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John Mark Karr is arrested in Bangkok for the 1996 murder of U.S. child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey. | Hours after a 41-year-old man confessed to the 1996 killing of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey, legal experts became skeptical of the claims made by John Mark Karr, arrested Wednesday by Thai officials. In the latest twist of a case characterized by aberrant developments, Karr’s confession to Thai officials is being widely disputed. Veteran Denver defense attorney Phil Cherner, who has represented clients who have falsely confessed, said he recognizes elements of duplicity in Karr’s words and behavior. “This guy seems to be not just confessing, but openly inviting everyone to a microphone to hear him confess. That raises questions in my mind as to his guilt,” Cherner said. He pointed out that “every credible and incredible fact” about the Ramsey murder “has found its way into the public domain. If there are facts not known, I’d be surprised.” The details that Karr has described, he said, are widely available. “The ability to make up a story that jibes with the government’s evidence is greater, in this case, than in many, many other cases. That’s why all this matters,” he said. Longtime Colorado defense attorney Larry Pozner said he firmly believes Karr did not murder JonBenét Ramsey, pointing out that the details of Karr’s account fail to jibe with known evidence. “The guy says he picked her up at school,” Pozner pointed out. JonBenét’s body was found in the Ramsey’s basement on the day after Christmas 1996. “He said he drugged her. There is no evidence to support that. There is no reason to think it is true.” Like JonBenét’s father, John Ramsey, and the family’s lawyer, Lin Wood, Pozner cautioned against leaping to conclusions of Karr’s guilt. Pozner interpreted Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy’s Thursday press conference as a carefully-worded announcement that Karr’s arrest was more relevant to concerns about his imminent teaching job at an international school than it was to the Ramsey investigation. Noting Karr’s refusal to explain how he entered the Ramsey house that Christmas night, or why his account of drugging the girl is contradicted by the coroner’s report that found no drugs in her system, Posner finds more holes than corroborating evidence. Credible murderers, including the BTK killer in Wichita, provide minute details and chapter-and-verse descriptions of their modus operandi, Pozner said. The only thing Karr has done, he observed, is say “I confess.” “He is a footnote in history, but now he gets to be famous,” Pozner said. The sad case of the raped, tortured and murdered little beauty pageant girl has held the public rapt for nearly 10 years. Public sentiment divided between suspecting the child’s wealthy parents, and others associated with the Ramseys and their neighborhood. Karr’s confession satisfied many eager for a resolution. The fact that he once lived about 35 miles from the Ramseys’ suburban Atlanta home, along with a 2001 arrest for possessing child pornography, initially seemed plausible. Karr told Thai officials that he inadvertently killed the girl, said Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, head of Thailand’s immigration police. Thai and U.S. authorities arrested Karr Wednesday at his apartment on the 9th floor of a rundown building in a seedy Bangkok neighborhood. “I was with JonBenet when she died,” Karr told reporters on Thursday, visibly nervous and stuttering. “Her death was an accident.” Asked if he was innocent of the crime, Karr said: “No.” Karr refused to answer questions Thursday about how he knew JonBenet Ramsey. An attorney for the Ramsey family said Wednesday that Karr once lived near the family in Conyers, Ga. Suwat said Karr insisted that he meant to kidnap JonBenet for $118,000, but that the girl died when kidnapping attempt that went awry. “He said it was second-degree murder. He said it was unintentional,” Suwat said. “He said he loved this child, that he was in love with her. He said she was very pretty, a pageant queen. She was the school star, she was very cute and sweet.” A senior Thai police officer said Karr also told investigators he drugged and had sex with the 6-year-old beauty queen before accidentally killing her. An autopsy done a day after the girl’s body was discovered indicated no drugs or alcohol in her system but
found vaginal abrasions. As officials escorted Karr to pick up his belongings at the apartment, Karr told the AP: “I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet. It’s very important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much, that her death was unintentional, that it was an accident.” Asked what happened when JonBenet died, he said: “It would take several hours to describe that. It’s a very involved series of events that would involve a lot of time. It’s very painful for me to talk about it.” He told the AP he made “several efforts to communicate with Patricia before she passed away,” referring to JonBenet’s mother, Patsy Ramsey, who died June 24 of cancer, “and it is my understanding that she did read my letters.” No evidence against Karr has been made public beyond his own admission. U.S. and Thai officials did not directly answer a question at the news conference Thursday about whether there was DNA evidence connecting him to the crime. Officials described his arrest as the result of a months-long investigation targeting Karr, whom they said knew telling case details so far unreleased to the public. Karr was given a mouth-swab DNA test in Bangkok, according to a law enforcement official who
spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. The results of that test are still pending.
Karr will submit a second DNA sample for testing when he returns to the United States, the official said. Investigators have DNA evidence from the initial investigation when JonBenét’s body was discovered. The day before being taken into custody, Karr was beginning a job as a 2nd grade teacher at the International School system in Bangkok, according to Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy who spoke at a Boulder press conference today. Karr, a former substitute teacher in California, was arrested in California for possessing child pornography. He has traveled extensively since leaving the United States several years ago. He arrived in Bangkok on June 6, after leaving Malaysia, reportedly seeking work as a teacher. Working with officials in Thailand and the U.S., the Boulder D.A.’s office spent months locating, finding and arresting Karr. Lacy said she expects even more work on the case, now that Karr is in custody, Lacy said. Lacy emphasized that Karr is presumed innocent, and no charges against him have been filed at this time. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2006 | ['(Denver Post)', '(USA Today)', '(MSNBC)'] |
Palestinians fire three rockets from Gaza, landing in Israel's Ashkelon region, shortly after IDF soldiers kill a 65 year old farmer for unknown reasons, and bomb two sites in the Gaza Strip. | Three rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists in north Gaza landed in the Ashkelon area Monday evening. There were no reports of injury or damage.
"We heard the siren and ran for cover in protected areas. We went back to work a few minutes later," a man who works in the industrial zone said. "This time we heard a loud explosion and understood the rocket landed very close to us."
Most of the area's factories were closed when the rocket hit, apart form a few which operate 24 hours a day.
The two other rockets landed within the limits of the Ashkelon Beach Regional Council.
Ashkelon Deputy Mayor Shlomo Cohen said, "Our biggest fear is a surprise attack during school hours, as most educational institutions here are not fortified." | Armed Conflict | January 2011 | ['(Haaretz)', '(Ynet)', '(The Jerusalem Post)'] |
Dr Mohamed Haneef, the Indian doctor freed in Australia of supporting terrorism, indicates that he would like to return to India as soon as possible. He later received clearance from the Australian Government to leave tonight. | SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Indian doctor freed from jail after Australia dropped terrorism charges against him will be leaving Australia on Saturday after receiving the go-ahead from immigration officials, his lawyer said.
Indian doctor leaves Australia
00:28
Mohamed Haneef was released from prison on Friday after Australian authorities abandoned the case against him, saying there was a lack of evidence to prove his connection with a failed car bomb plot in Britain.
Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said Haneef, 27, would be allowed to leave Australia, but the government would not reinstate his work visa.
“We’re stunned,” Haneef’s lawyer Stephen Keim told Reuters. “We can’t understand how a man, who has been locked up in prison for nearly a month on groundless reasons, could continue to have his good name be smeared with this decision.”
Keim said Haneef would be leaving for India later on Saturday.
But his return home would not end the fight to clear his name, Keim said, adding that the legal team had submitted a court application to appeal against the immigration office’s decision to revoke Haneef’s work visa.
“With the visa cancelled, it could have serious downstream effects on his work and travel. It is of paramount interest for Haneef to have an unblemished record,” he said.
Haneef had been charged with recklessly supporting terrorism by providing a relative in Britain -- his second cousin Sabeel Ahmed -- with his mobile phone SIM card.
Police in Britain have charged three people over the car bomb attacks, including Sabeel, who is accused of failing to disclose information that could have prevented an attack.
Another of Haneef’s second cousins, Kafeel Ahmed, remains in hospital after being badly burned when a jeep was driven into an airport terminal in Glasgow and set ablaze.
Prosecutors had told an Australian court that Haneef’s SIM card was found in the burning jeep in Glasgow, although prosecution lawyers agreed on Friday the SIM card was in fact found with Sabeel, as Haneef had told them all along.
Haneef said he left his SIM card with Sabeel in Liverpool in mid-2006, when Haneef left Britain to work in Australia.
The case has drawn sharp criticisms against the Australian Federal Police (AFP) for prosecuting the doctor despite the lack of strong evidence.
But AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty on Friday defended his department’s handling of the case, and said the investigation in Australia was ongoing.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | July 2007 | ['(Reuters)', '(ABC News Australia)'] |
Cambodia and Thailand exchange fire across their mutual border; with casualties on both sides. | Thailand and Cambodia exchanged gunfire along their border on Friday, with each side blaming the other for firing the first salvo. Thailand said three of its soldiers were killed, while Cambodia spoke of unspecified casualties on its side. Bangkok said many Thai soldiers were also injured in the “unprovoked firing”.
The new flare-up was widely seen as a fresh reminder of the long-simmering tensions between the two countries over their competing claims to a piece of territory near the Preah Vihear temple. The International Court of Justice had awarded the Hindu temple to Cambodia in 1962.
The current round of tensions is often traced to the fact that the temple was declared a world heritage site a few years ago. However, both countries indicated that Friday's hostilities occurred near a different temple site, with Phnom Penh informing the United Nations Security Council that Thai troops directed artillery fire towards two temples located deep inside the Cambodian territory.
In Bangkok's version, some Cambodian soldiers were first found to have intruded into Thai territory and started building a bunker. Upon this being noticed, Cambodian troops opened fire, it was said.
Disputing the Thai version, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong wrote to Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa as well, complaining about Thailand's “large-scale attack.” Thailand suggested bilateral talks with Cambodia to resolve the tensions. But Phnom Penh asked for a mediated settlement, arguing that Bangkok's proposal was “a pretext for the use of [Thailand's] larger and materially more sophisticated armed forces against Cambodia”. Already, an earlier idea of stationing Indonesian military observers along the Thai-Cambodian border did not take off. | Armed Conflict | April 2011 | ['(The Hindu)', '(Bangkok Post)', '(BBC)'] |
Maule, Chile, is rattled by a 6.1 magnitude aftershock on Monday 08.43 a.m. AEDT (5:43 p.m. Sunday local time). | Chile has been rattled by a 6.1 magnitude aftershock, one month after a major earthquake and tsunami ravaged the central part of the country killing 452 people, the US-based Geological Survey reported.
The temblor stuck at on Sunday at 5.43pm (0843 Monday AEDT), with its epicentre located offshore at 282km southwest of Santiago, at a depth of 19km, the Survey's National Earthquake Information Centre said.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries in Chile from the quake and no alert has been issued by the US-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.
On February, a 7.0-magnitude quake centre around Concepcion in Chile killed at least 452 people and caused some $US30 billion ($A33.15 billion) in damage. Nearly 100 people are still missing. | Earthquakes | March 2010 | ['(The Sydney Morning Herald)', '(Xinhua)'] |
Hawaii Governor David Ige signs an emergency proclamation in anticipation of the arrival of Hurricane Ignacio on Monday. Ignacio is expected to strengthen to Category 2 this weekend. The state is still recovering from precipitation from Tropical Storm Kilo which skirted the islands earlier this week. In addition, Hurricane Jimena, which is expected to intensify to near category 5 strength on Saturday, is trailing Ignacio and also heading toward Hawaii. , , , | As of the Central Pacific Hurricane Center’s 5 a.m. advisory bulletin, Hurricane Ignacio was 840 miles east-southeast of Hilo, traveling at 10 miles per hour in a west-northwest direction that is expected to continue before taking a slight northwest turn.
Forecasts predict that the forward movement will decrease through Sunday.
Hurricane Ignacio is holding maximum sustained winds of 90 mph with the expectation that it will continue to strengthen through late Saturday before beginning to weaken. The intial strengthening will be helped by a friendly environment, according to CPHC, who says low shear is a contributing factor.
CPHC officials say that the center of Hurricane Ignacio should pass close by, but to the northeast of the Big Island as a hurricane early next week.
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| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | August 2015 | ['(Hawaii News Now)', '(AP via The Washington Post)', '(Maui Now)', '(The Honolulu Star-Advertiser)'] |
Israeli archaeologists reportedly discover human remains from 400,000 years ago, challenging the theory that humans originated in Africa. | | Photo Credit: - Human teeth dating back 400,000 years, found in a cave near Rosh HaAyin are the earliest evidence of modern man, and show he lived twice as long ago as was previously thought, said Tel Aviv University on Tuesday.
Until now, human remains from only 200,000 years ago had been discovered in Africa, leading researchers to speculate that this was the continent on which Homo sapiens originated.
The cave was uncovered in 2000 near Rosh HaAyin and a morphological analysis was performed on the teeth. The teeth are similar to those of modern man, CT scans and X- Rays showed. They are also “very similar” to evidence of modern man from those discovered at two separate locations in northern Israel and which date from 100,000 years ago. According to the researchers, their discoveries are likely to change the perception that modern man originated in Africa. | New archeological discoveries | December 2010 | ['(AFP via Google News)', '(The Hindu)', '(Press TV)'] |
A riot in Herat Province, Afghanistan, leaves at least eight people dead and 12 others injured. | At least eight prisoners were killed and 12 more were wounded in Herat prison riot that started on Wednesday evening, health officials said on Thursday.
The riot started after police began clearing some partitions created by prisoners in Block 5 of Herat Prison, said Mohammad Rafiq Shirzai, spokesman for provincial public health directorate.
The wounded were taken to Herat hospital, he said.
Jailani Farhad, a spokesman for provincial governor said the situation is under police control.
Source said that the prisoners have torched Block 5 and that the riot continued until midnight.
Eyewitnesses and sources said the riot in Herat Prison continued until midnight.
At least eight prisoners were killed and 12 more were wounded in Herat prison riot that started on Wednesday evening, health officials said on Thursday.
The riot started after police began clearing some partitions created by prisoners in Block 5 of Herat Prison, said Mohammad Rafiq Shirzai, spokesman for provincial public health directorate.
The wounded were taken to Herat hospital, he said.
Jailani Farhad, a spokesman for provincial governor said the situation is under police control.
Source said that the prisoners have torched Block 5 and that the riot continued until midnight.
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Telecommunication companies issued a joint statement calling on the Afghan government to immediately address the issue…
| Riot | October 2020 | ['(TOLOnews)'] |
Germany reportedly asks the U.S. Department of Defense if the Eurofighter Typhoon could be certified to carry nuclear bombs. | BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany is pressing Washington to clarify whether it would let the Eurofighter Typhoon carry nuclear bombs as part of shared Western defenses, an issue that could help decide whether Berlin orders more of the jets, sources familiar with the matter said.
Although not a nuclear power, Germany hosts some U.S. nuclear warheads under NATO’s nuclear-sharing policy and operates a number of Tornado warplanes that can deliver them. New jets will need to be certified by Washington to carry out nuclear missions, a process which can take years.
Germany’s defense ministry sent a letter to the U.S. Defense Department in April asking whether certification of the European jets was possible, how much it would cost, and how long it would take, the sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Top U.S. Air Force and Pentagon officials are working to respond to the German query, the sources said.
The multi-billion-euro tender to replace Germany’s fleet of 89 Tornados, which are due to retire in the middle of the next decade, pits the Typhoon against several U.S. contenders at a time of strains in transatlantic ties.
Executives with Airbus AIR.PA, Lockheed Martin LMT.N and Boeing BA.N are making presentations to the defense ministry this week after submitting reams of information on their respective warplanes in April, with the formal launch of the competition expected later this year, industry sources said.
The German defense ministry declined comment on the issue.
No comment was immediately available from the Pentagon.
Lockheed’s radar-evading F-35 fighter is already slated to have the nuclear capability in the early 2020s, while the Eurofighter would still need certification.
Airbus has said it is confident Eurofighter - a joint project with Britain's BAE Systems BAES.L and Italy's Leonardo LDOF.MI - could be certified by 2025. Sources familiar with the Eurofighter said it was possible to reconfigure the European jet to carry nuclear bombs. But U.S. government sources say that schedule is ambitious given that the F-35 and other aircraft must be certified first. Washington has suggested it could take 7-10 years to certify the Eurofighter for nuclear missions, well beyond the Tornado’s retirement date, according to one German military source.
While urging Europe to boost defense spending, U.S. officials are worried about being shut out of European defense projects after 25 EU governments signed a pact in December to fund, develop and deploy armed forces together. [nL2N1QH1P6]
U.S. officials will also weigh whether the Eurofighter could survive a mission into enemy territory to drop a nuclear bomb without stealth capability at a time when Russia and other potential future enemies have bolstered their sensors and air defenses, a second source said.
The F-35 is the only aircraft in the running that has such radar-evading capabilities, but Boeing and Eurofighter argue that their aircraft can work in tandem with jamming equipment.
Volker Paltzo, chief executive of Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH, told Reuters this week that he remained confident that Eurofighter could take over the roles of the Tornado, and the company had a strategy to deal with a length certification process.
He said the Tornado had been successfully recertified several times after major upgrades.
Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | June 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The United States Army charges three soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division 3rd Brigade Combat Team with murder in relation to the deaths of three men in custody in Iraq. | Three members of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the Army's 101st Airborne Division are accused of killing the three male detainees in an operation near a canal north of Baghdad on May 9, according to a brief statement from the U.S. military base in Tikrit.
The accused soldiers were identified by the Army as Pfc. Corey R. Clagett, Spc. William B. Hunsaker and Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard. They are being held by military authorities in Kuwait pending an evidentiary hearing.
The detainees died during a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation near the Thar Thar Canal in Salahuddin province, a heavily Sunni Arab area where insurgent attacks are frequent.
The commander of the Army troops ordered an investigation of the deaths May 9, and the Army launched a criminal probe May 17, the statement said. The military had announced last week that it was investigating three detainees' deaths after other troops raised concerns about the incident.
Monday's charges come as a small group of Marines awaits the results of two investigations into the Nov. 19 deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha.
About a half-dozen Marines are suspected of killing the civilians after a roadside bomb killed a fellow Marine. Military authorities also are investigating whether the Marines tried to cover up the incident, initially reported as a roadside bomb that killed 15 civilians.
The murder charges announced in the Thar Thar Canal incident are among the most serious to be leveled against U.S. troops since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The day before the incident, U.S. officials told the United Nations that 103 servicemembers had been charged with mistreating detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, with 89 convictions and 19 sentenced to more than a year behind bars. In January, a military jury found Army Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer guilty of negligent homicide in the 2003 death of an Iraqi general. Welshofer received a reprimand and fine but no prison time.
Army spokesmen in Iraq did not respond to requests for comment Monday night and Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Venable said he had no further information. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2006 | ['(USA Today)'] |
Labour Party MP Jo Cox dies at Leeds General Infirmary after being shot and stabbed as she prepared to hold a meeting with constituents in Birstall, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. A woman suffered serious injuries; a man was slightly wounded. West Yorkshire police have arrested a 52–year–old male suspect. | BIRSTALL, England (Reuters) - A British member of parliament was shot dead in the street on Thursday, causing deep shock across Britain and the suspension of campaigning for next week’s referendum on the country’s EU membership.
Britain remembers MP Jo Cox
00:47
Jo Cox, 41, a lawmaker for the opposition Labour Party and a vocal advocate for Britain remaining in the European Union, was attacked while preparing to meet constituents in Birstall near Leeds in northern England.
Media reports said she had been shot and stabbed. West Yorkshire regional police said a 52-year-old man was arrested by officers nearby and weapons including a firearm recovered. “We are not in a position to discuss any motive at this time,” said Temporary Chief Constable Dee Collins.
One witness said a man pulled an old or makeshift gun from a bag and fired twice. “I saw a lady on the floor like on the beach with her arms straight and her knees up and blood all over the face,” Hichem Ben-Abdallah told reporters. “She wasn’t making any noise, but clearly she was in agony.”
The lawmaker’s husband Brendan said: “She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now: one, that our precious children are bathed in love and two, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her.”
The rival referendum campaign groups said they were suspending activities for the day, with the Remain camp saying its activities would also be suspended on Friday. Prime Minister David Cameron said he would pull out of a planned rally in Gibraltar, the British territory on the southern coast of Spain.
Cameron said the killing of the mother-of-two, who had worked on U.S. President Barack Obama’s 2008 election campaign, was a tragedy.
“We have lost a great star,” the Conservative prime minister said. “She was a great campaigning MP with huge compassion, with a big heart. It is dreadful, dreadful news.”
It was not immediately clear what the impact would be on the June 23 referendum, which has polarized the nation into pro- and anti-EU camps. But some analysts speculated it could boost the pro-EU “Remain” campaign, which in recent days has fallen behind the “Leave” camp in opinion polls.
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Britain’s sterling currency rose against the dollar after news of the attack, adding around two cents.
Finance minister George Osborne and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney scrapped major speeches planned for Thursday evening and the International Monetary Fund said it had delayed the publication of a report on the British economy.
‘HORRIFIC MURDER’
Media reports, citing witnesses, said the attacker had shouted out “Britain first”, which is the name of a right-wing nationalist group that describes itself on its website as “a patriotic political party and street defence organisation”.
But the deputy leader of the group, Jayda Fransen, completely distanced it from the attack, which she described as “absolutely disgusting”.
West Yorkshire’s elected Police and Crime Commissioner said “our information is that this is a localised incident, albeit one that has a much wider impact”.
Gun ownership is highly restricted in Britain, and attacks of any nature on public figures are rare. The last British lawmaker to have been killed in an attack was Ian Gow, who died after a bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) exploded under his car at his home in southern England in 1990.
Britain’s Union Jack flag was flying at half-mast over the Houses of Parliament in London, while in Birstall hundreds of people attended a vigil at a local church.
Colleagues expressed their shock and disbelief at the death of Cox, a Cambridge University graduate who had spent a decade working for aid agency Oxfam in roles including head of humanitarian campaigning and was known for her work on women’s issues.
She won election to parliament for northern England’s Batley and Spen district at the 2015 general election, and lived with her husband and children on a traditional Dutch barge moored on the Thames near the Tower of London.
“We’ve lost a wonderful woman, we’ve lost a wonderful member of parliament, but our democracy will go on,” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said in a televised statement. “As we mourn her memory, we’ll work in her memory to achieve that better world she spent her life trying to achieve.”
Labour lawmaker Sarah Champion said: “She’s a tiny woman, five feet nothing and a lion as well - she fights so hard for the things she believes in. I cannot believe anyone would do this to her.”
Police said a 77-year-old man was also assaulted in the incident and suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.
BBC TV and other media showed a picture of the alleged suspect, a balding white man, being apprehended by police. Temporary Chief Constable Collins said a “very significant investigation with large numbers of witnesses” was under way.
“We are not looking for anyone else in connection with this incident,” she said.
The last attack on a British legislator was in 2010, when Labour member and ex-cabinet minister Stephen Timms was stabbed in the stomach at his office in east London by a 21-year-old student who was angry over his backing for the 2003 Iraq war.
In 2000, a Liberal Democrat local councillor was murdered by a man with a samurai sword at the offices in western England of lawmaker Nigel Jones, who was also seriously hurt in the attack.
Reporting by Kylie MacLellan, Michael Holden, Estelle Shirbon, David Milliken and William Schomberg; Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Pravin Char
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Exclusive: Fed’s Neel Kashkari opposes rate hikes at least through 2023 as the central bank becomes more hawkish | Famous Person - Death | June 2016 | ['(NBC News)', '(ABC News)', '(BBC)', '(Reuters)', '(The Guardian)'] |
A female Afghan politician, Hanifa Safi, dies in a bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan. | A prominent female Afghan politician has been killed in a bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan, officials say.
Hanifa Safi died after a bomb attached to her car exploded as she left her home in Laghman province. Her husband and daughter were injured.
As the provincial head of the Afghan ministry of women's affairs, Mrs Safi had for years been a leading advocate of fair treatment for women.
She had been known locally for going out without her head covered.
That was against the conservative interpretation of Islam practised by many in Afghanistan, and might have brought her to the attention of the Taliban, the BBC's David Loyn in Kabul reports.
However, no group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.
The killing of Mrs Safi is a reminder of the perilous life lived by so many Afghan women, and comes only a week after video emerged of the killing of a woman said to have run away from her husband, our correspondent says.
Government officials are frequently targeted by militants in Afghanistan, but it is much less usual for female officials to be killed.
In 2006, Safia Ama Jan, who headed the Kandahar department of women's affairs, was shot dead by Taliban attackers. | Famous Person - Death | July 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Brazil's Supreme Court voted 8-2 to take over the corruption investigation of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Silva alleges Judge Sérgio Moro unfairly targets him. The court also overruled Moro's decision to release the recording of Silva's call with President Dilma Rousseff, since it is the only court that can authorize a wiretap on presidential conversations. The full court is still to rule on the injunction that prevents Silva from taking office as the President's Chief of Staff. | BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled on Thursday to take a corruption investigation into former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva away from a crusading federal judge, as pro-government protests across the country eased pressure on President Dilma Rousseff.
Local television showed tens of thousands of supporters clad in red marching for Rousseff, who has faced growing calls for her impeachment since anti-corruption judge Sergio Moro released a wiretapped conversation of her and Lula this month.
Thursday’s 8-2 Supreme Court decision grants Lula and Rousseff a breather from Moro by putting Lula’s case temporarily in the hands of the top court, all but 3 of whose members have been named since the ruling Workers’ Party took office in 2003.
Lula, Rousseff’s predecessor and mentor, is under investigation for allegedly benefiting, in the form of payments and a luxury apartment, from a massive graft scheme uncovered at state-run oil company Petrobras.
Rousseff is fighting impeachment over unrelated charges of irregularities in the government budget designed to favor her reelection in 2014. She could lose power as soon as May if she does not gain more support in Congress.
The corruption scandal, Rousseff’s Congressional weakness and a deepening economic recession have led to Brazil’s worst political crisis since former President Fernando Collor de Mello resigned to avoid impeachment in 1992.
Up to three million people joined a protest in favor of her ouster on March 13, the largest demonstration in decades.
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On Thursday, Rousseff held a rally with artists and movie stars who support her and said opponents trying to impeach her were merely trying to “give a democratic tint to a coup.”
Aides said her government had had some success in drawing lawmakers from smaller political parties into her government’s alliance, which was shattered by the departure this month of Brazil’s largest political party the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB).
“The reconfiguration of the base is ongoing,” Rousseff’s spokesman Edinho Silva told journalists.
In a sign of a potential split among the PMDB, Senate leader Renan Calheiros said his party’s decision to leave the government was “foolish” and “premature.”
The lower house of Congress is due to vote in mid-April on whether Rousseff should stand trial in the Senate for manipulating government accounts. She is not being investigated for corruption.
Her woes deepened, however, when she tried to appoint Lula to her Cabinet, which would give him some immunity from prosecution because ministers and elected officials can only be tried by the Supreme Court in Brazil.
Hours after he was named, Moro released a recording of them discussing the appointment. A Supreme Court justice suspended Lula’s appointment arguing that it was aimed at illegally shielding him.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court overruled Moro’s decision to release the recording of his call with Rousseff and said it was the only court authorized to wiretap a conversation involving the president. Several justices said the conversation should not be accepted as valid evidence when the court eventually makes a decision on whether Lula can join the cabinet.
Moro could still take some parts of the Lula investigation, depending on future Supreme Court rulings and whether Lula is ultimately allowed to become a minister.
Lula released a video on social media praising Thursday’s protests and gathering of artists, saying the “anti-coup” movement was growing.
Additional reporting by Anthony Boadle; Writing by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Alistair Bell and Andrew Hay
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Exclusive: Fed’s Neel Kashkari opposes rate hikes at least through 2023 as the central bank becomes more hawkish | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | March 2016 | ['(AP via ABC news)', '(Reuters)'] |
Algerians protest in the capital of Algiers against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in an effort to make him resign. It is estimated that tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands attended. | Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Algeria to demand the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Estimates say crowds in the capital, Algiers, reached a million. It is the sixth successive Friday of mass anti-government protests in the country. Earlier this week an army general, Lt Gen Ahmed Gaed Salah, called for the position of president to made vacant.
But opposition parties in Algeria said it would not guarantee free elections.
Algerian police fired tear gas at crowds as they attempted to reach the presidency, the BBC's Mohamed Arezki Himeur, in Algiers, said. The renewed calls for regime change come just days after Lt Gen Gaed Salah demanded that Mr Bouteflika be declared unfit to rule.
Demonstrations against Mr Bouteflika began last month after the president, who has seldom been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, announced that he would stand for another term. In response, the president agreed to not stand for a fifth term in upcoming elections, which have been delayed. However the move did not go down well with protesters, who said his decision not to run was a cynical move to prolong his 20-year rule. They are now calling for the departure of the president and also an entire generation of Algerian political leaders, including those who would be in line to succeed him.
At the protest in Algiers, one member of the crowd, named as Ali, told Reuters news agency: "We only have one word to say today, all the gang must go immediately, game over."
Lt Gen Gaed Salah - who is also deputy defence minister and seen as loyal to Mr Bouteflika - this week called for the use of Article 102, which allows the Constitutional Council to declare the position of president vacant if the leader is unfit to rule.
The ruling party, the National Liberation Front (FLN), backed the general's call.
Under the constitution, the head of the Senate, Abdelkhader Bansallah, would become the acting head of state until an election could be held.
Despite the significant intervention, the call from the army chief of staff does not appear to be enough for protesters and opposition parties, who have continued to protest on the streets.
By Ahmed Rouaba, BBC Africa
Opposition parties and protesters in Algeria were not impressed by the suggestion of Lt Gen Gaid Salah to trigger Article 102 of the constitution.
The majority of protesters are youth who are not involved in party politics and who say they are not interested in the departure of Mr Bouteflika only to see the power transferred to his former allies - bringing to power different faces of the same regime.
It is difficult to predict what is going to happen because there is no indication that opposition parties hold any influence over the protesters, who do not have any leader or spokesperson who could hold talks with the authorities.
The army clearly wanted to see an end to the crisis when they abandoned Mr Bouteflika in an unexpected move. But they need to find an influential party to discuss the procedure with.
For the moment, the protesters' expectations are very high as they demand the departure of "everybody who has been associated with the regime", but they do not offer an alternative. Lt Gen Gaid Salah had already dismissed the idea of "removing everybody" as expressed in the protests and on social media. Said Bouteflika: Many in Algeria believe the president's younger brother is the de facto ruler of the country. He is described as being the president's gatekeeper, leading the presidential clan and protecting its interests from behind the scenes. Lakhdar Brahimi: One of the country's most respected veteran diplomats, Mr Brahimi had a successful career at the highest level in the UN General Secretariat. When protests in Algeria first began, Mr Brahimi was chosen to head a transitional conference on the country's political future.
Ali Benflis: The founder of the state-run Algerian League for Human Rights was appointed minister for justice in 1988. He was named prime minister in 2000 but dismissed in 2003. He is considered a possible successor despite losing presidential bids in 2004 and 2014.
Ali Haddad: The former head of Algeria's Business Forum was identified by Algerian and French press as being one of the main financiers of Mr Bouteflika's 2014 re-election campaign.
Ahmed Gaid Salah: The army chief of staff has created controversy by commenting on public matters, leading many to believe that he has presidential ambitions. The Lt Gen has also frequently helped Mr Bouteflika undermine the position of other generals.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | March 2019 | ['(The New York Times)', '(BBC)', '(Channel NewsAsia)'] |
Authorities in Pakistan arrest Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, alleged leader of the LashkereTaiba group, which is blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. | Pakistan’s security forces have arrested an alleged leader of the militant group that was behind the bloody 2008 Mumbai attacks in India
MULTAN, Pakistan -- Pakistan's security forces arrested Saturday an alleged leader of the militant group that was behind the bloody 2008 Mumbai attacks in India.
An official with the Pakistani counterterrorism police, Shakil Ahmed, said that Zaikur Rehman Lakhvi was seized in the eastern city of Lahore, on terrorism financing charges.
Lakhvi is alleged to be a leader of the Lashker-e-Taiba group that organized the Mumbai attacks in 2008 that killed 166 people. Lakhvi was detained days after the Mumbai attacks but released in 2015 by Pakistani courts.
Pakitani authorities allege that Lakhvi was running a dispensary in Lahore as a front for financing militant activities.
Lakhvi was a prominent figure in Hafiz Saeed’s charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which is believed to be a front for Lashker-e-Taiba.
Saeed, who has been designated a terrorist by the U.S. Justice Department and has a $10 million bounty on his head, is presently serving multiple jail terms in Pakistan after being convicted in several cases in recent months. The Pakistani government has seized Saeed’s extensive network of mosques, schools, seminaries and charities and other assets in the country.
Relations between Pakistan and India were strained after the attack on India’s financial hub in 2008. The rival South Asian powers have fought two wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2021 | ['(ABC News)'] |
A Tunisian Army soldier is killed after a shooting rampage in which 7 fellow soldiers are killed and 10 others injured in their barracks in Tunis. | Tunis - A Tunisian corporal shot dead seven of his comrades on Monday before himself being killed, the defence ministry said, adding that he had family and psychological problems.
The rampage "caused the deaths of seven soldiers and also of the shooter. Ten soldiers were wounded, and one is in a serious condition," ministry spokesperson Belhassen Oueslati said at a news conference.
"He attacked one man with a knife and took his gun before shooting at his comrades who were saluting the flag.
"He had family and psychological problems" and because of this had been "forbidden from carrying arms" and given "non-sensitive duties", Oueslati said.
He called the shooting an "isolated" incident.
"Investigations will show whether this was a terrorist act or not," Oueslati added, despite the interior ministry earlier ruling this out.
The Weekly
. | Armed Conflict | May 2015 | ['(AP via Fox News)', '(AFP via News24)'] |
A non-violent protest was held at the Yale Bowl during the annual Harvard-Yale football game at halftime. The apparently scheduled protest included both Yale and Harvard students. The students were protesting the colleges' usage of endowments from fossil fuel companies. The game was delayed for about an hour. There were some arrests. (The New York Times} | Demonstrators stormed the field during halftime, causing the game to be delayed for about an hour. The Yale police issued 42 summonses for disorderly conduct.
By Britton O’Daly
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Climate change activists stormed the field at the Yale-Harvard football game on Saturday afternoon, disrupting the game at halftime in a protest to call attention to the universities to divest their investments in fossil fuels.
A group of about 70 protesters took to the field just before 2 p.m. after the game’s halftime show. They were then joined by others from the stands.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | November 2019 | ['(CNN)'] |
Kurt Volker, United States special envoy to Ukraine, resigns one day after the release of a whistleblower report concerning a phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. | (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s special representative for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, resigned on Friday, sources familiar with the situation said.
A whistleblower complaint from within the intelligence community, released publicly on Thursday, described Volker as trying to “contain the damage” from efforts by Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani to press Ukraine to investigate Democrats.
Volker, who had served in the position on a part-time, unpaid basis since 2017, had sought to help Ukraine’s government resolve its confrontation with Russia-sponsored separatists.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, who are conducting an impeachment investigation of Trump, have sought testimony from Volker relating to a July 25 phone call in which Trump encouraged Ukraine’s president to investigate Joe Biden, a political rival.
Volker’s resignation was first reported by the State Press, a student-run publication at Arizona State University, which backs a think tank where Volker serves as executive director.
Reporting by Steve Holland and Bryan Pietsch; Editing by Leslie Adler and Daniel Wallis
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | September 2019 | ['(CNN)', '(Reuters)'] |
Two–thirds of the Iraqi Council of Representatives removes Speaker of the Council of Representatives Mahmoud al–Mashhadani due to repeated acts of violence to other members by him or his staff. | BAGHDAD, June 11 — Just over two-thirds of the 168 Iraqi parliament members present at today’s session voted in favor of a resolution to remove the body’s speaker, Mahmoud Mashhadani, opening the way for the coalition of Sunni political groups who had installed him last year to replace him. Mr. Mashhadani was forced out with 113 votes after repeated episodes in which he or his guards struck other members of parliament. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | June 2007 | ['(New York Times)'] |
Madagascar's constitutional court supports the installation of Andry Rajoelina as President. | It comes a day after military leaders conferred powers to the 34-year-old when President Marc Ravalomanana quit.
But under the current constitution, the former disc jockey is six years too young to be elected president.
Zambia called for the immediate suspension of Madagascar from the African Union (AU) and Southern African Development Community (Sadc).
Zambian Foreign Minister Kabinga Pande also told a news conference in Lusaka: "Zambia rejects the unconstitutional change of government in Madagascar."
Meanwhile, France's foreign ministry said the 24-month deadline Mr Rajoelina has pledged for holding fresh elections was "too long".
A Quai d'Orsay spokesman stressed France would continue its aid to the island and "maintain its policy of co-operation".
'Back to normal'
Mr Rajoelina addressed supporters in the capital on Wednesday to promise a return to "normal life, to security and above all national reconciliation", reported Reuters news agency.
The constitutional court announced its approval of the power transition in a radio address, after being approached by Mr Rajoelina's supporters.
The BBC's Jonah Fisher, in the capital Antananarivo, says the legal decision is part of a process of legitimising Mr Rajoelina as president after he effectively seized power with the backing of his supporters and the military.
Our correspondent says there is relief on the streets that the Indian Ocean island's power struggle, which has left more than 100 people dead since January, has ended without further bloodshed so far.
'No power vacuum'
According to a legal document obtained by AFP news agency, the constitutional court "proclaims that Mr Andry Rajoelina exercises the attributions of the president of the Republic as stated by the provisions of the constitution".
But according to Malagasy law, the head of parliament's upper house should have taken over after the president's resignation and organised an election within two months.
Mr Rajoelina earlier told the BBC's World Today programme: "There must not be a power vacuum."
He promised elections within the next 18 to 24 months and, asked why polls could not be held earlier, said he did not want "history to repeat itself".
"We'll have to change the constitution," he told the BBC. "We'll have to analyse the law on political parties, the electoral code; we need time to do all this."
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Asked about the future of Mr Ravalomanana - whose whereabouts a day after his ousting were unclear - Mr Rajoelina said that was up to the judiciary.
Palace looted
Our correspondent says the Iavoloha palace formerly occupied by President Ravalomanana on the outskirts of the capital has been ransacked by looters.
Smashed photos of the former president lie on the floor and electrical equipment has been taken.
The former mayor effectively took charge on Tuesday evening after the army rejected a plan laid out by the departing President Ravalomanana to hand over power to a military directorate.
Mr Rajoelina paraded triumphantly through the streets of the capital, after installing himself at the presidential residence seized by soldiers on Monday night.
He had rejected a proposal at the weekend by Mr Ravalomanana, who was re-elected to a second term in 2006, for a referendum on whether the president should serve the remainder of his mandate.
The week's events have marked a dramatic victory for the young politician, who was sacked as mayor of the capital in February. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | March 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi announces a seven-day mourning period and calls for a security meeting with the country's top security body. | Cairo (AFP) - President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called Sunday an urgent meeting of Egypt's top national security body after jihadists released a video purportedly showing the beheading of Egyptian Christians in Libya.
The footage posted online by the Islamic State group shows the handcuffed Coptic hostages in orange jumpsuits being beheaded by their black-suited captors on a seashore south of the Libyan capital.
The security body groups Sisi, his defence and interior ministers and top military figures in Egypt, which last year denied reports of having carried out air strikes on Islamists in Libya.
The suspect charged with killing Aiden Leos, 6, in a suspected road rage incident told police he shot at the car, according to prosecutors.
The police report alleges the officer did not call for medical attention for the victim. Here’s why a judge vacated his sentence.
Officials don’t know how long the body was there.
Fox News reportedly presented GOP activist guests as parents concerned about critical race theory
Miegellic Young was forced to stand for days in a laundry room as punishment before she died, according to a warrant.
Officials don’t know how long the body was there.
Thursday’s show got off to a rocky start.
Comedy CentralUnlike Jimmy Kimmel, The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper couldn’t get the MyPillow guy to come to him. So he did what he does best and went to the MyPillow guy.In his latest field piece from MAGA world, the long-serving correspondent traveled to Mike Lindell’s “free speech Woodstock” in Wisconsin with the hope of interviewing some of the election truthers who are still holding out hope that Donald Trump will return to the White House this summer. He likely never could have imagined tha
Corinna Kopf rose to YouTube fame as part of David Dobrik's Vlog Squad. Here's the story behind the star's rise.
The stars have been dating since 2018, and their relationship began when the former Disney Channel star slid into the Victoria's Secret Angel's DMs.
“I want this guy to go out and do well for our country,” Trump said of Biden. | Famous Person - Give a speech | February 2015 | ['(Reuters)', '(AFP via Yahoo! News)'] |
Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. announces the government's decision to suspend the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States for at least another six months. | The Philippines said Wednesday it will suspend for another six months its earlier decision to discontinue a visiting forces agreement with the United States.
Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin said in a statement that the move is to allow both parties to arrive at a "more enhanced, mutually beneficial, mutually agreeable, and more effective and lasting arrangement."
The government of President Rodrigo Duterte first served notice to cancel the 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement with its long-time defense ally on Feb. 11, starting a 180-day termination period.
But in June, the Philippines held off the decision by six months, citing political and other developments in the region.
The agreement, which is separate from the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, allows the U.S. military to use Philippine bases and preposition its assets in the Southeast Asian country. | Tear Up Agreement | November 2020 | ['(Kyodo News)'] |
Sheik Umar Khan, the doctor who was leading the fight against the disease in Sierra Leone, dies of the Ebola virus. | The doctor leading Sierra Leone's fight against the worst Ebola outbreak on record has died from the virus, the country's chief medical officer said.
The death of Sheik Umar Khan, who was credited with treating more than 100 patients, follows the deaths of dozens of local health workers and the infection of two American medics in neighbouring Liberia, highlighting the dangers faced by staff trying to halt the disease's spread across western Africa.
Ebola is believed to have killed 672 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since the outbreak began in February, according to the World Health Organisation.
The contagious disease, which has no known cure, has symptoms that include vomiting, diarrhoea and internal and external bleeding.
The 39-year-old Dr Khan, hailed as a "national hero" by the health ministry, had been moved to a treatment ward run by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in the far north of Sierra Leone.
Reuters
He died on Tuesday afternoon (local time), less than a week after his diagnosis was announced, and on the same day president Ernest Bai Koroma was due to visit his treatment centre in the north-eastern town of Kailahun.
"It is a big and irreparable loss to Sierra Leone as he was the only specialist the country had in viral haemorrhagic fevers," chief medical officer Brima Kargbo said.
Weak health systems are struggling to contain the disease despite international help, ranging from doctors to safety equipment.
Reuters/WHO
West African airline Asky has suspended flights to and from Sierra Leone and Liberia as concern over the spread of the virus has increased since last week when the first death was reported in Nigeria's coastal city of Lagos, home to 21 million people.
The 40-year-old victim was reportedly an American who travelled to Nigeria from Liberia on Asky via Lome.
Decontee Sawyer from Minnesota told NBC News her husband, Patrick Sawyer, who was working for the Liberian government, collapsed on July 20 in Lagos.
She said he had been working in Liberia since 2008.
Mr Sawyer had been put in isolation in a hospital in Nigeria and died on Friday.
Reuters was not immediately able to reach Decontee Sawyer to confirm the information.
Two other Americans infected with Ebola while in Liberia to help fight the disease, Dr Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, are still hospitalised, according to SIM - the faith-based international relief group with which they work.
Nigeria's largest carrier, Arik Air, has also suspended flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone because of the Ebola risk.
The fatality rate of the current outbreak is about 60 per cent, although the disease can kill up to 90 per cent of those who catch it.
On Monday, a US administration official said president Barack Obama was receiving updates and noted that US agencies had stepped up assistance to help contain the virus.
Reuters
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. | Famous Person - Death | July 2014 | ['(Reuters via ABC Australia)'] |
Flooding after several days of torrential rain kills at least 23 people in Haiti with the town of Cabaret being worst affected. | Twenty-three bodies were recovered from the town of Cabaret, which was inundated by flooding, Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime said.
Floods and mudslides across the country have damaged farmland and left hundreds of people homeless.
Efforts are being made to evacuate people from villages in dangerous areas, civil defence agencies say.
Efforts were underway to provide food and water and shelter to people in Cabaret, Mr Bien-Aime said.
Aid operations have been hampered by poor communication links and infrastructure. Heavy rains have also affected other countries in the Caribbean, including Cuba and Jamaica. | Floods | October 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Barack Obama chooses his home city of Chicago for his presidential library. | President Obama and first lady Michelle ObamaMichelle LeVaughn Robinson ObamaJill Biden, Kate Middleton to meet this week Jill Biden to focus on military families on foreign trip Book claims Trump believed Democrats would replace Biden with Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama in 2020 election MORE have chosen Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side as the site of the Obama presidential library, according to multiple media reports.
The Chicago Tribune and Associated Press reported the news on Wednesday.
A formal announcement has not been made by the Obama Foundation, but the selection caps a highly competitive campaign by numerous cities to host the library.
The Obamas chose their home city of Chicago over New York City’s Columbia University, where the president earned his undergraduate degree, and his birthplace of Hawaii.
The Obamas selected Jackson Park, near the University of Chicago, over a rival site, nearby Washington Park. The Jackson Park site was thought to be more accessible than the other location.
The president is expected to use the center as a platform to work on issues such as criminal justice reform and education for underprivileged children.
The library site is located near Chicago's historically African-American Woodlawn neighborhood, which has seen recent gentrification.
Obama has not yet started to personally raise money for the construction of the museum, archives and library complex, which is expected to cost $500 million.
The project is expected to be completed in 2021.
| Government Policy Changes | July 2016 | ['(The Hill)'] |
An explosion near the Red Mosque in the Pakistani capital Islamabad kills at least 10 people. The attack came on the first anniversary of the deadly siege and storming of the Red Mosque. | Trouble was expected in Islamabad Sunday on the first anniversary of the siege and storming of the Red Mosque and trouble did happen on a gruesome scale.
In a deadly suicide bombing attack in front of a police station near the Red Mosque Sunday, more than 10 people most of them police officers were killed and several others injured.
Reporting from Islamabad, FRANCE 24’s Graham Usher said the blast occurred toward the end of a demonstration marking the Red Mosque storming anniversary.
“It occurred at the end of the demonstration,” said Usher. “As crowds were leaving the place, a suicide bomber approached a nearby police station and appeared to deliberately target the police.”
News footage from the scene, near the Melody Market in the heart of Islamabad, showed the gruesome aftermath of the attack with dozens of dead and seriously wounded policemen in the blue uniform of the city police corps officers lying in pools of blood.
Shortly after the attack, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the blast and ordered an inquiry. “Such incidents are against the teachings of Islam and do not serve any purpose,” said Gilani on Pakistani state media.
Attack despite tight security
The attack came despite tight security in the capital as thousands of Islamic students from across the country converged on Islamabad to mark the day, exactly a year ago, when Pakistani troops stormed the Red Mosque after a week-long standoff.More than 100 people were killed in clashes between Pakistani troops and Islamists holed up in the sprawling complex.
Roadside barbed wire barricades were erected across the city so that police could search people for arms.
“There was a tight security presence,” said Usher, reporting from the scene. “There were fears it could be attacked and that’s exactly what happened, police were attacked and it does indicate that the radical militants who took control of the Red Mosque last year are still around and are still fighting.”
The demonstrations itself were “fairly peaceful” said Usher although the rhetoric of the speeches by hard-line Islamist leaders were strident. Addressing thousands of angry Islamist sympathizers, speakers at the gathering called for President Pervez Musharraf to be publicly hanged for his role in the Red Mosque operation last year.
Musharraf’s crackdown on the Red Mosque triggered a wave of deadly attacks across Pakistan, in which hundreds were killed, including former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Following the February elections, the country’s newly elected government adopted a strategy of negotiating with Islamists in an attempt to end the violence.
Despite pressure from Washington, the Pakistani government signed a peace deal with Taliban militants based in the tribal zones near the Afghan border. Sunday’s attack is bound to raise questions about the feasibility of trying to negotiate with Taliban-linked militants.
| Armed Conflict | July 2008 | ['(France 24)'] |
Local Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sheikh Wazeem Bari and two members of his family are shot dead in Bandipore district, Jammu and Kashmir. Senior Ministry of Home Affairs official K. Vijay Kumar blames the Islamic terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed. | Sheikh Waseem Bari, a local BJP leader and two members of his family were shot dead by suspected terrorists in Kashmir’s Bandipore district late on Wednesday evening. Sheikh Waseem Bari was a former president of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bandipora district, 60 km north of Srinagar.
Sheikh Waseem Bari’s father Basheer Ahmad and brother Umar were also killed in the attack that took place at his shop in Bandipore, said police.
Inspector general of police Kashmir, Vijay Kumar said that Bari,his father and brother received critical injuries in the gunfire opened by terrorists at his shop. All three were rushed to the hospital but were declared brought dead, Kumar said.
The incident took place despite Bari having ten personal security officers to guard him. None of them were present when the militants attacked, said Kumar. At the time of the incident, they were sitting on the first floor of Bari’s house, which is adjacent to the shop. All ten of his PSOs have been arrested, he added.
A combined team of state police and army personnel have launched a man hunt to nab the terrorists. Bari’s death has been condoled by former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah, who expressed concern at the “continuing” attacks on mainstream politicians.
“Sorry to hear about the murderous terror attack on the BJP functionaries and their father in Bandipore earlier this evening. I condemn the attack. My condolences to their families in this time of grief. Sadly the violent targeting of mainstream political workers continues unabated,” tweeted Omar soon after the attack.
Bari was a young BJP leader, who was a well known figure in Bandipore district. The development comes a day after NIA arrested a local youth for providing logistical support to Jaish-e-Mohammed (Jem) terrorists who carried out Pulwama terror attack in February 2019 by ramming an explosive laden car into a CRPF convoy killing 40 troopers. Bilal Ahmed Kuchey, a resident of Kakpora of Pulwama district, was the seventh person to be arrested in connection with the case. He is supposed to have given shelter to the JeM terrorists and provided them with high end phones for communication with their handlers in Pakistan and also among themselves while planning the execution of the attack.
One of the mobile phones he arranged was used by Pulwama bomber Adil Ahmed Dar for recording his last video, said NIA. | Famous Person - Death | July 2020 | ['(Hindustan Times)'] |
In basketball, the visiting Boston Celtics defeat the Golden State Warriors, snapping the Warrior's 14-month, 54-game home win streak which leaves the San Antonio Spurs with the only undefeated home record this season. | SAN ANTONIO -- Gregg Popovich’s blank stare on Wednesday previewed what he would say when asked what it meant for the San Antonio Spurs to run off their 38th consecutive home victory and set a record for the best home start in NBA history.
“Absolutely nothing,” Popovich said. “Maybe a cup of coffee. Maybe.”
While observers might view what’s percolating in San Antonio as special, the Spurs consider the regular-season accolades meaningless if they’re walking away in June without a championship trophy in hand. Most made that abundantly clear in a business-as-usual locker room on the heels of San Antonio’s 100-92 win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
“The only thing I see is that we can try and win a championship,” point guard Tony Parker said. “I don’t really think about having a good regular season, how many games we won. It doesn’t matter, because at the end of the day, the only thing you remember is how many championships you won.”
The victory over New Orleans marked the Spurs' 47th regular-season home triumph in a row dating back to last season, which ranks as the second-best streak in league history. In addition, the Spurs tied a franchise record for regular-season wins (63), as Manu Ginobili scored a game-high 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting to lead the charge.
Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard chipped in 16 points apiece, followed by LaMarcus Aldridge with 11 as the team’s starters played together for the first time since March 23, when the Spurs downed the Miami Heat 119-101. Popovich also made sure to rest veterans David West and Andre Miller as the team preps for the start of the postseason.
“Yeah, we tried to push them a little bit and get them more minutes,” Popovich said of the extra minutes for the starters. “I normally wouldn’t have been playing Tony and Manu in that situation, but it was more about the minutes and Timmy [Duncan] getting a long run in the second half just to up their conditioning a little bit.”
Ginobili hadn’t played since March 25, as the club deactivated him for matchups on Saturday and Monday at Oklahoma City and Memphis. Ginobili’s last extended rest came in February as the result of testicular surgery, which kept him out of 12 games. Upon return from that setback, Ginobili racked up a season-high 22 points in 15 minutes. After this latest two-game rest, Ginobili came back to the lineup and lit up the Pelicans on 5 of 6 from 3-point range for another 20-point night while tying Leonard for the team high in steals at three.
San Antonio faces Toronto, Golden State and Oklahoma City in its next three home games.
Parker said earlier in the week that he doesn’t expect Popovich to play all the front-line players in either of the remaining matchups against the Warriors (April 7 and April 10). Parker reiterated that point at Wednesday's shootaround and said it “doesn’t matter to me” when asked about the importance of the club’s current home streak.
Ginobili echoed those sentiments.
“No, it really doesn’t [matter],” Ginobili said. “If we would have lost Game 24, and now we are 37-1, it wouldn’t make that much of a difference. Having a 38-game streak or 37-1 is unbelievable, anyway. So I really don’t care about streaks. We know we are having a great season. If we would have lost one more or two more, it wouldn’t change that.”
Both the Warriors and Spurs could finish the season with 41-0 marks at home. That scenario, however, seems more plausible for the Warriors than the Spurs, who have no interest in expending unnecessary energy trying to chase home perfection.
“I know it is something very hard to accomplish, but it shouldn’t take away anything if you go 40-1. It’s just one game,” Ginobili said. “Besides that, we are playing great and have had a great season so far, and we’ve got to keep building because the playoffs are a couple weeks away, and that’s when we want to be the best team we can be.”
Maybe then, just maybe, the Spurs might be in the position to earn something more meaningful than a cup of coffee. | Sports Competition | April 2016 | ['(Basketball-Reference.com)', '(SBNation)', '(ESPN)'] |
Citizens of Mauritius cast their vote in the country's latest parliamentary election. Militant Socialist Movement, led by incumbent Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth wins a huge majority securing the re-election. | The small Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius will head to the polls today for parliamentary elections that will decide
Photo: AFP
The small Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius will head to the polls today for parliamentary elections that will decide the composition of the 70-seat parliament.
Today’s vote marks the first time Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth faces a popular mandate—he was appointed to the top job upon his father’s retirement in 2017.
The two main opposition candidates, Navin Ramgoolam and Paul Berenger, are claiming that Jugnauth ascended to his position through nepotism and that he has misappropriated public funds.
If Jugnauth wins, which is the most likely outcome due to successful campaigning leading up to the election, expect him to continue his platform of economic reform, which has developed Mauritius into one of Africa’s wealthiest nations by expanding tourism and the financial sectors as well as introducing a minimum wage.
If either of the two opposition candidates obtain a majority, expect them to tackle Mauritius’s involvement in facilitating tax havens as well as improve Christian and Muslim minority representation. Even if neither Ramgoolam nor Berenger secure a majority, they are likely to attempt to form a coalition to oust Jugnauth.
| Government Job change - Election | November 2019 | ['(Foreign Brief)', '(The New York Times)', '(Reuters)'] |
European Union leaders formally nominate Portuguese Prime Minister José Manuel Barroso to the post of European Commission president. | The appointment was confirmed at a special summit in Brussels on Tuesday, after a tricky search for a replacement for Italian Romano Prodi.
A number of leading candidates have fallen by the wayside because different EU blocs found them unacceptable.
Mr Durao Barroso emerged as a compromise candidate.
He said he was "very happy and proud" to have been unanimously appointed by EU leaders.
'Right man'
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair hailed the nomination, saying his Portuguese counterpart supported economic reform and strong ties with the US.
He is from a small country which is good for us
Indulis EmsisLatvian Prime Minister
"He's the right man. He's an excellent candidate for the EU," Mr Blair told reporters after the summit.
The appointment was also welcomed by French President Jacques Chirac, who called Mr Durao Barroso "a competent man, a man of dialogue".
Earlier, Prime Minister Indulis Emsis of Latvia - one of 10 new EU members - said the new European Commission president would "be able to sustain good trans-Atlantic links, which is very important for us".
He added: "He is from a small country which is also good for us."
At an EU summit earlier this month, contrasting views between Germany and France on one side and Britain and Italy on another meant the 25 EU leaders failed to choose a new commission chief and had to postpone their decision. Consensus
Correspondents say Mr Durao Barroso is seen as sufficiently pro-European for the French and Germans, but, as a supporter of the war in Iraq, is also acceptable to Britain, Italy and Poland. There is overwhelming support [for Mr Durao Barroso]
Bertie Ahern,Irish Prime Minister
Profile: Jose Manuel Durao Barroso
A 48-year-old centre-right figure, he leads Portugal's coalition government and has served as foreign minister. He underscored his support for the US campaign in Iraq by hosting a summit with the US, Britain and Spain before last year's invasion.
At the Brussels summit, the EU leaders also reappointed Javier Solana as foreign policy "high representative".
They said they expected him to become Europe's first foreign minister when the EU constitution agreed this month comes into force - which will happen once all 25 member-countries have ratified it.
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency until 30 June, announced after the summit that the constitution would be signed in Rome in November.
Mr Durao Barroso's appointment still has to be approved by the European Parliament which will vote on the issue in mid-July. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | June 2004 | ['(BBC)'] |
Voters in Kyrgyzstan go to the polls for a parliamentary election amid concerns about a possible renewal of tensions between ethnic groups. With 50 percent of the vote counted, the Ata–Zhurt party has received the most votes so far but no party is close to achieving a majority. , | Kyrgyzstan's parliamentary election has failed to produce a clear winner, which means that parties will now have to unite to form a coalition government.
The opposition nationalist party Ata Zhurt is the front-runner. It includes allies of ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was removed in April. The pro-government Social Democrats and three other parties passed the 5% mark required to gain seats in parliament.
The vote comes months after 400 people died in inter-ethnic violence. Turnout was 56% nationwide and even higher in the southern city of Osh, which saw some of the worst of June's clashes between the Kyrgyz majority and ethnic Uzbeks.
Five out of 29 parties passed the threshold to win seats in the new parliament, but none won enough to form a government. Election officials said there were a number of "insignificant" voting violations, plus two alleged cases of ballot stuffing.
But the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which sent about 250 observers, hailed the poll saying there had been a wide choice of candidates.
It also said that the Kyrgyz vote set a good example to neighbouring countries in Central Asia. Now the parties will have to decide with whom they want to form a coalition.
The BBC's Rayhan Demytrie in Bishkek says the emergence of the Ata Zhurt party as a front-runner will surprise many in Kyrgyzstan. The party has strong backing in the south among ethnic Kyrgyz and it wants to go back to a presidential form of government. In June a new constitution introducing a parliamentary system was approved in a referendum, following the ousting of President Bakiyev in an uprising in April.
The outcome of this election is being closely watched by Russia and the US, which both have military bases in the country. The vote took place after six months of political turmoil and there are fears that more violence is likely if political factions do not agree with the outcome, our correspondent adds. | Government Job change - Election | October 2010 | ['(The Guardian)', '(BBC)', '(BBC)'] |
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigns. He criticizes Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, accusing him of sinking the ruling coalition for personal and political gain. The President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, accepts Conte's resignation and announces that he will start consultations with party leaders. | ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s prime minister resigned on Tuesday after launching a blistering attack on his own interior minister, Matteo Salvini, accusing him of sinking the ruling coalition and endangering the economy for personal and political gain.
Italy's Conte makes an angry exit from his PM role
01:18
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, addressing parliament after it was recalled from its summer recess to decide the future of the 14-month-old government, accused the far-right League party chief Salvini of seeking to cash in on his rising popularity.
In a shock move on Aug. 8, Salvini declared that his alliance with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement was dead and called for elections, but the gambit could yet prove a big political blunder and open the door to power for his rivals.
Politicians from 5-Star and the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) are openly discussing forming a new coalition which would push the League into opposition and give Italy a more centrist, pro-European government.
“The interior minister has shown that he is following his own interests and those of his party,” Conte told a packed Senate, a stony-faced Salvini sitting by his side. “His decisions pose serious risks for this country.”
He described Salvini’s actions as reckless and “liable to tip the country into a spiral of political uncertainty and financial instability”.
After the Senate debate Conte, who belongs to neither of the coalition parties, handed his resignation to President Sergio Mattarella, who said he would begin talks with parliamentary groups on Wednesday to see if a new coalition can be formed.
Failing that, Mattarella would have to dissolve parliament, 3-1/2 years ahead of schedule, to allow for autumn elections.
The consultations with party delegations will begin with minor groups at 1400 GMT on Wednesday. Mattarella will hear all the main parties on Thursday, concluding with 5-Star at 1500 GMT.
The PD’s leadership is also scheduled to meet on Wednesday to discuss the prospect of hooking up with 5-Star. The two parties have been bitter political foes for years.
Financial markets rallied on Conte’s resignation, seemingly hopeful that snap polls could be avoided.
Salvini at times shook his head, rolled his eyes or nodded to League senators as the prime minister accused him of being “irresponsible”, “reckless”, “alarming” and “disrespectful”.
Conte said he was worried by Salvini’s threat to call people into the country’s squares if his drive for elections were thwarted, as well as his demand for “full powers”.
“We do not need men who have ‘full powers’, but people who have institutional culture and a sense of responsibility,” he said in an hour-long speech in which he also denounced Salvini’s habit of brandishing the cross at his political rallies.
Touching on a particularly sensitive subject, he also said Salvini should provide explanations over allegations that the League attempted to obtain illegal funding from Russia through a covert oil transaction.
Salvini rejected Conte’s comments, saying other parties were afraid of going to elections and losing their influence.
He said his political goal was to challenge the European Union’s fiscal rules, which he has blamed for impoverishing the country. Rome should spend at least 50 billion euros ($55 billion) to stimulate the chronically weak economy, he added.
“I am not afraid,” he said. “I don’t want Italy to be a slave to anyone, and I don’t want Italy to be given a long chain like a little dog. I don’t want any chain at all.”
Italy has not held an election in the autumn since World War Two because the final months of the year are traditionally dedicated to drawing up the budget -- a key moment for a country with one of the world’s largest debt mountains.
At the end of the parliamentary debate the League withdrew the no-confidence vote in the government that it had tabled earlier this month, but Conte said the move had come too late.
“I see that the League’s leader Matteo Salvini lacks the courage to take responsibility for his actions. If there’s a lack of courage, don’t worry, I’ll take responsibility before the country that is watching us,” said Conte.
Mattarella is likely to push for a swift decision by the 5-Star and PD on whether they can work together. Failing that, he will probably dissolve parliament and call a vote in late October or early November.
“They won’t be able to run away from elections for ever,” Salvini told reporters as Conte met the president.
Additional reporting by Angelo Amante Giselda Vagnoni; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Gareth Jones
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays.
Exclusive: Fed’s Neel Kashkari opposes rate hikes at least through 2023 as the central bank becomes more hawkish | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | August 2019 | ['(Reuters)', '(Reuters)'] |
The bid for California independence ends. | Louis Marinelli, who has spearheaded the Calexit campaign since 2015, set up a makeshift embassy in Moscow in December in partnership with far-right Russian nationalists who enjoy Kremlin support while promoting secessionist movements in Europe.
"I have found in Russia a new happiness, a life without the albatross of frustration and resentment towards ones’ homeland, and a future detached from the partisan divisions and animosity that has thus far engulfed my entire adult life," Marinelli wrote on Monday. "Consequently, if the people of Russia would be so kind as to welcome me here on a permanent basis, I intend to make Russia my new home."
He added that he will "not return to California in the forseeable future," so "it is only proper" that he withdraw the Calexit ballot initiative petition and "allow a new petition, free from ties to me and drafted by others, to be resubmitted at future date of their choosing."
Marinelli had been organizing the California independence referendum from Russia's fourth-largest city, Yekaterinburg, where he has lived with his wife, Anastasia, since September. He said in an interview in December that he was looking specifically to countries with veto power on the UN Security Council (UNSC) — Russia and China — to support his movement and recognize the results of an independence referendum in the event that the US and its UNSC allies rejected its legitimacy.
"We don't think that Russia needs to be an enemy of California, or that it even is one to begin with," Marinelli said. "The idea that Russia is an enemy of the US — that's a Cold War mentality."
Marinelli, who campaigned for Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders but said he ultimately voted for President Donald Trump, described Yes California as a progressive initiative aimed at establishing a "liberal republic" independent of the United States. But his decision to align Yes California so publicly with Russia alienated him from the other, albeit smaller, California separatist movement known as the California Nationalist Party. Both of the efforts gained more mainstream traction in the wake of Trump's surprising victory in November.
Marinelli reiterated on Monday that he does "not wish to live under the American flag," adding that his "frustrations" with the American political system have now pointed him toward Russia.
"I had long planned to eventually return to occupied California and struggle for her independence from the United States so we could build the kind of country that reflects our progressive values," Marinelli wrote. "However, while my frustration, disappointment and disillusionment with the United States remains, these feelings now point me in a different direction." He added that he hopes that "after the false allegations about me vanish, and after this period of anti-Russian hysteria subsides," it will be "said of this campaign that we spoke the truth" and "set in motion a series of events that led California to independence from the United States."
"When that day finally comes, as it will, I shall look forward with great satisfaction to return to California and to live once again under our bear flag," Marinelli wrote. "Until then I will continue to serve as the representative of the Republic of California to Russia." | Withdraw from an Organization | April 2017 | ['(Business Insider)'] |
The National Assembly approves the first version of a law that would make it a crime to circulate an image of a police officer, if there is an intention to harm the officer. The government says the law is "not targeting the freedom of the press". | PARIS (Reuters) -A draft law that would make it a crime to circulate an image of a police officer in certain circumstances passed the first hurdle in France’s parliament on Tuesday despite protests from rights activitsts and journalists.
Opponents say the law - steered through parliament by tough-talking Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin - would hamper journalists’ freedom to report on public events and make it harder to hold officers accountable if they use excessive force.
Supporters say the planned law is designed to protect officers and their families from being trolled online and harassed or attacked when off duty.
Under the plans, anyone convicted of circulating a police officer’s image with the intention of seeing them harmed could be jailed for a year and fined 45,000 euros ($53,450).
Despite the bill being proposed by two lawmakers from President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist La République en Marche (LaRem) party, 10 LaRem members of parliament voted against it and 30 abstained. From LaRem ally MoDem, five MPs voted against it and 18 abstained.
After days of often tense debate, the bill received 388 yes votes, 104 nos and 66 abstentions, with the conservative Les Republicains and the far-right Rassemblement National mostly voting with LaRem and all leftist parties voting against it.
Prime Minister Jean Castex told parliament the government was not targeting the freedom of the press, but wanted to protect police.
“The aim is not to prevent anyone from filming or broadcasting images that shed a light on a fact or a public event,” said Castex, who will hold talks with journalists’ unions this week.
In a nod to the opposition, Castex said the government would present the bill to the Constitutional Council to verify that it is in line with the constitution. Opposition parties often appeal to the council over disputed bills.
The French senate, controlled by the conservative opposition, will vote on the bill in January, after which it can go back to parliament for a final vote.
Reporting by Elizabeth PineauWriting by Geert De ClercqEditing by Mark Heinrich and Alison Williams
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. | Government Policy Changes | November 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Nigeria's State Security Service intercepts an arms shipment in Lagos amid high security following bomb attacks in Abuja earlier this month. | Nigeria - Nigerian authorities on Tuesday intercepted a shipment of weapons - including rocket launchers and grenades - at a port in the economic capital of Lagos, an intelligence agency spokesperson said.
The discovery occurred as a result of additional security following twin car bombings in the capital Abuja on October 1 that killed at least 12 people, said Marilyn Ogar.
Security agents intercepted 13 containers at the port and had opened one so far, finding the weaponry, she said.
“We've been able to open just one container, and in a container you have 24 crates,” she said.
“Out of the 24, we've opened eight so far. Out of the eight, four are filled with floor tiles, while the other four contain rocket launchers, grenades, explosives and mortars.”
She said authorities planned to work throughout the night to open all the containers. She declined to comment on where the shipment had come from and whether any arrests had been made, citing the ongoing investigation. - Sapa-AFP | Armed Conflict | October 2010 | ['(Reuters)', '(Nigerian Tribune)', '(IOL)'] |
The Obama administration announces it is cancelling plans to permit drilling for oil and gas off the southeastern U.S. Atlantic coast. A new plan involves 10 potential lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and three off the coast of Alaska. | The Obama administration will abandon its plan to allow new offshore oil drilling on the southeast coast of the U.S., dealing a blow to petroleum companies and marking a victory for environmentalists, coastal residents and the U.S. military.
The Interior Department said Tuesday it will not auction off drilling rights for Atlantic Ocean waters off the coast of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
At the same time, the Obama administration opened the door to the possibility of allowing limited drilling in Arctic waters.
The moves come amid declining industry investment in new exploration and production activities. The price of oil has fallen by about 70% since late 2014, making new investment less attractive. However, the industry continues to seek long-term investment opportunities under the assumption that oil prices will recover.
Offshore drilling in the Atlantic had drawn vigorous support from the American Petroleum Institute, which represents companies in the industry, saying it would have bolstered jobs, tax revenue and economic development.
“The decision appeases extremists," API CEO Jack Gerard said in a statement. “This is not how you harness America’s economic and diplomatic potential."
Winter of discontent for oil and gas producers
Governors in several Republican states, as well as Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, had supported offshore drilling plans. Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders voiced opposition.
The move is unlikely to be a serious limitation on industry growth, said Notre Dame law professor Bruce Huber. "Some will see a connection between today's switch and the administration's recent moratorium on federal coal leasing, and they are probably right," Huber said. "Between those decisions and the matter of Keystone XL, it seems clear that the president is intent on doing what he can to confront the large fossil fuel players wherever possible."
Jacqueline Savitz, vice president for the U.S. for environmental group Oceana said it the move will aid in the battle against climate change.
"It will prevent oil spills and coastal industrialization, it makes seismic testing unnecessary and it will help promote the clean energy solutions that we so desperately need," she said.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration said it would consider the sale of drilling rights in three spots in the Arctic — the Chukchi Sea, Beaufort Sea and Cook Inlet — from 2017 to 2022.
Oil giants slash spending as prices plunge
The decision comes nearly six months after the president canceled Arctic leases, including with Royal Dutch Shell.
"We want to hear from the public to help determine whether these areas are appropriate for future leasing and how we can protect environmental, cultural and subsistence resources,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said.
More than 5,000 oil and gas leases managed by Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management — located mostly in the Gulf of Mexico — account for about 16% of U.S. oil output and 5% of U.S. gas production. | Government Policy Changes | March 2016 | ['(USA Today)', '(The Island Free Press)'] |
Authorities in Turkey arrest three academics on charges of "terrorist propaganda" after they called for an end to security operations in the country's Kurdish-majority southeast. | Turkish authorities have arrested three academics on charges of "terrorist propaganda" after they publicly read out a declaration calling for an end to security operations in the country's Kurdish-majority southeast.
Police also detained and questioned a British national at the courthouse that ordered the arrests. The government blames the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) for a car bombing in the capital, Ankara, on March 13 that killed 37 people. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack. More than 2,000 academics signed a petition in January criticizing military action in the southeast, including round-the-clock curfews aimed at rooting out PKK militants who have barricaded themselves in residential areas in southeastern cities.
Hundreds of civilians, security forces, and rebels have been killed since the conflict with the PKK reignited in July in the worst violence Turkey has seen for 20 years.
The petition outraged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said the academics would pay a price for their "treachery.” | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | March 2016 | ['(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)'] |
Hurricane Matthew, at Category 4 strength with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph , temporarily stalls as it heads towards Jamaica and Haiti. Weather forecasters expect tropical storm conditions today with landfall tomorrow. Further, they expect rainfall of 20 inches, with up to 40 inches in some parts of southern Haiti. , , | Hurricane Matthew has weakened slightly as it moves towards Jamaica, but is still packing winds of up to 230km/h (145mph), strong enough to wreck houses, forecasters say.
It is now a category four storm, the US National Hurricane Center says, after earlier reaching the top category five on a scale of intensity.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness has urged citizens to make all necessary preparations.
The storm is due to hit land on Monday.
It is expected to reach Jamaica's southern coast first, but is also likely to reach Haiti and Cuba. Cuban President Raul Castro has travelled to the eastern city of Santiago to supervise preparations for the storm.
Officials have warned the high winds could batter Jamaica's main tourist areas including Montego Bay in the north.
With the government on high alert, PM Holness said people should expect the worse.
"What we have control over is our ability to prepare," he said. "We hold firm to the view that our preparation can reduce loss of life and damage to property."
Local emergency teams as well as the police and army are on standby, while shelters are being set up throughout the island, his office said.
As the storm approaches, many Jamaicans have been stocking up on water and food.
Tropical storm warnings have also been issued for parts of coastal Colombia and Haiti over the weekend.
Haitian authorities say the priority is to protect the southern islands of the country, whose inhabitants they have described as "first at risk", according to AFP news agency.
Forecasters said up to 38cm (15 ins) of rain could fall across Jamaica and on southern Haiti.
While Jamaica was damaged by Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, the last major storm in the region was Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Matthew could be the most powerful storm to hit the island since records began, meteorologist Eric Holthaus said on Twitter.
Hurricane strengthens near Bahamas
Hurricane claims life in Jamaica
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | October 2016 | ['(240 km/h)', '(BBC)', '(NBC News)', '(The National Hurricane Center)'] |
Human remains are found in the sea near where an Indonesian police plane carrying 13 people crashed. The plane was traveling to the island of Batam. | By Associated Press Published: 10:41 BST, 4 December 2016 | Updated: 10:41 BST, 4 December 2016 JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian rescuers on Sunday recovered body parts in the sea where a police plane with 13 people aboard is believed to have crashed the previous day.
The light aircraft lost contact Saturday on the way to the island of Batam, which is near Singapore, after taking off from an island off the southeast coast of Sumatra. All those aboard, including five crew and eight passengers, are feared dead, officials said.
The M28 Skytruck plane is believed to have plunged into 24-meter (79-foot) -deep waters, said National Search and Rescue Agency chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo.
He told a news conference that remains, probably of the victims, were found in the area where villagers earlier retrieved a seat and a bag containing a cellphone and police documents. He added that an oil spill was also found in the area.
TV footage showed police uniforms and other clothing also were retrieved from the sea.
In Batam, local police chief Brig. Gen. Sambudi Gusdian quoted witnesses as saying they saw the plane explode after it crashed into the sea off Lingga district.
Search teams involving Indonesia's navy, customs office and maritime police, as well as aircraft from Singapore, were scouring a 518-square-kilometer (200-square-mile) sea area for the wreckage of the aircraft, Soelistyo said. Divers also were deployed.
It was at least the second air accident in Indonesia in just over a week. On Nov. 24, a Bell 412 EP helicopter from the Indonesian army crashed in Indonesia's part of Borneo island, killing three and leaving one missing.
Indonesia, a sprawling archipelagic nation of more than 250 million people, has been plagued by transportation accidents in recent years, from plane and train crashes to ferry sinkings. | Air crash | December 2016 | ['(AP via Daily Mail)'] |
Novell wins the rights to the copyrights for Unix from the SCO Group in SCO v. Novell decided in the United States District Court in Utah. | August 11, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Novell Inc. won a significant ruling in its lengthy battle with The SCO Group Inc. on Friday. A judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, Central Division, found that Novell is the owner of the Unix and UnixWare copyrights, dismissing SCO's charges of slander and breach of contract.
The judge also ruled that SCO owes Novell for SCO's licensing revenue from Sun Microsystems Inc. and Microsoft Corp. SCO is obligated to pass through to Novell a portion of that revenue, the judge said.
In the ruling, the judge said SCO must pay Novell, but the amount will be determined in a trial, said Pamela Jones, founder and editor of Groklaw, a Web site that follows legal issues related to open-source software.
In another major blow to SCO, the judge said that because Novell is the owner of the Unix copyrights, it can direct SCO to revoke its copyright-infringement claims against IBM Corp. and Sequent. Novell has done so already, but SCO has not honored that direction.
"SCO can't sue IBM for copyright infringement on copyrights it doesn't own," Jones said.
The ruling is good news for organizations that use open-source software products, said Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation. "From the perspective of someone who is adopting open-source solutions to run in the enterprise, it proves to them that the industry is going to defend the platform, and that when organizations attack it from a legal perspective, that the industry collectively will defend it," he said.
The decision is "abysmal" news for SCO, according to Zemlin. "Their future is looking bleak," he said.
SCO, which may appeal Friday's decision, did not reply to requests for comment.
In a statement, Novell said the ruling cut out the core of SCO's case and in the process eliminated SCO's threat to the Linux community.
Still outstanding are several counterclaims. For example, Novell's slander of title counterclaim against SCO is still ongoing and will go to trial, Jones said.
The case is so complex that the judge asked the parties to file a document with what they think is outstanding in the IBM case, Jones said. Those documents must be filed by Aug. 31.
The battle began in 2003 when SCO filed a suit against IBM claiming that it had violated SCO's rights by contributing Unix code to Linux. The following year, SCO sued Novell, saying that Novell falsely claimed it owned rights to Unix. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2007 | ['(Computer World)'] |
Hungary's Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union wins a historic two–thirds general election victory, according to second round results. | Hungary's conservative opposition party Fidesz has won a two-thirds general election victory, second round results have confirmed.
With 99.22% of votes counted, the party had nearly 68% of the popular vote and 263 of the 386 seats in parliament, the national election committee said. Almost a third of the seats were left to be decided on Sunday following the first round two weeks ago. Fidesz promised to create jobs, lower taxes and reduce bureaucracy. The ruling Socialists were in second place on 15% (59 seats), the far-right Jobbik had 12% (47 seats) and a new Green party called Politics Can be Different had 4.1% (16 seats). One seat went to an independent. Fidesz leader Viktor Orban is set to become prime minister. Mr Orban welcomed the result, saying he would rule "with humility". He told supporters: "We saw a revolution in the polling stations." The entire leadership of the Socialist party, who had governed for the past eight years, tendered its resignation after the results were revealed. The second round of the election was fought in 57 constituencies where no single candidate had won more than 50% of the vote in the first round. A two-thirds majority will give Fidesz the chance to change the constitution, the BBC's Nick Thorpe reports from Budapest. The Socialists had argued that they had created 100,000 jobs, navigated the ship of state safely through a serious economic crisis and improved law and order. | Government Job change - Election | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(CBC)', '(The Daily Telegraph)'] |
Syrian state television reports the Syrian Army reaches a point 3 kilometers from Deir ez-Zor, a city besieged by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant since 2014. | BEIRUT (Reuters) - With a sudden lunge through jihadist lines, the Syrian army and its allies on Monday came to within 3 km of relieving the Euphrates city of Deir al-Zor, where Islamic State has besieged 93,000 civilians and an army garrison for years.
Syrian army reaches I.S. lines in Deir al-Zor
01:17
The advance on the eastern city marks another stinging setback for the once-triumphant Islamic State, fast retreating in both Iraq and Syria as its self-declared caliphate crumbles.
Syrian troops were rapidly approaching the city, reaching a point 3 km (2 miles) away, state television said. Dozens of trucks loaded with food stood ready to enter the enclave in the city once government forces break the siege, it said.
(For a graphic on battle for control in Syria click tmsnrt.rs/2wyo0lw)
A military media unit run by Hezbollah, a key ally of Damascus, said the advancing forces were heading to the garrison’s camp on the city outskirts.
Deir al-Zor’s provincial governor told Reuters he expected the army could reach the city within hours.
“Islamic State is in confusion. There is no leadership or centralized control,” said a commander in the military alliance supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Hemmed in on all sides, Islamic State, which ruled over millions of people in both Iraq and Syria at its peak in 2014, is falling back on a last Euphrates stronghold downstream of Deir al-Zor city in the towns of al-Mayadin and al-Bukamal, near the border with Iraq.
But as it has lost its core territory - defeated in Iraq’s Mosul now yielding street after street in Syria’s Raqqa - the ultra-hardline group has still been able to launch attacks in the West and maintain a threat in other centers such as Libya.
The fighters have been driven out of nearly all of their territory in Iraq over the past two years by government forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition. In Syria, they are fighting against both Assad’s Russian-backed government and a U.S.-backed Arab and Kurdish militia that has launched an assault on Raqqa.
In the IS-encircled pocket in Deir al-Zor, news of the army’s approach prompted people to take to the streets to celebrate, governor Mohammed Ibrahim Samra said by phone.
Related Coverage
The city has been cut off since 2013, after rebel groups rose up against Assad during the first flush of Syria’s six-year war. Islamic State then overran rebel positions and encircled the army’s enclave in the city in 2014.
It was a major prize. Deir al-Zor is the center of Syria’s oil industry, a source of wealth to the group and a serious loss to Damascus. As the army has pushed east in recent months, oil and gas fields have once more fallen to the government.
Islamic State fighters stepped up efforts this year to seize the enclave before the army could arrive. In January, they severed it from the city’s military airbase and took over a nearby hill, further straining its links to the outside.
During the long siege, high-altitude air drops have supplied the city. The United Nations said in August it estimated there were 93,000 civilians in the government’s Deir al-Zor pocket, where conditions were “extremely difficult”.
“Despite all this and despite the shelling and injured, things are running in the city,” governor Samra had said on Sunday. “The institutions are running, the bakeries. Water is also pumped twice a week to our residents, aid is distributed daily.”
For Assad, the weekend’s lightning advance caps months of steady progress after government forces turned from their victory over rebels in the northern commercial capital Aleppo last December to push eastwards against Islamic State.
“The army has been advancing in a rapid and calculated way from all directions,” a Syrian military source said, referring to the months-long campaign across the desert.
With Russian jets and an alliance of Shi’ite militias backed by Iran, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the army has captured swathes of the central and eastern deserts in parallel offensives from Palmyra and al-Resafa.
Those offensives have accelerated since linking up last month, taking swathes of land from Islamic State except for a small zone near the town of al-Salamiya. The militants still control much of Deir al-Zor province, including half the city.
Heavy Russian air cover has helped the Syrian military and allied forces march toward the city, Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement on Monday.
A resident of the city reached by telephone, who gave his name only as Mohammad, said he could hear the sound of warplanes in the distance. The army advances over the last two days had sparked “indescribable joy” among people in the enclave after years of siege, he said.
Under attack, Islamic State has pulled reinforcements from al-Mayadin and relied on its usual tactics of booby traps, mines and sudden raids, the commander in the pro-Assad alliance said.
The latest advance came after intense preparatory artillery, a multi-pronged assault and gains in high ground commanding nearby areas, the non-Syrian commander said.
Meanwhile, as the army and its allies have forced other militant pockets to surrender, including an Islamic State enclave on Syria’s border with Lebanon a week ago, they have been able to transfer more troops to the desert campaign.
“It helped a lot to switch the military effort of the Syrian army and the resistance to the eastern Syrian desert,” the commander said, adding that thousands of troops had arrived from the battle on the Lebanon border.
Islamic State fighters and their families evacuated from that enclave as part of a surrender deal were escorted by the Syrian army and Hezbollah to east Syria, but have been stopped by a U.S.-led coalition from reaching Deir al-Zor.
Ten of the original 17 buses are now stuck in no-man’s land between pro-government forces and Islamic State territory and six buses retreated back into government areas, the commander added.
| Armed Conflict | September 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The number of worldwide cases of COVID-19 surpasses three million. The United States accounts for more than a third of the total cases. | (This April 27 story corrects 4th para to say one-third, not one-quarter, of all cases are in the U.S. Corrects 5th para to say one in 15 reported cases has been fatal, not one in seven cases)
BEIJING (Reuters) - Global confirmed coronavirus cases surpassed 3 million on Monday, as the United States neared 1 million cases, according to a Reuters tally.
It comes as many countries are taking steps to ease lockdown measures that have brought the world to a standstill over the past eight weeks.
The first 41 cases were confirmed in Wuhan, China, on Jan. 10. The 3 million confirmed infections in less than four months are comparable in number with the roughly 3-5 million cases of severe illness caused by seasonal influenza around the world each year, according to the World Health Organisation.
An average of 82,000 cases have been reported per day in the past week. About a third of all cases are in the United States, and over 43% have been recorded in Europe.
The death toll from the virus stood at more than 205,000 as of Monday, and about one in 15 reported cases of the disease has been fatal.
The true mortality rate is likely to be substantially lower as the tally of infections does not include many mild or asymptomatic and unconfirmed cases.
Some severely affected countries in Europe, including Italy, France and Spain, have recorded a drop in daily case numbers over recent weeks, but still recorded 2,000-5,000 new infections per day in the past week.
Total cases rose 2.5% on Sunday, the lowest daily rate in almost two months, and down from a peak in late March when the total was rising by more than 10% a day.
The United States has reported an average of more than 30,000 new cases a day in the past week, and now represents around a third of all new cases.
Italy said it will permit some factories to reopen on May 4 as part of a staggered reopening, while Spain relaxed lockdown rules on Sunday, allowing children outside under supervision.
Several U.S. states have reopened businesses amid predictions that the jobless rate could hit 16% for April.
In Asia, which accounts for just under 7% of all cases, some countries are struggling to keep new infections in check. They include Japan and Singapore, which saw cases rise in April despite earlier successful efforts to slow the spread.
Others in the region have managed to rein in outbreaks, including South Korea, which has reported around 10 cases a day in the past week, down from a peak of over 1,000 in February.
In China, where the virus first emerged, officials reported just three new infections for Sunday and said all patients in Wuhan, the original epicentre, had now been discharged.
Case numbers continue to rise faster than the global average in Latin America and Africa. Total cases in Mexico grew 7-10% a day in the past week, reaching 13,800, while cases in Brazil surpassed 60,000 on Sunday.
Over 40% of Africas 32,600 cases are in the north, where Morocco, Egypt and Algeria are reporting serious outbreaks.
| Disease Outbreaks | April 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Ali Gomaa, the Islamic Grand Mufti of Egypt, warns of the potential of civil war because of "outlaws who want to defy the authority of the state". | Tuesday, 10 May 2011 An Egyptian army guard stands outside the Saint Mary Church, which was set on fire during clashes between Muslims and Christians. Agencies
Egyptian media blamed the recent deadly violence between Islamists and Coptic Christians on “anti-revolutionaries” as the country’s grand mufti and chief interpreter of Islamic law warned the country could descend into a civil war.
“We are facing the anti-revolutionary groups who are convinced that any success of the revolution was an even greater threat to their interests and so are trying to fuel confessional conflict,” wrote Al Ahram newspaper, the most widely circulating Egyptian daily publication.
Justice Minister Abdel Aziz Al Gindi has vowed the government would strike with an “iron hand” those who threatened the country’s national security and warned that “Egypt has already become a nation in danger.” On a day when casualty figures relating to clashes between Islamists and Coptic Christians over a controversial interfaith marriage kept rising, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf postponed a trip to the Gulf to hold an emergency meeting with his cabinet members.
Ali Gomaa, Egypt’s grand mufti and chief interpreter of Islamic law, was quoted in main independent daily Al Masri Al Yom as warning of the potential for civil war, “because of outlaws who want to defy the authority of the state,” according to Agence France-Press.
Meanwhile Interior Minister Mansur Al Issawi denied reports that weapons had been stored in Saint Mena church.
“Contrary to rumors that there were weapons inside the church, it was the owner of a cafe near the church who fired a gun,” he told the government daily Al Akhbar.
Security officials said police arrested a man they identified as the Muslim husband of the alleged convert, saying he had spread the word that his wife was being detained in a building next to the church.
Saturday’s incident, in which 12 people were killed and 232 were wounded, was the second deadly sectarian clash since the January 15 revolution, in which Muslims and Christians joined hands in Tahrir Square to demand the departure of then President Hosni Mubarak.
The clashes were triggered by a controversy over interfaith marriage concerning a 26-year-old woman, Camilia Shehata. She is the wife of a Coptic priest, Tadros Samaan, and disappeared in July 2010 after reportedly converting to Islam, possibly on account of an unhappy marriage. Divorce is forbidden by the Coptic Church, and some Christians have been known to convert to Islam in order to remarry.
Islamists, charging that she was forcibly confined in a church, protested several times. They gathered in front of the Saint Mena Church, which was where the clashes occurred.
But Ms. Shehata has appeared in a new picture published by Al Ahram newspaper with Naguib Gebrael, of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organization. Mr. Gebrael, a lawyer, told Al Ahram that he would represent her in a court where a complaint was filed against the church for allegedly holding her in forced confinement.
Ms. Shehata also appeared on a Christian broadcasting channel, with her husband and child.
“Let the protesters leave the church alone and turn their attention to Egypt’s future,” she said, adding that she had never converted to Islam.
In March, Muslims and Christians clashed in the town of Helwan near Cairo. Thirteen people were killed and a church was torched. The cause of the fighting was a rumored romantic relationship between a Muslim woman and a Christian man.
In swift response by the country’s military rulers, 190 people were arrested in Saturday’s violence and were sent to trial, as security was stepped up at houses of worship, amid indications that Egypt’s conservative Islamic movement, led by Salafis, was becoming increasingly restive about the country’s traditionally secular environment.
Inter-faith relationships among faiths are frowned upon in Egypt, where Christians make up about 10 percent of its 80 million people. Such relationships are sometimes the source of deadly clashes between the faiths, said The Associated Press.
If a Christian woman marries a Muslim, she is expelled from the church. A Muslim woman is not allowed to marry a Christian man, according to state law.
Because divorce is banned under the Coptic Church, unless under extenuating circumstances, many women resort to conversion as a way to get out of a marriage.
Christians complain about unfair treatment, including rules they say make it easier to build a mosque than a church.
In 2010, Egypt saw more than its usual share of sectarian strife, and a rights group has said such clashes have been on the rise. Muslims and Christians had been brought together during the protests that ousted Mr. Mubarak. | Armed Conflict | May 2011 | ['(Al Arabiya and AFP)'] |
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin sign several agreements including a $12.9 billion defense and energy deal. Russian state oil major Rosneft pays for a controlling stake in both India's Essar Oil and port facilities that it already owns. | GOA, India (Reuters) - India and Russia signed billions of dollars of defense and energy deals on Saturday at a summit that sought to inject new life into a relationship that has been tested by shifting global alliances and conflict in the Middle East.
Under the biggest agreement, a group led by Russian state oil major Rosneft ROSN.MM said it would pay $12.9 billion for a controlling stake in both India's Essar Oil and port facilities that it owns. The countries, which had strong ties during the Cold War, announced plans for a joint venture to build helicopters in India. New Delhi said it would also buy surface-to-air missile systems and stealth frigates from Moscow.
“Ours is a truly unique and privileged relationship,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the western seaside state of Goa.
Modi said that his views were aligned with Putin’s on the unstable situation in Afghanistan and the Middle East, where Moscow is at odds with the West in the five-year-old civil war in Syria that has killed hundreds of thousands.
“We are conducting a comprehensive dialog on a wide scale of international issues, in which Indian and Russian approaches are close to each other or coincide,” said Putin.
Modi also praised Putin’s support for the fight against international terrorism, which India accuses its neighbor and rival Pakistan of sponsoring. “Russia’s clear stand on the need to combat terrorism mirrors our own,” Modi said.
The Rosneft-Essar deal will be the biggest foreign takeover in India, and Russia’s largest outbound deal, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Related Coverage
It comes as Russia moves to reassert its role in global affairs and at a time when its own economy is stagnant, hit by Western sanctions and low oil prices.
Under the deal, a group led by Rosneft will acquire 98 percent of Essar Oil, and with it a 400,000 barrels-per-day refinery and port at Vadinar for $12.9 billion, the two sides said.
Russian state bank VTB VTBR.MM said it would refinance $3.9 billion owed by the Essar Group. Rosneft would pay $3.5 billion and its partners, oil trader Trafigura and investment fund UCP the same amount for an equal joint stake.
The refinery deal follows a string of upstream investments in Russia by Indian companies in recent months that, Modi said, were worth $5.5 billion.
Also on display was Russia’s nuclear prowess, with the second reactor of the Russian-built Kudankulam plant in Tamil Nadu hooked up to the grid and concrete being poured in a ceremony carried by a TV linkup to mark the start of work on the third and fourth reactors there.
Putin said that Russia would be able to build a dozen nuclear reactors in India over the next 20 years to back Modi’s growth strategy for Asia’s third-largest economy, which continues to suffer chronic power shortages.
The defense pacts will also deepen military ties between the two countries that dates back to the Soviet era, when India entirely depended on Moscow to equip its armed forces. The United States has since taken over as India’s top arms supplier.
Indian military officials have said the plan is for the joint venture to build at least 200 Kamov 226t helicopters required by the country’s defense forces. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd will be the local partner of Russian Helicopters and state arms exporter Rosoboronexport.
The S-400 surface-to-air missiles would strengthen India’s defenses along its borders with China and Pakistan, Indian military officials have said. Also agreed were plans to build and supply stealth frigates for the Indian navy.
Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is in charge of space and military industries, said two frigates could be built in India and two in Russia, RIA news agency reported. Rogozin said the ships may later be equipped with missiles manufactured by BrahMos Aerospace, a venture co-owned by the Indian and Russian governments.
| Sign Agreement | October 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A bus crash in eastern Cuba leaves at least seven people dead, including four foreigners, and 33 others injured. | A bus crash in eastern Cuba has left at least seven people dead, including four foreigners, and dozens others injured, local media say.
Two of the foreigners were from Argentina while one was from France and another from Germany.
Some 33 people were injured, including citizens from the UK, the US, Canada, France, the Netherlands and Spain.
The bus was travelling from Baracoa to the capital, Havana, when it crashed near Guantánamo on Thursday.
The driver told local media that he was driving slowly and lost control due to a wet road at around 15:00 local time (20:00 GMT). Witnesses said he had tried to overtake another vehicle.
The bus from the state-owned company Viazul was carrying 40 people, including 22 foreigners.
The victims included two Argentinean women, aged 35, a 59-year-old German woman and a 67-year-old Frenchman, according to a list published by Radio Guantánamo.
The Cubans were two men, aged 32 and 47, and a 34-year-old woman. Meanwhile, five of the injured were said to be in critical condition in hospital. Their ages range from 42 to 74.
The UK Foreign Office said in a statement it was continuing to seek further information from the Cuban authorities and was providing assistance to two British nationals who were injured.
Viazul is run by the military's tourism wing and is one of the preferred ways for visitors to travel the island, the BBC's Will Grant in Havana reports.
Cuba's roads are notoriously poor with many of them badly-lit and poorly maintained, especially in that region of the country, our correspondent adds.
Traffic accidents are common in Cuba and have resulted in some 4,400 deaths since 2012, according to official data. | Road Crash | January 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
An explosion on a bus carrying Tunisian Presidential Guard personnel in Tunisia's capital Tunis leaves at least 15 people dead, as the country's government declares a state of emergency. | At least 12 people have died after a bus carrying the Tunisian presidential guard was blown up on a main road in Tunis in an "act of terror".
The blast occurred on Mohamed V Avenue, at the heart of the Tunisian capital, according to a spokesman for the North African country's Interior Ministry. In the hours following the attacks, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi declared a state of emergency throughout the country and curfew in the capital city.
Speaking in a televised address to the nation, Essebsi said: "I want to reassure the Tunisian people that we will vanquish terrorism."
Interior Ministry spokesman Walid Louguini told said at least 12 were killed and 16 wounded in what the government considers a "terrorist act." It was not immediately clear whether it was caused by bomb or an explosive fired at the bus as it travelled along the tree-lined road. The vehicle blew up as it passed near the former headquarters of the RCD, the party of the deposed President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, BBC News reported. Ambulances have rushed to the scene as security forces secured the area, ITV News reported. The operation was complicated by heavy rain and flooding, according to BBC News. Amid a heightened climate of fear following terror attacks carried out by Isis in Beirut and Paris, the Tunisian authorities increased the security level in the capital ten days ago and deployed security forces in unusually high numbers. The Tunisian authorities recently announced that they had caught a terror cell it said had planned attacks at police stations and hotels in the seaside city of Sousse, around 150 kilometers (95 miles) southeast of Tunis. Earlier this month, the Jund al-Khilafa - an Isis-allied group - claimed responsiblity for the murder of a 16-year-old shepherd Mabrouk Soltani, in the southern mountains, The Guardian reported. The grop said the teenager was an army informer. The explosion comes in the same year that Isis gunmen stormed the Bardo Museum in Tunis killing 22 people; and a shooter from the extremist group killed 38 people on a beach in Sousse, including 30 Britons. More to follow Additional reporting by AP and Reuters Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
| Road Crash | November 2015 | ['(Independent)'] |
The Lao People's Revolutionary Party elects Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith as its new General Secretary, replacing retiring chief Bounnhang Vorachit. Sisoulith was elected for a five–year term as leader of the Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, the top post in the country, and part of the country's Politburo. | (Reuters) - The Communist Party of Laos on Friday named Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith as its new secretary general, replacing retiring chief Bounnhang Vorachit, state media reported as the long-ruling party wrapped up its three-day congress.
Thongloun, 75, was elected to a five-year term as head of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party Central Committee – the top post in the country.
Its party congress also chose 13 members of the Politburo, Laos’ top political body, and 71 party Central Committee members, it said.
Thongloun takes charge as the landlocked Southeast Asian country faces challenges from a potential debt default and the global impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on its fragile, $18 billion economy.
On Thursday, Thongloun outlined a new five-year socio-economic plan targeting annual economic growth of 4% up to 2025 and aims to reach annual average per capita income of $2,887 in 2025, the Vientiane Times said.
The country of more than 7 million people has a current per capita income of just over $2,500, according to World Bank data.
As prime minister since 2016 and a former foreign minister, Thongloun has been the face of the country at international events and summits, including giving addresses to the United Nations General Assembly.
He is a veteran of the old guard of the party, which first came to power after communist fighters defeated a Western-backed government to form the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in 1975.
The same party has been in power ever since, and Laos has traditionally mirrored neighbouring Vietnam’s political system, although China’s sway has grown in recent years.
Reporting by Kay Johnson in Bangkok; Editing by Martin Petty
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | January 2021 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe calls for improved relations with "hostile" countries at the opening of Parliament. | HARARE – President Robert Mugabe said on Tuesday Zimbabwe is ready to begin on a
new chapter of “friendly relations” with Western countries and move away from
hostilities of the past decade.
"Our country remains in a positive stance to enter into fresh,
friendly and cooperative relations with all those countries that have been
hostile to us in the past," Mugabe said at the opening of the second
session of the 7th Parliament of Zimbabwe.
Several Western nations including the European Union (EU), the United
States (US) and Canada imposed sanctions on Mugabe and his ZANU PF party inner
circle in 2002 protesting against alleged human rights abuses by Harare.
The West blames the 85-year-old leader’s policies such as his haphazard
and often violent land reform that has destroyed commercial agriculture, for
the collapse of the southern African nation’s economy.
Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s sole ruler since independence from Britain in 1980,
blames his country’s problems on the sanctions that he says are meant to remove
him from power for seizing white-owned farms for landless blacks.
Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai formed a power-sharing
government in February to end a political stalemate after inconclusive
elections last year and pledged to work together to revive the economy that had
been in decline for the past decade.
The unity government has undertaken to end the country’s international
isolation and repair ties with Western countries including the EU, the
Commonwealth grouping of former British colonies, International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and the World Bank for possible resumption of financial support.
"Our re-engagement with the EU block is gathering momentum.
However, as our inclusive government re-engages the Western countries, we
expect those countries that have imposed illegal sanctions, which have hurt our
people and continue to hurt our economy . . . to remove them," Mugabe
said.
Unlike last year’s opening which was marred by unprecedented jeering
and heckling of Mugabe by MDC legislators while he was reading his speech,
today MDC parliamentarians applauded the veteran leader’s conciliatory speech
in which he called for unity among Zimbabweans.
"Together let us build the bridges of amity, forgiveness, trust
and togetherness," Mugabe said.
Mugabe said that the government would pass a law on the mining sector
soon to address concerns raised by an earlier draft that would have given
locals control of mining operations owned by foreign companies.
| Famous Person - Give a speech | October 2009 | ['(Xinhua)', '(Associated Press)', '(ZimOnline)'] |
Leading Russian federal judge Eduard Chuvashov is shot dead at his apartment building in central Moscow. | The BBC's Richard Galpin describes the scene of the attack
A leading Russian federal judge has been shot dead as he was leaving his apartment building in central Moscow, court officials have said.
Eduard Chuvashov was leaving for work on Monday morning when he was shot by an unknown gunman who fled the scene. He had presided over several cases involving nationalist organisations and had received death threats. In February, he sentenced nine members of a neo-Nazi skinhead group called the White Wolves to up to 23 years in jail. The group was behind a series of racist murders. He also worked on cases involving Russian officials accused of corruption and embezzlement. No bodyguard
"An unidentified person shot Mr Chuvashov in the entrance to an apartment block and then fled," a police source was quoted by Ria Novosti as saying, adding that investigators were at the scene. There were reports that CCTV cameras recorded the shooting, by a man who appeared to be in his 20s. The judge is reported to have died instantly after being hit in the head and chest. Just last week Mr Chuvashov had convicted the teenage leader of the most notorious skinhead gang in Russia for the murder of three more immigrants, says the BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow. The teenager was already serving a long sentence for killing 20 people. There are reports that despite receiving death threats, Mr Chuvashov had refused to have bodyguards. | Famous Person - Death | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Two former Colombian ministers Sabas Pretelt and Diego Palacio are sentenced to six years in prison for corruption in bribing lawmakers to support the 2006 re–election bid of former President Alvaro Uribe. | BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s Supreme Court convicted two close aides of former President Alvaro Uribe on Wednesday of bribing lawmakers to support the conservative leader’s 2006 re-election.
Former Interior Minister Sabas Pretelt and Social Protection Minister Diego Palacio were each sentenced to more than six years in jail.
A former congresswoman in 2008 accused the Uribe aides of offering her favors and political appointments in exchange for supporting the lifting of a constitutional ban on presidential re-election. The legislation was approved and Uribe became the first Colombian president in over 100 years to stand for re-election, winning easily thanks to his U.S.-backed military offensive against leftist rebels.
The congresswoman, Yidis Medina, was a Uribe supporter but revealed her misgivings in a 2008 interview, saying the president’s aides failed to deliver on a promise to name allies to key administrative positions.
Uribe is being looked at in the same case by a congressional committee responsible for investigating former presidents.
Pretelt and Palacio join a half dozen other top Uribe aides, including his former agriculture minister and a peace commissioner, who have either been convicted or are under investigation for corruption and ethical breaches. All claim their innocence and say they are victims of political persecution by President Juan Manuel Santos, who succeeded Uribe in 2010.
On Friday, the Supreme Court is expected to hand down sentences in the case of two other Uribe aides, including his chief of staff and the former head of Colombia’s intelligence agency, for organizing a spying ring that illegally intercepted the communications of some of the conservative leader’s top opponents. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | April 2015 | ['(AP via WTOP)'] |
The municipality of North Battleford, Saskatchewan shuts off its main water supply following an oil spill into the North Saskatchewan River the previous day, of up to 250,000 litres, from a pipeline owned by Husky Energy. | NORTH BATTLEFORD — The Saskatchewan city of North Battleford shut down its water intake plant Friday because of a major pipeline oil spill.
Stewart Schafer, the city’s director of operations, said an oil slick was detected downstream from the city on the North Saskatchewan River.
“This morning they saw the sheen downstream from us,” Schafer said Friday. “Husky reported to water security that they … saw a sheen and so everything gets shut right down.
“How much, how big, I couldn’t tell you.”
Husky Energy has said between 200,000 and 250,000 litres of crude oil and other material leaked into the river on Thursday from its pipeline near Maidstone, Sask.
Schafer said the city has a backup supply of water in its reservoirs and water tower. It also has a ground-water treatment plant.
“We have about three days and then we have to start up the other plant. By that time we are hoping that whatever contaminants hit the river are flushed down.”
The reservoirs and water tower had already been filled to capacity as a precautionary measure.
North Battleford Mayor Ian Hamilton was asking residents to slow the flow from their taps to help ensure an adequate supply.
Husky was trying to contain the spill using booms across the river, about 40 kilometres upstream from North Battleford. Chief operationing officer Rob Peabody said some of the spilled oil was on land and was being recovered.
“What we do know is the leak was not under the river, as far as we can see,” he told a conference call Friday morning. “The leak was kind of in a location near the river.”
The pipeline runs from Husky’s heavy oil operations to its facilities in Lloydminster and carries oil mixed with a lighter hydrocarbon, called a diluent, that’s added to ease the flow.
Ralph Bock of the Environment Ministry said Thursday the Water Security Agency would take samples from the river past the boom to check for any hydrocarbons.
Wes Kotyk of the department’s environmental protection branch said the spill, which he said was equivalent to two rail cars, was of a “higher magnitude” than Saskatchewan is used to.
“This is a rare event. We don’t have incidents of this magnitude very often,” Kotyk told reporters Friday morning, adding it has been a number of years since there’s been an oil spill into water.
Kotyk said fish and wildlife staff were developing a plan in case wildlife is affected.
Peabody said it could be several weeks before a cause for the spill is known. He didn’t know the age of the pipeline, but said it would have been regularly inspected under Husky’s management plan.
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall said no one wants to see an oil spill occur, but the latest leak doesn’t change his support for pipelines.
“The facts remain that if we’re not moving by a pipeline, it’s going to move … (by rail). We know that rail is actually more susceptible to spills and spills are often more intense,” Wall said from Whitehorse, Yukon, where he was attending a premiers meeting.
Wall also said moving oil by rail also takes a greater toll on the environment by creating more greenhouse gas emissions.
Husky president Asim Ghosh was asked about any potential negative public reaction to pipeline spills.
“To be honest with you, I distinguish between a media reaction and a public reaction,” he said. “But as far as we are concerned, we just focus on getting on with the job, you know. If we’ve got a pipeline spill, we address the pipeline spill.
“We ensure we’ve got procedures in place and we ensure we make the procedures even more robust from each learning experience.”
— By Ken Trimble in Edmonton with files from Dan | Government Policy Changes | July 2016 | ['(The Saskatoon Star–Phoenix)'] |
Thai police say that they suspect that at least 10 people were involved in planning the attack on the Erawan Shrine, but that international terrorists were unlikely to have been involved. | Monday's bombing in Thailand was "unlikely" to have been the work of an international terror group, the Thai government has said.
Col Winthai Suvaree, a spokesman for the ruling military junta, said this was the preliminary conclusion reached by investigators.
However, authorities say the prime suspect in the bombings was foreign.
The attack on the Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok on Monday evening killed 20 people and injured scores.
Police say that at least 10 people are suspected of involvement in the attack.
National police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang said he believed the attack was planned at least a month in advance.
The latest statement by the Thai authorities casts little new light on the mystery surrounding Monday night's bombing - but it does appear to rule out the involvement of known organisations like al-Qaeda.
The Thais say they have been consulting intelligence agencies from allied countries, and from their discussions they believe the attack is not linked to international terrorism. That leaves the possibility that it was carried out by local perpetrators, although there is no group in Thailand with a track record that suggests their involvement. Or it may have been the work of a hitherto unknown group. The Thai police are still looking for three men seen in a grainy security camera video at the shrine just before the blast and have issued an arrest warrant and requested help from Interpol. However, they have no names or nationalities, and it is possible these men are no longer in the country.
The messy theories behind the Thai bomb
An arrest warrant has been issued for one unidentified man seen on CCTV footage leaving a backpack at the shrine shortly before the blast. A reward of one million baht ($28,000; 17,950) has been offered for information leading to the main suspect's arrest.
The Thai police have also appealed to Interpol for help in catching the perpetrators.
A motorbike taxi driver who believes he picked up the main suspect said he was having a phone conversation in a language that was neither English nor Thai.
When he was dropped off at a park in the city centre, the suspect "still appeared very calm, just like [a] normal customer. He seemed not in a hurry at all," Kasem Pooksuwan told CNN.
Correspondents say information from the Thai authorities about the investigation has at times been confusing or contradictory.
The fact that the crater at the scene was filled in within 24 hours with a view to getting the shrine reopened as soon as possible has also raised questions around the effectiveness of the probe.
The Hindu shrine is popular with Buddhist and Chinese tourists, but the spokesman said authorities did not believe Chinese people had been the "direct target" of the attack.
Twelve of the 20 dead in Monday's attack were foreigners, including nationals from China, Hong Kong, the UK, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has called the bombing the "worst ever attack" on Thailand.
AFP quoted Gen Prayuth as saying he would not attend a memorial service for the victims at the shrine on Friday "on the advice of my security".
"I am not afraid of dying but I am afraid others may die with me as my risk is increasing day by day," he said.
| Armed Conflict | August 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
Tropical Storm Fred's predicted track will turn northeast toward the Azores islands off the coast of Portugal as a Tropical Depression. | .
Fred was just the fourth Atlantic named storm to form east of 19 degrees West longitude, the National Hurricane Center said in its advisory issued for the storm Sunday morning.
The Associated Press reported all airports were closed in the republic Monday, in anticipation of the storm. They also reported that the storm caused flooding, scattered power outages and uprooted some trees, but no major damage was noted.
According to a blog from Bob Henson of wunderground.com, there is no reliable record of a hurricane ever making landfall in Cabo Verde. Henson said that an 1892 storm reportedly intensified into a hurricane while passing to the south of the northwest Cape Verde Islands. In 1998, Jeanne reached hurricane status while passing south of the islands by about 100 miles, Henson added.
The islands have seen deadly impacts from tropical storms. The deadliest was Tropical Storm Fran in 1984 whose heavy rains caused flooding that killed more than two dozen people, Henson said.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2015 | ['(Weather.com)'] |
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte signs Presidential Proclamation No. 1143, declaring a state of calamity for one year due to the African swine fever, two years after the disease was reported in the country. |
The declaration allows the government to use appropriate funds, including the Quick Response Fund, to contain African swine fever, which has been in the country since 2019
President Rodrigo Duterte declared a state of calamity throughout the Philippines due to African swine fever (ASF), almost two years after the disease first hit the hog industry.
Malaca?ang announced details of Presidential Proclamation No. 1143 on Tuesday, May 11, which places the country under a state of calamity for a year, unless lifted or extended.
The declaration allows the national and local governments to use appropriate funds, including the Quick Response Fund, to contain ASF.
During this time, all government agencies and local government units will cooperate and mobilize resources to curtail the spread of ASF, as well as address the supply deficit in pork products.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines was also directed to "undertake all necessary measures to ensure peace and order in affected areas" during the effectivity of the proclamation.
Since ASF was first reported in September 2019, the disease has spread to 12 regions, 46 provinces, and 493 cities and municipalities in the country, with new cases continuously being reported despite government interventions.
ASF, which is not transmissible to humans, is responsible for the reduction of the country's swine population by around 3 million hogs, resulting in more than P100 billion in losses and a spike in inflation amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In a separate order, Duterte also tweaked tariff rates and the minimum access volume (MAV) C the number of pork products allowed to enter the country with low taxes C after Cabinet members and senators clashed over the matter.
Executive Order No. 133 amended EO 128, which had been the subject of the conflict. From the MAV allocation of 404,000 metric tons, it was reduced to just 254,210 MT for 2021.
In a statement, Samahang?Industriya ng?Agrikultura?(Sinag) welcomed the revision, noting that it would help the local hog industry.
"We thank the Senate for pushing for the declaration of the state of calamity and for working for the reduction of the MAV allocation on pork," Sinag chairman Rosendo So said. | Disease Outbreaks | May 2021 | ['(Rappler)'] |
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is acquitted of involvement in the deaths of hundreds of anti–government protesters during the 2011 Egyptian revolution. | Former Egyptian president cleared of involvement in death of protesters during 2011 uprising that ended his reign
First published on Thu 2 Mar 2017 16.50 GMT
Egypt’s top appeals court has found Hosni Mubarak innocent of involvement in the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that ended his 30-year rule, marking the final ruling in a landmark case. Mubarak was the first of the leaders toppled in a wave of Arab uprisings to face trial. In scenes that captivated Egyptians, he appeared in a courtroom cage on charges ranging from corruption to complicity in the murder of protesters. The case has traced the trajectory of Egypt’s Arab spring, with Mubarak originally sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for conspiring to murder 239 demonstrators during the 18-day revolt – an uprising that sowed chaos and created a security vacuum but also inspired hope for an era of democracy and social justice. But an appeals court ordered a retrial that culminated in 2014 in the case against the former president and his senior officials being dropped. An appeal by the public prosecution led to Thursday’s final retrial by the court of cassation. The 88-year-old ailing former leader resides in a Cairo military hospital, where he served a three-year sentence for a separate corruption case. The military overthrew Mubarak’s successor, the Islamist Mohamed Morsi, in 2013.
After a hearing that took most of the day, Judge Ahmed Abdel Qawi announced to cheers of approval from the Mubarak supporters who filled the courtroom: “The court has found the defendant innocent.” The court also rejected demands by lawyers of the victims to reopen civil suits. That left no remaining option for appeal or retrial, according to a judicial source. The families of those killed, who had attended the trial early on, were not present on Thursday. Their lawyers condemned the verdict as politically motivated. “This ruling is not fair and not just. The judiciary is politicised,” said Osman al-Hefnway, a lawyer for the families. Mubarak’s supporters cheered “long live justice” as the verdict was read out and unfurled posters of the former leader. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | March 2017 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Team Germany's Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel win a sixth consecutive Race of Champions Nations Cup in Bangkok, Thailand. | Team Germany's Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel added to their incredible run of success by winning their sixth consecutive ROC Nations Cup title in Bangkok. On another hot evening in the Thai capital, legends from many of the world's biggest motor sport series teamed up in pairs to battle for national pride. Photo by: Race of Champions
To cap off a busy night of action, Schumacher and Vettel prevailed in the Grand Final against Team France's Sébastien Ogier and Romain Grosjean. First Schumacherdefeated Grosjean then Vettel beat rally ace Ogier in the 'battle of the Sebs'. The result meant that the German duo took an incredible ten wins out of ten on the night, matching their combined total of F1 world championships. They have now extended their record of ROC Nations Cup titles to six in a row too. Schumacher said: “This is a historic day. It was already very special to win five times in a row but this new record just feels great. The Race Of Champions is a nice event with a nice set-up, there are great guys here and tough competition. We were pretty scared of the guys on Team France but in the end they lost time in the final heats so we were lucky to be consistent the whole way through.” Photo by: Race of Champions
It’s a privilege and an honour to race with these guys. There’s one thing that connects us all, which is racing. Now I can look forward to tomorrow and hopefully stay in the competition as long as possible. I’ve tried that for the last five years and haven’t succeeded yet so it would be nice to put my name on that trophy too.” Beaten finalists Team France also had a fine evening, topping their group before defeating Team All Stars (Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen and MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo) by two heats to nil in the semi-final. Grosjean admitted: “We knew going up against Team Germany was the toughest moment of the evening. But we fought as well as we could with what we had in our hands. Last year we reached the semi-final, this year the final. Now the next step is to be on the top of the podium. They want to go for seven next year but we want to go for our first one in the future. For now it’s great to have brought the blue, white and red flag to the final.” Photo by: Race of Champions
We tried our best but they were very strong. We will try to do better next time. First I will do my best to retain the individual Race Of Champions title tomorrow but I know it will be tough.” In the semi-finals Team Germany beat Team Australia's Jamie Whincup and Mick Doohan by two heats to nil. They had earlier sailed through their Group B with six wins out of six to kick off their perfect night. Team Australia joined them in the semi-finals with three victories: two for Whincup, one for Doohan. Following their triumph in yesterday's ROC Asia, Team India's Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok failed to make it beyond the group stages this time. They took a win apiece but it wasn't enough against the might of Germany and Australia. Host nation Team Thailand (Nattavude Charoensukawattana and Tin Sritrai) fought hard but they were unable to progress beyond the group stages. Sritrai nonetheless gave the home fans something to cheer with victory over Doohan. Photo by: Race of Champions
Team Americas were unlucky to miss out on qualification on countback of fastest times as they also ended up with three wins courtesy of Benito Guerra (2) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (1). Team Great Britain (Priaulx and David Coulthard) missed a semi-final spot after both fell foul of penalties for touching the barriers – though they still took one win each. There is plenty more action to come in Bangkok on Sunday as the drivers will put their friendships aside and go it alone in the individual Race Of Champions.
Schumacher and Vettel aim for six ROC wins in a row at Bangkok
The cars used in the 2012 Race of Champions at Bangkok
Joey Mawson made waves in the middle of the last decade, beating future Haas Formula 1 driver Mick Schumacher - among other highly-rated talents - to the 2016 German F4 title. A run in F1's feeder GP3 category only caused his career to stall, but now back in Australia Mawson's S5000 title success has set that to rights
Jean Todt has signalled that he will not stand for re-election as FIA president. Mark Gallagher analyses the strong credentials of one potential successor…
OPINION: The greed-driven push for a European Super League that threatened to tear football apart is collapsing at the seams. Motor racing's equivalent, the football-themed Superleague Formula series of 2008-11, was everything that the proposed ESL never could be.
The forthcoming Netflix film linking the world of underworld crime and motorsport plays on a theme that isn't exactly new. Over the years, several shady figures have attempted to make it in racing before their dubious dealings caught up with them.
Keeping trophies and momentos of key triumphs is par for the course for motorsport professionals, but what are the most cherished souvenirs picked up by the drivers and engineers who have seen and done it all?
International motorsport has been the preserve of weekends, but the pandemic forced Formula E to get creative with its Berlin season finale as four races were held mid-week. Should FE and other series break with tradition and repeat the experiment?
Jack Brabham's 1966 world championship campaign in his eponymous car was also a defining moment in the career of designer Ron Tauranac, who would apply the same ethos to his ultra-successful production racing car business, Ralt.
OPINION: The FIA has warned that the major motorsport championships must not get engaged in 'turf wars' when it comes to the urgent need to re-organising the 2020 calendars, but there are tedious past problems that must be addressed to satisfy all. | Sports Competition | December 2012 | ['(Motorsport)', '(Autosport)'] |
A 15–hour protest about police–related deaths, in Thalang on Thailand's Phuket Island in the Andaman Sea, turned into a riot when the crowd attacked the Thalang Police Station with rocks and fire bombs. Two young men were killed in a motorcycle crash while being chased by police. Fourteen police were injured, nine cars were torched, 13 others and five motorcycles damaged. While numerous people were inconvenienced by the blockade, a heart attack patient died on his way to Thalang Hospital when the ambulance couldn't get through the crowd. | Local residents in Phuket have attacked a police station on the island after riots erupted over the deaths of two young men who were killed in a collision with a police car on Saturday.
Fox News reports that the recently deceased were on a motorcycle when local authorities initiated the deadly pursuit — a pursuit which occurred because, according to Police Lt. Col Amnuay Kraiwuttinan, the two men are drug suspects.
The rioting took place just outside of the Thalang Police Station, which is located on a main road that runs to the airport.
The two men who died during the police chase were 17 and 22-years-old.
Protests which were sparked by public outrage over the deaths of the two young men turned violent Saturday evening and persisted until Sunday morning when the authorities finally managed to restore order to the area.
The crowd of protesters turned rioters, infuriated with the incident, hurled what The Guardian reports to have been homemade fire bombs at the police station.
The crowd, whose numbers swelled to over 300 people, blocked the road between 8 p.m. on Saturday until 4 a.m. on Sunday, according to Lieutenant Kraiwuttinan with the Phuket police.
Phuket is a rainforested, mountainous island located in the Adaman Sea. The province is home to some of Thailand’s most popular beaches, boasting clear waters, as well as its more than 375,000 inhabitants. The main town on the island, Patong, is riddled with nightclubs, bars and discos.
Numerous people missed their flights as a result of the riot’s blockade, according to local media reports.
Following the torching of at least nine cars, police as well as soldiers were called in to restore order to the area.
According to Lt. Amnuay, police forces trapped within the embattled station were instructed to stay calm and not to fight back.
Amnuay was quoted by The Guardian as having said that the rioters “threw things to break the windows first, then they threw fire bombs at the police and we had to move inside.”
They threw things to break the windows first, then they threw fire bombs at the police station and we had to move inside. It was a riot. It was loud and chaotic
The two Thai men who lost their lives in the police chase, according to local police, refused to stop at a police checkpoint. Instead, the two men flew past the checkpoint on a motorcycle, which caused the police to initiate pursuit.
There is an ongoing investigation being conducted by the police into the deaths of the two young men, both of whom, authorities suspect to have been in possession of drugs.
Mr. Markus is Bay Area native who covers a variety of topics here at Immortal News. | Riot | October 2015 | ['(AP via Fox News)', '(Celebcafe.org)', '(Immortal.org)', '(PhuketWan Tourism News)'] |
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani takes the oath of office to start his second four-year term. | he swearing-in ceremony for the reelected President Hassan Rouhani, which is due this Saturday, is to be a more high-profile event than his first, as the level of foreign dignitaries taking part is said to be "unprecedented".
Rouhani will be sworn in for another four years as the chief executive in the parliament in downtown Tehran.
He will receive his endorsement decree from the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in a separate ceremony on Thursday.
The president's Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and Information Parviz Esmaeili said on Tuesday high-powered delegations from at least 92 countries and organizations are confirmed to attend.
"Present in the event will be 25 delegations from Asia Pacific, 26 from Arab countries and 30 from Europe and Americas," he told IRNA, in addition to 11 delegations from major international entities.
"The number and level of delegations attending such an event is unprecedented," he said.
Among the guests, he said, are eight presidents and 19 parliament speakers, besides dozens of senior government officials and diplomats.
Esmaeili did not elaborate on the states to be represented, but media reports have so far confirmed that Afghanistan, Pakistan, Armenia, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Palestine, North Korea, Moldavia and Belarus will attend the ceremony.
Officials from four of five permanent members of the UN Security Council, namely Russia, China, the UK and France, plus Germany, are also to attend.
The five, along with the US, negotiated the July 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that went into effect in January 2016 to settle its lingering dispute with western powers over its nuclear activities.
EU's top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, who headed the other side of the Iran deal during two years of talks, is also expected to arrive.
Message to Trump
Lawmaker Alireza Rahimi said on Monday the high-level participation in Rouhani's inauguration conveys an "important message" to the world, at a time when Washington seems to be bent on tightening the screws on Tehran.
In a post on his Telegram channel, Rahimi said the planned presence of Mogherini at the event showed the bloc's resolve to strengthen its ties with Iran and to protect the 2015 deal from the controversial US President Donald Trump who is determined to walk out of the pact to appease his allies Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Hardening the US tone on Iran, Trump has repeatedly hammered the deal and is currently seeking ways to pull out of it.
However, so far, his calls for dismantling the deal or renegotiating the accord have fallen on deaf ears of other signatories to the deal, which are determined to uphold the pact.
Rouhani won the presidential vote in May on a platform of broadening Iran's international engagement and reforming the economy, making pledges to improve the livelihood of ordinary Iranians and curb unemployment by attracting foreign investment and technology.
Over 23 million people, from a total of 41 million voters, cast ballots for him to win an emphatic 57% of votes to defeat his main rival, principlist Ebrahim Raeisi.
Tight Security
The Interior Ministry has made strict security arrangements for the event, a top official said, adding that the level of security at the parliament compounds has been raised for the inauguration day.
Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs Hossein Zolfaqari told Tasnim News Agency on Monday the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps is in charge of security of the ceremony, and the Intelligence Ministry, police and air defense force have also been assigned tasks to support it.
The inauguration day has been declared a holiday in the capital.
"All state and public institutions and organizations, except those extending emergency services, will be closed on Saturday to facilitate the movement of dignitaries and ensure the convenience of Tehrani citizens," Cabinet Secretary Mohsen Haji-Mirzaei told IRNA on Monday.
Security in Iran's biggest city is heightened since the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group attacked the parliament and Imam Khomeini Mausoleum early June, the first major terrorist operation in decades, which prompted Iran's first missile strike outside its borders after the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) against IS positions in eastern Syria.
Rouhani is preparing to propose his nominees for 18 ministerial posts to the parliament for a vote of confidence on the inauguration day.
The president has vowed to pick a "young" and "inclusive" Cabinet, reportedly saying that more than 50% of the incumbent ministers will be replaced. He is also expected to induct women ministers.
After Rouhani announces his list of ministers, the lawmakers have a week to examine their credentials.
Afterwards, the aspirants will appear before the parliament to outline their plans of action for securing confirmation votes.
Read our comment policy before posting your viewpoints Add: No. 108 - Qaem Maqam Farahani St. Tehran, Iran | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | August 2017 | ['(Financial Tribune)'] |
After 29 years of decriminalized prostitution in the U.S. state of Rhode Island, Governor Donald Carcieri signs a bill into law outlawing prostitution. |
Governor Carcieri signs legislation making indoor prostitution illegal in Rhode Island Tuesday. Among those with the governor, from left, are: state Sen. Paul V. Jabour, Rhode Island State Police Col. Brendan Doherty, Attorney General Patrick Lynch, First Lady Sue Carcieri, state Rep. Elaine Coderre, state Rep. Joanne Giannini, and state Rep. Roberto DaSilva. Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Governor Carcieri signed into law legislation to outlaw indoor prostitution in Rhode Island at a State House ceremony Tuesday afternoon. The signing closes a nearly 30-year-old loophole in the state's prostitution laws that has allowed prostitutes to work legally out of brothels, strip clubs, homes or anywhere else -- as long as it's indoors. "For almost 30 years Rhode Island has had the terrible distinction of being the only state outside certain counties in Nevada where indoor prostitution is not considered a crime," Carcieri said. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Joanne M. Giannini, D-Providence, and Sen. Paul V. Jabour, D-Providence, the governor said, will help protect the state's most vulnerable residents and enhance the quality of life in Rhode Island. It was approved almost overwhelmingly late last week by the General Assembly, which was meeting in special session. In addition to the legislation's sponsors, the attendants at the ceremony included R.I. Atty. Gen. Patrick C. Lynch and State Police Col. Brendan P. Doherty. The new law "sends a distinct message to any group (which) thinks they could use Rhode Island in furtherance of their illicit business," State Police Col. Doherty said. "The bottom line is commercial sex is now clearly illegal" in Rhode Island. Lynch said that the new law will "end a blemish" on the state and give law enforcement the tools they need to investigate and prosecute prostitution and related criminal activity. "Does this mean prostituition will be eliminated in Rhode Island forever?" Giannini asked. "Of course not. But it means Rhode Island will no longer be a safe haven for pimping and trafficking, and the victimization of young women." The law makes indoor prostitution a misdemeanor crime punishable, for first offenders, by up to six months in prison and a fine of up to $1,000, or both. However, the law empowers judges to erase the criminal convictions of first offenders. Customers or "johns" face the same penalties as prostitutes, but without the possiblity of having their criminal record expunged. I guess this law makes my partner of 20+ years a prostitute. After all, I pay the mortgage and in return I receive various domestic favors. And just like that, a whole new tier of black market crime was created in RI. Way to go, Governor. You just created a fortune for pimps and thugs, all in the name of "family values". From what I'm reading in the comments, it looks like no one's leaving... *puts on sunglasses*
with a Happy Ending. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
It took longer than it should have but at least the loophole is finally closed. If nothing else, this gives law enforcement the opportunity to combat this illegal activity. Whether they do or not is up to them. Everyone who helped get this law passed deserves credit. To sib,
I hope your partner didn't read your comment. well there goes my saturday nights! Now i have to spend time with my girlfriend now..
..in all seriousness..these politicians in RI make me laugh. Yes they have created a new tier of crime in this state. They have based these desicions based on their own "morals". Whos to say we have to have the same "morals" as these crooks..
..this at least should have been up to the voters to decide at some point. Not corrupt politicians who want to get their name on a bill for future bragging rights. I do not see anything wrong with 2 individuals haveing a good time behind closed doors...away from the public..and leaving happy. Pretty close to marriage. I also do not get how these politicans come up with these "moral value arguements" when they also want to legalize gay marriage....Well, ill tell you..those arent my "morals"..but who am i to decide. I hate this state. In addition...thank you lawmakers..for creating another crime in this state you cannot handle. How about focusing on the poverty, the murder rate, and unemployment in this embarrasing establishment we call a state. “Illicit business”, but selling cigarettes, liquor and promoting gambling is ok because the state gets their cut. I would think those three do more for the denegration of quality of life for most Rhode Islanders than consenting adults having sex behind closed doors. The “Gov” looks pretty happy as he signs the bill. I wonder if he realizes how much he has just endangered women because of this? It is about time this state stands behind
solid morals in a decision to ban indoor prostitution. We do not need our children to
be turned into prostitutes by drug pushers and pimps. Organized crime is still controlling RI but it is nice to see a small bite has been taken out of this crime. Adolescent human trafficing is a huge industry. The law enforcement officials need a law to go
after these pimps and organized crime officials. Spreading diseases and encouraging women to sell
their bodies for monies that frequently go to a third party; pimp or drug pusher are no way for
this state to be labeled nor for the children of these women to be raised! WOW! Thank goodness we finally have this legislation passed. Now I don't have to see all the hookers around my complex anymore. Now where exactly are all the cops coming from to enforce this new law? If only the Governor & the General Assembly could put half the effort into a balanced budget. Place your bets-- which of this shower of signatories will be the first to be shown to be a punter and to join the Eliot Spitzer Hall of Hypocrites? This is a giant waste of time. Pimps love this new law since everyone knows blackmarket prices are always higher and now pimps can also tell the girls that they're needed to protect them from the police. RI could have been smart and taxed/regulated the industry but that would require someone in the GA to pull their head out of their own behind. The GA and the governor can't solve any real problems in this state but hey when they need to get tough they can pick on prostitutes. What a joke. "The law makes indoor prostitution a misdemeanor crime punishable, for first offenders, by up to six months in prison and a fine of up to $1,000, or both. However, the law empowers judges to erase the criminal convictions of first offenders." So the government gets $1,000 per offense, from those that get arrested, so who is the pimp now?? This wont even be a factor in prostitution. The police have a lot more important issues to deal with, not to mention budget restrictions. Giannini the Hag accomplished nothing. Long live the providers lol
I'm packing next year because ri has just become a communist state to live in. these crooks are controlling our lives, so it time to move out where there is more freedom to live and do what we want to do and how we spend our monies. Hey Bill,
where are you moving to because every other state makes prostitution illegal. Pahrump, Nevada? Don't think you would last a week in that desert sinkhole. I wonder if we'll ever realize that sex is a basic need, and can be treated in a clean, disease-free, respectable way. Free health clinics, regulations and education can combat the crime without creating more powerful pimps or destroying young girls' lives. Long live Firefly! @ David Caruso Money can't buy you love...
*puts on sunglasses*
...anymore. Nice job legislators. Go pat yourselves on the backs for having done 'something'. We have so many other real problems to be dealt with and they all go and waste time with what is, in effect a 'nonproblem' and then this will direct more wasted time for police officials to go 'clean up' prostitution INSTEAD of mobsterism, gangsaism and white collar crimes. I think that most Rhode Islanders saw this as a nonissue yet the reps went after this...because it's one of those easy issues that will never have any strong opponents given the nature of the issue (ANYbody supporting continuation of indoor prostitution-- god forbid-- would be painted as a sinner. Imagine putting all this gusto into a bill that addresses the needs of only a miniscule portion of the population! The real issues are the economy and RI's enormous budget deficit. Do-gooders and moralists seem to think that women who useed to ply their trade indoors will now close up shop. Think again. Imagine putting all this gusto into a bill that addresses the needs of only a miniscule portion of the population! The real issues are the economy and RI's enormous budget deficit. Do-gooders and moralists seem to think that women who useed to ply their trade indoors will now close up shop. Think again. How're they gonna enforce it? And then administer the new law? How do they plan to enforce this new law and starting when? And in what court will the new law be administered? Whatta joke, it's the governance of this state that's the true "terrible distinction". Rhode Island is renowned mostly for its' abundance of corruption and graft. It's a real shame - Rhode Island is truly a lovely state, but with such a disgustingly ugly system of rule. thy all look so happy^ wow can ri be any more pathetic. so they hate
doesnt mean they going to catch all the 350 girls working in the state of ri. what about the johns. it is a waste to punish all. go after what you really wanted to go after. the brothel houses the spas the pimps the street walkers all of those that arent being real to this line of work. so after 30 years it closes. ok. every state has adult services with escorts doing the right thing. maybe a little extra after time and companionship but thats a matter of choice between two adults. so porno isnt illegal. last i checked girl gets paid getting nailed on all different sized screens. why do the spas and brothel houses and pimps have to affect the females who are actually accompanying a gentleman with satisfaction. since obama came around ri has been different in a bad way. the drugs the rapes, murders and other crimes are more important than a man wanting to spend time with a female. hasnt been a crime in ri. why make it illegal like there is a crime
from it everyday. WoW... just another government knucklehead trying to tell you how to live your life... where does it end ... its only going to get worse... all these government officials telling you whats best for you ... we are grown men and women we can make our own decisions...I`m so tired of these new laws coming out and taking our freedoms away... whats next tattoo numbers on your forearm to identify you ...oh yea thats right thats already happened and look what the results were..stop telling people how to live there lives and fix the real problems like, jobs, food, health care, homelessness , wars, bailout monies ( wow that was brilliant good job paying you rich friends to fix there yachts) oh yea lets see all these high government officials after they get out of office and open there businesses and all the deals they have acquired from there term in office where is there morality now... stop the madness and do the right thing, don't do things for your own personal gain do it for the people of the state... the more I listen to these politicians I cant believe there in office ... Sorry for rambling on but I could go on forever there are way to many things that need to be addressed and for the right reasons..
Wow Deb Z, that sounds like experience talking. All they did was push it underground and not in the open where they are checked out. Let the diseases of the illegal trade take more than Swine flu. Good Job GA. Can't fix the budget, but indoor prostitution is gone. Now the preachers just have to use the back door. | Government Policy Changes | November 2009 | ['(Providence Journal)'] |
Trump picks banker and businessman Steven Mnuchin to be his Secretary of the Treasury. | President-elect Donald Trump has picked his campaign finance chairman, Steve Mnuchin, to be his Treasury secretary. The Wall Street banker spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was a partner, and is now chief executive of Dune Capital Management, a privately owned hedge fund.
Mnuchin confirmed his selection Wednesday during a joint CNBC interview with billionaire investor Wilbur Ross Jr., who has been tapped for commerce secretary.
"Steve Mnuchin is a world-class financier, banker and businessman, and has played a key role in developing our plan to build a dynamic, booming economy that will create millions of jobs," Trump said in a statement.
Mnuchin, 53, joined the Trump campaign in April when the organization's fundraising campaign barely existed. He also was involved deeply in developing the president-elect's tax proposals, which could deliver as much as $6 trillion in tax reductions over 10 years, but might also contribute to much larger budget deficits. As Treasury secretary he would take a lead role in developing policies aimed at boosting the country's economic growth.
"I understand what needs to be done to fix the economy," Mnuchin said in a statement, adding he would help implement "a bold economic agenda."
Over the years, Mnuchin has contributed to both Republican and Democratic candidates, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. He has also been a financier of high-profile movies, including this past summer's Suicide Squad, a big financial success. He also was an executive producer of the movies American Sniper and Mad Max: Fury Road.
The banker's involvement in OneWest Bank following the 2008 housing market crash could complicate his confirmation.
In 2009, Mnuchin put together a group of billionaire investors, including George Soros and hedge-fund titan John Paulson, that bought failed California-based bank IndyMac, a big mortgage lender. The FDIC agreed to absorb the losses of the bank above a certain threshold.
The bank was renamed OneWest Bank, and Mnuchin became its chairman and CEO. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | November 2016 | ['(NPR)'] |
Thirty-one pilgrims are killed and 100 others are injured in a stampede in the city of Karbala, Iraq, while marking Ashura. | At least a hundred are wounded At least 31 pilgrims died on Tuesday in a stampede at a major shrine in Iraq's Karbala where they were marking Ashura.
The deaths were caused by a stampede. Ministry spokesman Saif Al Badr said the toll could rise even further, as another 100 people were injured including 10 in critical condition.
| Riot | September 2019 | ['(Gulf News)'] |
During the third Sunday of mass protests, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians in Kiev seek the resignation of the government for refusing a deal on closer ties with the European Union. BBC News | Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in the Ukrainian capital Kiev seeking the resignation of the government for refusing a deal on closer ties with the European Union.
Protesters, who oppose a customs union with Russia, toppled a statue of Lenin and smashed it with hammers.
President Viktor Yanukovych has said he shelved the EU deal because it would put trade with Russia at risk.
Protest leaders have given him 48 hours to dismiss the government.
As darkness fell, protesters were blockading key government buildings with cars, barricades and tents.
Witnesses said a group of protesters toppled the statue of Soviet leader Lenin at the top of Shevchenko Boulevard using metal bars and ropes. Then they began smashing it up with hammers.
Others stood by chanting "glory to Ukraine". Correspondents say the statue has symbolic importance as it underlines Ukraine's shared history with Russia.
One opposition MP, Andriy Shevchenko, tweeted: "Goodbye, Communist legacy!"
Prime Minister Mykola Azarov compared the toppling of the statue to the Taliban's destruction of the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan in 2001, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.
"War on monuments is always barbarity," he said.
The BBC's David Stern says the attack on the statue has heightened tension in Kiev. In another development on Sunday, the Ukrainian Security Service said it was investigating some politicians on suspicion of what it called "actions aimed at seizing state power".
It did not name the politicians.
The European Commission has said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will travel to Ukraine this week "to support a way out of the political crisis".
Waving EU and Ukrainian flags, protesters on Sunday congregated on Kiev's Independence Square - the scene of previous clashes with police.
Ukraine's special police force, Berkut, has been widely condemned for beating protesters in the square - known as Maidan.
The opposition party of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has urged people to "chase" the president "until he falls".
"We are on a razor's edge between a final plunge into cruel dictatorship and a return home to the European community," Mrs Tymoshenko said in a message to the crowd read out by her daughter.
"Don't give in, not a step back, don't give up, the future of Ukraine is in your hands," the message read.
Another opposition leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, said: "It's not just a simple revolution. It's a revolution of dignity."
Opposition MP Serhiy Pashynskyy said that "starting from today and until our demands are met, the government quarter will be blocked with protest rallies".
Analysts say that although the protests were sparked by President Yanukovych's U-turn on the EU deal, many on the streets want rid of what they believe is a corrupt system.
The protests are the largest since the pro-democracy Orange Revolution in 2004.
A smaller pro-government rally was held close to the opposition march with police separating the two.
Both Russia and Ukraine denied that the issue of Kiev joining the customs union along with Belarus and Kazakhstan came up during the Putin-Yanukovych meeting in Sochi, in southern Russia, on Friday. Correspondents had earlier speculated that an agreement on Ukraine joining the customs union might be reached in return for reduced energy prices. The two neighbours have also been trying to resolve a long-running dispute over energy supplies.
Ukraine depends on imports of Russian gas, but the supplier, Gazprom, has recently complained that Kiev had fallen behind in payments. Disputes over supplies to Ukraine before 2009 saw Gazprom temporarily cutting off supplies.
Pipelines passing through Ukraine also pump Russian gas to many EU member states.
"Any signature to a deal on forming a new Soviet Union means the breakup of the country," said Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a prominent opposition member.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | December 2013 | [] |
Around 2,000 "yellow shirt" protesters in Thailand demonstrate over the government's handling of a border dispute with Cambodia. | BANGKOK, Jan 25 -- The 'Yellow Shirt' People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) kicked off their fresh demonstration on Tuesday afternoon at Makkhawan Bridge on Ratchadamnoen Nok Avenue to press the government to accept their demands over the Thai-Cambodian border disputes.
Ratchadamnoen Nok Avenue between Misakawan intersection and Makkhawan Bridge was totally closed for vehicles as a stage, tents and facilities for encampment were set up.
Key PAD leader Maj-Gen Chamlong Srimuang threatened to prolong the rally nearby Government House until Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva responds to their demands.
He said firstly the government must revoke the 2000 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by Thailand and Cambodia concerning their border disputes. The ultra nationalist movement claimed that the 2000 MoU puts Thailand at a disadvantage in handling such disputes with the neighbouring country.
Second, the government must withdraw from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee and remove Cambodian people from disputed border areas near Preah Vihear Temple.
Gen Chamlong stressed that there would be no negotiation with the government on its request to end the demonstration.
The former Bangkok governor said that he was well aware that the rally would affect the traffic and student access to schools as there are many schools around the protest site, but he asked for understanding as the issue of territorial integrity was very important.
The PAD co-leader said that he is unworried about the security measures even though the seizure of home-made bombs and ammunition, and the arrest of five men claiming that they have targeted causing trouble at the demonstration.
Gen Chamlong said he believes the capability of the police and the cooperation on the security measures to ensure the safety of the protesters.
Security has been tightened around Government House where 24 companies of police -- some 4,000 personnel -- were deployed early Tuesday to ensure law and order. (MCOT online news) | Protest_Online Condemnation | January 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(Thai News Agency)'] |
Dozens of people are killed and more than 100 others are wounded by a series of bomb explosions in Baghdad, mostly near Shia mosques around the time of Jumu'ah | . The wave of bombings wreaked widespread destruction
A wave of bombings in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, has killed at least 58 people and wounded more than 100.
Most of the attacks occurred near Shia mosques during Friday prayers. At least two went off near the offices of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr. A top official blamed al-Qaeda, which in the past has targeted Shia areas. He said the bombing had been carried out in revenge for the recent killing of three senior al-Qaeda leaders by security forces. The Baghdad authorities have blamed al-Qaeda, saying the bombings were in revenge for the killing of high-profile al-Qaeda operatives on Sunday.
Whoever did carry out the attacks, it is hard not to conclude that they were designed to inflame tensions between Iraq's Sunni and Shia communities at a time of political uncertainty.
There were at least six bombings in Baghdad on Friday, with some reports putting the total at 13. The targets included mosques and a market, as well as Mr Sadr's offices in the mainly Shia area of Sadr City. An eyewitness to that attack said he had counted about 25 bodies. "We are the innocent victims of vicious politics," he told the Associated Press news agency. "This kind of politics will lead us nowhere, down a rabbit-hole to sectarianism." Baghdad security spokesman Qassim Moussawi told Reuters news agency the bombings targeted "prayers in areas with a certain majority", referring to Iraq's Shia population. He said the attacks came in "revenge for the losses suffered by al-Qaeda" and he expected "such terrorist acts to continue". Al-Qaeda is blamed for many of the deadliest attacks in Iraq in recent years. At the weekend US and Iraqi forces said they had killed three al-Qaeda leaders - named as Ahmed al-Obeidi, Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Baghdad says security officials have stepped up security in Sadr City and many residents will be asking how the bombers managed to get through the checkpoints. But the broader question is what the reaction will be, both in Sadr City and in other predominantly Shia areas that were hit, our correspondent adds. Meanwhile seven people also died on Friday in a series of bombings in the western town of Khalidya in Anbar province. The attacks reportedly targeted the homes of police officers and a judge. Anbar province is more peaceful now than it was a few years ago, when it was at the centre of Iraq's Sunni insurgency. But relatively small-scale bombings of this kind are still common and often blamed on - but rarely claimed by - al-Qaeda or its affiliates. | Armed Conflict | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)', '(Reuters)'] |
Bob Filner, mayor of San Diego, California, due to resign on August 30 over sexual harassment allegations. | SAN DIEGO -- Mayor Bob Filner is expected to resign Friday amid mounting allegations of sexual harassment just eight months into his first term.
Filner agreed to resign as part of a proposed mediation deal reached with city officials over a sexual-harassment lawsuit, sources familiar with the negotiations said Thursday.
At least 18 women have publicly accused the 70-year-old Democrat of sexual misconduct, including a former aide who filed the lawsuit seeking damages from the city and Filner.
As more women went public with accusations, public opinion polls showed that a large majority of residents wanted Filner out.
In exchange for his resignation, the city will pay some, if not all, of Filner’s legal fees and his share of any damages awarded in the lawsuit, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. One estimate is the agreement will cost the city several hundred thousand dollars.
The lawsuit against Filner was filed July 22 by Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred on behalf of Irene McCormack Jackson, Filner’s former director of communications.
Filner’s decision to resign came after three days of closed-door mediation. The City Council is set to vote on the proposed settlement in a closed session Friday. Under the city charter, a special election would have to be held within 90 days to find a successor.
In a news conference Thursday, Allred said that although she does not know the details of the mediation deal, it would be “morally repugnant” for the city to “make a gift of public funds” to Filner so that he can, in effect, continue to fight against the lawsuit.
“Our lawsuit is not settled,” Allred said.
All nine members of the council--five Democrats and four Republicans--have demanded for weeks that Filner resign.
Council President Todd Gloria and Councilman Kevin Faulconer said that city government has been paralyzed and cannot function properly while Filner is mayor. When Filner leaves, Gloria will assume added duties until an election is held. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | August 2013 | ['(Los Angeles Times)'] |
Abdul Rahman is deemed mentally unfit to stand trial, and released. He is seeking asylum in a Western country. His whereabouts are unknown. | KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- An Afghan man threatened with the death penalty for converting to Christianity has been released from prison, senior Western diplomats said Tuesday. His whereabouts were not immediately known.
Abdul Rahman had been held by Afghan authorities for his conversion from Islam to Christianity, punishable by death in Afghanistan, which follows Islamic law. Many Muslim clerics in the country called for his death, and said even if he were freed his life would be in danger.
Ahead of his release, Rahman requested asylum in a Western country, according to the United Nations. He has lived in Europe at times.
"Mr. Abdul Rahman has asked for asylum outside Afghanistan," a statement from the office of U.N. Special Representative to Afghanistan said Monday. "We expect that this will be provided by one of the countries interested in a peaceful solution to this case."
Local clerics had written to President Hamid Karzai, asking him to prevent Western nations from interfering with their religious practices and customs. (Watch how the case presented a religious dilemma to the Afghan government -- 2:43)
About 1,000 people demonstrated in Mazar-e-Sharif Monday, chanting "Death to America" and "Death to George Bush." (Full story)
Western nations, which have supported the new Afghan government monetarily, have been leaning on the government to free Rahman.
The Afghan Cabinet met on the matter Saturday, but results of that meeting were unknown.
Religious leaders have been meeting with Cabinet officials and with Karzai. Privately, people close to the government have said Karzai wanted to take personal charge of the issue.
U.S. troops overthrew Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, which had harbored the al Qaeda terrorist network, after al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. U.S. troops are still battling Taliban and al Qaeda remnants in parts of the country, which President Bush frequently touts as a success in the U.S.-led battle against terrorism.
Rahman, 41, reportedly converted 16 years ago while he was a medical aid worker for an international non-governmental organization. The information recently came to light during a civil case.
The case reflects a gulf between Afghanistan's conservative and clerical judiciary and the fledgling Western-backed democracy led by Karzai.
The judge in charge of the case is adamant that there can be no government involvement.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul is adamant as well. The U.S. government and other Western nations basically hold the purse strings for Afghanistan, which needs billions in reconstruction money every year.
"We have a profound commitment to a person's fundamental freedom to choose how he or she worships and we must be true to that commitment," the embassy said in a statement. (Watch how the case of the 'reluctant martyr' is testing Afghanistan -- 2:56)
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told CNN Sunday: "We've been very clear with the Afghan government that it has to understand the vital importance of religious freedom to democracy." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | March 2006 | ['(CNN)', '(BBC)'] |
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi gives a live address to the nation after rebels claim a number of victories in the 2011 Libyan civil war. | Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi gave a live audio address early Monday, urging supporters in Tripoli to "be ready to fight to liberate our pure and good land."
The address, which was also aired on Libyan state television, came hours after rebels claimed advances in a number of cities in western Libya, including al-Zawiya, the region's third-largest.
The government has denied the rebel claims.
"You are hearing from me even under shelling. There will be an end to the shelling, end to the (opposition), end to a defeated NATO, end to the donkeys in the Gulf and the Libyan people will remain," Gadhafi said. "(Go) to the front always, to the fights, to the weapons, to the battles to liberate Libya inch by inch from the traitors and NATO. Be ready to fight to liberate our pure and good land." Rebel forces were fighting Gadhafi's troops Sunday for control of several western areas including al-Zawiya, which serves as a critical supply line to the west, rebels claimed Sunday.
Western rebel spokesman Col. Jumma Ibrahim said Sunday that rebel forces control most of the city. Rebel field commander Adel al-Zintani told CNN his forces were "clearing the city of Gadhafi forces. There are minor clashes going on inside al-Zawiya," adding: "The situation is under control, but it will take some time to clear." Ibrahim said Sunday that rebels now claim a number of areas of the city including several neighborhoods, roads and a coastal area. Rebels are not in control of a stretch from al-Zawiya to Tunis, he said, but fighting is ongoing. In a televised press conference Sunday, Musa Ibrahim, a government spokesman, denied the claims and said government forces have managed to halt rebel attacks in al-Zawiya. "There was an attack yesterday on Zawiya from the south, but we stopped it, " Musa Ibrahim said.
"Today as well, a few hours ago, there was another attack on Zawiya. Greetings to the people of Zawiya, and the volunteers in Zawiya, who helped the armed people (Libyan military) and stop this attack courageously," the government spokesman said. Al-Zintani strongly rejected the government's assertions of controlling al-Zawiya and other nearby cities such as Surman and Garyan, an essential supply route south of Tripoli. "The next few days will prove him wrong," the rebel field commander said.
CNN has not been able to confirm independently who controls al-Zawiya, located about 33 miles west of Tripoli.
Earlier Sunday, rebels were also clashing with Gadhafi forces on the outskirts of the city of Surman, west of al-Zawiya, al-Zintani said, "and expect to be inside the city by this afternoon."
Col. Ibrahim said rebels now control a coastal road that leads west from al-Zawiya to the border post of Ras Jedeir, but that Gadhafi forces still control the post on the border with Tunisia.
Tunisia's state-owned Tataouine radio reported clashes between rebels and Gadhafi forces at Ras Jedeir, adding that rebels controlled a desert road from the border to al-Zawiya, while Gadhafi forces held the main coastal route.
NATO bombed two tanks near al-Zawiya on Saturday, the alliance said Sunday, on a day of 47 strikes against Gadhafi's military hardware around the country. Targets included anti-aircraft guns, military vehicles and an ammunition storage facility, NATO said in a statement.
Sixty miles to Tripoli's south, rebels said Saturday that they captured the town of Garyan and pushed the Gadhafi forces to the south, cutting them off from the road to Tripoli. The soldiers left behind heavy artillery and ammunition, rebel field commander al-Zintani told CNN.
"We captured many anti-aircraft artillery vehicles, two full fuel tankers and 106 anti-tank piercing artillery and shells," he said.
The rebels have 95% control of Garyan and have surrounded a Gadhafi brigade inside a military camp inside Garyan," said Col. Ibrahim, the rebel military spokesman, on Saturday. Seven people were injured in the clashes, he said.
Al-Zintani said Sunday that some Gadhafi troops were still holding out in a hospital in the city, using human shields to make it hard for rebels to return fire. He said the Gadhafi forces were firing ammunition and shells at rebels from inside the hospital and a residence nearby.
Musa Ibrahim dismissed rebel allegations of taking Garyan as mere propaganda.
"In the city of Garyan, which is a mountainous city, some gangs enter the city and their goal is to create panic and confusion and declare fake victories, " he said. "There is nothing real to worry about, Garyan will be under our control within a few hours," he said. CNN could not independently confirm the reports.
On Saturday, in the opposition-held port of Misrata, missile attacks by Gadhafi forces ended after rebels captured the nearby town of Tawargha, National Transitional Council spokesman Guma El-Gamaty told CNN. That city was being used by Gadhafi forces to launch missiles indiscriminately into Misrata, he said.
Rebels also took a crucial bridge that links Tawargha to Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown and loyal stronghold, he said.
However, Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said government fighters had pushed the rebels away from Tawargha and back to Misrata.
Government spokesman Ibrahim also downplayed the rebel claims in other towns.
"Small groups of armed gangs, 50 here, 50 there, some attacked south of al-Zawiya, some attacked north of Garyan, and Tawargha, but they have very weak influence on the ground," government spokesman Musa Ibrahim told reporters. "The people's armed forces are dealing with them, they do not represent a real threat. Tripoli is safe."
He later noted that Gadhafi's forces are "very strong" and have the support of "thousands upon thousands" of armed volunteers. "You have to remember we are very powerful," Ibrahim said. "The tens of thousands and tens of thousands of volunteers are armed right now. It doesn't matter whether NATO advances or not, whether rebels advance or not, because we will always be able to fight, in a year's time, in two years, in three years." Five months into the Libyan war, the rebels have won international support in their effort to oust Gadhafi.
They have been aided by NATO airstrikes that began in March after the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution that ordered civilians be protected.
CNN's Kareem Khadder, Jomana Karadsheh, Amir Ahmed, Salma Abdelaziz, Kamal Ghattas and Yasmin Amer contributed to this report. | Famous Person - Give a speech | August 2011 | ['(CNN)'] |
Flooding in southern Thailand has caused 40 deaths in recent days with more heavy rain forecast for Monday. | Thailand faces more hardship from unseasonable floods that have killed 40 people in its south, with more rain expected in the major rubber-producing and tourist region in coming days, a top disaster agency official said on Sunday.
Persistent heavy rain well into what should be the dry season has triggered floods across the south, cutting road and rail links, threatening crops and affecting about 1.6 million people, said Chatchai Promlert, head of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department.
A woman walks by an overflowing lake on Koh Samui, Thailand earlier in January, 2017Credit:AP
"The worst isn't over. We're expecting more rain this week while clean-up efforts are underway in places where the waters have subsided," Chatchai told Reuters.
The Meteorological Department said on its website more rain was expected on Monday.
The rainy season in Thailand normally takes place from June to November. The floods, which began on Jan. 1, have followed unseasonably heavy rain.
Thailand is one of the world's most important producers of natural rubber and the national rubber authority said on Thursday output in 2016-2017 would be about 10 percent lower because of the floods.
Global rubber prices have spiked on concern about the impact.
Flooding occurs in Thailand regularly during the rainy season but January is traditionally sunny and clear, and a high season for the tourist industry, including in southern seaside resorts.
The country saw its worst flooding in half a century in 2011, when heavy rain beginning in July that year over northern regions led to six months of inundations, including in the central plains, where industrial estates have replaced rice fields in many places.
The floods submerged a third of the country, killed more than 900 people and crippled industry.
The army played a major role in relief efforts in 2011 while the then civilian government was criticised for what many saw as lacklustre disaster efforts.
The army, which seized power in a 2014 coup, has again been playing a major role in helping with relief efforts.
The Federation of Thai Industries said last week the southern floods would have little impact on economic growth. | Floods | January 2017 | ['(Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
The United States and Nauru sign a trade deal which is expected to provide access to the full range of investment support offered by the United States to the Pacific Island nation. Nauru High Commissioner Michael Aroi thanked Joseph Cella, the U.S. Ambassador to several Pacific Island nations, for continuing American support to boost relations between both countries. | A new agreement between Nauru and the United States is expected to provide access to the full range of investment support offered by the US.
US Ambassador to Fiji Joseph Cella and his Nauruan counterpart Michael Aroi. Photo: Supplied/US Embassy, Fiji
The investment incentive agreement was signed by US ambassador Joseph Cella and Nauru High Commissioner Michael Aroi in Suva on Thursday.
The support is being offered by the US International Development Finance Corporation formerly known as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).
Aroi thanked the US saying Washington's support has boosted the two countries' trade partnership.
Aroi said Nauru was also working on a project to install a submarine cable for broadband connection.
"That investment would make a huge difference to Nauru's trade capabilities.
"We see right opportunities in working with the US in pursuing other opportunities especially in infrqastructure development to address the impacts of climate change and in modernising our digital connectivity."
Aroi said Nauru had prioritised moving its "infrastructure to higher ground to address the threats of climate change and sea-level rise".
He said the project was immense and Nauru looked to its trading partners such as the US to assist.
According to Cella, the trade between Nauru and the US grew to $US5 million last year from $US2.2m in 2015.
Cella said trade between both countries hit $US3.5m at the end of the third quarter this year.
The Nauru-US agreement would continue to build an economic bridge between both nations, he said.
"To facilitate access and trade between United States and Nauru and creates opportunities.
"So within Nauru, there is significant infrastructure development aid, also in climate change resilience, the ICT connectivity, renewable energy and healthcare."
Tuvalu has signed an historic agreement with the United States which provides access to a range of investment support. | Sign Agreement | December 2020 | ['(RNZ)'] |
An Israeli Air Force helicopter crashes in Romania with six Israeli airmen and a Romanian military observer on board; all are feared dead. | IDF announce seven bodies found at site of crash, believed to be six Israeli servicemen and one Romanian who were aboard the helicopter.
The Israel Defense Forces spokesman announced Tuesday evening that Romanian officials had found seven bodies at the site of the Israel Air Force helicopter crash that occurred on Monday.
The officials believe that the bodies are of the six Israeli servicemen and one Romanian who were aboard the helicopter, which crashed in the Carpathian Mountains .
| Air crash | July 2010 | ['(Haaretz)'] |
An attack on a Saint Petersburg Metro train at Sennaya Ploshchad station kills at least 11 people and injures more than 50 others. Authorities disarm another bomb, found at nearby Vosstaniya Square station. , | Russian police are hunting for two suspects in the wake of a bomb blast in the St Petersburg metro system that killed at least 11 people and wounded 45 more.
Law enforcement officials have said that a suicide bomber was responsible for the blast, according to reports in Russian media.
The suspected bomber is thought to have links to radical Islamists and is believed to be a 23-year-old from central Asia. Definitive conclusions cannot be made until DNA is examined but there are reports the attacker carried the bomb in a backpack. Reuters
Twitter/ varlamov
An unidentified explosive device went off at 2:20pm on a train after leaving Sennaya Ploshchad station and heading to the Technology Institute station, Russia's National Anti-Terrorist Committee said. Russian security agencies found and defused a second explosive device at the Ploschad Vosstaniya station, one of the city's busiest stations, the committee also said.
Polina, who was travelling in the next carriage, told Bumaga when the train pulled into the Technology Institute station she "saw that the neighbouring carriage was mangled, window glass was broken, there was no light and there was blood."
Russia's health minister, Veronika Skvortsova, said seven people were killed immediately while another died in an ambulance and two more died in hospital. The death toll was later updated from 10 to 11.
However, further casualties were seemingly avoided after the driver made the decision not to stop the train immediately and pulled into the Technology Institute station.
This allowed for the swift evacuation of the train and the driver was praised by authorities for his quickness of thought. After the explosion, the subway station was a terrible scene of suffering.
Anastasia, a St Petersburg student at the Technology Institute said: "I saw a young woman with a black face, she was crying and had blood on her clothes."
Another eyewitness said when smoke started pouring out of the carriages, people began to flee in panic. “People were bleeding, their hair burned,” one man told Russian channel Life News.
“Smoke poured out of the carriages. We were told to move to the exit, because the movement stopped. People just fled. My girlfriend was in the next car that exploded.
"She said that he began to shake. When she came out, she saw that people were mutilated.”
The blast came as Russian President Vladimir Putin was visiting the city, his hometown, for talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
He said investigators are looking into whether the explosion was a terror attack although Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev used that exact phrase in a Facebook post.
Russia's state investigative committee said it had opened a criminal inquiry under the section of Russia's criminal code dealing with terror.
The agency, which has sweeping powers, said it had sent a group of investigators to St Petersburg, but would consider all other possible causes.
Mr Putin made this clear earlier in the day. He said: “The causes of this event have not been determined yet, so it’s too early to talk about [possible causes].
"The investigation will show. Certainly, we will consider all variants, common, criminal, first of all, of a terrorist nature."
He offered his condolences to the families of those killed in the attack.
Officials issued arrest warrants for two suspects in relation to the bombing Some Russian media released CCTV images with the face of a man they said was one of the suspects, who appeared to be wearing what appeared to be a skullcap characteristic of Muslim regions in the forrmer Soviet Union.
Ambulances and fire engines descended on the scene near the centre of the former Russian imperial capital.
St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city with over five million residents, is the country's most popular tourist destination.
The two stations that were the site of the blast are some of the subway's busiest. Video footage posted on social media showed injured people lying bleeding on the platform, some being treated by emergency services and fellow passengers. Others ran away from the platform amid clouds of smoke, some screaming or holding hands to their faces.
A huge hole was blasted in the side of a carriage with metal wreckage strewn across the platform. Passengers were seen hammering at the windows of one closed carriage.
Russian TV said many had suffered lacerations from glass shards and metal.
The St. Petersburg subway immediately shut down all of its stations and the national anti-terrorism body said security measures would be tightened at all key transport facilities across Russia.
A three-day mourning period was announced across the city while other countries also stepped up their security measures including France.
"I appeal to you citizens of St Petersburg and guests of our city to be alert, attentive and cautious and to behave in a responsible matter in light of events," St Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko said in an address.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson tweeted to say: "Horrified by news of explosion in St Petersburg. "My sympathies are with the victims and their families."
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg tweeted his sympathies, as did Vice-President of the EU Commission Federica Mogherini.
When asked about the blast, US Presdient Donald Trump told reporters it was a "terrible thing happening all over the world absolutely a terrible thing."
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer says the US is condemning the "reprehensible" attack.
Mr Spicer said: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the injured and with the Russian people," as he offered US assistance to Russia. Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said killing innocent people "is the most humiliating act for achieving political goals." UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said those responsible for the bombing must be held accountable. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said his nation would "stand by all those who suffer." Russia has been the target of attacks by Chechen militants in past years and Chechen rebel leaders have frequently threatened further attacks.
At least 38 people were killed in 2010 when two female suicide bombers detonated bombs on packed Moscow metro trains.
Isis, which has drawn recruits from the ranks of Chechen rebels, has also threatened attacks across Russia in retaliation for Russian military intervention in Syria.
Russian air force and special forces have been backing President Bashar al-Assad in fighting rebel groups and Isis fighters now being driven out of their Syrian strongholds.
Supporters of the terror group have celebrated the explosion, though no group has claimed responsibility.
The Foreign Office currently warns of “a high threat from terrorism” in Russia, and says “further attacks are likely."
The travel advice adds: “Although there’s no indication that British nationals or interests have been specific targets, attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places visited by foreigners."
| Armed Conflict | April 2017 | ['(The Independent)', '(The New York Times)'] |
Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman announces his resignation with effect in 48 hours in response to the Egyptian-mediated ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. | Israel's defence minister has resigned over the cabinet's decision to accept a ceasefire ending two days of fighting with Palestinian militants in Gaza.
Avigdor Lieberman denounced the move as "surrendering to terror".
He said his right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party would leave the ruling coalition, which could lead to an early election.
Eight people were killed on Monday and Tuesday as militants fired 460 rockets towards Israel and Israeli forces bombed 160 targets in Gaza.
The ceasefire was largely holding on Wednesday and schools and businesses in southern Israel reopened after no rocket attacks were reported overnight.
However, Israel's military said it had shot at and captured a Palestinian man who tried to breach the Israel-Gaza border fence while hurling grenades.
Palestinian health officials later said a fisherman had been killed by Israeli fire in northern Gaza. The Israeli military said soldiers had shot the man because he was advancing towards the border fence. The fighting - the most intense since the 50-day war in 2014 - began after an Israeli special forces undercover operation in Gaza was exposed on Sunday, triggering clashes that left seven Palestinian militants and one Israeli soldier dead. Late on Monday, militants launched a barrage of rockets and mortars at Israel.
One of the rockets hit a block of flats in the town of Ashkelon, killing a Palestinian man who was working in Israel.
In response, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out what it called a wide-scale attack against targets belonging to the militant groups Hamas, which dominates Gaza, and Islamic Jihad.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said seven people were killed in the strikes. Five of the dead were said to be militants and the other two farmers. Hamas and other Palestinian factions announced on Tuesday afternoon that they had accepted an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire and would abide by it if Israel did.
Israel's security cabinet initially said only that it was ordering the military to continue its operations as required, but Mr Lieberman and another minister appeared to confirm it had agreed to accept a ceasefire when they denied supporting it.
At a news conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday, the defence minister said the military response to the rocket fire had been "insufficient and inappropriate".
He added that the government was making a serious mistake by accepting a ceasefire with Hamas and other militant groups that Israel, the US, EU and UK have designated as terrorist organisations.
"We are buying quiet for the short term at the price of serious damage to national security in the long term" he warned.
Mr Lieberman revealed he had similarly opposed recent decisions to allow into Gaza fuel for the territory's power plant and $15m (£12m) in cash from Qatar intended to fund the salaries of unpaid civil servants in the Hamas-run government.
"I could not remain [in office] and still be able to look residents of the south in the eyes," he added.
Dozens of residents of Israeli border communities protested after the ceasefire announcement at what they called the "lack of action by the Israeli government" to deal with the threat of Palestinian rocket attacks.
Mr Lieberman also announced that Yisrael Beiteinu would leave the ruling coalition and called on other parties to agree on an early date for a general election, which is not due until November 2019. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | November 2018 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(BBC)'] |
Following the cancellation of the Williams & Glyn bank formation, the Royal Bank of Scotland announces the closure of 162 RBS and subsidiary NatWest branches across the United Kingdom. | Royal Bank of Scotland has announced it is closing 162 branches across England and Wales. The bank said that 792 jobs would go as a result and staff would be offered voluntary redundancy. RBS branches in England and Wales, and the NatWest business in Scotland, had been earmarked for a new "challenger bank" under the name Williams & Glyn.
However, that project is now not going ahead and the bank has reviewed its branch network.
Some 109 branches will close in late July and August 2018, while a further 53 branches will close in November 2018.
You can see a full list of the branches that will be closing here.
An RBS spokesman said: "We are no longer launching Williams & Glyn as a challenger bank, and we now have two branch networks operating in close proximity to each other; NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland, in England and Wales. "As a result, we have had to review our overall branch footprint in England and Wales and we've made the difficult decision to close a number of Royal Bank of Scotland branches. "Customers of Royal Bank of Scotland in England & Wales will be able to use NatWest branches instead for their everyday banking needs."
The latest branch closures follow existing plans to close 52 bank branches in Scotland that serve rural communities, and 197 NatWest branches.
The Unite union has calculated that in the case of 71 of the 162 branches closing, customers will be forced to make return journeys of about 25 miles to reach another one. Rob MacGregor, Unite's national officer, said: "The Williams & Glyn saga rolls on as Royal Bank of Scotland continues with its shambolically poor management of this business. "How does a taxpayer-funded institution spend £1.8bn on a failed IT project and in the next breath demolish the much-needed local bank branches?
"Today nearly 1,000 employees have finally been told of their dark futures because the bank has been calamitously managed for too long." In February, following a campaign by local communities, RBS decided to keep 10 branches threatened with closure open till the end of the year. Nicky Morgan, who chairs Parliament's Treasury Committee, said there was "a risk of increased levels of financial exclusion" as a result of the branch closures, since bank branches were still vital for many people.
"It's important for the government to monitor this trend. If financial exclusion is increasing, the government may be required to intervene," she said.
Staff were braced for something like this, though the scale of the closures and job losses is a shock.
Last year the European Commission said RBS could forget about trying to hive off part of its business and, instead, set up a fund to support new rivals.
Ever since then the writing was on the wall for most of the people and branches which RBS had shoved into Williams & Glyn, a Frankenstein bank which no one seemed to want.
That was the trigger, but it's also a fact that big banks have been looking for excuses to close as many branches as they can.
And they would have you believe it is partly your fault, if you've joined the legions who bank on computers and mobile phones.
For customers wondering where it will all end, it seems inevitable that we will end up with even fewer branches.
Those that survive may be dedicated to selling complicated products like investments and pensions, and sorting out tricky complaints.
Unite is calling on RBS "not to abandon their responsibilities" to the communities that depend on the affected bank branches. RBS chief executive Ross McEwan recently defended the bank's closure of its Scottish branches, saying that mobile banks are serving 440 communities.
However, the bank has faced criticism from customers that the mobile banks do not stop in each location for long enough.
RBS has also tried to persuade customers to start using online banking and its companion smartphone mobile banking app. But the bank has had to recognise that not everyone wants to handle their banking digitally.
To this end, today it announced that it had created a special taskforce to help customers learn digital skills so they could use online banking in future.
| Organization Closed | May 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
A magnitude 7.3 earthquake strikes the town of Namche Bazaar, Nepal, near the Tibetan border and the base camp for Mount Everest. , , , | A major earthquake has struck eastern Nepal, near Mount Everest, two weeks after more than 8,000 people died in a devastating quake.
At least 48 people have been killed and more than 1,000 injured, officials say. At least 17 have also died in India.
The latest earthquake hit near the town of Namche Bazaar and sent thousands of panicked residents on to the streets of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.
It had a magnitude of 7.3, compared with the 7.8 of the 25 April quake.
The latest quake struck at 12:35 Nepali time (06:50 GMT) and was centred about 76km (47 miles) east of Kathmandu, in a rural area close to the Chinese border. The quake was felt in northern India, Tibet and Bangladesh. India's home ministry said 16 people had been killed in the state of Bihar, and one more in Uttar Pradesh. Officials in China said one person was confirmed dead in Tibet.
Nepal quake as it happened
Read eyewitnesses' account of the earthquake
Rescue helicopters have been sent to districts east of Kathmandu that are believed to be worst hit. Police in Charikot, 80km north-east of the capital, said 20 people had died there.
Later on Tuesday, the US military said a Marine Corps helicopter involved in disaster relief efforts had gone missing while working in the vicinity of Charikot. Eight people were on board.
A spokesman for Nepal's government told the BBC that 31 of the country's 75 districts had been affected by the latest quake.
Prime Minister Sushil Koirala called for "courage and patience" and urged all those who had assisted Nepal since the 25 April quake "to once again extend your helping hand".
The BBC's Yogita Limaye, who was in Nepal's mountains when the latest earthquake struck, said: "The earth shook and it shook for a pretty long time.
"I can completely understand the sense of panic. We have been seeing tremors - it's been two-and-a-half weeks since the first quake. But this one really felt like it went on for a really long time. People have been terrified."
At least four people were killed in the town of Chautara, east of Kathmandu, where a number of buildings are reported to have collapsed. The International Organisation for Migration said bodies were being pulled from rubble there.
Krishna Gyawali, the chief district officer for Chautara, said there had been a number of landslides.
Landslides were also reported by Save the Children in Sindhupalchok and Dolakha. A spokeswoman told the BBC its staff had been "dodging huge rocks rolling off the hillside".
Home Minister Bam Dev Gautam said: "Many houses have collapsed in Dolakha... there is a chance that the number of dead from the district will go up."
The BBC's Navin Singh Khadka says the new earthquake has brought down more houses and lodges in the Everest region but that local officials report very few tourists are still in the area following the 25 April quake.
A nurse in Namche Bazaar, Rhita Doma Sherpa, told Reuters: "The school building is cracked and bits of it, I can see, they have collapsed. It was lunchtime. All the kids were outside."
The latest quake struck at a depth of 15km (9.3 miles), according to the US Geological Survey - the same depth as the April quake. Shallow tremors are more likely to cause greater damage at the surface.
Tuesday's earthquake is likely to be one of the largest to hit Nepal, which has suffered hundreds of aftershocks since 25 April.
The 7.3 quake was followed by six aftershocks of magnitude 5.0 or higher.
One tremor that hit 30 minutes later, centred on the district of Ramechhap, east of Kathmandu, had a magnitude of 6.3.
Scientists are already producing some preliminary analyses of Tuesday's quake.
The epicentre this time is about 80km (50 miles) east-north-east of Kathmandu, halfway to Everest. On 25 April, the big quake began 80km to the north-west of the capital.
In April, we saw the fault boundary rupture eastwards for 150km (93 miles). And the immediate assessment suggests Tuesday's tremor has occurred right at the eastern edge of this failure.
In that context, this second earthquake was almost certainly triggered by the stress changes caused by the first one. Indeed, the US Geological Survey had a forecast for an aftershock in this general area. Its modelling suggested there was 1-in-200 chance of a M7-7.8 event occurring this week. So, not highly probable, but certainly possible. Quake experts often talk about "seismic gaps", which refer to segments of faults that are, to some extent, overdue a quake. Tuesday's big tremor may well have filled a hole between what we saw on 25 April and some historic events - such as those in 1934, that occurred further still to the east.
Unsettled Earth
| Earthquakes | May 2015 | ['(MSN)', '(BBC)', '(ABC News Australia)', '(Reuters via Daily Mail)'] |
Days after his hat–trick broke the Primera División's 59–year goal–scoring record, Barcelona striker Lionel Messi scores another hat–trick in Nicosia to become the UEFA Champions League all–time top scorer. | By Ben Nagle for MailOnline Published: 20:24 BST, 25 November 2014 | Updated: 11:28 BST, 26 November 2014 144
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Lionel Messi has broken the all-time Champions League goalscoring record with a hat-trick against APOEL Nicosia on Tuesday - his 72nd, 73rd and 74th of the competition.
The Barcelona forward drew level with Raul with a brace against Ajax at the start of November, but his treble against APOEL takes him away from the rest of the pack.
Luis Suarez was also on target in a 4-0 victory for the Catalan giants.
Lionel Messi celebrates after scoring his 73rd Champions League goal - and he went on to get another
Messi wheels away after his record 72nd Champions League goal against APOEL Nicosia on Tuesday
Messi looks to the heavens after his first goal of the night - and his 72nd in the Champions League overall
The Argentine has broken two scoring records in a week - La Liga and now Champions League
1st: Lionel Messi (Barcelona) - 74 goals
2nd: Raul (Real Madrid, Schalke) - 71
3rd: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, Real Madrid) - 70
4th: Ruud van Nistelrooy (PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United, Real Madrid) - 56
5th: Thierry Henry (Monaco, Arsenal, Barcelona) - 50
Speaking after the match, Messi said: 'I am very happy to break the record in such an important competition but this was a big game for us all records aside.
'We want to compete in every competition and we needed the points tonight.
'We have a difficult last game against a team (Paris Saint-Germain) that we know very well because we played them last season and this season too. But we are at home so we have a good chance to finish top of the group.'
Messi has been the Catalans' star man for much of the last decade, and at 27, still has many years of Champions League football in him.
Messi's record tally in Europe's elite club competition is the latest milestone in his stellar career after he broke the six decades-old La Liga scoring record with a hat-trick in Barca's 5-1 victory at home to Sevilla on Saturday.
Messi scores to put Barcelona 4-0 up against APOEL Nicosia - his 74th in the Champions League
Shortly before his 74th, Messi flicked the ball over the APOEL goalkeeper for his 73rd of the competition
Messi looks to the sky after scoring on his record-breaking night at the Neo GSP Stadium in Nicosia
VIDEO Messi breaks Raul goal-scoring record
The Barcelona number 10 was all smiles after scoring his second of the night against APOEL
Messi hugs Pedro after after scoring his hat-trick against APOEL on Tuesday night
Messi is now three ahead of Raul in the list of top Champions League scorers - and he's not finished yet
Messi walks off at full-time with the match ball
THE OPPONENTS
8 - AC Milan
6 - Ajax, Arsenal, Bayer Leverkusen
4 - Spartak Moscow, Panathaniakos
3 - Celtic, Lyon, Shakhtar Donetsk, Copenhagen, Viktoria Plzen, Stuttgart, APOEL Nicosia
2 - Basel, Bayern Munich, Man United, Dynamo Kiev, Real Madrid, BATE, PSG, Man City
1 - Werder Bremen, Rangers, Sporting Lisbon
WHEN DID THEY GO IN?
1-15 mins - 6 goals
16-30 mins - 12
31-45 mins - 20
46-60 mins - 10
61-75 mins - 8
76-90 mins - 18
AT WHICH STAGE DID HE SCORE?
Group Stage - 43*
Last 16 - 18
Quarter-Final - 9
Semi-Final - 2
Final - 2
* Messi's 41st, 42nd and 43rd came against APOEL Nicosia on Tuesday
HOW MANY IN A GAME?
ONE - 26
TWO - 15
THREE - 3
FOUR - 1
FIVE - 1
HOW FAR OUT?
INSIDE THE BOX - 53
OUTSIDE THE BOX - 11
PENALTIES - 8
FREE-KICKS - 2
Cristiano Ronaldo is now third in the list with 70 strikes, hot on the heels of his La Liga rival.
Real Madrid play FC Basle in Switzerland tomorrow, where an unlikely four goals for Ronaldo will take him level with Messi.
Two former Premier League legends make up the rest of the top five - ex-Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy is fourth with 56 goals while Arsenal legend Thierry Henry is fifth with a half-century of strikes.
Of Messi's 74 goals, eight have come against AC Milan while Arsenal have conceded six to the Argentina international - Messi found the net four times in one game against the Gunners back in April 2010 and scored five against Bayer Leverkusen in a 2012 clash.
Messi celebrates scoring against Ajax at the start of November - he scored two to take him level 1st with Raul
Cristiano Ronaldo - on 70 goals - is four behind his rival ahead of Madrid's game against Basle on Wednesday
Messi has scored a total of six goals against Arsenal in the Champions League - including four in one game
Real Madrid legend Raul celebrates after scoring in the Champions League final at Hampden Park in 2002
The 27-year-old has netted twice against Manchester United with both strikes coming in the Champions League final.
Messi added to Samuel Eto'o's opener to give Barcelona a 2-0 victory against the Red Devils in the 2009 final in Rome and scored his first goal on English soil at Wembley as the Spanish side, managed by Pep Guardiola, claimed their fourth European Cup in 2011.
Messi scored his first goal on English soil at Wembley in the 2011 Champions League final against Man United
| Sports Competition | November 2014 | ['(Guardian)', '(Mail)'] |
A senior Nicaraguan diplomat is found dead in an apartment in New York City. | New York (CNN) -- Investigators have not ruled out suicide in the death of a Nicaraguan diplomat found with his throat slashed in his New York apartment.
Cesar Mercado, the consul of Nicaragua in New York, also suffered 12 stab wounds in the stomach, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Friday.
Police found a 12-inch steak knife beside a blood-filled bathroom sink and a second knife -- a 4- to 6-inch paring knife -- in the sink. Kelly described a "hesitation wound" in Mercado's neck, one that was not delivered in a single motion. That indicates the wound could have been self-inflicted, Kelly told reporters.
"The medical examiner has not determined whether or not this was a homicide," he said. "If in fact there is a wound from an assailant, it is generally more direct and in one motion."
"There is a lot of blood in the apartment," he said, adding that police are analyzing fingerprints found in the blood.
He said the autopsy on Mercado is complete and human hair was found in both of his hands -- 10 strands in the right hand and five in the left. It's not yet known whose hair it was.
Police have found no evidence of forced entry or robbery. Security video cameras in the building were not working, Kelly said.
Mercado, 34, was last seen alive Wednesday.
His body was found just inside the door of a small, sixth-floor studio apartment in the Bronx on Thursday morning by a driver who had taken him to the United Nations the day before, Kelly said. "He normally takes the subway to work," he said. "The day before he was driven by his driver since he was going to the United Nations. Apparently, he normally leaves for work around 7:30, shows up around 9 o'clock. He did not show up for work. The driver then goes to the residence to look for him."
The door was closed, but unlocked. The driver opened the door, saw the body, stepped out and called 911. Mercado was clothed but not wearing any shoes, Kelly said.
The commissioner also said that investigators had recovered a Blackberry that belonged to Mercado.
Asked about reports that Mercado had recently talked about dying, Kelly said police are interviewing friends and family.
Mercado had lived in the United States for eight years and had been consul the entire time, said Danilo Rosales Diaz, deputy permanent representative of Nicaragua to the United States. | Famous Person - Death | September 2010 | ['(Latin American Herald Tribune)', '(CNN)'] |
1 person is killed and at least 40 others are injured due to an explosion and a fire in Maracay, Aragua. | One person has been killed and three have been injured by a series of powerful explosions in the arsenal in Venezuelan city of Maracay early Sunday, RIA Novosti reports. All residents living within six kilometers of the arsenal were evacuated. Fire departments are currently working in the area. For the moment they have failed to approach the fire source due to the risk of new explosions. | Fire | January 2011 | ['(Xinhua)', '(BBC)', '(AP via The Guardian)', '(Press TV)', '(The Voice of Russia)'] |
Hurricane Irene strengthens to Category 3 status as it heads towards The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos and then the East Coast of the United States. . | Miami (CNN) -- Mandatory evacuation orders for North Carolina's Outer Banks will take effect Thursday morning as state emergency officials prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Irene, currently battering the Bahamas with 120 mph winds.
Officials in a popular stretch of coastal North Carolina ordered all visitors to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Irene, which damaged homes in the Bahamas Wednesday as it churned toward the U.S. East Coast.
Irene, with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph, could jump to Category 4 strength by Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said. Federal emergency management officials had a simple message for those in or near the path: Be prepared.
Dare County, North Carolina -- home to Manteo, Nags Head, Duck and Kitty Hawk -- was taking no chances. A mandatory evacuation for tourists was to take effect 8 a.m. ET Thursday. Residents could stay for now, but they were advised to ready themselves for Irene.
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse closed Wednesday evening. Other venues, including the Wright Brothers National Memorial visitors center, also were shuttered.
"They are taking precautions," Sydney Jenkins, bar manager at Poor Richard's Sandwich Shop in Manteo, said Wednesday evening. "It's now more or less whether it's even going to hit us."
"This is a huge storm," said CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras. "The cloud field is more than 800 miles across. The tropical storm force winds extend out 200 miles from the center."
The strengthening came as the storm pounded central and southeastern Bahamas. Rainfall of 6 to 12 inches was expected in the Bahamas, with 15 inches possible in some places, the Miami-based Hurricane Center said.
At 11 p.m. ET Wednesday, Irene was moving northwest at 12 mph and was between Cat Island and Long Island, 150 miles east-southeast of Nassau. Hurricane-force winds extended up to 70 miles and U.S. weather officials predicted significant storm surge.
"We are urging persons in central Bahamas to exercise extreme caution," said Capt. Stephen Russell, head of the National Emergency Management Agency in the island chain.
No injuries had been reported as of Wednesday evening, but extensive structural damage from wind was reported on Acklins and Crooked islands, Russell told CNN. Numerous homes had been blown off their foundations.
Russell had no information on rainfall amounts. Electricity was out in some locations.
Irene whipped through the island of Mayaguana, the mostly easterly island in the chain, and moved into Long, San Salvador and Cat islands, which are not heavily populated.
About 65% of the country's population is on New Providence, home to Nassau. Projections showed the island being outside of hurricane-force winds, Russell said. "We hope the system makes a gradual turn to the northeast."
After it makes the turn, Irene could threaten large sections of the Eastern Seaboard, from the Carolinas into the Northeast.
But, forecasters said, it was too soon to predict how it would affect the United States because of the "cone of uncertainty."
Even if Irene doesn't touch land or glances off the U.S. coast, "the waves are going to be tremendous," said CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.
Swells generated by Irene will begin affecting the Southeast's coast Thursday.
"On the forecast track, the core of Irene will move across the southeastern and central Bahamas through tonight and over the northwestern Bahamas on Thursday," the Hurricane Center said.
Irene forced more than a dozen cruise ships to change their itineraries in the Caribbean, CruiseCritic.com reported.
Those ships include the Carnival Sensation, which had been docked in Freeport, Bahamas, but was coming back to Port Canaveral, Florida, late Wednesday.
Irene has prompted the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism & Aviation to recommend strongly that people with plans to travel to the Bahamas in the next few days postpone their trips.
The storm will curve northward as it nears the United States, with most of the latest projections suggesting the storm will avoid landfall until it is north of North Carolina. The storm is expected to arrive off North Carolina by Saturday morning.
The storm approaches as Americans increasingly are relying on social media to prepare for and keep abreast of disasters. According to two American Red Cross surveys, the increased use of social media and mobile technology has caused response agencies "to engage with people in times of disaster and to include information from social networks in their response efforts."
North Carolina coastal areas could see about 6 inches of rain and tropical storm force winds. Irene is forecast to be a Category 2 or 3 storm when it reaches the U.S. East Coast later Friday or early Saturday.
Many counties were taking a wait-and-see attitude on evacuations. Warren Lee, emergency management director in New Hanover County, North Carolina, said shelters likely will be opened. "If the storm stays on current track, we don't expect a major impact and we will not issue an evacuation order plan right now."
Some computer models suggest New York or New Jersey could be hit.
"Everywhere from North Carolina to Massachusetts remains in the cone of uncertainty," Jeras said. "Worst-case scenario, we could be looking at two landfalls, or we could be lucky and get a brush instead of a direct hit. ... Even if Irene doesn't make landfall in the United States, it may very well bring flooding rains, damaging winds and power outages to the Northeast. Planning is critical, and everyone needs to be ready with a disaster plan and a safety kit."
Chris Martin, an employee at Endeavor Seafood in Newport, Rhode Island, said a bridal shower is scheduled Sunday in Portsmouth for his fiancee. "We're hoping to have it outside."
Martin is hoping the hurricane, if it actually affects the state, will not arrive until Monday.
Hyde County, in North Carolina's Outer Banks, declared a state of emergency for Ocracoke Island and the county's mainland, along with a mandatory evacuation for all visitors and a voluntary evacuation for residents. The mandatory evacuation will extend to residents beginning 5 a.m. Thursday, Hyde County Emergency Services said.
Ocracoke is reachable only by boat or private plane.
While forecasts showed the storm "moving further from the coast and toward the sea," North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue said Wednesday, "we must all prepare for the worst."
In Kill Devil Hills in the Outer Banks, locals who insist on staying through the storm were planning "hurricane parties" as they stocked up on water, canned food and flashlight batteries, said CNN iReporter Penelope Penn, who was in the area Tuesday.
"The water was so calm and the sky so clear at the Outer Banks last night. It truly is calmest before a storm," Penn added. On Wednesday, Penn was in nearby Virginia Beach, Virginia.
The last major hurricane to strike the United States was Wilma in 2005, which was a Category 3 at landfall, Jeras said. Hurricane Katrina, earlier the same year, was also a Category 3 at landfall. The most recent hurricane to make landfall in the United States was Ike in 2008, which hit near Galveston, Texas, as a Category 2.
Gloria in 1985 was the most recent hurricane to hit New York. It was a Category 3 at landfall, the National Hurricane Center said. In 1991, Hurricane Bob hit Massachusetts, a Category 2 at landfall.
Bill Read, director of the Hurricane Center, said Irene could cause problems with flooding in Northeastern states that have already had lots of rainfall this summer.
Widespread damage is possible from the coastal Carolinas all the way up to the Canadian Maritimes, including the major cities of the Northeast, CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen said.
Irene is expected to pass well east of Florida, so only minimal effects are expected Thursday and Friday as the storm moves northward toward the Carolinas. But the U.S. Coast Guard is worried boaters in south Florida are taking the threat too lightly.
Officials expect heavy rip currents and beach erosion in Miami. "The most prudent thing to make sure mariners are not out this time tomorrow," Capt. Chris Scraba said.
South Carolina state officials decided not to order evacuations. Boaters and swimmers were urged by the Coast Guard to stay out of the water. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | August 2011 | ['(News Limited via The Herald Sun)', '(CNN)'] |
Pope Francis speaks words of solidarity to the Christian community of Sri Lanka, lamenting that the attacks have wrought grief and sorrow. | “I wish to express my heartfelt closeness to the Christian community [of Sri Lanka], wounded as it was gathered in prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence.”
Pope Francis spoke those words of solidarity at the conclusion of his Easter Urbi et Orbi address to the faithful in St. Peter’s Square.
The Holy Father said the multiple attacks on churches and hotels around Sri Lanka “have wrought grief and sorrow”.
“I entrust to the Lord all those who have tragically perished,” he said, “and I pray for the injured and all those who suffer as a result of this tragic event.”
Unknown attackers set off at least seven explosives on Easter Sunday morning at three churches and four hotels.
Two of the churches targeted were Catholic and one was an evangelical church.
The first blast hit St. Anthony’s Catholic Shrine in Kochchikade, a district north of the capital Colombo, causing heavy casualties.
Dozens of people died at St. Sebastian’s Catholic Church in Negombo, another district north of Colombo.
The targeted evangelical church was in Batticaloa in Eastern Province, where more than two dozen people were killed.
The explosions struck within a short period of time, all targeting the faithful as Easter services were beginning.
At around the same time on Sunday morning, blasts struck four hotels in Colombo, including the Shangri-La Kingsbury, Cinnamon Grand.
At least nine foreigners were killed in Sunday’s attacks.
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo, said it is “a very, very sad day for all of us.”
“I wish, therefore, to express my deepest sorrow and sympathy to all those innocent families that have lost someone, and also to those who have been injured and rendered destitute,” he continued.
Cardinal Ranjith said, “I condemn – to the utmost of my capacity – this act that has caused so much death and suffering to the people.”
He also called on Sri Lanka’s government to hold “a very impartial, strong inquiry and find out who is responsible behind these acts”. | Famous Person - Give a speech | April 2019 | ['(Vatican News)'] |
British publisher Trinity Mirror announces that its daily newspaper, The New Day, will close after just two months since its launch, after sales fell to around 30,000 copies per day. The last edition will be printed on May 6. | Publisher Trinity Mirror to announce closure of experimental national newspaper after sales fall to around 30,000 copies
Trinity Mirror is to shut its experimental new national newspaper the New Day on Friday just two months after launch.
The publisher of the Daily Mirror launched the title, which aimed to target those who had “fallen out of love with newspapers”, at the end of February with a promotional print run of about 2m. The title was launched with a £5m TV ad campaign that ran with the strapline “Seize the New Day”.
Trinity Mirror, which saw its share price slump to a three-year low on Wednesday, is expected to announce the closure of the title in a stock market trading update on Thursday morning.
Two sources said staff were informed of the closure on Wednesday. The last issue will hit stands on Friday. Editor Alison Phillips, who was previously responsible for stablemates the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, was said by those who attended the internal meeting to be distraught.
The publisher had aimed to hit paid sales of 200,000, and made promises to advertisers to sell ads at that rate of sales or offer money back, but instead saw its popularity immediately sink to about 30,000 copies per day.
Trinity Mirror positioned the launch of the title as a low-cost operation running on extra capacity at its printing presses – which also had contracts to print the Independent print titles and still handle the i, which Evgeny Lebedev sold to Johnston Press earlier this year.
Sources say the New Day was probably running at a loss of about £1m annually. A spokeswoman for Trinity Mirror refused to comment. | Organization Closed | May 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, City Council approves a 1.5–cent–per–ounce tax on sugar–sweetened and diet beverages, effective January 1, 2017. This the first so–called sugary drinks tax in a major U.S. city. | The 13-4 vote put to bed months of speculation and at-times-bitter negotiations, but also ensured that the national spotlight will stay turned on Philadelphia for months, if not years.
Critics quickly vowed a court challenge. And as the city introduces the unprecedented levy - and its economic and public-health effects come into view - experts, advocates, and legislators will surely be watching closely.
Mayor Kenney, who can count this as the first major political victory of his term, called it a start to "changing the narrative of poverty in our city."
"It's been generations we've been going downhill with our kids in our neighborhoods," Kenney said. "And it's going to take some time to get us back. But this is the first step back."
The tax will hit thousands of products - essentially anything bottled, canned, or from a fountain with either sugar or artificial sweetener added, with a few exceptions.
It is expected to raise about $91 million annually to be spent on expanding prekindergarten programs in the city; creating community schools; improving parks, recreation centers, and libraries; and offering a tax credit for businesses that sell healthy beverages.
The city plans to start collecting the tax Jan. 1.
The levy is half the 3-cent rate Kenney initially sought, but that proposal never seemed to carry water with Council. The compromise, which added diet drinks to the mix, was supported by all but Council's three Republicans, David Oh, Brian J. O'Neill, and Al Taubenberger, and Democrat Maria Quiñones-Sanchez.
Council President Darrell L. Clarke, who fiercely opposed similar taxes when they were twice proposed by Mayor Michael Nutter, voted in favor.
Nutter, who has been noticeably absent during the debate on a tax for which he twice tried to win support, on Thursday took to Twitter to congratulate Kenney and Council.
"It was the right thing for Phila when I proposed it 5+ years ago, & it's right today!" he wrote.
Philadelphia's tax will be levied on distributors. Only time will tell how much will trickle down to consumers. The tax could add up to 18 cents to the cost of a 12-ounce can, $1 to the cost of a 2-liter container, and $2.16 to the cost of a 12-pack. It will affect sodas, teas, sports drinks, flavored waters, bottled coffees, energy drinks, and other products.
Exempt products include baby formula and beverages that are more than 50 percent fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, or milk. Beverages for which customers request sweetener or add it themselves (as at a coffee shop) are also exempt.
Critics of the plan - ranging from bodega owners to the powerful American Beverage Association - have said it will lead to the loss of beverage industry jobs and disproportionately affect the poor. Proponents argued that the tax will lift Philadelphians out of poverty by paying for investments in the city's most struggling neighborhoods.
Both sides have saturated the city - and City Hall - with their pitches for months.
But neither favored a quiet close. On the morning of the vote, antitax advocates stacked dozens of beverages with signs showing the posttax prices in the City Hall courtyard, while supporters celebrated nearby with a "soda fountain," dropping Mentos by the handful into 2-liter bottles, as preschoolers erupted in laughter as the beverages exploded out of their containers.
The American Beverage Association has spent nearly $5 million on advertising against the tax. A nonprofit created to support the mayor's initiatives spent just over $2 million, according to its spokesman, $1.6 million of it from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Bloomberg congratulated Kenney and Council for "standing up to the beverage industry."
"Obesity and poverty are both intractable national problems," Bloomberg said. "No policy takes more direct aim at both than Philadelphia's tax on sugary drinks."
A statement from the beverage industry's antitax coalition called the tax unconstitutional and said the group would fight it in court.
"Working families and small businesses simply cannot afford to pay this tax," the group said.
Kenney said, "We're ready" for a legal challenge.
"We believe we're on strong legal ground. We'll see what they do. How they do it. How they approach it," Kenney said. "They spent a long time twisting the facts of this whole debate on television with millions of dollars and that wasn't effective. So we'll fight the next fight when it comes." | Government Policy Changes | June 2016 | ['(Philadelphia Inquirer)'] |
A prototype Transrapid Maglev train crashes into a maintenance vehicle on elevated track in Emsland, Germany, killing 23 people and severely injuring 10. | The train, which floats on a monorail via a magnetic levitation system called maglev, was going at nearly 200km/h (120 mph) when it crashed near Lathen.
Damaged carriages were left balancing on track 5m (16ft) in the air, hampering rescue efforts.
"Today we are in mourning," said Chancellor Angela Merkel at the scene.
The accident happened at about 1000 (0800 GMT), on a 31.8km (20 miles) test track from Lathen to Doerpenwhich is used for tourist trips and to demonstrate the technology.
It's just unbelievable how human failure can cause so many fatalities so quickly
Emergency workers used fire ladders and cranes to reach the carriages. Several metres below, the ground was strewn with wreckage.
Reports said up to 30 passengers on the train - mostly employees working on the system and staff from a local utility company, RWE.
'Human error'
The maintenance vehicle hit by the train had two crew members.
A spokesman for IABG, the company which operates the train, said the accident had been caused by human error, rather than a technical fault.
Ms Merkel arrived by helicopter near the scene. Dressed in black, she extended condolences to the victims and their families: "I want to show that I am with them," she said.
The Transrapid system, run by Siemens, is capable of speeds of up to 450km/h (280mph).
The only commercial example of a Transrapid system in operation is the high-speed shuttle to China's Shanghai airport from the city centre. It was developed by Transrapid International, a joint venture between Siemens AG and ThyssenKrupp.
German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, who is in China, has cancelled his trip and is now on his way back to Germany.
In August, a fire broke out on a Transrapid train in Shanghai, adding to concerns about the safety of the technology. The German companies are keen to make Transrapid an export hit and negotiations are under way about building another link in China, and also in Munich, the BBC's Tristana Moore reports from Berlin.
HOW MAGLEV TRAINS WORK
Like poles on magnets keep train above track
Train is propelled by electro-magnetic system in the sides of the "guideway" instead of onboard engine
Top speed (with passengers) - 450km/h (280mph)
Developed by Transrapid Int in Germany
Operating commercially in Shanghai
Test facility in Emsland, northern Germany, is longest of its kind at 31.5km (19.5 miles)
Here are a selection of comments received so far: Having used the Maglev train in Shanghai, this should not be used as an excuse to delay further development of this fantastic, environmentally friendly piece of technology. It's apparent that the train hit a maintenence vehicle, thus human error is 100% responsible. This train could offer London - Brighton services in 7 minutes, and further development should continue.Sam, London, UK
What an absolutely tragic and mournful day this has been. Although I'm living several kilometers away from the crash scene, this massive extent of devastation is so gruesome and frightening. It's just unbelievable how human failure can cause so many fatalities so quickly.Martin, Neuss, Germany
I recently rode the Mag Lev train in Shanghai. I've travelled many forms of transit from the underground to Concorde. I came off my round trip feeling very ill at ease - and I remember saying to my friend that if something were on the track at these speeds we would be finished (which is one reason the tracks are elevated). The feeling is very different from the Japan bullet trains or the French TGV. My heart goes out to the family and friends of those killed and injured.David, Santa Monica, USA
I was in the cab of the Transrapid train during a high-speed run at the test track in Lathen on August 18 in connection with my work as a transport journalist. They showed me some of the maintenance vehicles and I can only imagine it would have been a terrible crash if the train hit one of them at speed. It strikes me that the accident does show a weakness in the technology. If a maintenance train were left on the track on a normal railway, it would be impossible to turn the signal behind it to green. There clearly wasn't any such system at Lathen. | Train collisions | September 2006 | ['(Washington Post/Reuters)', '(BBC)', '(Deutsche Welle)'] |
Bollywood actor, Shiney Ahuja, is released on bail in Mumbai a week after being jailed for allegedly raping his maid. | Award-winning Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for raping his maid, has been released on bail.
Ahuja was released a week after the high court in the India's city of Mumbai (Bombay) granted him bail. He had appealed against the sentence.
Ahuja was found guilty by a special court. He has maintained his innocence throughout the trial. The actor was arrested in June 2009 and charged with rape.
He was granted bail a few months later but the court ordered him to stay away from Mumbai while on bail.
In March, a special fast-track court pronounced Ahuja guilty despite the 20-year-old victim withdrawing her allegation of rape last year.
She said she was told to complain to police by another woman who had got her the job with the actor.
Ahuja is seen as an up-and-coming actor who has made an impression in Bollywood's independent cinema scene.
He has acted in films such as Life in a Metro and Gangster, and worked with a number of leading directors.
He won several awards for his 2003 debut in the critically acclaimed film Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Colombian Defense Minister Diego Molano accuses FARC splinter group Dagoberto Ramos Mobile Column of being responsible for yesterday's car bombing in Corinto, Cauca Department, that injured 43 people, eleven of whom were public officials. | BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia on Saturday accused FARC dissidents of detonating a car bomb in the town of Corinto in the country’s Cauca province, which left 43 people injured, including 11 public officials, and caused material damages.
At least 16 injured in Colombia car bomb blast
00:28
The attack, which took place on Friday, was condemned by the government and a United Nations mission in Colombia.
“We express our solidarity with all those affected by this indiscriminate terrorist attack that took place ... with a car bomb in front of the mayor’s office in Corinto,” recently appointed Defense Minister Diego Molano said in a recorded video statement on Saturday.
The attack was carried out by the Dagoberto Ramos Mobile Column, a dissident group of the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Molano said.
Concrete measures need to be implemented in regions affected by violence to protect communities and give guarantees of security, the U.N. verification mission in Colombia said in a statement.
FARC dissidents reject a 2016 peace deal which ended the group’s part in Colombia’s armed conflict, which has left 260,000 dead and millions displaced.
Government officials and the armed forces estimate there are between 2,500 and 3,000 FARC dissidents throughout the country.
President Ivan Duque, in his nightly broadcast about the coronavirus pandemic on Friday, condemned the bombing.
“Those who use this type of practice are the enemies of peace in our country, they are the enemies of the Colombian people,” Duque said.
Colombia’s government is offering a reward for information regarding leaders of the dissident FARC group, the defense ministry said.
| Armed Conflict | March 2021 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The European Parliament unanimously approves visa-free regime in the Schengen zone for Georgia. | BRUSSELS -- The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to approve visa liberalization for Georgia, paving the way for Georgians to travel to the European Union's Schengen zone without obtaining visas.
European lawmakers backed visa liberalization, long anticipated in Georgia, by a vote of 553 to 66, with 28 abstentions.
Georgians will still have to wait for the European Parliament and the European Council to vote on a mechanism allowing for the suspension of visa-free regimes with countries, including Georgia and Ukraine, under certain circumstances once they are in place.
The suspension mechanism was given preliminary approval in December. EU diplomats have told RFE/RL that the final European Parliament vote is expected at the next plenary session, on February 13-16, and that EU member states are poised to agree on it on February 27 or 28.
Georgians are likely to be able to travel visa-free to the Schengen zone starting in late March or early April, diplomats say.
Georgia has long sought greater integration with Europe but has been frustrated with the pace of EU moves to bring it closer. The South Caucasus country has faced persistent efforts by Russia to increase its influence since the two former Soviet republics fought a five-day war in 2008.
The 26 Schengen Area countries are Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
| Government Policy Changes | February 2017 | ['(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)'] |
Hurricane Ignacio, which has weakened to a Category 3 storm, is expected to side-step Hawaii this week though will still generate high surf, rain and powerful winds. The Big Island and Maui remain on a tropical storm watch. Ignacio may re-strengthen to a hurricane when he clears Oahu on Wednesday. , | Hurricane Ignacio has been flexing his muscles and forcing Hawaiians to take notice as he marches across the Pacific toward the island paradise and surf mecca.
But despite being formerly listed as a fairly macho category 4 hurricane, Ignacio isn't forecast to hit the Hawaiian Islands directly, the hurricane instead side-stepping Hawaii to the north and northeast, but still causing the Big Island and Maui to be under a tropical storm watch entering the week, reports AP.
At the same time, high surf, rain and powerful winds will be blasting Hawaii as Hurricane Ignacio blows by, adding more wet to an already saturated Hawaii, which has experienced an abnormally high amount of rain this August.
In fact, one Hawaiian farmer on the Big Island, Greg Colden, via Hawaiian Telecom, cited the coming Ignacio rain as being his biggest concern about Hurricane Ignacio. As a co-owner of Kona Natural Soap in Holualoa, Colden has 450 coffee trees and 1,250 cacao trees that are his primary concerns.
Current forecasts anticipate Hurricane Ignacio passing off the the northeast coast of the Big Island of Hawaii on Monday before moving on past Maui on Tuesday. Though the current Hurricane precautions for Ignacio call for tropical storm watches, forecasts say Hurricane Ignacio can still have "hurricane strength" as he blows by Hawaii.
According to Anthony Reynes, a meteorologist with the Central Pacific Hurricane Center, Hurricane Ignacio was pushing sustained winds of 130 mph and said that while Ignacio wouldn't hit Hawaii directly, "very high surf", and strong wind gusts would be significant.
Hawaiian officials such as the Mayor of Maui, Alan Arakawa, and the Governor of Hawaii, David Ige, have both endorsed emergency proclamations as Hawaii prepares for the arrival of Hurricane Ignacio.
In Honolulu, meanwhile, Mayor Kirk Caldwell cited a specific - and particularly unpleasant - problem on Sunday, saying at a news conference that sewage spills, and their prevention, were of particular concern should Hurricane Ignacio impact Oahu.
Previous rains have already caused a million gallons of "treated, but not yet disinfected wastewater" to gush out of the East Honolulu Wastewater Treatment plant, forcing the closure of the popular Sandy Beach and other areas on Thursday.
Ala Moana Beach Park also took a pre-Hurricane Ignacio sewage hit on Monday when 400,000 gallons of foul water overflowed into the area following heavy rains from Tropical Storm Kilo.
In the mean time, Hurricane Ignacio continues barreling across the Pacific and should be on his way away from Hawaii by Wednesday. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | August 2015 | ['(115 mph)', '(The Inquisitr)', '(Reuters)'] |
At this year's Oscars, South Korean film Parasite wins the most awards, including Best Picture and Best International Film. It becomes the first foreign-language film to win Best Picture. | 'Parasite' and '1917' have earned three wins each at the 92nd Academy Awards. By THR staff
On Sunday night in Los Angeles, Neon's Parasite made history as the first non-English-language film to win best picture at the Oscars.
The film nabbed four wins in total at the 92nd Academy Awards, including best director for Bong Joon Ho, international feature film and original screenplay for Bong and co-writer Han Jin-won. Universal's 1917 nabbed three wins: for visual effects, cinematography and sound mixing.
Another three films earned two honors each. Warner Bros.' Joker won in the lead actor category for Joaquin Phoenix and for original score. Sony's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood scored wins for Brad Pitt in the supporting actor category and for production design. 20th Century Studios' Ford v Ferrari won for film editing and sound editing.
Renée Zellweger claimed the best actress win for Roadside Attractions' Judy, Laura Dern earned a win for Netflix's Marriage Story in the supporting actress category, and Taika Waititi claimed the adapted screenplay honor for Searchlight's JoJo Rabbit.
Pixar's Toy Story 4 nabbed the animated feature prize, while Paramount's Rocketman won for original song.
The full list of Oscar winners is below:
Red Carpet Photos I Memorable Moments I Read Bong Joon Ho's Director Speech
Parasite (Neon), Kwak Sin-ae and Bong Joon Ho, producers (WINNER)
Ford v Ferrari (Fox), Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping and James Mangold, producers
The Irishman (Netflix), Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Emma Tillinger Koskoff, producers
Jojo Rabbit (Fox Searchlight), Carthew Neal and Taika Waititi, producers
Joker (Warner Bros.), Todd Phillips, Bradley Cooper and Emma Tillinger Koskoff, producers
Little Women (Sony), Amy Pascal, producer
Marriage Story (Netflix), Noah Baumbach and David Heyman, producers
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Sony), David Heyman, Shannon McIntosh and Quentin Tarantino, producers
1917 (Universal), Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris, Jayne-Ann Tenggren and Callum McDougall, producers
Bong Joon Ho, Parasite (WINNER)
Sam Mendes, 1917
Todd Phillips, Joker
Martin Scorsese, The Irishman
Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Renée Zellweger, Judy (WINNER)
Cynthia Erivo, Harriet
Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story
Saoirse Ronan, Little Women
Charlize Theron, Bombshell
Joaquin Phoenix, Joker (WINNER)
Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory
Leonardo DiCaprio, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Adam Driver, Marriage Story
Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes
Laura Dern, Marriage Story (WINNER)
Kathy Bates, Richard Jewell
Scarlett Johansson, Jojo Rabbit
Florence Pugh, Little Women
Margot Robbie, Bombshell
Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (WINNER)
Al Pacino, The Irishman
Joe Pesci, The Irishman
Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Anthony Hopkins, The Two Popes
Parasite, Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin-won (WINNER)
1917, Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns
Knives Out, Rian Johnson
Marriage Story, Noah Baumbach
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino
Jojo Rabbit, Taika Waititi (WINNER)
The Irishman, Steven Zaillian
Joker, Todd Phillips and Scott Silver
Little Women, Greta Gerwig
The Two Popes, Anthony McCarten
1917, Roger Deakins (WINNER)
The Irishman, Rodrigo Prieto
Joker, Lawrence Sher
The Lighthouse, Jarin Blaschke
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Robert Richardson
1917, Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler and Dominic Tuohy (WINNER)
Avengers: Endgame, Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Matt Aitken and Dan Sudick
The Irishman, Pablo Helman, Leandro Estebecorena, Nelson Sepulveda-Fauser and Stephane Grabli
The Lion King, Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Elliot Newman
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Roger Guyett, Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach and Dominic Tuohy
Parasite (South Korea) (WINNER)
Corpus Christi (Poland)
Honeyland (North Macedonia)
Les Misérables (France)
Pain and Glory (Spain)
Ford v Ferrari, Andrew Buckland and Michael McCusker (WINNER)
The Irishman, Thelma Schoonmaker
Jojo Rabbit, Tom Eagles
Joker, Jeff Groth
Parasite, Yang Jinmo
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, production design: Barbara Ling; set decoration: Nancy Haigh (WINNER)
The Irishman, production design: Bob Shaw; set decoration: Regina Graves
Jojo Rabbit, production design: Ra Vincent; set decoration: Nora Sopková
1917, production design: Dennis Gassner; set decoration: Lee Sandales
Parasite, production design: Lee Ha-jun; set decoration: Cho Won-woo
Little Women, Jacqueline Durran (WINNER)
The Irishman, Sandy Powell and Christopher Peterson
Jojo Rabbit, Mayes C. Rubeo
Joker, Mark Bridges
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Arianne Phillips
Bombshell, Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan and Vivian Baker (WINNER)
Joker, Nicki Ledermann and Kay Georgiou
Judy, Jeremy Woodhead
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Paul Gooch, Arjen Tuiten and David White
1917, Naomi Donne, Tristan Versluis and Rebecca Cole
Toy Story 4 (Pixar), Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen and Jonas Rivera (WINNER)
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (Dreamworks), Dean DeBlois, Bradford Lewis and Bonnie Arnold
I Lost My Body (Netflix), Jérémy Clapin and Marc du Pontavice
Klaus (Netflix), Sergio Pablos, Jinko Gotoh and Marisa Román
Missing Link (United Artists Releasing), Chris Butler, Arianne Sutner and Travis Knight
Hair Love, Matthew A. Cherry and Karen Rupert Toliver (WINNER)
Dcera (Daughter), Daria Kashcheeva
Kitbull, Rosana Sullivan and Kathryn Hendrickson
Memorabl, Bruno Collet and Jean-François Le Corree
Sister, Siqi Song
Ford v Ferrari, Donald Sylvester (WINNER)
Joker, Alan Robert Murray
1917, Oliver Tarney and Rachael Tate
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Wylie Stateman
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Matthew Wood and David Acord
1917, Mark Taylor and Stuart Wilson (WINNER)
Ford v Ferrari, Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Steven A. Morrow
Ad Astra, Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson and Mark Ulano
Joker, Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic and Tod Maitland
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Michael Minkler, Christian P. Minkler and Mark Ulano
Joker, Hildur Gudnadóttir (WINNER)
Little Women, Alexandre Desplat
Marriage Story, Randy Newman
1917, Thomas Newman
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, John Williams
"(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again," Rocketman, music by Elton John; lyrics by Bernie Taupin (WINNER)
"I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away," Toy Story 4, music and lyrics by Randy Newman
"I'm Standing With You," Breakthrough, music and lyrics by Diane Warren
"Into the Unknown," Frozen II, music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
"Stand Up," Harriet, music and lyrics by Joshuah Brian Campbell and Cynthia Erivo
American Factory (Netflix), Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert and Jeff Reichert (WINNER)
The Cave (National Geographic), Feras Fayyad, Kirstine Barfod and Sigrid Dyekjaer
The Edge of Democracy (Netflix), Petra Costa, Joanna Natasegara, Shane Boris and Tiago Pavan
For Sama (PBS), Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts
Honeyland (Neon), Ljubo Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska and Atanas Georgiev
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl), Carol Dysinger and Elena Andreicheva (WINNER) | Awards ceremony | February 2020 | ['(The Hollywood Reporter)'] |
In horse racing, Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom wins the 2013 Dubai World Cup. | Last updated on 30 March 201330 March 2013.From the section Horse Racing
Animal Kingdom clinched the world's richest horse race with victory in the $10m Dubai World Cup at Meydan. The 2011 Kentucky Derby winner, trained by Englishman Graham Motion in Florida, held off the fast-finishing Red Cadeaux, trained by Briton Ed Dunlop.
Ryan Moore and Planteur were third with the Andrew Balding-trained Side Glance fourth in the 10 furlong Flat race.
Defending champion Monterosso, owned by Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed, was declared lame on the day of the race.
Jockey Joel Rosario and Animal Kingdom tracked top US mare Royal Delta, ridden by legendary US jockey Mike Smith, in the early stages before making his move two-and-a-half furlongs out.
Gerald Mosse and Red Cadeaux (28-1) swooped late on the rails but Animal Kingdom, an 11-2 shot, was long gone and won by two lengths on the synthetic track.
Animal Kingdom could make a final appearance at Royal Ascot in the summer before beginning a breeding career in Australia.
"It has been up, down and up and down with this horse," said co-owner Barry Irwin.
"I always thought he had another great race in him and it almost came in the Breeders' Cup Mile last year but it has certainly come true here."
Earlier, Aidan O'Brien's St Nicholas Abbey broke the track record to beat highly rated Japanese mare Gentildonna to win the Dubai Sheema Classic.
Ridden by O'Brien's son Joseph, the six-year-old struck entering the back straight to win by two-and-a-quarter lengths.
O'Brien senior said: "He's obviously a very high-class horse and I think I was wrong in holding him up in some of his races.
"Gentildonna is obviously a very high-class filly and I thought she was going to put us under pressure, but our lad found extra.
"He's in great shape and remember he was a top two-year-old who won the Racing Post Trophy but then lost his form at three.
"To come back like he has to be a top middle-distance horse is a credit to him."
On future plans, O'Brien added: "I suppose he could go back to Epsom for the Coronation Cup, but we will have to see." | Sports Competition | March 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
An attack in Nigeria, suspected to be perpetrated by Islamic sect Boko Haram, kills 55 people. | The Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram is thought to have been behind a deadly siege on the northeastern town of Bama on Tuesday that left 55 people dead.
Military sources in Nigeria said 200 heavily armed members of Boko Haram arrived in buses and pick-up trucks and carried out a coordinated strike, first hitting the army barracks and the police station before breaking into the town's prison.
Military spokesman Sagir Musa told Reuters that 22 police officers, 14 prison officials, two soldiers and four civilians were killed in the five-hour raid, while 13 of the group's own members died. The attack is one of the rebel's most deadly single strikes since 2009.
During the five-hour raid, gunmen freed 105 prisoners, while the town's police station, army barracks and government buildings were reportedly set ablaze.
Boko Haram is a terror group that wants to carve out an Islamic state in a country split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims. One of its chief demands is that its imprisoned members and family members are released and it has carried out several prison breaks.
The radical Islamist group, based in northern Nigeria, once specialised in robbing banks and attacking defenceless Christian congregations. But the last four years has seen something of a step-change in their attacks, with gunmen and suicide bombers have killed more than 3,000 people since 2009, according to Human Rights Watch.
Much of this transformation is believed to have arisen because of the help Boko Haram has received from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a branch of the international terrorist network based in the Saharan states of Mali, Niger and Algeria.
Western governments are increasingly concerned about Nigerian militants linking up with other jihadist groups in the West African region. In January at least 100 of the movement's fighters executed eight assaults in Nigeria's northern city of Kano, overwhelming the security forces and killing 185 people.
| Armed Conflict | May 2013 | ['(The Independent)'] |
Belgium nominates Marianne Thyssen as its candidate for European commissioner. | The list of proposed new EU commissioners is now complete, with enough women for the European Parliament to approve the 28-strong team led by Jean-Claude Juncker.
With Romania finally deciding on Thursday (4 September) to send Socialist MEP Corina Cretu to meet Juncker for the commissioner post, the count of female commissioners was raised to nine, the minimum required by MEPs.
Cretu, 47, is a former presidential spokeswoman who made headlines last year when the email account of former US foreign secretary Colin Powell was hacked and a series of intimate emails between him and Cretu were published, prompting the US politician to deny he ever had an affair with her.
Cretu trumped Romania's outgoing commissioner for agriculture, Dacian Ciolos, who was Romania's initial nomination, because of the EP's condition for at least nine women to be part of the commission.
The centre-right opposition in Bucharest meanwhile has written a letter to Juncker accusing the Socialist government of having "illegally" appointed her, without the approval of the Romanian Parliament. Earlier on Thursday, Belgium also decided in favour of a woman, centre-right MEP Marianne Thyssen, instead of sending foreign minister Didier Reynders for the commissioner post.
The college of commissioners consists of one member from each EU country, but in theory they should not represent their capitals and be qualified for their portfolios.
In practice, however, commissioners often defend their national interests, especially when policies tabled by the entire college affect their country's industry or financial services.
Countries are also pushing for weighty portfolios by sending high-profile politicians: four Prime Ministers (Slovenia, Finland, Estonia and Latvia), three foreign ministers (Italy, the Netherlands and Hungary) two ministers for economy and finance (Denmark and France) and six other ministers ranging from defence to environment and health.
Juncker, himself a former prime minister, has indicated he will reshuffle the portfolios and give female commissioners better posts "as compensation" for being outnumbered by their male colleagues.
In an interview with EUobserver back in July, Juncker's chief of staff, Martin Selmayr spoke also of a restructuring which would put former prime ministers in "filtering" vice-president roles, a sort of deputies to Juncker with the authority to select what policies get done. With several leaks of the alleged organigram circulating on social media, Juncker's spokeswoman on Thursday said "we are currently at number 54 of the various commission models".
Juncker met all the 27 candidates throughout the week to sound out what they might be qualified for and interested in doing. He will send out the names list for formal approval by the council on Friday and then work some more on carving out the portfolios, which he will communicate to the European Parliament mid-next week.
The candidates will then have to go through parliamentary hearings, before a final vote on the entire Juncker commission in October.
Austria - Johannes Hahn, regional policy commissioner, 56, EPP
Belgium - Marianne Thyssen, MEP, 58, EPP
Bulgaria - Kristalina Georgieva, humanitarian aid commissioner, 61, EPP
Croatia - Neven Mimica, consumer affairs commissioner, 60, S&D
Cyprus - Christos Stylianides, MEP, 56, EPP
Czech Republic - Vera Jourova, regional development minister, 49, ALDE
Denmark - Margrethe Vestager, economy minister, 46, ALDE
Estonia - Andrus Ansip, former Prime Minister, 57, ALDE
Finland - Jyrki Katainen, former Prime Minister, 42, EPP
France - Pierre Moscovici, former finance minister, 56, S&D
Germany - Guenther Oettinger, energy commissioner, 60, EPP
Greece - Dimitris Avramopoulos, defence minister, 61, EPP
Hungary - Tibor Navracsics, foreign minister, 48, EPP
Ireland - Phil Hogan, former environment minister, 54, EPP
Italy - Federica Mogherini, foreign minister nominated for High Representative for foreign and security policy, 41, S&D
Latvia - Valdis Dombrovskis, former Prime Minister, 42, EPP
Lithuania - Vytenis Andriukaitis, former health minister for health, 63, S&D
Luxembourg - Jean-Claude Juncker, former Prime Minister, elected President of the EU commission, 59, EPP
Malta - Karmenu Vella, tourism minister, 64, S&D
Netherlands - Frans Timmermans, foreign minister, 53, S&D
Poland - Elzbieta Bienkowska, minister for infrastructure and development, 50, EPP
Portugal - Carlos Moedas, secretary of state dealing with troika, 43, EPP
Romania - Corina Cretu, MEP, 47, S&D
Slovakia - Maros Sefocvic, inter-institutional and anti-fraud commissioner, 48, S&D
Slovenia - Alenka Bratusek, Prime Minister, 44, ALDE
Spain - Miguel Arias Canete, former agriculture minister, 64, EPP
Sweden - Cecilia Malmstroem, home affairs commissioner, 46, ALDE
UK - Lord Hill, former leader of the House of Lords, 53, ECR
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | September 2014 | ['(EU Observer)'] |
French presidential election, 2007: Candidates Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal participate in a televised debate. | Conservative frontrunner Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal clashed over employment, the economy, the environment and law and order.
The only debate of the campaign was a heated confrontation, and continued beyond the expected two-hour duration.
The encounter was seen as a decisive battle in swaying undecided voters ahead of Sunday's second-round vote.
Mr Sarkozy won 31.2% and Ms Royal won 25.9% in the 22 April poll.
On the attack
The face-off was screened by France's two biggest TV channels and watched by an estimated 20 million people.
Ms Royal criticised Mr Sarkozy's record in government during the debate, particularly on crime and security - Mr Sarkozy's traditional forte.
I don't think the French choose a president on the lone impression that they'll have after a two-hour debate
Nicolas Sarkozy
Rivals' role reversal
TV debate: Excerpts
Rivals' policies examined
"In 2002, Mr Sarkozy, you talked about zero tolerance, but today you can see that the French are very worried about the rise in violence and aggression in French society," she said.
The former interior minister defended himself, saying the figures showed violent crime had fallen.
The most heated exchange came during the second half of the debate as the contenders discussed school places for children with disabilities.
Ms Royal accused Mr Sarkozy of "political immorality" for dismantling socialist measures on the issue.
Mr Sarkozy attacked his opponent for losing her temper - a criticism often levelled at Mr Sarkozy himself.
The rivals also debated public sector reform and clashed over employment. Mr Sarkozy said the 35-hour week, which was brought in by the socialists, had been a disaster for the economy. He said France needed to work more.
"She [Royal] still thinks that you have to share out the work like pieces of a cake," Mr Sarkozy said. "Not a single country in the world accepts this logic, which is a monumental mistake".
He also criticised Ms Royal's pension policy as vague.
Despite the clashes, neither candidate appeared to score a decisive blow, says the BBC's Alasdair Sandford in Paris.
They will be looking keenly at the opinion polls in the next few days to see whether they made the impact they were hoping for, our correspondent says.
Mr Sarkozy and Ms Royal are hoping to win votes from the 18% of voters who backed the third-placed candidate, centrist Francois Bayrou, as well as those who supported far-right nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen.
'Decisive' moment
Former President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who created the put-down "You don't have a monopoly of the heart" in the 1974 presidential election debate with his rival Francois Mitterrand, says that debate helped him win the election.
He predicts that the Sarkozy-Royal showdown will be "decisive".
But other commentators say more than 80% of French people have already decided how they are going to vote.
The last head-to-head presidential-race debate - Jacques Chirac versus Socialist Lionel Jospin in 1995 - drew 17 million viewers.
Mr Chirac won the first of his two terms that year. In 2002, he refused to debate with Mr Le Pen. | Government Job change - Election | May 2007 | ['(CNN)', '(BBC)', '(Reuters via CNN)'] |
Afghan and U.S. forces repel a Taliban raid on a NATO base in Afghanistan's Panjshir Province, reportedly killing four militants. | Militants have launched a suicide attack on a US base in eastern Afghanistan but failed to breach the outside gate.
The four militants were all killed in the attack on the base in the Rakha district of the Panjshir region, officials said.
There are unconfirmed reports two Afghan drivers were also killed.
The compound serves as the base for a provincial reconstruction team - a mix of military and civilian personnel.
The Taliban said they carried out the attack.
The militants struck the gate of the base with rocket-propelled grenades and detonated a vehicle containing explosives.
Two security guards were wounded. Provincial police chief Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh told Agence France-Presse that two drivers bringing fuel to the base had been killed.
Nato confirmed the attack but said there were no US deaths or injuries.
"There was a complex attack attempted, but it was repelled," spokeswoman Capt Ebony Calhoun said. Foreign troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan by 2014, handing over control of security to Afghan forces.
Separately, a US drone strike along the Afghan border area late on Friday killed four militants in Baghar, 40km (25 miles) west of Wana, the main town of Pakistan's South Waziristan region, Pakistani officials said.
United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan | Armed Conflict | October 2011 | ['(Washington Post)', '(BBC)'] |
A sightseeing boat capsizes on the Godavari River in India's East Godavari district, killing at least 12 people and leaving 35 others missing, all Indian nationals. | A sightseeing boat capsized on a swollen river in southern India on Sunday, killing 12 people and leaving 35 others missing, an official said.
Andra Pradesh state's home minister, Mekathoti Sucharita, said there were 61 people — 50 passengers and 11 crew members, all of them Indian nationals — on board the boat when it ran into trouble on the Godavari river.
A search operation was underway to try to find the missing people.
Fourteen people who were wearing life jackets were rescued by local fishermen, Sucharita said.
The accident occurred near Kachuluru village in East Godavari district, 236 miles east of the state's capital, Hyderabad. The boat was heading from Singanapalli to Papikondalu, a famous tourist spot.
Ms Sucharita said tour boats had been barred from operating on the route following the recent flooding of the river and it was not clear how the boat that capsized had managed to take out the tourists.
“Stern action will be taken against the culprits,” she said.
Apart from tourists, residents in the area depend on boats and ferries to travel between villages on the banks of the Godavari.
In May 2018, 30 people were killed when a similar boat carrying local people capsized not far from the scene of Sunday's accident.
A few months later, a boat carrying 80 tourists caught fire when a cooking gas cylinder exploded, but there were no casualties.
| Shipwreck | September 2019 | ['(The Independent)'] |
Brazil's Federal Senate begins the impeachment trial of suspended President Dilma Rousseff. | BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil’s Senate began the trial of suspended President Dilma Rousseff on Thursday after a lengthy impeachment process that has paralyzed the politics of Latin America’s largest nation and is expected to culminate in her removal from office next week.
Thursday’s session, presided over by Supreme Court Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski, heard witnesses for and against Rousseff, Brazil’s first female president, who is charged with breaking budget laws.
The leftist leader, whose popularity has been hammered by a deep recession and immense corruption scandal since she won reelection in 2014, will appear before the 81 senators on Monday to defend herself. Her opponents are confident they have more than the 54 votes needed to convict her.
Authorities prepared barriers to contain demonstrations outside Brazil’s modernistic Congress building, but virtually no Rousseff supporters turned out, underscoring the isolation of the impeached president.
If the final vote, which is expected late Tuesday or in the early hours of Wednesday, goes against Rousseff it would confirm her vice president, Michel Temer, as Brazil’s new leader for the rest of her four-year term through 2018, ending 13 years of left-wing Workers Party rule.
Rousseff, a former leftist guerrilla, is charged with spending without congressional approval and manipulating government accounts to mask the extent of Brazil’s growing deficit in the run-up to her 2014 re-election.
Her Senate supporters managed to discredit a key witness, a Federal Audit Court prosecutor who led the probe of Rousseff’s government, because he had taken part in an anti-Rousseff demonstration.
Lewandowski ruled that Julio Marcelo de Oliveira could be questioned but his testimony would not count as proof, a development that is not expected to affect the outcome of a trial that is more political than judicial.
A survey published by O Globo newspaper on Thursday showed that 52 senators were committed to voting to dismiss Rousseff, with only 19 supporting her and 10 undecided or not polled.
Rousseff has denied any wrongdoing and described efforts to oust her as a “coup.” She has refused to resign and said the accounting practices she is being put on trial for were also commonly used by previous governments.
With unemployment above 11 percent, and dozens of politicians in her coalition implicated in a kickback scandal at state-led oil company Petrobras, the trial has become a test of Rousseff’s support.
Polls show ordinary Brazilians are unconcerned by the alleged accounting irregularities but want Rousseff ousted in the hope the next government can better manage the economy.
If confirmed president by Rousseff’s ouster, Temer would face a daunting task: steering Latin America’s largest economy out of recession and plugging a budget deficit that has topped 10 percent of gross domestic product.
In the unlikely case that she is acquitted, Rousseff would immediately return to office.
Brazilian assets have rallied on prospects of a more market-friendly government, with the currency rising around 30 percent against the dollar this year. Still, investors and members of Temer’s fragile coalition are concerned he has yet to implement measures to control the deficit.
Temer’s right-leaning government has sought to speed up the trial so he can set about restoring confidence in a once-booming economy and remove any doubts about his legitimacy.
A draft budget for next year is not expected in Congress until Aug. 31, after the Senate votes, by which time Temer could have more political leverage to push through austerity measures.
Investors are concerned Temer might give in to pressure for spending increases such as pay hikes for public employees, including the nation’s judges, a demand supported by Lewandowski.
Temer has proposed a constitutional limit on spending and a broad reform of Brazil’s pension system to reverse a deteriorating fiscal outlook - moves applauded by credit rating agencies that last year stripped the country of its prized investment grade.
“While we expect the current administration to have a better chance of getting these reforms through Congress than the previous government, there is still no clear support to approve these measures,” Moody’s Investors Service said in a client note.
If Rousseff is removed, Temer must be sworn in by the Senate. He is then expected to address the nation before heading to the summit of the G20 group of leading economies in China on Sept. 4-5.
Without the legal protection of her presidential status, Rousseff could find herself in court facing an investigation into whether she and former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva tried to obstruct the Petrobras corruption probe.
Even Rousseff’s Workers Party, hurt by corruption scandals and her dismal economic record, has distanced itself from her last-minute call for elections to resolve the political crisis.
Yet party leader Lula came to her defense on Thursday. Speaking to workers in the city of Niteroi, Lula said Rousseff may have committed policy errors but she was an honest politician who had done nothing to warrant her removal.
“What they’re doing is finding a way to take power without winning votes in an election,” he said. “Today is a shameful day. The senators have begun to rip up Brazil’s constitution.”
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of Japan rejects retrial for a 92–year–old woman, Ayako Haraguchi, who had already served 10 years in prison for the 1979 murder of her former brother–in–law. |
23
CLOUDY
Kyodo
The Supreme Court said Wednesday it has rejected lower and high court decisions to hold a retrial for a 92-year-old woman who served 10 years in prison over the 1979 murder of her former brother-in-law in Kagoshima Prefecture.
All five Supreme Court judges made the unanimous decision on Tuesday to dismiss the retrial of Ayako Haraguchi after the district court granted the retrial request and the high court upheld the decision.
It is the first time since 1975 that the top court has rejected a retrial decision made by a district court and upheld by a high court.
Both the Kagoshima District Court and the Miyazaki branch of the Fukuoka High Court had agreed to a retrial in June 2017 and March 2018, respectively. Prosecutors appealed both decisions.
The defense submitted a forensic report that said there was a high chance that the death of her former brother-in-law, Kunio Nakamura, 42, was caused by an accident. Confessions by her relatives were not credible as they may have been influenced by investigative authorities, they said.
However, the Supreme Court said the previous testimonies were trustworthy, while the new evidence supporting an accidental death had no probative value as the forensics experts had not personally seen the body.
“This is not acceptable,” head defense lawyer Masami Mori said at a news conference Wednesday after the verdict. “I feel regret and am at a loss for words whenever I think about proving her innocence while she is alive.”
The 92-year-old has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Haraguchi was arrested in October 1979 along with three other family members, including her husband at the time, on suspicion of strangling Nakamura with a towel and abandoning his body in a cattle barn beside his home in the town of Osaki earlier that month.
In 1980, the district court found Haraguchi guilty of killing Nakamura on the grounds that her sister-in-law said Haraguchi proposed the murder to her husband, suggesting she had been unhappy about Nakamura’s conduct. Her sentence was finalized in 1981.
Her husband was sentenced to eight years in prison. Haraguchi later divorced him and he died in 1993. The Supreme Court also rejected Tuesday a request for his retrial submitted by a relative.
Haraguchi filed a request for her retrial in 1995 and again in 2010, but both were subsequently rejected. This was her third attempt.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | June 2019 | ['(The Japan Times)'] |
In a 153–140 vote, the Parliament of Greece ratifies the NATO accession protocol for North Macedonia. | The Greek Parliament has approved a measure for North Macedonia to join NATO, ending a decades-old dispute.
Lawmakers late February 8 voted 153-140 to ratify the NATO accession protocol for neighboring Macedonia that must now also be approved by all other alliance members.
The vote came after the former Yugoslav republic agreed with Greece last year to change its name to North Macedonia and following ratification of the deal by the countries' parliaments.
Greece's ratification of the NATO accord will see Macedonia now call itself by its new name. Greece's objections to Skopje's use of the name "Macedonia" since the country's independence in 1991 complicated bids by the small Western Balkan state to join the European Union and NATO.
Athens asserted that the use of the name "Macedonia" suggests Skopje has territorial claims to Greece's northern region of Macedonia.
Negotiations between Greece and Macedonia were protracted and difficult. Nationalist groups in both countries opposed the deal, with many saying it gave up too much to the other side.
However, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Macedonian counterpart Zoran Zaev were able to push through their accord as part of efforts to normalize relations.
Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov on February 6 signed a NATO accession agreement, a key step toward Skopje's becoming the military alliance's 30th member.
| Join in an Organization | February 2019 | ['(RFE/RL)'] |
A helicopter from the Saudi-led coalition bombs a vehicle outside Aden International Airport, wounding at least three Yemeni soldiers. | An Apache helicopter from a Saudi-led military coalition wounded three Yemeni soldiers when it fired a missile at a military vehicle outside Aden International Airport on Sunday, Yemeni security officials said.
The attack struck troops loyal to the airport’s chief of security, who had refused to accept a government order that he be replaced.
The incident was yet another sign of the inability of Yemen’s internationally recognized government to enforce order. But it was the first time its allies, the coalition of mostly Gulf Arab states, had intervened militarily in power struggles within the Yemeni armed forces.
The Saudi-led coalition has launched thousands of air strikes against the government’s foes, the Iran-allied Houthis, in a campaign to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power. It helped wrest Aden from the Houthis, who control the capital, Sanaa, in the summer of 2015.
| Armed Conflict | February 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A presidential run–off election in Guinea is postponed due to lack of preparation. | The move comes hours after military ruler Gen Sekouba Konate said he was committed to holding the run-off, which was scheduled for Sunday.
Gen Konate had been due to meet the two candidates in the presidential vote.
The preparations had been thrown into doubt by violence sparked by the fraud conviction of two senior election officials.
The postponement announcement came after a meeting between interim Prime Minister Jean-Marie Dore and the two candidates, Cellou Dalein Diallo and Alpha Conde, the AFP news agency reports.
"We need two weeks to prepare well," said Independent National Electoral Commission (Ceni) spokesman Thierno Ceydou Bayo.
Foumba Kourouma, a member of Ceni, told Reuters the commission would meet candidates on Thursday to set a new date.
The first round of the elections was seen as Guinea's first democratic vote since independence in 1958, raising hopes of an end to military and authoritarian rule in the mineral-rich country. The BBC's Alhassan Sillah, who is in the capital, Conakry, said it was difficult to see how the elections could be held on Sunday, as a lot of logistical work still had to be done, such as transporting election materials to remote areas.
The head of Ceni, Ben Sekou Sylla - who was one of those sentenced to a year in jail - died on Tuesday after an unspecified long illness.
Gen Konate was expected to make a broadcast to the nation on Wednesday night.
He has not spoken in public since the weekend violence, in which at least one person died.
But on Tuesday night, the minister for presidential affairs said Gen Konate remained committed to handing power to an elected, civilian government.
All campaigning has been suspended following the clashes.
Mr Dore said on Monday that public order was more important than holding the elections as planned.
Those remarks led to accusations by the party of one of the candidates - former Prime Minister Cellou Dalein Diallo - that Mr Dore was biased.
Mr Diallo's Union of Democratic Forces in Guinea (UDFG) has called on Mr Dore to resign "in the interests of a trouble-free election".
Mr Diallo is seen as the favourite after gaining 44% of first-round votes, but his rival, veteran opposition leader Alpha Conde, says he was defrauded of some 600,000 votes in that poll.
His complaint led to the conviction of Mr Sylla and one of his senior officials.
Mr Sylla died in France, where he had been undergoing medical treatment for several months. He went back to Guinea for the first round of voting before continuing his treatment in Paris.
Ahead of the run-off poll, tension is reported to be growing between ethnic Peul and Malinke - the two largest communities in the country.
Mr Diallo, a Peul, gained 44% of the first round votes, compared with 18% for Mr Conde, a Malinke.
A member of the Peul ethnic group has never been president and many feel it is their turn after previous elections were rigged. The Malinke are heavily represented in the ruling military junta, which seized power after the death in 2008 of autocratic President Lansana Conte, who had ruled the country for 24 years.
Guinea is the world's largest exporter of the aluminium ore bauxite and also has important deposits of iron ore. But despite its mineral wealth, most of its people languish in poverty.
| Government Job change - Election | September 2010 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
Ten people are killed in Sudan during clashes between the Sudanese military and civilian protesters. | KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Huge crowds marched on Sudan’s defense ministry on Sunday demanding the ruling military hand over power to civilians, and the authorities said at least seven people were killed and scores injured in protests nationwide.
In the biggest demonstrations since a deadly raid by security forces on a protest camp in central Khartoum three weeks ago, tens of thousands of residents took to the streets in several parts of the Sudanese capital.
In two areas near the presidential palace and in the upscale eastern neighborhood of Riyadh, they were met by security forces firing barrages of tear gas, witnesses said.
The deputy head of Sudan’s ruling military council, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said unknown snipers were shooting at civilians and soldiers.
Seven people were killed and 181 wounded, 27 of them by live fire, in protests nationwide, the state news agency reported, citing a Health Ministry undersecretary.
The official said 10 of those injured were members of regular forces, including three conscripts of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Hemedti, who were injured by gunfire. The remaining seven were injured by stones hurled by demonstrators, he added.
A doctor’s group linked to the opposition said at least five protesters were killed and dozens injured during demonstrations in several cities. Reuters could not verify those accounts.
Related Coverage
Sudan’s military overthrew president Omar al-Bashir in April after months of demonstrations against his rule.
Opposition groups kept up those demonstrations as they pressed the military to hand over power to civilians. But talks broke down after members of the security services raided the sit-in protest camp outside the defense ministry on June 3.
The Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) opposition coalition called for a million people to demonstrate on Sunday - the 30th anniversary of the coup that brought Bashir to power, and the African Union’s deadline for Sudan’s military rulers to hand over to civilians or face further sanctions.
“WE WILL NOT RETREAT”
In another part of Khartoum, thousands blocked the main multi-lane highway that leads to the airport as they marched toward the home of a protester who was killed in January.
Protesters waved the Sudanese flag and chanted “civilian, civilian” and “blood for blood,” as Sudan beefed up security across the capital.
“We came out once again for the revolution and we will not retreat until they handover power to a civilian authority,” protester Hassan Ahmed told Reuters.
The Transitional Military Council had warned a day earlier that the opposition coalition would bear the responsibility for any loss of life or damage resulting from Sunday’s protests.
Members of one of the main opposition groups - the Sudanese Professionals’ Association - said the security services raided its headquarters on Saturday night as it was about to give a news conference.
The United Nations has said it has received reports that more than 100 protesters were killed and many more injured during the June 3 raid on the protest camp.
Military leaders have denied ordering a raid on the camp and said a crackdown on criminals nearby had spilled over.
The council has said some officers had been detained for presumed responsibility, and that it still intends to hand over power after elections.
Mediators led by the African Union and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed have been trying to broker a return to direct talks.
Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz, Omar Fahmy, Nafisa Eltahir and Ali Abdelaty; Writing by Amina Ismail; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Daniel Wallis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. | Protest_Online Condemnation | June 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
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