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Morocco's conservative Istiqlal Party, a member of the kingdom's ruling coalition, wins most seats in parliamentary elections, according to provisional results released by the government | RABAT, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Morocco's conservative Istiqlal party, a member of the kingdom's ruling coalition, won most seats in parliamentary elections, according to provisional results released by the government.
Istiqlal (Independence) won 52 seats including those assigned to a national women's list, ahead of the Islamist Justice and Development party (PJD) with 47 seats, Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa told reporters.
The liberal conservative Popular Movement (MP) and the National Rally of Independents (RNI) won 43 and 38 seats respectively, while the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP), Istiqlal's main coalition partner, won 36.
The parliamentary polls were the second of King Mohammed's nine-year reign and saw 33 parties vie with dozens of independents for seats in the 325-member lower house.
A complex voting system made it almost impossible for any group to win an outright majority, and whatever the outcome, real power will remain with the king, who is executive head of state, military chief and religious leader.
The provisional figures showed a record-low turnout of 37 percent, an apparent snub to a political system whose leaders are widely seen as aloof and out of touch. | Government Job change - Election | September 2007 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, the Governor of Nigeria's Kaduna state dies in a helicopter crash in Bayelsa state, together with former national security adviser General Owoye Andrew Azazi and other senior officials. | The governor of Nigeria's Kaduna state has been killed in a helicopter crash in the southern delta region along with other senior officials, his party says.
Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa and former national security adviser Gen Owoye Azazi were on the helicopter which came down in Bayelsa state. Nigerian media said the helicopter belonged to the Nigerian navy and had been taking officials to Port Harcourt.
Nigeria has a poor air safety record, analysts say.
In March a police helicopter carrying a high-ranking police official crashed in the central city of Jos, killing four people. "The nation has lost a great patriot who in about two years in saddle as the Governor of Kaduna State demonstrated an unyielding capacity in wielding together varying fragile interests," the Peoples Democratic Party said in a statement. Kaduna, in northern Nigeria, is a volatile region with a mixed population of Muslims and Christians. The Islamist militants of Boko Haram have frequently targeted Kaduna churches. | Air crash | December 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Israel Antiquities Authority finds fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Cave of Horror, believed to be hidden during a Jewish revolt against Rome 1,900 years ago. In addition, a 10,500–year–old weaving basket made of woven flowers is also found. | Israeli archaeologists have announced the discovery of dozens of new Dead Sea Scroll fragments bearing a biblical text found in a desert cave.
It is believed they were hidden during a Jewish revolt against Rome nearly 1,900 years ago.
The fragments of parchment bear lines of Greek text from the books of Zechariah and Nahum and have been radiocarbon dated to the 2nd century AD, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority.
They are the first new scrolls found in archaeological excavations in the desert south of Jerusalem in 60 years.
The new pieces are believed to belong to a set of parchment fragments found in a site known as "The Cave of Horror" — named for the 40 human skeletons found there during excavations in the 1960s — that also bear a Greek rendition of the Twelve Minor Prophets.
The cave is located in a remote canyon in the Judean Desert south of Jerusalem.
The fragments are believed to have been stashed away in the cave during the Bar Kochba Revolt, an armed Jewish uprising against Rome during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, between 132 and 136 AD.
AP Photo: Sebastian Scheine
The artefacts were found during an operation by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the Judean Desert to find scrolls and other artifacts to prevent possible plundering.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of Jewish texts found in desert caves in the West Bank near Qumran in the 1940s and 1950s, date from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD.
They include the earliest known copies of biblical texts and documents outlining the beliefs of a little-understood Jewish sect.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that a 10,500-year-old basket made of woven reeds was also discovered.
AP/ABC
.
| New archeological discoveries | March 2021 | ['(Haaretz)', '(ABC Australia)'] |
The first inter–Korean military talks between North and South Korea in two years end without progress. (Hürriyet) | The first inter-Korean military talks for two years ended without progress Thursday as Seoul demanded an apology from Pyongyang for the deadly sinking of a warship, the defense ministry said.
The talks at the border truce village of Panmunjom were seen as an opportunity to ease months of tensions, but broke down after about two hours over the fate of the Cheonan corvette.
South Korean officers "strongly urged North Korea to admit to, apologize for and punish those responsible for the attack on the Cheonan warship", the ministry said in a statement. It also demanded the North "immediately stop its military threats and aggressive behavior at sea borders."
The North refused to accept the findings of a multinational investigation which blamed the March sinking and the death of 46 sailors on a North Korean torpedo. The two sides failed to set a date for the next round of talks, a ministry official told Yonhap news agency.
After months of high tension over the ship incident, the North has lately made apparent conciliatory gestures to South Korea and the United States.
North Korea on Thursday published a photograph of the youngest son and heir apparent to the isolated state's ailing leader Kim Jong-Il, the first official image of him ever released.
The photo of Kim Jong-Un was taken after the ruling party's highest-level meeting for 30 years, which bestowed powerful posts on him in a clear sign he was being groomed for the next dynastic succession in the isolated state.
Official media carried a photo of leading ruling party officials. Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun listed the son Jong-Un as one of the people in the group. It did not say where he is seated. South Korean experts and a government offficial identified a chubby young man sitting next but one to the leader as Jong-Un. "We believe he is Kim Jong-Un," said unification ministry spokewoman Lee Jong-Joo of the man dressed in a dark Mao-type suit.
"The publication of his picture is tantamount to a declaration that Jong-Un is the heir apparent," Professor Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies said. "This is also a signal that the junior Kim is launching official activities." | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | September 2010 | ['(Yonhap)', '(Xinhua)'] |
Police and protesters clash in Harare after a court ruled that protests against Robert Mugabe can continue. | Zimbabwe police used batons, tear gas and water cannons to crush an anti-government protest in the capital Friday, despite a court order that the demonstration should be permitted.
At least 50 people were injured by the police, said former vice president Joice Mujuru, now the head of the People First party and a participant in the demonstration.
"The people's anger is very deep. Zimbabweans are beginning to say enough is enough," said another opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai at a press conference after the demonstration was dispersed.
Another anti-government demonstration will be held next Friday, said the coalition of at least 18 opposition parties and civic organizations that organized Friday's protest.
Friday's protest, dubbed the "mega demonstration," was the first time that Zimbabwe's fractured opposition joined in a single action to confront President Robert Mugabe's government since 2007.
Water cannons, frequently used to break up anti-government protests in the past two months, were sprayed against demonstrators.
Usually bustling with hawkers, the capital's streets Friday were bristling with police wielding batons and tear gas canisters. Police were at the headquarters of the main opposition MDC-T party. Other police mounted roadblocks on roads leading into the city.
Many Harare shops closed early while others were looted. At the crowded Copacabana market, stalls were burned as protesters clashed with a group that was chanting pro-government slogans.
Tear gas blew into the annual agricultural fair, forcing officials to temporarily close the gates. Some protesters removed the road sign for Robert Mugabe Way and placed it next to a dead puppy.
Others burned tires on the streets and threw stones and rocks at the police.
"That old man should not be allowed to take the country to the grave with him," shouted one of the protesters in the local Shona language.
Home affairs minister Ignatius Chombo on Thursday accused Western countries of plotting the protests. Protests have become a near-daily occurrence in this southern African country ravaged by a tumbling economy and widespread food shortages.
Supporters of 92-year-old Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from white minority rule in 1980, say he should rule until he dies. | Riot | August 2016 | ['(ABC News)'] |
Patricia Dunn announces her resignation as Hewlett–Packard's chairman and board member, following a pretexting scandal. Mark Hurd has replaced Dunn as chairman of the company, effective immediately. | PALO ALTO, Calif. -- In an admission remarkable in the annals of U.S business, Hewlett-Packard Co. Chief Executive Mark Hurd described how the respected Silicon Valley titan employed a series of tawdry tactics in its effort to trace leaks from its board.
Making his first extensive public remarks since the H-P leak scandal broke more than two weeks ago, Mr. Hurd on Friday also said Chairman Patricia Dunn, who had launched and overseen the probe, had resigned and left the board. Mr. Hurd, who had planned to inherit her title in January, assumed the title. A person familiar with the matter said two other employees closely associated with the probe are leaving the company.
But Mr. Hurd, who took no questions during brief remarks to journalists at H-P's suburban-office-park headquarters, also left many issues unaddressed. While acknowledging that investigators used "disturbing" tactics, he failed to explain how the company had let the probe veer so far off track.
He offered apologies to H-P board members, journalists and others for violating their privacy, but confirmed only a few details about the tactics employed and when he knew them. The investigation to plug the leaks used a range of extraordinary tactics, including obtaining private phone records using false pretenses and tailing both a director and a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Another reporter, for CNET News.com, was sent a doctored email by H-P investigators that could provide the sender information about where it was sent. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | September 2006 | ['(WSJ)'] |
Former nurse Victorino Chua has been found guilty of murder and poisoning patients at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester, U.K., and sentenced to 35 years in jail. | Nurse Victorino Chua, found guilty of murdering and poisoning patients at Stepping Hill Hospital, has been jailed for a minimum of 35 years.
Chua killed Tracey Arden, 44, and Derek Weaver, 83, at the hospital in Stockport by injecting insulin into saline bags and ampoules.
The father-of-two was convicted on Monday following a three-month trial.
Judge Mr Justice Openshaw described Chua as an "experienced nurse who used cunning" to poison patients.
He was found guilty of tampering with saline bags and ampoules while working on two acute wards at the hospital in Greater Manchester, in June and July 2011.
These were unwittingly used by other nurses, causing a series of insulin overdoses to mainly elderly victims.
Detectives described Chua as a narcissistic psychopath.
His victims' families were at Manchester Crown Court as Chua was told he would serve at least 35 years in prison before being considered for parole.
Speaking outside court after the verdict, Mr Weaver's sister, Lynda Bleasdale, said: "My sister had a heart attack the day before Derek died. Seeing all the stress of it was obviously a contributory factor to that."
She said Chua "obviously enjoyed watching people suffer".
Gary Arden, whose sister Tracey was murdered by Chua, said he felt "surprisingly nothing" for his sister's killer.
He added: "He's been sentenced and the important thing is he's not able to do this to anybody else."
Judge Openshaw said it was "strikingly sinister and truly wicked" that Chua did not personally administer the insulin to most of the patients, so it was left to chance which of them were poisoned.
He said Chua poisoned Jack Beeley, 72, to "shut up a patient who he found particularly troublesome".
Grant Misell, 41, was left brain damaged after being poisoned, as the insulin overdose starved his brain of oxygen.
Chua was found not guilty of the murder of 71-year-old Arnold Lancaster but convicted of poisoning him in an act the judge described as "indescribably wicked".
In all, Chua was convicted of two murders, 22 counts of attempted grievous bodily harm, one count of grievous bodily harm, seven attempts of administering poison and one count of administering poison.
He received 25 life sentences in total and showed no emotion as he was taken down to the cells. Judge Openshaw said he would be 84 years old before he was eligible for parole.
Among the evidence produced by the prosecution was a self-penned letter found at Chua's home, in Stockport, after his arrest in January 2012 for changing prescription charts so patients would get dangerously incorrect amounts of drugs.
In the letter, described as "the bitter nurse confession" by Chua, he said he was "an angel turned into an evil person" and "there's a devil in me". He also wrote of having things he would "take to the grave".
Det Supt Simon Barraclough, who led the investigation for Greater Manchester Police, said Chua failed to show "any form of remorse" throughout the investigation and trial.
Even when being sentenced "there was not a flicker of emotion on his face, apart from what appeared to be just a general contempt for all the proceedings", he added.
Investigations by police found inconsistencies in Chua's medical qualifications, which they raised with the Department of Health and the Home Office, as well as contacting the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
Concerns were also raised by a BBC investigation which revealed that fake nursing degrees were being sold in the Philippines for £20.
Nazir Afzal, who was responsible for prosecuting Chua, said the Stepping Hill case raised the "extremely worrying" prospect that many untrained foreign workers could be working in UK hospitals.
However, the NMC said a review of nurses who trained outside the European economic area - including 11,500 Filipino records - found just four with fraudulent qualifications in the last 10 years.
Chief executive Jackie Smith, said: "We checked every single record - I think that was a proportionate response to this one-off but very tragic and very serious event."
She said not all the records of other overseas countries had been checked, adding: "We took advice on what would be a sample of a review across the register that would give us confidence.
"There is no such thing as a fool-proof system - we are not a fraud agency - but do we have a system in place that doesn't just rely on documentation."
In a statement, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust said: "Our thoughts have been with the victims and their families throughout this time. "We know they have suffered great distress but hope this sentence helps provide some closure for them in terms of seeing that justice has been served."
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
The United Nations states more than four million people are now affected by the most severe flooding in Pakistan's history, while the death toll rises to at least 1,600. | The worst flooding in Pakistan's history has now affected more than four million people and left at least 1,600 dead, says the UN.
While floods in the north-west began to recede, the vast body of water has been moving down the country into new parts of Punjab and menacing Sindh province.
All wells have been contaminated and water-borne diseases are spreading, officials say. The region is midway through monsoon season and more rain is forecast.
The number of affected districts in Punjab has reached seven, while 350,000 people have been moved from neighbouring Sindh province, most of which is on high alert, the United Nations said.
Manuel Bessler, who heads the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Pakistan, told a news conference in Geneva: "What we are facing now is a major catastrophe."
He added: "We are only in the middle of the monsoon season, there is more rain expected. We are afraid it will get worse."
With crops, homes, roads and bridges washed away, the human exodus continued on Thursday as yet more torrential rain fell. Fleeing villagers have waded barefoot through water up to their necks and chests, carrying belongings on their heads.
In Punjab, known as Pakistan's "breadbasket" for its rich agriculture, more than 1,300 villages have been affected and at least 25,000 homes destroyed, said disaster relief officials in the province. In the worst-affected areas, small villages have been submerged. In large tracts of Kot Addu and nearby Layyah, water levels were so high only treetops were visible.
In Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, at least 20 people died when a bus plunged into a rain-swollen river.
At a refugee camp in Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North West Frontier) province, Tahir Shah, a doctor, said most patients coming to him were suffering from stomach problems, chest infections and skin problems, caused mainly by dirty flood water.
Meanwhile, forecasters warned of further downpours for the north-west; the region has not seen such flooding since 1929.
"The flood water is increasing at different points and we are expecting more rain in the next 24 hours," Hazrat Mir, chief meteorologist for Punjab, told news agency AFP.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has sent a special envoy, Jean-Maurice Ripert, to Pakistan to help mobilise international support and aid flood victims. The army has used boats and helicopters to evacuate stranded villagers to higher ground.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said about 100,000 people have been rescued.
But government and civilian agencies have been struggling to get supplies to the worst affected areas.
Victims have bitterly accused the authorities of failing to come to their rescue and provide sufficient relief. Particular scorn has been poured on President Asif Ali Zardari because he pressed ahead with a visit to Europe.
Mr Zardari is due to launch his son's political career on Saturday in the British city of Birmingham.
The disaster has piled yet more pressure on an administration struggling to contain Taliban violence and an economic crisis.
Meanwhile, local Islamic charities with unconfirmed links to militant groups have reportedly been stepping into the breach to help flood victims.
Rain brings Pakistan more misery
In pictures: Floods in Pakistan
BBC Urdu
UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs | Floods | August 2010 | ['(Aljazeera)', '(BBC)'] |
At least 30 people are killed after a gold mine collapses in north–eastern Afghanistan. | At least 30 people have been killed in the collapse of a gold mine in north-eastern Afghanistan, officials say.
The collapse occurred in the Kohistan district of Badakhshan province.
Villagers had reportedly dug a 60m (220ft) deep but makeshift shaft in a river bed to hunt for gold and were caught in its collapse.
Afghanistan has vast resources of minerals but many of the mines are old and poorly maintained, creating severe safety issues.
Villagers were reportedly using an excavator at the site when the mine collapsed.
At least seven other people were injured, officials say.
Kohistan district chief Rostam Raghi told the BBC's Afghan service: "Locals rushed to the scene and managed to rescue only 13 workers. Dozens of others, including some children, died."
Nik Mohammad Nazari, spokesman for the provincial governor, told Agence France-Presse: "The villagers have been involved in this business for decades with no government control over them.
"We have sent a rescue team to the area, but villagers have already started removing bodies from the site."
A spokesman for the National Disaster Management Authority told AFP the families of the dead would receive 50,000 afghanis ($660; £520).
Afghanistan's vast resources remain largely untapped due to the conflict with the Taliban.
The conflict has seen the rise in illegal mining both by villagers and Taliban fighters who use it as a key source of revenue.
Inside a crumbling Afghan coal mine
| Mine Collapses | January 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
2013 Southern California shootings: Christopher Dorner kills a sheriff's deputy and injures another in the Big Bear Lake, California, United States. He then barricades himself in a cabin, which catches on fire during a police assault. The suspect was killed in the fire. | BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. (AP) — An official briefed on the investigation tells The Associated Press that a wallet with a California driver’s license with the name Christopher Dorner has been found in the rubble of a cabin.
A charred body was also found inside after a shootout and fire.
Authorities believe the remains are those of the former Los Angeles police officer, but they have not been formally identified.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation and says the charred body and personal items were found in the basement of the burned cabin. The area is in the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles.
Two sheriff’s deputies were also shot, one fatally. Dorner is also suspected of earlier killing a young couple and a police officer, and wounding two other officers.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
As police scoured mountain peaks for days, using everything from bloodhounds to high-tech helicopters, the revenge-seeking ex-cop they wanted was hiding among them, holed up in a vacation cabin across the street from their command post.
It was there that Christopher Dorner apparently took refuge last Thursday, four days after beginning a deadly rampage that would claim four lives.
The search ended Tuesday when a man believed to be Dorner bolted from hiding, stole two cars, barricaded himself in a vacant cabin and mounted a last stand in a furious shootout in which he killed one sheriff’s deputy and wounded another before the building erupted in flames.
He never emerged from the ruins and hours later a charred body was found inside.
“We have reason to believe that it is him,” San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokeswoman Cynthia Bachman said.
Dorner, 33, had said in a lengthy rant police believe he posted on Facebook that he expected to die in one final, violent confrontation with police, and if it was him in the cabin that’s just what happened.
The apparent end came very close to where his trail went cold six days earlier when his burning pickup truck - with guns and camping gear inside - was abandoned with a broken axle on a fire road in the San Bernardino National Forest near the ski resort town of Big Bear Lake.
His footprints led away from the truck and vanished on frozen soil.
With no sign of him and few leads, police offered a $1 million reward to bring him to justice and end a “reign of terror” that had more than 50 families of targeted Los Angeles police officers under round-the-clock protection after he threatened to bring “warfare” to the LAPD, officers and their kin.
Just a few hours after police announced Tuesday that they had fielded more than 1,000 tips with no sign of Dorner, word came that a man matching his description had tied up two people in a Big Bear Lake cabin, stole their car and fled. Authorities didn’t immediately give more details on the two people.
Game wardens from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife who were part of the search detail spotted the purple Nissan that had been reported stolen going in the opposite direction and gave chase, department spokesman Lt. Patrick Foy said. The driver looked like Dorner.
They lost the purple car after it passed a school bus and turned onto a side road, but two other Fish and Wildlife patrols turned up that road a short time later, and were searching for the car when a white pickup truck sped erratically toward the wardens.
“He took a close look at the driver and realized it was the suspect,” Foy said.
Dorner, who allegedly stole the pickup truck at gunpoint after crashing the first car, rolled down a window and opened fire on the wardens, striking a warden’s truck more than a dozen times.
One of the wardens shot at the suspect as he rounded a curve in the road. It’s unclear if he hit him, but the stolen pickup careened off the road and crashed in a snow bank. Dorner then ran to the cabin where he barricaded himself and got in a shootout with San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies and other officers who arrived.
Two deputies were shot, one fatally.
A SWAT team surrounded the cabin and used an armored vehicle to break out the cabin windows, said a law enforcement official who requested anonymity because the investigation was ongoing. The officers then lobbed tear gas canisters into the cabin and blasted a message over a loudspeaker: “Surrender or come out.”
The armored vehicle then tore down each of the cabin’s four walls.
A single shot was heard inside before the cabin was engulfed in flames, the law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
Until Tuesday, authorities weren’t sure Dorner was still in Big Bear Lake, where his pickup was found within walking distance from the cabin where he hid.
Even door-to-door searches failed to turn up any trace of him in the quiet, bucolic neighborhood where children were playing in the snow Tuesday night.
With many searchers leaving town amid speculation he was long gone, the command center across the street was taken down Monday.
Ron Erickson, whose house is only about quarter mile away, said officers interrogated him to make sure he wasn’t being held hostage. Erickson himself had been keeping a nervous watch on his neighborhood, but he never saw the hulking Dorner.
“I looked at all the cabins that backed the national forest and I just didn’t think to look at the one across from the command post,” he said. “It didn’t cross my mind. It just didn’t.”
Police said Dorner began his run on Feb. 6 after they connected the slayings of a former police captain’s daughter and her fiance with his angry manifesto.
Dorner blamed LAPD Capt. Randal Quan for providing poor representation before the police disciplinary board that fired him for filing a false report.
Dorner, who is black, claimed in his online rant that he was the subject of racism by the department and was targeted for doing the right thing.
Chief Charlie Beck, who initially dismissed Dorner’s allegations, said he would reopen the investigation into his firing - not to appease the ex-officer, but to restore confidence in the black community, which had a long fractured relationship with police that has improved in recent years.
Dorner vowed to get even with those who had wronged him as part of his plan to reclaim his good name.
“You’re going to see what a whistleblower can do when you take everything from him especially his NAME!!!” the rant said. “You have awoken a sleeping giant.”
Within hours of being named as a suspect in the killings, the 6-foot, 270-pounder described as armed and “extremely dangerous,” tried unsuccessfully to steal a boat in San Diego to flee to Mexico. After leaving a trail of evidence, he headed north where he opened fire on two patrol cars in Riverside County, shooting three officers and killing one.
With a description of his car broadcast all over the Southwest and Mexico, he managed to get to the mountains 80 miles east of Los Angeles where his burning truck was found.
Only a short distance from the truck, he spent his final days with a front-row seat to the search mobilized right outside. | Famous Person - Death | February 2013 | ['(AP via Huffington Post)', '(CNN)'] |
Welsh Labour Party leader Carwyn Jones confirms that Labour will form a one–party government after winning 30 of the 60 Welsh Assembly seats in last week's election, but also states that it will continue to talk to other parties. | Welsh Labour will go it alone to form a government in the assembly, party leader Carwyn Jones has confirmed.
He reached out to other parties, saying he wanted to work with them on the assembly government's budget and legislation.
Labour fell one seat short of the outright majority it wanted at last week's assembly election.
Mr Jones said Labour had clearly won with 30 of the 60 seats, but would act without "political tribalism".
Labour was in coalition with Plaid Cymru for the four years of the previous assembly, and has been talking to other parties this week and over the weekend. Flanked by his Labour AMs, Mr Jones read a statement to the media in the Senedd following a meeting of the party's assembly group.
He said: "As a result of these discussions I will seek to form a government later this week consisting solely of Labour ministers.
"However in doing this I want to make something absolutely clear. We will do this without any triumphalism and with no trace of any political tribalism."
He said Labour would not pretend it held all the answers. The recent election showed all four main political parties produced manifestos "that were full of new ideas and fresh perspectives".
Mr Jones said the cross-party Yes campaign for the referendum on the assembly's law-making powers in March showed opponents could work together.
Discussions with other parties about what role they will take will continue over coming weeks and months, but Mr Jones said that the opposition parties needed time to consider what the electorate had said to them.
"It was patently clear that the will of the people of Wales was that the next Welsh government should be Labour-led," he said of last week's election result, when Labour increased its tally of seats by four.
The first plenary session of the whole assembly will take place on Wednesday afternoon when AMs will be asked to choose a presiding officer and first minister.
Plaid AM Lord Elis-Thomas has done the job since the assembly was established in 1999, but it is understood Labour will nominate Newport West AM Rosemary Butler for the role. The Conservatives, the second biggest party, want the post filled by one of their members.
The Tories' interim leader in the assembly, Paul Davies, said: "It is now absolutely essential that Labour follows its own advice and focuses on 'delivery' for the people of Wales.
"Under Labour, we have had nothing but missed targets and empty promises. "That poor legacy has got to end and as the official opposition in the national assembly Welsh Conservatives will make sure our country is put first."
Plaid leader Ieuan Wyn Jones - who served as deputy first minister in the previous coalition government - said that as the largest party, Labour had a "moral obligation" to form an administration.
"We have made it clear that should Labour talk to us, then we are prepared to listen," he said.
"In the short term Plaid Cymru will play its part in ensuring that the Welsh people have an honest opposition.
"We will hold the government to account and the electorate can be sure that we will always seek to ensure the best deal for the people of Wales."
Welsh Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams said: "The stability in government that Carwyn Jones seeks will only be possible if parties work together, put aside their differences and seek to find consensus, and that means give and take from all parties.
"The priority of the Welsh Liberal Democrats now will be to work to advance the policies that we have fought this election on.
"It is clear that Wales is suffering from a weak economy and serious failings in our schools and NHS. Where Labour proposes serious answers to these problems, they will have our support."
| Government Job change - Election | May 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Police arrest two men in Cheshire in connection with the bombings. | LONDON (Reuters) - British police said on Sunday they had arrested two people in northern England in connection with an attempted car bombing in London and an incident at Glasgow airport when a car was rammed into the airport building.
"Police have this evening arrested two people in connection with events in London and Scotland on the 29th and 30th of June," London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
The arrests were made in the county of Cheshire by counter-terrorism officers, the statement said. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | June 2007 | ['(Reuters via Canada.com)'] |
A powerful tornado hits Jefferson City, Missouri, leaving people trapped or injured and structural damage according to city and state officials. At least three people are killed in southwestern Missouri when a storm system sweeps across the state causing extensive damage. | Updated on: May 23, 2019 / 7:01 PM
A tornado tore apart buildings in Missouri's capital city as part of an overnight outbreak of severe weather across the state that left at least three people dead and dozens injured. The National Weather Service confirmed that the large and "violent" twister moved over Jefferson City shortly before midnight Wednesday.
"Across the state, Missouri's first responders once again responded quickly and with strong coordination as much of the state dealt with extremely dangerous conditions that left people injured, trapped in homes, and tragically led to the death of three people," Gov. Mike Parson said.
The tornado cut a path about 3 miles long and a mile wide from the south end of Jefferson City north toward the Missouri River, said police Lt. David Williams. Emergency workers reported about two dozen injuries, Williams said, and dozens of people were in shelters. Hospitals reported treating injuries such as cuts and bruises.
There were no immediate reports of any deaths or missing people in the capital city of about 40,000, but door-to-door checks were being done Thursday.
Weather forecasters had been tracking the storm before it arrived in the capital city, and sirens first sounded in Jefferson City at 11:10 p.m. — about 30 minutes before the first property damage. Parson credited the warning system in central Missouri for saving lives.
The Jefferson City tornado hit during a week that has seen several days of tornadoes and torrential rains in parts of the Southern Plains and Midwest. CBS News confirmed four deaths related to those earlier storms.
CBS Jefferson City affiliate KRCG-TV obtained images of the large funnel.
The three deaths happened more than 150 miles away near Golden City in Missouri's southwestern corner.
Kenneth Harris, 86, and his 83-year-old wife, Opal, were found dead about 200 yards from their home, and Betty Berg, 56, was killed and her husband, Mark, seriously injured when their mobile home was destroyed, authorities said.
The severe weather moved in from Oklahoma, where rescuers struggled to pull people from high water. This week has seen several days of twisters and torrential rains in the Southern Plains and Midwest.
Kerry Ann Demetrius locked herself in the bathroom of her Jefferson City apartment as the storm approached.
"It sounded like stuff was being thrown around, everything was just banging together, and then it just went dead silent," she said. She emerged to find the roof had been blown off her apartment building.
Jefferson City school district offices were closed because many of its buildings were without power and sustained damage overnight. The state high school track championships scheduled this weekend in the city were moved to different sites in central Missouri, after the Missouri State High School Activities Association issued a release that warned, "Do not travel to Jefferson City."
Another natural disaster could be imminent in Jefferson City. Most of the city, including the tornado-ravaged section, sits on a bluff overlooking the south side of the Missouri River. But the swollen river is projected to top a levee on the north side of the river by Friday, potentially flooding the city's airport, which already has been evacuated.
The weather service had received 22 reports of tornadoes by late Wednesday, though some may have been duplicate sightings of the same twister. A tornado also skipped through the town of Eldon, population 4,900, about 30 miles outside Jefferson City, where it damaged the business district and "tore up several neighborhoods," Miller County Emergency Management Director Mike Rayhart said.
He said several people were injured seriously enough to be sent to the hospital, but he did not have specifics.
A twister also caused damage and several injuries in the town of Carl Junction, not far from Joplin, on the eighth anniversary of the catastrophic tornado that killed 161 people in that city.
The severe weather was expected to push eastward Thursday, with forecasters saying parts of the Ohio Valley and the mid-Atlantic — including Baltimore and Pittsburgh — could see tornadoes, large hail and strong winds. Storms and torrential rains have ravaged the Midwest, from Texas through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois, in the past few days. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | May 2019 | ['(CBS News)', '(NBC News)', '(The Kansas City Star)'] |
Steve Bannon resigns as President Donald Trump's White House Chief Strategist. | — -- President Trump is cheering his former chief strategist Steve Bannon's return to leading the influential conservative media outlet Breitbart News after his forced resignation from the White House.
Trump tweeted from his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club Saturday that Bannon may be "even better than ever before" in his return to Breitbart.
Steve Bannon will be a tough and smart new voice at @BreitbartNews...maybe even better than ever before. Fake News needs the competition!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2017
Steve Bannon will be a tough and smart new voice at @BreitbartNews...maybe even better than ever before. Fake News needs the competition!
The White House has not said whether President Trump and Bannon have spoken since Bannon was forced to resign from his post Friday as chief strategist.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the departure, effective Friday, was "mutually agreed" upon by Bannon and Chief of Staff John Kelly.
"We are grateful for his service and wish him the best," Sanders said in a statement to ABC News.
A source close to Trump told ABC News it was ultimately the president's decision to dismiss Bannon. The message was delivered this morning from Kelly, who was with the president at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey. Bannon was at the White House when he received the call that it was time for him to leave.
Bannon had submitted a letter of resignation to the president earlier this month with an effective date of Monday, Aug. 14, according to sources close to both Bannon and Trump. But amid the fallout from Trump's controversial response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend and earlier this week, Bannon's Aug. 14 resignation date came and went as the president considered Bannon's future, sources said. Meanwhile, several top Trump aides continued to make the case that he needed to go.
Prior to joining the Trump administration, Bannon served as executive chairman of Breitbart News. On Friday evening, in the top story on its homepage, Breitbart announced Bannon's return to the media company to again serve as executive chairman.
"'Populist Hero’ Stephen K. Bannon Returns Home to Breitbart," reads the headline.
Bannon has clashed with virtually every top official in the White House. Atop his list of in-house detractors were senior adviser Jared Kushner, national security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster and Chief of Staff Kelly.
One of McMaster's first moves was to remove Bannon from his seat at the National Security Council, a move that angered him. And his appointment as the council's chief political strategist was hugely controversial when it was first announced via executive order at the start of the administration.
Over the weekend, McMaster refused to say whether he would continue to work with Bannon.
Bannon joined the Trump campaign in August. He would become known as a fearless and critically influential adviser to the president, but has now become the latest high-profile aide to leave the White House. On July 21, press secretary Sean Spicer resigned, followed by Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci was fired a few days later, serving just 11 days in that role.
On Tuesday, the president told reporters at Trump Tower that Bannon was a "good man” and “not a racist.”
"I like Mr. Bannon. He's a friend of mine. But Mr. Bannon came on very late. You know that. I went through 17 senators, governors, and I won all the primaries. Mr. Bannon came on very much later than that," Trump said before adding, "but we'll see what happens with Mr. Bannon."
Trump had grown increasingly frustrated with Bannon in recent weeks, according to one senior White House official, and dissatisfaction from within Trump's inner circle was compounded Wednesday by his interview in American Prospect magazine, in which he seemed to undercut the president on North Korea.
"There's no military solution here, they got us," Bannon told the magazine.
In an interview with Bloomberg News, Bannon confirmed rumors shared with ABC News by a source close to the former chief strategist that he would continue to work in the president's interests.
"If there’s any confusion out there, let me clear it up: I’m leaving the White House and going to war for Trump against his opponents -- on Capitol Hill, in the media, and in corporate America,” Bannon told Bloomberg News. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | August 2017 | ['(ABC News)', '(NYT)'] |
Iran's Social Security Organization chairman Mohammad Taghi Nourbakhsh and his deputy die after a car accident during a visit to Gorgan. | TEHRAN, Nov. 16 (MNA) – Taghi Nourbakhsh, the president of the Social Security Organization, and Abdolrahman Tajoddin, the parliamentary deputy of the organization, died in a car accident in a trip to Gorgan late on Thursday.
Their car was hit by a truck near the Western entrance of Gorgan and both were injured and died later in a hospital.
The two officials were accompanying Iran’s Minister of Labour and Welfare Mohammad Shariatmadari in the official visit.
Shriatmadari and provincial governor-general Seyyed Manaf Hasehmi had immediately arrived in Hakim Jorjani hospital to follow up closely the process of medical treatment of the officials.
Khalil Hanif, the director of provincial affairs at the ministry of jobs and social security was also injured in the accident.
Hadi Hashemian, the head of Golestan Judiciary said the driver has been arrested.
Bodies of Nourbakhsh and Tajeddin were transferred to Tehran for funeral procession on Friday morning, after a ceremony in Gorgan to commemorate the two high-ranking officials.
Social Security Organization (SSO) is a social insurer organization in Iran which provides coverage of wage-earners and salaried workers as well as voluntary coverage of self-employed persons.
A number of Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, fisrt Vice President Es'hagh Jahangiri, Chairman of Expediency Discernment Council Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi and AEOI head Ali Akbar Salehi have issued messages to express their condolences to their bereaved families and the people of Iran. | Famous Person - Death | November 2018 | ['(Mehr News)'] |
In cycling, the 2013 Tour de France finishes today in Paris with Kenyan–born British rider Chris Froome winning his first Tour de France. | Britain's Chris Froome was crowned champion of the 100th edition of the Tour de France as Germany's Marcel Kittel powered his way to his fourth win on the 21st and final stage on Sunday.
Team Sky's Froome, the winner of three stages in this edition, claimed his maiden yellow jersey with a winning margin of four minutes and 20 seconds over second-placed Colombian Nairo Quintana of Movistar.
"I think it's going to take a while to sink in," said a triumphant Froome, who succeeded team-mate and compatriot Bradley Wiggins, absent this year, as the yellow jersey champion.
"It really has been a special edition of the Tour de France this year. Every day I woke up knowing I faced a fresh challenge... and I have to thank all my team-mates for helping me achieve this dream."
The 28-year-old Froome, whose mother Jane died in 2008 three weeks before he raced his maiden 'Grande Boucle', paid tribute as he stood atop the podium.
"I'd like to dedicate this win to my late mother, without her encouragement to follow my dreams I would probably be at home watching this event on TV," he said.
"It's a great shame she never got to come see the Tour."
Race debutant Quintana, who moved up to second place thanks to his maiden stage win at the summit finish of Annecy-Semnoz on Saturday, secured the race's white jersey for the best young rider and the best climber's polka dot jersey.
Yellow jersey (overall winner): Chris Froome - 83h 56min 40sec
Green jersey (points): Peter Sagan - 409 pts
King of the Mountain: Nairo Quintana - 147 pts
Best young rider: Nairo Quintana - 84h 1min
Where the Australians finished:
16. Michael Rogers 19. Richie Porte
39. Cadel Evans
68. Simon Clarke
72. Adam Hansen
80. Simon Gerrans
130. Cameron Meyer
152. Matthew Goss
154. Brett Lancaster
161. Stuart O'Grady
The 23-year-old was joined on the podium by Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), third at 5:04 and one place ahead of former two-time winner Alberto Contador of Spain, who slipped to fourth on Saturday's penultimate stage.
Slovakian Peter Sagan of Cannondale won the points competition's green jersey for the second successive year with a tally of 409 points and a 97-point lead on former winner Mark Cavendish of Britain.
Argos sprinter Kittel ended Cavendish's hopes of a fifth consecutive win on the Champs Elysees when he outsprinted the Omega-Pharma sprinter and German Andre Greipel of Lotto in a thrilling dash for the line.
Greipel, the winner of one stage, finished second with Cavendish a close third.
It left Kittel with four stage wins and allowed the German to close the race as he opened it having won the opening stage from Porto Vecchio to Bastia.
"Four! I can't believe it," Kittel said.
"It was a dream of mine to win on the Champs Elysees and now I've done it.
"I'm so proud."
Kittel had been dubbed sprinting's "next big thing" by Cavendish during the race, and the German added:
"I was already hungry before (for wins) but it's always nice to get such nice compliments form a guy like Mark," he said.
"He's a nice guy and he actually wished me good luck before the start of today's race.
"That was really sporting."
Froome began the final stage with a lead of 5:03 on Quintana - the largest margin since disgraced American Lance Armstrong claimed his sixth win in 2004 with a lead of six minutes on German Andreas Kloden.
However, the Briton, who was unchallenged on a final stage which is traditionally contested by the sprinters, lost time to the Colombian in the final, frantic laps of a packed-out circuit in the French capital.
Froome is the second successive Briton to win the race after team-mate Bradley Wiggins, who made history as Britain's first winner in 2012, when Froome finished runner-up.
The 28-year-old Froome, born in Nairobi, won three stages on this year's race - two on mountaintop finishes and one time trial - to take his tally to four.
His performances in this year's race, the first since the downfall of Armstrong, raised eyebrows among sceptics.
Team Sky chief Dave Brailsford, however, maintained that Froome and his team are clean and that in the Kenyan-born Briton, the sport is in "safe hands". "Chris really deserved this win, he worked so hard for it," said Brailsford, who helped orchestrate British track cycling's rise to world and Olympic domination in the past decade before turning his sights on road racing.
"If you look at the future of cycling, I think in a rider like Chris the sports is in safe hands.
"There are no doubts about our team, no doubts whatsoever."
Six-time Olympic champion Chris Hoy hailed Froome's win as a monumental achievement in a remarkable era for British cycling which also saw Wiggins win a gold medal at last year's London Olympics.
"It is a huge achievement and I almost feel sorry for Chris because people are almost getting blasé about it," Hoy said.
"People think it is another British winner so that is what we should expect - but if you take a step back and get some perspective, you can see what a monumental achievement it is for him to have done this.
"For Britain to have two riders winning the Tour de France back-to-back is fantastic for British cycling.
"Just a few years ago we did not have anyone who could podium but now we have two cyclists who can win the Tour in consecutive years, it is a phenomenal achievement and what Chris has done is phenomenal."
Wiggins pulled out of this year's Tour through injury, meaning that Froome immediately became the hot favourite to bring home the honours.
He delivered in spectacular fashion, but recently retired Scottish rider Hoy admitted he would have enjoyed watching the pair battle it out for the title.
AFP
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AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Sports Competition | July 2013 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
The Parliament of Papua New Guinea meets to choose a new Prime Minister after a ruling by the Supreme Court last week, with de facto Prime Minister Peter O'Neill again chosen. | Papua New Guinea's parliament is preparing to elect a new Prime Minister this morning, just a month before the country's general election. It comes after a dramatic u-turn by Peter O'Neill's government, which now accepts Sir Michael Somare as PNG's legitimate leader.
TONY EASTLEY: Papua New Guinea's general election is less than a month away but its parliament is due to meet later this morning to elect a new prime minister.
It comes after a dramatic u-turn by Peter O'Neill's government, which now says it accepts that his predecessor Sir Michael Somare is PNG's legitimate leader.
PNG correspondent Liam Fox explains.
LIAM FOX: This is an ironic statement if ever there was one.
PETER O'NEILL: Everything in PNG is very straightforward. (Laughter)
LIAM FOX: Peter O'Neill is referring to the latest chapter in his seemingly endless leadership dispute with Sir Michael Somare.
In parliament the deputy speaker Francis Marus surprised everyone when he upheld last week's ruling by the Supreme Court that Sir Michael was PNG's legitimate prime minister. That's despite the fact parliament passed a motion purporting to nullify the court's ruling last Friday.
Mr Marus went on to say that despite the court's ruling Sir Michael no longer held the office because he'd missed three sittings of parliament this year.
FRANCIS MARUS: Honourable members on that note I formally declare there to be a vacancy in the office of the prime minister.
LIAM FOX: To fill the vacancy he said MPs would elect a new prime minister on the floor of parliament later this morning.
Mr O'Neill has maintained the Supreme Court's decision was tainted with bias and he won't recognise it.
He wasn't in the house for the deputy speaker's shock announcement and initially indicated parliament would sit again to "rectify" it.
But after lengthy discussions with his coalition partners he says the vote will go ahead.
PETER O'NEILL: So that this can for once and for all clear all the doubts that has been created by the decision of the court that has now put chaotic situation in the country.
LIAM FOX: His deputy Belden Namah says his PNG Party will nominate and vote for Mr O'Neill.
BELDEN NAMAH: If there is any level playing field, we'll play it on the floor of parliament. We call on the Somare faction to come up with the number and to bring their nominee to the floor of parliament.
LIAM FOX: Sir Michael won't be in parliament this morning. He's in his hometown of Wewak on PNG's northwest coast campaigning for the election and he's been unavailable for comment. Most of his supporters are also out in their electorates.
Even if Mr O'Neill wins the vote in parliament, which looks likely, that won't be the end of the matter. The chief justice and another judge have been controversially charged with sedition for handing down last week's Supreme Court ruling.
When asked what will happen to the charges now that he's accepted the court's decision, Mr O'Neill says the matter is in the hands of the police. | Government Job change - Election | May 2012 | ['(ABC News Australia)', '(The Australian)'] |
The government of Ireland lifts a 90-year ban on the sale of alcohol on the religious holiday of Good Friday. | Good Friday is about to get better for publicans in the Republic of Ireland. Why? Because they can finally toast the Easter holiday with a pint.
For almost a century, selling alcohol had been banned on Good Friday - a legacy of Ireland's Christian traditions.
But in January 2018 the Irish parliament passed new legislation which means this year will be different.
So what's the story for 2018? And who stands to gain from the change?
Pubs in the Republic will welcome Easter revellers from 10:30 until closing time at 00:30.
Off-licences may see some changes too, with fewer booze-desiring customers stocking up a day in advance.
Good Friday is traditionally a popular time for house parties in the Republic, as friends and loved ones gather at home instead of the local boozer. But with the pub doors suddenly open, some may decide they'd rather skip the washing-up.
It's good news for tourists seeking a tipple too. On Good Fridays past, hapless foreigners unaware of the drinks ban could be found wandering the streets of Dublin in a futile search for a pint. The most dedicated were even spotted boarding trains or ferries to exploit an infamous loophole - the on-board bar.
Easter is a busy tourist period, and the extra day's trade is set to boost the Irish economy.
According to publicans' group the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) - whose interest is clear - it could generate as much as 40m euros (£35m; $49m) in sales - plus 7m for the exchequer through VAT and excise duty.
"The Good Friday ban is from a different era," the group's chief executive, Padraig Cribben, said. "Like all other businesses who were never subject to a ban, publicans now have a choice to open."
The Roman Catholic Church held considerable influence in the Republic historically, and some would still prefer an alcohol-free Friday on religious grounds.
Back in January, critics said the altered legislation also undermined the government's goal of reducing the harm caused by alcohol.
Independent TD (Irish member of parliament) Maureen O'Sullivan spoke frankly, asking: "Are we saying that the only tourists we want are those who can't last 24 hours without buying a drink in a public house?" "I actually think we could do with a few Good Fridays throughout the year," she added.
Perhaps mindful that not everyone approves of them opening, some hostelries have decided to give their Good Friday takings to charity. And in rural Newmarket, a little town in Cork, the six local publicans put their heads together - and agreed to keep their doors bolted.
John Scanlon of Scanlon's Bar explained: "We have only two days off each year, Christmas Day and Good Friday, and we want to hold on to that. It is a day publicans want to spend with their families."
In Northern Ireland pubs can open on Good Friday but may only serve alcohol between 17:00 and 23:00.
The hospitality sector has called for the North to have the same options as the Republic. Colin Neill, chief executive of Hospitality Ulster, believes serving restrictions will cost the North's pubs and restaurants £20m in trade over the Easter weekend.
| Government Policy Changes | March 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Azerbaijani forces say they have captured the town of Mincivan and 13 other settlements in Zangilan District, Nagorno-Karabakh. | BAKU, October 21. /TASS/. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev announced control gained over 22 settlements in Nagorno-Karabakh Wednesday.
The Azerbaijani Army liberated three settlements in the Fuzuli district, and five settlements in the Jabrayil district, Aliyev disclosed, adding that the settlement of Mincivan and 13 settlements in the Zangilan district have been liberated as well.
On Tuesday, Aliyev announced capture of the city of Zangilan and 24 settlements in four districts of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The area experienced flare-ups of violence in the summer of 2014, in April 2016 and this past July. Azerbaijan and Armenia have imposed martial law and launched mobilization efforts. Both parties to the conflict have reported casualties, among them civilians. | Armed Conflict | October 2020 | ['(TASS)'] |
A court convicts Donald Blankenship, former CEO of Massey Energy Company, of violating safety standards that led to the deaths of 29 Upper Big Branch mine workers in Montcoal, West Virginia in 2010. He is acquitted of making false statements and deceiving regulators. Blankenship, who faces up to one year in prison and a fine of $250,000, is the most prominent American coal executive ever to be convicted of a charge connected to the deaths of miners. , , | Federal prosecutors said Don Blankenship operated Massey Energy as a "lawless enterprise." He's seen here leaving a federal courthouse in Charleston, W.Va., on Nov. 17, when the jury began deliberations.
Federal prosecutors said Don Blankenship operated Massey Energy as a "lawless enterprise." He's seen here leaving a federal courthouse in Charleston, W.Va., on Nov. 17, when the jury began deliberations.
More than two weeks after it received the case, the jury in the trial of former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship has delivered a mixed verdict, finding Blankenship guilty of "conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards, a misdemeanor charge that carries up to a year of jail time," as West Virginia Public Broadcasting reports.
Blankenship was acquitted of two counts of making false statements, meaning he'll now face far less than the potential 30-year prison term prosecutors had sought over the 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine, which killed 29 miners.
News of the verdict came around midday Thursday — days after the jurors said for the second time that they were deadlocked. Responding to the jury's notice earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Irene Berger issued an Allen charge, urging jurors to consider both the majority and minority opinions — and to consider a partial verdict, as well.
An Allen charge refers to the instructions given by a judge when a case is at risk of having a hung jury. In this case, the jury's deliberations spanned a five-day break for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The panel began its deliberations on the afternoon of Nov. 17 — and the case seemed headed toward a mistrial after just one full day of deliberations, when the jurors sent a note to the judge on Nov. 19 saying they couldn't agree on a verdict and asking how long they should continue to try.
The defense moved for a mistrial at that point, but Berger rejected the motion. A similar motion was put forth Friday afternoon, which Berger also rejected.
The authorities say Blankenship, 65, closely managed the Upper Big Branch mine, which was linked to hundreds of safety violations. Blankenship was charged with conspiracy to violate federal mine safety standards and to defraud the U.S. government for his company's profit and his personal gain.
When a federal grand jury indicted him one year ago, the charges also included "lying to the Securities and Exchange Commission about the company's safety practices and stock purchases," as NPR's Howard Berkes reported.
Summarizing the closing arguments, West Virginia Public Broadcasting's Ashton Marra reported:
"Local U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin called ex-Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship an outlaw in his closing remarks, telling jurors he operated one of the nation's largest coal producers as a 'lawless enterprise.' The prosecution's case attempted to depict Blankenship as a micromanager who pushed production over safety.
"The defense argued the government has produced no direct proof Blankenship was involved in any conspiracy, only reams of paper, referring to the thousands of pages of evidence the prosecution has entered in the case."
The case went to the jury more quickly than anticipated, after "Blankenship's defense team rested its case without calling a single witness," as our colleagues at West Virginia Public Broadcasting report in a summary of the trial.
In contrast, the prosecution called 27 witnesses over more than three weeks of testimony.
Blankenship was indicted months after former Massey Energy mine superintendent Gary May was sentenced to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine, in a plea deal that saw May admit to "ordering a company electrician to disable a methane monitor on a mining machine so it could continue to cut coal without automatic shutdowns."
In September 2013, another former Massey executive, David Hughart, was sentenced to 42 months in prison in a separate plea agreement in which he "admitted to being part of a corporate conspiracy to evade surprise mine safety inspections by giving advance warning to miners underground." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2015 | ['(The New Yorker)', '(NPR)', '(The Christian Science Monitor)', '(The New York Times)'] |
U.S. company Purdue Pharma files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Agreeing to contribute more than US$3 billion from the sale of a daughter company, the owners propose to settle thousands of lawsuits related to the risk of addiction to their narcotic painkiller Oxycontin. | US drug-maker Purdue Pharma has filed for bankruptcy and announced a $10bn (£8bn) plan to settle thousands of lawsuits that accuse the company’s prescription painkiller, OxyContin, of fuelling the deadly opioids crisis.
The company, owned by the billionaire Sackler family, faces more than 2,000 lawsuits, including actions from nearly all US states and many local governments, which allege Purdue falsely promoted OxyContin by downplaying the risk of addiction. The public health crisis claimed the lives of nearly 400,000 people between 1999 and 2017, according to the latest US data.
The chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, made on Sunday night in White Plains, New York, is designed to halt the lawsuits. Under the proposed settlement, which is backed by about half the states and thousands of local governments that are suing Purdue, the Sacklers will hand the firm’s assets over to a trust. It will operate a reformed company, whose board will be selected by the claimants and approved by the bankruptcy court. Money generated by the new firm could be used for drug treatment.
The settlement is worth less than the $12bn originally envisaged. The company listed assets of up to $10bn and debts of $1bn in its chapter 11 filing. The bankruptcy court will decide how the money is allocated among the states, cities and counties.
The Sacklers have agreed to contribute at least $3bn as part of the settlement, from funds generated by selling Purdue’s UK-based subsidiary Mundipharma. Their contribution became a sticking point during the discussions.
Steve Miller, the chairman of Purdue’s board of directors, which met on Sunday night to approve the long-expected bankruptcy filing, said: “This unique framework for a comprehensive resolution will dedicate all of the assets and resources of Purdue for the benefit of the American public.
“This settlement framework avoids wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and years on protracted litigation, and instead will provide billions of dollars and critical resources to communities across the country trying to cope with the opioid crisis. We will continue to work with state attorneys general and other plaintiff representatives to finalise and implement this agreement as quickly as possible.”
Purdue said the deal was backed by 24 states and five US territories, as well as lead lawyers for more than 2,000 cities, counties and other plaintiffs.
However, two dozen states remain opposed or uncommitted to the proposed settlement. Opposing states, including Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut, want the Sacklers to contribute more of their own money towards the settlement. Their opposition could complicate the bankruptcy process.
Members of the Sackler family also face lawsuits, seeking billions of dollars in damages, that claim the company and family aggressively marketed prescription painkillers while misleading doctors and patients about their addiction and overdose risks.
Purdue and the Sacklers have denied the allegations.
The Delaware attorney general Kathy Jennings said in a statement: “Irrespective of Purdue’s actions or evasion, we will continue to pursue justice on behalf of those harmed by the Sacklers’ greed, callousness and fraud.”
Members of the Sackler family said they hoped those opposing the current settlement offer would change their minds. “We are hopeful that in time, those parties who are not yet supportive will ultimately shift their focus to the critical resources that the settlement provides to people and problems that need them.”
Miller said the company had not admitted wrongdoing and does not intend to. “The alternative is to not settle but instead to resume the litigation,” he told reporters. “The resumption of litigation would rapidly diminish all the resources of the company and would be lose-lose-lose all the way around. Whatever people might wish for is not on the table now.” | Organization Closed | September 2019 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Minister of State for Northern Ireland Shailesh Vara, Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union Dominic Raab, and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Esther McVey resign in protest of Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plan. | Esther McVey has sensationally resigned over Theresa May’s Brexit deal - telling the Prime Minister it “does not honour the result of the referendum” and “fails to secure the right outcome for the future of our country”.
In her resignation letter - sent to the Prime Minister this morning and seen exclusively by The Telegraph - the Work and Pensions Secretary tells Mrs May that her proposed deal “doesn’t meet the tests you set from the outset of your premiership.”
Her resignation - announced to The Telegraph just minutes after Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab stepped down, will pile unprecedented pressure on Mrs May’s leadership.
In her forthright letter accusing the Prime Minister of breaking her promises, Ms McVey explains how she can “no longer support” the deal, writing: “Repeatedly you have said that we must regain control of our money, our borders and our laws and develop our own independent trade policy.
"I have always supported you to deliver on those objectives. Even after Chequers when you knew I shared the concerns of a very significant number of colleagues, I believed that we could still work collectively to honour the will of the British people and secure the right outcome for the future of our country. This deal fails to do this.”
Earlier this morning I informed the Prime Minister I was resigning from her Cabinet pic.twitter.com/ZeBkL5n2xH
Saying the proposals put before Cabinet “means handing over around £39bn to the EU without anything in return”, she adds: “It will trap us in a customs union, despite you specifically promising the British people we would not be.
"It will bind the hands of not only this, but future Governments in pursuing genuine free trade policies.
"We wouldn’t be taking back control, we would be handing over control to the EU and even to a third country for arbitration.
Referencing the Irish backdrop, the MP for Wirral West, 51, adds: “It threatens the integrity of the United Kingdom, which as a Unionist is a risk I cannot be party to.”
Describing voters as “always being ahead of politicians on this issue,” she pointedly adds: “It will be no good trying to pretend to them that this deal honours the result of the referendum when it is obvious to everyone that it doesn.
“We have gone from no deal is better than a bad deal to any deal is better than no deal. I cannot defend this, and I cannot vote for this deal.
"I could not look my constituents in the eye were I to do that. I therefore have no alternative but to resign from government.”
The resignation follows reports that Ms McVey was shouted down by civil servant Mark Sedwill during last night’s five-hour cabinet meeting when she suggested the cabinet should take a vote on Mrs May’s deal.
Ms McVey told The Telegraph this morning: “I would like to correct one aspect of the reporting - there were certainly no tears, not on my behalf. I’m made of much sterner stuff than that.”
Pointing out her pride in playing a part in record employment figures and putting more women and disabled people into work, Ms McVey thanks Mrs May for injecting an extra £4.5 billion into rolling out Universal Credit, which she said made her decision “a greater wrench”.
She adds: “However, in politics you have to be true to the public and also true to yourself. Had I stayed in the Government and supported this deal with the EU I wouldn’t be doing that.”
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | November 2018 | ['(BBC)', '(Bloomberg)', '(The Telegraph)'] |
United Kingdom – Sarah's Law, a scheme which allows parents to check if someone with access to their children is a sex offender, will be extended to cover the whole of England and Wales by Spring 2011 after proving successful in four pilot areas. | Police have played down fears that allowing parents to check if someone with access to their children is a sex offender may cause vigilante attacks.
The scheme known as "Sarah's Law" was proposed after the murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne 10 years ago. A Home Office pilot is being extended to eight more forces in England.
Chief Constable Paul West of the Association of Chief Police Officers said it was "realistic" to think people would keep information to themselves. The scheme was piloted in four areas in England from September 2008 and will be expanded to the whole of England and Wales by spring.
Sarah was kidnapped and murdered by a convicted sex offender, Roy Whiting, in West Sussex in 2000. 'Disclose appropriately'
Charities have warned the scheme could backfire by driving paedophiles underground.
Diana Sutton, of the NSPCC, said it was good that the pilot schemes had helped protect some children, but urged the government to "tread cautiously" as it expanded the initiative.
"We remain concerned about the risk of vigilante action and sex offenders going underground. All new local schemes need close management and proper resourcing to avoid this," she said.
But Chief Constable West said people would not need to share the information as police would inform any affected party.
"If there is information that says someone with previous offences for child sex offending is living in a particular house next door, and became known to a person, if there were other children to whom they have access, clearly that would come out in the course of the investigation and we would disclose that appropriately to anyone who has children who are at risk," he said. "The point is, we don't go for widespread public disclosure to anybody and everybody because that's just the sort of thing that leads to the vigilantism which we've seen in the past."
And Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said there were always risks. "People say people will go underground - frankly, people go underground anyway.
"With all the other parts of the police service working also in this area, I do think we have got a real hope of keeping people safer and keeping young people safer, which is very important."
Home Secretary Theresa May said the expansion of the scheme was an "important step forward for child protection" which would also help police manage known sex offenders more effectively.
"Being able to make these checks reassures parents and the community and, more importantly, keeps children safer," she said.
The original trial of the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme took place in Cambridgeshire, Cleveland, Hampshire and Warwickshire.
The Home Office said more than 60 children had been protected from abuse during the pilot scheme.
Nearly 600 inquiries to the four forces involved in the pilot led to 315 applications for information and 21 disclosures about registered child sex offenders.
A further 43 cases led to other actions, including referrals to children's social care, and 11 general disclosures were made regarding protection issues linked to violent offending, they said.
The scheme is now being rolled out to eight other force areas - West Mercia, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, North Yorkshire, Thames Valley, West Midlands, Essex and Suffolk.
A further expansion is planned for the autumn, with Northamptonshire, Staffordshire, Sussex, Leicestershire, Wiltshire, Cheshire, Durham, Northumbria, Dorset, Lincolnshire, Surrey and Gloucestershire joining the scheme.
It will be rolled out to other forces by spring next year.
A similar extension of a pilot scheme was also proposed for Scotland earlier this year. Northern Ireland is yet to decide whether to implement a scheme. Sarah Payne's mother, Sara, was made the government's Victims' Champion after her campaign to bring in the measures.
She wrote in the News of the World newspaper that "despite this positive step, I still believe there's a need for fuller disclosure".
But she said children had been made safer, adding: "Sarah would be so proud, I'm only sorry it took her death for this vital reform to become a reality."
One father living in a pilot area told the BBC he faced a dilemma when he discovered the background of a man who worked at an outdoor facility his daughter used.
"I made a very swift decision that my daughter was never going back to that facility again, and had to decide, 'should I tell other parents or keep it to myself?'
"I have, to this day, kept quiet on it really and I'm still not sure whether I should alert them, but it's a very difficult situation to be in," he said.
The so-called Megan's Law in the US, which allows the publication of names, addresses and pictures of paedophiles in some states, prompted calls for an equivalent "Sarah's Law" in the UK. 'Sarah's Law': Five scenarios | Government Policy Changes | August 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
2011 Libyan civil war: The German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle, speaking in Benghazi, announces that his government officially recognises the country's rebels as "the legitimate representatives of the Libyan people". | "We want a free Libya, in peace and democracy without [Muammar] Gaddafi," Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in the rebel stronghold Benghazi.
About a dozen states have recognised the National Transitional Council.
Germany came under criticism for its refusal to back a UN Security Council resolution authorising Nato action to protect Libyan civilians.
The NTC emerged from the forces which began a revolt against Colonel Gaddafi's rule on 16 February.
After months of bloody conflict, Col Gaddafi remains in control of the capital Tripoli while the rebels hold Benghazi and much of the east. His government said on Monday it had repulsed an attempt by rebels to take the western town of Zawiya, just 30km (18 miles) from Tripoli.
The town was under rebel control at the start of the revolt but troops backed by tanks recaptured it after two weeks of heavy fighting.
The three-hour visit by Mr Westerwelle and his colleague, Economic Co-operation and Development Minister Dirk Niebel, was the first by German officials to rebel-controlled territory. Speaking alongside rebel foreign minister Ali Issawi, Mr Westerwelle said: "We share the same goal: Libya without Gaddafi. "The national council is the legitimate representative of the Libyan people."
Libyans listening burst into applause after he made the announcement.
A senior rebel official, NTC Vice-Chairman Abdel Hafez Ghoga, welcomed the German decision as a "very big step".
German opposition politicians, media commentators and foreign policy experts had sharply criticised the government for its position on Col Gaddafi, accusing it of failing to live up to its international obligations.
ink
It abstained from the UN Security Council resolution backing intervention in Libya and did not directly join Nato's air campaign.
Mr Westerwelle said in Benghazi that staying out of the Nato-led operation did not mean Berlin was being neutral.
"We were one of the first governments to say that Gaddafi must go," he said.
"His assets should be unblocked so they can be used to build a new Libya, whose riches are for the Libyan people."
Mr Niebel said Berlin would work on development projects in Libya, mainly in the sectors of water and electricity.
Germany, he added, wanted to help refugees and "people traumatised by the war".
Reporters taken to Zawiya by government officials said the green national flag was flying in the central square.
Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said an attack by rebel fighters had been driven off.
"The wishful reporting of some journalists that the rebels are gaining more power and more control of some areas is not correct," he said.
"They were defeated after a few hours of scattered skirmishes with the army." He added that about 100 rebels were under siege just outside the town.
Rebel spokesman M'hamed Ezzawi told Reuters news agency there had been heavy fighting against government forces backed by heavy weapons. Control of Zawiya would allow the rebels to cut a key supply route to the Tunisian border. | Famous Person - Give a speech | June 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(Deutsche Welle)'] |
Thousands of Pakistani Sunni Muslims riot in Karachi, ransacking property, setting fire to four banks, and stoning vehicles after Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, an influential pro–Taliban cleric, is killed in a drive–by shooting. | They ambushed the car of Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai as he was being driven to the religious school where he preaches and three others were wounded.
Sunni Muslims, including his students, rioted at news of the death, attacking a police station and burning cars. The governor of the surrounding Sindh region has appealed for peace. We fear a backlash
Maj Gen Javed Zia chief of paramilitary rangers in Karachi
One of the cleric's sons, a relative and the driver of their car were all injured in the attack which came as they were leaving the mufti's home near the Jamia mosque, police said.
"As soon as we sat in the car, we heard gunshots and we immediately ducked," the cleric's relative, named as Rafiuddin, told reporters.
"I felt a strong pain in my leg, I had been shot and then I saw Mufti Shamzai Sahib covered in blood."
Between four and six attackers escaped by motorbike and car, according to police.
Appeal for peace
It was not immediately clear if the motive for the attack had been sectarian but angry Sunni students from religious schools poured into the streets of this city of some 12 million.
Shamzai had been given armed guards after threats
"There is a lot of smoke in the air from the burning tyres and building, glass is scattered all around from damaged vehicles, and people are really charged," a Reuters correspondent reports from the scene.
Maj Gen Javed Zia, chief of the paramilitary rangers in the city, said his forces along with the police would defend Shia areas from attack.
"We fear a backlash on these areas," he said as reports came in that tear gas had been fired.
Ishrat-ul-Ibad Khan, governor of the Sindh region, vowed to bring the killers to justice, commending Mufti Shamzai for his "religious, literary and social services". Mufti Shamzai "always taught the lesson of peace, love and tolerance and today specially we need to follow the same - the only way to pay tribute to him", the governor was quoted as saying by AP news agency.
Taleban teacher
Mufti Shamzai was a strong critic of the US, urging a holy war after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. His religious school, known locally as Banuri Town, taught many members of Afghanistan's ousted Taleban movement.
Mr Shamzai himself had meetings with Taleban leaders on the eve of the US-led war to dislodge them. The BBC's Zaffar Abbas reports from Islamabad that Mr Shamzai, 75, had been lying low since the ouster of the Taleban. Karachi has recently seen an upsurge in sectarian violence. A suicide bomber killed at least 14 people at a Shia mosque earlier this month. | Riot | May 2004 | ['(NYT)', '(BBC)'] |
Flooding in Victoria is worsened by the remnants of Cyclone Yasi and Anthony, causing major street flooding in Melbourne. | RAW VIDEO: A sudden downpour of rain flooded parts of Melbourne's CBD on Friday night, catching many unprepared.
TORRENTIAL rain boosted by the remnants of tropical cyclones Yasi and Anthony led to flash floods in Victoria, with parts of Melbourne battered by high winds and people rescued from rising waters in Mildura.
Lightning strikes cut power to 30,000 homes when a belt of storms hit late yesterday.
The Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade said it was overwhelmed by calls for help from disabled people.
In one emergency, fire crews helped a wheelchair-bound man who was up to his hips in water inside his home in the suburb of Mulgrave. Firefighters also rescued a girl swept away in a flash flood who managed to grab a tree branch in Ashwood, south-west of Melbourne.
Many roads in regional Victoria were cut, and the Monash Freeway was closed outbound at Toorak Road, with traffic causing long delays last night.
Between 50 and 100 millimetres of further rain was forecast for the weekend.
A Bureau of Meteorology forecaster, Claire Yeo, said: ''With such heavy rainfall expected on already saturated catchments so soon after the January flood event, riverine flooding is also forecast again.''
Mildura, in the state's north-west, was bracing for more flash floods last night after more than 100 millimetres of rain fell in just two hours yesterday afternoon.
A State Emergency Service spokeswoman said crews responded to 250 calls for help in the riverine community. Three people were rescued from cars and two from their flooded homes.
In south-east Melbourne drenching rain hit Lyndhurst and Narre Warren, where more than 100 calls for help due to flash flooding were made.
Communities named at risk of flooding included Carisbrook, Clunes, Ballarat, Halls Gap and Maryborough in central Victoria.
Parts of the township of Halls Gap in the Grampians were issued with an emergency evacuation order due to possible flash flooding and land slips.
The bureau issued flood warnings for the Wimmera, Loddon, Avoca and Campaspe catchments, which had already been hit by floods in recent weeks.
There was also a flood watch for the greater Melbourne catchments of Werribee, Maribyrnong, Yarra, Dandenong and Bunyip.
AAP
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''THIS,'' Phil Davis said, ''is still our little piece of heaven.''
THE damage bill facing the federal government after cyclone Yasi will be ...
IMPASSABLE floodwaters have severed the only artery north and added to ...
Australians are sensible when dealing with natural disasters, writes ...
''THIS,'' Phil Davis said, ''is still our little piece of heaven.''
THE damage bill facing the federal government after cyclone Yasi will be at least $500 million, Julia Gillard has suggested.
IMPASSABLE floodwaters have severed the only artery north and added to the agony of thousands of Queenslanders trying desperately to return home to a string of towns worst hit by cyclone Yasi, stretching north from Townsville to Cairns.
Australians are sensible when dealing with natural disasters, writes David Marr.
RAW VIDEO: A sudden downpour of rain flooded parts of Melbourne's CBD on Friday night, catching many unprepared.
Cyclone Yasi weather forecast
e
s.
ical | Floods | February 2011 | ['(The Sydney Morning Herald)', '(Bayside Leader)', '(Taipei Times)'] |
Greek riot police clash with protesting workers outside the Acropolis in Athens using tear gas to clear the demonstrators from the entrance. | Greek police have fired tear gas and charged at workers who had occupied the Acropolis in Athens in a protest over unpaid wages and lay-offs.
TV images showed police chasing the culture ministry workers around the ancient monument.
Dozens of workers had shut down the Acropolis on Wednesday morning, demanding two years of back pay.
They had barricaded themselves inside, padlocked the entrance gates and refused to allow in tourists.
The protesters said they intended to blockade the Acropolis, Greece's most famous tourist attraction, until 31 October. They have vowed to return to the site on Friday.
Greece has seen waves of strikes and protests over austerity measures agreed by the government to in order to secure a huge bail-out from eurozone countries.
As well as the back-pay issue, the workers are angry that about 320 temporary staff will lose their jobs when their contracts expire at the end of the month. They want the staff to be given permanent contracts.
"All our colleagues stand beside us, so the monument will not operate today no matter what happens," Nikos Hasomeris, one of the leaders of the striking workers, told Greek television earlier.
"We want the ministry to cancel the planned dismissal of 320 staffers and settle its dues to people who have been unpaid for 22 months."
But police in riot gear arrived on Thursday morning after a court order said the protesters were hindering access to an ancient site.
TV footage showed the police entering the site using a side entrance.
They used tear gas to clear protesters and a group of journalists who had gathered at the main gate. At least one person was arrested.
Speaking after the operation, Mr Hasomeris said the protests would continue.
"The authorities must accept their responsibilities," he said. He also accused the authorities of damaging the archaeological site. Deputy Culture Minister Telemachos Hytiris offered to talk to the protesters but said he could not promise them permanent contracts.
"Thousands of short-term workers have been laid off until now, the law applies to all," he told Flash Radio in comments reported by the Associated Press news agency.
AP reported that dozens of bemused tourists hoping to visit ancient site watched the police operation unfold, some of them taking pictures of the officers.
"We know the workers have a right to protest, but it is not fair that people who come from all over the world to see the Acropolis should be prevented from getting in," said Spanish tourist Ainhoa Garcia.
The BBC's Malcolm Brabant in Athens said unpaid wages were a common cause for complaint in Athens, where the government is making progress in trying to cut its public deficit by not paying its bills.
Under Greek law a civil service job is guaranteed for life, our correspondents added, and there were few prospects for finding alternative work in the current crisis. Latest figures show unemployment in Greece is at 12%, with those aged under 24 are worst affected. | Protest_Online Condemnation | October 2010 | ['(AP via Atlanta Journal–Constitution)', '[permanent dead link]', '(BBC)'] |
At least two people die and over 20 are injured when two trains collide near Pernink in the Czech Republic. | At least two people were killed and 24 were injured when two trains collided in the northwest of the Czech Republic near the border with Germany on Tuesday, an emergency services spokesman said.
The accident occurred between Pernink, about 10 km (six miles) from Germany, and Nove Hamry, in the region of spa town Karlovy Vary. Of those injured, nine had serious or severe injuries.
The trains crashed less than 1 km from Pernink station, CTK news agency reported. One of the trains was headed to Johanngeorgenstadt in Germany.
CTK said one of those killed was a German national.
German citizens were among the injured, the emergency services spokesman said.
German emergency services assisted with the injured at the site of the accident in the hilly, wooded area, CTK reported.
| Train collisions | July 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
In a stunning college football upset, Appalachian State defeated #5–ranked Michigan at Michigan Stadium by a score of 34–32. This is the first time a team from the second–tier NCAA Division I FCS has defeated an AP–ranked Division I FBS opponent. Armanti Edwards was the quarterback for the underdog Mountaineers. | Big things, great things were going to happen for the University of Michigan football team this season.
The No. 5 Wolverines had an offense brimming with All-American talent, a young, but confident defense, and every intention of bringing home the national title that had eluded them since 1997.
It took a single game for that dream to die.
In what might be the biggest upset in college football history, a Division I-AA team from the hills of North Carolina wrecked Michigan's season opener Saturday and made national headlines, shocking the Wolverines in Michigan Stadium.
With six seconds left and the crowd of 109,218 roaring, the home team tried a 37-yard field goal to beat Appalachian State. But like so many things on this afternoon, something went terribly wrong for the Wolverines.
A lineman whiffed on a block, and Appalachian State safety Corey Lynch swooped in toward the kick. The ball struck him in the chest and caromed away. Lynch grabbed it, and raced away until kicker Jason Gingell tackled him, until time had expired, until the Mountaineers had done something imaginable, perhaps, only to them.
"I looked up at the crowd and I said, 'We beat Michigan,'" defender Pierre Banks said. "I can't believe it. I still can't believe it. It doesn't seem real."
The reality, however, was reflected on the scoreboard.
Appalachian State 34, Michigan 32.
While the Mountaineers hugged, and whooped it up, giddy with their achievement, the Michigan football players trudged off the field, displaying a clear grasp of what had just happened.
"It's probably the biggest loss in Michigan history," tailback Mike Hart said flatly, as he headed toward the locker room. Minutes later, a small cadre of Appalachian State fans leaned toward the Michigan Stadium tunnel, chanting "Jerry, Jerry, Jerry," in honor of coach Jerry Moore, the man who orchestrated the upset.
Moore, a homespun Southerner who's in his 19th season at Appalachian State, had coaxed back-to-back Division I-AA national titles out of Mountaineers. When his team signed up for a payday to open its season in Ann Arbor, Moore embraced the notion of traveling to play in what he termed, "one of the elite places not just in football, but in sports."
"I don't mean this egotistically, but we were looking forward to coming up here and seeing what we could do," he said.
What they did, college football fans won't soon forget.
Wispy sophomore quarterback Armanti Edwards made up with moxie what he lacked in size, making plays all afternoon and keeping the Michigan defense guessing. Like other teams that have beaten Michigan in recent seasons, the Mountaineers broke the Wolverines with a spread offense.
Running back Kevin Richardson, a one-time walk-on, gashed Michigan up the middle. Edwards dipped and dove for 62 rushing yards, and completed 17 of 23 passes for 227 yards and three touchdowns.
The four-receiver corps of Dexter Jackson, CoCo Hillary, T.J. Courman and Hans Batichon slipped into seams, and made catch after catch. In the first quarter, Jackson tied the game after bursting free for a 68-yard touchdown, a longer score than Michigan allowed all last season.
By halftime, the Michigan defense with its seven new starters had given up four touchdowns and the Wolverines lagged behind 28-17.
"I don't know if we weren't ready or what it was," Michigan linebacker Shawn Crable said.
According to Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, the Wolverines weren't well-prepared.
"That is my job, and I take full responsibility for that," he said.
Despite the defensive breakdowns, a pair of turnovers, special teams snafus, a collection of poor penalties and a sometimes sloppy performance by quarterback Chad Henne, who was 19-of-37, Michigan carved out a slice of hope for itself.
Out four possessions with a thigh injury, tailback Mike Hart returned to the game in the third quarter to help with the push. A four-yard Hart touchdown cut the margin to five. Then in the fourth, Hart cut left, nearly tumbled to the turf, recovered his balance, went right and outran the secondary for a 54-yard score.
Michigan led for the first time since the first quarter, 32-31, behind Hart, who had 188 rushing yards.
"Michigan had great tradition, bigger players, faster players and stronger players," Richardson said. "But it's all about what's in your chest: your heart."
With 1 minute, 37 seconds left, the team with the 16,650-seat stadium and the 63 scholarship football players pulled together a drive that helped it finish forging the most unlikely victory.
Edwards shook off two second-half interceptions and completed four consecutive passes. The last went over the middle to Hillary, who was tackled at the 5. With 26 seconds left, the Mountaineers converted on a field goal, to which the Wolverines would not respond.
"It hurts, it hurts," Hart said. "Everything just drops. It's like a dream.
"You don't imagine losing to a team like that, and we lost. It's reality."
Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. | Sports Competition | September 2007 | ['(Ann Arbor News)'] |
A tornado hits the town of Rayne in the US state of Louisiana resulting in one death, at least eleven injuries and 50 homes destroyed. , , , | RAYNE | The tornado path takes in the northwest side of this city, cutting a swath about an eighth of a mile wide through residential and commercial areas. Early estimates have as many as 50 homes destroyed, along with a dozen businesses.
The triage station, at the pavilion next to the Rayne Frog Festival grounds, is packed with emergency responders from Rayne's fire, police and municipal employees to utility providers, Acadian Ambulance workers and State Police units. Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development crews are bringing in lights to allow operations to continue after night falls.
Troy Guidry, Acadian Ambulance's director of operations, said 12 patients had passed through the triage station. Of those 12, only one had serious injuries, with the other 11 being minor. They were each treated on the scene then dispatched to nearby hospitals.
Rayne Fire Department Chief Barry Granger said his department got the first call around 10:20 a.m. Center Point Energy has crews on location trying to shut down gas that is leaking from damaged homes and businesses in the storm's path.
"This damage is pretty significant," Granger said. "As long as I can remember this is probably the worst tornado to hit the city."
As of 1:05 p.m., evacuations were underway in the northwestern portion of Rayne as the smell of natural gas permeates the air. "They are evacuating northwest Rayne from the railroad tracks to Interstate-10 and from the boulevard back," said State Police Troop I spokesman Stephen Hammons. "There have been no confirmed deaths, but there is a heavy smell of gas in the air. Crews are going house to house through the area seeking the injured or dead."
According to Rayne High School student Kristen Petitjean, 16, the Rayne High School north gym roof suffered visible damage, as well as the school's math building. Cody Bergeron said he walked down the boulevard and saw that the O'Reilly's Auto Parts store's roof is gone.
But the damage seems most severe in the northwest quadrant of the town. As the crews clear each house, they are marking them with paint, creating a scene reminiscent of the post-Katrina flooding in New Orleans, where crews used painted grids to tell other searchers that homes had been cleared and what had been found.
Hammons said the evacuees were being taken to the Rayne Fire Department building or to nearby relatives' homes. Though there have been reports of nine injuries, at least one critical, Hammons could not confirm any numbers as far as casualties are concerned. He did say a number of houses in the storm's path are total losses.
Rumors of a death from the storm have not been confirmed.
"We're talking about having several thousand people to evacuate," said Maxine Trahan of the Acadia Parish Sheriff's Office.
The Northwest corner of Rayne is being evacuated due to a gas leak. Anyone wondering about the whereabouts of friends or family members can contact the Rayne Fire Department at 334-4443.
The number of injuries caused by the tornado in the Rayne area is now reported to be up to nine.
At least one tornado touched down in Acadiana Saturday, leaving destruction and injuries in its wake. Emergency responders are working after a storm passed near Rayne Saturday morning, causing damage and some injuries according to initial reports.
Acadian Ambulance dispatchers received the first calls for help at 10:01 a.m. According to the National Weather Service, a radar signature indicated a tornado near Mire at 10:07.
Search and rescue operations are underway. Acadian Ambulance has established a triage point at Gossen Park in Rayne. Two people have been transported to nearby hospitals so far.
The gateway to Rayne High School was one of the areas hit when a tornado tore through the northwest quadrant of the town Saturday morning. (P.C. Piazza | The Daily Advertiser)
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | March 2011 | ['(AP via Indiana Republic)', '[permanent dead link]', '(The Daily Advertiser)', '(CNN)', '(Fox News)'] |
Nuclear envoys from North Korea, China and the United States meet to discuss North Korea's nuclear program. |
China's Foreign Ministry says nuclear envoys from the United States, North Korea and China have met in Beijing.
Details of Tuesday's meeting have not been released. Earlier Tuesday, North Korea's nuclear envoy is reported to have said his country is ready to return to six-nation talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program at any time, because it has completed all defensive measures by nuclear testing. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Kim Kye-gwan made the announcement after arriving in Beijing.
His counterparts from the United States, China, South Korea and Japan are also in the Chinese capital for consultations on the resumption of disarmament negotiations.
The U.S. envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, is expected to meet Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Daiwei Tuesday. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | November 2006 | ['(Voice of America)'] |
The Iraqi government enacts a curfew in Baghdad as renewed protests enters its fourth day. | Two protesters reported dead and 105 wounded as authorities say night-time curfew to be in place ‘until further notice’.
Authorities in Iraq have declared a curfew in the capital, Baghdad, where mass anti-government demonstrations continue for a fourth day.
The renewed protests came weeks after an earlier wave of rallies broke out as a result of widespread anger at high-level corruption, mass unemployment and poor public services. More than 200 people have been killed in this month’s demonstrations in Baghdad and several southern cities.
As protests continued on Monday, state media quoted the Baghdad Operations Commander as saying that the curfew from midnight to 6am local time will be valid “until further notice”.
Earlier in the day, at least two anti-government protesters were reportedly killed and more than 100 people were wounded in clashes with security forces in Baghdad as thousands of students joined in the demonstrations in defiance of a government order and tear gas from security forces.
Iraqi security and medical officials confirmed the latest casualties on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief reporters, according to The Associated Press news agency.
The students skipped classes at several universities and secondary schools in Baghdad and southern cities to take part in the protests, despite the government ordering schools and universities to operate normally. It was not clear how many students were among those killed and wounded.
“It’s a student revolution, no to the government, no to parties!” demonstrators chanted in Tahrir Square, the centre of the protests.
Protesters have camped out in the central roundabout and volunteers have brought them food, hoping to recreate the revolutionary atmosphere of similar rallies held across the region during and after the 2011 Arab Spring.
Security forces have fired tear gas and stun grenades to keep protesters from crossing a main bridge leading to the Green Zone, home to government offices and embassies.
Shia religious leader Moqtada al-Sadr on Monday called on Abdul Mahdi to announce early parliamentary elections overseen by the United Nations and without the participation of existing political parties.
Sadr’s bloc, which came first in a 2018 election and helped bring the prime minister’s fragile coalition government to power, said on Saturday it was going into opposition until the demands of protesters were met.
On Monday, Iraq’s parliament voted to dissolve the provincial councils, cancel the extra privileges of top officials and summon Abdel Mahdi for questioning.
Abdel Mahdi has proposed a laundry list of reforms, including hiring drives, increased pensions and promises to root out corruption.
President Barham Saleh has also held discussions with the UN on electoral reform and amendments to the 2005 constitution, but they have not appeased protesters.
In solidarity with demonstrators, four MPs resigned late on Sunday.
The ongoing turmoil has broken nearly two years of relative stability in Iraq, which in recent years has endured a United States invasion and protracted fighting, including against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISILor ISIS) armed group.
The demonstrations have posed the biggest challenge yet to the year-old government of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, who has pledged to address demonstrators’ grievances by reshuffling his cabinet and delivering a package of reforms.
The moves have done little to quell the demonstrators, however, whose ire is focused not just on Abdul Mahdi’s administration but also Iraq’s wider political establishment, which they say has failed to improve the lives of the country’s citizens.
Many view the political elite as subservient to one or other of Iraq’s two main allies, the US and Iran – powers they believe are more concerned with wielding regional influence than ordinary Iraqis’ needs.
Nearly three-fifths of Iraq’s 40 million people live on less than 6$ a day, World Bank figures show, despite the country housing the world’s fifth-largest proven reserves of oil.
Unemployment, particularly among young people, is a major issue. Millions of people lack access to adequate healthcare, schooling, water or power supplies, and much of the country’s infrastructure is in tatters.
Nationwide demonstrations continue after scores of Iraqis were killed in clashes with security forces over two days.
PM Abdul Mahdi orders special unit’s deployment amid rising death toll in latest protests that started on Friday.
Our corrupt political system is beyond reform or repair, but young Iraqis will continue to fight for a new Iraq.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | October 2019 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
Former chief of the RUC police force will head a British investigation into possible infiltration of Iraq's police force by insurgents. | The BBC has learned Sir Ronnie Flanagan is going to Iraq because of growing concerns about the infiltration of the country's police force by insurgents.
Sir Ronnie is the former chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, formerly the RUC.
He told the BBC it was clear "a lot still has to be done" to improve policing in Iraq.
"In the four provinces for which we are responsible a lot of progress has been made, but a lot still has to be done," he said.
"I think there's a recognition that probably in standing up and training the Iraqi army, more progress has been made in that area. "We're probably almost a year behind in terms of progress with policing. "And I think what needs to be done now is that a total concentrated effort needs to be made by all the Coalition forces to ensure that concentration upon policing is provided".
Security forces
Defence Secretary John Reid said Sir Ronnie would be looking at the effectiveness and neutrality of the police.
"The vast majority of Iraqi security forces are courageous and are doing a very good job," he told the BBC.
He added: "We are almost 10 years on from the beginnings of the Good Friday Agreement and we don't even have acceptance in Northern Ireland, from the whole community, about policing there.
"So, in a much different situation, with much more difficult problems in Iraq, it would be surprising if we were able to accomplish this overnight, but we are steadily making things better."
It would be surprising if we were able to accomplish this overnight, but we are steadily making things better
John ReidDefence secretary
John Reid interview
On Friday, Mr Reid said Iraqi security forces could take control of some UK-run areas of Iraq in 2006.
Mr Reid inspected British troops and met new members of the Iraqi army during a visit to Basra. He said the quality of the 210,000 Iraqi security forces meant the handover could start next year. But he stressed British troops would not leave completely until Iraqi forces could "defend their own democracy". The trip comes amid a growing debate over how long UK forces should remain on the ground in Iraq. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has said British troops could leave by the end of 2006. Ninety-eight UK soldiers have died since the invasion in 2003. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | December 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
Mexicana de Aviación, Mexico's biggest airline, files for bankruptcy. | Mexicana Airlines, the busiest foreign carrier at Los Angeles International Airport, announced Tuesday that it had filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. and Mexico, blaming much of its financial trouble on high labor costs.
The debt-ridden airline made the announcement one day after suspending a total of 31 flights in Mexico and across the U.S., including some of its departures from Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Jose, Sacramento, San Francisco and Oakland.
At LAX, the airline put a hold on four of 15 daily flights to Puerto Vallarta, Guadalajara and Mexico City.
The Mexico City-based airline promised to contact passengers with tickets on canceled flights for a refund or to rebook them on another Mexicana flight or with another carrier.
Mexicana also blames its financial woes on the global financial crisis and the H1N1 (swine flu) epidemic in Mexico that has devastated the travel and tourism industry in the country.
Mexicana flies to more than 65 national and international destinations, including the U.S., Canada, Central and South America and Europe. It operates nearly 70 planes and carried 11.1 million passengers in 2009, according to the company website.
The airline’s parent company, Nuevo Grupo Aeronautico, also operates two low-cost domestic airlines, Click and Link, which will continue to operate without interruption, according to the airline.
In a statement, the airline said the bankruptcy protection would allow it to restructure its liabilities and “bring its cost structure, particularly labor costs, into line with market conditions.”
Mexicana has put most of the blame for its financial crisis on pilot and flight attendant salaries, which the airline says are up to 185% higher than the pay of their counterparts at Mexican airlines like Volaris or Interjet.
The airline has been calling for new contracts that would cut wages for pilots by 41% and impose a 39% wage cut for flight attendants. Mexicana also proposed reducing its overall workforce of pilots and attendants by 40%.
Among other ideas, the airline’s management has suggested the unions buy Mexicana for one peso on the condition that the labor groups take responsibility for the airline’s debt, an idea the unions rejected.
Lizette Clavel Sanchez, the secretary general of Mexicana’s flight attendants union, said Tuesday that the airline’s employees were willing to keep negotiating with Mexicana, but only in “transparency and without abuse.”
Clavel said the airline’s contention that Mexicana workers are paid significantly more than those at other airlines in Mexico is like “comparing pears and apples.”
“Those are low-cost airlines that don’t have the same service, technology and flight times we do. Airlines like Volaris or Interjet don’t make flights longer than four hours. We have flights that are as long as 16 hours,” Clavel said. “It is wrong to quantify our salaries that way.”
hugo.martin@latimes.com
Times staff writer Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City contributed to this report. | Organization Closed | August 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Los Angeles Times)'] |
Australia votes in its 2004 Federal election, with the incumbent Coalition government winning a fourth term. As a result, in December, Australian Prime Minister John Howard will become the nation's second longest–serving Prime Minister. | Prime Minister John Howard casts his vote at Putney Public School. (ABC) Voting is under way across the country, as 13 million Australians choose their next leader.
The latest opinion polls published in the newspapers today show the Coalition in front on the primary vote, but preferences are running in Labor's favour. A large media contingent followed Prime Minister John Howard as he waited in line at a public school in his electorate of Bennelong. Mr Howard was greeted by his daughter Melanie and her husband when he arrived at the Putney Public School, in Sydney's north. The Prime Minister appeared relaxed as he waited in queue to cast his vote, but admitted he is nervous about the result of today's poll.
"I have butterflies in my stomach - why wouldn't you on a day like this?" he said.
After casting his vote Mr Howard was planning to travel to some other polling booths, before spending the rest of the afternoon with family.
Federal Labor leader Mark Latham voted at Ingleburn primary school in his own safe seat of Werriwa in western Sydney.
He got lucky early with his number coming up in a spin-the-wheel fundraiser. Despite many Australians already casting their votes Mr Latham is still pushing his campaign themes of health, education and family. "We've run a very positive campaign and put the big improvements out for the country's future, and we're seeking the support of the Australian people today," he said.
Mr Latham's wife Janine Lacey was there to lend moral support to the man who wants to be prime minister.
Federal Treasurer Peter Costello voted early in his Melbourne seat of Higgins.
Mr Costello has reiterated the main thrust of the Coalition's campaign, the economy.
"With the Australian economy poised at such a difficult time, I think it's important that we keep economic management strong, interest rates low for home buyers and for businesses, and that at a time like this we remain very, very focussed on keeping Australia and its economy strong," he said.
Nationals leader John Anderson has cast his vote in his electorate of Gwydir, in north-western New South Wales.
Mr Anderson chatted with other voters as they queued at a polling booth in Gunnedah.
He says Labor has faulted in selling its policies in the last week of the election campaign, and he believes the Government will be returned.
"I just think - seat of the pants - I think the polls are showing us neutral or marginally in front, but I think that the trend lines are right," he said.
"I think the trend has been back a bit towards us in the last week, it's been a very tight campaign, a very tough one but I think on balance we'll get there."
Australian Greens leader Bob Brown and Tasmanian Senate candidate Christine Milne have cast their votes in today's federal election, and both are predicting a strong result for their party in the face of strong pro-logging pressure.
Senator Brown says he is looking forward to spending more time with Mrs Milne in the coming six years
He predicts the anti-Green lobbying will backfire.
"[There's been a] tirade of anti-Green advertising from the anti-logging industry and the Howard side of politics this morning, but I think it's going to bounce off - it'll increase the Greens' vote if anything," he said.
Polling shows Coalition ahead as voters head for the polls in the federal election.
Many voters are making their minds as they head into the polling booth.
Voters in the Sydney-based seat of Wentworth have been caught in the centre of a tug of war between conservative candidates.
John Anderson confident of Nationals performance after last elections 'wake-up call'.
| Government Job change - Election | October 2004 | ['(ABC)'] |
U.S. President Barack Obama accepts the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. | Media requires JavaScript to play. President Obama receives his Nobel Peace Prize medal - Copyright Nobel Media AB 2009/NRK
President Barack Obama has said the US must uphold moral standards when waging wars that are necessary and justified, as he accepted his Nobel Peace Prize.
In his speech in Oslo, he defended the US role in Afghanistan, arguing the use of force could bring lasting peace. He also said his accomplishments were slight compared with other laureates. Mr Obama was given the prize in October for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples". Thursday's ceremony in the Norwegian capital came days after Mr Obama announced he was sending 30,000 extra US soldiers to the war in Afghanistan. He is careful to say that America respects the cultures and traditions of others - again, trying to project the US as a defender not an aggressor.
But he also wants to stand up for "universal values". It is a difficult balancing act.
His statement that "America has never fought a war against a democracy" might raise the issue as to whether it has fought on the side of non-democracies.
There was a mixed reaction when he was named as the winner of this year's prize, becoming the fourth US president to be given the honour. Mr Obama's elevation to the rank of fellow laureates such as Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King, before he has even spent a year in office, has sparked fierce debate. Critics also said it was inappropriate for the honour to go to the commander-in-chief of a country involved in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Acknowledging the controversy, Mr Obama said he accepted the award with humility, adding: "Compared to some of the giants of history who have received this prize... my accomplishments are slight." He could not argue with those who said many previous laureates were "far more deserving" of the honour than him, he said.
Defending his Afghan troop deployment, Mr Obama said there were times when "the use of force [was] not only necessary but morally justified," as long as force was proportionate and civilian casualties minimised. "Instruments of war do have a role to play in preserving the peace", he said. "A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies," he added. "Negotiations cannot convince al-Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms." He said the US "must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war" to differentiate it from "a vicious adversary that abides by no rules".
Mr Obama also emphasised alternatives to violence, stressing the importance of diplomacy and sanctions to confront nations like Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programmes. While Russia and America were working to reduce their nuclear stockpiles, he said the international community must ensure Tehran and Pyongyang did not "game the system". "Let us reach for the world that ought to be," Mr Obama said. "We can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace." He paid tribute to anti-government demonstrators in Iran, Burma and Zimbabwe, and said the US would always stand on the side of those who sought freedom. Protests
Some anti-war demonstrators gathered outside city hall, where the ceremony was held. "We are protesting against him because... we don't think he is a man of peace," one of them told AFP news agency. Amid high security, the US president earlier signed the Nobel Prize book of previous laureates after arriving in Oslo with his wife, Michelle. There has been some disappointment in Norway at Mr Obama's decision to stay only one day, even though Nobel ceremonies are usually held over three, and decline a traditional lunch with the king. At a news conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, Mr Obama said he and his wife wished they could stay longer. In the evening, Mr Obama appeared alongside Michelle on their hotel balcony and waved to a torchlight procession below. The couple were then due to go to the traditional winners' banquet. The Nobel Prizes for chemistry, literature, medicine, physics and economics are also being presented, in the Swedish capital Stockholm. Each laureate, including Mr Obama, receives a diploma, a medal and 10m kroner ($1.4m; £865,000). Coinciding with the Nobel ceremony, a statue of Mr Obama as a young boy was unveiled in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, at a park, near where the president lived between 1967 and 1971. | Awards ceremony | December 2009 | ['(CNN)', '(New York Times)', '(BBC)'] |
English Premier League footballer Marlon King is convicted of sexual assault, imprisoned and sacked by his club Wigan Athletic F.C. | Premier League footballer Marlon King has been jailed for 18 months for sexually assaulting a woman - and will be sacked by Wigan Athletic.
The striker was repeatedly "cold-shouldered" by the student in a bar in London, Southwark Crown Court heard. King was convicted of sexually assaulting the woman and causing actual bodily harm at the bar last December. Following sentence, the jury heard the player had 13 previous convictions, including violence against women. During the trial, the court heard he groped his 20-year-old victim and then punched her, leaving her with a broken nose. 'Gratuitous violence'
The father-of-three, from Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, had insisted it was a case of mistaken identity. But he was convicted by a majority of 10-2. The assault happened at the Soho Revue Bar at a time when he was on loan with Hull City. King was celebrating two occasions - his wife's latest pregnancy and the scoring of a winning goal - with a night out in the West End. Prosecution lawyer Roger Daniells-Smith said King had struck up a conversation with his victim by saying: "Don't you know who I am? I'm a millionaire." The court heard she replied: "I don't care who you are; take your millionaire-self away from our table." He groped the woman and she told him: "Don't do that, it's not nice. Don't touch me." King was warned off her again but he continued to stroke the woman's hair and then told her she was not in his league, the court heard. After she pushed him in the chest, King lost his temper and a moment of "completely gratuitous violence" led to him "smashing" the victim to the floor, jurors were told. Two other people standing beside him were also knocked away as a result of the force of the blow he inflicted. Several witnesses testified that King was responsible, despite his denial. They included a football coach who insisted the 29-year-old Jamaican international was the assailant. Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan said King "was finished with football" at the club. "We will now be in the process of severing his contract," he told BBC Radio 5 live. "To say the least, I am really, really disappointed." Mr Whelan continued: "It's really upsetting and it just sets such a bad example for any youngster coming through who wants to be a professional footballer." In 2002 King, then playing for Gillingham, served five months of a two-year prison sentence for handling a stolen car before being released on appeal. Other previous convictions include dishonesty and a range of motoring offences, including drink-driving. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | October 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(The Times)'] |
Saudi Arabia announces the arrest of billionaire investor Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, plus at least 10 other princes, four government ministers and tens of former ministers by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman's newly formed anti-corruption agency. | Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia's newly formed anti-corruption commission arrested 10 princes and dozens of former government ministers on Saturday, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television reported, citing unnamed sources.
The arrests came soon after the commission, headed by powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was established by royal decree.
"Arrest of 10 princes and dozens of former ministers in Saudi Arabia," Al Arabiya tweeted.
There was no official confirmation of the arrests.
The 32-year-old crown prince, often known as MBS, is set to be the first millennial to occupy the throne in a country where half the population is under 25, though the timing of his ascension remains unknown.
Already viewed as the de facto ruler controlling all the major levers of government, from defence to the economy, Prince Mohammed is widely seen to be stamping out traces of internal dissent before a formal transfer of power from his 81-year-old father King Salman.
In September the authorities arrested about two dozen people, including influential clerics, in what activists denounced as a coordinated crackdown.
Analysts said many of those detained were resistant to Prince Mohammed's aggressive foreign policy that includes the boycott of Gulf neighbour Qatar as well as some of his bold policy reforms, including privatising state assets and cutting subsidies.
Sajad Hassan sat at his professor's hospital bedside for three nights, doing most of the talking as his friend and mentor breathed through an oxygen mask and struggled with a suspected COVID-19 infection. Both were confident the 48-year-old academic would be heading home soon, until a coronavirus test came back positive and physicians ordered him moved to the isolation ward — known by many at the university hospital as the “dark room” because so few who entered came out alive. Two days later Dr. Jibraeil was dead, one of nearly 50 professors and non-teaching staff at AMU, one of India's top universities, who fell victim to the coronavirus as it ripped through through the country in April and May. AMU's tragedy was repeated across India as schools suffered similar blows to their faculty, and the loss of their knowledge — and in many cases friendship and guidance — has been devastating to the academic community.
Young people who are unvaccinated and socially active may be particularly susceptible to a Delta infection.
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Photos via GettyMyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s charity and business combo venture to make and sell COVID-19 masks has cost him millions of dollars, according to the increasingly far-right conservative figure.Today his company is sitting on millions of unsold face coverings, which he now despises and wants to burn.“I can’t give them away,” Lindell told The Daily Beast in a phone interview this week. “I tried to. No one wants the things anymore.”Lindell, who clai
Rep. Ted Lieu, a Catholic, said the move was "nakedly partisan" and said "next time I go to Church, I dare you to deny me Communion."
Richard Barnett, a self-described white nationalist, was arrested days after he was photographed with his feet on Nancy Pelosi's desk.
There’s no rest for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. After hashing it out with fellow policymakers, now he's talking things out with lawmakers. The Fed Chief back on Capitol Hill - virtually, that is - tops the Reuters Business Calendar for the week of June 21.1. The Fed's learning momentsMarkets get another dose of Mr Powell on Tuesday. He will testify before a House committee delving into quote the "Lessons learned" about The Federal Reserve’s response to the global crisis. The Fed has thrown trillions of dollars at shoring up the economy. Powell's testimony comes with the Fed now ready at least to start thinking about how and when to pull back some of that extra help, given the strength of this economic rebound.Summit Place Financial Advisors President Liz Miller:"The Fed updating its economic dot plot, taking into account that we are seeing arguably a stronger opening than anyone expected in the spring of 2021, and therefore an expectation that rates will start moving up in 2023." 2. Keeping an eye on the gauge But any movement in rates or the Fed's bond-buying program will still largely depend on the data....particularly the big "I" word: inflation. The Fed’s favored inflation gauge comes out on Friday. The Core Personal Consumption Expenditures Index, excluding food and energy, otherwise known as core PCE, is expected to show a year-over-year surge of 3.5 percent for the month of May. It posted the biggest annual surge in nearly 30 years the month before. 3. Big Tech under the microscope Going back to Washington.....There's a vote on Capitol Hill on Wednesday that could mark the beginnings of a Big Tech break-up. Lawmakers on The House Judiciary Committee will vote on six anti-trust bills aimed at limiting the power of America's tech giants. Two of the bills take aim at how big companies like Amazon and Alphabet, the parent of Google, create platforms for other businesses to use...and then compete against those same businesses. Another bill would force tech companies to let consumers take their data with them when they transfer to a competing tech platform. Any of the bills that pass the committee vote would then have to be approved by the full House of Representatives.4. A real deal bandwagonReady....set.....click.....Are consumers ready for a mid-year online shopping spree? Amazon kicks off what it is calling “two days of epic deals” when it launches Prime Day, which - actually - isn't just one day. This year it’s Monday and Tuesday June 21st and 22nd. Not to be outdone, Walmart and Target are ready to go toe-to-toe with Amazon and are starting their online discounts a day earlier.5. Buckling up at the box officeBuckle your seat belts. Hollywood is about to go into hyper drive. "F9: The Fast Saga" comes out Friday June 25th with enough fast-winding twists and turns to give you whiplash. This is the latest installment in the blockbuster car-racing Fast and Furious franchise. The previous eight films have brought in some $5 billion globally, according to promotional materials. The whole gang is back, led by Vin Diesel, but cast newcomers John Cena and Cardi B join the chase....hopefully shaking things up on the big screen and at the box office.
About 84 million years ago, Earth's crust and the mantle below it rotated around the planet's inner core - causing the Earth to tip over.
In an interview with McClatchy, Anthony Fauci discusses the Delta variant and his plans to eventually return to research.
Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence was booed at what should've been a friendly crowd at the Faith & Freedom Coalition conference in Orlando.
The musician-comedian behind "Inside" has made offensive jokes in the past, but has demonstrated a clear desire to become a more thoughtful artist.
The urine test could help detect brain cancer earlier than traditional scans, improving patient survival.
The group of tubers passed over the approximately eight-foot-high Duke Energy dam along the Dan river while on a floating trip in North Carolina.
A Tory MP is facing trial accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008, it can now be revealed. Imran Ahmad Khan, 47, the Conservative MP for Wakefield, West Yorkshire, is alleged to have groped the teenager in Staffordshire. Mr Ahmad Khan, who was elected at the 2019 general election, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday by video-link from his lawyers' office. He was named on Friday after reporting restrictions were lifted. Mr Ahmad Khan has had the Tory whip suspe
The border closure will now extend into its 16th month since the start of the pandemic.
Rebekah Vardy has accused Coleen Rooney of “putting two and two together and making seven” in the latest round of the Wagatha Christie legal battle. Mrs Rooney, wife of England’s top scorer Wayne, accused fellow footballer’s wife Mrs Vardy of leaking stories to tabloid press about her after she turned detective using her own social media accounts. In a dramatic social media post in October 2019, Mrs Rooney detailed how she posted a series of fake stories about her family on her Instagram, and se
Teachers should drop the terms boys and girls in favour of “learners”, and mix up the sexes in PE classes, Stonewall has told schools. The controversial LGBT charity is urging teachers to ditch all gendered language and gendered uniforms and suggests that children should compete against the opposite sex in sport. A series of guidance documents state that uniform policies should "give the option to wear a skirt as well as the option to wear trousers". One of Stonewall’s guides said that its work
Much to the surprise of a puzzled pundit corps, history may well conclude that, while President Joe Biden and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin produced no big-deal breaking news headline, their summit may prove to be one of the 21st century’s pivotal events.
Former White House doctor Rep. Ronny Jackson and 13 other Republicans want President Joe Biden to take a mental cognition test and share the results.
The four survivors were seen struggling to stay afloat.
Alexandr Kudlay and Viktoria Pustovitova's last attempt to mend their relationship involved handcuffing themselves together. It didn't work. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | November 2017 | ['(AFP via Yahoo!)', '(The New York Times)'] |
Mount Lokon on Indonesia's Sulawesi island erupts prompting thousands of people to flee. | Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) -- More than 4,000 residents have been evacuated from a central Indonesian province after a volcano erupted, sending smoke high into the sky.
Mt. Lokon in the northern Sulawesi province first erupted Thursday night. A second eruption occurred early Friday morning, authorities said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, but teams were assessing damage, said the country's disaster management agency.
Indonesia is located on the "Ring of Fire," an arc of fault lines circling the Pacific Basin that is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. | Volcano Eruption | July 2011 | ['(AFP via ABC News Online)', '(CNN)'] |
In the United Kingdom, David Cameron and David Davis go through to a runoff vote of Conservative Party members after a second round of voting amongst Tory MPs in the party's leadership election. Liam Fox is eliminated. | Mr Cameron topped the poll, taking 90 of a possible 198 votes, while Mr Davis was second on 57. Rival Liam Fox was eliminated after gaining 51 votes.
Mr Cameron, 39, and Mr Davis, 56, will now enter a six week head-to-head campaign to woo the party grassroots.
The result of the vote of Conservative members is expected on 6 December.
Drugs question
Speaking shortly after the result a smiling Mr Cameron said he wanted to be a "voice for change, optimism and hope".
Each candidate gave a response following the announcement
Cameron's 'delight'
Davis set for 'battle'
Fox 'disappointed'
He wanted to lead a "21st-Century party that's modern" and "understands the hopes and dreams of people".
But later, in a sign the drugs question that has dogged his campaign is not about to go away, Mr Cameron was pressed in an interview on Channel 4 News into confirming he had never taken cocaine as an MP.
Mr Cameron has previously refused to answer questions about his alleged drug use, saying he had a "right to a private life before politics".
Mr Davis reacted to his second place in the MPs' ballot by saying Mr Cameron's support had "fallen a little short of their own forecasts" and said the "real battle" was just beginning.
He told reporters waiting outside the Commons that he wanted the party to "reach the parts of Britain it hasn't reached before", adding "I intend to fight for my beliefs." Dr Fox congratulated his rivals but refused to endorse either.
He said he would "listen with great interest" to their policy pronouncements.
'Great interest'
The BBC's political editor, Nick Robinson, said Mr Davis was "masses behind" in the contest, but clearly determined to fight on.
Friday - candidates meet party officials to finalise rules for campaign
October to December - 11 hustings held around UK
4 November - ballots sent out to Conservative members
6 December - final result announced
He added that the contest had already swung one way, so Mr Davis would be hoping that it would swing back again.
In the first ballot of Tory MPs on Tuesday, Mr Davis came top with 62 votes, followed by Mr Cameron on 56 and Dr Fox on 42. Ex-chancellor Ken Clarke was knocked out with 38 votes.
Caretaker
Mr Cameron, shadow education secretary, had been the bookmakers' favourite in the wake of a well received Conservative Party conference speech earlier this month.
Mr Davis, the shadow home secretary and early favourite for the contest, had seen his campaign lose momentum following a speech to the party's annual conference which some observers judged as disappointing.
Dr Fox, the shadow foreign secretary, had hoped to gain enough defectors from Mr Davis to get through.
The two remaining contenders are due to meet party officials on Friday to discuss arrangements for a nationwide series of hustings.
Michael Howard, who has formally resigned as leader, will carry on in a caretaker role until the final result is known. | Government Job change - Election | October 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity extends evidence of water–bearing minerals when studying the rock Tintina. | On this image of the rock target 'Knorr,' color coding maps the amount of mineral hydration indicated by a ratio of near-infrared reflectance intensities measured by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU› Full image and caption› Featured Curiosity Images› All Mission Images› Curiosity videos THE WOODLANDS, Texas - NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has seen evidence of water-bearing minerals in rocks near where it had already found clay minerals inside a drilled rock.
Last week, the rover's science team announced that analysis of powder from a drilled mudstone rock on Mars indicates past environmental conditions that were favorable for microbial life. Additional findings presented today (March 18) at a news briefing at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas, suggest those conditions extended beyond the site of the drilling.
Using infrared-imaging capability of a camera on the rover and an instrument that shoots neutrons into the ground to probe for hydrogen, researchers have found more hydration of minerals near the clay-bearing rock than at locations Curiosity visited earlier.
The rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam) can also serve as a mineral-detecting and hydration-detecting tool, reported Jim Bell of Arizona State University, Tempe. "Some iron-bearing rocks and minerals can be detected and mapped using the Mastcam's near-infrared filters."
Ratios of brightness in different Mastcam near-infrared wavelengths can indicate the presence of some hydrated minerals. The technique was used to check rocks in the "Yellowknife Bay" area where Curiosity's drill last month collected the first powder from the interior of a rock on Mars. Some rocks in Yellowknife Bay are crisscrossed with bright veins.
"With Mastcam, we see elevated hydration signals in the narrow veins that cut many of the rocks in this area," said Melissa Rice of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. "These bright veins contain hydrated minerals that are different from the clay minerals in the surrounding rock matrix."
The Russian-made Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument on Curiosity detects hydrogen beneath the rover. At the rover's very dry study area on Mars, the detected hydrogen is mainly in water molecules bound into minerals. "We definitely see signal variation along the traverse from the landing point to Yellowknife Bay," said DAN Deputy Principal Investigator Maxim Litvak of the Space Research Institute, Moscow. "More water is detected at Yellowknife Bay than earlier on the route. Even within Yellowknife Bay, we see significant variation."
Findings presented today from the Canadian-made Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on Curiosity's arm indicate that the wet environmental processes that produced clay at Yellowknife Bay did so without much change in the overall mix of chemical elements present. The elemental composition of the outcrop Curiosity drilled into matches the composition of basalt. For example, it has basalt-like proportions of silicon, aluminum, magnesium and iron. Basalt is the most common rock type on Mars. It is igneous, but it is also thought to be the parent material for sedimentary rocks Curiosity has examined.
"The elemental composition of rocks in Yellowknife Bay wasn't changed much by mineral alteration," said Curiosity science team member Mariek Schmidt of Brock University, Saint Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
A dust coating on rocks had made the composition detected by APXS not quite a match for basalt until Curiosity used a brush to sweep the dust away. After that, APXS saw less sulfur.
"By removing the dust, we've got a better reading that pushes the classification toward basaltic composition," Schmidt said. The sedimentary rocks at Yellowknife Bay likely formed when original basaltic rocks were broken into fragments, transported, re-deposited as sedimentary particles, and mineralogically altered by exposure to water.
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to investigate whether an area within Mars' Gale Crater has ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life. Curiosity, carrying 10 science instruments, landed seven months ago to begin its two-year prime mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. | New achievements in aerospace | March 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(NASA)', '(JPL)'] |
Former U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel James Fondren is sentenced to three years in prison for providing classified documents to Chinese spy Tai Shen Kuo. | A former Pentagon official has been sentenced to three years in prison for passing classified information to a Chinese spy.
James Fondren, 62, provided "certain classified defence department documents and other information" to a friend, who turned out to be a Chinese spy. The judge said the information passed on caused little or no harm to US national security. Fondren, a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel, is appealing. His lawyer argued that Fondren did not know that Tai Shen Kuo, a naturalised US citizen from Taiwan, was a spy. But prosecutors say that "Fondren was aware that Kuo had maintained a close relationship with an official of the People's Republic of China". Fondren is the former deputy director of the US Pacific Command's Washington Liaison Office, a position which reportedly afforded him "top secret" security clearance. The sentence comes at a time of heightened tension between the two countries, with Beijing warning on Friday that Washington's criticism of its internet controls could harm ties between the two countries. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | January 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, receives an award for "exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights" from the Sydney Peace Foundation. | WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been given a human rights medal for what has been described as "exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights".
The Sydney Peace Foundation has praised Mr Assange and WikiLeaks, saying they have brought about a watershed in journalism, freedom of information and potentially in politics.
In its 14-year history, only three other people have won the foundation's gold medal for courage in the pursuit of human rights - the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and Japanese Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda.
Mr Assange, who is fighting extradition from Britain to Sweden over alleged sex crimes, was praised for "challenging centuries-old practices of government secrecy and by championing people's right to know".
Foundation director Stuart Rees says the award was also motivated by the cowardice of the Australian Government.
"We think the struggle for peace with justice inevitably involves conflict, inevitably involves controversy," he said.
"We think that you and WikiLeaks have brought about what we think is a watershed in journalism and in freedom of information and potentially in politics."
WikiLeaks caused a diplomatic uproar late last year when it began to publish its cache of more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables containing classified material.
Some American politicians said WikiLeaks should be defined as an international terrorist organisation.
Mr Assange himself claimed publication of the cables helped shape uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East and said WikiLeaks was on the side of justice.
The foundation says Mr Assange challenged the practices of government secrecy and championed what it called the "people's right to know".
The winner of the Sydney Peace Prize, Australia's only international prize for peace, will be announced in June.
| Awards ceremony | May 2011 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
The reentry module of the Chinese manned spacecraft Shenzhou 6 lands safely in Inner Mongolia, China. (People's Daily). | Taikonaut Fei Junlong steps down the re-entry capsule.The re-entry module of China's second manned spacecraft Shenzhou-VI, with astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng onboard, touched down at the primary landing site in Siziwang Banner (county) of Inner Mongolia at 4:32 a.m. on Oct. 17, 2005 (Beijing Time).
The spacecraft, which has orbited the earth for five days, has accomplished planned experiments and accumulated valuable technical data and experiences for the development of China's manned space program since it was launched on Oct. 12, 2005. The re-entry capsule of China's Shenzhou-6 spacecraft, carrying taikonauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng, landed on earth safely at 4:33 a.m. Monday, marking a "complete success" of China's second manned space mission after it put the first Chinese national in space two years ago.
Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo declared China's second manned space mission a "complete success," claiming it a "milestone" in China's space technology development and its space experiments with human participation.
"The successful mission is of great significance for elevating China's prestige in the world, promoting China's economic, scientific and national defense capabilities and consolidating the national cohesiveness," he said at the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center.
Both taikonauts are "in fine conditions," doctors said after physical checkup upon landing. They landed just 1 km away from the preset spot after a 115-hour-and-32-minute spaceflight, which was more than five times that of China's maiden manned spaceflight two years ago.
Fei and Nie stepped down a ladder from the capsule by themselves, and were seated for a bouquet of flowers and to get used to Earth's gravity.
"We feel fine," said all-smile Fei. Nie thanked all the Chinese people for their "concern and support." Both waved flowers to the
excited welcoming crowd.
They were later fed with chocolate, Chinese herbal tea. Nie seemed in a very good appetite and took a bowl of instant noodle, before the two men were flown by two Super Puma helicopters to nearby airport where they will head for Beijing by a special plane.
The space mission have gripped the sight of the whole nation in the past five days.
"We can have a final laughter," beaming Liu Yu, commanding chief of the rocket system told Xinhua. "It was a mission perfectly fulfilled."
Television pictures showed parents of the two taikonauts burst into tears when they saw their sons emerging from the spacecraft early Monday morning.
Chinese president Hu Jintao were present at the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center to watch the lift-off on Wednesday and talked with taikonauts on Saturday. Chinese premier Wen Jiabao was at the launch site to see off the two men with best wishes before the launch.
Luckily, Nie spent his 41st birthday in space and received a phone call from his wife and daughter. The joyful daughter's sweet song "Happy Birthday to You" has warmed the hearts of millions of Chinese television viewers.
Fei and Nie blasted off Wednesday morning on China's second manned space mission. Before landing, Shenzhou-6 have been racing around the Earth one circle in every 90 minutes 343 km above the Earth at a speed of 7.9 km per second. It flew 3.25 million kilometers in space.
Fei and Nie have conducted a series of unprecedented experiments on the spacecraft, including the maneuvers between the orbital and re-entry capsules, taking on and off space suits, using space toilet and the self-test of blood pressure.
During China's maiden space flight in 2003, lone astronaut Yang Liwei never left his seat in the re-entry capsule nor take off his space suit. That space mission has made China the third country to put human into space following Russia and the United States. | New achievements in aerospace | October 2005 | [] |
A court in Turkey sentences a U.S. Consulate employee, Metin Topuz, to 8 years and 9 months in prison on charges of aiding the followers of Fethullah Gülen, the U.S.-based preacher who is accused in Turkey of being the mastermind behind a failed coup attempt in 2016 against Erdoğan. The U.S. Embassy in Ankara releases a statement on Twitter saying officials were "deeply disappointed" in the decision. | Ignoring U.S. arguments that the charges were baseless, a court convicted Metin Topuz of aiding the group that Turkey accuses of masterminding a 2016 coup attempt.
By Carlotta Gall
ISTANBUL — An Istanbul court sentenced on Thursday a U.S. Consulate employee to more than eight years in prison on charges of aiding an armed terror group, a ruling likely to exacerbate a long-running dispute between Turkey and the United States over the prosecutions of three Turkish citizens employed by the American government.
Metin Topuz had worked at the American Consulate in Istanbul for 25 years as a translator and later as an investigative assistant with the Drug Enforcement Administration, when he was detained more than two years ago.
His sentence of eight years and nine months was a setback to efforts by American officials to resolve the dispute over the detention of Mr. Topuz, 61, and two other employees of U.S. consulates who have been in jail, under house arrest or under travel restrictions since 2017. U.S. diplomats have said the charges against the employees are baseless, but Turkey has refused to drop them.
Critics have characterized the cases as political hostage-taking by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he tried to prevent several court cases against his own officials in the United States from proceeding.
Thursday’s sentencing of Mr. Topuz came amid signs that U.S.-Turkey relations, which had been damaged by the conflict in Syria and Turkey’s purchase of Russian missile-defense systems, were showing signs of improvement.
Mr. Topuz avoided the most severe outcome, as he was acquitted of four espionage-related charges, which would have carried a heavier sentence.
Instead, he was convicted of the lessor charge of aiding the followers of Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based preacher who is accused in Turkey of being the mastermind behind a failed coup attempt in 2016 against Mr. Erdogan.
The accusations in Mr. Topuz’s indictment were based on his contacts with police officers believed to be members of Mr. Gulen’s network of followers.
In his defense, Mr. Topuz said he worked primarily as a translator, liaising with Turkish law enforcement officials in the normal course of his job.
The U.S. Embassy in Ankara released a statement on Twitter saying officials were “deeply disappointed” in the decision. “We have seen no credible evidence to support this conviction and hope it will be swiftly overturned.”
“For nearly three decades, Mr. Topuz performed outstanding work appreciated and lauded by officials and citizens of both countries. Under our direction, he promoted law enforcement cooperation between Turkey and the U.S., contributing to the safety of people in both nations,” the statement said.
“The allegations made about Mr. Topuz’s official duties misrepresent both the scope and nature of the important work undertaken by our local staff on behalf of the U.S. government and in the promotion of our bilateral relationship,” it added.
U.S. officials have attended every hearing of their employees’ trials in a show of support. The Turkish judiciary, which restarted work this month after a two-month hiatus because of the coronavirus, is considered to be tightly controlled by Mr. Erdogan.
More than 20 American citizens and the three Turkish employees were swept up in mass arrests in the aftermath of the coup attempt in 2016, accused of being members of Mr. Gulen’s movement.
In total, some 70,000 people have been going through court proceedings in Turkey related to the coup attempt, some in mass trials of more than 100 people at a time. Many of the trials have taken years and are expected to continue through the appeals processes for several more years.
Another consulate employee, Hamza Ulucay, worked as a translator in the American Consulate in the southern city of Adana for 30 years. He was convicted on the same charge of aiding a terror group as Mr. Topuz in January, but received a sentence of four and a half years in prison and was released with reductions for time served. He remains under travel restrictions that prevent him from leaving the country.
The trial of a third consulate employee, Mete Canturk, who works for the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, and who was placed under house arrest for two years and is now under travel restrictions, is continuing. Another hearing is expected next week. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | June 2020 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
The Office for National Statistics in the United Kingdom states that consumer prices in Britain rose by an annualized 2.7% in April, the highest level of inflation in almost four years. | LONDON (Reuters) - British inflation hit its highest level since September 2013 last month, extending its sharp rise since the vote to leave the European Union and tightening the squeeze on living costs as a national election approaches.
Consumer prices rose by an annual 2.7 percent, data showed, and they look set to rise further due to the fall in the value of the pound and the recent rise in global oil prices.
Britain’s economy was barely ruffled last year by the shock vote to leave the EU. But the steady rise in inflation since then, combined with weak wage growth, has slowed its momentum this year.
The opposition Labour Party on Tuesday sought to highlight rising costs for voters as it launched its policy proposals for the June 8 election, pledging a higher minimum wage and state involvement in the energy sector to keep prices down.
Last week, Bank of England (BoE) Governor Mark Carney warned 2017 will be challenging for consumers, with inflation now almost certain to overtake wage growth.
“The last thing Britain needs is another real wage slump. But rising prices are hammering pay packets,” Trades Union Congress General Secretary Frances O’Grady said.
Prime Minister Theresa May called the snap election last month to strengthen her mandate to negotiate Britain’s exit from the European Union. But living standards are a big campaign issue, pushing her party into a promise to cap energy prices that breaks with its usually pro-market agenda.
Despite the rise in inflation, however, the economy is far from overheating, and all but one of the BoE’s eight policymakers voted last week to keep interest rates on hold.
The latest inflation figures were boosted most of all by rising airfares during the Easter holidays which last year took place in March. Rising clothing prices, higher car tax and electricity also pushed up consumer prices.
Many economists see more inflation ahead.
“We remain convinced that the market is underestimating the further upside for inflation from here,” Scotiabank analyst Alan Clarke said. He expects utility bills, food costs and the weak pound to put more pressure on prices in future.
Sterling briefly spiked to its highest in almost a week against the dollar before falling back.
Many economists say the impact of the fall in sterling on consumer prices will be felt more strongly in the coming months, and the central bank expects inflation to peak at nearly 3 percent by the end of this year.
Capital Economics said it expected inflation to exceed 3 percent before the end of the year but saw little sign of domestic inflation pressures becoming entrenched.
Excluding oil prices and other volatile components such as food, core consumer price inflation rose to 2.4 percent, the strongest rate since March 2013 and above economists’ expectations for a 2.2 percent rise.
Services prices - which the BoE uses as a guide to domestic inflation pressures - rose by 3 percent, also the biggest jump since September 2013, pushed up by the higher air fares.
The ONS said house prices in March rose at their weakest rate since October 2013, up 4.1 percent on the year. Prices in London rose 1.5 percent, the weakest since March 2012.
Editing by Louise Ireland
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Exclusive: Fed’s Neel Kashkari opposes rate hikes at least through 2023 as the central bank becomes more hawkish | Financial Crisis | May 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Ethiopia's ruling party EPRDF states it has won general elections when the opposition claims a victory. Voter turnout was over 90%. | But it admits opposition parties have won all 23 seats in the capital, Addis Ababa. Local reports say many key ministers have lost their seats.
Results from the country's vast rural areas were expected to turn the tally in favour of the ruling EPRDF.
Foreign observers welcomed the huge turnout at Sunday's vote as a sign of people's faith in Ethiopia's polls.
Election officials said that turnout was around 90% - higher than in previous polls. The Election Commission is not expected to announce provisional results until Saturday.
Minister of Information Bereket Simon, who is also spokesman for the ruling EPRDF (Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front) said they had won more than half of the seats in parliament despite losing seats in the capital and for the city council. "We have the majority - We can't give exact figures but we have won more than 300 seats. This is a very positive result for us," he told AP news agency.
One Ethiopian report says several ministers, including the speaker, information minister, defence minister and education minister have lost their seats. The ruling party say they have won regional assemblies in four states: South Ethiopia Peoples, Oromia, Amhara and Tigray.
Opposition parties had only 12 seats before the poll, but set a target of jointly winning 185 - enough to block legislation.
Ethiopians share their views on the elections
These are Ethiopia's third multi-party elections and the first time that foreign observers have been invited.
More than 300 foreign observers were allowed to check the vote, regarded as a crucial test of the country's fledgling democracy.
Twenty-six million Ethiopians were registered to vote at 30,000 polling stations.
The BBC's Mohammed Adow in Addis Ababa says that some voters were frustrated at waiting for many hours to get to the front of the long queues to cast their ballots.
Polling was extended in some areas.
There were some opposition complaints about the conduct of the poll.
The situation is one of calm and a massive voter turnout
Ana GomesChief EU election observer
The main opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) complained of alleged election fraud and mass arrests of their election observers but pulled back from calls to reject the entire results.
"If they have won fairly and squarely I have no problem with that, but the counting is not even over yet. It is still too early to call," said CUD leader Hailu Shawel.
But former US President Jimmy Carter said it was a "dramatic improvement" on previous parliamentary elections.
The European Union noted scattered irregularities, such as intimidation and children voting but said it was too early to reject the results entirely.
Following opposition allegations of fraud, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi ordered a month-long ban on demonstrations.
Mr Zenawi also took control of the security forces in the capital Addis Ababa, in moves he said were meant to ensure post-election stability. | Government Job change - Election | May 2005 | ['(Reuters SA)', '(News24)', '(News24)', '(BBC)'] |
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says that American and allied troops in Iraq must be used to provide humanitarian aid to Iraqis whilst the security situation is so unstable | United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has said the United States and its allies will have to provide humanitarian assistance to Iraq until security conditions improve there. His statement followed a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York with US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice on assistance for Iraq. Meanwhile, the Security Council is due to hold an open meeting on Wednesday at the request of the Arab group and the Non-Aligned Movement. The Security Council has now shifted its focus to ways of helping Iraqi civilians, but this is also proving divisive.
Ms Rice held more than an hour of talks with Mr Annan about the humanitarian situation. A statement by the secretary general afterwards warned that the UN could only give limited help until their staff was able to return to Iraq, and until then, humanitarian aid would have to be provided by the US and its coalition partners. One of the most pressing issues is the future of the oil-for-food programme, previously partly administered by the Iraqi Government, which fed much of the population. The Security Council has failed to agree on the scope of a draft resolution needed to hand control of the programme to the secretary general. There is also likely to be disagreement among Security Council members about the role of the UN in administrating a post-war Iraq.
These issues are now all likely to be debated on Wednesday's open meeting of the Security Council at which all UN member states can speak. | Famous Person - Give a speech | March 2003 | ['(BBC)'] |
At least 19 passengers were killed and more than 70 were injured, when a landslide in rain–drenched Yujiang, East China's Jiangxi Province. | By Fu Wen At least 19 passengers were killed and more than 70 were injured Sunday when a landslide in rain-drenched Yujiang, East China's Jiangxi Province, derailed a 17-car passenger train.
The train was traveling from Shanghai to Guilin in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region when a landslide struck it at 2:10 am, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The accurate number of casualties was still being verified.
Train number K859, a locomotive pulling 17 passenger cars, was traveling through a mountainous area when the landslide buried the tracks. Nine carriages jumped the tracks and toppled over, blocking the train route in both directions.
The powerful inertia of the speeding train rammed the passenger cars into a jack-knifed, zigzag pattern of twisted wreckage that scattered across the tracks in a wilderness region.
All of the injured were sent to hospitals, including 11 passengers with serious injuries. All of the remaining passengers aboard the train were rescued Sunday, CCTV reported.
Authorities did not disclose the total number of passengers on the train.
"I was sleeping when the accident happened. I felt like I was being punched several times before I lost consciousness," an injured passenger told CCTV.
Several railway attendants were injured in the accident.
By Sunday afternoon, the Nanchang Railway Bureau in Jiangxi pulled away passengers aboard eight cars that were not derailed in the accident, a website run by Jiangxi Daily said.
The train traffic on the route was resumed last night.
Local authorities organized more than 2,000 people, including armed police and a fire brigade, for the emergency rescue operation.
"The provincial fire brigade mobilized more than 150 soldiers from two cities nearby and they arrived at the scene one hour after the accident happened," Li Jian, a spokesman for the Jiangxi Fire Brigade, told the Global Times Sunday.
The fire brigade helped evacuate 280 passengers from the nine cars that jumped the tracks, Li added.
The accident halted operations Sunday on trains normally traveling between the Shanghai South Railway Station and Nanchang.
Trains from Shanghai to Southwest China's Chongqing, Guiyang and other destinations were delayed by the accident.
An express train from Kowloon in Hong Kong to Shanghai was also delayed.
Affected passengers were entitled to a total refund of the ticket and advised to check an updated timetable at railway stations in advance, the China News Service reported.
The National Meteorological Center did not issue a geological disaster warning for Yujiang on its official website Sunday. An unnamed official from the Jiangxi Meteorological Center told the Global Times Sunday that the area where the accident happened will have sunny weather today. | Mudslides | May 2010 | ['(Global Times)'] |
French and Spanish police foil an ETA car bomb plot and arrest the man who is alleged to be the organisations top bombmaker and his accomplices. | French and Spanish police foiled a car bomb plot by Basque separatist group ETA, netting its alleged top bomb maker and three colleagues in what analysts termed a major blow for ETA.
Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told reporters in Madrid the arrests in south-western France, during which police also seized explosives and detonators, were of "enormous importance".
They were the culmination of an operation begun when three other ETA suspects were arrested on the French side of the border in July in a vehicle carrying 165 kilograms of explosives, he said.
Mr Rubalcaba added the suspects had played key roles in a bomb attack at Madrid's Barajas airport last December that killed two people.
"To the question 'Were they preparing an attack?' the answer is yes, they were preparing a car bomb," Mr Rubalcaba said.
The quartet arrested in the joint Spanish-French swoop on a house in the town of Cahors included Luis Ignacio Iruretagoyena, who French and Spanish officials said was ETA's chief explosives expert.
French deputy prosecutor Jean-Michel Bourles, said the house in Cahors, rented by the suspects, contained a workshop capable of making bombs "able to make enormous explosions."
Mr Bourles added some 30 detonators had also been unearthed along with an explosive device packed with some 500 grams of pentrite, a powerful explosive, and other bomb-making equipment, including 200 kilograms of aluminium powder and 150 of ammonium nitrate.
He added police also seized two cars stolen in France.
Mr Bourles warned that despite the arrests "it is evident ETA has a habit of very rapidly preparing people for this kind of mission" in their place.
The arrests came barely a week after ETA carried out its first attack since officially ending a 15-month ceasefire on June 5 with operatives on August 26 blowing up a van outside a police barracks in Durango in the Basque region, slightly injuring two policemen.
- AFP
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AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | September 2007 | ['(Reuters via ABC News Australia)'] |
Pope Benedict XVI appoints a new head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, one of the Vatican’s three top tribunals. Archbishop Manuel Monteiro de Castro, who is serving as secretary for the Congregation for Bishops, becomes the new Penitentiary Major. He succeeds Cardinal Fortunato Baldelli, who is retiring at the age of 76. , | Pope Benedict XVI has appointed a new head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, one of the Vatican’s three top tribunals. Archbishop Manuel Monteiro de Castro, who has been serving as secretary for the Congregation for Bishops, becomes the new Penitentiary Major. He succeeds Cardinal Fortunato Baldelli, who is retiring at the age of 76. Archbishop Monteiro de Castro was born in Portugal in 1938 and ordained to the priesthood there in 1961. As a member of the Vatican diplomatic corps he served as apostolic nuncio to El Salvador, Honduras, South Africa, and Spain before his appointment in 2009 to the Congregation for Bishops. His appointment as Penitentiary Major makes him a likely candidate to receive a cardinal’s red hat at the next consistory, although his age (nearing 74) puts him close to the mandatory retirement age. Cardinal Baldelli, the outgoing Penitentiary Major, also served for years in the Vatican diplomatic corps, with postings as apostolic nuncio in Angola, the Dominican Republic, Peru, and France prior to his appointment in June 2009 to head the Apostolic Penitentiary. He remained at that post, at the wish of Pope Benedict, for nearly 18 months after submitting his formal resignation. The Apostolic Penitentiary is the Vatican tribunal with jurisdiction over matters involving the "internal forum"--the relationships involving matters of conscience between a penitent and confessor, or an individual and his spiritual director. The tribunal's competence also extends to the granting and use of indulgences. Because of the sensitivity of the issues handled by the Apostolic Penitentiary, the head of the tribunal-- known as the Major Penitentiary-- is the one member of the Roman Curia whose appointment does not lapse upon the death of the Roman Pontiff.
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | January 2012 | ['(Catholic World News)', '(Vatican Information Service)'] |
Suspected Kurdish militants fire rockets at Diyarbakr Airport in Diyarbakr, Turkey. | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Suspected Kurdish militants fired rockets at the airport in Turkey’s main southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Saturday, sending passengers and staff scrambling for shelter, Dogan news agency said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Four rockets were fired at a police checkpoint outside the VIP lounge, and passengers and staff were taken inside the terminal building for safety, the private news agency said. The attack happened not long before midnight (5.00 p.m. ET) on Saturday.
Broadcaster NTV said the rockets landed on wasteland nearby. There were no casualties and no disruption to flights, Diyarbakir governor Huseyin Aksoy told the news channel.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Diyarbakir is the main city in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast, where Kurdish militants have waged a three-decade insurgency. The attack comes days after Turkey launched a military incursion into Syria aimed at driving back Islamic State and preventing territorial gains by Kurdish fighters.
Rebels supported by Turkey fought Kurdish-backed forces in northern Syria on Saturday, and Ankara said it had launched air strikes against both Kurdish militia fighters and Islamic State.
Turkey fears Kurdish militia fighters will fill the void as Islamic State is pushed back. It wants to stop Kurdish forces gaining control of a continuous stretch of Syrian territory on its frontier, which it fears could deepen the insurgency by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants on its own soil.
Diyarbakir airport largely handles domestic flights and is served by carriers including Turkish Airlines.
The PKK, which first took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984, is considered a terrorist organization by Ankara, the United States and the European Union. A ceasefire collapsed just over a year ago, and violence has since surged.
| Armed Conflict | August 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Severe Tropical Cyclone Rusty intensifies to Category 4 status before crossing the coast of Western Australia between Port Hedland and Pardoo. | Tropical Cyclone Rusty has picked up speed and is tracking towards Western Australia's Pilbara as locals take shelter and mining sites ground to a halt ahead of its expected landfall.
The giant category four storm is about 125km north-north-east of Port Hedland and gathering strength, with winds near its eye gusting to more than 200 kilometres per hour.
The Department of Fire and Emergency Services' Les Hayter says Rusty's speed has picked up to about 8 kilometres an hour. "It's not sitting still. It's decided to make a move and it's making it reasonably quick," he said. The mining town of Port Hedland is expected to escape the worst of Rusty, with the system now expected to hit near the tiny Pilbara community of Pardoo, about 120 kilometres east of Port Hedland. Latest BOM warning | Latest DFES emergency warning
As Tropical Cyclone Rusty heads for the coast of Western Australia, find out more about these storms and how they cause so much damage.
Ian Badger at Pardoo Roadhouse says winds are strong and the rain is steady. "I've got some leaking in the roof and I've got water coming in through," he said.
"As long as the building holds together I'll be alright."
Mr Badger says besides himself, two men are seeking refuge in their truck cabin at the roadhouse. He says he is well prepared but the amount of rain hitting the region in the past few days is a concern. "It's just a matter of hanging on. The amount of water that's around is a bit worrying," he said. "The ground is very sodden, very soft. As soon as you get a get a bit of strong wind, trees start going over."
This morning the storm was around 200 kilometres across, with the eye of the storm 65km in diameter.
Forecasters say Rusty will dump up to 600 millimetres of rain in a 24-hour period, with very destructive winds in excess of 160kph expected to hit as it approaches the coast.
Port Hedland has already recorded wind gusts of up to 120kph and a red alert is in place for communities between Pardoo and Whim Creek, including Port Hedland and South Hedland.
Residents in the red alert area have been told to take shelter.
Emergency authorities are warning residents are in for a prolonged period of lockdown as the slow-moving system heads across the coast.
"Unfortunately it's not typical of the cyclones we get up here, that take about 12 hours to cross, and we say goodbye to that one, and focus on the next one," Mr Hayter said.
"I really feel sorry for the people in red alert mode at the moment. This is going to be for a very long period of time."
www.bom.gov.au
The Bureau of Meteorology's Neil Bennett warns that the system is expected to pack a punch.
"These are severe tropical cyclones. These are very, very powerful systems and even though many residents in the Pilbara have been through a number of tropical cyclones, they still bring with them an element of risk and they just can't be underestimated," he said. "We're expecting that during [today] we could see wind gusts in excess of 160kph," he said.
"[This] evening, we could see some gusts getting up to nearly 250kph."
Bureau regional director Mike Bergin says Port Hedland will experience the equivalent of Perth's entire winter rainfall in just three days. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | February 2013 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
United States-supported Somali forces shoot and kill 10 Somalis, including three children, in Lower Shebelle's Bariire village near Mogadishu. While the Somalia government reports the other dead were members of the al Shabaab militia, Lower Shabelle deputy governor Ali Nur Mohamed says the victims were all civilians, farm owners, workers and their children. The U.S. Africa Command says they are investigating these civilian casualties reports. | Somali and U.S. military officials are investigating the results of an operation conducted in southern Somalia early Friday, amid confusion about whether the attack killed civilians or al-Shabab militants.
The U.S. Africa Command said in a statement it was "aware of the civilian casualty allegations near Bariire, Somalia. We take any allegations of civilian casualties seriously, and per standard, we are conducting an assessment into the situation to determine the facts on the ground."
The Somali government initially said that eight al-Shabab fighters had been killed at a farm in a joint operation by the Somali National Army and "international partners."
The statement said, "Al-Shabab started shooting at SNA forces after our soldiers entered the farm. The individuals shooting at the SNA soldiers were al-Shabab fighters; they were not farmers." Read the statement The government later said, "It appears that there were different security operations that took place in the area."
"We also understand that there are civilian casualties in which the federal government is investigating to find out the truth about this," said the government.
Local denials
Local officials and relatives denied the victims were al-Shabab members. Officials in the Lower Shabelle region said 10 civilians, including children, had been killed in the operation.
Binti Abdullahi Diriye said her brother was among those killed.
"My brother was a poor man who was a farmer; he leaves behind nine children and a pregnant wife," Diriye told VOA's Somali service. "My brother was killed unjustly. I want revenge for my brother and compensation for the orphans."
Mukhtar Moallim Abdi, who said his son had been killed in the operation, also told VOA that the victims were civilians. He denied there was any confrontation in the area at the time of the alleged killings.
"Bariire was attacked by the Americans. We are not al-Shabab members; we are farmers and there was no confrontation," he said.
The deputy governor of Lower Shabelle, Ali Nur Mohamed, supported the account given by the relatives. He said the victims were farm owners, workers and their children. He said one of the those killed was an 8-year-old boy.
"White forces together with a few Somalis have attacked the farm; they killed nine, including small children and adults," he said, adding the 10th person died on the way to the hospital.
The bodies of those killed were displayed at a Mogadishu hospital.
U.S. role
The U.S. Africa Command confirmed in an email message to VOA Somali that American forces had played a "supporting role" during the operation at the farm near Bariire.
A small number of U.S. military personnel are in Somalia to help combat al-Shabab and protect the government.
Bariire, 55 kilometers southwest of Mogadishu, was captured by Somali government and AMISOM forces last Saturday from al-Shabab.
Witnesses told VOA Somali that on the day of the attack, they saw about a dozen white military personnel supporting Somali and African Union forces as the personnel moved into the city.
As of last week, over 200 militants had been downed in Middle and Lower Shabelle, coupled with dozens of injuries and those captured alive. | Armed Conflict | August 2017 | ['(Reuters)', '(Garowe Online)'] |
A French public prosecutor said charges against farright leader Marine Le Pen should be dropped. Le Pen is being tried for comments she made five years ago comparing Muslim street prayers to Nazi occupation. Prosecutor Bernard Reynaud said, “Madame Le Pen in denouncing prayers in public space addressed not the entire Muslim community but a minority and was only exercising her freedom of expression.” |
A French public prosecutor said Tuesday that charges against far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who is standing trial for comments she made five years ago comparing Muslim street prayers to Nazi occupation, should be dropped.
“Madame Le Pen in denouncing prayers in public space addressed not the entire Muslim community but a minority and was only exercising her freedom of expression,” the prosecutor, Bernard Reynaud, said during a court hearing, according to French news siteLe Monde.
The judgment will be handed down on Dec. 15, the site reported.
Le Pen, whoseNational Frontparty is known for its anti-immigration and anti-Islam views, has said the government is using the judiciary to deflate her party ahead of regional elections in December. The leader has worked torebrand the modern-day National Front as a less vociferous versionof the anti-immigrant party founded by her nowestranged father Jean-Marie Le Pen,who has in the past been convicted for racist speech targeting Jews.
Marine Le Pen arrived Tuesday in court to face charges of incitingracial hatredduring a rally in Lyon.
The comments in question were made in 2010. In those remarks she said: "I'm sorry, but for those who really like to talk about World War Two, if we're talking about occupation, we could talk about that [street prayers], because that is clearly an occupation of the territory."
"It is an occupation of sections of the territory, of neighborhoods in which religious law applies, it is an occupation. There are no tanks, there are no soldiers, but it is an occupation anyhow, and it weighs on people."
In July 2013, Le Pen was stripped of her European Parliament immunity over the comments. But she has questioned the timing of Tuesday’s hearing.
"We are just a month ahead of the regional elections and this case is five years old. Couldn't it wait another month?" she said to reporters as she arrived at the tribunal.
"I have the right, as a political leader, to evoke a crucial issue and it's even a duty for me to do it,” she said, describing herself as a victim of "judicial persecution.”
Le Pen, who has seen her popularity rise in France of late, faces up to a year in prison and a fine of $51,000 if found guilty. Despite the potential jail term, political experts say she could emerge from the trial even stronger among many National Front voters.
Marine Le Pen has scored high in all popularity polls before the regional elections. She's hoping to win votes in the context of Europe's refugee crisis what she calls a "migratory submersion."
"I think that acting as a victim as she does is going to be more useful than bad [to her image]," historian Jean Garrigues told the Associated Press. "We can see that this theme of an invasion that could be related to an occupation, it works. It does have a political efficiency."
Political analyst Thomas Guenole said Le Pen's trial wouldn't be problematic to the majority of National Front voters who share far-right or very conservative views.
But Le Pen has been trying in recent years to widen her base and capitalize on opposition to Europe's economic policy.
Le Pen has tried to soften the party's image since she took over from her father in 2011.
She kicked her father out of the party he founded this summer, after he repeated his view that the Nazi gas chambers were merely a "detail" of history.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | October 2015 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(Reuters)'] |
Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim fires the head of the Brazilian airports authority, José Carlos Pereira for recent problems including the crash of TAM Linhas Aéreas Flight 3054 and hires Sergio Gaudenzi, the President of the Brazilian Space Agency. | RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 4 — The political consequences of the worst plane crash in Brazil’s history continued Saturday as the new defense minister fired the president of the national airports authority. Defense Minister Nelson Jobim appointed Sergio Gaudenzi, the president of the Brazilian Space Agency, to replace Gen. José Carlos Pereira, according to Flávia Oliveira, a Defense Ministry spokeswoman. Mr. Pereira had overseen the airports authority for only 13 months.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | August 2007 | ['(New York Times)'] |
India expresses deep regret that its police had to kill at least 28 people this week in Kashmir, with its Home Affairs Minister requesting that protesters stop. | India has said it deeply regrets the loss of life in the Kashmir Valley, where at least 28 people have been killed in the past week. Home Affairs Minister P Chidambaram told parliament that the violence - which has now been reduced to isolated clashes - now had to stop. Most of the dead are protesters who have been shot by the police. Much of Indian-administered Kashmir is still under curfew amid an extremely heavy security presence on the streets. "Mindless violence and destruction of public property will not lead to any solution," Mr Chidambaram said.
"On the contrary, they will result in the loss of lives and injuries to the protesters - an outcome that is entirely avoidable," he said.
Mr Chidambaram sent condolences to the families of people who had died and appealed to parents to prevent their children from joining violent protests.
"Your children's safety and welfare is our paramount consideration as it must be yours. And I will call you to ensure that they do not join the violent protest," he said.
Mr Chidambaram insisted that the security forces had shown "commendable restraint" despite coming under repeated attacks from stone-throwing protesters that had resulted in more than 1,260 injuries over two months.
He said that there was reliable intelligence that armed militants had mingled with the crowds and fired on the security forces. The home minister said he had begun a dialogue with key individuals in Kashmir last year but it had been interrupted when a separatist leader who favoured talks was shot and badly wounded.
But the BBC's Chris Morris in Delhi says that the atmosphere now is much worse than it was then. Our correspondent says that many Kashmiris bitterly dispute government assurances that the security forces have been acting with restraint. "Once peace and order is restored, I am confident we can explore the possibility of reactivating the political process which holds the key to a solution," the minister said. | Armed Conflict | August 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Two Palestinian teenage girls, ages 14 and 16, use scissors to stab a 70-year-old Palestinian man whom they misidentified as an Israeli, and other Israeli civilians, near Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market; one of the attackers is killed and the other wounded while being subdued, and an Israeli civilian is wounded by police gunfire. | A security camera on Monday morning caught two Palestinian teenage girls armed with scissors carrying out a terror attack near Mahane Yehuda market in central Jerusalem.
The video footage shows the 14- and 16-year-old girls slashing at passersby before police approach the scene with guns drawn.
In the video, a man opens fire on one of the girls as she lunges at him. Then a uniformed man, who according to reports was a policeman, arrives and fires on the other girl, who collapses against the wall just as someone tries to hit her with a plastic chair.
One of the men then appears to kicks something out of the hand of one of the girls before returning to the other girl, who at this point is lying on the ground, and appears to fire at her again. | Armed Conflict | November 2015 | ['(Times of Israel)'] |
A former CIA officer, Kevin Patrick Mallory, is sentenced to 20 years in prison by a federal judge in Virginia for spying for China. | WASHINGTON — A former C.I.A. officer was sentenced on Friday to 20 years in prison by a federal judge in Northern Virginia for passing secrets to China in return for $25,000, bringing to a close one of several cases involving Chinese attempts to recruit former American intelligence officers.
The officer, Kevin Patrick Mallory of Leesburg, Va., had faced life in prison but Judge T. S. Ellis III decided that was too harsh. Still, it was more than the 10-year sentence that Mr. Mallory’s lawyers had argued was appropriate.
. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2019 | ['(The New York Times)', '(BBC)'] |
The meeting of Group of 7 leaders in Taormina, Italy, concludes with a disagreement on whether to uphold the Paris Agreement; U.S. President Donald Trump is the only leader not to confirm commitment to the agreement, due to his climate change denial. | Leaders of the G7 group of rich nations have failed to agree a statement on climate change.
Six world leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris accord, the world's first comprehensive deal aimed at reducing greenhouse emissions.
However, the US has refused to recommit to the agreement, saying it will make a decision next week.
Mr Trump, who once dismissed global warming as a "hoax", has previously threatened to pull out of the accord.
The Axios news site, quoting three sources, later reported that Mr Trump had told members of his inner circle that the US will withdraw from the Paris agreement.
This is Mr Trump's first G7 summit - during his first foreign trip.
G7 leaders from the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan have agreed a statement on fighting terrorism.
'America first' and cultural mishaps
The final communique issued at the G7 summit in Italy said the US "is in the process of reviewing its policies on climate change and on the Paris Agreement and thus is not in a position to join the consensus on these topics".
However, the other G7 leaders pledged to "reaffirm their strong commitment to swiftly implement the Paris Agreement".
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the discussion on climate change had been "very unsatisfactory", adding "we have a situation of six against one".
Mr Trump tweeted: "I will make my final decision on the Paris Accord next week!" His economic adviser, Gary Cohn, said Mr Trump "came here to learn. He came here to get smart. His views are evolving... exactly as they should be."
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who is also in Sicily for the meeting, told the BBC earlier that the accord would survive regardless of Mr Trump's position.
There is a new fault line within the G7. An informal G6 (Canada, Japan, the UK, France, Germany, Italy) faces an informal G1 - the US. The drafters of the summit's final communique had no way of hiding the division which exists on climate change. The statement noted simply that six countries remained committed to the Paris agreement while the US was in the process of evaluating its participation. In his closing news conference, Italy's Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni was unable to hide his disappointment with the lack of agreement. On this subject, the G1 acts alone.
The G7 has been a champion of free trade since its inception.
The leaders' last summit in Japan last year stressed the need to avoid protectionism. But this was before the election of Donald Trump and his campaign slogan of "America First".
German weekly Der Spiegel quoted Mr Trump as saying in a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Thursday that Germans were "very bad" regarding car exports to the US.
However, all G7 leaders agreed to back the final communique which pledged to "fight protectionism", while acknowledging that "trade has not always worked to the benefit of everyone".
Leaders from Tunisia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Niger and Nigeria took part in the discussions in Sicilian town Taormina earlier on Saturday.
Italy is keen to encourage the world's wealthiest nations to support African countries in developing their economies, so fewer young people will feel forced to make the dangerous journey to Europe.
However, a diplomat told Reuters that other Italian proposals - which looked to highlight the benefits of migration and promote a major initiative on food security - were dismissed ahead of the summit.
According to the source, Mr Trump's administration was unwilling to highlight benefits of human mobility, Reuters reported.
A statement originally intended to be separate and run into several pages has now been condensed to two paragraphs.
So far this year, more than 1,500 migrants are thought to have drowned in the Mediterranean.
Mr Trump described his first foreign trip as "a truly historic week for our country" and said he was "more hopeful than ever that nations of many faiths... can join together in common cause" in fighting terrorism.
He is now returning to the US, where his approval ratings are low.
US media have already been casting judgement:
Headlines in the US continue to be dominated by alleged Russian meddling in November's election, and there are whisperings of discontent within his own party over policy decisions.
Making his first foreign trip as president, he came to Sicily from Brussels where he had held talks with EU and Nato leaders.
At Nato headquarters, he complained that many Nato member states were not spending enough on defence, expecting the US to bear the burden.
Before that, he visited Pope Francis in Rome and toured the Middle East - first Saudi Arabia, then Israel and the Palestinian territories.
| Tear Up Agreement | May 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
In the Polish presidential election, frontrunner Donald Tusk of the liberal Civic Platform party receives approximately 35.8% of the vote, slightly ahead of Lech Kaczyński of the conservative Law and Justice Party with 33.3%. A run–off election between Tusk and Kaczyński will take place on October 23. | But with neither candidate near the required 50% majority needed for outright victory, a second round will be held in two weeks' time.
Ten other candidates are all trailing well behind the two front-runners.
The turnout was just under 50%, prompting former President Lech Walesa to complain that Poles were wasting the reforms he battled for in the 1980s as the leader of the Solidarity trade union. "When I fought for democracy, I thought my compatriots would use it, but now I wonder - what was all this suffering for, these searches, beatings, arrests?" he said.
Identical brother
Mr Tusk, 48, said that he was "proud of the result and proud of Poland", while Mr Kaczynski, 56, for his part was "certain that in the long run we will win". RESULTS SO FAR
Donald Tusk - 35.8%
Lech Kaczynski - 33.8%
Andrzej Lepper - 15.6%
Turnout - 49.6%
Second round on 23 October
Both men must try to win the support of voters who backed the candidates who will be eliminated from the second round. Analysts say the votes of the third-placed candidate, populist Andrzej Lepper who polled 15.6%, may well benefit Mr Kaczynski. Mr Kaczynski is also likely to attract conservative Catholics and nationalists, while Mr Tusk's strong pro-EU stance makes him more attractive to moderates and liberals. Tusk: "Proud of Poland"
Mr Tusk's Civic Platform and Mr Kaczynski's Law and Justice Party were also neck-and-neck in parliamentary elections held a fortnight ago. The two parties have started negotiations on forming a coalition in parliament.
As Law and Justice won 155 seats to Civic Platform's 133, it has nominated the new prime minister, the relatively little-known Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz.
Critics say that he was chosen in preference to Lech Kaczynski's identical twin brother Jaroslaw, in order not to dent Mr Kaczynski's hopes for the presidency.
'New republic'
Both men favour free market economics, but Mr Kaczynski puts more stress on Catholic and family values. Kaczynski thinks he is well-placed for the run-off
Mr Tusk has spoken of the "great opportunity" offered by Poland's entry to the European Union last year. But Mr Kaczynski focused his attacks on the outgoing government of ex-communists, accusing it of corruption and calling for "moral change". If elected, he wants Poland to become a new republic, the fourth in its history. The current president, former communist Aleksander Kwasniewski, is unable to stand again, having served the maximum two five-year terms permitted.
Under Poland's constitution, the president has less power than the country's prime minister, but retains a significant say in foreign policy. Mr Tusk has said that, if elected, he would seek to make more effective use of the president's powers. | Government Job change - Election | October 2005 | ['(libertarian)', '(BBC)'] |
Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, withdraws from consideration to be Secretary of Labor in President Donald Trump's cabinet. | Follow NBC News Andy Puzder, President Donald Trump's nominee for labor secretary, withdrew his nomination on Wednesday amid growing questions about his business record and past personal issues, which drew scrutiny from senators on both sides of the aisle.
Puzder, the head of CKE Restaurants, which owns Hardee's and Carl's Jr., came under harsh criticism from Democrats and liberal groups for his opposition to raising the minimum wage, previous controversial comments and the racy ads his properties have used to promote the fast-food chains.
RELATED: Everyone In Donald Trump’s Cabinet
Personal issues also complicated the nomination. A 27-year-old video from "The Oprah Winfrey Show" surfaced in which his ex-wife made domestic abuse allegations. The Oprah Winfrey Network released the video, and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions provided several viewings for committee members.
Related: Did Oprah Winfrey Torpedo Labor Nominee Andrew Puzder?
I am withdrawing my nomination for Secretary of Labor. I'm honored to have been considered and am grateful to all who have supported me.
But it was Republicans who toppled Puzder. On the day before his confirmation hearing was expected to take place, more Republicans withheld support, saying that they’d like to wait until they hear from him in the hearing.
"After careful consideration and discussions with my family, I am withdrawing my nomination for Secretary of Labor. I am honored to have been considered by President Donald Trump to lead the Department of Labor and put America’s workers and businesses back on a path to sustainable prosperity," Puzder said in a statement posted on his website.
Puzder is the first of Trump's cabinet nominees to withdraw his nomination as his passage in the Senate became more tenuous.
Senior administration officials say the demise of Puzder’s nomination became clear over a period of days. "We saw the erosion of the support" in the Senate, an official said.
Advisers say they do not believe the president specifically told Puzder to withdraw. It was described as more subtle than that, with the White House and its nominee seeing the lack of votes to support him. "We know how to count," said an official.
Puzder came under fire from Democrats concerned about his labor practices as CEO of a company that hires mostly low-wage workers and growing concern among Republicans because of his checkered personal past and his hiring of an undocumented worker in his home.
"This is a nominee, who probably is best suited, in terms of experience, knowing what to do at the Department of Labor and how to get the yoke of federal regulations off of everybody. But obviously we’ll bring up one or two concerns,” said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee with oversight of his confirmation. “I’d like to support him, but I want to go through the hearing."
Roberts was just one of the half dozen Republicans on the committee, which hosts 12 members of the GOP, to express reservations.
Some conservatives also took issue with Puzder's immigration stance, saying it is at odds with Trump. His family also employed an undocumented worker as a housekeeper, though Puzder said he was unaware she was in the country illegally.
Andy Puzder made the right & honorable choice by withdrawing from consideration as Labor Secretary.
The White House disputed the notion that Puzder had not been properly vetted prior to his selection by the president. The information about Puzder's troubles in his decades old marriage and divorce that became an impediment to confirmation had been known to the White House from the beginning, according to aides. They suggested had his confirmation process moved more swiftly, there could have been a different outcome.
Republican concerns coupled with Democrats unified opposition doomed Puzder’s confirmation.
Reports say that Andy Puzder is tired & may withdraw his @USDOL nomination. If he can’t stand the heat, he should get out of the kitchen.
Democrats, reinforced by allies in labor unions, pointed to the high number of complaints by women employees who work for his company. They also took issue with his opposition to minimum wage, overtime protections and paid sick days. They also say he objectified women with his racy television commercials.
Puzder has been unenthusiastic about the grueling process of revealing personal and financial information to the Senate for confirmation. His record has been scoured and his workplace practices have been highly criticized.
His confirmation hearing was postponed four times because he failed to turn in the required paperwork.
Democrats and allied groups fiercely opposed Puzder. They bought television advertisements opposing him, including one that launched Wednesday in Maine and Alaska to target Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski.
Democrats tout Puzder’s defeat as a win.
"There is some good news today for women and workers in America," said Sen. Patty Murray, top Democrat on the HELP Committee, on the Senate floor.
The bar to defeat a nominee has dramatically risen because of rule changes in 2013 that allow cabinet nominees to pass the Senate with the support of 51 senators instead of 60, meaning it takes bipartisan opposition to defeat a nominee.
Labor unions also celebrated his withdrawal. Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO, said Puzder's withdrawal is "great news" for workers.
"We rallied in towns and cities across the country, flooded Senate offices with calls and e-mails and highlighted Puzder’s terrible track record. The American people want a Labor Secretary who will hold employers accountable for paying a fair wage and providing a safe workplace while ensuring our right to a voice on the job," Trumka said.
President Donald Trump is now tasked with naming a new labor secretary.
If President Trump is remotely serious about standing up for workers, he will nominate someone for Labor Secretary that champions workers’ rights rather than suppresses them," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
Looking to a new choice for the cabinet position, aides caution that it's too soon to have a firm short list and the president likes to make a personal connection but acknowledged there are some names floating.
Advisers indicated that Peter Kirsanow, a Cleveland attorney and former member of the National Labor Relations Board and current member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, has already been in their orbit.
Kirsanow was among many job candidates who met then President-elect Trump at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, in November.
Advisers would not confirm other names being publicly reported. Asked about reports that Catherine Templeton and Joseph Guzman were among those being considered, an official would only tell NBC News, "You’re close."
Templeton, South Carolina’s former director of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, visited Trump Tower in New York on Dec. 5. Guzman, assistant professor at Michigan State University’s School of Human Resources and Labor Relations, was seen at Trump Tower on Jan 3.
Andrew Rafferty has been a political reporter for NBCNews.com since 2013. Rafferty writes and reports on politics for the web, and shoots and produces video for all NBC platforms.
Prior to joining NBCNews.com, Rafferty was a campaign reporter covering the 2012 presidential election. Rafferty was on the road for both the Republican primaries and general election, providing content for both the web and television. | Withdraw from an Organization | February 2017 | ['(NBC News)'] |
India hangs convicted rapist and murderer Dhananjoy Chatterjee at dawn in Alipore jail, Kolkata – the country's first execution in nine years. | Dhananjoy Chatterjee, 39, was hanged at dawn at the Alipore Central Jail in Calcutta where he had spent the last 13 years in solitary confinement. Chatterjee was convicted for the 1990 rape and murder of 16-year-old Hetal Parekh, who lived in the building where he worked as a security guard.
Demonstration
"Dhananjoy Chatterjee was hanged at 0430 (2330 GMT)," Inspector General of Prisons Joydeb Chakraborty told reporters.
Chatterjee's family did not collect his body for cremation.
This is a black day in our village
Prabhat ChatterjeeFriend of the convict's family
Mourning in convict's village
A convoy of police vehicles escorted the ambulance carrying his body to the crematorium, where a local social welfare organisation had arranged for the last rites.
The BBC's Subir Bhaumik says Chatterjee went calmly to the gallows on his birthday with a copy of Bhagavad Gita, one of Hinduism's most sacred texts.
Prison guards told the BBC that Chatterjee spent a sleepless night before the execution, and refused food.
In the days leading up to the execution Chatterjee listened to Hindu devotional songs in his solitary cell, they said.
Hangman Nata Mullick was the chief executioner
Demonstrators lit candles, held anti-death penalty banners and sang songs outside the prison but left at the scheduled hour of the execution. "120 countries abolished death penalty. Why not India?" said a banner. "Abolish death penalty!" said another.
Some protesters sang folk star Pete Seeger's We Shall Overcome during their night-long vigil outside the jail.
Human rights activist Sujato Bhadra told the BBC they would begin a "door to door campaign" to abolish death penalty.
President APJ Abdul Kalam rejected a plea for clemency last week and the Supreme Court rejected another appeal on Thursday.
The execution was carried out by 83-year-old hangman Nata Mullick, assisted by his 21-year-old grandson, Prabhat.
Mr Mullick fell ill after the hanging of Chatterjee and had to be taken home on a stretcher with saline. The executioner - who has become a celebrity and given scores of interviews to the media - could barely speak after the hanging. Prison officials said he had been drinking heavily during the last three days. Suicide threat
Chatterjee had asked for his kidneys and eyes to be donated after his death.
Protesters held a vigil outside the prison
A large police team was deployed in Chatterjee's village, where his family had threatened to commit mass suicide if he was executed.
Chatterjee's lawyers had argued his conviction was based on circumstantial evidence and that DNA testing was not carried out.
Most people in West Bengal support the death penalty in this case.
But some human rights groups said a life sentence would have been a more appropriate punishment.
The death penalty is rarely carried out in India. It is usually reserved for particularly gruesome or politically sensitive cases.
The assassins of India's independence leader, Mahatma Gandhi, and former prime minister, Indira Gandhi, were among those executed in the past 50 years. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2004 | ['(BBC)'] |
British fashion designer Alexander McQueen is found dead at his home in London at the age of 40, on the eve of his mother's funeral, in an apparent suicide. | Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Alexander McQueen on winning British designer of the year in 2003
One of the UK's most influential fashion designers, Alexander McQueen, has been found dead at his London home.
The death of Mr McQueen, 40, is not being treated as suspicious, the Metropolitan Police said. Reports that the four-time British designer of the year had taken his own life have not been confirmed. His family are said to be "devastated" at the "tragic news", according to a statement which added that they shared "a sense of shock and grief". In a message on his Twitter page on 3 February, Mr McQueen said his mother had passed away. Mr McQueen won the distinction of being named British designer of the year four times between 1996 and 2003 and was also awarded the CBE. 'Shock and grief'
The London-born designer started his career as an apprentice in Savile Row with Anderson and Sheppard before going on to work for Gieves and Hawkes.
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Alexandra Shulman, editor of British Vogue: "He wasn't afraid to push at the boundaries"
In 1996, the man nicknamed "the hooligan of English fashion", with his close-cropped hair and Doc Martens, was named head designer at the Paris couture house of Givenchy. Mr McQueen's close friend and fashion icon Isabella Blow, who helped kick-start his career, killed herself in 2007. A statement released by his office - referring to the designer by his given first name, Lee - read: "On behalf of Lee McQueen's family, Alexander McQueen today announces the tragic news that Lee McQueen, the founder and designer of the Alexander McQueen brand, has been found dead at his home.
"At this stage it is inappropriate to comment on this tragic news beyond saying that we are devastated and are sharing a sense of shock and grief with Lee's family. "Lee's family has asked for privacy in order to come to terms with this terrible news and we hope the media will respect this." His death came days before London Fashion Week, and as final preparations were being made for a spring collection to be unveiled in Paris. On 3 February, he wrote on his Twitter page that his mother Joyce had passed away the day before, adding: "RIP mumxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx." Four days later he wrote that he had had an "awful week" but said "friends have been great", adding: "now i have to some how pull myself together".
Tributes have been paid to Mr McQueen from across the fashion world and beyond. Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw said he had "made an outstanding contribution" to British fashion. A statement released on behalf of the model Kate Moss said she was "devastated". The designer Katherine Hamnett said: "He was a genius. What a terrible, tragic waste." Alexandra Shulman, editor of British Vogue, said Mr McQueen had influenced a whole generation of designers. She added: "His brilliant imagination knew no bounds as he conjured up collection after collection of extraordinary designs.
"His death is the hugest loss to anyone who knew him and for very many who didn't." Designer Matthew Williamson said he was "shocked and deeply saddened". Paul Smith paid tribute to "a very talented and creative designer". Mr McQueen's body was removed from the house and taken away in a private ambulance at 1646 GMT. A man with short blond hair, who said he was Mr McQueen's boyfriend, had been allowed inside at 1615 GMT. Staff were in tears at his company headquarters in Farringdon, central London. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "We were called by London Ambulance Service at about 10.20am this morning to reports of a man found dead at an address in Green Street, W1. "He is believed to be 40 years old and from London. Next of kin have been informed, however we await formal identification before releasing the name of the deceased." | Famous Person - Death | February 2010 | ['(BBC News)', '(The Sydney Morning Herald)', '(The New York Times)', '(Irish Independent)', '(The New Zealand Herald)'] |
Voters in France begin voting in the first round of regional elections just three weeks after the deadly Islamic State militant attacks in Paris. Exit polls show strong gains for the far-right National Front which is leading in six regions and reshape the political landscape after decades of domination by the centre-left and the centre-right coalitions. Midday voter participation is 16.27 percent, marginally higher than five years ago. There are 44.6 million eligible voters. | PARIS (Reuters) - France’s far-right National Front pulled off a historic win on Sunday, topping the vote in the first round of regional elections, in a breakthrough that shakes up the country’s political landscape before 2017 presidential elections.
Hollande votes in regional elections
Boosted by fears over the Islamic State attacks that killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13, as well as by record unemployment and immigration, Marine Le Pen’s party secured 29.4 percent of the vote nationally, the interior ministry said, with over 85 percent of the votes counted.
That is the highest score ever for the anti-Europe, anti-immigration party, which came first in six regions out of 13.
“This is a historic, extraordinary result,” FN lawmaker Marion Marechal-Le Pen told TF1 television. “The old system died tonight.”
Twenty-five year old Marechal-Le Pen, the granddaughter of party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and niece of party leader Marine, led the first round in southeast France with 42 percent - twice her grandfather’s score there in 2010.
Run-offs will be held on Dec. 13.
Even one outright victory would be a major boost for Le Pen, who wants a base of locally elected officials to help her target power at the national level.
Her eye is on the 2017 presidential and parliamentary elections, with French politics now clearly a three-way race after Sunday’s election, ending decades of domination by the Socialists and conservatives.
While the FN is well placed to win one or more regions in the Dec. 13 run-off, especially after Marine Le Pen attracted over 41 percent of the votes in the north, the Socialist party lowered its chances of doing so by announcing that it was pulling its candidates out of the race there and in the southeast.
The Socialist party is putting up a “barricade” to the far-right where it is far behind, party chief Jean-Christophe Cambadelis said. “The Left is the last shield of democratic France against the xenophobic far-right,” he said.
However, opinion polls before the election had shown that Le Pen could win even if the Socialists pulled out.
“
Right-wing daily Le Figaro’s front page on Monday will read “The Shock,” while left-wing daily Liberation headlines “It’s getting closer,” referring to the party’s quest for power.
The FN’s success comes as a wave of hundreds of thousands of refugees from conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa boosts support for eurosceptic parties across Europe, from Germany’s AfD party to Britain’s anti-EU UK Independence Party and the Law and Justice government in Poland.
Long content with attracting protest votes, the FN has changed strategy since Le Pen took the party over from her father Jean-Marie in 2011, seeking to build a base of locally elected officials to target the top levels of power.
The FN has in the past won control of less than a dozen French towns, but has never taken an entire region.
Former President Nicolas Sarkozy ruled out any pact with President Francois Hollande’s Socialist party to keep the far-right out.
Sarkozy’s conservative Republicans party and their allies came second in the overall national vote, at just under 27 percent, behind the far-right National Front but ahead of the Socialists at 22.7 percent, according to an interim count of the votes.
The conservatives and their allies were leading in four regions, including Paris, and the Socialists in three. Sarkozy, who just a few weeks ago was hoping for a landslide victory that would boost his chances for 2017, faces a smaller victory than expected on Dec. 13 because of the FN’s growing popularity.
Hollande’s Socialists, who had won all but one region in 2010, face major losses next week but can hope to win points in the longer term with their decision to pull out of some regions to try and keep the FN out of power there.
French regions rule over local transport and economic development as well as high schools and vocational training, with beefed-up powers after a reform that cut their numbers from 22 to 13.
| Government Job change - Election | December 2015 | ['(Reuters)', '(France 24)', '[permanent dead link]', '(France24)'] |
An Egyptian Army raid in central Sinai kills at least 14 ISIL militants. | Egyptian soldiers killed 14 militants and arrested ten others in a raid in central Sinai, the military said on Monday.
The operation over the past five days destroyed three car bombs and 10 other explosive devices and seized weapons, communication devices and military clothing, the army spokesman added.
An Islamist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula has gained pace since the military toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement, in 2013 following mass protests against him.
Sinai Province, the militant group behind the insurgency, pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2014 and has been accused of killing hundreds of soldiers and police since then.
Militant activity in central Sinai is less frequent than in its more restive north, where Islamic State attacks on military and police checkpoints are common. | Armed Conflict | February 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Current Barclays Capital chief Robert Diamond, one of the world's highest paid bankers, is to become chief executive of Barclays Bank plc succeeding the present incumbent John Varley next year. | One of the world's highest paid bankers, Bob Diamond, is to become chief executive of Barclays.
The American, who has made about £100m as head of the bank's investment arm Barclays Capital, will replace the current chief executive John Varley next year. Mr Varley was credited with steering Barclays through the financial crisis.
Meanwhile, HSBC chairman Stephen Green is also moving on to become a government trade minister.
Mr Green will take up the position of minister for trade and industry from January, ending his 28-year career at HSBC, having spent three years as chief executive and four years as chairman. The move was in response to a request from the prime minister, HSBC said.
BBC business editor Robert Peston said Mr Green's appointment by the coalition government "will doubtless be heralded as a coup by the prime minister" even though the record of business people in government has been "patchy".
Meanwhile Bob Diamond's appointment as Barclays' new boss will reinforce a view that Barclays sees its future as a global investment bank, he said. Marcus Agius, Barclays chairman, called Mr Diamond "superbly qualified", with "a proven track record as a business leader". "I am honoured by the board's confidence in me and greatly motivated by the challenge of leading Barclays during the critical period ahead," Mr Diamond said. "As a leading global universal bank, Barclays has the right model, the right strategy and above all the right people to deliver for all our stakeholders."
His promotion means that Mr Diamond can expect to earn up to £11.5m a year - although some of this will come as part of long-term incentives and will not be paid immediately.
His base salary will be £1.35m, Barclays said, with the rest awarded in bonuses.
"The compensation arrangements have been benchmarked against a peer group of global universal banks, industrial companies and financial services institutions," the bank said. But Robert Peston warned that the rewards may be controversial.
"At a time when the economy remains weak, this package is likely to spark widespread criticism," he said, though he added that the choice of Mr Diamond was no surprise. "Even Mr Diamond's most jealous rivals would concede that he has done an impressive job in building up Barclays Capital; and that it's the growth at Barcap which has turned Barclays into a leading global financial institution."
Investors appeared unimpressed by the news, however, with Barclays shares falling more than 3% in morning trading on Tuesday. Barclays reported profits of £3.95bn for the first half of 2010, with the vast majority coming from Barclays Capital.
BarCap will now be run by Barclays executives Jerry del Missier and Rich Ricci, who will become its co-chief executives. While formally announcing Stephen Green's departure, HSBC did not name his replacement as chairman. Mr Green follows two other former business leaders, Mervyn Davies and Sir Digby Jones, into the business department. The relationship between Mr Green and Business Secretary Vince Cable will be closely watched, however, as they appear to disagree on proposals to break up big banks. Mr Cable chairs the banking commission currently looking at how to divide banks into their retail and investment banking operations. Mr Green, as head of one of the world's biggest banks, has expressed concern over such moves. Barclays
HSBC
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | September 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Ján Lunter defeats Marian Kotleba in the Slovakian regional election held in the Banská Bystrica Region. Direction – Social Democracy loses four regions to center-right opposition candidates. | BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - The far-right People’s Party-Our Slovakia lost Saturday’s regional elections, turning the Central European country against the trend of far-right gains in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic in recent months.
Right-wing and anti-immigrant parties have been on the rise across Europe after years of slow economic growth and the arrival of more than a million migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa.
Slovakia’s economy has boomed and the country has seen little immigration, but rising public anger over graft scandals linked to conventional parties has generated support for fringe parties and protest groups.
Regional election four years ago saw a surprising first-time victory of People’s Party chairman Marian Kotleba as governor in Banska Bystrica, central Slovakia, and his party won 8 percent of the vote and its first-ever seats in national parliament last year.
Support for the party, which has launched a petition to hold a referendum to exit the EU and NATO, has since risen to about 10 percent, making it the third strongest group after leftist Smer and euroskeptic liberals, according to opinion polls.
On Saturday, Kotleba lost the reelection bid to an entrepreneur Jan Lunter, a non-partisan endorsed by all parties except the far-right, near-complete results from the Statistics Office showed on Sunday.
Kotleba’s right hand, the party’s deputy chairman Milan Uhrik also lost the governor’s race in the southwestern Nitra region.
Kotleba and two other lawmakers are facing extremism charges and prosecutors took steps in May to ban the entire party, saying it posed a threat to Slovakia’s democratic system.
The party, whose members have organized torch-lit marches wearing black uniforms modeled on a World War Two Nazi puppet state, denies any links to fascism. Last year they started patrolling trains, some carrying legally-held weapons, in regions with a strong Roma population.
In another upset, Prime Minister Robert Fico’s leftist Smer party only won two reelection bids, losing four regions to center-right opposition candidates, a sign of its weakening grip on power in the euro zone country.
General elections last year saw Smer’s support shrink to 28.3 percent from 44.4 percent in 2012, but it is still the strongest party with double the support of the euroskeptic liberal Freedom and Solidarity party, whose candidate was elected governor of the capital Bratislava region.
| Government Job change - Election | November 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Salva Kiir has been sworn in as the Vice–President of Sudan, following the recent death of John Garang. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has threatened to close down newspapers which continue to publish "conspiracy theories" about Garang's death. | Mr Kiir succeeds former rebel leader Mr Garang, who died three weeks after becoming vice-president as part of a deal to end 21 years of conflict.
He pledged to continue Mr Garang's agenda and implement the peace deal.
Mr Garang's death in a helicopter crash on 30 July should not undermine moves towards national unity, Mr Kiir said.
He urged all signatories to the peace deal to work towards making Sudanese unity attractive to the people of southern Sudan.
He rebuffed suggestions that he was in favour of independence for the south and pledged to follow the path set down by Mr Garang.
"It is a dangerous sport to second-guess what Salva Kiir stands for," he said.
.
The ceremony was a sombre affair, half a eulogy to Mr Garang, half a celebration of Mr Kiir's new post, reports Reuters news agency.
There were none of the huge, jubilant crowds seen when Mr Garang was sworn in.
Mr Kiir swore allegiance to Sudan in front of President Omar al-Bashir.
He praised Mr Bashir's work on the peace agreement, but warned that Sudan's leaders must live up to high expectations.
Comprehensive peace and "justice to the memory of John Garang" required a quick resolution to the ongoing conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region, Mr Kiir said.
"It is neither my intention to depart from the road traced by John Garang or to depart from the objectives of the SPLM [Sudan People's Liberation Movement]," he told those assembled.
"This is the last chance for Sudanese unity and it is incumbent upon us to work towards realising it."
Referendum
The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Khartoum says there have been questions about whether Mr Kiir shares the same commitment to Sudanese unity as Mr Garang.
Salva Kiir (l) promised to work with President Omar al-Bashir (c)
After arriving in Khartoum on Wednesday, Mr Kiir appealed for calm after riots following Mr Garang's death left at least 130 dead.
The civil war pitted the Muslim north against Christians and animists in the south, leaving some 1.5 million people dead. Under January's peace deal, the SPLM and the government agreed to share wealth and power. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | August 2005 | ['(BBC)', '(BBC)'] |
A 5.9 magnitude earthquake hits northern Chile. | A moderate earthquake measuring 5.9 hit northern Chile early on Saturday in the region's latest seismic activity after last year's 8.8 magnitude quake, US seismologists said.
The quake struck at 6:59 am (1059 GMT) and was centered about 135 kilometres (84 miles) north-east of the town of Iquique, according to the US Geological Survey.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The reading was based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale, now used by US seismologists, which measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released.
Chileans are still jittery after the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the country in February 2010. That quake and subsequent tsunami killed 524 people. - Sapa-AFP | Earthquakes | April 2011 | ['(IOL)'] |
An earthquake measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale occurs in the Pacific Ocean near Chile sparking a tsunami warning. At least five people die. , , | A powerful magnitude-8.3 earthquake hit off Chile's northern coast Wednesday night, causing buildings to sway in the capital of Santiago and bringing flooding from small tsunami waves in some shore towns.
Officials reported three deaths. There were no reports of serious damage hours after the quake, but officials were still checking the region late into the night.
Authorities had issued a tsunami alert for Chile's entire Pacific coast, and the tremor was so strong that people on the other side of the continent, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, reported feeling it.
Numerous strong aftershocks, including one measuring 7.0 magnitude and three above 6, rattled the region after the first major tremor since a powerful quake and tsunami killed hundreds in 2010 and leveled part of the city of Concepcion in south-central Chile.
"Once again we must confront a powerful blow from nature," President Michelle Bachelet said, addressing the nation late Wednesday.
Bachelet said three people had been killed in the quake but gave no details. She urged people who had been evacuated from coastal areas to stay on high ground until authorities could fully evaluate the situation early Thursday.
Late Wednesday, authorities lifted the tsunami warning for Chile's far southern regions. The warnings remained in effect everywhere else, and authorities said school classes would be canceled in most of the country Thursday.
Jorge Medina, a Santiago resident, said he was in an aerobics class when the quake hit.
"People started screaming that everything was shaking," he said.
Officials ordered people to evacuate low-lying areas along the 2,400 miles (3,900 kilometers) of Chile's Pacific shore, from Puerto Aysen in the south to Arica in the north. Fishing boats headed out to sea and cars streamed inland carrying people to higher ground. Santiago's main airport was evacuated as a precaution and authorities announced classes would be suspended in the port city of Valparaiso on Thursday.
Chile state TV showed water flowing in streets of Concon, a coastal town known for its beautiful beaches that is close to Valparaiso. Higher water was also seen in other cities but no destructive high waves had been reported.
Authorities said some adobe houses collapsed in the inland city of Illapel, about 175 miles (280 kilometers) north of Santiago. Illapel is about 34 miles (55 kilometers) east of the quake's epicenter.
Illapel's mayor, Denis Cortes, told a local television station that a woman had been killed in the city but declined to give any details.
Electricity was knocked out, leaving the city in darkness. "We are very scared. Our city panicked," Cortes said.
The U.S. Geological Survey initially reported the quake at a preliminary magnitude of 7.9 but quickly revised the reading upward to 8.3. Chilean authorities put the magnitude at 8.4.
U.S. officials said the quake struck just offshore in the Pacific at 7:54 p.m. (6:54 p.m. EDT, 1154 GMT) and was centered about 141 miles (228 kilometers) north-northwest of Santiago. It said the quake was 7.4 miles (12 kilometers) below the surface.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially issued a tsunami watch for Hawaii, but later downgraded its advisory and said no major tsunami was expected.
A magnitude-8.8 quake and ensuing tsunami in south-central Chile in 2010 killed more than 500 people, destroyed 220,000 homes, and washed away docks, riverfronts and seaside resorts. That quake released so much energy, it actually it shortened the Earth's day by a fraction of a second by changing the planet's rotation.
The quake had huge ramifications, both political and practical, prompting the Andean nation to improve its alert systems for both quakes and tsunamis.
While Wednesday's tremor was strong by any estimation, the 2010 quake was 5.6 times more powerful in terms of energy released, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
"The tsunami potential may be the biggest issue," said USGS seismologist Paul Earle.
Chile is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries because just off the coast, the Nazca tectonic plate plunges beneath the South American plate, pushing the towering Andes cordillera to ever-higher altitudes.
The strongest earthquake ever recorded on Earth happened in Chile — a magnitude-9.5 tremor in 1960 that killed more than 5,000 people.
———
Associated Press writers Eva Vergara and Patricia Luna in Santiago, Debora Rey in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report. | Earthquakes | September 2015 | ['(AP via ABC News America)', '(USGS)', '(CNN)'] |
The Spanish "Indignants" protest movement celebrates its first anniversary, with at least 100,000 people gathering in Spanish cities to protest against the politicians and bankers widely blamed for the country's economic downturn. Similar protests take place in other world cities, including London, Lisbon, Frankfurt and Tel Aviv, as part of a global day of action. | Tens of thousands of people have protested in a number of Spanish cities to mark the first anniversary of the "Indignants" movement.
The protesters had pledged to occupy Madrid's Puerta del Sol square.
But police moved in to disperse them after they ignored a midnight deadline to leave the square.
The movement was formed out of anger at the impact of Spain's deepest economic crisis in decades. Unemployment hit a record high in April.
The centre-right government has recently announced fresh austerity measures.
The turnout in Madrid was huge and would certainly have met organisers' expectations, says Guy Hedgecoe, reporting for the BBC from Madrid.
Spanish authorities had said they wanted the protesters to disperse by midnight local time (22:00 GMT) but many ignored the time limit.
Police vans eventually moved in and appeared to have cleared protesters from the square. The atmosphere in other parts of the city centre was reported to be tense on Sunday morning but there were no reports of violence.
"Today's goal is to recover the public spaces," protester Sofia Ruiz earlier told Reuters.
"It is also a way to celebrate that we have been existing for one year and that we are going to be there until the system changes or we are listened to and they take into account our claims."
Last year the Indignants established a protest camp in Puerta del Sol, but the authorities had vowed they would prevent any protesters from staying overnight in the square.
There were some 2,000 riot police on duty.
At least 45,000 people also took to the streets in Barcelona, police said, although organisers put the attendance in the hundreds of thousands.
Barcelona protester Jose Helmandez told the BBC he could not find a job in his field despite being qualified as a genetics and molecular biology doctor.
"A lot of people are leaving the country to find work, even if they end up not doing something they are qualified to do," he said.
"I was living in France but returned to Spain almost two years ago, and all I can find are short-term jobs."
Some have criticised the movement for having little impact on Spanish politics over the past year. The government of conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, elected last November, has introduced budget cuts and tax rises.
Mr Rajoy has also announced deregulation of the labour market, angering Spanish unions. Similar protests took place in other cities in Spain and across the world as part of a global day of action, some of them staged by the Occupy movement:
Meanwhile, in the latest attack on symbols of Italy's austerity policies, a tax office has been firebombed in the city of Livorno. No-one was hurt.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | May 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters via Yahoo News)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(Wall Street Journal)'] |
The trial of former Prime Minister of Iceland Geir Haarde on charges of negligence in relation to the financial crisis begins in Reykjavík. | The trial of former Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde, on charges of negligence over the 2008 financial crisis, has begun in Reykjavik.
Mr Haarde is thought to be the first world leader to face criminal charges over the crisis.
He rejects the charges as "political persecution" and has said he will be vindicated during the trial.
The country's three main banks collapsed during economic turmoil and the failure of Icesave hit thousands.
The collapse led to a dispute over compensation between the UK and Iceland, which remains unresolved.
The proceedings are being held at the Landsdomur court in the first case for the Reykjavik-based tribunal.
Some Icelanders see the trial of Mr Haarde as scapegoating, while others argue that public accountability is essential following the country's financial collapse.
Iceland was plunged into a deep recession following the collapse of its three banks, including Icesave's parent company Landsbanki, in autumn 2008.
Mr Haarde, 60, led the Independence Party government at the time.
He is accused of being negligent because he had not ensured financial safeguards were in place. He pleaded not guilty.
The former premier says he was only doing what he thought was best for the country at the time.
"I reject all accusations, and believe there is no basis for them," Mr Haarde told the court as he took the stand.
He said it was "the first time I get a chance to answer questions regarding this case".
Before the case opened he had sought to have all charges dismissed, calling the proceedings "preposterous'' and saying that his conscience was clear.
When Icesave collapsed, the then UK Prime Minster Gordon Brown accused his Icelandic counterpart of "unacceptable" and "illegal" behaviour after Iceland said it could not give a guarantee to reimburse UK customers of the online bank.
In response, Mr Haarde accused the UK government of "bullying" and bringing down one of its other banks after the Treasury froze the assets of Icelandic institutions in the UK.
A final attempt by Mr Haarde's independence party to have the charges dropped was rejected last week in parliament.
The trial is expected to last until mid-March, with the court taking another four to six weeks to deliver its verdict. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | March 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
An 82-year-old Brazilian Catholic priest from Arapiraca is defrocked after being filmed on camera engaging in sexual activity with a male teenage altar attendant. The activity was filmed by an alleged abuse survivor and broadcast on a news channel this week. | Sexual abuse of children by priests is being investigated in the Roman Catholic church in Brazil.
The Vatican has confirmed that three priests are under investigation. The three have been suspended and one has already been charged by police.
The scandal emerged when television station SBT broadcast hidden-camera video footage. The footage showed an 82-year-old priest having sex with a 19-year-old man. In the same programme, three former altar boys gave accounts of sexual abuse by priests.
In Chile, a Spanish priest faces trial later this month for possession of child pornography.
Recently child sex abuse scandals involving the Roman Catholic church have emerged in the United States, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | March 2010 | ['(AHN)', '(CNN)', '(Radio Netherlands Worldwide)', '(The Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
Parisian police fire tear gas and water cannons at protestors and arrest around 105 people on the anniversary of the first yellow vest protests. | PARIS (Reuters) - Demonstrators torched cars and pelted police with stones and bottles and police fired tear gas and water cannon in Paris on Saturday as rallies to mark the first anniversary of the anti-government “yellow vest” demonstrations erupted into violence.
Paris police fire tear gas on 'yellow vest' protests anniversary
01:18
A total of 28,000 people demonstrated across France on Saturday including 4,700 in Paris, the interior ministry said.
This was more than in recent weeks but 10 times less the record 282,000 estimated for the whole country on Nov. 17, 2018, the first day of the protests.
In Paris, police took 124 people in for questioning and 78 people were in custody , the authorities said.
Demonstrators, many clad in black and hiding their faces, vandalized an HSBC bank branch at the Place d’Italie. They set trash bins on fire, hurled cobblestones and bottles at riot police, and erected barricades.
Several cars were set ablaze. Police responded with tear gas and blasts from water cannon.
Clashes also broke out between demonstrators and police near the Porte de Champerret, close to the Arc de Triomphe, as protesters prepared to march across town toward Gare d’Austerlitz.
Police also intervened to prevent a few hundred demonstrators from occupying the Paris ring road.
Paris police prefect Didier Lallement canceled permission for a scheduled demonstration in view of the violence.
There were still a few scattered clashes in Les Halles area in central Paris by early evening.
In other cities, yellow vest demonstrations were largely peaceful, with 1,000 people marching in Marseille in southern France.
The yellow vest protests, named for the high-visibility jackets worn by demonstrators, erupted in November 2018 over fuel price hikes and the high cost of living. The demonstrations spiraled into a broader movement against President Emmanuel Macron and his economic reforms.
The protests have lost strength in recent months but leaders called for people to turn out on Saturday to mark the anniversary.
Protests have been banned near tourists spots such as the Eiffel Tower and 20 subway stations were closed on Saturday.
The yellow vest movement was one of the toughest challenges to Macron’s presidency before it dwindled in the early summer.
It evolved from nationwide road blockades into a series of often-violent demonstrations that pitted rowdy protesters with police and ravaged Paris and other cities.
The crisis forced Macron to make policy concessions and delay the next wave of reforms, including overhauling the pension and unemployment systems.
Macron’s plans to simplify the unwieldy and expensive pension system, which he says will make it fairer, is particularly unpopular.
Trade unions have called on railway workers, Paris public transport staff, truck drivers and civil servants to strike against the pensions overhaul on Dec. 5 and in some cases beyond. Students and yellow vest protesters have called for people to join forces with the unions.
Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, additional reporting Richard Lough, Editing by Angus MacSwan and Grant McCool
| Protest_Online Condemnation | November 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The Turkish Armed Forces and US-backed Syrian rebels launch an initially successful campaign to capture the town of Jarabulus from ISIL. The Turkish Land Forces are also shelling YPG positions to prevent them from capturing areas that ISIL will retreat from. | Turkish special forces units and jets supported by warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition launched an operation in northern Syria on Wednesday to wipe out ISIS militants along the border, officials said.
The operation was launched just hours ahead of a planned visit to Turkey by Vice President Joe Biden. He is the most senior U.S. official to travel to the country since a failed July 15 coup strained ties between the two NATO members and shook confidence in Turkey's ability to step up the fight against ISIS.
The Turkish army began firing artillery rounds into the Syrian border town of Jarabulus at around 4 a.m. (9 p.m. ET) and Turkish and U.S. warplanes pounded ISIS targets with air strikes as part of Wednesday's operation, Turkish military sources said.
It was the first time warplanes from NATO member Turkey have struck in Syria since November, when Turkey downed a Russian jet near the border, and the first significant incursion by Turkish special forces since a brief operation to relocate the tomb of Suleyman Shah, a revered Ottoman figure, in February 2015.
Turkey and the United States hope that by sweeping ISIS from the border, they can deprive it of a smuggling route which long saw its ranks swollen with foreign fighters and its coffers boosted by illicit trade.
White and grey plumes of smoke rose from atop the hills of Jarabulus, visible from the Turkish town of Karkamis across the border. The boom of artillery fire was audible as tanks opened fire from just inside Turkish territory.
Turkish military sources told Reuters that a ground incursion had yet to start, but a group of Turkish special forces had entered Syria while Turkish and U.S.-led coalition jets hit four ISIS targets and Turkish artillery struck more than 60 targets. Tanks were being positioned to secure the border, they said.
"The aim of the operation is to ensure border security and Syria's territorial integrity while supporting the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS," one military source said, adding work to open a passage for ground forces was underway.
Turkey had vowed on Monday to "completely cleanse" ISIS militants from its border region after a suicide bomber suspected of links to the group killed 54 people at a Kurdish wedding in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.
Turkey is also concerned about the growing influence of Syrian Kurdish militant groups along its border, where they have captured large areas of territory since the start of the Syrian war in 2011. Ankara sees them as tied to the Kurdish militants fighting an insurgency in Turkey.
At least nine mortar shells from Jarabulus landed in Karkamis and nearby on Tuesday, forcing many residents to flee, a Reuters witness said. Another hit an empty field on Wednesday.
The Syria operation came as Syrian rebels backed by Turkey had said they were in the final stages of preparing an assault from Turkish territory on Jarabulus, aiming to preempt a potential attempt by Syrian Kurdish YPG militia to take it.
Turkey is still in shock after the failed July coup by rogue solders who tried to overthrow President Tayyip Erdogan and the government, killing 240 people and triggering a huge purge of suspected coup supporters in the army and civil service.
Angered by a perceived lack of Western sympathy over the coup, Turkey has chilled ties with Washington and the European Union while ending a diplomatic spat with Russia and proposing more military cooperation with Moscow in fighting ISIS. | Armed Conflict | August 2016 | ['(AP via NBC News)', '(AP)', '(ABC News)'] |
David Burgess, already serving life imprisonment on two counts of murder, is given a fresh life sentence after being convicted of the 1966 murder of Yolande Waddington, a nanny from Berkshire, England. | A convicted child killer has been found guilty of the murder of a teenager in Berkshire 46 years ago.
Yolande Waddington, 17, was found strangled in the village of Beenham in October 1966. David Burgess, 64, was jailed for life in 1967 for the killing of nine-year-old girls Jeanette Wigmore and Jacqueline Williams in Beenham.
He was charged with Yolande's murder following advances in DNA techniques and convicted after a five-week trial.
The jury at Reading Crown Court convicted Burgess by a majority verdict of 11 to one. Jurors had been deliberating since Monday.
Speaking on behalf of the family outside court, Yolande's brother Giles Waddington broke down as he read from a statement.
He said: "We're grateful that justice has now been completed and that Yolande's murderer has been identified after more than 45 years.
"Yolande's murder had a traumatic and irreversible effect on our family life and has cast a long shadow over nearly five decades." Yolande had only recently moved to the village to work as a nanny at a farm when she was killed.
She was last seen alive at the Six Bells pub on the evening of Friday, 28 October 1966.
During the trial, the jury heard Yolande's naked body was discovered in a ditch beside a farmer's barn two days later.
She had been stabbed and strangled and tied up with a jumper knotted around her face.
Blood from Yolande's attacker had been found on a number of items, including her comb and hair band.
Detectives from Scotland Yard were sent to Beenham to help with the investigation and carried out the first ever mass blood screening, with samples taken from 200 males in the area aged between 16 and 60.
A sample supposedly from Burgess was also taken, but it failed to meet one of the tests and was deemed not to be a match.
Police believe he may have got someone else to give a sample on his behalf or the specimen was labelled incorrectly.
Last year, Thames Valley Police carried out a review into the case and using a new technique obtained a partial DNA profile which matched Burgess's.
Pete Beirne, the force's principal investigator of cold cases, said: "David Burgess has never accepted his guilt despite confessing to the crime to prison officers on three separate occasions. "He has never fully explained how or why he killed Yolande."
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | July 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert withdraws from consideration for the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations nomination. Jonathan Cohen has been serving in that position since January 1, 2019, following Nikki Haley's resignation. |
Department of State Spokesperson Heather Nauert withdrew herself from consideration for the nomination of U.S. ambassador to the U.N. on Saturday.
Updated at 5:20 a.m. ET Monday
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert withdrew herself from consideration on Saturday for the nomination of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
"I am grateful to President Trump and Secretary [of State Mike] Pompeo for the trust they placed in me for considering me for the position of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations," she said, according to a statement released by the State Department. "However, the past two months have been grueling for my family and therefore it is in the best interest of my family that I withdraw my name from consideration."
The Washington Post reports that Nauert's nomination "faced complications" after it was revealed that she had "hired a foreign-born nanny about 10 years ago who didn't have the proper work visa and Nauert didn't pay proper taxes on time, according to two officials involved in her nomination process." Trump picked the former Fox & Friends host to become the next ambassador to the U.N. in December. Had she been confirmed, Nauert would have replaced Nikki Haley, who resigned as ambassador in October. But in the more than two months since her nomination was announced, Nauert's credentials for the position have been questioned.
Nauert had no government or foreign policy experience until she joined the Trump administration in 2017, NPR's Michele Kelemen reported, beyond overseas stints for ABC, including in Baghdad.
During her nearly two-year tenure in the State Department, Nauert has worked alongside former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and then Pompeo.
"Heather Nauert has performed her duties as a senior member of my team with unequalled excellence," Pompeo said in a statement. "Her personal decision today to withdraw her name from consideration to become the nominee for United States Ambassador to the United Nations is a decision for which I have great respect."
Her time at the State Department was not without controversy. As NPR's Kelemen noted following Nauert's nomination:
"She faced some criticism for a tourist-like Instagram post from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on a trip that was meant to focus on the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. "There have been other missteps, including the time when she cited D-Day — the Allied invasion of Normandy against the Nazis — as an example of America's strong relationship with Germany."
State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino says Trump will pick a new nominee for the position soon. Before nominating Nauert, Trump had considered former White House aide Dina Powell.
There had also been rumors that his daughter Ivanka Trump was under consideration. NPR's Laurel Wamsley reported that "the president was asked whether he was considering nominating Ivanka Trump for the U.N. post. Trump replied that she would be 'dynamite' in the job, but he was concerned about being accused of nepotism." | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | February 2019 | ['(NPR)'] |
A shooting at a church in Nashville, Tennessee, leaves one dead and seven injured. The suspected shooter is arrested. | by: CNN Wire Local police and federal authorities worked Monday to determine why a man went on a deadly shooting spree at a Nashville-area church, while a shocked community prepared for prayer vigils for the victims and their families in the shooting’s aftermath.
One person was killed and seven others injured Sunday as services were wrapping up at the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Antioch, near Nashville.
Emanuel Kidega Samson, 25, of La Vergne, Tennessee, was charged with felony homicide and was being held without bond. Other charges are coming later, police said. His next court appearance is Wednesday.
The Justice Department and FBI have opened a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting, and police said they were still trying to establish the suspect’s motive.
Local police also requested the assistance of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to run an “urgent trace” on a firearm, an ATF representative told CNN.
The trace would give authorities an indication of where the gun was purchased, who purchased it and whether it was purchased legally, the ATF representative said.
Church members told police that Samson attended the church one to two years ago, Metropolitan Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron. But they had not seen him in a while and did not immediately recognize him because the gunman was masked.
Police initially said the suspect was African-American but later identified him as Sudanese with legal US residency.
Samson “pulled into the church parking lot in a blue SUV. He is believed to have been there for at least several minutes before church let out,” the police said in a statement.
Samson shot and killed Melanie Crow Smith, 39, of Smyrna, Tennessee, as she was walking to her car in the parking lot, police said. She died at the scene.
The shooter then entered the church through the sanctuary’s main door with two pistols and “began indiscriminately shooting,” said Aaron, the police spokesman.
Minerva Rosa, who was inside the church when the shooting started, told reporters Sunday the gunman was silent when he opened fire.
About 50 people were still inside the sanctuary during the shooting.
Six people, ranging in age from 64 to 84, were wounded by gunfire, Aaron said.
One patient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center is in critical condition, the hospital said. It would not release the name.
Church usher Robert Caleb Engle, 22, saw the shooting and confronted the gunman, Aaron said. During a struggle, Engle was pistol-whipped and the gunman mistakenly shot himself.
“The wound sent Samson to the floor. Engle, despite his head injuries, ran out to his car in the parking lot and retrieved a pistol. He held Samson at gunpoint until police arrived,” a police statement said.
Police recovered four firearms believed to be Samson’s two pistols in the church and a pistol and rifle from his SUV.
Without Engle, “I think it could be worse,” Rosa said. “He was a hero today.”
Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson said Engle “stopped this madness, so we’re very, very, very grateful to him.”
“He’s the hero,” Anderson said.
Engle released a statement through the hospital where he was treated, saying he did not want to be labeled a hero.
“I’ve been going to this church my whole life, since I was a small child,” he said. “I would have never, ever thought something like this would have happened.”
He asked for prayers for the victims and their families, adding, “Please pray for the shooter, the shooter’s family and friends. They are hurting as well.”
He said, “The real heroes are the police, first responders and medical staff and doctors who have helped me and everyone affected.”
Prayer vigils will be held Monday to show support for the victims and their families.
One is set for 3 p.m. local (4 p.m. ET) at Woodmont Hills Church in Nashville, an event led by area religious leaders
“Nashville area pastors, ministers and shepherds, please join us for a time of prayer and unity,” the church said on its Facebook page. “If you are unable to attend, please join us in spirit.”
Another will be outside Burnette Chapel Church of Christ at 7 p.m. local time.
“We are beyond grateful for the enormous outpouring of love and compassion we have received from so many after the tragic event that took place yesterday,” the church said on its Facebook page Monday.
“We ask for your continued prayers and support during the coming days and months.”
| Armed Conflict | September 2017 | ['(KTLA)'] |
The Trasmediterranea passenger ferry Sorrento, en route from Palma de Mallorca to Valencia in Spain, catches fire. All 170 passengers are rescued. | Madrid - About 170 people were rescued and three lightly injured on Tuesday after a passenger ferry caught fire off Spain's Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, officials said.
The ferry operated by Trasmediterranea was travelling from Palma de Mallorca, the capital of the Balearic Islands, to the eastern Spanish port of Valencia when the fire broke out, a company information officer said.
"Everyone has been evacuated," she told AFP.
A Spanish coast guard boat along with two other ships in the area evacuated the passengers from the ferry. Rescuers were taking the passengers to the port in Palma de Mallorca, the Balearic Islands' port authority said in a Twitter message.
Three crew members suffering from smoke inhalation were evacuated by helicopter, the port authority added.
The fire broke out when the ferry was 65km from the coast of Mallorca, the port authority said. It is not clear what sparked the blaze, which started in the ferry's engine room, according to regional daily newspaper Diario de Mallorca.
Photos published online showed thick plumes of smoke rising from the ferry.
| Fire | April 2015 | ['(AFP via News24)'] |
At least three soldiers of the Turkish Armed Forces are accidentally killed by a Russian airstrike near al-Bab in northern Syria. | The Turkish military says three of its soldiers were accidentally killed and 11 others wounded by a Russian air strike in northern Syria. The Kremlin said in a statement on February 9 that Russian President Vladimir Putin had expressed his condolences via phone to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan "in connection with the tragic incident" involving Turkish soldiers killed near the city of Al-Bab.
The soldiers were in a building that was hit by an air strike from a Russian warplane, a Turkish military statement said.
The Kremlin said the two leaders agreed during their phone call to "increase coordination along military lines during the operation in Syria against fighters from [the Islamic State group] and other extremist organizations."
The Russian Defense Ministry said that along with stepping up cooperation in conducting military operations in Syria, the two countries would also share information.
Russia supports troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who are battling IS militants and other armed groups who want to oust Assad. Turkey is also fighting extremist Islamic groups in Syria but supports the moderate opposition groups trying to overthrow the Syrian government. | Armed Conflict | February 2017 | ['(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)'] |
A car bomb killed at least 6 people and wounded more than 40 others in a Colombia's Buenaventura city notorious for cocaine trafficking. | A car bomb killed at least six people and wounded more than 40 others Wednesday in a Colombian port city notorious for cocaine trafficking.
The attack in Buenaventura ripped into a local attorney general’s office and damaged taxis passing on the street. While authorities say they suspect leftist FARC rebels are responsible, they have not ruled out the possibility it was a retaliation against the office’s drug investigations.
The bombing in Colombia’s largest port comes ahead of the country’s May presidential elections to replace Alvaro Uribe. His stiff crackdown on the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC) since he took office in 2002 has earned him popularity, but guerilla attacks remain a problem, Christian Science Monitor reported. Colombia's long war has ebbed since President Alvaro Uribe came to power in 2002 and sent troops to take on rebels and drug barons. But guerrillas are still fighting in rural areas and the country remains the world's top cocaine exporter.
"We cannot let our guard down," Uribe said after the bombing, without blaming any armed group. "We had recovered a lot in Buenaventura, this act shows we cannot allow ourselves to be too confident."
Nine people were killed and another 50 wounded in the blast, the National Police said, Reuters informed. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has condemned the attack without making a reference to any special group and warned against complacency in the campaign against guerrillas vying for more control over the past 46 years, according to Press TV.
The Muscovite, who was brought back to life after he suffered five clinical deaths overnight, used to serve on the Kursk submarine, a senior representative for Moscow's Vinogradov Hospital, Viktor Maiskov said. Jen Psaki may have errors in her statements not because of her level of education or bad memory.
| Armed Conflict | March 2010 | ['(Pravda.ru)'] |
Pro-European Union candidate Maia Sandu defeats pro-Russian incumbent Igor Dodon to be elected the first female President of Moldova. | Maia Sandu is the first woman to become the leader of Moldova after winning almost 58% of the vote. She is in favor of closer ties with the EU while the outgoing president has begrudgingly offered his congratulations.
Pro-EU opposition candidate Maia Sandu won Moldova's presidential runoff with 57.75% of the vote, according to the country's central election commission.
Incumbent President Igor Dodon, who was given the explicit backing of the Kremlin ahead of the poll, won 42.25% of the votes.
Dodon said on Monday he would concede defeat if the courts find nothing inappropriate occurred in the voting process. "If the courts confirm that everything is ok, then we will put a full stop here," Dodon said.
"I congratulate her as a precaution," Dodon said in a speech carried by state news agency Moldpres.
Sandu, who leads the Party of Action and Solidarity, has promised to lead a fight against endemic corruption in the country, which is wedged between Ukraine and EU member Romania.
The country has been hit by multiple political crises and a $1 billion (€840 million) bank fraud scheme that equates to almost 15% of its annual economic output.
Following the first round of voting two weeks ago, the national electoral authority said Sandu received 36.1% of votes, while Dodon garnered 32.6%.
Police in the village of Varnita were on Sunday reported to have clashed with pro-Sandu protesters who tried to block a road to stop voters traveling from the breakaway pro-Russia region of Transnistria.
Moldova is closely linked with Romania, with the two sharing a common language. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said he was happy with Sandu's first-round victory earlier this month.
Read more: Transnistria: School choice divides families, holds kids hostage
Sandu — who worked for the World Bank and was briefly Moldova's prime minister — has received messages of support from German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and the former European Council President Donald Tusk.
Such support was denounced by Dodon's supporters as an attempt to destabilize Moldova. Russian President Vladimir Putin last month called for Moldovans to cast their ballots for Dodon.
Moldova is under the watchful eye of Russia, which wants the ex-Soviet nation to remain in its sphere of influence at a time when several Kremlin-aligned governments are rocked by political unrest.
Despite his preferred candidate missing out, President Putin remained hopeful of good ties with Moldova and its new president.
"I expect that your work as head of state will facilitate the constructive development of relations between our countries," Putin said in a statement.
The power struggle in Moldova continues: Two presidents and two governments, with the international community being surprisingly in agreement. It stands as a test for future developments, writes Robert Schwartz.
Maia Sandu's stint as head of Moldova's reform-oriented government has come to an end. Pro-Russian President Igor Dodon has appointed an EU-skeptic as interim prime minister. The developments could worry Europe. | Government Job change - Election | November 2020 | ['(DW)'] |
A runoff presidential election, between former vice-president Lenín Moreno and former bank president Guillermo Lasso, is scheduled for Sunday, April 2 since no candidate gained at least 40 percent of the vote in Sunday's poll. With 95.3 percent of votes counted, Moreno received 39.21 percent of valid votes and Lasso had 28.34 percent. | QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador’s presidential election will go to an April runoff between leftist government candidate Lenin Moreno and ex-banker Guillermo Lasso, the electoral body said on Tuesday, after a nail-biter first round over the weekend.
Moreno needed 40 percent of valid votes and a 10 percentage-point difference over his nearest rival to win outright. He was the clear leader of Sunday’s election, pocketing 39.21 percent of valid votes versus 28.34 percent for Lasso, with 95.3 percent of votes counted.
With the Andean country on tenterhooks and the opposition protesting for prompt results, the electoral body said the results could not change although it was waiting for all ballots to be counted before officially proclaiming a second round.
“No, it’s not possible,” electoral council president Juan Pablo Pozo told reporters, when asked if a runoff could be avoided. “But we have to wait for official results to be 100 percent.”
Opposition protesters had massed in front of the electoral council headquarters in mountainous capital Quito since Sunday to denounce what they say were fraud attempts. The government retorted they were inciting violence and urged patience.
Ecuador’s fragmented opposition is now expected to close ranks around Lasso in a runoff amid anger over an economic downturn and a series of corruption scandals, potentially ending a decade of leftist rule in Ecuador.
Should Ecuador move to the right with a second-round victory for Lasso, it would follow on the heels of Argentina, Brazil and Peru which have all swerved away from the left as a China-led commodities boom ended.
Related Coverage
Lasso has campaigned on a platform to revive the economy, which is dependent on exports of oil, flowers and shrimp, by slashing taxes, fostering foreign investment and creating a million jobs in four years.
He has also vowed to remove Wikileaks founder Julian Assange from the Ecuadorean embassy in London and denounce Venezuela’s Socialist government.
Some Lasso supporters honked their horns in Quito, but others were more cautious.
“We can’t celebrate until they’ve officially announced a second round,” said Maria Isabel Pino, 36, in the coastal city of Guayaquil.
Still, some disillusioned Correa supporters see Lasso as an elitist who might slash social programs, and the ruling Country Alliance remains popular with many of the country’s rural poor.
“The second round will be tight,” said pollster Blasco Penaherrera, who has not yet run any surveys about the runoff.
Moreno, who is paraplegic since being shot during a robbery some two decades ago while he was out buying bread, on Tuesday expressed confidence he would become one of the world’s rare disabled presidents.
“Do you see me desperate? It’s because we’re going to win the elections just like we won the first round,” said Moreno, who promises support for single mothers, the elderly, and disabled Ecuadoreans.
Many Ecuadoreans link Lasso with the 1999 banking crisis when hundreds of thousands lost their savings and many migrated to Spain or the United States.
“We don’t want a corrupt banker as president,” said Moreno supporter Tatiana Manosalvas, a 45 year-old taxi driver.
“We can’t return to our history of instability when the richest stole our money with impunity.”
Lasso has defended himself by saying the bank he ran for almost 20 years, Banco de Guayaquil, was solid and survived the meltdown. He says it is Ecuador’s leftist government that is hiding corruption behind a false rhetoric of helping the poor.
Bribery scandals at state oil company Petroecuador and Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht are indeed weighing on the ruling party.
A fugitive former oil minister regularly accuses Moreno’s running mate Jorge Glas, the former head of Strategic Sectors, of being “the ringleader” of a graft operation at Petroecuador. Glas has denied the accusations.
Under pressure, Moreno has vowed “major surgery” to remove malfeasance and Glas has kept a low profile towards the end of the campaign. But corruption is now one of the top issues for Ecuadoreans alongside the economy and jobs.
And after a decade of governance by mercurial president Rafael Correa, many in the country of 16 million say they are also tired of his confrontational style and alliances with Cuba and Venezuela.
“This has to end, it’s ended in Argentina, now it will end in Ecuador, and next up is Venezuela,” said student Carlos Vallarino, 24, who voted for Lasso.
| Government Job change - Election | February 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Two men are injured during a rocket attack in Ashdod, Israel. In response, the Israel Defense Forces strike Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip. | There has been a fresh round of violence between Palestinian militants in Gaza and Israel, after a ceremony in Washington at which Israel and two Gulf Arab states normalised their relations.
Militants fired two rockets into Israel on Tuesday night. One hit the coastal city of Ashdod, wounding two men.
Another barrage of 13 rockets was launched before dawn on Wednesday. In retaliation, the Israeli military bombed sites in Gaza it said belonged to the Palestinian group Hamas. "I'm not surprised that the Palestinian terrorists fired at Israel precisely during this historic ceremony," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters before leaving Washington.
"They want to turn back the peace. In that, they will not succeed," he added. "We will strike at all those who raise a hand to harm us, and we will reach out to all those who extend the hand of peace to us."
Hamas, which controls Gaza, warned Israel that it would "pay the price for any aggression against our people or resistance sites and the response will be direct".
"We will increase and expand our response to the extent that the occupation [Israel] persists in its aggression," it added.
The flare-up started while Mr Netanyahu and the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain were on the White House lawn, signing historic normalisation agreements brokered by US President Donald Trump. Mr Trump said the deals would "serve as the foundation for a comprehensive peace across the entire region".
"After decades of division and conflict we mark the dawn of a new Middle East," he declared.
But the move has deeply angered Palestinians, who accuse the Arab countries of reneging on a promise not to embrace ties with Israel until Palestinian statehood is achieved. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas warned that "peace, security and stability will not be achieved in the region until the Israeli occupation ends".
Before the UAE and Bahrain, the only other Arab countries in the Middle East to recognise Israel officially were Egypt and Jordan, who signed peace treaties in 1978 and 1994 respectively. | Armed Conflict | September 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Parliament votes 137 to 53 in favor of passing legislation to create a state of emergency without a time limit, grant Prime Minister Viktor Orbán the ability to rule by decree, suspend the parliament with no elections, and establish prison sentences for spreading fake news and leaving quarantine. | Hungary's leader has been granted greater powers to help fight the spread of coronavirus in a move critics are calling a power grab.
Hungary's parliament on Monday passed a bill that greatly increases the power of the country's far-right prime minister, Victor Orban.
The premier had said the move is necessary to fight the spread of coronavirus. Orban has asked to extend a national state of emergency that would give his government the right to pass special decrees in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Lawmakers passed the bill with 137 votes against 52 in Hungary's lower chamber. Orban's Fidesz party holds a two-thirds majority there.
| Government Job change - Election | March 2020 | ['(DW)'] |
Egyptians go to the polls to vote on 34 amendments to the constitution of Egypt which the government claims will help combat terrorism. Opposition groups are boycotting the referendum claiming that they will erode civil liberties. The amendments achieved approval with 76% of the vote but with only a 27% turnout. | Turnout for the vote was 27%, the justice ministry said, although some independent groups put it at 5%.
The country's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, boycotted the vote and criticised the amendments as paving the way for a police state. A senior Muslim Brotherhood official said the result was forged.
The 34 constitutional amendments include a ban on the creation of political parties based on religion, and sweeping security powers. The government says the changes will deepen democracy, but opponents say it will be easier to rig future elections. OFFICIAL RESULTS
9,701,833 people voted, 27.1 % of the country's 35,865,660 eligible voters
'Yes' vote 75.9%, 'no' vote 24.1%
President Hosni Mubarak hailed the result on Monday. "The people are the real winners in this referendum. What has been achieved does not represent the end of the road," he said. Mr Mubarak promised further political, economic and social reforms but gave no specific details.
Mohamed Habib, the deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, said the government had made up the referendum result. "It is 100% forged... They are lying," he told the Reuters news agency.
Under Egyptian election laws, a low turnout does not affect the outcome, as a simple majority of votes cast is required for victory. Even before the official results were announced, the government papers were celebrating a successful referendum, BBC Cairo correspondent Heba Saleh says.
We have no democracy in Egypt. It is already a police state.
Their front pages gloat about what they describe as massive participation and the failure of the opposition boycott. It is a different picture in the private and opposition papers which report a low turnout of 10% or under, our correspondent says. Officials say the changes will allow the drafting of a new anti-terrorism law to replace the emergency legislation in place since 1981, giving police wide powers of arrest and surveillance. Article 5:Bans political activity/parties based on religion
Article 88: Removes judicial supervision of elections
Article 179: Invokes special powers to fight terrorism
Analysis: 'Permanent emergency'
In addition, the amendments ban all religious-based political activity and parties, a blow to the Muslim Brotherhood - an Islamic party banned in Egypt which represents the strongest opposition force. The Brotherhood ran in the legislative elections in 2005, with candidates standing as independents, and won 88 seats in parliament.
The amendments also allow the adoption of a new election law and do away with the need for judicial supervision of every ballot box. Opposition groups have voiced fears about the wording of the articles on the new anti-terrorism law because it will be possible to bypass the constitutional guarantees protecting basic freedoms. Human rights group Amnesty International has called the changes the greatest erosion of human rights since a state of emergency was declared after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat 26 years ago. | Government Policy Changes | March 2007 | ['(New York Times)', '(BBC)'] |
A NATO spokesperson confirms Brigadier General Jeffrey D. Smiley as the American wounded by gunfire three days earlier during the attack in which Abdul Raziq Achakzai was assassinated. | Army Brigadier General Jeffrey D. Smiley was the wounded U.S. service member shot in Thursday's insider attack in Kandahar that killed two top Afghan officials in the province. The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan was also present during that attack, but was unharmed.
"I can confirm that General Smiley is recovering from a gunshot wound," Lt. Cmdr. Grant Neeley, a spokesman for Resolute Support, the NATO-led training command in Afghanistan, told ABC News.
"He is being treated at a Resolute Support hospital in Kandahar," said Neeley.
Smiley is the commander of the Training and Advise and Assist Command-South (TAAC-South) that has the lead in advising Afghan security forces in southern Afghanistan and had assumed command in late June. He is a general with the California National Guard, in command of the Guard’s 40th Infantry, which is one of the lead units in Kandahar.
The identity of the U.S. service member injured in the attack had not been disclosed until Sunday after it was first reported by the Washington Post.
Carried out by a gunman believed to be an Afghan bodyguard, Thursday's attack killed the top police official in Kandahar Province as well as the province's top intelligence official. The governor of Kandahar was also wounded, as was another American civilian employee and an Afghan interpreter.
General Austin Scott Miller, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, was present during the shooting that started after his meeting with the Afghan officials.
The gunman opened fire as they waited outside for Miller's helicopter to arrive. The gunman was shot and killed almost immediately.
Miller told reporters Friday that he believes that the Afghan officials were the targets of the attack.
Miller, like the other U.S. personnel around him, pulled out his handgun, which is standard practice in such a situation.
"When there’s a threat, we will draw our weapons,” said Col. Dave Butler, a Resolute Support spokesman. "That’s what we’re trained to do and Gen. Miller is no exception."
What followed was a combination of U.S. and Afghan forces securing the area and tending to the wounded.
Miller had some of the wounded transported aboard his helicopter so they could quickly receive medical treatment.
The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack that appeared to be the closest a U.S. commanding general in Afghanistan has come to being shot or seriously harmed.
The insider attack delayed the key parliamentary elections in Kandahar by a week, they proceeded on schedule Saturday in the rest of the country. | Famous Person - Sick | October 2018 | ['(ABC News)'] |
Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz is sentenced by a Geneva court to five years in prison for corruption in obtaining mining rights to an iron ore deposit in Guinea, and is ordered to pay a fine of CHF 50 million (US$56 million) to the canton of Geneva. | GENEVA, SWITZERLAND -- French-Israeli diamond magnate Beny Steinmetz was sentenced by a Geneva court on Friday to five years behind bars for corruption linked to mining rights in Guinea.
After a seven-year international investigation, the 64-year-old businessman was accused of setting up a complex financial web to pay bribes so that Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR) could obtain permits in an area estimated to contain the world's biggest untapped deposits of iron ore.
"It is clear from what has been presented... that the rights were obtained through corruption and that Steinmetz cooperated with others" to obtain them, said chief justice Alexandra Banna.
The court, she said, had therefore sentenced him "to a deprivation of liberty for five years", in line with the prosecutors' request.
The court also granted the prosecution's call for Steinmetz to pay 50 million Swiss francs ($56 million, 46 million euros) in compensation to the Geneva canton.
Steinmetz, who throughout the trial has maintained his innocence, told reporters at the Geneva courthouse the verdict was a "big injustice".
"I will be appealing immediately," he said in a statement, complaining that he had faced "10 years of manipulation and lies".
His lawyer Marc Bonnant told reporters the appeal would be filed Saturday, citing "contradictions and errors" in the ruling.
The trial, which began on January 11, was the culmination of a drawn-out international investigation that kicked off in Switzerland in 2013.
Swiss prosecutors accused Steinmetz and two partners of bribing a wife of the then Guinean president Lansana Conte and others in order to win mining rights in the southeastern Simandou region.
The prosecutors said Steinmetz obtained the rights shortly before Conte died in 2008 after about $10 million (8.2 million euros) was paid in bribes over a number of years, some through Swiss bank accounts.
Conte's military dictatorship ordered global mining giant Rio Tinto to relinquish two concessions to BSGR for around $170 million in 2008.
Just 18 months later, BSGR sold 51 percent of its stake in the concession to Brazilian mining giant Vale for $2.5 billion.
But in 2013, Guinea's first democratically-elected president Alpha Conde launched a review of permits allotted under Conte and later stripped the VBG consortium formed by BSGR and Vale, of its permit.
To secure the initial deal, prosecutors claimed Steinmetz and representatives in Guinea entered a "pact of corruption" with Conte and his fourth wife Mamadie Toure.
Toure, who has admitted to having received payments, has protected status in the United States as a state witness.
She and a number of other key witnesses in the case failed to appear.
Steinmetz, who lived in Geneva during the years when the bribes were allegedly paid, insisted during his trial that he "never" asked anyone to pay Toure, insisting she "told a lot of lies".
But on Friday, judge Banna found that "the money paid to Mamadie Toure did indeed originate from BSGR."
She also said that there had been no reason for Conte to withdraw Rio Tinto's mining concessions "unless it benefitted him personally or someone else, namely his fourth wife."
The defence also charged during the trial that Toure was not in fact Conte's wife, but merely a mistress with no influence, who under Swiss law did not fall within the scope of a corruptible official.
But Banna stressed that she should indeed be considered "Conte's fourth wife, regardless of whether it was a traditional marriage".
Steinmetz had also during the trial attempted to downplay his role in BSGR, insisting he was a mere "consultant".
But this was also rejected by the court, with Banna finding he clearly was "deeply involved" in all the group's financial decisions.
Steinmetz was tried along with two associates, who received lesser sentences.
Steinmetz was "the main beneficiary of the crime," Banna ruled, adding that "the court does not recognise any mitigating circumstances."
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | January 2021 | ['(AFP via CTV News)'] |
Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro falls short of a majority in the first round with 46% of the vote and will face Fernando Haddad, who received 29%, in a runoff vote set for October 28. | Jair Bolsonaro has won a convincing victory in the Brazil’s election, but has fallen short of a majority leading to a second round of voting later in October
Fernando Haddad, Bolsonaro’s opponent in the pivotal second-round vote on 28 October, has mountain to climb if he is to scupper the right-wing populist’s dramatic political ascent.
Bolsonaro secured more than 49 million votes on Sunday – 46% of the total and just shy of the majority he needed for an outright win – while Haddad’s Workers’ party (PT) won just 29%, or 31 million votes.
Just to draw level with Bolsonaro, Haddad would need virtually every single one of the voters who opted for the third and fourth-placed candidates, Ciro Gomes and Geraldo Alckmin, to switch to his side. Those hoping Haddad can still win out, believe he must now position himself as a centrist champion of democracy who can prevent Brazil from lurching back towards the kind of murderous, authoritarian rule Bolsonaro has so often said he admires.
Heloísa Starling, a Brazilian historian, said she believed Haddad now needed to piece together “a great democratic coalition” if Brazil was to avoid being hurtled back towards “tyranny”.
“It can’t just be a left-wing coalition - it must include everyone who is prepared to defend democracy, whoever they may be,” Starling said.
Ciro Gomes, who came third with 12.5% of the vote and potentially has the most support to transfer to Haddad, said it was too earlier to say what he would do. But he ruled out support for Bolsonaro – “Not him, definitely!”
Winter, however, said he was doubtful that such an alliance would be enough: “Haddad is going to tack to the centre – a bit – he’s going to make an appeal for democracy,” Winter predicted. “But it’s not clear there is anybody left in the centre and democracy has become a bad word in Brazil. It’s a synonym for weakness and chaos and leniency with criminals and I just think those appeals for democracy are going to fall on mostly deaf ears.”
Gustavo Bebianno Rocha, president of Bolsonaro’s PSL party, said it now had 52 deputies in the lower house where it was now the second biggest party. This could be combined with the support from powerful Congress groups like the agribusiness caucus. “This shows a high capacity to govern Brazil,” Rocha said.
He said there could be more negotiations with other parties over more potential Congress support – apart from anyone on the “extreme left”. “In the second round it is natural there will be conversations,” he said. “Jair Bolsonaro surprised everyone with his strength.” Bolsonaro will attend debates during the second round, he said. Rocha said that the party had travelled all over Brazil, using commercial airlines, eating badly, traveling in uncomfortable cars, and the results on Sunday proved the effort was worth it. “It was worth it to get close to the Brazilian people,” he said.
He said political marketeers and experts will have to “rewrite everything”, and that Sunday’s result meant that the rules had been rewritten.
“We always believed the polling institutes were wrong,” he said. Rocha also said he believed the assailant who stabbed Bolsonaro had not acted alone. “We don’t accept the thesis that he acted alone, it is not true. He is a marginal linked to the Brazilian left and we will investigate.”
Onyx Lorenzoni, a lawmaker from the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, was introduced as the probable chief of staff. “Bolsonaro reaped a result at the polls today because we listened to the streets, talking to electors. He really represents hope. The last hope of the Brazilians and Brazilians believe this hope will triumph,” he said.
Jair Bolsonaro did not appear at the press conference his Social Liberal Party held at a hotel near his home. Party chairman Gustavo Bebianno Rocha said that was “because of his state of health, not precarious but in recovery.” There had been “physical contact” when Bolsonaro went to vote, Rocha said, and federal police had also advised him to stay at home. “There were some threats,” Rocha said. He said that the party had received numerous reports of irregularities and problems in voting machines, some of which had been filmed, and that a group of researchers the party is working with will examine all of them.
“The Brazilian electronic system has never been tested from A-Z in a dynamic way,” Rocha said. The results of this investigation will be presented to the media, he said.
Though the room was set up with 15 name places, less than half of this number have turned up to the press conference, including the party president. Bolsonaro isn’t here, nor are his sons or his wife.
Bolsonaro will not appear tonight, his team have said, due to health reasons.
Bolsonaro's party president, Bebianno, saying Bolsonaro won't speak again here due to health conditions. Says PSL party will investigate possible fraud
The presidential race was just one thing that voters cast their ballots for today, there were also votes for Congress, the Senate and for state governors. Rachel Glickhouse has news that today’s election will mean the first Indigenous woman ever has been elected to Congress. No Indigenous person has served in the lower house in more than 30 years.
Good but also super depressing news: After today’s election, Brazil’s lower house of Congress will get its first ever indigenous female representative. The last time an indigenous person served in the lower house was 36 years ago.Tom Phillips has this recap of Bolsonaro’s Facebook Live broadcast, in which the candidate suggested he would have won the first round vote outright were it not for the electronic voting system.
“We have received many complaints of [electronic] voting systems that have had problems,” he said. “There have been many, innumerable complaints.”
Bolsonaro described the first round as “a great victory” but added: “You can be sure that if this problem hadn’t happened ... we would already have decided the name of the future president of the Republic today. We can’t falter. What is at stake is our freedom.”“I’m certain we will emerge victorious,” he said. Bolsonaro said there were now two paths on offer: his path of “prosperity, freedom, family and God” or “the path of Venezuela”.
“Our country is on the verge of chaos. We can’t take any more steps to the left.”
It looks like Bolsonaro’s press conference is about to begin.
Flanked by his economics expert Paulo Guedes and wife Michelle, doing sign language, Bolsonaro said he would unite Brazil in a Facebook Live.“We will unite our people. United we will be a great nation. Nobody has the potential we have,” said Bolsonaro.But he suggested environmental protection could be reduced. “We want an end to the industry of fines of Ibama and the Chico Mendes Institute,” he soas, citing Brazil’s environment agency and the government body that protects reserves. And he warned of a fractious run off vote, saying the Workers’ Party has more money because of graft.
“The second round won’t be easy, they have billions to spend, you know that,” he said.
Fernando Haddad, who is sitting on 28.2% of the vote, has been tweeting. He thanked his family, his party and former president Lula, who is in prison for 12 years on corruption charges, for “your greatest leadership”.
Haddad said the campaign to defeat Bolsonaro in the second round begins tomorrow.
“We want to unite Brazil. It’s a different election than any of the others.”
Haddad says the election has put a lot at stake and he wants to face this debate “with a lot of respect, with a single weapon: the argument” and has vowed to “keep the bridges of the dialogue open”.
“We will defend Brazil and its people, especially the poorest people. I’ve always been on the side of freedom and democracy. I’m not going to give up my values.”
Haddad hinted at some kind of second round alliance tweeting that he wants to “keep the dialogue open” and had already spoken to three of the other candidates – Marina Silva, Ciro Gomes and Guilherme Boulos.
Earlier I posted about a meme shared by pro-Bolsonaro supporters which calls the northeast corner of Brazil, which voted overwhelmingly for Haddad over Bolsonaro, “Venezuela”, in a dig at the region for being communist.
In contrast with that meme, a leftist meme has emerged using the same map, which has the northeast Brazilian states coloured red, and the quote: “World! It’s not our fault!”
We have video from the incident earlier in the evening when Bolsonaro supporters marched reporters from the TV station Globo – Brazil’s biggest network – down the street and away from the crowd. The footage shows that as the crowd expelled the television crew they chanted “Communists!” – a charge that has commentators bewildered – and which shows the stark divisions in Brazilian society that have become starkly apparent throughout this election campaign.
Video of Bolsonaro supporters expelling TV Globo crew today while chanting: “Communists!” That’s right - calling TV Globo communists. Tom Phillips has been speaking to Brian Winter, a Brazil expert and the editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly, who thinks Bolsonaro supporters will be feeling a “small taste of defeat” having just missed out on a first round victory.
But ultimately “this was a very strong result” for the man who is now far and away the favourite to become Brazil’s next president. “Bolsonaro had colossal support in places like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, throughout the south and centre-west and it makes him just a huge favourite to win in three weeks,” says Winter. “The path for Haddad to close that gap looks almost impossible ... If you simply add Bolsonaro plus two-thirds of [fourth-placed candidate] Geraldo Alckmin’s votes, it’s over. After the result today it’s so easy to imagine how he’ll get to 50%, in the second round. “This idea that Bolsonaro can save the country and make it safe for people to walk on the streets at night and tend the corruption in Brasilia and make a dent in 13m unemployed – that’s an idea most Brazilians now seem to have bought.”
Ninety-seven percent of the vote has now been counted, putting Bolsonaro at 46.5% of the vote, with his nearest competitor Fernando Haddad at 28.5%.
Dom Phillips is in place at the Windsor Barra hotel near Bolsonaro’s house in Rio de Janeiro awaiting a press conference from the candidate. He writes:
The lineup for Bolsonaro’s press conference has 15 place names. There are two generals – Bolsonaro’s running mate Hamilton Mourão and Augusto Heleno, who has been working on government proposals. Bolsonaro’s lawmaker sons Carlos, Flávio and Eduardo. Televangelist Silas Malafia and another evangelical pastor Magno Malta, who lost his senate seat. There is just one place set aside for a woman – Bolsonaro’s wife Michelle who has been doing sign language for his Facebook Lives. We are still waiting for the press conference to begin.Globonews is reporting that 29% of people voted with blank or spoiled ballots, or didn’t show up to vote – a higher percentage than the number who voted for Bolsonaro’s main competitor Fernando Haddad. | Government Job change - Election | October 2018 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Russian President Vladimir Putin signs into law amendments that allow foreign media outlets in Russia to be listed as foreign agents. Earlier this month, RT America has been forced to be registered as a foreign agent in the United States. | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law on Saturday new measures allowing authorities to list foreign media outlets as “foreign agents” in response to what Moscow says is unacceptable U.S. pressure on Russian media.
The new law has been rushed through both Russian houses of parliament in the last two weeks. It will now allow Moscow to force foreign media to brand news they provide to Russians as the work of “foreign agents” and to disclose their funding sources.
A copy of the law was published on the Russian government’s online legislation database on Saturday, saying it entered into force from the day of its publication.
Russia’s move against U.S. media is part of the fallout from allegations that Russia interfered in last year’s U.S. presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.
U.S. intelligence officials have accused the Kremlin of using Russian media organizations it finances to influence U.S. voters, and Washington has since required Russian state broadcaster RT to register a U.S.-based affiliate company as a “foreign agent”.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied meddling in the election and said the restrictions on Russian broadcasters in the United States are an attack on free speech.
The Russian Justice Ministry last week published a list of nine U.S.-backed news outlets that it said could be affected by the changes.
| Government Policy Changes | November 2017 | ['(CNN)', '(Reuters)'] |
In an address to the Washington–based Brookings Institution, George Robertson, a former Secretary General of NATO, says that Scottish independence would be "cataclysmic in geo–political terms". | The former secretary general of Nato has said that Scottish independence would be cataclysmic for the West in an era of international turmoil.
Speaking in the US, Lord Robertson said a "debilitating divorce" after a "Yes" vote in September would threaten the stability of the wider world.
He said he believed the US administration was worried about the possibility of Scottish independence.
The Scottish government said the comments were "crass and offensive".
Scotland's Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was "shocked" by the language of the former Labour defence secretary.
Lord Roberston was speaking at the Brookings Institution where he said the US should make its views public - as should all British allies.
In a strongly-worded speech, he said: "The loudest cheers for the break-up of Britain would be from our adversaries and from our enemies. "For the second military power in the west to shatter this year would be cataclysmic in geo-political terms."
He went on to urge "Britain's allies" to speak out and to say that an independent Scotland would "affect them as well".
Lord Robertson added: "This is not a purely domestic matter even though it's a decision that will be taken by the Scottish people.
"The Scottish people need to be conscious that they are taking a decision, not just for themselves and for future generations in a one-off vote, but that it also has an effect elsewhere and people who are affected, or think they will be affected, have every right to speak out."
In response to the comments, Ms Sturgeon said that given Lord Robertson's "long-standing" opposition to independence, she was not surprised.
However, she added: "On another level though I am quite shocked at these comments. She went on: "The contribution George Robertson made last night, and particularly the language he has used to make it in, I think does a real disservice to the debate.
"I am not shouting down George Robertson, I am saying very clearly that I find his comments deeply insulting.
"He is of course the man that predicted that devolution would kill the SNP stone dead, so his predictions perhaps don't hold too much water."
Ms Sturgeon said she wanted to have a rational debate.
In a plea to the former politician, she said: "I'm not the person using language like cataclysmic and suggesting that independence would aid the forces of darkness.
"I would invite George Robertson to come back into the realms of decent and rational debate, because that is the kind of debate we should be having."
| Famous Person - Give a speech | April 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
Voters in Tunisia go to the polls Sunday in the first free presidential election since the Arab Spring's Jasmine Revolution. | Tunisians go to the polls on 23 November to choose a new leader in what is hoped to be the first genuinely free presidential election in the country's history.
The incumbent interim President, Moncef Marzouki, was elected by the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) in 2011. Before that, Tunisia had had only two presidents since independence in 1956 - Habib Bourguiba, the "father of independence", and Zine El-Abedine Ben Ali, who overthrew him in 1987 and eventually fled to Saudi Arabia in the 2011 revolution.
Some Tunisians describe the forthcoming election as the most important in their country's history. Voters have a dizzying choice of presidential hopefuls, with a ballot paper containing more than two dozen candidates.
Beji Caid Essebsi, the 87-year-old leader of Nidaa Tounes (Tunisia's Call), is already the favourite to win after his two-year-old party came first in the October parliamentary election. The party proved its popularity, winning 85 of the National Assembly's 217 seats, but critics say Mr Essebsi, who held positions under the Bourguiba and Ben Ali governments, represents a return to the past.
Among the other candidates are parliamentary speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar, outgoing interim leader Mr Marzouki, Republican Party leader Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, female magistrate Kalthoum Kannou and businessman Slim Riahi.
Figures from the Ben Ali era standing include former bank governor Mustapha Kamel Ennabli and former Foreign Minister Kamel Morjane. With pundits making the Nidaa Tounes leader favourite to move into the Carthage Palace, a number of candidates considered backing a consensus candidate to counter him. However, moderate Islamist opposition party Ennahdha subsequently decided not to back such a candidate, and instead urged its supporters to vote for a president who would "encourage democracy" and "realise the goals of the revolution".
If no candidate wins a majority in Sunday's vote, the top two candidates will take part in a run-off scheduled for 31 December.
Tunisia's electoral law, passed in May 2014, stipulates that candidates must secure the approval of 10 members of the National Constituent Assembly, or 40 heads of municipal assemblies, or collect 10,000 signatures from voters for their candidacies to be approved.
Candidates must also be registered on a voter list, hold Tunisian citizenship from birth, be a Muslim, and be at least 35 years old. There is no gender bar for candidates, but outspoken Ben Ali opponent Kalthoum Kannou is the only woman on the ballot.
Following the domination of Tunisian politics by an authoritarian leader for many years, a new constitution passed in January 2014 makes provisions for a political system dominated by parliament, in which the president has limited powers.
The president will still be the nominal head of state and "the symbol of its unity who guarantees its independence and stability and respect for the constitution", the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) says. He or she will be the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, but can only appoint or sack senior army officers in consultation with the prime minister. The president will also set foreign policy in consultation with the prime minister, represent the state, and ratify treaties.
Presidential candidate Monzer al-Zanaidi, who was a minister in the Ben Ali regime, was warned last week that there is a serious plot against his life.
It is not the first assassination threat against a candidate. The Interior Ministry says that it has uncovered plots against Mr Essebsi, and Free Patriotic Union candidate Salim al-Riyahi. Tunisia is still facing the spectre of civil unrest and the threat of terrorism, with Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou saying the country faces "serious security threats" near the Algerian border where al-Qaeda militants are said to be hiding. The ministry says all candidates have been placed under strict security measures to ensure their safety.
BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook. | Government Job change - Election | November 2014 | ['(BBC)', '(Pakistan Daily Times)'] |
The Philippines clarifies a controversial remark about a potential "war" with China amid criticism from Filipinos. | The outspoken Philippine president has been facing criticism at home for being what some people see as too soft on China over a long-running territorial dispute.
Duterte met Chinese President Xi Jinping for talks in Beijing last week and later said Xi had warned him there would be war if the Philippines tried to search for oil in a disputed stretch of sea.
Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said that their meeting was frank and friendly and that the discussion was largely about preventing conflict, not threatening it.
"The conversation was very frank. There was mutual respect, there was mutual trust," Cayetano told reporters.
"The context was not threatening each other, that we will go to war. The context is how do we stabilize the region and how do we prevent conflict."
He added: "I will not contradict the president's words. I am just telling you ... my interpretation: There was no bullying or pushing around — it was not a threat."
Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying also sought to make light of Duterte's comments, noting he and Xi had agreed to "strengthen communication" on important bilateral issues.
China was willing to work with the Philippines to handle disputes peacefully, she told reporters.
Duterte made no mention of the issue during an unusually news briefing on Monday before he left for Russia.
Duterte's critics have made much of his refusal to push China to comply with a ruling last year by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, at the end of a case brought by the Philippines against China, which was largely in favor of the Philippines. China has never recognized the case.
The court said the Philippines had a sovereign right to access offshore oil and gas fields in its Exclusive Economic Zone.
Duterte's rivals have likened his refusal to insist that China abide by the ruling as akin to surrendering sovereignty.
Senate minority leader, Frank Drilon, said the government "should not allow our country to be bullied and threatened," while former foreign minister Albert del Rosario said Manila should do joint maritime patrols with traditional ally the United States, an idea he said Duterte had jettisoned as part of his "full embrace of China."
Duterte chafes at what he considers Philippine subservience to the US and has sought to engage more with China, which has promised loans and investment that will be vital to his ambitious $180 billion infrastructure overhaul.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Saturday urged the government to file another international arbitration case over the reported Chinese threat, and also lodge a complaint with the United Nations.
Failure to do that would mean Duterte would be "selling us out," he said.
Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the Philippines was "very clear that we are not giving up our claim of sovereignty and sovereign rights."
(Reporting by Karen Lema and Martin Petty in Manila and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Robert Birsel) | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | May 2017 | ['(Business Insider)'] |
The first electoral contest of the 2012 United States Presidential election takes place in the Iowa town of Ames with the Ames Straw Poll for Republican Party candidates with Michele Bachmann emerging as the winner. |
“What we saw happen today is this is the very first step toward taking the White House in 2012, and you have just sent a message that Barack Obama will be a one-term president,” said Bachmann (R-Minn.) after her victory was announced.
Bachmann took 4,823 votes, narrowly escaping a major upset at the hand of Texas Rep. Ron Paul who won 4,671 votes. Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty placed third with 2,293, a showing that is likely to raise questions about his ability to continue in the contest. The order of finish beyond the top three: former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (1,567), businessman Herman Cain (1,456), Texas Gov. Rick Perry (718), former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (567), former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (385), former Utah governor Jon Huntsman (69) and Rep. Thad McCotter (Mich.) (35). Perry, Romney, Gingrich and Huntsman did not actively campaign in Ames. Nearly 17,000 vote were cast, the second-largest turnout in the history of the Straw Poll.
For Bachmann, the victory solidifies her as the frontrunner in the Iowa caucuses which are set to kick off the presidential balloting process in early February 2012.
Bachmann entered the poll as the favorite, as polling suggested that her popularity was surging in the state and Romney chose not to participate in an event he won in 2007.
Taking no chances, Bachmann saturated Iowa with television ads in the run-up to the Straw Poll and barnstormed across the state in the final days before the vote. (On Friday, she did five events, including an evening rally in which she threw cornballs into the crowd and jitterbugged with her husband, Marcus, onstage.)
On site at Ames, her operation had the whiff of disorganization in its early hours as people formed long lines to get into her tent — where country singer Randy Travis was performing. But the sheer numbers of Bachmann supporters became apparent as the day wore on. Lines and crowds stayed constant around her tent while the crowds ebbed away from Pawlenty’s site.
It was not immediately clear how Pawlenty would handle his disappointing third-place finish. He and his campaign team had done everything they could in advance of the Straw Poll to lower expectations. But the former Minnesota governor needed a spark in Iowa — and nationally — that he had hoped the Straw Poll would provide. Finishing behind Bachmann and Paul will make raising money a near-impossibility.
Pawlenty’s path will be further complicated by Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s entrance into the race on Saturday. Polling suggests enters the contest in second place behind Romney nationally.
Perry is scheduled to visit Waterloo on Sunday — his first stop in Iowa as a presidential candidate. Bachmann, too, will be in Waterloo, the town where she was born, on Sunday in what amounts to a victory lap.
With Romney not expected to campaign aggressively in Iowa over the coming six months, Bachmann’s win in Ames strengthens her hand considerably. Perry appears to be the most serious threat to her supremacy in the state, but the Bachmann team now has the benefit of a dry run in the state before the Feb. 6 caucuses. | Government Job change - Election | August 2011 | ['(AP via Yahoo! News)', '(Washington Post)'] |
Two French journalists working for the newspaper Le Monde are seriously injured by Azeri shelling, according to an Armenian government source. Two Armenian journalists are also injured in a separate incident. | YEREVAN/PARIS (Reuters) - Two French journalists working for Le Monde newspaper were in a serious condition on Thursday after shelling by Azeri forces in the town of Martuni in the Nagorno-Karabakh region and will be repatriated to France as soon as possible, officials said.
“The foreign ministry’s crisis centre is mobilised ... to organise their repatriation as quickly as possible,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on arrival in Brussels for a European Union summit.
“A medical plane is ready to leave. We are doing everything to stabilise the wounded on the spot before allowing their evacuation,” he said.
Dozens of people have been reported killed and hundreds wounded since Sunday in fighting between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces.
Le Monde Chief Editor Luc Bronner told Reuters a reporter and photographer had been wounded, but did not name the two. The journalists were transported to a local hospital and were in a serious condition, an Armenian government source said.
The journalists had been filming civilians with a group of reporters in Martuni in the west of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the Armenian source said.
Regis Genté, a journalist for France 24 TV who was with the two wounded, said the group was filming homes that had been bombed earlier in the week.
“It was when we were looking at the rubble of the bombing from Sunday that we heard in a flash a rocket and it fell to the ground. The attack lasted about a minute,” he told France 24.
The French foreign ministry said in a statement “We can’t stress enough how serious and dangerous the situation is in this active conflict zone. The French authorities strictly advise against going there.”
| Armed Conflict | October 2020 | ['(Reuters)', '(Star Tribune)'] |
Tropical Storm Imelda makes landfall in Texas, threatening severe flash flooding throughout Eastern Texas and the Houston area. | The tropics are active with a trio of systems brewing in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean: a tropical storm, a hurricane and a tropical depression.
Closest to home is newly-named Tropical Storm Imelda in the western Gulf of Mexico (as of 1:45 p.m. eastern Tuesday), upgraded to a storm just 45 minutes after being designated a tropical depression (at 1 p.m. eastern). While the storm contains maximum sustained winds of around 40 mph, the biggest concern is its flood threat for the vulnerable Houston metro area.
More than half a foot of rain is set to fall in the nation’s fourth-largest city during the next few days from this system as it approaches Houston from the Gulf of Mexico, sending multiple rounds of heavy thunderstorms slowly lumbering ashore. The National Weather Service cautions that some locations could see a foot or more of rain before this event ends Thursday, raising flash flood concerns. Rainfall rates in the heaviest bands could approach 3 inches per hour.
At the same time, Category 2 Hurricane Humberto is on its way to major hurricane status as it churns toward a position just north of Bermuda late in the week. A tropical storm warning is up for the island, as the storm is forecast to remain far enough away to spare it from its worst winds and heaviest rains.
Meanwhile, an additional disturbance over the open tropical Atlantic has become a tropical depression and is forecast to become a tropical storm and then a hurricane in the coming days as it meanders west-northwestward. Assuming it reaches tropical storm-strength, it will be named Jerry. Computer models expect this storm to pass near or just north of the Lesser Antilles, but it’s not yet clear where it will go from there.
The rain was already pouring down in buckets on the Texas Gulf Coast on Tuesday morning, where flash flood watches blanketed the greater Houston metro area.
Shower and thunderstorm activity will continue to blossom Tuesday from the Matagorda coast to Port Beaumont, with a couple bands of rainfall spreading into southwestern Louisiana. The flood risk in Louisiana, particularly from Sabine Lake through Lake Charles, is increasing as well.
A widespread 5 to 10 inches, with localized higher amounts, may fall through Wednesday afternoon in the Houston-Galveston corridor.
A tropical storm warning was posted for Sargent to Port Bolivar along Texas’ coast, and includes Galveston.
“The difference of just a few miles could be the difference of several inches of rain,” the NWS wrote, stressing the highly variable nature of thunderstorm-driven rainfall totals. While 1- to 3-inch per hour rainfall rates are possible, they’ll be realized only beneath the heaviest downpours. But where these downpours do repeatedly traverse the same areas, dangerous flash flooding and top-tier rainfall totals may result.
It’s not out of the question that one or two very isolated locales pick up a foot and a half of rainfall.
By Thursday, uncertainty in the forecast increases. It will probably still be raining in Houston. But will the storm interact with some approaching energy aloft and shift the axis of heaviest rainfall farther east? That would be good news for the Interstate 45 corridor, but bad news for coastal Louisiana. While still not the most likely solution right now, the odds for that scenario have increased some since Monday. However, there’s an equal or greater shot that the rains continue Thursday in the Houston area, as the area of low pressure over the Gulf strengthens some as it moves inland.
This latest episode underscores the fact that storms do not need to be a hurricane to be dangerous. Most recently, Hurricane Harvey painted a dire picture of what just water can do, with a record 60.58 inches on Nederland, Tex. With a price tag of $125 billion, it ties with Katrina as the costliest U.S. tropical cyclone on record. And most of the damage occurred when it was a tropical storm.
This time, Imelda could rank among the heaviest rainfall producers on record in some Houston suburbs. Have a plan to take action should a flash flood warning be issued for your location.
A tropical storm warning is up for Bermuda, where Humberto could make a close pass later this week.
As of Tuesday morning, the Category 2 storm was about halfway between the United States and Bermuda. According to the National Hurricane Center, “Humberto is expected to become a major hurricane by [Tuesday night] or Wednesday morning.” Humberto’s cloud shield is nicking the coastal Carolinas, which are contending with rough surf and rip currents, but otherwise its impacts are largely relegated to the open ocean.
On the forecast track, Humberto is predicted to track well north of Bermuda on Wednesday night into Thursday, clipping the British island territory of 65,000 with its outermost rain bands. Tropical storm-force winds of greater than 39 mph are possible, along with rip currents and 1 to 3 inches of rain.
The National Hurricane Center announced a new tropical depression formed Tuesday morning about midway between the Leeward Islands and Cape Verde. Forecasters at NHC say it’s likely to become a tropical storm by Tuesday evening.
The incipient storm is on a track westwards, though a curve to the west-northwestward is anticipated as it intensifies. It may become a hurricane by late Thursday or Friday, with a track taking it ominously close to Puerto Rico and perhaps the southeastern Bahamas.
The track is uncertain at this point. However, models have been inching it closer to land masses, with the “out to sea” scenario a little bit less likely now. However, modeling weak tropical systems can be especially challenging until clearly defined circulation centers become better established, which should happen by Tuesday night.
This is a storm that needs to be closely watched in the days ahead.
It’s possible that there will be a potentially significant uptick in Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane activity during the last week in September and extending through early October. The anticipated awakening of the tropical Atlantic is thanks to a overlap of weather systems that will encourage rising air over the Atlantic’s main development region, to the west of Africa and east of the Lesser Antilles.
That will give an extra nudge to encourage any developing systems. Coupled with more favorable upper-level winds, the stage may be set for a turbo-boost to the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season, leading to a few weeks that bear close watching.
The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2019 | ['(The Washington Post)'] |
2007 Zimbabwean political crisis: Three activists in the Zimbabwe opposition are arrested as they attempt to leave the country for South Africa including Arthur Mutambara, leader of a faction in the Movement for Democratic Change. Two of the activists were seeking medical treatment after having been arrested a week ago. | JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Three Zimbabwean opposition activists were arrested as they tried to leave the country Saturday, including two who were allegedly beaten by police and were going to South Africa to seek medical treatment, a party official said.
The African Union, meanwhile, called on Zimbabwe to respect its citizens' human rights.
Arthur Mutambara, head of a faction of the Zimbabwean opposition group Movement for Democratic Change, was arrested at Harare International Airport as he was trying to leave for South Africa, said Roy Bennett, the movement's exiled treasurer-general.
Also arrested in a separate incident were Grace Kwinje and Sekai Holland, who were to attempting to go to South Africa for medical treatment, he said.
"We are not sure why they were arrested. Tensions are very high," Bennett said.
Tawanda Mutasah, director of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, said the two women, among the most severely injured when Zimbabwean police broke up a protest gathering last Sunday, were trying to travel to Johannesburg to receive specialized post-traumatic care.
He said the ambulance carrying the women from a clinic in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, to the airport, where they were to leave in a medical rescue aircraft, was stopped on the tarmac by officers from Zimbabwe's security forces.
The women's passports were taken and they were told they needed a clearance certificate from the Department of Health. They were then instructed to go to Harare's central police station but were later allowed to return to the clinic under police guard.
"That the Zimbabwean government now resorts to arresting people in ambulances in clear need of specialist care, is an indication of the repressive lengths they're prepared to go," said Mutasah, adding lawyers for the women were trying to get a court order to allow them to receive treatment.
Zimbabwean police used tear gas, water cannon and live ammunition to crush the March 11 protest gathering, and beat activists, including the main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, according to opposition members.
Tsvangirai left the hospital Friday battered but defiant, pledging to "soldier on until Zimbabwe is free." His supporters vowed to drive Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe from office with a campaign of civil disobedience.
Mugabe on Friday warned his opponents against inciting unrest.
"If they do it again, we will bash them again," he said in an address to his party's youth wing, state radio reported.
The latest violence has drawn new attention to a deteriorating situation in the southern African country, where the increasingly autocratic Mugabe is blamed by opponents for repression, corruption, acute food shortages and inflation of 1,600 percent _ the highest in the world.
The 53-nation African Union issued a statement Saturday saying Commission Chief Alpha Oumar Konare "has followed with great concern the recent developments in Zimbabwe" and "recalls the need for the scrupulous respect for human rights and democratic principles in Zimbabwe."
Southern African nations have come under increasing pressure for their failure to condemn Mugabe, especially South Africa and its President Thabo Mbeki, who has said quiet diplomacy is preferable to public condemnation.
Western government have uniformly condemned the crackdown, with the United States threatening to strengthen sanctions against Mugabe and his associates. The European Union renewed targeted sanctions last month that include asset freezes and a travel ban on Mugabe and more than 100 of his top associates. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | March 2007 | ['(AP via Washington Post)'] |
The official death toll of the ferry capsizing rises to 150 with 150 people still missing. | Updated on: April 23, 2014 / 8:35 AM
/ CBS/AP
JINDO, South Korea -- The grim work of recovering bodies from the submerged South Korean ferry proceeded rapidly Wednesday, with the official death toll reaching 156, though a government official said divers must now rip through cabin walls to retrieve more victims.
Looming in the background is a sensitive issue: When to bring in the cranes and begin the salvage effort by cutting up and raising the submerged vessel. The government has warned that the work might eliminate air pockets that could be sustaining survivors, but for some relatives that is a long-lost hope.
"Now we think we have to deal with this realistically," said Pyun Yong-gi, whose 17-year-old daughter is among the missing.
"We don't want the bodies to decay further, so we want them to pull out the bodies as quickly as they can," Pyun said on Jindo island, where recovered bodies are taken for families to identify.
That view is not shared among all relatives of the missing, however. One of them, Jang Jong-ryul, was sensitive about the mere mention of the word "salvage" and said most families don't want to think about it.
The victims are overwhelmingly students of a single high school in Ansan, near Seoul. More than three-quarters of the 323 students are dead or missing, while nearly two-thirds of the other 153 people on board the ferry Sewol when it sank one week ago survived.
On Jindo island, where bodies recovered from the ferry are taken, descriptions of the dead are read over a loudspeaker. Relatives rush over to the main notice board and peered at details added by an official.
Some relatives cry out and run from the tent. Others stand red-eyed and shell-shocked.
The number of corpses recovered has risen sharply since the weekend, when divers battling strong currents and low visibility were finally able to enter the submerged vessel. But task force spokesman Koh Myung-seok the work is becoming more difficult, and divers must now break through cabin walls to retrieve more bodies.
"The lounge is one big open space, so once in it we got our search done straight away. But in the case of the cabins, we will have to break down the walls in between because they are all compartments," Koh said.
Twenty-two of the 29 members of the ferry's crew survived, and 11 have been arrested or detained in connection with the investigation. Two were arrested Wednesday, senior prosecutor Ang Sang-don said.
The captain, Lee Joon-seok, and two crew members were arrested Saturday on suspicion of negligence and abandoning people in need. Professor Kim Woo-Sook of Mokpo National Maritime University is a former teacher of the third mate, Park Han-gyeol. She was arrested Saturday in connection with the accident, which left 300 people dead or missing.
Kim talked to Park at a Mokpo detention facility. He says she told him she ordered a helmsman to make a 5-degree turn, but the steering gear turned too far and the helmsman could not turn it back. Tracking data show that the ship made a 45-degree turn.
On Tuesday, four crew members were arrested and another two were detained without arrest warrants.
The four crew members arrested Tuesday talked to reporters after a court hearing, their faces hidden with caps, hooded sweatshirts and masks.
One said they tried to correct the ferry's listing early on but "various devices, such as the balance weight, didn't work. So we reported the distress situation, according to the captain's judgment, and tried to launch the lifeboats, but the ferry was too tilted and we couldn't reach."
The captain has said he waited to issue an evacuation order because the current was strong, the water was cold and passengers could have drifted away before help arrived. But maritime experts said he could have ordered passengers to the deck - where they would have had a greater chance of survival - without telling them to abandon ship.
Koh, of the task force, said bodies have mostly been found on the third and fourth floors of the ferry, where many passengers seemed to have gathered. Many students were housed in cabins on the fourth floor, near the stern of the ship, Koh said.
The Ministry of Ocean and Fisheries had released incomplete data on the turn last week because a central station did not receive all the signals the Sewol's on-board transponder had sent. It released more complete details on Tuesday with data received by another station, and those show that the ferry spent about three minutes making a roughly 180-degree turn shortly before it began to list.
It remains unclear why the ship turned around. The third mate, who was arrested Saturday, was steering at the time of the accident in a challenging area where she had not steered before, and the captain said he was not on the bridge at the time.
Shareholders of the Sewol's owner, Chonghaejin Marine Co. Ltd., apologized in a statement that was distributed to reporters outside the office in Incheon, saying they feel "infinite sadness and responsibility."
"We will humbly accept all responsibility for this accident and we will not hesitate to do anything to console the pain of victims and grieving families even a little bit," said the statement from Yu Dae-kyun, Yu Hyuk-gi and others who are de facto owners of Chonghaejin. The company's president had apologized earlier.
In Ansan, a temporary memorial for the victims opened at Olympic Museum, a couple of blocks from Danwon High School, which the students attended.
First published on April 23, 2014 / 4:19 AM
© 2014 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. | Shipwreck | April 2014 | ['(CBS)'] |
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan met in Brussels, on the sidelines of the Asia–Europe Meeting. | (CNN) -- China's and Japan's top leaders met in Belgium, indicating a thaw in relations since a diplomatic battle broke out last month over Japan's arrest of a Chinese fishing captain off the disputed Diaoyu Islands.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan met Monday in Brussels, on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting.
They met in a corridor outside the conference venue after a working dinner and spoke for about 25 minutes, Kan told reporters, according to Japan's Kyodo news agency.
During the meeting, Wen stressed the mutual benefits of Beijing and Tokyo maintaining good relations, according to China's state-run media. Kan said likewise, Kyodo said.
Wen and Kan "agreed to step up people-to-people exchange and communication between the governments, and hold China-Japan high-level meeting at an appropriate time," according to the Xinhua news agency.
Wen also reiterated China's claims to the Diaoyu Islands, China's state-run media said. Kan told Wen that the islands are an integral part of Japanese territory, Kyodo said. The Japanese call the islands the Senkaku.
The arrest of the fishing captain in early September off the islands touched off a battle that escalated into diplomatic threats by Beijing, the suspension of ministerial-level talks and canceled trips between the nations.
Beijing says the islands and most of the South China Sea belong to China, disputing neighboring countries' claims. The clash over territorial waters and islands -- and the natural resources that go with them -- is a flash point in the Asia-Pacific region.
Japan late last month freed the fishing captain, who returned to a hero's welcome in China.
During the dispute, China arrested four Japanese nationals, saying they were being investigated for illegally entering a Chinese military zone. China released three of the four Japanese last week, saying they had made admissions and expressed regret. China continues to hold the remaining Japanese national.
Their employer, the Japanese construction company Fujita Corp., has said that they were sent to China for a Japanese government project to reclaim World War II chemical weapons left by Japan's Imperial Army. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | October 2010 | ['(CNN)'] |
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