
Speaking outside the court, Pryce's solicitor Robert Brown said she was "naturally very disappointed to be convicted".
He said she would not be making any further comment until after sentencing takes place. The CPS is understood to have run up about £100,000 in costs after Huhne attempted to have the prosecution against him thrown out before the trial began.
"Chris Huhne made sustained challenges against the prosecution before pleading guilty at the last minute. This was expensive for the CPS and we will be applying for costs," said CPS lawyer, Malcolm McHaffie.
The pair were charged last year over an incident in March 2003 when Huhne's BMW car was caught by a speed camera on the M11 motorway between Stansted Airport, in Essex, and London. He was an MEP at the time.
It was alleged that between 12 March and 21 May 2003, Pryce, a prominent economist, had falsely informed police she had been the driver of the car, so Huhne, who went on to become the MP for Eastleigh, in Hampshire, would avoid prosecution.
He was in danger of losing his licence having already accrued nine penalty points.
After the verdict, Assistant Chief Constable Gary Beautridge, said: "We hope this conviction serves as a timely reminder to motorists who try and avoid driving bans by 'giving' their points to others.
"This practice is not only unlawful, but has life-changing consequences for those who get caught flouting the rules."
During both trials, Pryce accepted she had taken Huhne's points, but adopted a defence of marital coercion, claiming he had made her sign a form he had already completed in her name. However, the prosecution alleged Pryce had chosen to take the points, but later plotted to expose Huhne after he revealed he was having an affair with an aide and ended the couple's 26-year marriage.
Prosecutor Andrew Edis QC told the jury the end of Ms Pryce's marriage was "distressing, very upsetting" but "being the person that she is, a strong-minded, strong-willed person, it also caused her great anger and in the end led her to want to get revenge".
He said the pair had "cheated the system" over responsibility for the speeding incident.
Rejecting Pryce's defence of marital coercion, Mr Edis said she was a "woman who had spent her life making important choices... and here she is saying that she was unable to choose whether to commit a crime or not because a man, whether her husband or not, was telling her what she had to do".
The court was told Pryce later told Sunday Times journalist Isabel Oakeshott what the couple had done and was persuaded that a carefully written story could expose the politician.
Pryce said in an email to Ms Oakeshott: "I definitely want to nail him. More than ever, I would love to do it soon."
She also recorded some of her phone calls with Huhne in a failed attempt to get the then MP to incriminate himself.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | March 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Illegal militant loggers in the Amazon rainforest shoot dead an indigenous activist named Paulo Paulino Guajajara and wounds another. | BRASILIA (Reuters) - Illegal loggers in the Amazon ambushed an indigenous group that was formed to protect the forest and shot dead a young warrior and wounded another, leaders of the Guajajara tribe in northern Brazil said on Saturday.
Paulo Paulino Guajajara, or Lobo (which means ‘wolf’ in Portuguese), was hunting on Friday inside the Arariboia reservation in Maranhao state when he was attacked and shot in the head. Another Guajajara, Laercio, was wounded but escaped, they said.
The clash comes amid an increase in invasions of reservations by illegal loggers and miners since right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro took office this year and vowed to open up protected indigenous lands to economic development.
“The Bolsonaro government has indigenous blood on its hands,” Brazil’s pan-indigenous organization APIB, which represents many of the country’s 900,000 native people, said in a statement on Saturday.
“The increase in violence in indigenous territories is a direct result of his hateful speeches and steps taken against our people,” APIB said.
APIB leader Sonia Guajajara said the government was dismantling environmental and indigenous agencies, and leaving tribes to defend themselves from invasion of their lands.
“It’s time to say enough of this institutionalized genocide,” she said in a post on Twitter.
Brazil’s federal police said they had sent a team to investigate the circumstances of Paulino Guajajara’s death. APIB said his body was still lying in the forest where he was killed.
The Guajajaras, one of Brazil's largest indigenous groups with some 20,000 people, set up the Guardians of the Forest here in 2012 to patrol a vast reservation. The area is so large that a small and endangered tribe, the Awá Guajá, lives deep in the forest without any contact with the outside world.
Paulino Guajajara, who was in his twenties and leaves behind one son, told Reuters in an interview here on the reservation in September that protecting the forest from intruders had become a dangerous task, but his people could not give in to fear.
“I’m scared at times, but we have to lift up our heads and act. We are here fighting,” he said, as he and other warriors prepared to move through the forest towards a logging camp.
“We are protecting our land and the life on it, the animals, the birds, even the Awá who are here too,” Paulino Guajajara said at the time. “There is so much destruction of Nature happening, good trees with wood as hard as steel being cut down and taken away.”
“We have to preserve this life for our children’s future,” he said.
| Armed Conflict | November 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Khieu Samphan, the former Khmer Rouge head of state, is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity by a Cambodian tribunal. | The 76-year-old was earlier arrested at a hospital in the capital, Phnom Penh, and taken to face the panel of judges.
He is the fifth person to be targeted by the court, set up to bring surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge to justice.
More than one million people are thought to have died between 1975 and 1979 under the brutal Maoist regime.
Khieu Samphan 's lawyers have said they will appeal against his detention, a tribunal spokesman said.
Close confidant
Khieu Samphan's arrest had been widely expected. WHO WERE THE KHMER ROUGE?
Maoist regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975-1979
Founded and led by Pol Pot, (above) who died in 1998 Abolished religion, schools and currency in a bid to create agrarian utopia
Brutal regime that did not tolerate dissent
More than a million people thought to have died from starvation, overwork or execution
Brutal Khmer Rouge regime
A former guerrilla fighter, he became the president of Democratic Kampuchea - as Cambodia was then known - after the Khmer Rouge came to power. He was a close confidant of leader Pol Pot. He has long claimed that his position was ceremonial, and in a recently published book he denied responsibility for policies to starve people and orders to carry out mass killings.
Last week, amid reports that his detention was imminent, he was flown to hospital in Phnom Penh after apparently suffering a stroke. Early on Monday, police entered the hospital and drove the former leader to the special courts to appear before a panel of investigating judges. Delay fears
Khieu Samphan's detention completes the initial round-up of suspects by the tribunal, which was established last year after years of delay. TRIBUNAL SUSPECTS
Prison chief Duch (or Kang Kek Ieu), charged in July with crimes against humanity
Khmer Rouge second-in-command Nuon Chea, charged in September with war crimes and crimes against humanity
Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, charged in November with war crimes and crimes against humanity
Social Affairs Minister Ieng Thirith, charged in November with crimes against humanity
Head of State Khieu Samphan, arrested in November, yet to be charged
Former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and wife Ieng Thirith, the social affairs minister, were arrested last week and charged with crimes against humanity. Pol Pot's second-in command, Nuon Chea, and Kang Kek Ieu - known as Duch - the head of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, are also facing similar charges. Their trials are expected to begin next year.
Under the Khmer Rouge, more than one million people died from starvation or overwork as leaders strove to create an agrarian utopia. Hundreds of thousands of the educated middle-classes were tortured and executed in special centres. Khmer Rouge founder Pol Pot died in 1998 and many fear that delays to the judicial process could mean that more of the regime's elderly leaders are never brought to justice. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | November 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
The final phase of Egypt's latest parliamentary election begins. The voting process will continue until the end of the next day. | CAIRO: Voting in the run-off for the second and final stage of the House of Representatives elections began in Egypt on Monday morning, with 202 candidates competing for the remaining 101 seats.
The voting continues through to Tuesday and there are strict precautionary measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus among voters, who were wearing protective face masks and complying with social distancing rules.
The Ministry of Interior's agencies have intensified their efforts to secure the run-off round by providing a safe environment for voters and also by strengthening security services in the areas surrounding the electoral headquarters.
The second round is being held in 13 governorates: Cairo, Qalyubia, Dakahlia, Menofia, Gharbia, Sharqia, Kafr El Sheikh, Damietta, Port Said, Suez, Ismailia, South Sinai and North Sinai.
The National List for Egypt won the seats in the Cairo, South and Central Delta sectors, and the East Delta sector, for which 142 seats were allocated.
None of the 13 governorates decided all of their seats in the first round by the individual system. From the first round, 41 of the 142 seats were decided by the individual system.
The National Elections Authority said that the 12,000 judges overseeing the subcommittees received the portfolio of opinion cards, polling, voter lists and filing records throughout Saturday and Sunday so that they could reach their committees early.
Voters received bags that included medical masks, hand gloves and alcohol.
The authority finalized all the necessary arrangements for the voting process by printing ballot papers, preparing electoral headquarters and coordinating with the armed forces and police to secure the subcommittees during the polling.
Lashin Ibrahim, head of the National Elections Authority, said the body was keen to complete the electoral process with integrity and transparency. It was being carried out in line with national legislative and constitutional frameworks and international standards, as well as with full judicial supervision, he added.
BEIRUT: Josep Borrell, the high representative of the EU for foreign affairs and security policy and vice-president of the European Commission, is expected to start a round of talks with Lebanese officials in Beirut on Saturday.
This comes days ahead of a meeting of EU officials in Brussels, called by France, to discuss imposing sanctions on Lebanese officials accused of corruption and political obstruction.
Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, director general of the General Security, highlighted “Russia’s constant will to stand by Lebanon and support it on the economic and security levels.”
He made his comments following talks with Russian officials.
Ibrahim added: “There should be a government, regardless of its form, in order to find solutions to all problems in Lebanon.”
He is a prominent figure in Lebanon who often conducts foreign negotiations.
Meanwhile, the living crisis is worsening, leading to armed clashes.
People are still waiting for long hours to fill up on gasoline amid shortages of fuel, which is subsidized by the state. The subsidy is expected to be lifted soon.
But this is dependent on the ration card for needy people, which is still being debated by parliamentary committees.
The fuel crisis sparked a clash on Friday in front of a gas station in Tripoli, which led to a shooting, with no casualties.
Also in Tripoli, a clash in front of a supermarket led to exchanging shots, causing two injuries.
The city has the biggest percentage of struggling Lebanese, who were impoverished further due to the collapse of the currency.
For the second consecutive day, employees of the public sector stuck to their strike which was called for by the Public Administration Employees Association in protest against the collapse of their purchasing power and the deterioration of economic and living conditions.
Contacts and consultations related to forming the new government have stalled after the failure of the initiative of the Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, but he has insisted that “it is still standing.”
Walid Jumblatt, president of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) said: “It is impossible for some officials to keep waiting while the country’s conditions are retreating.”
Jumblatt added: “It is time for a settlement away from personal calculations.”
In the past two days, Berri had joined Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri in accusing President Michel Aoun and his political party of trying to get the blocking third in the government, contrary to the constitution.
Meanwhile, Lebanese Internal Security forces announced that they “captured 16 RPG type rocket-propelled grenades, and five grenades of other types dumped in waste containers near the House of the Druze Community in Lebanon in Beirut.”
Internal Security also declared that the “old ammunition” was removed after being examined by its explosives experts.
The identity of the party which disposed of the ammunition remains unknown.
The Anti-Narcotics Division at the Lebanese Customs seized a large quantity of Captagon pills hidden in a container loaded with stones, destined to be smuggled to Saudi Arabia via the port of Beirut.
“Some people implicated in the operation were arrested,” declared the caretaker Minister of Interior Mohammed Fahmi.
Speaking at the Port of Beirut, he revealed that the shipment was destined for Jeddah.
JEDDAH: As Iranian state TV showed people streaming to cast their ballots on Friday and news anchors praising the voters, very different scenes played out on the streets of Tehran, where many polling places appeared relatively empty.
Amid rising anger and apathy over a presidential vote tipped in favor of Ebrahim Raisi, the hard-line judiciary chief cultivated by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the election atmosphere was distinctly subdued, the Associated Press reported.
“It is useless,” said Ali Hosseini, a 36-year-old unemployed resident in southern Tehran, about the exercise of voting.
“Anyone who wins the election after some time says he cannot solve the problem of the economy because of intervention by influential people. He then forgets his promises and we poor people again are disappointed.”
At 16 different polling stations across Tehran, witnesses described lines of voters as “short” as no more than eight voters at a time could be seen casting ballots.
Some polls remained virtually deserted throughout the day. Listless poll workers listened to state radio, looked at their phones, or chatted calmly.
Farid Mahoutchi, the spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a Europe-based opposition group, said that according to reports, pictures, and video clips from polling stations across 220 cities in 31 provinces, the “sham” election was met with a widespread boycott.
Reports from polling station staff in many areas of Tehran, such as the Qamar Bani Hashem Mosque, Armaghan Alam, and polling stations in Tehran’s second district, which includes 64 polling stations, show participation was very meager.
“None of the candidates are trustworthy,” said Nasrin, a 31-year-old accountant in central Tehran.
Another passerby in a middle-class Tehran district, Rojin Ahmadi, 23, said: “None of them dared to offer a plan to show they would bring the country into normalcy.”
Ahmadi said she did not cast a vote.
Former hard-line populist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seized on popular anger by repeating his decision to stay home and not vote. He warned that the heavily restricted process will produce a government without domestic or international legitimacy.
“I am not going to vote. And the main reason is that I am witnessing a major part of the people is put aside,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
“A weak government is coming to power. And a weak government will weaken the situation in Iran. It will weaken the domestic situation and it will weaken our relations with the world. It will turn our relations with the rest of the world against Iran.”
In Lebanon, the Iranian Embassy set up three polling stations — one inside the embassy and the others in the city of Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon and in the city of Baalbek.
When asked about the number of Iranians in Lebanon, a media official from the embassy told Arab News: “Disclosing this number is not in the embassy’s interest.”
The turnout was low in Nabatiyeh despite many families of Iranian origin residing in the area.
PARIS/BRUSSELS: Criteria for European Union sanctions being prepared for Lebanese politicians are likely to be corruption, obstructing efforts to form a government, financial mishandling and human rights abuses, according to a diplomatic note seen by Reuters.
Led by France, the EU is seeking to ramp up pressure on Lebanon’s squabbling politicians after 11 months of a crisis that has left Lebanon facing financial collapse, hyperinflation, electricity blackouts, and fuel and food shortages.
The bloc, which has been holding technical discussions on possible measures for the last month, has yet to decide on which approach to take, but foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is due in Lebanon this weekend and will report back to foreign ministers on Monday.
As many senior Lebanese politicians have homes, bank accounts and investments in the EU, and send their children to universities there, a withdrawal of that access could help focus minds.
Paris says it has already taken measures to restrict entry for some Lebanese officials it sees as blocking efforts to tackle the crisis, which is rooted in decades of state corruption and debt, although it has not named anybody publicly.
The EU first needs to set up a sanctions regime that could then see individuals hit by travel bans and asset freezes, although it may also decide to not list anybody immediately.
The note, which also outlines the strengths and weaknesses of taking such a measure, focuses on four criteria. It begins with obstructing the establishment of a government, the political process or the successful completion of the political transition and then turns to obstructing the implementation of urgent reforms needed to overcome the political, economic and social crisis.
Financial mishandling, which would target people, entities or bodies believed to be responsible for the mismanagement of public finances and the banking sector, is also a core criteria as is the violation of human rights as a result of the economic and social crisis.
“It might be argued that the lack of political responsibility of the leadership in Lebanon is at the core of a massive implosion of the economy,” the note reads, referring to the possible human rights criteria.
“This has led to significant suffering and has affected the human rights of the population in Lebanon.”
Such diplomatic notes are common in EU policymaking, circulated among EU diplomats and officials, although they are not made public.
The note also says an “exit strategy” proposing benchmarks for establishing whether the sanctions regime has served its purpose as well as for renewing or lifting individual designations should also be put in place.
How quickly sanctions could be imposed is still unclear, but with political divisions continuing to worsen, the bloc is likely to press ahead before the summer holiday period.
There are divisions among the 27 EU states over the wisdom of EU sanctions, but the bloc’s two main powers, France and Germany are in favor, which is likely to prove pivotal. A larger group of nations has yet to specify their approach.
Hungary has publicly denounced EU efforts to pressure Lebanese politicians.
A senior European official told Reuters Paris had set its sights on sanctioning powerful Christian politician Gebran Bassil, who is already under US sanctions.
LONDON: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNCHR) has demanded an end to the Iran-backed Houthis’ assault on Marib in Yemen and criticized their cross-border missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia.
“We are seriously concerned at the continuing impact of fighting on civilians and the targeting of civilian objects in Marib Governorate in Yemen,” UNCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell told Arab News in a human rights briefing on Friday.
“Houthi forces, also known as Ansar Allah, have been trying to seize from the Yemeni government for several months.”
She highlighted a recent missile and drone attack on a compound, which housed civilian infrastructure and a mosque. The attack left eight dead and injured 30 more. Ambulances were also targeted during the attack as first responders were among the injured.
Throssell also pointed to another Houthi atrocity in Marib — the June 5 missile attack on a petrol station — which killed 21 people, including two children under the age of 13.
“Victims of arbitrary killings, including those amounting to war crimes, have a right to justice, and perpetrators of such acts, regardless of affiliation, must be held accountable,” Throssell said.
“We call on all parties in the conflict to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, including their obligation to respect the principles of distinction. It prohibits the targeting of civilians and civilian objects and infrastructure, as well as the principles of proportionality and precautions in attack.”
The UN representative also addressed the Houthis’ sustained assault on neighboring Saudi Arabia.
“Cross-border attacks by Ansar Allah into the territory of Saudi Arabia have also been continuing,” Throssell said.
“To date, since January, Ansar Allah has launched some 128 drone strikes and 31 ballistic missiles into Saudi Arabia. While the majority of the targets have been of a military nature, civilian infrastructure, including civilian airports and industrial facilities, have been hit.”
Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, has been embroiled in a bitter civil war since the Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized power in a 2014 coup. A Saudi-led coalition then intervened in the conflict on behalf of the UN-recognized government.
The Kingdom proposed a comprehensive peace plan, which is backed by its regional and Western partners. The coalition sees an end to the fighting, supports the delivery of humanitarian aid, and the implementation of a political solution to the conflict.
However, the Houthis have flouted the agreement and pushed forward in an attempt to capture the government-held city of Marib — an assault that has claimed the lives of many civilians.
“We urge all parties in the conflict to go back to the negotiating table and agree on a nationwide ceasefire,” Throssell said. “As has been repeated time and again, only a political solution can end this conflict.”
JERUSALEM: Israeli police on Friday arrested 10 Palestinians during clashes at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, with nine people injured as protesters hurled rocks and officers fired rubber bullets, police and medics said.
About 1,000 people gathered in the compound after weekly prayers chanting “God is great” and some hoisting Palestinian flags. Some demonstrators threw stones at police, who raided the site, a reporter said.
The confrontation came after Palestinians protested against Jewish nationalists who had marched through Israel-annexed East Jerusalem on Tuesday, chanting insults to Islam.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said nine people were hurt, including three hospitalized in the confrontation, with injuries due to “beatings, rubber bullets and sound bombs.”
“Several dozen youths began disturbing the order and throwing stones toward security men,” police said in a statement, adding that “Ten suspects were arrested.”
A day earlier, police said they arrested eight people who demonstrated at the Damascus Gate, an entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City, where the nationalist Jewish march had congregated.
Also on Friday, Palestinians protested near Nablus in the occupied West Bank against the expansion of a Jewish settlement on the lands of Beita village. The Red Crescent said 47 people were injured when security forces fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets.
The Al-Aqsa compound lies in East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in 1967, in a move most of the international community does not recognize. | Government Job change - Election | December 2020 | ['(Arab News)'] |
Five deaths occur in Turkey as a result of flash floods. | ISTANBUL, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Floods triggered by torrential rains killed five people in northeastern Turkey on Thursday, Turkish broadcaster NTV said.
State-run Anatolian news agency put the number of dead in the province of Artvin at two, including an 80-year-old woman whose house was flooded in the district of Borcka.
Flash floods stemming from the heaviest rainfall in the last 80 years killed 32 people two weeks ago in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city. Local authorities in Istanbul faced criticism shoddy construction was to blame for the high death toll. (Writing by Ibon Villelabeitia; Editing by Jon Hemming)
| Floods | September 2009 | ['(Xinhua)', '(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
A Russian Navy spy ship sinks off the coast of Turkey after colliding with a Togo–flagged freighter. All 78 crew aboard the ship were safely evacuated, according to Turkish officials. | A Russian spy ship has sunk off the Turkish coast after being breached in a collision with a freighter, with all its crew rescued, the Turkish coastal authority says.
Russia confirmed earlier that the hull of the Liman, part of its Black Sea Fleet, had sustained a breach, with crew working to keep it afloat.
The cause of the collision is unclear but fog was reported in the area.
The ship hit a Togo-flagged boat carrying livestock, Turkish media say.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim called his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, to express his sadness over the collision, sources in the Turkish prime minister's office were quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet (BSF) passes through the Bosphorus Strait for deployments in the Mediterranean, notably in Syria. All 78 crew aboard the Liman were safely evacuated, the Turkish coastal authority said in a statement (in Turkish) on its website. It collided with the Youzarsif H freighter, reportedly 29km (18 miles) from the Turkish town of Kilyos on the Black Sea coast just north of the city of Istanbul, and had sunk by 14:48 (11:48 GMT).
It was not clear whether either vessel was heading to the Bosphorus Strait at the time, Reuters news agency reports.
The BSF said the Russian crew had followed all the rules of sailing and manoeuvring and it suggested the incident had been caused by the other ship, Russia's Interfax news agency reports. A former commander of the fleet, Adm Viktor Kravchenko, told Interfax the event was "out of the ordinary".
"There have been collisions but I do not remember a case like this, of a vessel, a warship sinking after it," he said.
The freighter reportedly sustained minor damage in the incident.
Built in Gdansk, Poland, the Liman was launched in 1970, when it served with the USSR's Northern Fleet before joining the BSF in 1974, according to the kchf.ru naval website (in Russian). Based at Sevastopol in Crimea, the territory annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, it was a regular visitor to the Syrian port of Tartus for decades, the site notes.
In 1999, the Liman made international headlines when it was deployed to the Mediterranean to monitor Nato operations against Yugoslavia. | Shipwreck | April 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
A 72-hour ceasefire between Israel and Hamas begins, and talks aimed at finding a long-term solution to the conflict commence in Cairo. | Indirect talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators aimed at finding a long-term solution to the conflict in Gaza have begun in Cairo, according to Egyptian state media. The fresh discussions come amid a new three-day ceasefire agreed between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas.
A BBC reporter in Gaza says the truce is holding so far, with signs of normal life returning to the streets. About 2,000 people have died since the fighting in Gaza began on 8 July.
Those killed include more than 1,900 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the UN. Sixty-four Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting and three civilians in Israel have also died. On Friday, Israeli negotiators had left Cairo after failing to agree a deal with their Palestinian counterparts. But the Israeli delegation arrived back in Egypt's capital on Monday after agreeing to resume talks as long as the 72-hour ceasefire, which began at midnight (21:00 GMT Sunday) held. Militants in Gaza said they had fired several rockets towards Israel shortly before the truce got under way and Israeli air strikes had continued on Sunday evening, but the ceasefire has been respected since. The Israeli government spokesman, Mark Regev, said the Israeli military would be "ready to act to protect our people" if Hamas violated the agreement. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said its representatives would be involved in the Cairo talks, but warned that it was "the last chance" to find a long-term solution to the conflict. Correspondents say Israel will continue to demand the demilitarisation of Gaza, while Hamas will resume its calls for Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory to be lifted.
Israel has previously said that the lifting of blockades would only be dealt with in future talks on a permanent peace deal. In an interview on Monday, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said that disarming militants in Gaza was crucial to chances of a long-term truce.
If a diplomatic solution was not possible, he told Israel Radio, then he was "convinced" that sooner or later the Israeli army would have to take "temporary control of Gaza to demilitarise it again".
| Armed Conflict | August 2014 | ['(Haaretz)', '(BBC)'] |
A hostage crisis at a post office in Colombes, Paris, ends with the attacker releasing the hostages and surrendering himself to the police. | The latest Paris hostage crisis ended without bloodshed today after a gunman who claimed he had a Kalashnikov and grenades surrendered to police.
In a sign of the increasingly tense atmosphere in the city, the alarm was raised just before 1pm, with reports of a 'terrorist incident' in Colombes.
Dozens of armed officers trained their weapons on a post office where the man had reportedly taken people hostage.
But it turned out to be a 31-year-old 'depressed and unstable' local man on medication who had 'romantic problems'.
Dramatic pictures show the suspect holding his hands in the air after emerging from the post office as armed police point their weapons at him.
He is made to kneel on the ground as officers move in to handcuff him, all the time aiming their guns at his head. The hostages escaped unharmed.
Scroll down for videos
Game is up: The suspected hostage-taker emerges from the post office with his hands up as police in riot gear train their weapons on him
Taken into custody: The suspect in a hostage taking situation is detained by armed police outside the post office in Colombes
Handcuffed: The alleged hostage-taker is arrested by French Research and Intervention Brigades (BRI) police officers
Arrested: The suspect turned out to be a 31-year-old 'depressed and unstable' local man on medication who had 'romantic problems'
Some 80 heavily armed RAID polices commandos arrived within minutes and surrounded the post office, where the man was said to be holding at least two hostages.
But after about an hour he gave himself up and turned out to be a man who 'is known to police and who is on medication for psychiatric problems,' said a local police source.
Police had surrounded the post office in Colombes, around seven miles from the centre of the French capital after reports that he 'heavily armed'.
Armed police train their weapons on a post office in the Paris suburb of Colombes where a suspected gunman claimed to have taken hostages
French Research and Intervention Brigades (BRI) police officers stand guard near the post office in the Paris suburb of Colombes
Closing in: The suspect reportedly phoned police claiming he had taken hostages in the post office on 158 boulevard du general de Gaulle
The gunman reportedly phoned police to confirm that he had taken captives in the post office on 158 boulevard du general de Gaulle.
BFM TV, citing an unidentified source, had earlier said the hostage-taking was not related to last week's attacks in Paris.
It comes as Belgian authorities raided an Islamist cell planning attacks against police as dozens of people were arrested in sweeps across Europe, keeping the continent on alert one week after the Paris massacres.
Two suspected jihadists were shot dead in a police raid in the eastern Belgian town of Verviers last night.
The post office is seen with its metal security shutters down as negotiations get under way between the suspect and police units
An aerial view showing police activity around the scene of the hostage crisis in the Parisien suburb of Colombes
Terror: Armed police take up their positions near a post office where an armed man was holed up in a Paris suburb
Alert: The area around the post office was cordoned off, with a helicopter flying overhead and elite security forces on the ground
| Armed Conflict | January 2015 | ['(Daily Mail)', '(CNN)'] |
Somali al-Shabaab militants attack an army base on the outskirts of Baidoa, killing seven soldiers. | MOGADISHU: Somalia’s al Shabaab militants attacked a military base in the outskirts of the town of Baidoa on Friday morning, killing at least 7 Somali soldiers, a Somali military official said.
The attack came two days after the United States said it had killed the chief of al Shabaab’s intelligence and security wing, Tahliil Abdishakur.
“Al Shabaab attacked our base unexpectedly early in the morning today. We lost seven soldiers,” Captain Ahmed Idow, a Somali military officer, told Reuters by telephone from Baidoa.
Idow said Somali soldiers killed three al Shabaab insurgents during the attack.
A spokesman for the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab said the group had briefly seized the base and killed more than 10 soldiers. Al Shabaab often cites a higher death toll than the number given by officials.
“We fiercely attacked the military base near Baidoa,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operation spokesman, told Reuters.
Al Shabaab is seeking to topple the Western-backed Mogadishu government and impose its own strict version of Islamic law in the country.
| Armed Conflict | January 2015 | ['(Reuters via Daily Times)'] |
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak confirms that the plane debris recovered from Reunion Island on July 29 is from Flight 370. This is the first direct evidence that the missing March 2014 flight crashed. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott says that the search for MH370 will continue. , , | Part of the aircraft wing found on Reunion Island is from the missing MH370 plane, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has confirmed.
Mr Najib said experts examining the debris in France had "conclusively confirmed" it was from the aircraft.
But the investigators have stopped short of confirming the link, saying only that it is highly likely.
The Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 239 people veered off course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014. The debris was found on the remote French Indian Ocean island a week ago and was taken to Toulouse for testing. The plane is long believed to have crashed into the southern Indian - though no evidence had been found despite a massive search operation.
"It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you that an international team of experts has conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris [...] is indeed MH370," Mr Najib told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
"We now have physical evidence that [...] flight MH370 tragically ended in the southern Indian Ocean," he added. Mr Najib said he hoped the discovery "will at least bring certainty to the families" of the victims, saying the burden they had faced was "unspeakable". French prosecutor Serge Mackowiak later confirmed the wing fragment, known as a flaperon, was from a Boeing 777 - the same make and model as the missing Malaysian airliner.
He said initial tests showed there were "very strong indications" that it was from flight MH370. But he said confirmation would only come after further tests on the fragment, which would begin on Thursday. "[Investigators] will try to do it as soon as possible in order to provide total and reliable information to the family of victims, who are on our minds at the moment," Mr Mackowiak added. The Paris prosecutor failed to be as categorical as the Malaysian prime minister in asserting that the wing piece does come from MH370. All he said was that there are very strong reasons to presume that it is from the missing plane. That does not mean that the prosecutor has any reason to doubt the prime minister's conclusion - simply that he is exercising supreme legal caution. In the coming days there will be more tests on the flaperon and it's expected that these will prove the piece's origin. After that, it will probably be many months before deeper analysis allows any tentative deductions about how the plane may have come down.
Australia has been leading the search for the plane in the area it is believed to have gone down, some 4,000km (2,500 miles) east of Reunion.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Melbourne Radio 3AW the discovery "does seem to confirm that it went down in the Indian Ocean, it does seem very consistent with the search pattern that we've been using for the last few months".
Relatives of the victims were told about the initial results shortly before Mr Najib's news conference on Wednesday. Jacquita Gonzales, the wife of crew member Patrick Gomes, said: "Now that they have confirmed it as MH370, I know my husband is no longer of this world but they just can't leave it with this one flaperon."
"We urge them to continue searching until they find the plane and bring it back," she told reporters. "It's not over yet."
She said she still hoped to get her husband's body back so that the family can give him a proper burial and say goodbye.
Malaysia Airlines described confirmation of the flaperon as "a major breakthrough".
In a statement, it said it hoped further evidence would be found in the coming days that would "help resolve this mystery".
| Air crash | August 2015 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters via MSN)', '(Nine News - Australia)'] |
Jeff Sessions asked to resign as United States Attorney General at the request of President Donald Trump. Matthew Whitaker, Sessions' chief of staff, is appointed acting Attorney General. | Senior Republicans led a chorus of public warnings that the special counsel Robert Mueller must be allowed to continue his Russia investigation after Donald Trump finally fired his attorney general, Jeff Sessions.
As Trump replaced Sessions with a senior aide, Matthew Whitaker, a critic of Mueller’s inquiry, Senator Susan Collins was among the first Republicans to warn: “It is imperative that the administration not impede the Mueller investigation … Special Counsel Mueller must be allowed to complete his work without interference.”
Mitt Romney, who won the race on Tuesday to become a senator for Utah, aimed his first broadside at Trump, tweeting: “It is imperative that the important work of the Justice Department continues, and that the Mueller investigation proceeds to its conclusion unimpeded.”
As progressives activated a plan for mass protests across the United States, starting at 5pm on Thursday in all time zones, the former CIA chief John Brennan predicted that it was likely Mueller had already completed his report for the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, who was yesterday relieved of his duty overseeing the investigation into Russian election interference and any collusion with the Trump campaign.
Brennan told MSNBC: “If there are some major indictments coming down the pike, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re going to see it very soon. Generally the report that the special counsel will draft and deliver to Rod Rosenstein, I wouldn’t be surprised if that is ready to go.”
Sessions looked close to tears as he was applauded by justice department staff on his way out of the building on Wednesday night.
His departure came hours after he received a White House call ordering him to resign.
He was replaced by his former chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, who has previously called for Mueller’s investigation to be defunded and reined in.
Trump said in a tweet on Wednesday afternoon that Whitaker had been appointed acting attorney general and that a permanent replacement would be nominated later.
Whitaker, 49, will take charge of the inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Trump’s campaign. Sarah Isgur Flores, a justice department spokeswoman, said in an email: “The acting attorney general is in charge of all matters under the purview of the Department of Justice.”
Democrats expressed concern that the president was moving to sabotage Mueller’s investigation, which has obtained guilty pleas to federal criminal charges from Trump’s former campaign chairman, deputy campaign chairman, White House national security adviser and campaign foreign policy adviser.
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, said in a statement that Whitaker should recuse himself from the Russia issue in light of “his previous comments advocating defunding and imposing limitations on the Mueller investigation”.
Trump’s decision concluded a long-running public feud between the president and his beleaguered attorney general.
Sessions said in an undated letter to Trump released on Wednesday: “At your request, I am submitting my resignation.” He took credit for reversing a recent rise in violent crime. He was later applauded by staff as he left the department’s headquarters. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | November 2018 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
U.S. President Donald Trump tweets that "very productive talks" are being held with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on reinstating the June 12 Singapore summit, which he had cancelled Thursday. | US President Donald Trump says "very productive talks" have been held with North Korea on reinstating the summit with leader Kim Jong-un.
In a tweet, Mr Trump said the meeting could still take place on 12 June in Singapore "and if necessary will be extended beyond that date".
He cancelled the summit on Thursday, blaming the North's "open hostility".
But North Korea later appeared conciliatory, saying it was willing to talk "at any time in any form".
Shortly before Mr Trump's tweet, the South Korean presidency said it was thankful that the "summit embers are not put out and it is coming back to life".
Whether or not the talks will take place in just over two weeks' time is, frankly, anyone's guess, the BBC's David Willis reports from Washington. Summit meetings of this kind usually involve months of detailed planning and some analysts have expressed disquiet that private discussion of policy differences appears to have been replaced by "diplomacy by tweet", our correspondent adds.
President Moon Jae-in had earlier said he was "very perplexed" and that it was "very regrettable" that the summit was not going ahead.
We are having very productive talks with North Korea about reinstating the Summit which, if it does happen, will likely remain in Singapore on the same date, June 12th., and, if necessary, will be extended beyond that date.
The summit planned for Singapore would have been the first time a sitting US president had met a North Korean leader.
Although the precise agenda was unclear, it was expected that the two leaders would discuss ways of reducing tensions and denuclearising the Korean peninsula.
It was South Korean officials who first informed the US earlier this year that Mr Kim was prepared to discuss potential nuclear disarmament.
In April, the leaders of both Koreas had a historic meeting at the border, promising to end hostilities and work towards the denuclearisation of the peninsula.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited North Korea for preliminary talks with Mr Kim and plans for the historic summit were announced.
However, the North quickly became angered by comments from senior US officials who made comparisons with Libya. There, former leader Colonel Gaddafi gave up his nascent nuclear programme only for him to be killed by Western-backed rebels a few years later.
After some fiery North Korean rhetoric, Mr Trump announced the summit would not be held.
But the North's Vice-Foreign Minister, Kim Kye-gwan, then struck a more conciliatory tone, calling Mr Trump's decision "unexpected" and "extremely regrettable". He said Pyongyang was willing "to sit face to face at any time".
Earlier on Friday, speaking to reporters outside the White House in Washington, the US president indicated that the summit could still be salvaged, saying: "We're gonna see what happens. We're talking to them [North Korea] now. It was a very nice statement they put out." | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | May 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
A car bomb explodes in Bilbao, Spain, and is blamed on Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, a Basque nationalist and separatist organisation. | MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A powerful car bomb exploded outside a regional television station in Spain's Basque region Wednesday after police got a warning call from the separatist group ETA, authorities said.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero says ETA is losing all the battles.
The blast occurred in the city of Bilbao around 11 a.m. (5 a.m. ET). The warning came an hour ahead of the bombing and gave police enough time to evacuate the area, including some 500 people working at the government-run Basque regional TV, known by its initials EiTB, and in other nearby offices.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, but the blast shattered the glass facade of the TV station's new headquarters.
It was the first major attack blamed on ETA since police arrested two of its suspected top leaders recently.
ETA is blamed for more than 800 deaths in its long fight for Basque independence and is listed as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.
Last month during an anti-terrorism raid in France, authorities captured the man then considered to be the overall chief of the Basque separatist group.
Authorities said the suspect, Mikel Garikoitz Aspiazu, 35, alias "Txeroki," was in charge of both ETA's military and political, or policymaking, wings.
Just three weeks later, on December 8, police arrested Txeroki's alleged replacement, Aitzol Iriondo Yarza, 30, the new suspected head of the ETA commandos. He was also arrested in France, ETA's traditional rear guard base just across the border from Spain. Watch the explosion
After that, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said ETA was more "isolated" than ever and he ruled out fresh talks with them.
"The end of ETA can be seen only with the push from the rule of law," Zapatero said in an interview on December 18 with CNN affiliate Cuatro TV.
He said police had arrested 365 ETA suspects in the past two years, notably the two recent suspected top ETA leaders and their alleged ETA chief predecessor, who was detained last May, also in France.
On Wednesday after the Bilbao blast, Zapatero told an audience in southern Spain that "ETA can attack but it is going to lose all the battles."
Top Spanish officials have repeatedly warned that ETA is not yet finished. An ETA communique during the autumn threatened many targets, including government-run media outlets.
The previous major car bomb blamed on ETA was on October 30 at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, which injured 27 people and caused extensive damage.
The Bilbao bomb comes two years after ETA's car bomb at Madrid's airport that killed two men and destroyed a parking garage.
There are about 600 ETA convicts or suspects in Spanish jails and 150 others in French jails, authorities in the two countries have told CNN. | Armed Conflict | December 2008 | ['(CNN)'] |
At the International Court of Justice, The Gambia presents charges against the government of Myanmar and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who traveled to appear in the court. According to the prosecution, the Burmese government is responsible for mass rapes, widespread arson and killings of Rohingya children, among other crimes. | THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Mass rapes, the burning alive of Muslim Rohingya families in their homes and the killing with knives of dozens of children were described by Gambia’s legal team as it set out its genocide case against Myanmar at the U.N.’s highest court on Tuesday.
Gambia asks U.N. court to 'stop genocide' in Myanmar
02:44
Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate, looked on impassively as the alleged atrocities were detailed on the first of three days of hearings at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The case was instituted by Gambia against Buddhist-majority Myanmar in November.
“All that The Gambia asks is that you tell Myanmar to stop these senseless killings,” Gambia’s Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou said in opening comments.
“To stop these acts of barbarity and brutality that have shocked and continue to shock our collective conscience. To stop this genocide of its own people.”
Suu Kyi is expected on Wednesday to repeat denials of genocide and argue that military “clearance operations” launched in August 2017 were a legitimate counterterrorism response to attacks by Rohingya militants.
Detailing events at the village of Min Gyi, Gambia’s lawyer Andrew Loewenstein drew on witness accounts recorded in a report by U.N. investigators, who estimated 750 people were killed there, including more than 100 children under the age of 6.
“There were dead bodies on the floor: young boys from our village,” Loewenstein quoted from one survivor’s testimony to the U.N. fact-finding mission.
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“As we entered the house, the soldiers locked the door. One soldier raped me. He stabbed me in the back of my neck and in my abdomen. I was trying to save my baby, who was only 28 days old, but they threw him on the ground and he died.”
At the end of Tuesday’s hearing Gambia asked the court to order special measures to protect the Rohingya. The so-called provisional measures would act as a kind of restraining order for the Myanmar military until the case is heard in full.
“Only in this way can we hope the rights of the Gambia and the safety of the Rohingya group be fully protected,” said Philippe Sands, another lawyer for the tiny, mostly Muslim West African country.
More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar after the military-led crackdown and were forced into squalid camps across the border in Bangladesh. The U.N. investigators concluded the military campaign was executed with “genocidal intent”.
Myanmar has previously denied almost all allegations made by refugees against its troops, including of mass rape, killings and arson, and promised to punish any soldiers involved in what it says were isolated cases of wrongdoing.
Outside the court, dozens of Rohingya demonstrated to demand justice for victims. Hours earlier in Yangon, Myanmar’s commercial capital, thousands of people had rallied in support of Suu Kyi.
“It’s like Mother Suu went to the frontlines for our country,” said 58-year-old Myint Myint Thwin. “Therefore to show our support and that we stand with her we joined this march.”
Once feted in the West, Suu Kyi has faced mounting international criticism over the Rohingya crisis. But she has remained popular at home since coming to power 2016 as part of the transition to democracy after decades of military rule.
Gambia is arguing that Myanmar’s forces carried out widespread and systematic atrocities that constituted genocide, and that in doing so Myanmar violated its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention.
This week’s proceedings, before a panel of 17 judges, will not deal with whether Myanmar is guilty of the most serious international crime, but will focus on Gambia’s request for provisional measures. A decision on that request is expected within weeks.
The tribunal has no enforcement powers, but its rulings are final and have significant legal weight.
In the Bangladeshi refugee camps on Tuesday, hundreds gathered on a hilltop and chanted, “Gambia! Gambia!”, pumping their fists. Some offered special prayers at mosques in the camps and many others were fasting.
“Our people were killed, our children were thrown into fire, our women were raped, our houses were burnt down. All we want is a fair trial,” said Nurul Amin, 30.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | December 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
NATO planes launch an air strike on Afghanistan, allegedly killing civilians in the process. | Nato planes have carried out an air strike in the Afghan province of Logar, south of the capital Kabul, with several civilians reported dead.
Afghan officials said 18 civilians died, including women and children.
Nato said the air strike followed Afghan and foreign troops coming under fire, but added in a statement
that it would investigate the incident.
Widespread reports of civilian deaths during air strikes often draw angry criticism from Afghan officials.
Tribal elders and officials in Logar told the BBC that top Taliban commanders had gathered at a house in a remote village in the district of Baraki Barak.
Afghan and Nato forces surrounded the house and warned the Taliban to surrender. Isaf, Nato's operation in Afghanistan, said that the troops came under fire.
Nato forces then called for an air strike.
According to Afghan intelligence officials, the strike killed 18 civilians, including women and children who were in the house at the time. Reports say guests had gathered at the house ahead of a wedding.
Villagers later took their dead to the provincial capital to show that they had been wrongly targeted, the BBC's Quentin Somerville in Kabul reports. At least eight Taliban commanders were also killed nearby.
A Nato spokesman said he could not confirm or deny reports of civilian casualties.
However, an earlier statement from Isaf
had said: "While conducting a follow-on assessment, the security force discovered two women who had sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
"The security force provided medical assistance and transported both women to an Isaf medical facility for treatment."
The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says the issue of civilian deaths at the hands of Nato is highly sensitive.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has issued several warnings to the Nato-led mission that killing Afghan civilians, even by accident, is unacceptable.
Also on Wednesday, at least 22 civilians were killed in suicide bombings in the southern city of Kandahar, while two more died in the northern Faryab province.
It makes Wednesday one of the deadliest days for Afghan civilians in recent memory, correspondents say. Separately, Nato said one of its helicopters had crashed in the east of the country, killing two service personnel. | Armed Conflict | June 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Three are killed in a shooting at a garlic festival in Gilroy, California. | GILROY, Calif. Authorities on Monday identified the 19-year-old they said opened fire with an assault-style rifle at a food festival here a day earlier but said they did not know what motivated the bloodshed that left three people dead and a dozen others injured.
The gunman cut people down as the Gilroy Garlic Festival, a venerable tradition that annually draws tens of thousands to this small city southeast of San Jose, was winding to a close Sunday evening. Among the dead were two children: a 6-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl.
“It’s sort of a nightmare that you hope you never have to live in reality,” Scot Smithee, the Gilroy police chief, told reporters.
Police identified the gunman who was killed in a shootout with police officers soon after the attack began as Santino William Legan. Smithee warned that the investigation would be lengthy and complex, with no immediate obvious answers.
“It seems that this was a random act,” Smithee said Monday. “But again, we’ve got a long way to go before we can come to a determination what his motivation was.”
What is the Gilroy Garlic Festival? The massive food event has raised millions for charity.
Authorities identified one of the victims on Monday 6-year-old Stephen Romero.
“I lost my son,” his father, Alberto Romero, told NBC Bay Area. “There’s nothing I really can do besides try to be with him until I can put him in his resting spot.”
Romero added: “My son had his whole life to live, and he was only 6.”
Officials had not released the names of the other two victims as of Monday, describing them only as a 13-year-old girl and a man in his 20s.
“Any time a life is lost, it’s a tragedy. But when it’s young people, it’s even worse,” Smithee said. “It’s very difficult.”
Fearing mass shooters, employers turn to workers to monitor their peers
Festivalgoers who escaped the shooting described a calm event giving way to sudden horror.
The first calls about a shooting came just after 5:40 p.m. on Sunday. The garlic festival billed as “the world’s greatest summer food festival” on its website was almost over.
Julissa Contreras was browsing at a barbecue food stand when she saw a man emerge from behind a row of tents. He wore a military-style outfit and was holding what looked like an assault rifle, she said. Four loud cracks followed.
The man was shooting “left to right and right to left,” said Contreras, who was with her father and boyfriend. “Some people immediately knew what was going on and saw the guy and ran. Some people were still sitting there unsure.”
She and her boyfriend, Mario Camargo, were separated as they sought places to hide. Both wound up near crying children and frantic parents. When the gunfire stopped, they ran for the parking lot and reunited. Camargo said he saw two injured people as he fled.
“One guy was able to talk. He was saying, ‘Just go! Just go!’” Camargo recalled. “People were crying, screaming, running in different directions. It was complete pandemonium.”
Edward and Jane Jacobucci were working at their Garlic Grater booth when the shooting began, and she spotted the attacker.
“He was tall, young, thin; he had a camouflage outfit on with a big gun, and he was just going, ‘Boom, boom, boom!’” she said.
Before she knew it, she was on the ground; her husband had taken her down to protect her. “He actually threw me to the ground and just covered me, and then as soon as we heard it stop a little, we ran,” she said.
Andrea Kovach and a friend had just walked away from a line for alligator sausage when they heard the shots. They started to run, and her body tensed up.
“When you hear the shots like that, you kind of immediately go like, you’re bracing your body to be hit,” said Kovach, 23, who works at a local church.
The gunshots kept cracking through the air, followed by screams. Kovach said she had taken her friend, who is from India, to the festival to share a fundamental part of her Gilroy upbringing.
“Now this is his introduction to Gilroy,” she said.
For many across the country, this might be their introduction to Gilroy, just like many people learned the names of Parkland, Aurora, Newtown, Sutherland Springs and other communities dragged into the headlines by tragedies.
It happened again because it always happens again.
It happened here at a festival attended by celebrities, elected officials and visitors from all over. Before that, it happened at synagogues and churches, a movie theater and office buildings, on campus after campus after campus. Just a day before the Gilroy shooting, someone opened fire on a crowd gathered in Brooklyn for a community festival, killing one person and injuring 11 others.
In Gilroy, the attack targeted a marquee event dating to 1979, one that has raised millions of dollars for local schools and nonprofits.
“To have seen this event end this way, this day, is just one of the most tragic and sad things that I’ve ever had to see,” Brian Bowe, the festival’s executive director, said at a news conference.
Smithee said security at the festival’s entrances was “very tight,” with police officers, bag searches and metal-detector wands. Investigators think the shooter cut through a fence to get inside, he said.
The shooter was firing “an assault-type rifle” he had legally purchased this month in Nevada, Smithee said. Legan was from Gilroy but possibly had been living with relatives in Nevada for a time, the police chief said. But Smithee said he did not know how long Legan had been there nor how long he had been in California.
Smithee said police officers were spread across the park when the shots were reported, which allowed for a rapid response. Less than a minute after the first call about gunshots, three officers with handguns confronted the attacker, who fired at them, Smithee said.
“In spite of the fact that they were outgunned, with their handguns against a rifle, those three officers were able to fatally wound that suspect, and the event ended very quickly,” he said.
Smithee said he thinks the officers saved lives.
“There absolutely would have been more bloodshed, I believe,” he said. “The number of people in the small area they were in, I think it’s very, very fortunate that they were able to engage him as quickly as they did.”
Attempts to reach Legan’s relatives were not successful Monday. Authorities searched a home not far from the festival where some of the shooter’s relatives are thought to live. Neighbors said he was the youngest of three boys living there and that the family seemed ordinary.
Smithee said police were looking for a possible second suspect in the case, but he said they do not have confirmation that the person fired a weapon. Some witnesses reported that the attacker had someone with him, Smithee said, but “different people gave different versions,” so they were trying to investigate what, if any, role a second person might have had.
During a later news conference, Smithee said they had located the attacker’s vehicle and obtained a search warrant for it. He also said that a 20-year-old man had posted online claiming to have “just shot up the G fest,” adding that authorities took this man into custody and were able to determine he was not involved.
Local, state and federal authorities responded to the shooting scene. On Monday, the FBI said it has an evidence recovery team of about 30 people scouring the sprawling crime scene.
“Our preeminent and principal concern at this point is motivation, ideological leanings,” Craig D. Fair, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Francisco office, said at a briefing. “Was he affiliated with anyone or any group? It still has to be ruled out, still has to be determined, at this point.”
The shooting was yet another grim reminder that these attacks can happen essentially anywhere, said Gregory Shaffer, a former FBI agent who served on the bureau’s Hostage Rescue Team.
“We do a great job in securing the critical infrastructure at sporting events, churches, schools and larger-scale public events,” he said. “But the bad guys know those are hardened targets. They’re looking for that so-called ‘soft target.’ And the Gilroy Garlic Festival, which I’ve been to several times because I was in the FBI office in San Francisco it’s a great event, lots of fun but it’s a soft target.”
President Trump denounced the shooter as “a wicked murderer” and praised law enforcement officers for their response. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) criticized the Senate for not advancing gun-control legislation. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said the shooting further showed that “nowhere is safe from this epidemic of gun violence.”
Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.) said he and his wife were at the festival and were not far from the gunman when he opened fire.
“The level of gun violence in our nation is sickening,” he said in a statement. “It is an issue we must deal with not only legislatively, but spiritually and socially.”
People who escaped said what they saw will be difficult to shake. Contreras said one moment sticks with her: when she looked toward the shooter and saw children fleeing an inflatable slide, all trying to squeeze through the same tiny exit.
“I’m never going to forget that image,” she said.
Berman, Chiu and Flynn reported from Washington. Devlin Barrett, Julie Tate, Maura Judkis and Morgan Krakow in Washington and Antoinette Siu, a California-based freelance journalist, in Gilroy, contributed to this report.
The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. | Armed Conflict | July 2019 | ['(The Washington Post)'] |
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez survives a vote of no-confidence presented by the far-right Vox political party. | Spanish lawmakers on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected a no-confidence motion called by the far-right party Vox against Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his left-wing coalition over their handling of the coronavirus pandemic
On Location: June 18, 2021
MADRID -- Spanish lawmakers on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected a no-confidence motion called by the far-right Vox party against Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his left-wing coalition over their handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The motion was rejected by 298 votes and backed only by the 52 lawmakers of Vox, which last year became the third-largest force in the 350-seat parliament.
Spain has reported 1 million confirmed infections — the highest number in Western Europe — and at least 34,000 deaths from COVID-19, although experts say the number is much higher since many cases were missed because of testing shortages and other problems.
Opposition leader Pablo Casado announced earlier Thursday that the 88 lawmakers of his conservative Popular Party (PP) would vote against Vox's motion, and lambasted the far-right party for “wasting everybody's time” with the debate as the country grapples with a resurgence of the virus.
“This motion is one more lie from Vox for Sánchez to remain in Moncloa,” Casado said in reference to the palace where the prime minister’s office is located. “Don’t mislead Spaniards, please.”
By choosing to vote against rather than abstaining, Casado cleared up the main question in the run-up to Thursday's vote in the fragmented Congress of Deputies.
The Popular Party has been very critical of Sánchez's minority government, but Vox’s recent rise has come at the expense of Spain’s traditional right-wing. Many analysts had seen Vox's motion as both an attempt to erode the Socialist-led coalition and a direct challenge to Casado, forcing the opposition leader to take a public stance on hot-button issues for the right-wing electorate.
Vox leader Santiago Abascal responded by saying that Casado's position was showing PP's true colors.
“It seems that today you have removed your mask and you have joined the brutal caricaturizing of Vox,” Abascal said.
Casado's move will also cause political ripples in some of the PP-controlled regions under agreements with a center-right party, Citizens, but with Vox's support. Among the immediate effects, Sánchez’s coalition offered to end the stalemate in negotiations with PP for renewing the Spanish judges’ governing body, while Vox announced that it would halt negotiations to pass a new budget in Andalusia, the southern and most populous of the country's regions.
One by one, parties from the left and right had lined up since Wednesday against the far-right's skepticism of the European Union and its promotion of Spanish nationalism and for taking positions against illegal migration or laws that protect women from abuse.
Pablo Iglesias, leader of the far-left United We Can party, which is part of the ruling coalition, told Casado that his speech distancing his party from Vox was “brilliant,” but came too late. | Government Job change - Election | October 2020 | ['(ABC News)'] |
Flash floods leave 16 people dead and 3 others missing in Saudi Arabia, with authorities urging citizens to avoid low–lying wadis. At least two others were killed in neighboring Oman in some of the heaviest rainfall in more than 25 years. | Flash floods in Saudi kill 16, civil defense says Sixteen people have died and three more are missing in Saudi Arabia after downpours caused flash floods in several areas of the desert kingdom, the civil defense authorities said on Wednesday. Two others died in flash floods in neighboring Oman, local media reported, as cloudbursts swept across most Gulf countries. The official Saudi SPA state news agency quoted a civil defense statement as saying people died in several areas including in the capital Riyadh, Baha in the south, Hail in the north and in the west. Earlier on Wednesday, the kingdom said 13 people had died and four were missing but later the civil defense statement updated the toll saying "the number of dead bodies retrieved until midday has risen to 16". It urged people to avoid wadi valleys and plains that have been flooded by heavy rainfall that began on Friday. Television footage showed 4X4 cars stuck in the middle of wadis and people clinging to a tree to escape fast-flowing flood waters. The vast Arabian Peninsula country has not experienced such a high volume of rainfall for 25 years. But around 10 people were killed in 2011 when flooding swept through the western city of Jeddah, where 123 people also perished in floods in 2009. The inability of Jeddah's infrastructure to drain off flood waters and uncontrolled construction in and around the city were blamed at the time for the high number of victims.
Sixteen people have died and three more are missing in Saudi Arabia after downpours caused flash floods in several areas of the desert kingdom, the civil defense authorities said on Wednesday. Two others died in flash floods in neighboring Oman, local media reported, as cloudbursts swept across most Gulf countries. The official Saudi SPA state news agency quoted a civil defense statement as saying people died in several areas including in the capital Riyadh, Baha in the south, Hail in the north and in the west. Earlier on Wednesday, the kingdom said 13 people had died and four were missing but later the civil defense statement updated the toll saying "the number of dead bodies retrieved until midday has risen to 16". It urged people to avoid wadi valleys and plains that have been flooded by heavy rainfall that began on Friday. Television footage showed 4X4 cars stuck in the middle of wadis and people clinging to a tree to escape fast-flowing flood waters. The vast Arabian Peninsula country has not experienced such a high volume of rainfall for 25 years. But around 10 people were killed in 2011 when flooding swept through the western city of Jeddah, where 123 people also perished in floods in 2009. The inability of Jeddah's infrastructure to drain off flood waters and uncontrolled construction in and around the city were blamed at the time for the high number of victims. | Floods | May 2013 | ['(Al Arabiya)'] |
Archeologists in Jordan find baked flatbread dating to 12,500 BC, making it the oldest surviving bread ever discovered, surpassing a Turkish loaf which was estimated to be 9,100 years old. The bread was found in a stone oven which was apparently built during the formative years of the Natufian culture. The bread is also notable for predating the Neolithic Revolution by 4,000 years. | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Charred remains of a flatbread baked about 14,500 years ago in a stone fireplace at a site in northeastern Jordan have given researchers a delectable surprise: people began making bread, a vital staple food, millennia before they developed agriculture.
No matter how you slice it, the discovery detailed on Monday shows that hunter-gatherers in the Eastern Mediterranean achieved the cultural milestone of bread-making far earlier than previously known, more than 4,000 years before plant cultivation took root.
The flatbread, likely unleavened and somewhat resembling pita bread, was fashioned from wild cereals such as barley, einkorn or oats, as well as tubers from an aquatic papyrus relative, that had been ground into flour.
It was made by a culture called the Natufians, who had begun to embrace a sedentary rather than nomadic lifestyle, and was found at a Black Desert archeological site.
“The presence of bread at a site of this age is exceptional,” said Amaia Arranz-Otaegui, a University of Copenhagen postdoctoral researcher in archaeobotany and lead author of the research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Arranz-Otaegui said until now the origins of bread had been associated with early farming societies that cultivated cereals and legumes. The previous oldest evidence of bread came from a 9,100-year-old site in Turkey.
“We now have to assess whether there was a relationship between bread production and the origins of agriculture,” Arranz-Otaegui said. “It is possible that bread may have provided an incentive for people to take up plant cultivation and farming, if it became a desirable or much-sought-after food.”
University of Copenhagen archeologist and study co-author Tobias Richter pointed to the nutritional implications of adding bread to the diet. “Bread provides us with an important source of carbohydrates and nutrients, including B vitamins, iron and magnesium, as well as fiber,” Richter said.
Abundant evidence from the site indicated the Natufians had a meat- and plant-based diet. The round floor fireplaces, made from flat basalt stones and measuring about a yard (meter) in diameter, were located in the middle of huts.
Arranz-Otaegui said the researchers have begun the process of trying to reproduce the bread, and succeeded in making flour from the type of tubers used in the prehistoric recipe. But it might have been an acquired taste.
“The taste of the tubers,” Arranz-Otaegui said, “is quite gritty and salty. But it is a bit sweet as well.”
| New archeological discoveries | July 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Iranian truck owners and drivers start striking in seven provinces to protest poor working conditions. | Iranian truck owners and drivers have launched a strike in seven of Iran's 31 provinces to protest poor working conditions.
Iranian social media users shared details and images of Tuesday's strike with VOA Persian. They said it involved truckers in the provinces of Fars, Hormozgan, Isfahan, Kerman, Khorasan Razavi, Lorestan and Qazvin.
In one video clip sent to VOA Persian and posted on the VOA Farsi Twitter account, a female truck driver says she is joining the strike in solidarity with her colleagues. She also identifies her location as a highway to the city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran.
Images of the truckers shared on social media showed them holding signs complaining about their costs rising while their salaries stagnate. The truckers said the rising costs included insurance, road tolls, commissions, repairs and spare parts.
It was not clear how long the strike would continue. There was no immediate response to the truckers' demands from Iranian authorities on state media.
Various Iranian industries have seen an increase in strikes and protests this year by workers fed up with local and national officials and business owners, whom they accuse of mismanagement and corruption. | Strike | May 2018 | ['(VOA)', '(The Washington Post)'] |
Luxembourg legalizes the use of medical cannabis for patients suffering from diseases such as cancer. | The government unanimously passed the draft law to decriminalise the use of cannabis for patients suffering from diseases such as cancer, multiple sclerosis or neurodegenerative diseases.
Under the draft law, all general practitioners who have undertaken specific training will be able to prescribe the drug.
This came as a result of an opinion submitted by the Council of State which overturned the initial draft of the text allowing only specialised medical professionals such as oncologists or neurologists. Luxembourg will use cannabis coming from Canada and will only be available on prescription from a hospital pharmacy. Within the European Union only Austria and Germany have a cannabis agency.
The draft law states the law will be reviewed in two years to look at the number of patients who have benefited from the new measures and to consider whether the list of diseases should be expanded.
During parliamentary discussions a number of MPs suggested additional diseases, including HIV, should be included.
Health minister Lydia Mutsch described the approval of the law as an "important step in the context of our efforts to reduce the pain and suffering of certain patients where standard treatment does not allow it". | Government Policy Changes | June 2018 | ['(Luxembourg Times)'] |
Record rains cause flooding in Sri Lanka leaving 36,000 families in the western provinces homeless and leaving the Parliament of Sri Lanka in Colombo under four feet of water. | Colombo, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- The heaviest rain in 18 years flooded Sri Lanka on Thursday, leaving about 36,000 families homeless, marooning traffic and submerging the country's Parliament in four feet of water.
The Ministry of Disaster Management said most of those affected are in the western province, which includes Colombo, the nation's capital. About 33,000 families were being housed in 11 welfare centers in the city, the ministry said.
According to the ministry, Thursday's rainfall totaled 490 millimeters (19.3 inches), the worst in 18 years. The previous record was from June 1992, when 440 millimeters (17.3 inches) of rain fell.
"The government has taken immediate steps to help those affected," Construction and Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa told CNN. "Food and other supplies were being provided. The navy was assisting those trapped in waters."
An air force spokesman told reporters Thursday that helicopters were conducting surveillance flights over flood-hit areas.
"It will be a couple of days before we make a full assessment of the damage caused," he said.
Flooded intersections and fallen trees obstructed traffic. Many workers in state and private jobs did not show up. The government said state employees would be entitled to leave.
The ground floor of the Parliament building complex was under four feet of water. However, Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa conferred with opposition parties and chose to rush through urgent legislation. That included a supplementary vote to pay salaries of state officers, a measure needed before November 15.
Rajapaksa rode to the Parliament complex in a boat provided by the navy. Other members of parliament were transported to the building by military vehicles with a high clearance, officials and police said.
"We decided to extend our support due to the exigencies of the situation," said Ravi Karunanayake, a Colombo district member of parliament for the main opposition United National Party.
He said the session was conducted in the upper floor chamber, which had no electricity. The state-owned Ceylon Electricity Board had disconnected service in several parts of the city as a precautionary measure after its distribution outlets were flooded.
The Sri Lanka navy and army made public appeals asking flood victims to contact them for relief assistance. Television and
radio stations repeatedly broadcast their contact numbers. Schools were shut down in the Western Province, the hardest hit area. The Education Ministry said examinations scheduled for Thursday were postponed.
The floods came as the government made elaborate arrangements for the November 19 ceremony in which Mahinda Rajapaksa will be sworn in for a second term as president of Sri Lanka. He convincingly won the presidential elections in January, defeating his former army commander. Foreign dignitaries are slated to attend the elaborate ceremonies, which will feature military parades and a series of other events.
In addition, Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna is expected in Colombo later this month, followed by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
Sri Lanka, known as Ceylon until 1972, is an island nation off the southeastern coast of India. Colombo, the capital, is on the western coast, bordering the Laccadive Sea. | Floods | November 2010 | ['(CNN)'] |
Belarusian security forces close off Independence Square and October Square in Minsk, as 100,000 people gather in the capital calling for President Alexander Lukashenko to resign. At least 250 protesters are detained by police. | (Reuters) - At least 100,000 Belarusian anti-government protesters flooded the centre of Minsk on Sunday, a Reuters eyewitness said, and police detained around 250 people, the Interfax news agency cited the Interior Ministry as saying.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko is facing a groundswell of public anger after declaring a landslide win at last month’s presidential election that his opponents say was rigged. Lukashenko denies these allegations. | Protest_Online Condemnation | September 2020 | ['(Reuters)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Thousands gather in Ankara to pay their respects to those killed in Saturday's peace rally bombings. Marches and sit-ins protesting the attack were also held in Istanbul. No group has claimed responsibility. Turkey’s already polarized political parties traded accusations of responsibility for the attack. National elections are still scheduled for November 1, 2015. | Turkish police officers in riot gear disperse protesters who tried to reach the site of Saturday’s explosions to hold a memorial for the victims in Ankara, Turkey, on Oct. 11, 2015.
Protesters took to the streets across Turkey on Sunday, a day after two apparent suicide bombings killed nearly 100 demonstrators in the capital and set off incendiary political recriminations just three weeks before general elections.
Thousands of flag-waving demonstrators gathered near the scene of Saturday’s devastating blasts, which occurred as peace demonstrators were gathering just outside Ankara’s main rail station. Many chanted “Murderer government!” – reflecting sentiment among critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that his administration has pursued a military campaign against Kurdish separatists in order to stir up nationalist passions.
More marches and sit-ins protesting the attack were held in Istanbul, the country’s biggest city and commercial center. Labor unions, some of which had helped organize Saturday’s rally calling for an end to the Kurdish conflict, vowed large-scale strikes.
See the most-read stories this hour >>
Adding to tensions, the Turkish military announced more airstrikes Sunday targeting Kurdish militants’ hideouts in the country’s southeast and in the mountains of northern Iraq. A day earlier, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, had announced a unilateral cease-fire in advance of the Nov. 1 vote.
Among those who marched in protest on Sunday, there was anger over perceived security lapses in protecting the targeted gathering and widespread skepticism over prospects for a thorough investigation.
“These kinds of attacks are never investigated well,” said Hassan Sanli, a prominent labor activist who attended Sunday’s rally in the capital. “They will never find the murderers and instigators.”
With Turkey observing three days of official mourning, the names of the identified dead were read out one by one on television. At least 95 people were confirmed dead and 246 injured, with 65 of those needing life support to survive, according to the semi-official Anatolia news agency.
Images of carnage continued to circulate on social media, despite government attempts to disrupt access to platforms including Twitter and Facebook. For some, the attack, among the deadliest in the history of the modern Turkish state, created an ominous sense of more political violence and turmoil to come.
NEWSLETTER: Get the day’s top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >>
“If these crises, bombings and blood continue, we will all be crippled in Turkey,” said 23-year-old Ahmet Yilmaz, interviewed by cellphone in an Ankara hospital bed where he was awaiting surgery to remove shrapnel from Saturday’s attack. Recounting the blasts, he said he had seen injured people running away from the explosions, splattered by the body parts of other victims.
No group has claimed responsibility for the blasts, but news reports cited intelligence officials deeming the militants of Islamic State the likely perpetrators.
The group was implicated in a similar attack in July in the border town of Suruc that killed more than 30 people, mainly pro-Kurdish activists. However, hardline ultra-nationalist elements have lately become more visible, staging attacks on Kurdish political party offices and other targets.
Turkey’s already polarized political parties traded accusations of responsibility for the attack.The leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, Selahattin Demirtas, accused the ruling Justice and Development party of complicity in fomenting violence.
“If I were the prime minister of this country, I would go in front of the people of Turkey, apologize 1,000 times and resign,” said a furious Demirtas, according to BGN News. “We will not allow you to become our killers.”
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu sharply dismissed the allegations and accused the pro-Kurdish party of ignoring the “martyrdom” of Turkish police and soldiers killed in fighting with Kurdish militants.
The government has so far indicated that balloting will go ahead as scheduled, but some said even if the vote is held, its outcome has been compromised by violence and intimidation.
“This bombing shows quite clearly that the election will not be conducted in a free, fair and healthy way,” said Omur Bolat, who served as a volunteer polling observer during June’s vote.
That voting cost the Justice and Development party its parliamentary majority, and new elections were called after no coalition government could be agreed upon.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | October 2015 | ['(Los Angeles Times)', '(The Guardian)', '(CNN)'] |
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Colombia announces that the capital city of Bogota will be the site of the third World Apostolic Congress on Divine Mercy, to be held Aug. 15–19, 2014. | The Bishops’ Conference of Colombia has announced that the capital city of Bogota will be the site of the third World Apostolic Congress on Divine Mercy, to be held Aug. 15-19, 2014.
Bishop Julio Hernando Garcia of Istima Tado, who heads the committee charged with organizing the event, made the announcement during a press conference on Aug. 8.
He said the congress will be “a platform for healing the wounds of the conflict that has shaken the country for more than 60 years.”
“All of the problems that we are living through and experiencing in the country pose an enormous challenge, such that the congress can’t be simply a pious experience. It also must have a social transcendence that implies political and economic commitments and very concrete realities,” the bishop said.
The announcement was made amid ongoing peace talks between the Colombian government and the rebel group FARC after half a century of armed conflict that has resulted in more than 600,000 deaths.
Previously, the World Congress on Divine Mercy has been held in Rome in 2006 and in Poland in 2011.
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, president of the congress, called the 2014 gathering a “great opportunity for Colombia because the country is in the process of reconciliation and peace, and the more the message of the mercy of God is made known, the more people are able to live out all of this.”
The secretary of the Colombian bishops’ conference, Bishop Jose Daniel Falla Robles, said that forgiveness is an important aspect of the faith and that “there needs to be peace, reconciliation and forgiveness in the heart, and this demands that we show mercy.”
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“We don’t know how the peace process will end,” he said. “I hope we could all know, but the congress on mercy will come after this, and without or without a signed accord, the Church has the duty to work for mercy. It is our duty to draw near to the suffering of each person.”
“In fact,” he continued, “the word mercy comes from drawing near in heart to those who suffer, to human misery, to injustices, to those families that have been divested of everything because of the violence in our country.”
“We need to create a mentality of closeness to those who suffer.”
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | August 2013 | ['(Catholic News Agency)'] |
A suicide bomber kills at least 47 students at a school assembly in the Nigerian town of Potiskum in Yobe state. | At least 46 students have been killed by a suicide bomber at a school assembly in the north-eastern Nigerian town of Potiskum, police have said.
A suicide bomber dressed as a student is believed to have caused the blast at the boys' school in Yobe state .
Police suggested the militant group Boko Haram carried out the attack.
Yobe state's governor has shut all public schools around Potiskum and criticised the government for not tackling the group.
In a statement governor Ibrahim Gaidam said: "Urgent action must be taken right now to restore a fast-waning public confidence by doing whatever it takes to stop the escalating violence." Boko Haram has targeted schools during a deadly five-year insurgency aimed at establishing an Islamic state.
It is waging a sustained campaign to prevent children from going to school. It believes girls should not attend school and boys should only receive an Islamic education.
However thousands of people, not just schoolchildren, have been killed by the group. On 17 October the Nigerian government claimed to have negotiated a ceasefire with Boko Haram. But two weeks later the group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, denied these claims and said in a video: "We have not made ceasefire with anyone. We did not negotiate with anyone. It's a lie."
The explosion ripped through the assembly hall at the Government Science Secondary School. Police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu told the BBC Hausa service the attack had left 47 people dead, including the suicide bomber. Another 79 were wounded.
Dozens of students were injured so severely medics were unable to save them.
By setting off the bomb during the morning assembly, the militants clearly aimed to kill as many students as possible. Few of the attacks here are ever claimed by any group but Boko Haram will once again be suspected. The jihadists have carried out particularly brutal attacks on schools before. Chibok is known in many parts of the world because of April's mass abduction of girls from that remote village. But there have been many other horrific attacks on schools which have received less attention - including last February's raid on Buni Yadi, in Yobe state. Dozens of boys were burnt to death, shot or killed with knives in the dormitory. Female students were spared but told to never attend school again, go off and get married. Boko Haram wants the education of boys to be limited to strict Koranic studies only. The insecurity in the north-east is so rampant, with entire towns and villages now in the jihadists' hands, it will be extremely hard for other bombings to be prevented. "At about 08:00am [07:00 GMT], a suicide bomber disguised himself as one of the male students and while the school was holding its normal assembly, the bomb went off," Mr Ojukwu said.
He added that police were investigating the explosion.
Students reportedly questioned the bomber as he tried to blend in with them before the attack.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan issued a statement offering his "heartfelt commiserations" to those affected in Yobe state.
Though he admitted that Nigeria had seen setbacks in its fight against terror, the president maintained that those responsible would be "brought to justice and made to pay for their atrocious crimes".
One student told the BBC he saw the mutilated bodies of fellow students at the scene. A resident reported seeing parents wailing at the sight of their children's bodies at the hospital. Soldiers who attended the site of the explosion were met with fury by the assembled crowds who pelted them with stones and accused them of not doing enough to halt Boko Haram's insurgency. A grieving relative told the BBC: "My brother, a student in the school, died in the blast. He was about 16 years old... We buried him at about 11:00am [10:00 GMT] today." "The government needs to be more serious about the fight against Boko Haram because it is getting out of control," he added.
Schools in Yobe state have been frequently attacked by Boko Haram militants.
The state is one of three in Nigeria that have been placed under a state of emergency as a result of the group's activities. Potiskum, one of the largest towns in Yobe, has been targeted before by Boko Haram.
Last week, a suicide bombing killed 15 people in the town.
The bomber joined a religious procession of the rival Shia Muslim sect, before blowing himself up. Nigeria's police spokesperson told the BBC officers were making progress against the terrorists. "Our mandate is to secure safety and security," he said. "By and large we are making good successes." The BBC's Will Ross says the authorities are unwilling to admit that the crisis in north-east Nigeria is worsening. The jihadists have taken over towns and villages and there have been some reports of the army fleeing rather than fighting. In April, Boko Haram sparked global outrage by abducting more than 200 girls from a boarding school in Chibok town in Borno state. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has dismissed government claims to have agreed a ceasefire, under which the girls would be released. He says the children have converted to Islam, are learning to memorise the Koran and have been married off. | Riot | November 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
Police in Kenya free five suspects held in connection with organising a gay wedding in a Mtwapa hotel. | Kenyan police have released five people arrested for planning a "gay wedding" north of Mombasa, saying there was no evidence to prosecute them.
But police spokesman Martha Mutegi told the BBC the men had been advised to leave the area for their own safety and to avoid angering the local community. Homosexuality is illegal in Kenya and punishable by up to 14 years in jail. A BBC reporter in Mombasa says police began a crackdown on the gay community last week following anti-gay protests. The rallies were apparently sparked by US President Barack Obama's condemnation of planned anti-gay legislation in neighbouring Uganda. The Uganda bill calls for long jail terms or the death penalty for some gay people. Kenyan gay rights activists have protested about rising violence against homosexuals, saying public attitudes are condoned by the authorities. The five men were arrested on Friday after local officials said they heard about a wedding due to happen in a hotel in Mtwapa, just outside Mombasa. A district officer said two of the men had been found with wedding rings. The BBC's Odhiambo Joseph says the day before two men fled from Kilisi, 60km (37 miles) north of Mombasa, after local chiefs believed they planned to get married at seaside villa. Our reporter says such unions are not legally binding, but gay couples often make a public declaration of their vows before friends and family. Ms Mutegi said another man - handed over to police in Mtwapa on Saturday by members of the public on suspicion of being gay - has also been released. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | February 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
A fire started by an incendiary device attached to a kite by Palestinian protestors and flown into Israel burns for six hours. It is the largest fire so far after a string of firebombing attacks. | Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday flew a fire kite into Israel, starting a large blaze in fields in southern Israel that spread through dozens of acres of grasslands and agricultural fields, authorities said, the largest fire yet since the first use of these kites.
Ten teams of firefighters were called to the area, near Kibbutz Be’eri, and had gradually brought the fire under control as of Wednesday evening, according to a spokesperson for the fire service.
For the past several weeks, Gazans have been regularly flying kites to which they’ve attached containers of burning fuel into Israel; the tactic was introduced as part of the “March of Return” demonstrations, which began on March 30 and are due to continue through mid-May.
The mass protests are being encouraged by terror group Hamas, which rules Gaza, and whose leaders say their goal is the erase the border and liberate Palestine.
Wednesday’s fire near Be’eri, which spread across dozens of acres, was the largest blaze to date. This was likely due to the weather conditions — dry, windy and hot — that are ideal for fires to spread.
Israeli soldiers succeeded in preventing another fire on Wednesday, reaching a kite bearing a container of burning fuel from Gaza as it touched down inside Israel and putting it out with handheld fire extinguishers.
תיעוד: חיילי צה"ל מכבים עפיפון תבערה עם מטף – רגע אחרי נחיתתו ׁ(צילום: 0404) @OrHeller @bokeralmog pic.twitter.com/3qISXRZO24
— חדשות 13 (@newsisrael13) May 2, 2018
The dry weather conditions prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to implore Israelis not to light bonfires on Wednesday night as part of the Lag Ba’Omer holiday, which is the traditional way to celebrate the festival.
The conflagration sparked by the kite covered swaths of grassland and agricultural fields in an area known as the Be’eri Forest, which has seen multiple fires caused by kites in recent weeks.
The Israel Defense Forces has yet to develop a way to prevent these arson-by-kite attacks.
At best, soldiers monitoring the border from closed circuit cameras can spot a kite as it is launched from Gaza and call firefighting personnel to the area where it’s headed in order to put out the fire before it gets out of control.
Last Friday, four Palestinians were killed and over 300 hurt during a particularly violent demonstration along the border, which included a large-scale rush of the security fence. This brought the casualty count in the border clashes to 44 Palestinian dead and over 1,500 injured by live fire since March 30, according to the Gaza Strip’s Hamas-run health ministry.
These protests were originally dubbed by their Palestinian organizers as nonviolent, but Hamas took charge of them.
Rioters have burned tires, hurled firebombs and rocks at Israeli troops, and repeatedly attempted to sabotage the security fence.
Israeli troops have used both less-lethal weapons and live fire to drive back protesters, prompting international — and, to a lesser extent, domestic — accusations of excessive force.
The Israeli military maintains that its use of live rounds is within the boundaries of Israeli and international law.
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Russian jets attack military targets in the Georgian city of Gori, outside South Ossetia, killing 60 people; two are shot down. | A day-by-day look at the first week of the conflict between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia. President George W Bush warns that Russia "must keep its word and act to end this crisis", while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says Moscow "seriously overstretched" itself in Georgia. The Kremlin responds with some tough rhetoric of its own, accusing the US of treating Georgia like a "virtual project" and warning that Washington may have to choose between a partnership with Tbilisi, or with Moscow.
EU foreign ministers hold emergency talks in Brussels to discuss a peace plan agreed on Tuesday, and express broad support for proposals to send EU monitors to the area.
Meanwhile, in Georgia there are numerous accounts of Russian military activity far beyond the borders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov admits Russian forces are still near the towns of Gori and Senaki, saying they have to ensure the safety of civilians by dismantling ammunition and artillery left by the Georgian military.
Residents tell the BBC of lootings and revenge attacks
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announces the end of military operations
The day begins with fears in Georgia that Russia is planning a large-scale assault. Georgian forces pull back towards the capital, Tbilisi.
While European diplomats prepare to broker a ceasefire in talks with the Russian leadership, reports emerge of bombing raids on Gori, the town close to South Ossetia from where Georgia launched its military operation on 7 August. A Dutch TV cameraman is among several people reported killed.
In Abkhazia, Georgia's other separatist region, Russian-backed rebels announce the beginning of operations against Georgian troops in the Kodori Gorge area.
Then, ahead of a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announces that his forces will end their operation in Georgia, claiming that Russia's aims have been achieved.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili speaks to a large crowd in central Tbilisi, accusing the Russians of staging a ruthless invasion of Georgia.
Later, Mr Medvedev holds a joint news conference with Mr Sarkozy in Moscow to say Russia has agreed a six-point peace deal.
Under the plan, both sides would agree not to use force, and all troops would return to the positions they held before the conflict began.
Mr Sarkozy travels to Tbilisi, where he and Mr Saakashvili announce that Georgia also accepts a ceasefire.
Russian and Georgian forces both continue operations with reports of Russian air attacks against Georgian targets close to South Ossetia and nearer to Tbilisi.
European diplomats meet Georgia's president in Tbilisi, convincing Mikhail Saakashvili to sign a draft ceasefire agreement.
The diplomats, led by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, visit the town of Gori, scene of heavy Russian bombardments, before heading to Moscow in an effort to persuade the Russians to back the ceasefire.
But Russian officials reject the ceasefire before the diplomats even arrive, accusing Georgia of continued bombardments of South Ossetia.
Georgian officials then claim that Russian troops have moved south from the region and "captured" Gori in central Georgia. But Moscow denies that its soldiers entered Gori and Georgia appears to retract its claims.
Elsewhere, tensions are rising in Abkhazia, a second breakaway region of Georgia.
Russia deploys thousands of troops to the region and later moves from Abkhazia deep into Georgian territory. The move comes hours after Russian commanders order Georgian forces to withdraw from positions near Abkhazia or face attack.
Late in the day, Georgia says Russian troops have entered the port of Poti but Russia denies this.
The UNHCR estimates between 10,000 and 20,000 people have been displaced within Georgia, including South Ossetia. Russia says a further 30,000 people have fled north into the Russian province of North Ossetia.
Refugees in North Ossetia camp
Georgia says it has ordered its troops to begin a ceasefire, that its forces have withdrawn from South Ossetia and that the Russians are fully in control in the region's capital, Tskhinvali.
But Russia says clashes are continuing, and it launches fresh bombing raids near the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.
The targets appear to be a military airfield that had already been hit on Sunday morning - although reports say the international airport was also hit.
Russian warships are deployed near ports along the Georgian Black Sea coast, including Poti, where Georgian officials say wheat and fuel shipments are being blocked. Russia insists there are no plans to stop oil exports, but says it reserves the right to search any ships. Later reports say the warships have been withdrawn.
Meanwhile, the separatist authorities in Georgia's other breakaway region of Abkhazia announce a full military mobilisation, saying they have sent 1,000 troops to drive Georgian forces from their only remaining stronghold in the Kodori Gorge.
The US government deplores the "disproportionate and dangerous escalation" by Russia in the conflict and warns it could have a "significant" long-term impact on US-Russian relations.
The BBC's team comes under attack from Russian forces.
The Georgian parliament approves a presidential decree declaring a "state of war".
Russia says its troops have wrested control of the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, from Georgian forces.
Russian planes attack military targets in the central town of Gori, close to South Ossetia. Russian bombs hit a residential area. Georgia reports 60 deaths.
Russian and separatist officials put the death toll on the South Ossetian side since Thursday at least 1,400. Georgian casualty figures range from 82 dead, including 37 civilians, to a figure of around 130 dead.
Thousands of people are known to have fled South Ossetia.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says his country is seeking "to force the Georgian side to peace" while his Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, accuses Georgia of committing "genocide".
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili accuses Russia of seeking to "destroy" his country.
A delegation of peace envoys from the US, EU and Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) heads for Georgia.
Gori residents search for relatives following air strikes
Russia pours troops and armour towards South Ossetia and engages Georgian forces in and around Tskhinvali.
Georgia says its military bases have been attacked by Russian aircraft as President Mikhail Saakashvili says his forces control Tskhinvali. The separatists, for their part, say they control the city.
President Saakashvili says 30 Georgians have been killed, while Moscow claims that 21 Russian soldiers have lost their lives.
The Georgian authorities say they expect a Russian attack on the capital, Tbilisi.
Georgia also announces it is withdrawing half of its contingent of 2,000 troops from Iraq, so that they can be sent to South Ossetia.
International aid agencies, meanwhile, express grave concern about the plight of civilians caught up in the conflict.
In Tskhinvali, many people are reportedly sheltering from the fierce fighting in their cellars. The UN refugee agency says thousands of people have fled and many homes have been destroyed. It says water and food are in short supply.
An International Red Cross spokeswoman says ambulances cannot move, hospitals are overflowing, and surgery is taking place in the corridors.
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Footage reportedly shows Russian tanks entering South Ossetia
Georgian forces and separatists in South Ossetia agree to observe a ceasefire and hold Russian-mediated talks to end their long-simmering conflict.
Hours later, Georgian forces launch a surprise attack, sending a large force against the breakaway province and reaching the capital Tskhinvali.
South Ossetian rebel leader Eduard Kokoity accuses Georgia of a "perfidious and base step".
The head of Georgian forces in South Ossetia says the operation is intended to "restore constitutional order" to the region, while the government says the troops are "neutralising separatist fighters attacking civilians".
Russia's special envoy in South Ossetia, Yuri Popov, says Georgia's military operation shows that it cannot be trusted and he calls on Nato to reconsider plans to offer it membership. | Armed Conflict | August 2008 | ['(BBC News)', '(BBC News)'] |
The Sydney Roosters defeat Melbourne Storm 21-6 in the National Rugby League premiership at ANZ Stadium, Sydney Australia. | The Sydney Roosters spoiled Melbourne Storm legend Billy Slater's rugby league farewell with a comprehensive victory in the NRL Grand Final.
Slater was cleared to play in the showpiece after avoiding suspension for a shoulder charge in the semi-finals.
The 35-year-old has won two NRL Premierships and two World Cups, plus eight State of Origin championships.
But he could do little to stop a rampant Rooters side, coached by former Catalans Dragons coach Trent Robinson.
"We tried our best but that's the way it goes sometimes and I'm really grateful for the career I've had, the friends I've made and what rugby league has done for me," said Slater.
The Roosters themselves named former Storm star Cooper Cronk in their team after the 34-year-old passed a late fitness test on a shoulder injury, later revealed to be a broken shoulder blade.
Although Cronk, who spent 16 years at Melbourne before joining their rivals, was far from his best physically, his on-field experience played a massive part in helping his new side to their first title since 2013.
"We had to make up a game plan where we protected him (Cronk) as much as possible," said Roosters' co-captain Boyd Cordner.
"It's a big performance by Cooper that will go down in history."
The Roosters made a great start with Daniel Tupou and Latrell Mitchell both crossing for tries within the first 15 minutes while Mitchell converted one and added a penalty.
Cameron Munster's sin-binning on 30 minutes allowed Mitchell to extend the lead by a further two points .
Sydney piled on the pressure and a pass from full-back James Tedesco sent Joseph Manu over in the corner. Mitchell was unable to convert but Roosters still went into the break in a dominant position.
Melbourne tried to challenge the Sydney line after the break but were unable to get the final pass away as the Roosters held firm.
The Storm finally got on the scoreboard on 62 minutes when an errant pass from the otherwise outstanding Luke Keary was intercepted by Josh Addo-Carr and he raced 85 metres for a try, converted by Cameron Smith.
A Keary drop goal eased the Roosters nerves and when Munster was sin-binned for a second time with two minutes to play, Mitchell had the final say with another penalty.
"Everyone at this football club has sacrificed something for me to be here and it was my duty to do whatever I could do to repay that faith," said Cronk, who undertook the victory parade with his left arm in a sling.
"I don't take that responsibility lightly, that was the motivation to get out there and get my job done tonight." | Sports Competition | September 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh arrives in Saudi Arabia on the first PM visit there since Indira Gandhi's in 1982. | Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived here on Saturday on his first visit to the oil-rich kingdom, setting for himself a vast agenda of discussions with the Saudi leadership over the next two days. In a departure from normal protocol norms, the Saudi Arabian leadership rolled out the red carpet to the Prime Minister as he was received at the royal terminal of the King Khalid International Airport by Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, who is also the first Deputy Prime Minister and Defence and Civil Aviation Minister. In a rare gesture, the entire Cabinet — including Riyadh Governor Prince Abdul Aziz bin Mohammad bin Ayaf and Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz — was at the airport to receive Dr. Singh and his official delegation. The nearly 40-km route from the airport to the city centre was lined with Indian and Saudi Arabian flags. A formal reception to the Prime Minister will be accorded on Sunday. Dr. Singh’s three-day visit puts an end to the lull in India-Saudi Arabia ties and is aimed at reinvigorating relations. He is only the third Indian Prime Minister to have paid a visit to Saudi Arabia, after Jawaharlal Nehru in 1955 and Indira Gandhi in 1982. The visit comes four years after the historic visit to India of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who was the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi in 2006. At that time, the two countries signed the Delhi Declaration, which constitutes a blueprint for bilateral cooperation in the future. “The Gulf region is an area of vital importance for India’s security and prosperity. India and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have enjoyed special relations based on several millennia of civilisational and cultural linkages and people-to-people exchanges. The Kingdom is India’s largest and most reliable supplier of our energy needs from the region. Saudi Arabia is home to an Indian community numbering about 1.8 million,” the Prime Minister said in a statement prior to his departure for Riyadh.
Dr. Singh said both India and Saudi Arabia had much to gain by cooperating with each other in combating extremism and terrorism. He will discuss with the Saudi leadership the situation in Afghanistan and other regional issues of mutual interest. Pointing out that trade and investment linkages have grown though they remain much below the potential of the two economies, Dr. Singh said these ties must be broad-based. “There is great scope for opening new frontiers of cooperation in the areas of security, defence, science and technology, space, human resource development and knowledge-based industries,” he said. The Prime Minister will address members of the influential Majlis Al-Shura, as well as the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, besides senior officials, are part of Dr. Singh’s delegation. | Diplomatic Visit | February 2010 | ['(The Times of India)', '(The Hindu)'] |
President of the United States Barack Obama nominates Jacob Lew to replace Peter Orszag as the chief of the Office of Management and Budget. | President Obama named Jacob Lew on Tuesday as his nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget.
Lew, who will replace Peter Orszag, held the same job in the Clinton administration, and Obama praised him for helping to balance the federal budget in the 1990s. He "handed the next administration a record $236 billion budget surplus," the president said, and called on his new appointee to "use his extraordinary skill and experience to cut down that deficit and put our nation back on a fiscally responsible path."
In choosing Lew, an official at the State Department and a favorite of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama also accelerated a personnel shuffle. Clinton and other senior State Department officials had resisted the move for weeks. Obama acknowledged this in his remarks, joking that he "had to trade a number of Number One draft picks" to get Clinton to release Lew.
Lew, 54, known as Jack, has a long Washington résumé. A lawyer who served as an adviser to House Speaker Tip O'Neill (D-Mass.), he went on to various government posts. He helped launch President Clinton's AmeriCorps public service program before joining the OMB in 1994, and served as the agency's director from 1998 until the end of the Clinton administration. He currently serves as deputy secretary of state for management and resources, a post with a large portfolio and access to Secretary Clinton. Among other things, Lew has helped to manage the State Department's policies in Afghanistan, a big push in aid to Pakistan and the transition to civilian control in Iraq.
Widely admired as a manager and policy wonk, Lew is expected to win easy Senate confirmation. Secretary Clinton, in a letter to State Department employees on Tuesday, described her deputy's appointment as "bittersweet." She wrote, "While I was hoping never to have to replace Jack, the President and our country need his leadership at OMB."
Senators may ask Lew about his pay package from Citigroup, where he served as an executive between his stints in the Clinton and Obama administrations. He received $1.1 million in salary and discretionary cash compensation in 2008 as a managing director of the banking giant -- which took tens of millions of dollars in government bailout money -- and he earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in restricted stock upon his departure, documents show.
In the job of OMB chief, Lew would be responsible for drawing up a budget plan by February to reduce the federal deficit to 3 percent of the size of the economy by 2015. The current deficit is $1.3 trillion -- more than 9 percent of the economy. To meet the goal, he probably would have to entertain the possibilities of tax increases and cuts to popular entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
His job would be made more difficult by Obama's 2008 promises not to raise taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year. The president has also proposed making permanent a series of tax cuts enacted during the George W. Bush administration, which otherwise would expire at the end of this year, and preventing the alternative minimum tax from hitting millions of additional taxpayers.
The administration has yet to show how it can reach the 3 percent target. Under the budget plan Obama announced in February, the federal deficit would sink to no lower than 3.9 percent of the economy over the next 10 years and begin to rise again by 2020. Indeed, just hours after Obama nominated Lew, the Treasury Department reported that the deficit had topped $1 trillion -- with three months left in the budget year.
The Congressional Budget Office has said that letting the Bush taxes expire, and finding a way to pay for the changes to the alternative minimum tax, would get the administration close to its goal.
A year and a half into Obama's term, the pace of turnover has started to speed up, either through firings or normal attrition. Many more openings are expected by the end of the year, including on the economic team. Some officials said it is possible that Lawrence H. Summers, director of the National Economic Council, and Christina Romer, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, could decide to leave before next year. Elsewhere in the administration -- from the NSC to the political staff to the cabinet agencies -- officials expect to see further departures after November's midterm elections.
It is unclear who will replace Lew at the State Department, officials said. His confirmation hearings will probably occur in the fall, with an acting OMB director running the budget process until then. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | July 2010 | ['(The Washington Post)'] |
26 people are confirmed dead after a gas explosion at a coal mine in Henan Province in central China. | MIANCHI, Henan - The death toll in a gas explosion in a coal mine shaft has risen to 26 in Central China's Henan province, local rescue headquarters said Wednesday.
Related readings: 13 dead in C China coal mine accident Mine flooding traps at least 7 in central China 2 officials suspended after coal mine flooding 29 trapped in China mine all alive
Only 20 of them were lifted to the ground safely.
Rescuers are venting the toxic gas from the mine before they could identify the locations of the missing miners.
The police is investigating the incident, said the spokesman. The mine, operated by state-owned Yi Ma Coal Industry Group and capable of producing 150,000 tons of coal a year, is under reform and industry re-grouping. It is said the mine is not allowed to operate during the re-grouping.
Yi Ma Coal Industry Group has coal mines in five provinces and regions across the country and employs 50,000 workers. The Group is valued at 15.7 billion yuan, according to its website. | Gas explosion | December 2010 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(CNN)', '(China Daily)'] |
The United States and Iraq begin negotiations, conducted remotely, to discuss the withdrawal of U.S. troops and countering Iranian influence. | The growing pressure on the United States to reduce its military presence in Iraq comes as strikes by the Islamic State are on the rise.
The assailants came at dusk, creeping on foot through the dusty palm groves near the Tigris River, armed only with a rocket-propelled grenade, a light machine gun and Kalashnikovs. They had laid roadside bombs to kill anyone who rushed to help the unsuspecting local guards, who were in their sights.
When the attack on the village last month was over, nine members of a Sunni tribe that had opposed the Islamic State were dead and four were wounded, one of them nearly burned to death.
This is the Islamic State in Iraq in 2020: low-tech, low-cost, rural, but still lethal. And while it has not carried out attacks on the scale that it did a few years ago, the number of attacks has begun to grow again.
As American and Iraqi negotiators begin a new round of strategic talks on Thursday, the question of how to respond to the Islamic State’s quiet resurgence — and how much American help is required to do so — will be at the center of the discussion.
There are currently about 5,200 American troops in Iraq, whose main missions are counterterrorism and training Iraqi forces.
The Trump administration, which sees the American presence as crucial for tamping down the resurgence of ISIS and as a bulwark against Iranian power in Iraq, wants to keep a substantial force there.
“We’re going to continue to maintain forces as long as the Iraqi government is willing to have U.S. and coalition forces present in the country until the enduring defeat of Daesh is accomplished, and it’s not yet accomplished,” James F. Jeffrey, the American special envoy to the region, said in a briefing on Friday, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS. “That’s our policy.”
But there has been pressure on both sides to reduce the American military presence.
Congress has increasingly questioned the continued American troop presence in Iraq.
The Pentagon is reluctant to keep more than the absolute minimum of troops there because they have been attacked by Iranian-backed militias. An attack on an Iraqi base in March killed three soldiers of the American-led military coalition in Iraq, two of them Americans, and wounded 14.
Since then, the military has consolidated its troops on fewer bases. Separately, the training mission has been suspended for the last few months because of concerns about the coronavirus.
Pentagon officials believe they can do the job with roughly half the current American force and have plans to reduce the number of troops in Iraq to 2,500 to 3,000, but have no fixed numbers or timetable. Other members of the 29-country American-led military coalition have already cut their numbers in half, to about 1,200 troops, because of the coronavirus pandemic.
On the Iraqi side, the country’s Parliament, furious over the American airstrikes in Iraq that killed an Iranian military leader and several Iraqi officials, passed a resolution in January demanding the withdrawal of American forces.
On Monday, the influential nationalist Shiite cleric, Moktada al-Sadr, called on the United States to withdraw and end its “aggressive and highhanded behavior toward the world.”
The Iraqi government has not acted on the parliamentary resolution, which was nonbinding, and the Iraqi military is reluctant to have the American troops leave altogether. While the Iraqis say they can do the fighting on the ground themselves, they say they still need help in reconnaissance, air support and training.
The talks starting Thursday, which last occurred in 2018, will touch on “all strategic issues between our two countries,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in announcing them in April, including the presence of the American forces and “how best to support an independent and sovereign Iraq.”
But hovering over the discussion is a third country, Iran, which wields powerful influence in Iraq that the United States wants to to see reduced.
The United States would like to see diminished economic ties between Iraq and Iran, and less Iranian influence over the Iraqi security forces, while Iraq would like stronger guarantees that the United States will not provoke a conflict with Iran on Iraqi soil.
The two countries came perilously close to war after the American airstrike that killed Maj. General Qassim Suleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, at the Baghdad airport in January.
In addition to discussion of the American military presence, the strategic talks, which will be conducted online and are expected to continue for several months, will also cover energy and the economy.
The Americans want to help expand Iraq’s oil and gas industry, at least partly to help wean Iraq off Iranian energy. Iraq, which has the world’s fifth-largest proven crude oil reserves, often relies on Iran for gas and electricity.
The Iraqi purchases help undermine the American sanctions, which are aimed at placing “maximum pressure” on Iran to force it to accept a new nuclear agreement and meet other American demands.
A priority for all three countries is eradicating the Islamic State, a Sunni terrorist group that at its peak controlled territory the size of Britain straddling Iraq and Syria.
A four-year battle by a combination of American, Kurdish and Iranian-backed forces drove ISIS from the territory, leading President Trump to declare victory over the group last year. The battlefield losses decimated its command and control and sharply reduced its attacks in Iraq and Syria.
But the attacks began to rebound over the last year and have increased steadily since the middle of 2019, according to data compiled by Michael Knights and Alex Almeida of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
“The U.S. is looking in the wrong place if they are looking for the attacks we saw in 2014, if they are looking for mass casualties in cities, but the fact that ISIS hasn’t done that is a choice,” Mr. Knights said. In addition to small-scale attacks, ISIS is “trying to create rural bastions,” he said.
Mr. Jeffrey, the American special envoy to the region, agreed that the Islamic State “remains a resilient and significant threat.”
“Given the history of ISIS, also given the history of the organization that spawned ISIS initially, Al Qaeda with 9/11, everybody should be careful and cautious and on their guard to simply write off a terrorist movement with the pedigree of ISIS,” he told reporters in Washington last week.
The Islamic State is re-establishing itself in the largely Sunni areas where it began 17 years ago, in the provinces of Salahuddin, Anbar, Diyala, Kirkuk and Nineveh.
The first targets were remote police or militia checkpoints and targeted killings of low-level local officials who refused to cooperate with ISIS demands. As Iraqi security forces were diverted to help enforce curfews and lockdowns to control the coronavirus this year, the Islamic State gained more freedom to operate.
Perhaps more than other Iraqis, those living in areas where the Islamic State is re-establishing itself want the American military to stay.
Sheikh Shaalan al-Karim, a former member of Parliament and a senior figure in the tribe that was attacked by ISIS in the village of Makeshifa last month, says that the Iraqi government cannot combat ISIS alone.
He said families with ties to the Islamic State who had been banned from returning were paying bribes to come back to their homes in the area.
But the biggest problem, he said, is how Sunni Muslims, the minority religious group in Iraq, are treated by the Shiite-dominated government.
The battle against ISIS devastated many Sunni areas. Sons and brothers of ISIS fighters who were killed or imprisoned are looking for revenge. Sunni families who were marginally supportive of the Islamic State are often treated with suspicion, have trouble getting jobs and some then are drawn back to ISIS for financial reasons.
Much of the policing in Sheikh al-Karim’s Sunni area of Salahuddin Province is overseen by Shiite militias.
“If we put ISIS and the militias on a scale,” he said, “they are the same because ISIS kills and steals and blows up innocent people, and in return the militias do the same thing. ISIS has the Sunni cover and the militias have the Shiite cover.
“The American presence in Iraq is very important, and not only in these areas but for the whole of Iraq, and as for Salahuddin Province we hope for the American presence today, not tomorrow.”
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | June 2020 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
Thursday's flooding and devastating mudslides at the BHP-Vale mine in Minas Gerais involved two dams, not one as initially reported. Brazilian officials report the mud flow is eight kilometers long and 2.5 meters deep. Those rescued – and emergency services – are being decontaminated; mining spoils being treated as toxic. There is no official information on the number of casualties or the cause of the incident. The company that runs the mine says it detected seismic activity right before the breach. Both BHP and Vale shares declined over five percent. Brazilian prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation. | Over a dozen people are thought to be have been killed after two dams burst in rural southeastern Brazil, triggering a wall of sludgy mining spoils to cascade down a valley and wipe out an entire town, burying residents alive.
It was initially reported that the 170-meter (560-foot) high Fundão Dam, which was holding back a 40 square kilometer (15.4 square mile) lake of “tailings” – the spoils of mining operations, breached around 4 p.m. local time (GMT 18:00), swamping the small town of Bento Rodrigues below. See also: Dozens feared dead after mining company's dam bursts in Brazil
The mining company operating the dam later said that two dams had in fact failed.
A car and two dogs are seen on the roof of destroyed houses at the small town of Bento Rodrigues after a dam burst on Nov. 5 in Minas Gerais state, Brazil.
Image: Felipe Dana/Associated Press
The muddy tsunami swept away cars and swallowed entire buildings in the town of approximately 600 people, which is around 15 miles from Mariana, a colonial town in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais. The state's name translates literally as “General Mines” and is home to vast open iron ore extraction operations, vital to Brazil's commodity-dependent economy.
There has so far been no official information from the government or the company involved on the number of casualties.
However, the Minas Gerais state fire and rescue service told Mashable that one person had died and four others had been injured; a further 13 people are missing.
“Rescue efforts continued throughout the night and were redoubled this morning. Access is extremely difficult – and we are currently using helicopters to get to the site,” a spokesperson for the fire service told Mashable. A dog walks in the mud in the small town of Bento Rodrigues on Nov. 6.
Image: Felipe Dana/Associated Press
“We're mapping the area and working with local residents to work out where people might be located.”
A local mining workers' union, Metabase, told the G1 news portal that as many as 25 people remained unaccounted for, and that it feared 15 or 16 people could have been killed.
President Dilma Rousseff put the national forces on standby to help with the rescue mission.
The mayor of Mariana, Duarte Júnior, told the local Estado de Minas newspaper he was “completely bewildered by the catastrophe”: “Everyone is in shock. We're pleading to God that people managed to get out of the worst-affected places in time.”
Miner Andrew Oliveira managed to escape. He told G1 his team felt a “jolt” but carried on working. Then the dams broke: “It was like an earthquake started.”
Footage by one of the miners was later posted on social media, showing clouds of red sludge at the front of the wall of thick mining waste.
Local journalist Robert Verona, who was one of the first to arrive on the scene, said fire crews on the scene had found four bodies – but that the number would almost certainly rise: “It's a scene of utter devastation. We could see lots of people cut off by the mud, some of them injured, calling out to us for help – but it just wasn't possible to get to them as there were fears the muds could shift.”
“About 90% of the people in that town work for the mines – it's taken away not only lives but livelihoods, and centuries of historic buildings, too,” Verona said, adding that operations at the mining facilities have been suspended.
Fire services told Mashable that those being rescued from the site – and emergency services – were having to be decontaminated as the mining spoils were being treated as toxic.
The rescue mission continued through the night, including with the help of specially-trained sniffer dogs teams; the crews' work was, however, been hampered by heavy rain and poor cellular reception, a civil defense spokesperson in Mariana told Mashable.
Those forced from their homes were taken to Mariana to emergency shelters; local residents in the hundreds were reported to be lining up to donate food, clothes, mattresses, toiletries and other essentials.
The dams and mines are operated by Samarco, a joint venture between Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton and Vale, Brazil's biggest mining company.
Samarco's CEO Ricardo Vescovi said in a video statement that the company could not confirm the number of victims or the extent of what had happened: “Our focus at this critical moment in time is to preserve people's lives and the environment.” “We deeply regret, and are completely dismayed by, what has happened, but we are doing everything we can to mitigate the damage caused,” Vescovi said. Prosecutors in Brazil have already opened a criminal investigation into the incident. A source familiar with the mine's operations told Mashable that reinforcement work had begun on the dam in the last two months and said there had been fears locally that such an accident could happen.
Thursday's deadly dam breach was not the first in Brazil, nor the state of Minas Gerais – which saw a similar breach in a mining company's tailings pond dam in 2014, leaving three workers dead.
Two other incidents also hit Brazil's poorer northeast region in recent years, including a dam in Piauí state that burst in 2009, killing eight people, and another in 2004 in the state of Paraíba, which killed at least three people and left 1,600 homeless. | Mudslides | November 2015 | ['(five miles)', '(Mashable)', '(Bloomberg)', '(CCTV)'] |
The United Nations Human Rights Council authorises an international investigation into alleged war crimes during the Sri Lankan Civil War. | The UN Human Rights Council has voted for a resolution which paves the way for an inquiry into rights abuses at the close of Sri Lanka's civil war.
The US and the UK were among the countries which sponsored a resolution which for the first time explicitly calls for an international probe.
Sri Lanka's army defeated separatist Tamil Tiger rebels after 26 years of bloody civil war in May 2009. Both sides have been accused of committing war crimes.
But it is events in the final phase of the war that has come under scrutiny, with one UN report saying that as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed, mostly by government shelling in those final months. Sri Lanka has consistently denied such allegations and says it is being unfairly targeted. It also claims that Tamil rebels are attempting to regroup in the north of the country.
But the resolution calls for a "comprehensive investigation into alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties in Sri Lanka".
"We reject this," Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa told the AFP news agency. "This resolution only hurts our reconciliation efforts. It does not help."
The BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says this is the first concrete step towards any kind of international inquiry on the conduct of the island's government and the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels. The resolution was carried in a 23-12 vote.
That means that 23 member states of the 47-member Human Rights Council voted for this resolution, 12 voted against it while 12 abstained - including India which many had expected to vote against its neighbour. The document also expresses "serious concern" at events said to be still going on in Sri Lanka - including the intimidation of civil society, disappearances and torture. Earlier this month Sri Lankan detained two prominent human rights activists for 48 hours under anti-terrorism laws. While rights groups point to continuing abuses, the government just as vehemently denies such allegations. Resolutions expressing alarm at the human rights situation in Sri Lanka have been passed before by the council, but the distinctiveness of this draft is that it asks the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to carry out an inquiry.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | March 2014 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(Washington Post)', '(BBC)'] |
Five people are killed as a small plane crashes in western Colorado. | SILVERTON, Colo. (AP) — A federal aviation investigator is expected to examine the scene of a plane crash that killed five people in the southwestern Colorado mountains.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson said Tuesday the investigator was expected to be at the remote site later in the day.
Knudson has said all five people aboard the twin-engine Cessna 310 died when it crashed Sunday in the San Juan Mountains near Silverton.
Knudson couldn't say whether the plane is the same Cessna 310 reported overdue on a flight from Barstow, California, to Amarillo, Texas.
The San Juan County Sheriff's Department said on Twitter that authorities were still trying to notify the family of one victim before releasing any names. | Air crash | September 2015 | ['(USA Today)'] |
American country music singer Mindy McCready dies as the result of a suspected suicide at the age of 37. | It's been a difficult month for Mindy McCready, and unfortunately, E! News has learned that the country singer's life has come to end far too soon.
A source close to the 37-year-old tells us her body was found in Heber Springs, Ark.
A source tells E! News that Mindy's father, Tim McCready had been staying with her until this morning when he returned to Florida. When her father left, "she was in good spirits and seemed to be fine," our source tells us.
Neighbors heard gunshots at her house and called the police. "She shot herself and the dog," our source says.
"Things have been hectic. But I'm still here..," the star tweeted in January.
Just a little over a month ago, McCready's boyfriend, David Wilson, died at the age of 34 with no cause of death or details surrounding his passing being revealed, however continues to be under investigation.
McCready's rep and authorities release statement on singer's death
Shortly afterward, the star's life began going on a downward spiral.
After denying any involvement with Wilson's death, McCready's two children, Zander, 6, and Zayne, 9-months-old, were taken from the singer's Heber Springs, Ark., home by authorities. "Mindy needs to get help and we all care and love her and we want her to get the right help so she can move on. She is in a bad state right now, depressed and unhappy. It is not good," a source told E! News when the children were removed.
That was the point when McCready was ordered to enter an in-patient facility for treatment. "Since boyfriend (David Wilson) shot himself she has been in bed for 3 wks," her father said in court documents. "Sleeps all day. Drinks all night and is taking Rx drugs. Not bathing or even helping take care of her 2 children."
Exclusive! McCready's boyfriend was arrested shortly before his death
In agreeing to McCready's "involuntary admission" to an appropriate facility, the judge wrote that "there is cause to find there is clear and convincing evidence that Respondent is in imminent danger of harm to herself or others, suicidal or gravely disabled."
However, just a day after being ordered by a judge to enter a treatment facility for a mental-health and alcohol-abuse evaluation, the troubled celeb was released to undergo outpatient treatment instead.
"Being involuntarily committed and having her children taken away from her was eye-opening. It helped her realize she needs to focus on putting her family back together and moving forward from this tragedy," a source told E! News. "She is in a better state of mind."
Mindy McCready's two children taken from her by authorities
McCready set off family-service alarm bells in November 2011 after violating a court order when she didn't bring her then 5-year-old son, Zander, back home to Florida after a visit. The singer was allowed to visit her son, whose father is McCready's ex Billy McKnight, but her mother had custody of the child. She claimed she was simply protecting her child. Zander was subsequently placed in foster care in the state while the custody dispute was dealt with.
McCready was given full custody of Zander in late 2012.
In her last interview before she died with NBC's Andrea Canning, the singer spoke about the effect Wilson's death had on her. "I have never gone through anything this painful," she said. "He didn't just touch my heart, he touched my soul. He was my soulmate."
Take a moment to remember all of the fallen stars from 2013
Your source for entertainment news, celebrities, celeb news, and celebrity gossip. Check out the hottest fashion, photos, movies and TV shows! | Famous Person - Death | February 2013 | ['(E! Online)', '(BBC)'] |
Jeremy Ractliffe resigns from the board of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund after revealing he kept diamonds given to him by Naomi Campbell. | The former head of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, Jeremy Ractliffe, has resigned from the charity's board after admitting he secretly kept diamonds received from the model Naomi Campbell.
Mr Ractliffe admitted he had the gems only when Ms Campbell mentioned him at the war crimes trial of former Liberian leader Charles Taylor two weeks ago. Prosecutors say she received the diamonds from Mr Taylor in 1997.
Mr Ractliffe had apologised for his secrecy, the charity's board said. The former chief executive handed the diamonds over to South African police after Campbell testified that she had given three stones to Ractliffe because she wanted them to go to charity. Mr Ractliffe said he had kept the stones, which could link him to illegal "blood diamonds", because he wanted to protect the reputation of Mr Mandela and his charity. Stepping down from his role as trustee, Mr Ractliffe apologised for causing "possible reputational risk" to the charity by not informing his colleagues of his receipt of the diamonds, the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund said in a statement.
At the trial, Ms Campbell said she was given some "dirty-looking stones" after a 1997 charity dinner hosted by South Africa's former President Nelson Mandela where Mr Taylor was also a guest. She said two unidentified men appeared at her room and gave her the stones.
She told the court she did not have proof they came from Mr Taylor and had given them to Mr Ractliffe because she wanted the stones to go to charity.
"Naomi suggested they could be of some benefit to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund - but I told her I would not involve the NMCF in anything that could possibly be illegal," Mr Ractliffe said in a statement two weeks ago.
He said he took the diamonds as he thought it might be illegal for her to take them out of the country.
"In the end I decided I should just keep them," he added.
Mr Taylor is accused of using illegally mined diamonds to secure weapons for Sierra Leone's RUF rebels during the 1991-2001 civil war - a charge he denies.
Prosecutors say that from his seat of power in Liberia, Mr Taylor also trained and commanded the rebels.
The rebels were notoriously brutal, frequently hacking off the hands and legs of civilians. World Service Africa | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | August 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
A Swedish prosecutor says she will drop charges of rape against Julian Assange after a review of the evidence. | STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A Swedish prosecutor dropped a rape investigation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, ending the near decade-old case that had sent the anti-secrecy campaigner into hiding in London’s Ecuadorian embassy to avoid extradition.
Sweden drops Assange rape investigation after nearly 10 years
01:36
Although the prosecutor’s decision can be appealed, it probably closes the case, which was launched in 2010. The accuser’s lawyer said she was studying whether to appeal it.
Assange skipped bail in Britain to avoid possible extradition and took refuge in the embassy in 2012. He was dragged out by police in April this year, and is now in jail fighting extradition to the United States on computer hacking and espionage charges unveiled after he left the embassy.
While Assange was in the embassy, the statute of limitations ran out on investigating all but one of several Swedish sex crime complaints originally filed by two women. Deputy Chief Prosecutor Eva-Marie Persson reopened the remaining case after Assange left the embassy, but she said on Tuesday the passage of time meant there was not enough evidence to indict Assange.
“After conducting a comprehensive assessment of what has emerged during the course of the preliminary investigation I then make the assessment that the evidence is not strong enough to form the basis for filing an indictment,” she told a news conference. “Nine years have passed. Time is a player in this decision.”
Assange, a 48-year-old Australian, has repeatedly denied the sex crime allegations, calling them part of a plot to discredit him and secure his eventual transfer to the United States.
“Let us now focus on the threat Mr Assange has been warning about for years: the belligerent prosecution of the United States and the threat it poses to the First Amendment,” WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, Kristinn Hrafnsson, said in a statement.
Related Coverage
Assange’s Swedish lawyer, Per Samuelson, said as far as he was aware British lawyers had not yet been able to contact Assange in jail to inform him of the Swedish decision.
“This is the end of Assange’s association with the Swedish justice system,” Samuelson said. “But he is not happy with the way he’s been treated. He lost faith in the Swedish justice system years ago.”
Elisabet Massi Fritz, lawyer for the accuser, told Reuters in a text message that she and her client would discuss whether to request a review of the decision to drop the case. The right decision would have been to interrogate Assange in London and then charge him with rape, she said.
“After today’s decision my client needs time to process everything that has happened over these nine years in order to be able to move on with her life.”
The Australian-born Assange made global headlines in early 2010 when WikiLeaks published a classified U.S. military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff.
WikiLeaks later angered the United States by publishing caches of leaked military documents and diplomatic cables.
In 2016 it played a role in the U.S. presidential campaign, releasing documents from hacked emails of Democratic Party officials. U.S. investigators determined those emails were originally obtained by Russian hackers as part of an effort by Moscow to help elect President Donald Trump.
Admirers have hailed Assange as a hero for exposing what they describe as abuse of power by modern states and for championing free speech. Critics say he is a dangerous figure complicit in Russian efforts to undermine the West.
Even some critics of Assange say the U.S. charges against him could be troubling, since they treat publication of secrets as a crime, activity that advocates of press freedom say is essential for journalism.
The case had divided opinion in Sweden, a country with strong traditions of support for both women’s rights and media freedom. Prosecutors were criticized for letting the case drag on, while many blamed Assange for obstructing the investigation.
The decision by the Swedish prosecutor heads off a potential dilemma for the British courts which might otherwise have had to decide between competing U.S. and Swedish extradition requests.
Since leaving the embassy, Assange has served a British sentence for skipping bail. He is now being held pending his next hearing in February on the U.S. extradition request. He faces 18 criminal counts including conspiring to hack government computers and violating an espionage law.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | November 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Rescuers recover a seventh body from inside a coal mine near Sabinas, Mexico, more than three days after an explosion there; seven remaining miners trapped inside are presumed dead. | Mexico City (CNN) -- Rescuers overnight recovered four bodies from a coal mine in northern Mexico that suffered an explosion last week, making a total of 11 bodies that have been extracted so far, the country's labor secretary said Saturday. Javier Lozano says at this point -- more than four days after the blast -- there is no hope of finding alive the remaining miners trapped inside. Three more miners remain inside the shaft. The mine had been operating for only 20 days and had 25 workers who were not unionized, Lozano said. He described such small, makeshift coal mines as "unsafe places," calling them "irregular, deadly traps, as we are seeing."
The owner of the mine is a company known as Binsa, the statement from the attorney general's office said.
The mine contains a shaft that is 60 meters (197 feet) deep, Sabinas Mayor Jesus Montemayor Garza said.
Sabinas is in the coal production center of Mexico and has a museum dedicated to the history of coal mining.
Several chapters of that history, however, have been tragic. In 2006, in the nearby town of San Juan de Sabinas, 65 miners perished after an explosion in the mine where they were working. Explosive gas inside the mine hindered the rescue of the miners at the Pasta de Conchos mine, which the government eventually abandoned. An organization representing family members of the victims of that accident said Tuesday's blast was a tragic reminder that the federal government must do more to regulate mines. One activist from the organization said there had been more than 40 people killed in local coal mines since the 2006 accident.
"How long will it take to recognize that there is a very serious crisis in coal mining (in the Mexican state of) Coahuila, in which the workers and their families are those who must endure the worst, with dead, widows and orphans?" a statement from the organization said. | Mine Collapses | May 2011 | ['(CNN)'] |
Mount St. Helens in the U.S. state of Washington awakens, with a minor eruption of steam, smoke, and ash. | VANCOUVER, Washington (CNN) -- Scientists are closely watching Mount St. Helens after a small eruption spewed smoke and ash thousands of feet Friday before another earthquake rattled the volcano.
A series of small earthquakes was detected in the week before the Friday afternoon's eruption. This seismic activity decreased shortly after the noon (3 p.m. ET) eruption, but picked up again within hours.
Peter Frenzen, a scientist with the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, said a 2.0 magnitude earthquake was detected.
One scientist described the eruption as a "hiccup." The volcano spewed a harmless plume of steam and ash into the air Friday, the biggest eruption by the volcano in 18 years.
A small explosion was detected on the south side of the volcano's lava dome, where cracks had been detected in a glacier, said John Major of the U.S. Geological Survey. The mountain then vented a combination of steam and ash for 24 minutes, sending a pale gray column nearly 10,000 feet into the blue Washington sky.
"There is no indication that magma has reached the surface," Major said.
Molten rock is called magma before reaching the surface where it then becomes lava.
Scientists said the presence of magma could indicate the potential for a more serious eruption.
Geologist Tom Pierson said the event "was really a hiccup. [Eruptions] could be a little bigger once real magma is involved."
A visible plume -- which was mostly steam but contained some ash -- moved southwest about six miles, Major said. The Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area lies about 50 miles southwest of Mount St. Helens.
The water flow out of the crater appears to have increased since the eruption, though no potentially destructive mud flows were reported, he said.
Scientists had been predicting just such a minor eruption after swarms of small earthquakes were detected and the mountain's volcanic dome shifted three inches since Monday.
"This is exactly the kind of event that we've sort of been talking about and anticipating over the past several days. This is a fairly small eruption," Major said.
In anticipation of an eruption, the mountain was closed to hikers, and the media and sightseers gathered at a visitors center five miles away. Major said none of the scientists working on the volcano at the time of the eruption were injured.
Friday's eruption was a mere sideshow in comparison to the cataclysmic eruption May 18, 1980, which blew off more than 1,000 feet from the top of the mountain.
That eruption killed 57 people, left deep piles of ash hundreds of miles away and caused $3 billion in damage.
After that disaster, small eruptions continued at Mount St. Helens until 1986, when the volcano finally went quiet. Major said Friday's eruption was comparable to the minor eruptions seen during that period.
The lava dome was built up inside the crater left by the 1980 eruption by the smaller eruptions that followed it.
The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily diverted an unknown number of commercial aircraft after the eruption, primarily affecting air traffic in the Portland area, spokesman Allen Kenitzer said.
Alaska Airlines canceled five flights and diverted four Portland-bound planes to Seattle, airline spokesman Sam Sperry said. The airline has since resumed normal operations.
The FAA is also advising low-altitude aircraft of the volcanic activity but has not issued flight restrictions, Kenitzer said. | Volcano Eruption | October 2004 | ['(Fox News)', '(CNN)'] |
Aid worker Alicia Gamez, captured in Mauritania in 2009 by a group affiliated with Al Qaeda and taken to Mali, is released. | A Spanish woman kidnapped in West Africa last year has been freed, the Spanish government says.
Alicia Gamez, 39, was "safe and sound... [and] travelling to Barcelona with a family member," Spain's deputy prime minister said. There are unconfirmed reports that an Italian woman reportedly held by the same group has also been released. Ms Gamez was seized in Mauritania last year and held by a militant group, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, in Mali. She and two male Spaniards - all aid workers - were snatched from a convoy by armed men on a road between the Mauritanian cities of Nouakchott and Nouadhibou on 29 November. The two men are still being held. Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said no ransom was paid for Ms Gamez. She said the release was the work of Spain's diplomats and intelligence services. "What is important now is that we continue to work with the same intensity to ensure that the others are freed," she added. "When I spoke to her she said the other aid workers are well, they are in good health, logically they are nervous, with a great desire to be released as well and the hope to be freed shortly." Ransom demands
Diplomatic sources also reported that an Italian woman, Philomene Kaboure, 39, was also freed. But later some doubt was cast on this claim. Ms Kaboure and her husband, Sergio Cicala, 65, were seized last December in Mauritania and also taken to Mali by the militants. A Frenchman seized in Mali in November and held by the same group was released last month after its demand that Mali release four prisoners was met. The Mauritanian government reacted with outrage, saying giving in to the demands would encourage further kidnapping. Spanish media reported recently that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb had demanded a ransom to release the hostages, and El Mundo newspaper alleged that the Spanish government was in the process of paying. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | March 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(IOL)', '[permanent dead link]', '(Houston Chronicle)', '(CNN)'] |
In Major League Baseball, Chris Heston of the San Francisco Giants becomes the first pitcher to throw a no–hitter in the 2015 season in the Giants' 5–0 win over the New York Mets. | San Francisco Giants pitcher Chris Heston no-hit the Mets on Tuesday for a 5-0 victory in New York.
Heston (6-4) struck out 11 and did not allow a walk, but hit three batters -- including one in the ninth inning -- to ruin his chance at a perfect game. The three hit batters are the most ever in a no-hitter.
"Definitely something I'll remember forever," Heston said of the no-hitter.
The right-hander also helped his own cause by going 2-for-4 with two RBIs. He threw 110 pitches, with 72 counting as strikes and relied heavily on his sinker, throwing 66 of them on the night.
"Lot of emotions going through my mind right now," Heston said. "Hasn't sunk in yet. Looking forward to catching my breath and celebrating a little bit."
A 27-year-old rookie, Heston capped his career night with three straight strikeouts and is the first pitcher to end a no-hitter by striking out the side since Sandy Koufax in 1965, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
"Attack the zone. Don't let the nerves get to me. Just throw quality strikes, and that didn't change in the ninth," Heston said of his approach. "Some extra nerves going on. Taking a little more deep breaths out there. I realized it and it was awesome to be part of it."
Heston called it the greatest moment of his life.
"This has got to be No. 1, probably right next to my first big league appearance," he said.
After freezing Ruben Tejada with a 91 mph sinker for the final out, Heston didn't jump, didn't raise his arms in triumph.
He hopped off the mound with two steps toward the Giants dugout, slapped his glove with his bare hand, then turned, walked toward home plate and hugged catcher Buster Posey.
"I wasn't too sure where to go after that last out," Heston said in an aw-shucks manner, looking boyish despite a day or two of stubble.
Heston's gem followed a rough 3 2/3-inning start against the Pirates. He is the first pitcher since Nolan Ryan in 1973 to throw a no-hitter after failing to complete four innings in his previous start, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
"He had a really good sinker. And then he kept everybody off balance with a couple of different kinds of breaking balls -- two kinds of curveballs, one obviously slower, one a little quicker than a good slider," Mets outfielder Michael Cuddyer said. "But I think it was mainly his sinker. He had a lot of movement on his sinker. And he didn't make any mistakes. When he made mistakes, it hit a person -- three people. Those were really the only mistakes he made all night."
The Mets, who had not been no-hit at home since 1969, hadn't gone hitless in any game since 1993 -- the fourth-longest current streak behind the Chicago Cubs (1965), Oakland (1991) and Boston (1993), STATS said.
After plunking Anthony Recker with a pitch to start the ninth, the right-hander threw called third strikes past pinch hitter Danny Muno, Curtis Granderson and Tejada. Heston walked calmly off the mound toward home plate and was hugged by Posey.
"It's fun to see good things happen to good people," Posey said.
Heston is the first person to throw a no-hitter this season and the first Giant to toss one since Tim Lincecum last year.
The San Francisco Giants -- with no-hitters in each of the past four seasons -- have rocketed into sole possession of fourth place on the all-time list with 17 no-nos.
The Giants, who have 17 no-hitters in franchise history, now have thrown four no-hitters in as many years as Matt Cain (2012) and Lincecum (2013, 2014) have done so in the past three seasons, with Cain's also being a perfect game. The only other team to throw a no-no in at least four straight years is the Los Angeles Dodgers, who did it from 1962 to 1965, according to STATS.
Heston's no-hitter is also the first by a rookie since Boston's Clay Buchholz threw one in 2007.
Heston made his big league debut last Sept. 13 against the Dodgers but this spring was sent to the minors on March 20.
"The numbers really got him more than anything," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.
But when Cain started the season on the disabled list, Heston was brought up April 7. Before Tuesday, his only complete game was a two-hitter against Houston on May 12.
"Honestly, I think it's just a matter of him just kind of trying to find his way right now," Posey said after catching his third no-hitter. "He's still early in his career in establishing what type of pitcher he's going to be. And it's something that we all go through when we first get here."
When Heston returned to the Giants' clubhouse, he was met by one last ovation, this time from all his teammates.
"It was awesome, to walk in and having the whole team sitting there, congratulating me," he said. "Definitely a special moment. I'll remember that forever." | Sports Competition | June 2015 | ['(ESPN)'] |
A human case of bird flu is confirmed in China. | Also Thursday, officials in Myanmar said the United Nations has pledged assistance in coping with an outbreak discovered on a poultry farm on the outskirts of its largest city, Yangon.
The human infection in China occurred in the coastal province of Fujian, where a 44-year-old farmer surnamed Li was diagnosed on Feb. 18 after he developed a fever and began coughing, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
It was the mainland's first human case of bird flu since Jan. 10, when the government said a 37-year-old farmer in Anhui province in eastern China had contracted bird flu but had recovered.
Xinhua said tests by the provincial disease control and prevention center showed Li had been infected with the H5N1 virus strain and that the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the result on Feb. 27.
The report did not say whether the farmer worked with poultry or whether infected birds were found, but said that she had "made contact with dead fowl."
In Indonesia, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said a letter of guarantee from WHO Director General Margaret Chan was expected to arrive Thursday, after which "Indonesia will resume sending as soon as possible" samples of bird flu virus to the U.N. health body.
The agreement will almost certainly resolve the stand off between WHO and Indonesia, which triggered a storm of criticism last month by withholding samples because it was worried that large drug companies will use its H5N1 strain to make vaccines that will be too expensive for developing nations in the event of a global pandemic that could kill millions.
Several countries are developing vaccines to protect against H5N1, which has been responsible for at least 167 human deaths worldwide, more than one-third of them in Indonesia.
The virus remains essentially an animal disease, but experts fear it may mutate into a form easily spreadable between humans, triggering a pandemic.
Meanwhile, Tang Zang Ping, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization representative in Myanmar, said the agency was assisting in isolation of poultry farms, disinfection and culling of birds after H5N1 was detected in a western suburb of Yangon.
Myanmar officials say the latest outbreak has affected chickens, ducks and pullets, killing 68 birds. Another 1,292 birds were deemed susceptible to the disease and destroyed.
Myanmar's last reported an H5N1 outbreak among poultry in March last year but has not had any human cases. Neighboring Thailand has reported 25 human infections, including 17 deaths. Laos, another neighbor, on Tuesday reported its first confirmed human case.
The victim, a 15-year-old girl from the capital, Vientiane, is being treated in a hospital in northeastern Thailand.
Joanna Brent, a spokeswoman for the WHO's Beijing office, said 22 out of China's 23 human cases including the latest in Fujian "have not been forewarned by a poultry outbreak," a sign of weakness in its animal surveillance system. In Fujian itself, three human infections have been reported but no sickness in birds, she said.
"This suggests that strategies for monitoring H5N1 in poultry need further strengthening. An exclusive focus on outbreaks is no longer sufficient," Brent said. "All countries need to implement surveillance strategies to monitor where the virus is circulating and how the virus is changing."
China has suffered 14 human deaths from bird flu and dozens of cases in the country's vast poultry flocks. Millions of birds have been destroyed in order to contain outbreaks on farms. | Disease Outbreaks | March 2007 | ['(USA Today)'] |
Ousmane Conté, the eldest son of Guinea's dead leader Lansana Conté, is released from prison after 16 months. | Conakry - Guinea has released the son of former president Lansana Conte, held for the past 17 months on accusations of narcotics trafficking and named by the United States as a drugs "kingpin", sources said.
"Ousmane Conte was freed last night. He is at home," an associate of Conte who declined to be identified told Reuters. A gendarmerie source also confirmed his release.
Conte, whose father ruled Guinea for 24 years until his death in December 2008, was arrested two months later by the junta that came to power. The army officer confessed to being involved in the drugs business but said he was not a ringleader.
Asset freeze US President Barack Obama in June named Conte as one of five individuals suitable for sanctions such as asset freezes under the US Kingpin Act targeting foreign drug traffickers.
It was not immediately clear whether Conte's release was provisional or definitive.
Guinea is currently between rounds of a presidential election intended to hand the West African state back to civilian rule. Anti-narcotics officials say West Africa with its weak crimefighting and other institutional structures is being used increasingly by traffickers as a hub for bringing illegal drugs into Europe. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | July 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(News24.com)'] |
British American Tobacco offers to buy out U.S. cigarette maker Reynolds American Inc in a $47 billion takeover that would create the world's biggest listed tobacco company. | LONDON (Reuters) - British American Tobacco BATS.L has offered to buy out U.S. cigarette maker Reynolds American Inc RAI.N in a $47 billion takeover that would create the world's biggest listed tobacco company with brands including Newport, Lucky Strike and Pall Mall.
The cash-and-stock deal would mark the return of BAT to the lucrative and highly regulated U.S. market after a 12-year absence, making it the only tobacco giant with a leading presence in American and international markets.
It would also give the British company - which has been bolstered by a strong share price since the country voted to leave the European Union - more premium brands such as Camel which it can sell in countries like Russia and Turkey where demand for Western cigarettes is still growing.
The marriage would also unite each company’s efforts in the fast-developing world of e-cigarettes, which the companies say are less dangerous than smoking - a habit that kills about six million people worldwide each year.
BAT shares closed down almost 2.9 percent, while Reynolds was up almost 7 percent in afternoon trading in New York.
Morningstar analyst Adam Fleck said the BAT decline could be because “the price looks rich to us.”
“Our take is that it is a little bit over valued,” he said.
Moody’s also said Friday it is reviewing BAT’s A3 ratings for a possible downgrade.
“Our decision to place BAT’s ratings on review for downgrade recognizes that, while the acquisition will enhance BAT’s business profile, it could lead to a significant deterioration in BAT’s credit metrics,” says Ernesto Bisagno a Moody’s Vice President and lead analyst for BAT.
A Reynolds takeover by BAT, which already owns 42 percent of the U.S. group, has long been seen as part of an inevitable wave of global consolidation in a mature industry. Yet the timing, less than three weeks before a U.S. presidential election, was unexpected.
“This proposed deal manages to be both entirely expected and a surprise,” Euromonitor analyst Shane MacGuill said.
The completion of last year’s purchase by Reynolds of Lorillard, which gave it the popular Newport brand, and the current relative valuations of the two companies’ shares were the main reasons the deal was resurrected in recent weeks, said three sources close to the situation.
“It moved very quickly on the back of the falling pound,” said one of the sources, who all declined to be named in discussing private matters. A final decision was made this week, they said.
A 12 percent rise in BAT’s shares since Britons opted for Brexit in June, and a 7 percent fall for Reynolds, brought the companies’ trading multiples closer together, making a deal more affordable, the sources said.
The move increased the value of the share element of the offer for the U.S. shareholders of Reynolds, even as it made the cash portion more costly for the UK company.
But one source likened the deal to simplifying Reynolds’s structure by removing the stake it does not own. “It’s always been on the cards,” he said.
After the Brexit vote, shares in BAT soared to all-time highs as investors bet the falling pound would lift the value of overseas revenue. BAT, whose share appreciation is less pronounced in dollar terms, does the vast majority of its business outside the country. It has over 200 brands in over 200 markets.
The pound has lost about a fifth of its value against the dollar since the EU referendum on June 23.
With little geographic overlap and therefore limited antitrust issues, this deal is also a lot simpler than another oft-speculated deal - that BAT would take over British rival Imperial Brands IMB.L, the source added.
Imperial shares were up 2 percent on Friday, with one analyst saying a general reignition of consolidation in the industry may be outweighing the fact that BAT is now unlikely to bid for its rival in the near term.
Altria Group MO.N shares were up 4 percent in New York, boosted by hopes that an enlarged BAT would push Swiss-based market leader Philip Morris International PM.N to reunite with the U.S. company. The Marlboro maker split into two in 2008, when the risk of litigation in the United States was seen as a deterrent to foreign companies.
Reynolds, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, acknowledged receipt of the unsolicited offer. This was made public immediately after BAT’s approach to the Reynolds board, as required by U.S. securities regulators in cases where the buyer is a big shareholder.
Reynolds said it would review the offer and respond in due course.
The British group said its offer valued Reynolds’s shares at $56.50, of which $24.13 would be in cash and $32.37 would be in BAT shares, representing a premium of 20 percent over the closing price of Reynolds stock on Thursday. On Friday afternoon Reynolds shares, at $53.73, were below the offer price.
Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog said she expected Reynolds to push for a higher price than the $47 billion BAT is offering for the remaining 57.8 percent of the company. Under the offer, $20 billion would be in cash and $27 billion in BAT shares.
One source estimated that BAT valued Reynolds’s shares at 16.3 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), higher than what Reynolds paid for Lorillard.
BAT Chief Executive Nicandro Durante, a long-distance runner who hails from Sao Paolo, Brazil, said the deal would create a U.S. market leader and the world’s largest listed tobacco company by net turnover and operating profit.
“The strategic rationale makes perfect sense,” Guy Ellison, an analyst at Investec Wealth & Investment, said. He cited a BAT pivot toward the large U.S. market - whose profit pool is protected by high barriers to entry - and improved scale in vapor products like e-cigarettes, which all big tobacco companies are investing in to offset declines in smoking.
BAT said the deal would add to earnings in the first year after closure and estimated cost savings of about $400 million. It is contingent on approval from independent members of the Reynolds board who were not nominated by BAT.
The recent strength of BAT’s share price is also due to geopolitical uncertainty leading investors to seek out stable, dividend-yielding stocks like tobacco and other consumer staples.
Shares in Reynolds fell to a 12-month low on Wednesday of $43.38 after its third quarter earnings were 6 percent short of market forecasts, Jefferies analysts said, on the back of a 1.5 percent fall in domestic cigarette volumes.
If successful, the takeover would be one of the biggest this year globally. Including debt, this would be the largest UK outbound M&A deal this year and the fourth largest of all-time, according to Reuters data.
BAT stopped operating in the United States in 2004, when it merged its U.S. subsidiary Brown & Williamson with R.J. Reynolds to form Reynolds American.
Due to a series of high-profile U.S. lawsuits against tobacco firms, the big four have all limited their exposure to the market. Yet several cases have now been settled, which has led analysts to speculate that international players could return.
Imperial Brands waded into the U.S. market last year with its $7 billion purchase of certain brands from Reynolds to ease the $25 billion purchase of Lorillard.
Smoking rates in the United States and other western markets are declining due to increasing health consciousness, and greater regulation and taxes. Yet their addictive nature and high profit margins make them a profitable business.
BAT is being advised by Centerview, Deutsche Bank and UBS.
BAT also said on Friday it had performed well in the first nine months of the year, raising both revenue at constant rates of exchange and cigarette volumes.
Year-to-date revenue grew 8.1 percent at constant rates of exchange, it said, as its biggest brands sold 9.8 percent more cigarettes.
Additional reporting by Jilian Mincer in New York; editing by Guy Faulconbridge, David Stamp and Chizu Nomiyama
| Organization Merge | October 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A United States Air Force operated MQ-9 Reaper drone crashes at the Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan. | The $14-million Reaper crashed at Kandahar airbase on Saturday night, Captain Bryan Bouchard of the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing said in a statement, according to Reuters. No injuries or damage were reported.
The 445th Expeditionary Wing oversees the Air Force’s groups based at Bagram and Kandahar airfields in Afghanistan.
"The crash was contained on Kandahar airfield," he added.
"US Air Force authorities will investigate the cause of the crash, but hostile fire was not a factor."
The US Air Force has stepped up its air campaign against the anti-government armed militant groupings in Afghanistan over recent months, mainly using the missile-armed drones to suppress the militants.
In November 2015, another drone of a similar type was reportedly shot down by ground fire more than 483km (300 miles) to the northeast of the base in a mountainous area.
The MQ-9 is the first hunter-killer unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed for long haul, high-altitude surveillance. The aircraft is remotely monitored and controlled by aircrew in ground control stations, typically inside US territory.
With a 20-meter wingspan, Reapers can carry a combat payload of up to 1,700 kilograms, including laser-guided bombs and Hellfire missiles, according to open sources.
Employing UAVs for “surgical strikes” has long been a controversial method of waging wars. According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a London-based NGO that analyses UAV strikes data, in Afghanistan alone up to 356 people had been killed in 57-61 reported US drone strikes by February 2016. | Air crash | February 2016 | ['(RT)'] |
Police in Indonesia exchange gunfire with suspected militants near Jakarta, killing six people. | Indonesian police say six suspected terrorists killed in a shootout overnight had a stash of explosives and links to other small terrorism cells across the country.
Authorities say they had been monitoring a house in South Tangerang, west of Jakarta, for about two weeks. On Tuesday night they ambushed and killed the alleged leader of the cell and attempted to raid the house. It seems an explosion foiled their initial attempt to storm in, so for more than nine hours police surrounded the house and exchanged fire with the suspected terrorists. The country's detective chief, Suhardi Alius, says six terrorists were killed in the raid and six homemade bombs, one which had exploded, were found. Pistols and mobile phones were also seized. National police spokesman Boy Rafli has linked the group to a number of other terror cells. They are accused of involvement in targeted police killings, and planned attacks.
The latest incident comes a day after Australia beefed up its travel advisories to Indonesia, warning of the possibility of attacks on the tourist island of Bali.
More than 6,000 police had been deployed around Jakarta to monitor new year celebrations.
| Armed Conflict | January 2014 | ['(ABC)'] |
A corporal in the Republic of Korea Marine Corps goes on a killing spree while on duty at a guard post on South Korea's Ganghwa Island, killing 3 people and injuring 2 others. | A South Korean marine has turned his gun on his colleagues, killing four and injuring another, officials say.
A spokesman for the defence ministry in the capital, Seoul, said the corporal had opened fire while on duty at Ganghwa island west of Seoul.
A staff sergeant and two marines died on the spot while another marine died of his injuries on the way to hospital.
The 19-year-old corporal was later wounded by an exploding hand grenade in a possible suicide attempt.
The Ganghwa island base is near a disputed maritime border with North Korea.
All able-bodied South Korean men are required to serve at least two years in the country's 650,000-member military.
The motive for Monday's shooting on the island 70km (40 miles) west of Seoul remains unclear. The injuries sustained by the apparent shooter - known only by his surname, Kim - are preventing him from immediately answering questions about the incident, said marine corps spokesman Kim Tae-eun.
"After firing his K-2 rifle inside the marines' living quarters, a hand grenade was detonated in a separate building compartment outside," he told a news briefing. "No-one else was present in the compartment aside from the shooter Corporal Kim." He said an investigation was under way.
Numerous incidents between North and South Korea off the peninsula's divided west coast - where the waters are claimed by both sides - have raised tensions for the hundreds of South Korean marines stationed on islands in the area.
There have also been previous violent incidents involving South Korean soldiers in recent years, some linked to claims of bullying by senior officers.
In 2005, a young soldier threw a grenade and fired at sleeping comrades, killing eight and seriously injuring two. In 2008, a private reportedly injured five other soldiers when he threw a grenade at them while they were sleeping.
| Riot | July 2011 | ['(Yonhap News)', '(BBC)'] |
A bomb causes a large explosion near the United Nations compound in Gaza City on the Gaza Strip. | There has been a big explosion in Gaza City near a United Nations compound and Hamas offices.
The blast tore a 2m (6ft) hole through a wall surrounding the UN building. A BBC reporter at the scene said the blast had been caused by an explosive device. There have been no reports of casualties. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the explosion. Offices of Hamas' intelligence service and a prison are also nearby.
The Israeli military said it had not been operating in the area at the time.
Security forces in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory have cordoned off the area and denied access to journalists. | Riot | June 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Due to a change in Japanese legislation, Airbnb announces that it will be cancelling thousands of reservations made in the country. | Travelling to Japan in June? If you've made a booking with Airbnb, you may have to find alternative accommodation.
The online home-sharing giant has had to cancel thousands of reservations after Japan's government put in place a new law around home-sharing.
The law regulates Airbnb's most popular destination market in the Asia Pacific region.
Airbnb said changes to the guidance around its implementation meant reservations would now be affected.
Under the new law, hosts are required to register their listing and display their licence number by 15 June to remain active.
But the Japanese government said on 1 June that any host without a licence number had to cancel upcoming reservations that were booked before 15 June.
Airbnb said it would therefore cancel any reservation made by a guest arriving between 15 June and 19 June at a listing in Japan that does not currently have a licence. "We know this stinks - and that's an understatement," Airbnb said. "Japan is an incredible country to visit and we want to help our guests deal with this extraordinary disruption."
Airbnb also said it had set up a $10m fund to help those incurring any additional expenses related to having to make alternative travel plans because of cancellations.
The booking issue in Japan is the latest hiccup that Airbnb has faced in Asia, one of its fastest growing markets. Earlier this year, the firm said it would have to start sharing information about its customers who book accommodation in China with the government. Data shared with the authorities will now include passport details and the dates of bookings.
Hosts listing accommodation in China will also have their details passed on once they start accepting bookings.
The online home-sharing giant said the move meant it was now complying with local laws and regulations, "like all businesses operating in China".
Airbnb has said it is aiming to have one billion annual guests worldwide by 2028.
The firm is one of Silicon Valley's most valuable companies and is already worth an estimated $30bn. | Government Policy Changes | June 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
A 16-year-old boy is shot and killed at around midnight on Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning during protests in the Venezuelan capital Caracas. Three others are killed in overnight protests in Estado Bolívar. , | CARACAS, Venezuela — President Nicolás Maduro on Wednesday faced the gravest challenge to his authority since assuming power in 2013, as the leader of the U.S.-backed opposition claimed the legitimate mantle of leadership and President Trump and other world leaders promptly recognized him as Venezuela’s interim and rightful head of state.
A defiant Maduro responded by announcing a break in “diplomatic and political relations” with the United States, ordering American diplomats to leave the country within 72 hours.
The high-stakes move set up a looming diplomatic crisis. Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader now recognized by Washington as Venezuela’s interim president, called on diplomats to remain. In a statement late Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo indicated the Trump administration would not heed Maduro’s demand and called on the Venezuelan armed forces to refrain from endangering American personnel or face “appropriate actions.”
“The United States does not recognize the Maduro regime as the government of Venezuela,” the statement said. “Accordingly the United States does not consider former president Nicolas Maduro to have the legal authority to break diplomatic relations with the United States or to declare our diplomats persona non grata.”
Earlier in the day, Trump was asked if military force was being considered. “We’re not considering anything, but all options on the table,” he said. “All options, always, all options are on the table.”
U.S. recognition of Guaidó as Venezuela’s president could have big consequences.
The fast-moving events in Venezuela took most observers by surprise. Until recently, Maduro had been viewed as deeply entrenched, with his socialist inner circle — many of whom stand accused of drug trafficking and other criminal offenses — occupying every position of power.
But the widespread international condemnation, coupled with the fresh energy feeding his opponents, suggested a new and highly variable dynamic. Some argued that Maduro’s Venezuela could fall as rapidly as the Berlin Wall did, even as others suggested he would cling to power with the help of those who have aided him to date: the Russians, the Chinese and the Cubans.
In the balance is the fate of a nation with the world’s largest oil reserves, and where the exodus of starving Venezuelans has generated the largest migrant crisis in the region’s modern history. Throw in an unconventional U.S. administration that has seemed far more hawkish on Venezuela than North Korea or Syria, and the situation on the ground seemed increasingly unpredictable.
As the international campaign against him grew, Maduro, the anointed successor of the late socialist firebrand Hugo Chávez, was confronting a new opponent in the form of Guaidó. Before a cheering throng on Wednesday, the 35-year-old industrial engineer and recently named head of the country’s National Assembly invoked the constitution to declare himself the nation’s “president in charge.”
“We will stay on the street until Venezuela is liberated!” Guaidó told the crowd in Caracas.
The developments came as anti-Maduro protests drew hundreds of thousands of people into Venezuelan streets. After months of mounting U.S. sanctions against Venezuela, the move by the Trump administration to shift recognition to Guaidó amounted to the strongest statement so far against what it called a “disastrous dictatorship.”
In a statement, Trump called on other governments to follow the United States’ move.
“The people of Venezuela have courageously spoken out against Maduro and his regime and demanded freedom and the rule of law,” Trump wrote. “I will continue to use the full weight of United States economic and diplomatic power to press for the restoration of Venezuelan democracy.”
Shortly afterward, 11 countries in the Lima Group, which was created in 2017 to deal with the Venezuela issue, signed a resolution backing Guaidó as president, and the European Council and Parliament both backed the National Assembly but fell short of recognizing Guaidó as interim president. Mexico, Russia and Cuba, however, reiterated their recognition of Maduro.
“This changes the game in Venezuela,” said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society. “It’s an inflection point that turns the Maduro regime into an international pariah and gives an immediate boost to Guaidó’s claims under the Venezuelan constitution. But it is not without risk, either by Guaidó or the Trump administration. Maduro will never accede to this course or willingly give up power, and Guaidó’s actions will not give Maduro the option to ignore him.”
Maduro’s claim to power is based on an election last year that was internationally condemned as a fraudulent power grab. Mismanagement, corruption and failed socialist policies have broken the oil-producing nation, spreading hyperinflation, hunger and disease. The government has used repression, torture and exile to keep dissidents in line.
Though stripped of its power by Maduro, the National Assembly, headed by Guaidó, is widely acknowledged internationally as Venezuela’s last democratic institution.
Guaidó still faces a formidable security apparatus at Maduro’s disposal, and experts warned that Maduro could yet survive this challenge, as he has others in the past.
“These democratic tools tend not to work as much in Venezuela because of government repression,” said Russ Dallen, a Florida-based managing partner at the brokerage Caracas Capital Markets. “I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but if marches were enough to depose him, they would have done it many times before.”
It remained unclear if Maduro’s move to break diplomatic ties would also mean a halt in sales of Venezuelan oil to its largest cash-paying customer: the United States.
Dallen said that the Trump administration in recent days has advised U.S.-based refineries of possible oil sanctions against Caracas, a move that would not damage the U.S. oil sector nearly as much as it would have years ago. Venezuela’s oil production has collapsed under Maduro; it currently sells about 500,000 barrels per day to the United States, or about half the volume of a decade ago.
Amid sharply rising tensions between Washington and Caracas, the U.S.-backed opposition on Wednesday filled the streets with the largest anti-government protests since 2017, when hundreds of thousands sought Maduro’s departure. That movement was ultimately crushed after official repression led to the deaths of more than 100 people.
As people started to gather on a rainy Caracas morning, protests in some areas were being dispersed by security forces using tear gas. Nevertheless, crowds surged into the hundreds of thousands. In eastern Caracas, people yelled: “Who are we? Venezuela. What do we want? Freedom.”
Gabriela Aristimuño, a 40-year-old lawyer, escaped tear gas in western Caracas and quickly joined the crowd in the east. “Fear? No, nothing. Freedom and my children are all I care about,” she said. “I want everything I had before, before all this tragedy.”
The Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict, a nonprofit group, said at least nine people died Wednesday in protests. The legal group Foro Penal said 24 people were detained.
The official state television channel on Wednesday showed images of pro-Maduro crowds and urged viewers to join a counterprotest. “The streets belong to Chavismo,” the narrator said, referring to the government’s left-wing ideology and encouraging people to use that as a hashtag on Twitter.
At the pro-government demonstration, people wore red caps and listened to Maduro and Chávez campaign songs. “Yesterday there was an insolent call by the United States. Today we have to go out to defend the revolution,” said Guillermo Blanco, an employee of Venezuela’s state oil company. “We don’t take orders from anyone.”
Venezuela’s crisis deepens by the day. But Maduro is celebrating the start of six more years in office.
The military’s loyalty remains key to Maduro’s survival. A U.S. intelligence official told The Washington Post this month that Maduro’s defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López, has privately told Maduro that he should step aside.
On Wednesday, Padrino Lopez tweeted his rejection of Guaidó’s claim to the presidency, but he noticeably did not reiterate his backing of Maduro. He called a news conference for 10 a.m. Thursday to make “an official announcement.”
“Desperation and intolerance are attacking this Nation’s peace,” he said in the tweet. “The soldiers of this nation won’t accept a president imposed in the shadows or self-proclaimed unlawfully. The National Armed Forces defend the constitution and guarantees national sovereignty.”
Thousands of police and military rank and file have deserted their posts, but outward signs of division within the military have been limited.
Nevertheless, there are growing indications of cracks. On Monday, dozens of Venezuelan national guard personnel stole arms from two Caracas units, kidnapped four officials and recorded themselves in a northern slum urging people to join them in rebellion. The videos circulated on social media, but shortly afterward, the government announced the arrests of 27 dissenting officials.
That same day, hundreds of residents took to the streets as protests broke out in western slums across Caracas in the afternoon, continuing well past midnight.
The demonstrations led some observers to suggest that the poorest sectors of the capital could join the opposition’s traditional upper-class base in Wednesday’s protests — something that has rarely happened in the past.
“I’m tired,” said Gladys Ibarra, a 40-year-old informal merchant who was protesting in a northwestern Caracas slum. “I’m tired of not having water, energy. Tired of waking up at dawn trying to find gas to cook.”
Faiola reported from Rio de Janeiro and Morello from Washington. Rachelle Krygier in Miami contributed to this report.
After years of crisis, Venezuela’s Maduro might finally be ready to for some help
A humanitarian crisis in Venezuela? Nothing to see here, government says
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world
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The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. | Protest_Online Condemnation | January 2019 | ['(The Washington Post)', '(Business Standard)'] |
ISIL claims responsibility for a Wednesday attack in Nangade District in Mozambique, which killed seven people. | Maputo Last Updated at July 6, 2019 16:20 IST
Seven people including a policeman were killed in northern Mozambique this week in a jihadist attack claimed by the Islamic State group, local sources said Saturday.
The attack on Wednesday evening occurred in Lidjungo village in the Nangade district, a local source based in Mozambique's northern Cabo Delgado province told AFP. One policeman and six civilians were killed in the attack, including two children.
Islamist fighters have targeted remote communities in the gas-rich, Muslim-majority Cabo Delgado province since October 2017, killing more than 250 people and forcing thousands from their homes despite a heavy police and military presence in the area that borders Tanzania.
According to SITE Intelligence, which monitors jihadist activity, Islamic State issued a statement late on Friday claiming involvement in the Wednesday attack.
This is its second IS claim for an attack in Mozambique, targeting the volatile northern region. The first was on June 3.
"The soldiers of the caliphate assaulted barracks of the crusader Mozambican army, in the Nangade area, in northern Mozambique, two days ago," said the statement, according to a SITE translation.
The group claimed to have clashed with the military "killing and wounding a number of them and forcing the remainder to flee".
It said fighters seized weapons and ammunition.
The group first claimed involvement in northern Mozambique last month, saying it carried out an attack that took place in Metubi village, about 150 kilometres east of Nangade.
The police and government have a policy of not commenting on any insurgent activity, even if attacks are confirmed by local residents.
The identity of the militant Islamists staging attacks in northern Mozambique remains unclear and the motives unknown.
Analysts have expressed doubts over claims by the Islamic State, suggesting that it is unlikely that the group would have direct contact with fighters in Mozambique.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
d. | Armed Conflict | July 2019 | ['(Business Standards)'] |
ARATS president Chen Yunlin, the official delegation of the People's Republic of China, arrives in Taiwan for talks with SEF chairman Chiang Pin–kung. | (CNN) -- The most senior Chinese official to visit Taiwan in nearly 60 years arrived on the island Monday for economic talks -- a sign of improving relations.
Chen Yunlin, president of the Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, leads a delegation of 60 for talks this week with his counterpart, Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation.
"I feel like I'm standing at the crossroads of history," Chen said ahead of the visit, the state-run China Daily newspaper reported.
The talks will avoid volatile political issues and focus instead on economic cooperation, state media reported.
"The mission is clear and well-defined," Chen said. "No political issues pertaining to cross-Straits relations will be involved, nor will Taiwan's internal political affairs."
Chinese and Taiwanese officials agreed in June to set up permanent offices in each other's territories, in the first formal talks between the two sides in almost a decade. The Beijing talks also resulted in the agreement for weekend charter flights.
Cross-straits talks between the two delegations began in 1993, a year after China and Taiwan informally agreed that the two sides belonged to "one China" -- although they did not describe what that meant, and both sides were free to use differing interpretations.
After that, the dialogue was delayed for five years over cross-strait tensions.
A second meeting in 1998 was held in Shanghai, but Beijing canceled a 1999 meeting when then-Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui proposed that Taiwan and China treat each other as separate states.
Taiwan's new president, Ma Ying-jeou, has rejected the push for independence. Although Ma opposes unification with China, he campaigned on promises of seeking closer ties to the mainland, particularly seeking for Taiwan some of the benefits of China's robust economy.
Taiwan separated from China after the communists' victory in the Chinese civil war in 1949. About 2 million Nationalist Chinese fled to Taiwan and set up a government there.
Beijing has always considered the island a part of China and has threatened to go to war should Taiwan declare formal independence. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | November 2008 | ['(CNN)'] |
Finnish police start to investigate new rapes of two underage girls that had occurred a few days earlier in Oulu, Finland. | Police in Oulu said on Monday that they are investigating two cases of alleged child sexual abuse suspected to have occurred last weekend. The suspected cases were first reported by the Oulu regional paper Kaleva and lead investigator Detective Chief Inspector Eveliina Karjalainen confirmed to Yle that an investigation had been launched into the alleged offences.
On Monday afternoon, police issued a statement saying that they suspect that two underage girls were sexually assaulted at a private home. One of the victims is under 16 and the other under 18.
The cases are being investigated as aggravated rape and in the case of the younger victim, additionally as aggravated child sexual abuse. Other potential offences under consideration include assault and intimidation.
Police have held one individual in connection with the alleged offences. The suspect has a foreign background and has a Finnish residence permit.
Police said that the individual has lived in Finland for several years. They declined to comment on whether other suspects are involved.
Oulu police have been investigating several reported cases of child sex abuse since last November. Over half of Finland's population has received at least one vaccine dose, while less than 14 percent are fully vaccinated.
Efforts to fight climate change have improved overall air quality over the past 30 years, but many cities still do not meet European standards.
The arrangement aims to improve cross-border tax violation investigations.
Municipalities told Yle they have no clear guidelines on how to enforce new rules to keep teens in school until they turn 18. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | February 2019 | ['(Yle)'] |
The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemns China's decision yesterday to establish administrative districts in the disputed Paracel and Spratly Islands, saying it violates Vietnam's sovereignty. | HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam protested on Sunday at China saying it had established two administrative units on islands in the South China Sea, in Beijing’s latest move to demonstrate its assertiveness in the disputed waters.
China has recently been pushing its presence in the energy-rich waters while other claimants are pre-occupied with tackling the new coronavirus pandemic, prompting the United States to call on China to stop its “bullying behaviour” there.
On Saturday it said it had established an administrative district on the Paracel islands and another on the Spratly islands. The two districts are under the control of China’s Sansha city, according to China Global Television Network.
“The establishment of the so-called Sansha City and related activities seriously violated Vietnam’s sovereignty,” Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said in a statement.
“Vietnam demands that China respect Vietnam’s sovereignty and abolish its wrongful decisions,” Hang said in the statement.
A Chinese government survey ship was seen earlier this week tagging an exploration vessel operated by Malaysia’s state oil company Petronas in the disputed waters, and remained offshore of Malaysia as of late Sunday..
Earlier this month, Vietnam lodged an official protest with China after the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat it said had been rammed by a China Coast Guard vessel near the Paracels.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
An elderly man shoots and kills three people and then himself in the South Korean city of Hwaseong. | South Korea was reeling Friday from its second bloody shooting in less than a week, incidents that shocked a nation where gun violence is extremely rare.
Both incidents allegedly centered on disputes over money and involved victims and perpetrators who knew one another well.
Friday’s shooting happened in Hwaseong, a city about an hour south of Seoul. Police said a man armed with a hunting rifle shot and killed his brother, sister-in-law and a police officer before turning the gun on himself.
Guns are legal but not widely used in South Korea. Gun owners store their weapons at the local police station and sign them out for use, which can only be done during hunting season. The alleged gunman in Friday’s shooting reportedly checked his weapon out at the police station that morning, shortly before driving to his brother’s house.
Police were reportedly called to the scene by a woman who told officers that her uncle had entered their home and shot her parents. The woman survived but sustained injuries after jumping from a second-floor window to escape, police said.
The two brothers were apparently well known in their neighborhood for having heated arguments, particularly over financial matters. A police officer investigating the scene told the Kyunghyang newspaper: “The brothers didn’t have a good relationship. Whenever they got together and had any alcohol, one of them would badger the other, demanding money.”
Shootings are uncommon in South Korea, and saying “I’m going to shoot you” is an idiom for offering to treat someone to drinks or a meal. Gun deaths that do occur here usually happen within the military (all able-bodied men must perform about two years of service).
Friday’s incident came just two days after a shooting in Sejong, the administrative capital, where a man killed his ex-girlfriend’s father, brother and current boyfriend. The gunman, identified as a 50-year-old man surnamed Kang, then shot himself to death on the banks of a nearby river, officials said.
Police said Kang had a dispute with his former girlfriend over how to divide property that had been purchased before they broke up a year and a half ago.
.
| Armed Conflict | February 2015 | ['(Yonhap News)', '(The Korea Herald)', '(Los Angeles Times)'] |
The death toll from yesterday's capsizing of the M/B Nivana off the coast of the Philippines rises to 56 as murder charges are filed against the owner and crew. , |
MANILA (AFP) - Philippine police have filed murder charges against the owners and crew of a passenger ferry that capsized and left dozens dead, an official said on Saturday.
The charges were filed late on Friday in the central city of Ormoc over the sinking of the Kim Nirvana vessel, according to regional police head Chief Superintendent Asher Dolina.
In a separate report, overloading of cargo and passengers might have been to blame for the disaster and a government investigation is now underway.
Survivors reported seeing up to 150 sacks of cement in the ship's cargo area before it capsized in relatively calm seas off the central port of Ormoc on Thursday, city councillor Godiardo Ebcas told AFP.
Bloated bodies spilled out of the Kim Nirvana's wooden hull as a crane lifted it from the water and placed it on Ormoc port, he said.
Ebcas said the death toll stood at 56 with 142 survivors. The death count was bigger than the 45 reported by the coast guard, which was based on the ship's passenger list, though the guard counted the same number of survivors.
The coast guard earlier said the 33-tonne ship could carry 194 people, including 178 passengers and 16 crew, but according to the casualty count of the city council, the ship was carrying at least 198.
"The ship might not be too overloaded in terms of passengers, but imagine the weight of its cargo," Ebcas said.
Each sack of rice, cement and fertiliser weighs 50kg, and 150 sacks would easily add 7,500 to the ship's load, excluding passengers, he said.
Ebcas said survivors saw that the cargo, located on the ship's lowest level, was not fastened to the floor with ropes as it should have been.
"This could have cause the weight of the ship to shift," said Ebcas.
Passengers on the ferry's regular route from Ormoc to the Camotes islands regularly bring supplies from the city to their remote fishing villages.
Search operations with rescue divers were stopped on Friday before the ship was lifted to port's berthing area.
Ebcas confirmed reports that some bodies were washed to the shore of a neighbouring municipality.
The coast guard is investigating the latest in a string of deadly sea mishaps. Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said the ship's crew would be summoned.
"If there was negligence, it should be pursued by investigators. Appropriate charges will be filed when necessary," presidential spokesman Abigail Valte told reporters on Saturday.
Poorly maintained, loosely regulated ferries form the backbone of maritime travel in the Philippines, a sprawling archipelago of 100 million people.
Many sea disasters occur during the typhoon season, which starts in June.
Frequent accidents in recent decades have claimed thousands of lives, including the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster in 1987 when the Dona Paz ferry collided with an oil tanker, leaving more than 4,300 dead. | Shipwreck | July 2015 | ['(AP via USA Today)', '(AFP via Straits Times)'] |
Nepal's Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli resigns minutes before parliament was to vote on a no confidence motion he was likely to lose, after allies of his multi–party coalition leave the government accusing him of not honoring power sharing deals that helped him assume office in October 2015. | In this July 21, 2016 photo, Nepalese Prime Minister K.P. Oli (centre) leaves Parliament in Kathmandu.
Nepal’s embattled Prime Minister K.P. Oli resigned on Sunday ahead of a no-confidence vote, plunging the country into a fresh political turmoil after last year’s crippling Madhesi protests against the new Constitution.
Mr. Oli, who became Prime Minister in October 2015 heading Nepal’s eighth government in the past 10 years, has been >facing a no-trust motion after the Maoists withdrew support from the coalition government.
Mr. Oli tendered his resignation after two key ruling alliance partners — the Madhesi People’s Rights Forum-Democratic and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party — decided to support the no-confidence motion tabled against him by the Nepali Congress (NC) and the CPN-Maoist Centre led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’.
They had accused Mr. Oli of not honouring his past commitments.
Addressing the Parliament on the no-confidence motion, Mr. Oli said that he came to power nine months ago when the country was in a grave crisis and was “sad” that the government was changing at a time when it is overcoming the hindrances following last year’s deadly earthquakes that killed nearly 9,000 people.
“The game for a change in the government at this time is mysterious,” the 64-year-old CPN-UML leader said, adding he was punished for doing good work.
Mr. Oli said Nepal-India relations was at an all-time low during the time he assumed power last year. However, with his efforts the relations were normalised.
He also mentioned about the Eminent Peoples Group’s meeting held in Kathmandu last week in which the discussions were held to review various treaties and agreements signed between Nepal and India including the Nepal-India Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1950.
“The relations between Nepal and China and the relations between Nepal and India are unique which cannot be compared with one another,” he said, adding his efforts have reduced Nepal’s economic dependency on a single country.
Nepal signed transport and transit treaty with China so that it could have access in both of its borders. Now the people of Nepal would not have to face the difficulty it future like it had at the time of border blockade, he said.
“Nepal should adopt equidistance in relations with its neighbours for the betterment of the country and the people. We respect the sensitivity of both our neighbours and we also expect the same from them.”
However, we cannot accept interference in our internal affairs, though we want good relations with or neighbours, he added.
The no-trust motion was democratic just in form, but it’s a conspiracy in essence, Mr. Oli said, adding the motion was not natural and normal in terms of its time, condition and nature.
He also said that attempts to bring down his government were made to hinder the implementation of the new Constitution.
He warned that the nation would have to pay a high price for it.
Nepal has been facing political crisis since adopting a new Constitution in September 2015. The Madhesis, mostly of Indian-origin, have been opposing the new statute as they fear it would marginalise them by dividing the country into seven Provinces.
Nearly five-month-long Madhesi protests led to the closure of key trading points with India that led to the shortage of essential supplies in the land-locked country.
The blockade of trade points with India ended in February after more than 50 people were killed in clashes.
The Maoists decided to oust Mr. Oli two months ago after he said he would address Madhesi concerns and rebuild homes destroyed in earthquakes in 2015.
Prachanda, who is the favourite to replace Mr. Oli, on Friday accused the Prime Minister of being ego-centric and self-centred and said, “This made us unable to continue to work with him.” | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | July 2016 | ['(The Hindu)', '(Reuters)'] |
Jordan police disperse protesters who were trying to reach the Allenby Bridge near the border with Israel. Additionally, protesters from Lebanon also reach the Israeli border. | A Lebanese man was killed by Israeli fire on Friday as protesters attempted to storm the border, amid roiling anger in the Arab world over fighting between Israel and Gaza and tensions over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Dozens of Lebanese protesters rioted on that country’s southern frontier with Israel, setting fires and briefly crossing into Israeli territory, according to authorities.
Israeli tanks fired warning shots at a number of the rioters who crossed the border fence between the countries, the Israel Defense Forces said.
Mohamad Hattan, 21, was one of two men who suffered wounds from Israeli shelling during the protest on the frontier between the two countries, Lebanon’s National News Agency said. The condition of the second man was not immediately known.
The incident occurred after a number of “young demonstrators tried to enter the border town of Metulla” in northern Israel, said NNA. | Protest_Online Condemnation | May 2021 | ['(Al Arabiya)', '(Times of Israel)'] |
Police urge people to respect the curfew. Authorities order that children stay at home and announce that Christmas celebrations and public gatherings have been cancelled in order to prevent the epidemic from spreading even further. The death toll from the outbreak now stands at 53. | Congregations at church services such as this one in Mulivai in Samoa are praying for those hit hard by measles. Photo: RNZ / Logan Church
Father Losi Antonio, of Mulivai Catholic Church in the south of Samoa, said at the start of the service the congregation prayed for those who had lost loved ones to measles as well as those fighting the disease.
Forty-eight people so far have died since the outbreak began - most of them children.
Strict government rules required children to stay at home from Mass, which is a big part of most Samoan's week.
"I asked the parish here to please make the children stay home," he said.
This weekend also marked the start of Advent - the lead-up to Christmas celebrations.
But Father Antonio said that traditional Christmas gatherings have also been cancelled.
"We are heading towards Christmas, a time of happiness, a time of love, a time of joy, but these families are suffering," he said.
The chair of the Auckland-based Pacific Leadership Forum, Teleiai Edwin Puni, said some had cancelled their flights to Samoa over Christmas.
"Even if they go there's not much celebration that was planned, but those who are in New Zealand it will be the same feeling. It's going to be a very mellow christmas for Samoans.
"The biggest concern here, all the frustration, is not knowing when it's gonna stop."
Mr Puni said many other Samoans in Auckland still planned to travel to Samoa for Christmas.
Meanwhile, patients are still coming into district hospitals around the country.
One is Lalomanu District Hospital, an hour and a half from Apia.
Registered nurse Selwyn Amataga is in charge of the small hospital which sits on a hill overlooking the village.
Most of the patients he's seen have recovered, although seven were rushed to Apia hospital.
But he says one of their challenges is managing vaccine supplies.
"We're not out of vaccines right now but we have 60 and we are planning to visit six more villages that we haven't covered yet," he said.
"Our priorities are the little ones, from six months to 19 for the boys and six months to 35 for the females."
He said the authorities were getting more vaccines out quickly when needed, but he is concerned infection rates are still rising.
More than 3500 people now have measles in Samoa, - providing a challenge to already exhausted medical staff.
Samoa's authorities are trying to make up for lost time with the mass vaccination campaign reporting that almost a third of the country has been immunised in the last 12 days.
Forty-eight people have died from measles so far, with more deaths expected to be reported today.
The Health Ministry has gone into overdrive, investing millions of dollars and sending out 32 mobile vaccination units across the two main islands as more and more vaccines are shipped in from overseas.
A baby with measles is treated at a clinic run by New zealand medical staff. Photo: RNZ / Logan Church
One hundred thousand doses are due this week from New Zealand.
But authorities say infections are rising daily and the deadly disease is still spreading.
The government has just expanded the ages of those eligible for measles vaccinations.
They're now available for people aged 6 months to 60 years old.
Previously, the vaccines were being prioritised for everyone between 6 months and 19, and non-pregnant women up to 35 years old.
New Zealand and Australian medical teams have been helping for weeks, and the latest foreign staff to arrive are from Britain and French Polynesia.
A French team is also expected.
Copyright ? 2019, Radio New Zealand
Anti-vaccination groups are sending boxes of vitamins to Samoa, but critics are bristling at their influence as the government struggles to raise vaccination rates.
Desperate parents are turning to alternative healers in Samoa as a measles epidemic continues to rock the Pacific nation.
The death toll in Samoa's measles epidemic has risen to 48, with another four people dying this weekend and more than 1700 children under the age of four now infected with the disease.
Pregnant women in Samoa who are unvaccinated against measles have been told to stop going to work, as part of the latest round of government orders. | Disease Outbreaks | December 2019 | ['(RNZ)', '(Stuff.co.nz)', '(RNZ2)'] |
Nieuwsuur reports the Dutch government has provided funding over the past two years to Syrian rebel group Jabhat al–Shamiya, despite Dutch prosecutors describing the group as a "salafist and jihadistic" terror group and preparing to bring a man to trial next week accused of being a member. | The Dutch government has been supporting an armed group in Syria which has been branded a terrorist organisation by the public prosecution department, current affairs show Nieuwsuur reported on Monday night.
The Netherlands provided uniforms and pick-up trucks to the group known as Jabbat al-Shamiya in 2017, the programme said. Next week, a Dutch jihadi faces court for being a member of the same group.
The equipment was sent to the group as part of a secret programme providing ‘non-lethal’ assistance to 22 rebel groups in Syria from 2015 to the beginning of this year.
According to the public prosecutor Jabbat al-Shamiya is ‘salafist and jihadistic’, ‘strives for the setting up of the caliphate’ and can be qualified as nothing else but a ‘criminal organisation of terrorist intent’.
The fact that the government has supported the organisation in the past could upset the court case, according to legal experts. ‘A court could easily say that it would not convict someone for doing something which had been facilitated by the state,’ Geert-Jan Knops told broadcaster NOS.
Michiel Pestman, who represents the man facing trial in three weeks, told NOS the Nieuwsuur claims undermine the public prosecution’s case.
Stop
The Netherlands has admitted funding Syrian rebel groups but has always maintained they were moderate.
However, this weekend foreign minister Stef Blok and trade minister Sigrid Kaag sent a briefing to MPs explaining that the Netherlands has stopped funding the Syrian opposition in the civil war against president Assad.
The chance that rebel forces will be able to win the civil war is, the ministers say, now ‘extremely limited’. Dutch support for the rebels has ‘not had the desired effects’, the ministers said. The Netherlands had set aside €70m to fund the opposition.
Nieuwsuur says the letter was sent to MPs after it had confronted them with its findings. ‘These findings strengthen our conviction that the decision to stop the funding was the correct one,’ the foreign ministry said in a statement.
MPs said they were shocked by the Nieuwsuur broadcast and have called on ministers to explain how this could happen.
Much of the information has been declared secret but MPs still want ministers to explain to parliament what has been done. ‘What appears to have happened is exactly what we were afraid of,’ said ChristenUnie leader Gert-Jan Seegers.
In 2015, the CU attempted to have the financial support to Syrian rebel groups stopped but failed to get sufficient support.
Nieuwsuur later published more allegations, claiming that other groups funded by the Netherlands committed human rights violations and war crimes. The broadcaster said it bases its claims on interviews with some 100 ‘rebel leaders’ and people involved with the programme.
| Financial Aid | September 2018 | ['(Dutch News)'] |
Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott resigns as a Treasury spokesman in the House of Lords after making an outspoken attack on the agreement. | Lord Oakeshott has stood down as a Lib Dem Treasury spokesman after criticising the government's bank deal.
Ministers and the four main banks have agreed to increase loans to businesses from £179bn to £190bn this year, with lending to small firms up 15% to £76bn.
But Lord Oakeshott branded Treasury negotiators "incompetent" and demanded "radical surgery" to cut City bonuses.
The government defended the deal, but Labour said the peer had been sacked for "daring to tell the truth". Outlining the long-awaited agreement, Chancellor George Osborne formally ruled out imposing a bonus tax, despite pressure from Labour.
Lord Oakeshott, a former City financier who advised Business Secretary Vince Cable while the Lib Dems were in opposition, said there was no guarantee of there being a net increase in lending to small business, and that the pay disclosure measures had not gone far enough. The public were entitled to ask why the bosses of RBS Group and Lloyds Group, which were bailed out by the taxpayer at the height of the banking crisis, would still be getting huge bonuses, he told the BBC.
He added: "Whether those are paid in cash or shares, they still mostly come out of our pockets. I see the agreement says they have to wait two more years to cash in.
"A multi-million pound bonus is still a multi-million pound bonus whether you have to wait two years to buy the yacht."
"We have done the best we can to get the best deal but I don't think it is a good deal," he said.
"And I am bound to say I think the Treasury's negotiating tactics have not been very good. They have got an awful combination of arrogance and incompetence.
"Most of them couldn't negotiate their way out of a paper bag and this has not been as tough a deal as it should have been."
But Treasury sources hit back at the peer, telling the BBC "he doesn't even know what he's talking about".
Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said the "mutual agreement" for Lord Oakeshott to step down had been the "right decision".
Lord Oakeshott had felt "unable to support" the government's arrangement with the banks, he added.
Mr Osborne has defended the package, saying it will boost economic recovery.
Mr Cable described the agreement as "reasonable" and insisted that it would provide a "substantial" boost in lending to small firms.
However, he has said that the bonuses being paid to RBS boss Stephen Hester and outgoing Lloyds Group chief executive Eric Daniels are "extraordinarily large".
Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury select committee, said the deal was a "reflection of reality".
He added that ministers did not want to do anything to hamper the chances of getting the best deal for the taxpayer when the state-controlled banks are eventually sold back into private ownership. For Labour, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said: "It is symbolic of the shambolic and panicked way that the chancellor has gone about agreeing this weak and toothless deal with the banks, that the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman in the House of Lords has been sacked this evening.
"It is a sad commentary on this Tory-led government that Lord Oakeshott has been forced to pay the price for daring to tell the truth."
Banks sign lending and bonus deal
Q&A: Project Merlin bank deal
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. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | February 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Australian Labor Party holds the seats of Williamstown and Albert Park in the Victorian Legislative Assembly as two by–elections are held. | Unionist Wade Noonan won 54 per cent of the primary vote in former premier Steve Bracks's seat of Williamstown.
In Albert Park, Labor's Martin Foley has seen off a challenge from the Greens, winning 52 per cent of the primary vote.
The Liberal Party did not field candidates in either of the seats.
| Government Job change - Election | September 2007 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates makes his first visit to Pakistan. | Pakistan's army has said it will launch no new offensives on militants in 2010, as the US defence secretary arrived for talks on combating Taliban fighters.
Army spokesman Athar Abbas told the BBC the "overstretched" military had no plans for any fresh anti-militant operations over the next 12 months. Our correspondent says the comments are a clear snub to Washington. The US would like Pakistan to expand an offensive against militants launching cross-border attacks in Afghanistan. Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Pakistan on Thursday for his first visit since US President Barack Obama took office last year. 'Embarrassing'
The one-day trip comes at a crucial time in the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, with the US planning to commit 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Mr Gates was expected to tell Pakistan that it could do more against top Taliban leaders operating in its territory, some of whom are alleged to have close links to Pakistan's ISI intelligence service. The Pakistani army launched major ground offensives in 2009 in the north-west against Pakistani Taliban strongholds in the Swat region, last April, and in South Waziristan, last October. The militants have hit back with a wave of suicide bombings and attacks that have killed hundreds of people across Pakistan. In the capital, Islamabad, on Thursday, Maj Gen Abbas, head of public relations for the Pakistan army, told the BBC: "We are not going to conduct any major new operations against the militants over the next 12 months. "The Pakistan army is overstretched and it is not in a position to open any new fronts. Obviously, we will continue our present operations in Waziristan and Swat." 'Trust deficit'
The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says the comments are a clear brush-off to top US officials. Our correspondent adds they are embarrassing for Pakistan's shaky coalition government, and likely to further destabilise already-low ties with its US ally. He says it also threatens to render ineffective an expanded coalition troop deployment in Afghanistan, as the Taliban over the border would be relieved of any pressure from the Pakistan army. Before arriving in Islamabad, Mr Gates told reporters travelling with him from India: "You can't ignore one part of this cancer and pretend that it won't have some impact closer to home." His visit comes amidst a slight cooling in relations between the two allies. In an article published in a Pakistani newspaper on Thursday, Mr Gates referred to a "trust deficit". As well as talking with his counterpart, Ahmed Mukhtar, the US defence secretary is expected to meet Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Asif Zardari. Talks were also expected to focus on US drone strikes against militants near the Afghan border. Hundreds of people - many of them militants, but many more civilians - have died in the attacks, which have stoked deep resentment of the US among many Pakistanis. But our correspondent says Mr Gates will argue that drone strikes are the only effective measure against the Taliban. Pakistan has been an important US partner in South Asia since the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US. | Diplomatic Visit | January 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
A free trade agreement between the United States and Colombia takes effect. | The long-delayed free trade agreement between the US and Colombia has come into effect, more than five years after being signed.
At the stroke of midnight, a planeload of flowers - an important export for Colombia - left Bogota to become the first shipment under the deal.
The pact was held up in the US Congress amid concern over Colombia's record of violence against trade union leaders.
It finally passed last October, after pressure from the Obama White House.
Later on Tuesday, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle was set to be unveiled as one the first US exports to Colombia as part of the agreement.
Both countries hope the deal will boost mutual exports and investments, as well as underpin the two countries' close political ties.
Colombia has long been seen as one of the United States' staunchest allies in the region.
The pact means a wide variety of goods, including machinery, raw materials and agricultural products, can be traded without import tariffs needing to be paid.
The US International Trade Commission estimates that the value of US exports to Colombia could rise by $1.1bn (£680m), while Colombian exports the other way could grow by $487m.
The accord, signed during President George W Bush's administration, was opposed by US labour groups, who feared job losses.
Many Democratic members of Congress argued that it should not be approved until they were satisfied Colombia had done enough to stop violence against union organisers.
There was also opposition from Colombian trade unions, who expressed concern about whether the country was developed enough to compete.
Urging Congress to ratify the deal, the Obama administration warned that further delay would cost the US jobs and the chance to boost exports.
| Sign Agreement | May 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan urges stepped-up efforts to protect civilians and end the violence in the deteriorating security situation in Iraq. | Voicing grave concern at the recent bloodshed and deteriorating security situation in Iraq, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged stepped-up efforts to protect civilians and end the violence.
"The Secretary-General calls upon all those concerned to respect international law, particularly in regard to the protection of civilians in armed conflict, and to intensify their efforts to end the current crisis," a spokesman for Mr. Annan said in a statement released in New York.
All parties were urged to allow full access to civilians who may require urgent medical help and other assistance.
The statement also emphasized that "an inclusive dialogue and a patiently pursued political process involving all Iraqi constituencies are essential at this particularly sensitive phase on the road toward the restoration of sovereignty, stability and the rule of law."
Mr. Annan's Special Adviser, Lakhdar Brahimi, currently in Iraq with his team for consultations with a broad cross-section of Iraqis on the political transition set for 30 June, echoed the Secretary-General's call.
"On this day, we must mention, with great pain and extreme sorrow, the bloody events which we are witnessing in various parts of Iraq, and express condolences for the innocent lives which were lost, and call upon all parties to end this conflict, which does not serve anyone's interests," he told reporters before a meeting with civil society leaders in Baghdad this evening.
Mr. Brahimi said the UN looked forward to the restoration of sovereignty to Iraq as the first step to emerging from the dark tunnel, which the country entered a long time ago. He added that the UN was trying to contribute to the formation of a government that will take over power in Iraq on 1 July, thus ending at least some of the factors leading to the events of the last few days.
The UN envoy and his team held talks today with university professors, political party leaders and a wide range of Iraqi professionals. | Famous Person - Give a speech | April 2004 | ['(UN)'] |
A suicide attack kills at least 28 people and injures 57 others in Baghdad, Iraq. | A suicide bomber has killed at least 28 people queuing outside a police recruitment centre in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, police say.
At least 57 other people were wounded in the attack, carried out by a bomber on a motorcycle. Meanwhile, the US military says it is to reduce troop numbers in the country by 12,000 in the next six months. The level of violence in Iraq has declined since 2007, but it remains a feature of daily life for many Iraqis. At least 12 people died two days ago when a car bomb exploded at a cattle market in Babil province. There are still almost daily violent incidents in Baghdad. Explosives belt
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Scene where the attack took place
The attack happened at about 1000 (0700 GMT) in "the middle of a crowd outside the [police] academy on Palestine Street", a police official told AFP news agency. Reports suggest the bomber detonated a belt of explosives as he crashed his motorbike into a line of people waiting at the side entrance to the training centre. Most of the dead were police recruits, while others were serving officers and civilians. The reported death toll quickly rose, making this the deadliest suicide strike reported in Iraq for nearly a month. Police recruitment centres have been a popular target for insurgents, and this academy has been attacked before. On 1 December last year, 15 police and recruits were killed, and another 45 people injured, in twin blasts at the building. And in 2005 two female suicide bombers attacked the building, killing 40 people. The BBC's Mike Sergeant says that measures have been taken to try to protect the building, such as setting up concrete blocks and checkpoints nearby. But he says that with the streams of police and recruits coming and going it is difficult to make it secure. Iraq has massively expanded its police and military forces over recent years as the government of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki seeks to ensure local forces can provide security amid the envisaged draw-down of US troops. Troop reduction
As part of that draw-down, the US military announced on Sunday that it would not replace two brigades - comprising some 12,000 soldiers - due to leave Iraq over the next six months. "Two brigade combat teams who were scheduled to redeploy in the next six months, along with enabling forces such as logistics, engineers and intelligence, will not be replaced," it said in a statement. Maj Gen David Perkins, a spokesman for US forces in Iraq, told a news conference that violence was at its lowest level since the summer of 2003. He claimed a recent series of attacks was evidence that terror groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq were growing desperate as they sought to derail security gains in the country, the Associated Press reports. "It's indicative that al-Qaeda feels threatened," he said. "They're feeling desperate. They want very much to maintain relevance." Some 140,000 US soldiers are currently in the country. The withdrawal is part of President Barack Obama's plan to end the "combat mission" in Iraq by August 2010, entailing the withdrawal of some two-thirds of the US force there - some of which will be deployed in Afghanistan instead. That reduction will in part depend on the success of national elections later this year, our correspondent says. Between 35,000 and 50,000 American troops will then stay in Iraq for a further year, to provide support and training to Iraqi forces, the US says. | Armed Conflict | March 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Patricia Etteh resigns as speaker of Nigeria's House of Representatives amid accusations of corruption. | An inquiry found her guilty of breaking house rules in awarding contracts worth $5m to refurbish houses and buy cars. But she had repeatedly refused to step aside and allow a temporary speaker to chair a debate into the findings.
Parliamentary business, including a debate on Nigeria's budget, has been held up for weeks as a result of the affair that has gripped the nation.
The affair has become a major embarrassment for President Umaru Yar'Adua who promised zero tolerance on corruption but failed to intervene, despite increasingly angry protests. Heated
Mrs Etteh, a former beautician and ruling party member, is accused of irregularities in spending $5m of government money to buy 12 cars and renovate two official residences - her own and that of a deputy. PATRICIA OLUBUNMI ETTEH
Yoruba, born August 1953
Hairdresser and beautician
University of Abuja law diploma
AD MP since 1999
Switched to PDP in 2003
She had consistently denied any wrongdoing but opponents argued forcibly that she should step aside temporarily to allow someone else to chair the debate into the findings of the panel of inquiry, chaired by David Idoko.
The row became so heated that a brawl broke out in parliament earlier this month, during which one pro-Etteh MP collapsed and died.
Mrs Etteh's aides told the BBC that the speaker had decided that she could no longer continue and that her deputy, Babangida Nguroje, has also resigned.
The lower house elected Terngu Tsegba, an opposition politician from central Benue State, as the acting speaker.
Mr Tsegba will now preside over the Idoko debate, which is expected to take up to a week. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | October 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Voters in the American state of Oregon have their mail-in ballots counted for a Democratic Party and Republican Party primary. Donald Trump is the projected winner on the Republican winner while Bernie Sanders is projected to win the Democratic Party race. , , | Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders battled to a neck-and-neck outcome in Kentucky's presidential primary Tuesday, as Clinton declared victory and sought to blunt the momentum of her Democratic rival ahead of a likely general election matchup against Republican Donald Trump. Sanders won Oregon and vowed to soldier on.
The race in Kentucky was too close to call, but Clinton wrote on her Twitter feed: "We just won Kentucky! Thanks to everyone who turned out. We're always stronger united." With almost all the votes counted, Clinton held a narrow lead of less than one-half of 1 percent as she tried to avoid ending the primary season with a string of losses to the Vermont senator.
We just won Kentucky! Thanks to everyone who turned out. We’re always stronger united. Trump won the sole GOP contest in Oregon, where Sanders was declared the winner shortly after the polls closed in the liberal-leaning state.
Rallying supporters in California, Sanders said he would end up with about half of the delegates in Kentucky and promised to press forward even though he would need to win about two-thirds of the remaining pledged delegates to end the primary season in a tie.
"Before we will have the opportunity to defeat Donald Trump, we're going to have to defeat Secretary Clinton," Sanders said to cheers in Carson, California.
Clinton holds a commanding lead of nearly 300 pledged delegates over Sanders and a dominant advantage among party officials and elected leaders known as superdelegates. The outcomes in Kentucky and Oregon were not expected to change that and the former secretary of state remains on track to clinch the nomination in early June.
Tuesday's elections took place amid new questions about party unity following a divisive weekend state party convention in Nevada. Supporters of Sanders tossed chairs and made death threats against the Nevada party chairwoman at the event in Las Vegas, arguing the party leadership rigged the results of the convention in favor of Clinton.
In a sign of the tensions between the two sides, Sanders issued a defiant statement Tuesday dismissing complaints from Nevada Democrats as "nonsense" and said his supporters were not being treated with "fairness and respect."
In California, Sanders urged the party to be welcoming to voters who are "prepared to fight for real economic and social change." Addressing the party's leadership, Sanders declared, "Open the doors, let the people in."
Trump won the sole GOP contest in Oregon. The billionaire businessman picked up nine delegates earlier Tuesday in Guam, which held its territorial convention in March, and had 1,143 delegates heading into the Oregon contest — fewer than 100 delegates short of the 1,237 he needs to clinch the nomination.
For Democrats, 55 delegates were up for grabs in Kentucky and 61 delegates were at stake in Oregon. Clinton and Sanders will each pick up at least 25 delegates in Kentucky, with five delegates remaining to be allocated pending final vote tallies.
The Sanders campaign did not immediately saying whether it will challenge the results in Kentucky, which does not have an automatic recount.
In Kentucky, the former secretary of state visited black churches, a small-town diner and held rallies on Sunday and Monday in an effort to break up Sanders' momentum after his recent victories in Indiana and West Virginia.
Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, was the last Democrat to carry the state in a presidential election — he won Kentucky in 1992 and 1996 — and the former first lady tried to emphasize those ties in the days leading up to the primary.
"I'm excited about the primary but we've got to turn a lot of people out," Clinton told a packed diner in Paducah, Ky., on Monday. "I'll tell you this. I'm not going to give up on Kentucky in November. I want to help to bring back the kind of economy that worked for everybody in the 1990s."
Nearing the end of a long primary slog, the two Democratic candidates are preparing for June 7 primaries in California, New Jersey and four other states and then the District of Columbia primary on June 14. When pledged delegates and superdelegates are combined, Clinton is now about 95 percent of the way toward securing the Democratic nomination. | Government Job change - Election | May 2016 | ['(ABC News America)', '(NBC News)', '(AP via Chicago Tribune)'] |
The President of Russia Vladimir Putin signs a uranium deal with the Prime Minister of Australia John Howard before meeting with the President of the United States George W. Bush. | SYDNEY, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to sign a nuclear energy deal with Australia and hold tough talks with U.S. President George W. Bush after arriving for the APEC meetings on Friday.
Putin, keen to establish Russia as an integral part of the booming Asia-Pacific region, visited Indonesia on his way to Sydney in a clear sign of his commitment to turn Moscow’s face eastwards.
He will hold talks with Australian leaders that are expected to climax in a deal to buy uranium for civilian use. His meeting with Bush, dominated by U.S. missile defence plans in Europe, will precede the weekend summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
Russia has been seen so far in the region mostly as a supplier of weapons and energy resources. On Thursday, Putin signed a US$1 billion deal to sell Indonesia Russian tanks, helicopters and submarines.
However, Russia is looking to engage in more technologically sophisticated sectors, and nuclear energy, where it has decades of experience, could become one.
Russia is interested in getting uranium for its processing plants from Australia, which holds 40 percent of the world’s reserves.
But until lately, Australia has not been able to export uranium to Russia, where processing plants shared by the defence and energy sectors were outside international control.
The problem was removed earlier this year when the government exposed the Angarsk plant in Siberia, one of Russia’s four uranium processing plants, to surveilance by the U.N. watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
A Kremlin official said a new intergovernment agreement, due to be signed during Putin’s visit, would open doors for Australian uranium exports to Russia.
Russia has promised the agreement, which needs ratification by parliaments, will be transparent to ease Australian concerns.
Australian wants to to ensure that its uranium does not end up in Iran, suspected by the West of developing its own nucear weapons, or Syria, blamed by the West for supporting terrorism. Russia has close ties with both states.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard told local radio on Thursday Russia would offer guarantees about that.
“We will be taking the Russians through the ropes in relation to any arrangement we have and we will be wanting to satisfy ourselves completely that won’t occur,” he said.
Differences over Iran have been one of a number of painful rifts that have soured relations between Moscow and Washington in the past few years.
The most recent irritant to relations has centred on U.S. missile defence plans in Europe.
Russia rejects Washington’s claims that setting up elements of its missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic are needed to avert possible missile attacks from Iran and says the plan jeopardises its national security.
Moscow has instead proposed setting up a common missile defence system with Washington and its European allies and offered to share its radars monitoring Iran and the Indian Ocean as part of this proposal.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has made clear Washington will not back down on its initial plans.
A Kremlin official said Putin would seek a clearer idea from Bush on the U.S. proposal when the two meet in Sydney on Friday.
| Sign Agreement | September 2007 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Two successive suicide bombers on foot kill at least 24 people and injure 91 others, including senior security and police officials, after striking close to the Afghan Ministry of Defence in Kabul. The Taliban claims responsibility by disclosing the death of 58 officers and commanders. Another bombing took place not long after. Today | KABUL， Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants fighting the government to regain power have claimed responsibility for twin blasts that went off near the fortified defense ministry on Monday claiming 24 lives besides injuring 91 others including security personnel and civilians.
In the deadly incidents， according to the spokesman for Public Health Ministry， Ismael Kawusi， two dozen people have lost their lives and more than 90 injured who have been taken to hospitals for medical treatment.
"Based on the latest information collected from concerned sources and hospitals， 24 people including civilians and security personnel were killed and 91 others injured in the twin blasts that hit near defense ministry today afternoon，" Kawusi told Xinhua.
However， eyewitnesses believed that the casualties might go higher than reported by officials.
Meantime， Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi in talks with media has confirmed that one police officer is also among those killed in the deadly attacks.
According to Sediqi， an explosive device went off in front of the second police district， which is next to defense ministry， causing casualties， and when security personnel rushed to the site of the blast to rescue the injured people， a suicide bomber blew himself up killing and injuring people at nearby.
The twin blasts occurred at 03:30 p.m. local time when the employees of defense ministry were coming out from the gate after their duties.
Defense Ministry is located next to the Finance Ministry， the Presidential Palace， and the Petroleum and Mines Ministry among other government buildings.
A busy road is located in front of the Defense Ministry， where hundreds of civilian vehicles and pedestrians travel to the downtown city.
This is the third terrorist attack conducted by militant groups on the same road against defense ministry over the past couple of years.
Zabihullah Majahid who claims to speak for the Taliban outfit， in contact with media claimed responsibility for the twin attacks， insisting huge casualties inflicted to the personnel of defense ministry.
President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani in a statement released by his office blamed the "enemies of Afghanistan" for organizing the deadly bombings and condemned it with strongest term. | Armed Conflict | September 2016 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)', '(Singapore)', '(Sina Corp)'] |
Parcel bombs explode at the Mexican, Russian and Swiss embassies in Greece. Similar packages were sent or addressed to the embassies of Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Germany and the Netherlands over the past two days. | Parcel bombs exploded outside two foreign embassies in Athens on Tuesday and Greek police destroyed at least three other devices as German Chancellor, Angela Merkel's office tightened security after receiving a suspicious package.
A far-Left terrorist group was suspected of being behind the attacks. The mail bombs exploded outside the Swiss and Russian embassies in Athens, while similar packages sent to the embassies of Germany, Bulgaria and Chile were blown up in controlled explosions.
In Berlin, a suspicious package was found in the mailroom of Mrs Merkel's office, and was being tested for explosives. German newspapers cited unspecified official sources as saying the package was personally addressed to Mrs Merkel and the Greek Economy Ministry was given as the return address. The wave of parcel bombs came a day after police arrested two men on suspicion of trying to post four parcel bombs to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the Mexican, Dutch and Belgian embassies.
The men, one of whom wore body armour, a wig and a baseball cap, were armed with Glock handguns and bullets in waist pouches.
One of them, aged 22, was wanted in connection with an investigation into a radical anarchist group called the Conspiracy in the Cells of Fire, which is believed to be trying to cause unrest in the wake of Greece's severe economic crisis.
It first emerged in 2008 and has since claimed responsibility for a spate of small bomb and arson attacks.
Attacks by radical left-wing and anarchist groups have increased since Dec 2008, when police fatally shot a teenager in Exarchia, an Athens neighbourhood with a history of political militancy.
Greece has been plagued by domestic terrorism for decades, much of it a legacy of the sharp post-war divide between Left and Right and the country's civil war.
"Such appalling, unacceptable acts are condemned by the entire Greek people," said Filipos Petsalnikos, the speaker of parliament.
"Democracy cannot be terrorised." The bomb attacks come ahead of this weekend's local and regional elections, seen as a referendum on the Socialist government's austerity packages, which include pension freezes, tax increases and spending cuts. | Armed Conflict | November 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Telegraph)', '(China Daily)'] |
Former Miss Belarus winner Volha Khizhynkova is released from prison after 42 days for protesting against President Alexander Lukashenko. | Former Miss Belarus Olga Khizhinkova was finally released from prison after spending 42 days behind the bars for protesting against the country's government.
She was locked up for taking part in the 'unauthorised' protests and rallies, which are being carried out across Belarus against its president Alexander Lukashenko.
In an interview to a Belarusian website, Khizhinkova said that she slept on the floor in the prison with no heating and she had to wrap herself in her clothes for warmth. She added that she had not thought about leaving the country and she wanted to live and work there.
She was quoted by tut.by, as saying, "I want to live here, I have many friends here, I had no idea how many. I don’t even think about [leaving], I love my country, I want to live and work here."
The 2008 beauty pageant winner has been open in her criticism of the country's leader. She was also sharing photos from various protests in the capital city of Minsk on her Instagram.
Khizhinkova was arrested on November 8 and sentenced to 12 days in prison. Her original sentence was extended twice after there was evidence of her being two other anti-government protests.
Belarus has been a witness to countrywide protests after the incumbent president Lukashenko won the elections on August 9. The opposition says that the elections were rigged, in which Lukashenko won 80.1 per cent of votes. The leading opposition candidate, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, won only 10.12 per cent of the votes.
The protestors have since been demonstrating against the alleged rigging in elections and demanding that the president resigns from his post.
The Belarusian opposition’s coordination council has called for further protests to continue with the agitation. The country's authorities, on the other hand, demanded that these unauthorized demonstrations be stopped. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | December 2020 | ['(Zee News)'] |
In motorsport, American driver Kevin Harvick wins the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series by winning the final race of the season at Homestead–Miami Speedway. Ryan Newman finishes second by 1 point, the second–closest margin in history. | HOMESTEAD, Fla. - NASCAR promised drama in its newest incarnation of the Chase, and Sunday's season-ending EcoBoost 400 delivered exactly that, beyond any of the sport's wildest dreams.
Kevin Harvick held off a powerful charge from his three challengers, Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano, winning the season finale to claim the 2014 Sprint Cup championship in definitive fashion.
"I really don't know what to say," Harvick said after getting out of his car, celebrating with his team. "It's really special for everybody."
NASCAR created the new Chase in advance of the 2014 season with the express intent of creating a so-called “Game 7 moment” – everything on the line, win-or-go-home, Hail Mary, you get the idea. The new Chase is thus a Frankenstein’s monster built from the parts of other championships: the NCAA’s college hoops bracket, the World Series’ Game 7 dramatics, the Super Bowl’s grand pomposity.
The new Chase would feature 16 drivers. The field would winnow down over the course of 10 races, with four drivers being eliminated every three races. The season would conclude with a four-driver winner-take-all race in Homestead.
Fans complained of gimmickry and confusion, saying that the new Chase cheapened a championship, complaints that – since we’re fundamentally talking about a game here – smacked of Batman fans complaining about the latest movie version.
Here’s the thing, though: it worked to perfection. NASCAR created a route to a championship that was like a rickety bridge over a chasm: faster, more direct, but far riskier. And people fought like hell to get across that bridge before it snapped.
[Related: Final 2014 Sprint Cup standings]
In the end, it will crown a champion who deserved to win. Harvick led more laps than anyone this season – by a long shot – and won five races, second only to Brad Keselowski's six.
The Chase began with 16 drivers, 13 of whom had won a race. The final three -- Newman, Matt Kenseth, and Greg Biffle – got in because they had totaled the highest points through the season without winning a race. The first three races of the Chase ran as expected, with Biffle, Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch and AJ Allmendinger getting the axe.
It was in the second elimination that the story ratcheted up another level.
A three-race advance-or-fall segment isn’t enough time to allow for any poor finishes, and that led to tempers exploding. In Charlotte, Keselowski felt Kenseth had wronged him late in the race. Keselowski drove his car into Kenseth’s just after the race; Hamlin and non-Chaser Tony Stewart responded by thumping Keselowski’s No. 2 with their own cars; and Kenseth finished the deal with a dive-off-the-top-rope headlock of Keselowski between haulers. The crews fought, NASCAR made national morning-show headlines, and everyone except Keselowski proclaimed their satisfaction with how the Chase was proceeding.
Keselowski came into Talladega, the final race of the second round, needing a victory to advance. Amazingly, he got it. However, this was where the curtain fell for several of NASCAR’s biggest names: Jimmie Johnson; Dale Earnhardt Jr.; Kasey Kahne; and Kyle Busch, the victim of the Chase’s worst luck when a wreck between non-Chasers knocked him out.
And then there were eight, and NASCAR’s Chase achieved full liftoff. At Texas, Keselowski went for a late-race pass on Gordon, who bumped Keselowski's No. 2 and slid into the wall, finishing in what would turn out to be a Chase-killing 29th place. Gordon and Keselowski jawed a bit after the race, their crews amped, and then Harvick threw a Molotov cocktail on the pool of gasoline, shoving Keselowski and setting off a 50-person fight in the pits.
Once again, NASCAR made national headlines, though the question of whether these were the kinds of headlines NASCAR needed grew louder.
In the final race of the third round, Harvick needed a victory and got it, crowding out Keselowski, Kenseth, and Carl Edwards. Hamlin and Logano advanced on points. That left Jeff Gordon racing Newman for the final spot, and here’s how close it was: Gordon crossed the finish line eligible for the championship, but well behind him, in the final turn of the final lap, Newman bumped Kyle Larson aside to gain one spot – just enough to bump Gordon out.
Dramatic? Hell yes. Legitimate? Well … there’s the rub.
Your championship four thus consisted of Harvick and Logano, two of the most dominant drivers of the entire season; Hamlin, who had won one race back in May; and Newman, who had zero wins and only four top-five finishes.
The conventional wisdom held, then, that this was a match between Harvick and Logano, with Hamlin and Newman being lucky to get invites to the party. Harvick held the edge in both momentum and attitude, although Logano had boasted the stronger overall year.
For much of the race, conventional wisdom indeed held true. Harvick led the majority of the laps measured against his three championship rivals, followed by Logano and Hamlin. Newman, as expected, trailed the three, though not by nearly as much as expected. Indeed, Gordon seemed to be the only driver who could regularly run with the Chasers, who front-loaded the very top of the field.
More than 10 cautions packed and re-packed the field, but it was a crucial caution with less than 20 laps remaining that changed the entire complexion of the race. In for tires, Logano's car fell off the jack, sending him from the top 5 all the way back to 29th and effectively ending his championship hopes. Hamlin and crew chief Darian Grubb made a gutsy call to stay out on old tires.
Another caution led to a restart with nine laps remaining, and that restart saw Hamlin and Newman starting side by side on the front row, with Harvick right behind. Hamlin got the stronger start, and Harvick worked his way up to second place behind Hamlin. Harvick worked his way around Hamlin when yet another caution hit, leaving the championship cars to restart 1-2-3, Harvick-Newman-Hamlin, with just four laps remaining.
On the final restart, Hamlin had trouble, dropping off the championship pace. And on the final lap, Newman couldn't quite catch Harvick, who won his first Sprint Cup championship.
____ Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.
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Golfers have feud which culminated at US PGA ChampionshipDeChambeau says he was trying to have fun with stunt Bryson DeChambeau finished Thursday’s round two-over par. Photograph: Jacob Kupferman/AP Bryson DeChambeau popped up during a Brooks Koepka interview once again on Thursday, although this time his appearance did not prompt an x-rated response. The two golfers have been involved in a running feud which has either tarnished or boosted the sport, depending on your point of view. The matter
Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman, stars of Saturday Night Live when the show was in its infancy, appeared on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen Thursday, where they spoke about the fight between Bill Murray and Chevy Chase in 1978. After leaving the show, Chase had returned to host. Murray and Chase exchanged some deeply hurtful words following dress rehearsal, which soon resulted in a physical altercation just minutes before Chase took the stage to deliver the monologue. “I think Jane and I, and Gilda both witnessed it,” Newman said. “But, ya know, it was very sad and painful and awful.” “It was that sad kind of tension that you would get in a family,” Curtin added, “and everybody goes to their corners because they don't want to have to deal with the tension, and it was uncomfortable. You could understand, you know, there were these two bull mooses (sic) going at each other, so the testosterone was surging and stuff happens.”
Bryson DeChambeau walked behind another Brooks Koepka television interview ... only this time he jumped into the shot Thursday at Torrey Pines.
After Suns completed the sweep, Phoenix star Devin Booker tweeted a screenshot of the viral video.
This is a play you don't see everyday.
From Slovenia, Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Doncic addressed the departure of team president Donnie Nelson.
The Sixers' second star is at the center of fans' frustrations following Game 5, and they're ready to ship him out - but for whom? By Adam Hermann
La La Anthony and Carmelo Anthony were married in 2010.
Two former Georgia football players are projected to sign with the same NFL team.
Katie Ledecky is used to slaying her competition, winning not by hundredths but by full seconds. Taking notice was Ariarne Titmus. Titmus fired the first shot, clocking a winning time of 3 minutes, 56.90 seconds at the Australian trials.
The USA TODAY Network picks the winner of every first-round game and which team will win college baseball's national championship in Omaha, Nebraska.
After Haralabos Voulgaris reportedly gained power within the Mavericks front office and bothered Luka Doncic…
Henley admitted surprising even himself. The last time he played the South Course, at the Farmers Insurance Open in 2014, he was 8 over through the first 15 holes and missed the cut by six shots. Brooks Koepka was not among them.
The Bucks fought off an exhausted and short-handed Nets team, but can they do it again and become the first road team to win a game this series?
The NFL has suspended free agent tight end Chase Harrell for the entire 2021 regular season, Field Yates of ESPN reports. The 49ers waived Harrell in April, and he has remained a free agent since. The league initially suspended Harrell in October. He missed six games for violating the policy on performance enhancing substances. Harrell [more]
OnlyFans model Karley Stokes said that after she posted her poolside photo, a security guard arrived to escort her group out of the Florida property.
Yanks turn a triple play, Stanton helps fuel the win
NASCAR is making its long-awaited return to Nashville. Check out the weekend schedule for Cup, Xfinity and Trucks at Nashville Superspeedway.
TNT's Charles Barkley roasts the Philadelphia 76ers after their loss to the Atlanta Hawks at home. | Sports Competition | November 2014 | ['(Yahoo! Sports)'] |
Sri Lanka orders media outlets to get prior approval before sending mobile phone alerts about the military or police. | COLOMBO (REUTERS) - Sri Lanka's Defence Ministry on Monday ordered news outlets to get prior approval before sending mobile phone alerts about the military or police, a move press freedom groups decried as another step towards greater censorship. In a letter hand-delivered to news outlets including Reuters, Media Center for National Security (MCNS) Director-General Lakshman Hulugalle said the new order was effective immediately. 'I have been instructed to inform you that any news related to national security, security forces, and the police should get prior approval from the MCNS before dissemination,' Mr Hulugalle said in the letter, dated last Friday. That was the same day local news outlets reported a murder-suicide that left three soldiers dead of gunshot wounds. It also came after reports of a police officer's arrest for soliciting a large bribe, and a botched abduction attempt blamed on soldiers. Sri Lanka to censor news alerts about military, police | Government Policy Changes | March 2012 | ['(Straits Times)'] |
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