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Burundi lifts a midnight–to–dawn curfew that has been in place for 34 years. | A new government was elected last year following a civil war that killed an estimated 300,000 people. The curfew was used by the government in the 1970s - dominated by a Tutsi minority - to try to maintain control. But the country soon spiralled into chaos - as Hutu rebel groups took up arms against increasingly brutal repression by the military.
The curfew remained in force for the next three decades - with Burundians prohibited from venturing on to the streets between midnight and dawn. Now the government says these restrictions are no longer necessary. Peace has returned to almost all of Burundi - with only one small rebel group still active and the government is trying to negotiate a peace deal with them. And Burundians themselves are increasingly confident about the future. Many in the capital have ignored the curfew in recent years - to visit the growing number of bars and nightclubs.
At the heart of this new found stability is a power sharing deal, which guarantees the Tutsi minority a share in government and parliament. The key challenge now the for newly elected government is to bring into this process the final Hutu rebel group - the National Liberation Forces. | Government Policy Changes | April 2006 | ['(BBC)'] |
Manmohan Singh is sworn in as Prime Minister of India. | Manmohan Singh, a Sikh, took the oath of office at a ceremony in the capital led by President Kalam, a Muslim.
Dr Singh is a respected economist and administrator, but correspondents say he is short on political experience.
He became premier after Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's shock refusal to accept the post, despite winning the election. "This is a mandate for change, for strengthening the secular foundation of our republic," Dr Singh told reporters after being sworn in. The cabinet is a reflection of India's diversity and
richness
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
Press welcomes Singh
UK Sikhs hail Indian success
He pledged to carry forward the process of social and economic change "which benefits the poorest sections of our community".
Portfolios, he said, would be announced on Sunday.
Mrs Gandhi, who attended the ceremony, told reporters: "The government will be stable. We'll be working on that."
The BBC's Frances Harrison in Delhi says it is widely assumed the Congress party will retain key portfolios like finance, interior, defence and foreign affairs.
Horse-trading
Saturday's ceremony at the presidential palace in Delhi capped a week of drama following the Congress-led alliance's surprise election victory.
Drama reveals a true Gandhi
Pride of Punjab
Dr Singh, who as finance minister over a decade ago is credited with launching the country's reform programme, has spent the last few days trying to decide on the shape of the new government.
There has been intense haggling over the top posts between the Congress party and more than a dozen allied parties.
Among the first cabinet ministers to be sworn in were senior Congress party figures Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh and P Chidambaram.
Other cabinet ministers include Nationalist Congress Party head Sharad Pawar and Laloo Prasad Yadav, the maverick leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal party in northern Bihar state.
Sikhs celebrated their new prime minister
Outgoing prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, whose Hindu nationalist BJP was swept from power by Congress, shook Dr Singh's hand before the handover of power.
Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf, was swift to offer India's new leader his congratulations.
"I wish you great success," he said in a message which made clear his government was
committed to resolving all disputes, including Kashmir.
Dr Singh's family in Amritsar in the northern Indian state of Punjab toasted his success. They danced and handed out sweets as the swearing-in ceremony took place in the capital.
Policies
Dr Singh has said the main task of his government is to reduce poverty, and continue economic reform.
He also wants to push the peace process with Pakistan.
Late on Friday, Congress unveiled a draft working agenda with its allies in the United Progressive Alliance.
The so-called Common Minimum Programme, which has still to be fine-tuned, puts help for poor farmers at the top of the agenda. It promises job creation and more economic reforms, but rejects privatising state-owned oil and power companies. Communist parties decided not to join the Congress-led government.
But their support for Congress has led to unease in the markets - with huge swings over the last week as investors waited for news of the make-up of the government and its economic policies. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | May 2004 | ['(BBC)'] |
More than 30 political prisoners go on hunger strike at Insein Prison in Burma to protest against their treatment. | A group of Burmese political prisoners has staged a hunger strike to demand better living conditions. A lawyer told the BBC's Burmese Service that 22 prisoners started a protest on Saturday at Insein jail, in Rangoon.
The authorities have already taken action against the prisoners - putting some in solitary confinement, and threatening to move others from Insein.
Meanwhile, the UN's rights envoy says abuses are still widespread, despite an overhaul of the political system.
Earlier this year, the Burmese military oversaw a transition to civilian government after four decades of army rule.
Many of the current administration's leaders are ex-military officers and members of the old regime, but the government has expressed a desire to be more democratic.
Last week, it announced a prisoner amnesty and freed thousands of inmates - but only 47 of them were political prisoners.
Analysts say the failure to free political prisoners has contributed to the protest at Insein.
Kyaw Hoe, who represents some of the prisoners, told the BBC that five of the protesters had been put into solitary confinement.
He said the rest of them would be sent to other jails - which are likely to be in rural areas far from Rangoon to ensure their lawyers and families cannot visit them.
The political prisoners are protesting because they say they need more food, clothes and blankets.
They also say they are discriminated against because their families are not allowed the same visiting rights as the relatives of other inmates.
Rights groups say Burma still holds more than 2,000 political prisoners.
The UN's rights envoy to Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, criticised last week's amnesty as a disappointment.
Mr Quintana, who was refused permission to visit Burma, accused the government of failing to address abuses such as confiscation of land from ethnic minorities, forced labour, extrajudicial killings and sexual violence. | Protest_Online Condemnation | May 2011 | ['(Straits Times)', '(BBC)'] |
After more than 20 years of negotiations, the five countries bordering the Caspian Sea sign an agreement in Aktau, Kazakhstan, on its shared use and the distribution of its resources. The convention legally defines the body of water as a sea rather than a lake, but with special provisions. | The five countries bordering the landlocked Caspian Sea recently struck a deal to resolve their longstanding dispute over its ownership. Experts say the agreement makes Russia the "de facto naval power" in the region.
The leaders of the five countries bordering the Caspian Sea signed a landmark convention on Sunday regarding the legal status of the body of water.
Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan signed the deal in the small seaside city of Aktau, Kazakhstan.
The inland sea has been a bone of contention among the five countries since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The agreement is expected to ease regional tensions, and could accelerate the development of lucrative oil and gas projects.
The Caspian Sea is estimated to hold some 48 billion barrels of oil and 292 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who pushed for an agreement, said the deal had "epoch-making significance" and called for more military cooperation among the countries bordering the Caspian.
But some observers remain skeptical as to whether the countries managed to put their disagreements to rest.
"This document is hardly a breakthrough, as some of the controversial issues remain unresolved," Arkadij Dubnow, a Russia-based expert on Central Asia, told DW. "But the current geopolitical circumstances have forced the parties to compromise," he added.
"The deal is nothing but a framework that somehow defines the rules of the game, but there is no agreement on the game itself."
One issue among the participants was whether the body of water is a sea or a lake — each of which is subject to different international laws.
The convention refers to the Caspian as a sea but Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told the daily newspaper Kommersant that provisions in the treaty give it "a special legal status."
The convention keeps most of the sea in shared use but nonetheless divides up the seabed and underground resources, according to the Kremlin.
But Dubnow said an agreement on the division of the seabed "will, in my view, take years, not months."
Iran ended up with the smallest share of the sea in accordance with the terms of the deal, and may end up a potential loser in the agreement.
That would explain why Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the deal "a major document" on Sunday but stressed that it doesn't solve all of the disagreements surrounding the sea.
"Today we have a framework for actions in the Caspian Sea which was not the case before," Rouhani said in comments translated into English. "But there are other issues to deal with in other meetings."
Still, Rouhani hailed a stipulation in the convention that prevents non-Caspian countries from deploying military forces on the sea.
"The Caspian Sea," he said, "only belongs to the Caspian states."
'Beneficial to Russia'
For Iran, stopping US presence in the region is of primary concern, say observers.
"That's why Tehran has, at least formally, given up its insistence on either splitting the sea into five equal parts or jointly developing all of its resources," Dubnow underlined.
"Banning foreign military presence in the Caspian Sea is at the heart of this agreement," Amir Taheri, an Iranian political analyst, told DW. "The fact that Iran agreed to this deal shows Tehran's current weak geopolitical position," the expert added.
He pointed out that US sanctions against Iran, coupled with Tehran's need for Moscow's support on the global arena, ensured that the Iranian government lacked much room for maneuver during the negotiations.
"The deal has prompted a lot of criticism in Iran," said the analyst.
Experts say the agreement allows Russia to strengthen its relations with the Caspian Sea states and prevent the US from establishing any military presence in the region.
"The agreement is extremely beneficial to Russia. It makes Moscow the de facto naval power in the Caspian Sea by granting Russian warships the right to operate unhindered throughout the waterway," Russian expert Dubnow said. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | August 2018 | ['(Deutsche Welle)'] |
Russian President Vladimir Putin in a ceremony at 10 Downing Street awards the Order of Maritime Service to six British military and civilian personnel responsible for the rescue of the mini–submarine AS–28 off the Kamchatka Peninsula. | FURNESS heroes who rescued trapped Russian submariners from the seabed were today being thanked personally by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The six rescuers were meeting the president and Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street.
They work for the Submarine Rescue Service, which is run on contract for the Royal Navy by Dalton-firm James Fisher Rumic Ltd, headed by Roger Chapman.
They include Rampside lifeboatman Peter Nuttall, who was being personally presented with a Russian Order of Maritime Service.
He controlled the remotely operated underwater robot Scorpio 45 for much of the dramatic five-hour operation on August 7 to free a Russian mini submarine. | Awards ceremony | October 2005 | ['(North West Evening Mail)'] |
7 suspected weapons traffickers to Iran (2 Iranians, 5 Italians) are detained in Italy with the help of Swiss police. | Two Iranians and five Italians have been arrested by Italian police on suspicion of trafficking arms to Iran, anti-terror police say.
Two more Iranian suspects are currently in Iran, Italian officials say. Italy's anti-terrorist prosecutor Armando Spataro said the two Iranians arrested in Italy worked for the Iranian government. He said they were accused of exporting arms and armament systems, and breaking a UN arms embargo on Iran. "It is an investigation of considerable importance because it concerns the entire international community," said Mr Spataro of the nine-month operation, codenamed Sniper. It was conducted along with Swiss police as one of the suspects lived in Bern, he added. An earlier statement said those sought were suspected members of the Iranian secret service. Italy is Iran's biggest trading partner in the European Union. But it has been among the countries leading calls for tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme. The West accuses Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies this, saying its only aim is to generate nuclear energy. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | March 2010 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(BBC)', '(The Times)', '(The Daily Telegraph)', '(France24)', '[permanent dead link]'] |
The Los Angeles Lakers defeat the Orlando Magic four games to one to win the 2009 NBA Finals. Lakers coach Phil Jackson wins his tenth NBA Championship, becoming the all–time leader. | ORLANDO, Fla. Again, Kobe Bryant had his hands full. When he finally shed himself of Orlando Magic defenders, he fittingly cupped two trophies. In one arm, he held the N.B.A.’s championship trophy. In another, he clenched the finals M.V.P. award.
It was the merging of two worlds for Bryant, a fusion of team unity and his Ahab-like obsession with earning his fourth championship ring.
The dogged and almost maniacal twin pursuits ended Sunday. The Lakers found their destination, their 15th N.B.A. championship, after a meandering route. When the final buzzer sounded, they stood with a 99-86 series-clinching victory in Game 5 against the Magic, whose season-long resilience was lost amid Bryant’s efficiency. With 30 points Sunday, Bryant secured his first finals Most Valuable Player award. The ear-splitting chants of “Beat L.A.” early in the game at Amway Arena were replaced by choruses of “M.V.P.” as Bryant marched to the free-throw line late in the game.
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The Champagne-drenched evening ended a seven-year championship drought in which speed bumps had turned into mountains for the Lakers. In the stretch between titles, the Lakers had become burdened by soap-opera story lines: from the trade of Shaquille O’Neal to the retirement and rehiring of Coach Phil Jackson to the disappointing showing in last season’s finals against the Boston Celtics. Jackson now has 10 titles 6 from his tenure with the Chicago Bulls and 4 with the Lakers to surpass the legendary Celtics patriarch Red Auerbach. The titles were flanked by disappointment, and Jackson’s scalp now shows more salt and less pepper, the accumulation of layered trials before another triumph.
Jackson’s hair was covered after the win Sunday by a gold cap, with the Roman numeral X on it. He called the moment “surreal.” “I wasn’t at the stage of my life where I could get out and do the things that I had done 10 years ago or 15 years ago to push a team,” Jackson said. “And they pushed themselves and I really feel strongly that this is about them. However, having won 10 championships is a remarkable accomplishment, there’s no doubt about it.”
Bryant and Derek Fisher two cogs that connect the last Lakers championship in 2002 to this one each have four titles, their redemption arriving a year after they faltered badly against the Celtics. Advertisement
There was no such cowering against the Magic. In a series defined by comebacks, overtimes and missed opportunities, the clinching game felt anticlimactic.
After Rafer Alston’s 3-pointer early in the third quarter, the Magic was within striking distance, 58-53. Lamar Odom, who had 17 points, responded with consecutive 3s as the Lakers again separated themselves by double digits, a margin they maintained the rest of the game. Dwight Howard, who legitimized his status as one of the game’s stars during the postseason, had his night largely stymied by the defensive efforts of Pau Gasol. Howard was humbled by fouls on the defensive end and harassed by Gasol, who finished with 14 points and 15 rebounds, on the offensive end. Howard ended his season quietly with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
The Magic fought back several times this postseason, rallying from a season-derailing injury to the All-Star point guard Jameer Nelson and series deficits against the Philadelphia 76ers and the Celtics. It fell short of the biggest trick of all. The more Bryant yearned for another ring perhaps to validate his post-O’Neal legacy the more it seemed to slip through his grasp.
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“It was like Chinese water torture, just keep dropping a drop of water on your temple,” Bryant said of the talk that he could not win a title without O’Neal. “It was just annoying. I would cringe every time. I was just like, it’s a challenge I’m just going to have to accept because there’s no way I’m going to argue it.”
With the title all but secured, Bryant’s emotions came out when he hugged Sasha Vujacic as the Lakers crowded one another during a timeout, their lead at 97-84, with 40.4 seconds left. His hands free from Mickael Pietrus and Courtney Lee, Bryant leaped in the air several times as the buzzer sounded and soon he was holding his daughters Natalia and Gianna.
On Sunday, Bryant made 10 of his 23 shots and all eight of his free throws. In the five-game series, he scored at least 30 points four times.
The Lakers largely shed themselves of Orlando in the first half. There was a brief head-to-head between the former teammates Hedo Turkoglu and Trevor Ariza. Both were given technicals and after a nerve-settling timeout, Ariza’s 3-point shot gave the Lakers their first lead, 42-40, with 5 minutes 9 seconds left in the first half. Ariza, who ended with 15 points, sank another and scrambled for two steals as part of a 16-0 run that lifted the Lakers to a 56-46 halftime lead. “They just always had an answer,” Orlando Coach Stan Van Gundy said. “We just couldn’t get over the top.”
Bryant’s series-long scowl was replaced by another look in the first quarter as Orlando raced to a 15-6 lead. He grimaced on the bench and covered his face with a towel after losing the ball on a double team by Rashard Lewis and Lee in a tussle that appeared to bother a nagging finger injury. Advertisement
Bryant resurfaced immediately with a stepback jumper and a 3-pointer and finished the quarter with 11 points. As the game pressed on, he showed no effects of the early aches. He embodied the championship path the Lakers took. They were damaged early but finished strong. The Lakers began the postseason in lackluster fashion and struggled against the decimated Houston Rockets in the second round, then gained their swagger as the playoffs wore on, dismissing the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference finals and, finally, the Magic.
| Sports Competition | June 2009 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
Donald Trump says that he might invite North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the United States if the planned summit meeting in Singapore goes well. | US President Donald Trump said he would consider inviting North Korea's Kim Jong-un to the White House if their summit in Singapore goes well.
Mr Trump made the comment after meeting Japan's PM Shinzo Abe to discuss the 12 June summit.
He said it was possible an agreement to end the Korean War could be reached, though he called that "the easy part" of the negotiations.
"It's what happens after that that is really important," he told reporters.
The US and its regional allies want to see North Korea give up its nuclear weapons but Mr Trump acknowledged that it "will take longer" than one meeting to realise that goal.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking later at the White House, said Kim Jong-un had indicated to him personally that he was willing to denuclearise - although it is not clear if that means North Korea is coming closer to the US vision of what that entails.
Mr Trump has previously had a policy of placing "maximum pressure" on North Korea to force it to change course.
But he said he did not want to use the term any more "because we're going into a friendly negotiation" but he warned he had many more sanctions he could use against North Korea.
He also said he was "totally prepared to walk" if the summit did not go well, but if it did go well an invitation to Mr Kim to visit Washington was not out of the question.
"Certainly if it goes well, I think it might be well received," he told reporters. "I think [Kim] would look at it very favourably so I think that could happen."
But, when asked about a report a day ago that Mr Trump might invite Mr Kim to his Florida retreat Mar-a-Lago, he quipped: "Maybe we'll start with the White House, what do you think?"
Earlier, Mr Trump said he did not think preparation was essential for his meeting with the North Korean leader.
"I think I'm very well prepared. I don't think I have to prepare very much. It's about attitude, it's about willingness to get things done," he said.
Mr Trump also dismissed speculation that US basketball player Dennis Rodman - who has visited North Korea several times and is a friend of Mr Kim's - had been invited to the summit. "I like him. He's a nice guy. No, he was not invited," he said. The Japanese prime minister has held regular meetings with Mr Trump since the US president took office.
Since the summit was announced, he has been eager to ensure Japan's interests are not overlooked in any rapprochement between the US and North Korea. Mr Abe said he was confident Mr Trump understood Japan's concerns about its citizens who were abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s to help train its spies in Japanese language and customs.
Although North Korea has admitted to 13 kidnappings, the real figure is thought to be higher than that.
Mr Abe said he wanted to "directly face North Korea and talk with them so that the abduction problem can be resolved quickly".
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He also reiterated Japan's policy to pursue "real peace" in the region and said if North Korea "is willing to take steps" in the right direction it has a "bright future ahead". Mr Abe's visit is part of a flurry of diplomatic activity in the run-up to the summit, as countries try to ensure their interests are not overlooked.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Mr Kim in Pyongyang, laying the groundwork for Mr Kim to visit President Vladimir Putin in Moscow later this year.
Mr Kim has also had two meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who in turn has visited Mr Trump in Washington.
In an indication that China is still a key player in the relationship, Mr Kim has also made two trips to Beijing, meeting President Xi Jinping. | Diplomatic Visit | June 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Missing four–year–old Paulette Gebara Farah, whose disappearance from her home in Huixquilucan, Edomex, achieved major publicity in Mexico, is found dead under a mattress in her bedroom. | A disabled four-year-old girl whose disappearance last week sparked an outpouring of sympathy across Mexico was found dead in her own bedroom.
Prosecutors say she had been asphyxiated.
One of the billboards appealing for help to find Paulette.Credit:Reuters
The shocking discovery of the lifeless Paulette Gebara Farah under the mattress of her own bed at her wealthy parents' apartment on the outskirts of Mexico City left prosecutors struggling to explain how multiple searches could have been conducted without the body being found.
Investigators weren't even looking for the girl in the apartment at the time but were searching for suitcases or other family possessions that might have been missing or moved.
"There was a presence of odors," Mexico State Attorney General Alberto Bazbaz said of the discovery of the girl's body late on Tuesday.
Still, Bazbaz also said he had talked to the mother in the bedroom where the body was found but had not detected anything. His comment suggested the grisly possibility that the mother, a lawyer, had spoken with authorities and journalists while sitting on the same bed under which the body was found.
Since Paulette was reported missing on March 22 by her parents, the family and supporters had scattered images of her wearing a princess dress on billboards and flyers across Mexico City, a region where occasional reports of child stealing have created dread among many parents.
The girl had difficulties walking and talking due to an unspecified disability.
Bazbaz said prosecutors initially assumed they were dealing with a case in which the girl had somehow been taken from the luxury apartment building.
But he said they became suspicious of the mother, Lisette Farah, after she was overheard telling her other daughter not to talk because the family might be blamed for the disappearance.
Lisette Farah, her husband, Mauricio Gebara, and two nannies had been put under a form of house arrest for questioning after authorities said they detected contradictions in their statements to police.
Authorities said that the four were not suspects. They were being held at a government facility and were not available to comment on the prosecutors' statement.
It was unclear whether the spot where the body was found wrapped in sheets was where the girl died, or whether the body had been moved, authorities said.
While the results of an autopsy are pending, Bazbaz said the girl had "obstruction of the areas where oxygen could enter" but no other signs of violence were immediately found.
The family lives in Huixquilican, an upscale suburb of Mexico City located in Mexico State, which borders the capital.
In previous television interviews, the mother said she had put Paulette to bed in her bedroom the night of March 21. The next morning, one of her nannies reported Paulette wasn't in her room, and investigators found no signs of forced entry to the apartment.
Farah pleaded for her daughter's return at a news conference held outside the apartment building on Sunday night. | Famous Person - Death | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Sydney Morning Herald)', '(The Melbourne Age)'] |
Over 100,000 people protest in Minsk calling for President Alexander Lukashenko to resign. | Tens of thousands of demonstrators have marched to the outskirts of the presidential residence in the capital of Belarus, calling for the country's authoritarian leader to resign
Huge protests flood Belarus’ capital again, defying crackdown
KYIV, Ukraine -- Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched Sunday to the outskirts of the presidential residence in the capital of Belarus, calling for the country's authoritarian leader to resign as protests against President Alexander Lukashenko entered their fifth week.
Protests also took place in major cities throughout Belarus, said Interior Ministry spokeswoman Olga Chemodanova. Crowd sizes for those protests were not immediately reported, but Ales Bialiatski, head of the Viasna human rights organization, said the demonstration in Minsk attracted more than 100,000 people.
The protests, unprecedented in Belarus for their size and duration, began after the Aug. 9 presidential vote that election officials said gave Lukashenko a sixth term in office with 80% support. Protesters say the results were rigged, and some have explained to Associated Press journalists exactly how the fraud took place in their districts.
Lukashenko has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1994, regularly repressing dissent and press freedom.
Police violently cracked down on demonstrators in the first days of the protests, arresting some 7,000 people and beating hundreds. Although they have scaled back, detentions continue; Viasna reported scores of people were arrested in Minsk and in the city of Grodno on Sunday.
Police and army troops blocked off the center of Minsk on Sunday, but demonstrators marched to the outskirts of the Palace of Independence, the president's working residence 3 kilometers (2 miles) outside the city center. The palace grounds were blocked off by phalanxes of shield-bearing riot police and water cannon.
“This sea of people cannot be stopped by military equipment, water cannons, propaganda and arrests. Most Belarusians want a peaceful change of power and we will not get tired of demanding this,"said Maria Kolesnikova, a leader of the Coordination Council set up by the opposition to try to arrange a dialogue with the 66-year-old Lukashenko about a transition of power.
She spoke with The Associated Press by telephone.
Lukashenko has rejected any discussion with the council and some of its top members have been jailed. One of them, Olga Kovalova, was expelled from the country over the weekend, driven to Poland by police.
Despite the stalemate between Lukashenko and the opposition, protesters say they are determined not to tire. Some of the placards they carried Sunday showed a lively sense of humor.
“Lukashenka, start building a house near Yanukovych,”read one, referring to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych who fled to Russia in 2014 after months of anti-government protests.
“The collective farm went bankrupt,”said another, evoking Lukashenko's former position as a collective farm director and his retention of largely state-controlled Soviet-style economy for Belarus, an Eastern European nation of 9.5 million.
Authorities also have revoked the accreditation of many Belarusian journalists and deported some foreign journalists, including two Moscow-based Associated Press journalists. AP’s Belarusian journalists were among those told their press credentials had been revoked. | Protest_Online Condemnation | September 2020 | ['(ABC News)'] |
Guido de Marco, former President of Malta, lies in state after his death on Thursday. A state funeral is to be held on Monday. |
Saturday, 14th August 2010 - 09:25CET
The Nationalist Party this morning gave an emotional farewell to former President Guido de Marco, its long-serving former deputy leader, as the cortege with his coffin stopped outside party headquarters while on its way from Mater Dei Hospital to the Palace in Valletta.
A big banner bearing a picture of Prof de Marco and the words Perseveranza and perswazjoni , the hallmarks of his political career, was displayed from the balcony of the headquarters building as a crowd of several hundred waited quietly outside. The banner also said Grazzi Guido.
Among those waiting for the cortege was Pietru Pawl Busuttil, whom Prof de Marco had stoutly defended in the infamous frame-up in 1986. Mr Busuttil said he owed Prof de Marco the opportunity he had given him to continue to enjoy his family.
Also outside PN headquarters to salute Prof de Marco were Eddie Fenech Adami and Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, both former Presidents, party colleagues, and friends since the 1940s.
The cortege, escorted by six police outriders, was driven slowly down part of St Joseph High Street in Hamrun, where Prof de Marco was hugely popular, and then turned towards PN headquarters.
The crowd burst into applause, some shouted 'Guido, Guido', and others threw flowers at the hearse as it drew up outside PN headquarters, where they could see the simple coffin. Many had tears in their eyes, including Mr Busuttil in what was a deeply emotional moment.
The cortege then continued its sad journey towards the Palace in Valletta.
Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco emerged from his car to thank the former Presidents, the party leadership and the crowd, amid further applause and tears.
Prof de Marco was a Nationalist MP for 33 years, having been elected at every general election from 1966, sometimes from two electoral divisions. He was general secretary under George Borg Olivier and deputy to Eddie Fenech Adami until he resigned from Parliament and the party to become President in 1999.
The PN has a book of consolence for Prof de Marco at headquarters.
People also lined Republic Street as the cortege arrived in Valletta. The hearse was first driven down St Paul Street, past Strickland House (Prof de Marco was chairman of the Strickland Foundation) and past the churches of St Paul and St Diminic.
The cortege then went down Republic Street to the Palace, where a crowd was waiting.
The coffin was carried into the Palace by, among others, Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco and close collaborators of Prof de Marco - with tears in their eyes - as the people applauded.
It was placed at the entrance of the Palace, at the foot of a 300-year-old crucifix, and four soldiers took up positions at the four corners, arms reversed in a sign of mourning.
The Palace was Prof de Marco's office as President between 1999 and 2004, and he also served there as an MP for 33 years.
President George Abela paid his respects at 10.30 a.m. accompanied by the de Marco family.
The PN leadership will call at the Palace at Noon. The Labour Party administration will pay its respects at 4 p.m. and will later sign the book of condolence at PN headquarters.
The former President will lie in state today until 7 p.m. people may also pay their respects tomorrow between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. and 4 and 7 p.m. and from 9 a.m. to noon on Monday.
The state funeral will be held on Monday afternoon, with Mass at St John's Co-Cathedral at 3.30 p.m. | Famous Person - Death | August 2010 | ['(The Times of Malta)'] |
Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor is discharged from a United States hospital after spending four weeks there. | Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor has returned home after being discharged from hospital, four weeks after breaking her hip in a fall at her Los Angeles mansion.
Her departure follows earlier reports she would remain at the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Los Angeles after contracting an infection.
Gabor's husband, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, told reporters she was "happy" to be home.
"She can go on for many more years," he said of his 93-year-old partner.
Gabor had been expected to spend a week in hospital after undergoing hip replacement surgery on 19 July.
But her condition began to deteriorate after the operation, forcing her to remain longer than originally anticipated.
Her husband said Gabor was "not a young chick" and had been "scared" during her extended stay in hospital.
He knew his wife was "in good shape", however, when she "started flirting with the guys who took her home".
Gabor - who appeared in such films as Moulin Rouge and Touch of Evil - is partially paralysed and uses a wheelchair following a car accident in 2002 and a 2005 stroke.
The Hungarian-born actress was taken back to her Bel-Air mansion on Wednesday in an ambulance that formed part of a four-car convoy.
Gabor's hospital release delayed
Gabor critical after transfusion
Zsa Zsa Gabor to have hip surgery
Zsa Zsa Gabor taken to hospital
| Famous Person - Recovered | August 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Nearly 200 civilians, mostly Catholics, are forced to flee their villages due to renewed fighting between the military and the Kachin Independence Army in Myanmar’s conflict-stricken Kachin state. | UCA News reporter Updated: March 17, 2021 08:59 AM GMT
Protesters take cover behind homemade shields as they confront the police during a crackdown on demonstrations against the military coup in Yangon on March 16. (Photo: AFP)
Nearly 200 civilians, mostly Catholics, have been forced to flee their villages due to renewed fighting between the military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Myanmar’s conflict-stricken Kachin state.
The elderly, women and children were among the fleeing Kachin civilians in four villages in Injangyang township where fightingbroke out on March 15.
People took temporary refuge at Our Lady, Queen of Heaven Church in Tang Hpre village where the parish priest took them after they had slept outside on March 15 night.
Father Stephan Supma Sut Awng said the military didn’t allow the civilians to go to an internally displaced person (IDP) camp on March 16 morning, so they had to stay in the church compound until the evening.
After negotiations between community leaders and military officials, they were allowed to go to the IDP camp.
“Tensions remain high, so staying in the camp is better for their safety. I don’t think they can go back to their villages in the present situation,” Father Sut Awng told UCA News.
Gum Awng, assistant leader at the Catholic Church-run Pa La Na camp in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state, said most of the fleeing civilians were from the camp but had returned to their villages to do farming work. Around 30 people were newly displaced, he said.
The renewed fighting in Kachin ended a truce between the military and KIA that started in December 2018.
A shelling on March 11 in Kamaing township reportedly injured four people including two children, according to the United Nations on March 16.
Local media reported that the KIA ambushed military-controlled areas last week, prompting the military to use fighter jets to attack the group.
More than 100,000 people have taken shelter at IDP camps in Kachin and Shan states since June 2011.
Most of Kachin’s 1.7 million people are Christians, including about 116,000 Catholics.
While the military is fighting ethnic groups in Kachin and Karen states, it is also conducting a brutal crackdown against unarmed protesters in urban areas including Yangon and Mandalay following the Feb. 1 coup.
At least 149 people have been killed, with at least 11 killed on March 15 and 57 over last weekend according to the UN on March 16.
It said arrests and detentions were continuing throughout the country, with more than 2,084 people remaining arbitrarily detained.
At least five deaths in custody have occurred in recent weeks, with at least two victims’ bodies showing signs of “severe physical abuse indicating that they were tortured,” according to the UN.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military seized power and toppled the elected civilian National League for Democracy government and detained leaders including Aung San Suu Kyi.
Mobile data has been cut off since 1am on March 15 after Sunday’s bloodshed in Hlaingtharyar, an industrial area on Yangon’s outskirts, when more than 60 protesters were killed and 300 injured, according to media reports. | Armed Conflict | March 2021 | ['(KIA)', '(UCA News)'] |
International demands grow that the United States close Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The European Parliament votes overwhelmingly for a resolution urging that the prison be closed and inmates given a fair trial. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair calls Guantanamo an "anomaly" . UN General Secretary Kofi Annan calls for the camp to be closed "as soon as possible" . Former Irish President and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson urges the US to act on the findings of the UN report (RTÉ), while Northern Ireland Secretary of State Peter Hain also calls for its closure. This follows a United Nations report which calls for it to be closed. | The United States owes it to itself to uphold its own standards, close its prison camp and grant alleged terrorists fair trials.
Gulag. The word has particularly ugly connotations. Having been first used to describe repressive prisons or forced-labour camps in the former Soviet Union, it brings to mind the worst breaches of human rights in Stalinist Russia - detention without trial, torture, executions. Until recently it was a term associated only with the least democratic of political regimes. Yet it is the word Amnesty International used in its annual report last year to describe the Guantanamo Bay prison camp at the US Naval Base in Cuba. That report accused the US of being responsible for an upsurge in global human rights violations and called for the camp to be closed. President Bush dismissed the report as absurd and his Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, called the label "reprehensible".
Now the United Nations, in a 54-page report produced by independent experts for the UN Human Rights Commission, has repeated the call for closure and has strongly condemned the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. It points to cases of "excessive violence" during transportation of prisoners and force-feeding of hunger strikers, which it says "must be assessed as amounting to torture", and has paid particular attention to the lack of a recognised legal process. It found that the US military acted as judge, prosecutor and defence in the special trials because they regard the detainees as "enemy combatants" who were not entitled to the rights accorded by the Geneva Conventions to prisoners of war at the conclusion of a war. The UN report maintains that the war on terror "does not constitute an armed conflict for the purposes of the applicability of international humanitarian law" and so US authorities must "expeditiously bring all Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial" under international law "or release them without further delay".
Adding to the pressure on the US, the European Parliament this week voted overwhelmingly for a resolution urging that the prison be closed and inmates given a fair trial, and a British High Court judge called for the repatriation of three British residents. He observed: "America's idea of what is torture is not the same as ours and does not appear to coincide with that of most civilised nations."
This is in stark contrast to the line taken by the Australian Government, which has not only failed to condemn US treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay but has abrogated its responsibility to ensure that its own citizens are treated justly. Although Mamdouh Habib gained his freedom last year, 30-year-old David Hicks remains in detention, having been held since his capture with Taliban forces in Afghanistan in December 2001. For more than two years no charges were laid, a delay that clearly showed US contempt for the rule of law. Yet the Australian Government did worse than fail to protest at this; it has almost gleefully supported the actions of the Bush Administration in denying Hicks a prompt and fair trial.
While the Howard Government has been obsequious in its dealings with the Americans, Britain has managed to secure freedom for its nine citizens held at Guantanamo, without damaging its alliance with the US.
Britain's success highlights the randomness of the American approach. Presumably little marked the nine Britons out from the other detainees, yet they have been released without a trial and with no repercussions. Nor was Guantanamo Bay considered appropriate for US citizens charged with terrorist activities - they have been accorded their rights according to the US justice system. Yet the President's spokesman continues to claim that the Guantanamo detainees are "dangerous terrorists" who must be held indefinitely and have no entitlement to the rights accorded by international treaties. These men seem to be considered more dangerous and less deserving of legal protection than the vanquished Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who has used his trial in Baghdad to berate the presiding judge and shout support for Iraqi insurgents.
Winston Churchill once said: "The power of the executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgement of his peers, is in the highest degree odious, and the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist." If the US is to be true to its mission as "the land of the free", it must act on the UN recommendations and close this sorry chapter in its history without delay. | Organization Closed | February 2006 | ['(The Age)', '(Guardian)', '(Toronto Star)', '(BBC)', '(Scotsman)'] |
Jared Kushner, son-in-law of and Senior Advisor to the President of the United States, is identified as a main focus of investigations into Russian ties by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. | Investigators are focusing on a series of meetings held by Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and an influential White House adviser, as part of their probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and related matters, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Kushner, who held meetings in December with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, is being investigated because of the extent and nature of his interactions with the Russians, the people said.
The Washington Post reported last week that a senior White House official close to the president was a significant focus of the high-stakes investigation, though it did not name Kushner.
FBI agents also remain keenly interested in former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, but Kushner is the only current White House official known to be considered a key person in the probe.
The Post has not been told that Kushner is a target — or the central focus — of the investigation, and he has not been accused of any wrongdoing. “Target” is a word that generally refers to someone who is the main suspect of investigators’ attention, though prosecutors can and do bring charges against people who are not marked with that distinction.
“Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry,” said Jamie Gorelick, one of his attorneys.
In addition to possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election, investigators are also looking broadly into possible financial crimes — but the people familiar with the matter, who were not authorized to speak publicly, did not specify who or what was being examined.
[Russia probe reaches current White House official, people familiar with case say] Sarah Isgur Flores, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said, “I can’t confirm or deny the existence or nonexistence of investigations or subjects of investigations.” The FBI declined to comment. At the time of the December meetings, Trump already had won the election. Contacts between people on the transition team and foreign governments can be routine, but the meetings and phone calls with the Russians were not made public at the time.
In early December, Kushner met in New York with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, and he later sent a deputy to meet with Kislyak. Flynn was also present at the early-December meeting, and later that month, Flynn held a call with Kislyak to discuss U.S.-imposed sanctions against Russia. Flynn initially mischaracterized the conversation, even to Vice President Pence — ultimately prompting his ouster from the White House.
Kushner also met in December with Sergey Gorkov, the head of Vnesheconombank, which has been the subject of U.S. sanctions following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its support of separatists in eastern Ukraine.
In addition to the December meetings, a former senior intelligence official said FBI agents had been looking closely at earlier exchanges between Trump associates and the Russians dating to the spring of 2016, including one at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Kushner and Kislyak — along with close Trump adviser and current attorney general Jeff Sessions — were present at an April 2016 event at the Mayflower where then-candidate Trump promised in a speech to seek better relations with Russia. It is unclear whether Kushner and Kislyak interacted there.
The New York Times reported that Kushner omitted from security-clearance forms his December meetings with Kislyak and Gorkov, though his attorney said that was a mere error and he told the FBI soon after that he would amend the forms. The White House said that his meetings were normal and inconsequential.
Kushner has agreed to discuss his Russian contacts with the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting one of several investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
In many ways, Kushner is a unique figure inside the White House.
He is arguably the president’s most trusted adviser, and he is also a close member of the president’s family. His list of policy responsibilities is vast — his foreign policy portfolio alone includes Canada and Mexico, China, and peace in the Middle East — yet he rarely speaks publicly about any of them.
Former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III is now leading the probe into possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign, and he has set up shop in the Patrick Henry Building in downtown D.C. Even before he was picked by Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein to take over the case, investigators had been stepping up their efforts — issuing subpoenas and looking to conduct interviews, people familiar with the matter said.
A small group of lawmakers known as the Gang of Eight was recently notified of the change in tempo and focus in the investigation at a classified briefing.
It is unclear exactly how Mueller’s leadership will affect the direction of the probe. This week, Justice Department ethics experts cleared him to take over the case even though lawyers at his former firm, WilmerHale, represent several people who could be caught up in the matter, including Kushner, Manafort and Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who is married to Kushner.
Mueller resigned from the firm to take over the investigation.
Investigators are continuing to look aggressively into the dealings of Flynn, and a grand jury in Alexandria, Va., recently issued a subpoenas for records related to Flynn’s businesses and finances, according to people familiar with the matter.
Flynn’s company, the Flynn Intel Group, was paid more than $500,000 by a company owned by a Turkish American businessman close to top Turkish officials for research on Fethullah Gulen, a cleric who Turkey’s president claims was responsible for a coup attempt last summer. Flynn retroactively registered with the Justice Department in March as a paid foreign agent for Turkish interests.
Separately from the probe now run by Mueller, Flynn is being investigated by the Pentagon’s top watchdog for his foreign payments. Flynn also received $45,000 to appear in 2015 with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a dinner for RT, a Kremlin-controlled media organization.
Read more: Here’s why the FBI is likely to be interested in Jared Kushner’s meeting with Russians The investigation of Jared Kushner fits a very troubling pattern We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
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One person dies and nine others are injured in a shooting at a block party on a basketball court in Detroit, Michigan. | One person was killed and nine others wounded Saturday night when someone opened fire at a neighborhood block party on a basketball court in Detroit, police said.
Asst. Police Chief Steve Dolunt said a 20-year-old man was killed. He was not being identified while relatives were informed.
Another man was critically injured and eight others, five men and three women, were listed as seriously injured. The victims ranged in age from 21 to 46, he said.
Dolunt said the shooting happened at a neighborhood party that included a barbecue attended by families with some small children in strollers.
"Through the grace of God no children were shot," he said.
Authorities suspect the dead man was targeted by the shooter, although Dolunt said that was preliminary. | Armed Conflict | June 2015 | ['(AP via News24)', '(ABC News)'] |
The Trump administration lifts the sanctions it placed on Turkey, in response to the latter's ceasefire. While U.S. President Donald Trump states the ceasefire is permanent, he threatens to reinstate the sanctions if "something happens that we are not happy with". | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday a ceasefire in northern Syria is now permanent and lifted sanctions on Turkey as a result, rejecting criticism of his decision to pull out U.S. troops that allowed Kurdish allies to come under attack.
Trump declares Syria cease-fire 'permanent,' lifts Turkey sanctions
03:26
In a White House speech, Trump described the truce as a “major breakthrough” negotiated by a team led by Vice President Mike Pence. Trump said he instructed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to rescind sanctions imposed on Turkey after it attacked the Kurds “unless something happens that we are not happy with”.
“Countless lives are now being saved as a result of our negotiation with Turkey, an outcome reached without spilling one drop of American blood: no injuries, nobody shot, nobody killed,” Trump said.
He said he may meet Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan soon.
The speech failed to blunt attacks from U.S. lawmakers over Trump’s abrupt decision early this month to withdraw troops out of northeastern Syria to clear the way for the Turkish incursion. Congress was still working on a sanctions package of its own to punish Turkey for its cross-border offensive.
Kurdish allies who helped the United States in its war against Islamic State militants felt abandoned by Trump, whose policy created an opening that Russia has capitalized on by moving forces into the area. The fate of Islamic State militants in Syrian Kurdish prisons also remained up in the air.
A senior Trump administration official, briefing reporters on a conference call, said while most ISIS (Islamic State) fighters remained under lock and key, it appeared that a small number had escaped from prisons. Turkey was responsible for rounding them up, he said.
“We’re keeping a very close eye on the situation with the ISIS fighters,” the official said.
The official also expressed wariness about Russia’s movement of forces into the area as part of an agreement with Turkey.
There is no indication that Turkish forces have attacked local populations as feared by critics, the official said.
The controversy over Trump’s Syria pullout has contributed to a climate of chaos in Washington, where Democrats are seeking to remove Trump from office through impeachment over his attempts to get Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer took to the Senate floor to excoriate Trump.
“Three weeks after first announcing the troop withdrawal, the president does not seem to have a clear strategy for securing the enduring defeat of ISIS and fixing the mess he’s created in Syria,” said Schumer.
Trump continued his drumbeat of criticism of past U.S. efforts to keep American forces in the Middle East.
The United States will “let someone else fight over this long, bloodstained sand,” he said.
| Government Policy Changes | October 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
This potentially record storm, which is predicted to generate blizzard conditions through a third day on Sunday, has caused at least 10 deaths, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands, led to more than 8,300 canceled flights, stranded many travelers on major highways and, with up to 70 mph winds, produced record-high tides along the Delaware and New Jersey shores. | NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New York City emerged on Sunday from a massive blizzard that paralyzed much of the U.S. East Coast, while snowy gridlock gripped the nation’s capital and surrounding areas, where federal, state and local offices planned to remain closed on Monday.
Midtown Manhattan sprang back to life on a bright and sunny Sunday as residents and tourists rejoiced in the warming sunlight, digging out buried cars, heading to reopened Broadway shows and cavorting in massive drifts left by New York City’s second-biggest snowstorm on record.
In Washington, where a traffic ban remained in effect, the recovery got off to a slower start, with the entire metropolitan transit system closed through Sunday. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management said federal government offices in the Washington area would be shut down on Monday, along with local government offices and public schools in the District of Columbia and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs. Virginia and Maryland state offices also were ordered closed.
Even so, many people were out in the street. Some skied and snowboarded down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial until security officials moved them on.
The monster weather system unofficially dubbed Winter Storm Jonas left at least 20 dead in several states, with most of the fatalities the result of traffic accidents.
The entire region seemed to breathe a sigh of relief that the worst was over.
“For us, snow is like a normal winter,” said Viola Rogacka, 21, a fashion model from Poland, walking with a friend through New York’s Times Square. “It’s how it should look like.”
Theaters reopened on Broadway after the blizzard forced them to go dark on Saturday on the recommendation of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“We still have some areas that we have to do a lot more work on. But we’ve come through it pretty well,” de Blasio said on ABC’s Sunday program “This Week”. “We think we’ll be broadly up and running again at the city tomorrow.”
Related Coverage
The blizzard was the second-biggest snowstorm in New York City history, with 26.8 inches (68 cm) measured in Central Park by midnight on Saturday, just shy of the record 26.9 inches (68.3 cm) set in 2006, the National Weather Service said.
At least 13 people were killed in weather-related car crashes in Arkansas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia on Saturday. One person died in Maryland and three in New York while shoveling snow. Two died of hypothermia in Virginia, and one from carbon monoxide poisoning in Pennsylvania, officials said.
Reinsurance company Munich Re said it was too early to estimate property losses from the storm.
New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo lifted a travel ban on New York City-area roads and on Long Island at 7 a.m. (1200 GMT) on Sunday. A state of emergency declared by Cuomo was still in place.
Most bus and subway services operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority were up and running again by 9 a.m. (1400 GMT), officials said. The agency was working on restoring full service on Sunday.
The MTA said Sunday night that seven of the Long Island Rail Road’s 12 branches would be fully operational by 5 a.m. on Monday, with partial service restored to an eighth branch. Those branches serve nearly 80 percent of the LIRR’s near 300,000 passengers.
The Metro-North rail line, which serves suburbs north and east of New York City, was restored on Sunday afternoon.
A spokeswoman for the New York Stock Exchange said the market planned to open as usual on Monday. City schools also were set to open on Monday.
On the Upper West Side of Manhattan, grocery store shoppers picked their way through brown slush and over compressed snow and ice as they balanced their bags in their hands.
Drivers tried their best to free cars that were encased in snow, but often found themselves spinning their wheels.
Outside the city, suburban New Jersey resembled Vermont.
“I’m not sure where I am right now because of all the snow,” said Patty Orsini, 56, a marketing analyst from Maplewood, New Jersey, at the nearby South Mountain Reservation. “It’s nice to be out today in the sun. Yesterday it was scary to be outside,” she said as she clipped on her cross-country skis.
The National Weather Service said 22.4 inches (57 cm) fell in Washington at the National Zoo, and Baltimore-Washington International Airport notched a record 29.2 inches (74.2 cm). The deepest regional total was 42 inches (106.7 cm) at Glengarry, West Virginia.
Washington, which has a poor track record in dealing with snow, seemed unready for a return to its Monday routine after its largest snowstorm in decades, with major airports, public buses and subways completely shut down all Sunday. Metro trains were to begin limited service starting at 7 a.m. on Monday.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser earlier issued a public apology for commuting headaches caused by the blizzard, which locals dubbed “Snowzilla.” She said crews had worked all night and Sunday, plowing main roads and were just getting to secondary roadways and neighborhoods.
Public schools were slated to be closed on Monday across much of the Washington and Baltimore region, with some shuttered through Tuesday.
All federal offices were to be closed on Monday and the U.S. House of Representatives canceled its voting until Feb. 1. The Pentagon canceled all its events.
Nevertheless, walkers, sledders, some cars and the occasional cross-country skier ventured into the dazzling white Washington landscape under a bright sun.
Paul Schaaf, a 49-year-old helicopter pilot for Children’s Hospital in Washington, was biking 7-1/2 miles (12 km) to work for his overnight shift and planned to bike back to Arlington, Virginia, on Monday morning.
“I have to get into work no matter what. And the best way to do it is on my bicycle with steel-studded snow tires,” he said.
At Dupont Circle, hundreds gathered to pelt each other with snowballs. Jomel Nichols, a tourist from Kansas City, Missouri, accompanying three exchange students and her daughter, was plastered with snow.
“They all turned on me, as teenagers will do,” she told Reuters Television.
More than 3,900 airline flights were canceled on Sunday, and some 900 were called off for Monday, according to aviation website FlightAware.com.
Among New York-area airports, John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia were open, with limited flight activity expected on Sunday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said.
About 150,000 customers in North Carolina and 90,000 in New Jersey lost electricity during the storm, but most service had been restored by Sunday afternoon.
On Sunday, moderate coastal flooding was still a concern in the Jersey Shore’s Atlantic County, said Linda Gilmore, a county public information officer.
Additional reporting by Lisa Lambert and Susan Cornwell in Washington, David Gaffen, Sam Forgione, Barbara Goldberg and Robert MacMillan in New York, Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Writing by Bill Rigby and Steve Gorman; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Sandra Maler and Simon Cameron-Moore
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | January 2016 | ['(NBC News)', '(Reuters)', '(ESPN)'] |
The United States Federal Aviation Administration issues an order that prohibits all airlines from flying from Turkey to the U.S., and bans U.S. commercial and private aircraft from flying to Turkey. | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has prohibited all airlines from flying from Turkey to the United States, it said on Saturday, after a failed coup sparked violence and a government crackdown there.
The agency also issued a notice banning U.S. commercial and private aircraft from flying to Turkey.
“The FAA is monitoring the situation in Turkey in coordination with our partners in the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security and will update the restrictions as the situation evolves,” it said in a statement.
Turkish authorities on Saturday rounded up nearly 3,000 suspected plotters of a military coup after violence shook Turkey’s two main cities on Friday night.
| Government Policy Changes | July 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A helicopter carrying senior Afghan National Army officials crashes, killing all 25 people on board in the western Farah Province, Afghanistan. The Taliban claims responsibility for shooting it down, however Afghan officials blame bad weather as the cause of the crash. , | The Taliban claimed responsibility, but officials say the helicopter hit a mountain peak in poor weather.
Wednesday 31 October 2018 09:02, UK
Twenty-five people have been killed after an Afghan army helicopter crashed in bad weather.
The crash happened in the western Farah province, which borders Iran.
All 25 people on board were killed, including the deputy commander of the western zone, a provincial spokesman said.
General Naimudullah Khalil died alongside two members of the Farah provincial council, including chairman Farid Bakhtawar.
Mohammad Naser Mehri, spokesman for the Farah governor, said the helicopter crashed shortly after taking off from the mountainous Anar Dara district at around 9.10am (4.40am GMT).
It was heading towards nearby Herat province.
The Taliban claimed its militants brought it down, while provincial council member Dadullah Qaneh said the helicopter hit a mountain peak in poor weather.
Helicopter crashes are not uncommon in the mountainous country.
In September, five crew members died when their helicopter crashed. Investigators blamed the crash on a technical failure, but did not provide further explanation.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a suicide bomb attack took place outside the country's largest prison on the edge of the capital Kabul.
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No one has claimed the attack which claimed the lives of seven people, including prison workers and security personnel, the interior ministry said.
The attacker targeted a bus carrying prison workers, he said.
The Pul-e-Charkhi prison houses hundreds of inmates, including a large number of Taliban insurgents.
Abadullah Karimi, a prison official, said the attack occurred near the prison gate where visitors were waiting to pass a rigorous security check before entering. | Air crash | October 2018 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(Sky News)'] |
Five deaths occur in Turkey as a result of flash floods. | Flash floods and a landslide triggered by heavy rainfall in north-east Turkey have killed at least four people, state media reports.
Three members of one family died when their house was crushed by a landslide on Wednesday night near the border with Georgia, Anatolia news agency reported. One three-year-old girl was rescued from the house and search teams are looking for a fifth family member. An elderly woman drowned in a nearby village, Anatolia reported. Mustafa Yemlihalioglu, the governor of Artvin province, said several buildings in the area had collapsed but had been evacuated before the overnight flooding. Earlier this month, more than 30 people were killed by flash floods in Istanbul and other parts of north-west Turkey after two days of torrential rainfall - the worst in 80 years. | Floods | September 2009 | ['(Xinhua)', '(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
The Communications Commission of Kenya embarks on a compulsory mobile phone registration initiative as part of the country's crime reduction policy; numbers remaining unregistered by the end of July are to be disconnected. | Users will have to supply identity documents and proof of address before they get a number.
Any numbers still unregistered at the end of July will be disconnected, the government says.
The BBC's Odhiambo Joseph in Nairobi says many people there support the move, hoping it will make life more difficult for criminals.
Kidnapping gangs often use unregistered mobile numbers to text ransom demands, he says.
Police commissioner Mathew Iteere told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that mobile phones must be registered because they could now be used like computers.
"It has become a tool of banking, it can be used to steal data, [to] transmit unauthorised information and perpetrates huge frauds."
Information ministry official Bitange Ndemo last week said registering the numbers would help the authorities tackle terrorism, drugs-trafficking and money-laundering, as well as the sending of hate messages.
Neighbouring Tanzania has already started a similar exercise, so our reporter says it is not controversial.
He says the outlet he visited was packed with people registering their numbers.
Kenya has about 20 million mobile-phone users - about half the population - and has a well developed mobile-phone banking network.
Between 97-99% of mobile-phone users in Africa use pre-paid vouchers, reports the news agency Reuters.
It is easier to use pre-paid vouchers without registering an address.
However, some analysts say registering people in some African countries may be difficult if they do not live in a house with an official address. | Government Policy Changes | June 2010 | ['(Kenya Broadcasting Corporation)', '(Daily Nation)', '(BBC)', '(TMC Net)'] |
Iran releases film director Jafar Panahi after more than two months in custody, including a hunger strike, following an international campaign led by the actress Juliette Binoche. | The acclaimed film-maker had been held in Tehran's Evin prison after voicing support for an opposition candidate in last year's disputed election.
He was released on a bail of $200,000 (£140,000), it was reported.
His case has been referred to a revolutionary court, and he may still face trial, the official Irna news agency said.
He had been on hunger strike for a week to protest against his detention.
Mr Panahi's films are known for their social commentary. He has been a vocal critic of Iran's strict Islamic law and government system.
The writer and director was arrested in March along with members of his family, but the Iranian authorities maintained that his detention was not political. Mr Panahi's family were released shortly after their arrest.
Mr Panahi has won awards at the Venice and Berlin Film Festivals, and was due to be acting as a member of the jury at this year's Cannes Film Festival in France.
International pressure had been growing on Iran to release Mr Panahi, and he was the subject of an impassioned protest by actress Juliet Binoche as she accepted an award at the festival.
Abbas Kiarostami - perhaps the best-known Iranian director internationally - spoke at Cannes about Mr Panahi's imprisonment for a film he is said to have been working on. Mr Kiarostami said he did not understand how a film could be a crime. The Iranian authorities have clamped down on dissenting voices since protests flared over the disputed elections last June.
There have been reports of at least 30 protesters being killed in clashes since the polls, although the opposition says more than 70 have died. Thousands have been detained and some 200 activists remain behind bars. At least nine have been sentenced to death, and two have been executed already. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | May 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Daily Telegraph)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Elements from the maritime forces of India, Japan, and the United States engage in joint military exercises in the Bay of Bengal. | NEW DELHI — Naval warships, aircraft carriers and submarines from the U.S., India and Japan steamed into the Bay of Bengal on Saturday as they took part in joint military exercises off India's east coast, signaling the growing strategic ties among the three countries as they face up to a rising China.
The sea drills, part of the six-day-long Malabar exercises, will cover the full spectrum of naval maneuvers, including military-to-military coordination and anti-submarine warfare, according to a joint statement.
The U.S. has deployed the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, a missile cruiser and a nuclear-powered submarine for the annual exercises, which end Monday.
"India and Japan both are fantastic partners of the United States," Capt. Craig Clapperton, commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, told reporters on board the ship. "We share a great deal in common, and we certainly have very strong economic, military and political relationships and friendships with India and Japan."
A Chinese state-run newspaper, however, cautioned India to guard against being drawn into an anti-China alliance.
"The China-India relationship is on a sound track, and healthy ties are beneficial to both countries," the Global Times said. "India should be vigilant to any intentions of roping it into an anti-China camp."
Almost simultaneously, China's People's Liberation Army and the Indian army are conducting joint counterterrorism exercises in southwestern China. | Military Exercise | October 2015 | ['(Military Times)'] |
Foreign Minister of Israel Tzipi Livni is selected as the new leader of the Kadima party, putting her in position to possibly become the first female Prime Minister of Israel since Golda Meir. | TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was set to be Israel’s next prime minister after a comfortable victory on Wednesday in a party leadership election to choose a replacement for Ehud Olmert.
Contest for Olmert successor
02:28
“The good guys won,” the former corporate lawyer and one-time Mossad intelligence agent told supporters within the ruling centrist Kadima party after exit polls gave her a clear margin over retired general Shaul Mofaz, the transport minister.
Palestinian peace negotiators -- and possibly the sponsors of the peace process in Washington -- were among those applauding as official results began to confirm a win for Livni, who has led talks with the Palestinians this year.
But the daughter of storied Zionist guerrilla fighters of the 1940s will require combative spirit and political flair to consolidate her goal of becoming Israel’s first woman leader since the redoubtable Golda Meir in the 1970s.
Olmert, who telephoned Livni with congratulations, has said he will resign as soon as Kadima has a new leader. But the outgoing premier, who could be indicted for corruption, has also vowed to exercise his right to stay on in a caretaker capacity until Livni forges her own, new coalition government.
That process, involving deals with ambitious Labour party leader Ehud Barak on the left and influential Jewish religious parties on the right, could take weeks or months. Many believe there may yet be an early parliamentary election, which polls show Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud would win.
“You were just incredible,” Livni said in a conference call to supporters that was broadcast on Army Radio.
“I just want afterwards not to disappoint any of you and to do all the right things that you fought for.”
Mofaz aides said he had no plans to speak until Thursday and would not concede defeat until the final results were confirmed.
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Exit polls by two Israeli broadcasters gave Livni 47 to 49 percent of votes cast on a turnout of about half of Kadima’s 74,000 members. That was comfortably ahead of Mofaz on 37 percent and well above the 40-percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff second round.
Kadima, founded in 2005 by then premier Ariel Sharon, has just a quarter of the seats in the Knesset. Rivals, some within Olmert’s coalition, are preparing for a national election battle well ahead of the next scheduled parliamentary vote in 2010.
“This is the beginning of a very arduous road to become prime minister,” former Sharon adviser Raanan Gissin said.
“She needs to reach a consensus at home because otherwise Kadima will fall apart at the seams.”
As chief negotiator in the peace talks with the Palestinians launched by U.S. President George W. Bush 10 months ago, Livni is widely seen as offering continuity in that process. But few on either side see a major breakthrough for peace before Bush himself leaves office four months from now.
Olmert has vowed himself to try to see a deal through.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurie told Reuters: “Because Livni was immersed in the peace process, we believe she will pursue peace moves with us.
“We welcome the choice of the Israeli people.”
Political analyst Shmuel Sandler said: “It is very difficult to predict whether she will be a strong prime minister.”
But he noted her personal ties with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and said: “In Washington they will be very pleased with this outcome; she is a good friend of Condoleezza.”
Hailed by supporters as a “Mrs Clean” who would end the taint of scandal left by Olmert and others, Livni said in a campaign statement earlier on Wednesday: “This is a second chance to shape Israel’s image, to fix the damage.”
A career lawyer whose husband is a prominent entrepreneur, Livni is seen as offering continuity with the market-oriented economic policies of the outgoing government.
Sandler said: “She looks like ‘Mrs Clean’ which gave her impetus and the media was on her side. But she will still have to form a coalition. Although if the margin of her victory turns out to be as big as the polls suggest it should make it easier.”
Additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller, Adam Entous, Ori Lewis and Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Writing by Alastair Macdonald, Editing by Robert Hart | Government Job change - Election | September 2008 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Gaelic football manager Kevin Heffernan dies at the age of 83. | Tributes have been paid to Kevin Heffernan after the death of the legendary former Dublin gaelic football manager on Friday.
The 83-year-old, who also had a highly successful playing career, died after a lengthy illness.
Heffernan, who played for the famous St Vincent's club, guided Dublin to the 1974, 1976 and 1983 All-Ireland Senior Football titles.
His Dublin team had a remarkable rivalry with Kerry during that period.
After a successful underage and junior playing career, Heffo, as he was affectionately known, captained the Dubs to a National League and All-Ireland Championship double in 1958 when the Leinster champions defeated Derry in the decider.
His playing pedigree led to him being named on the Football Team of the Century in 1984 and he was later picked on the Team of the Millennium.
But while a talented player, Heffernan will be best remembered for his managerial exploits with his charismatic Dublin team of the 1970s.
Dublin football was at something of a low ebb in late 1973 when he took on the county's senior job as they had not been involved in an All-Ireland final since the 1963 victory over Galway.
However, within a year, Heffernan had guided the county back to the summit of the sport as his Dublin side defeated Galway in the decider.
Dublin were expected to retain their title in 1975 but were shocked in the final by a youthful Kerry side.
That game began a remarkable period of rivalry between the two counties which included the classic All-Ireland semi-final won by the Dubs in 1977.
With Heffernan not in charge for that season, Dublin won that memorable contest 3-12 to 1-13 to repeat their 1976 final win over the Kingdom.
Victory over Armagh ensured back-to-back triumphs for Dublin but their hopes of a three-in-a-row, with Heffernan again at the helm, were dashed in 1978 when Kerry earned a 5-11 to to 0-9 in the decider.
That final was tinged was controversy because of a Mikey Sheehy goal which turned the game in Kerry's favour after Dublin had dominated the early stages.
Kerry went on to achieve four successive All-Ireland titles but Heffernan worked his magic again in 1983 as his 12-man Dubs achieved victory over Galway in an ill-tempered decided.
Heffernan went on to manage Ireland to victory over Australia in the Compromise Rules series in 1986.
Paying tribute to Heffernan, GAA president Liam O'Neill said that he had had "an an incalculable impact not only on gaelic games in the capital but nationally helping as he did to forge one of the defining rivalries of the association".
"He was one of the most charismatic and popular figures the association has ever produced and was at the same time an immensely modest man," said the GAA president.
Dublin GAA secretary John Costello added that Heffernan was "ahead of his times as a player, a manager and an administrator".
"He revolutionised Gaelic Football in both how players and teams prepared and operated and also in terms of the philosophy and psychology of our national games," added the Dublin official.
"For his unparalleled devotion and contribution to gaelic football and hurling the association in Dublin will be forever indebted to him." | Famous Person - Death | January 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(The Irish Times)'] |
Two people die during a series of tornadoes in Wadena and Otter Tail County, Minnesota, United States. | ALMORA, Minn. (AP) - June 18, 2010 -- When the storm came through, Jay Hotakainen huddled in the basement of his northwest Minnesota home with his 12-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter. The walls shook and everything in the house rattled.
"They say it sounds like a freight train. It does," Hotakainen said. At least three people were killed and dozens injured as a series of tornadoes tore through Minnesota on Thursday, flattening homes, toppling power lines and leaving a big chunk of Hotakainen's hometown of Wadena treeless.
In nearby Almora, a northwest Minnesota town of about 20 people, an elderly woman was killed when a twister wiped out her home, said Otter Tail County Emergency spokesman David Hauser. Brittney Schulke of Almora told The Daily Journal that her grandmother, Margie Schulke, was killed and that her grandfather, Norman Schulke, suffered two broken shoulders.
Debris including shingles and pieces of buildings littered the town. Several large trees were uprooted.
Farther north, in Mentor, a man was killed when a tornado destroyed a Cenex gas station, the Polk County sheriff's office said. Three other people were hurt.
A series of tornadoes hit 40 to 60 rural properties in southern Minnesota's Freeborn County, killing one person at a farm west of Albert Lea, the county's Emergency Management Director Mark Roche said.
Back in Wadena, Scott Kern was at the Walmart store when the storm came through there. He returned to his mobile home to find it demolished and his all-terrain vehicle up in a tree. His dog, Buttercup, was missing.
"Thanks to the man upstairs I wasn't there," he said, fighting back tears. "This is a real tear-jerker for everybody."
Wadena Mayor Wayne Wolden said sirens gave plenty of warning in his town of about 4,300, where the National Weather Service said a tornado struck around 5 p.m. Wolden said many people were there for an all-school reunion. Both Wadena and Almora are about 70 miles southeast of Fargo, N.D.
Twenty people were treated for injuries at the Wadena hospital, mostly for bumps and bruises, nursing supervisor Kathy Kleen said.
Crews worked overnight to control dozens of gas leaks. Wadena's community pool was destroyed, the high school "extremely busted up" and the community center beyond repair, Wolden said.
His wife, Lori Wolden, said houses were "half-gone" and "there's no trees" in the southwest part of the town, which was barricaded after the storm.
Patty Jones was evacuated from her apartment because of a gas leak and walked around Wadena before taking shelter at the local armory.
"It's terrible. It's whacked out. Nothing's left in one part of town," Jones said.
In Almora, Mabel Wangerin said she heard her bedroom windows rattle as the storm came through, then watched her quilt fly off the bed and out the window.
"I was over by the window and prayed and prayed," Wangerin said.
The National Weather Service said twisters also were spotted in central and southern Minnesota.
In Freeborn County, about two dozen Minnesota National Guard members secured damaged properties, while farmers chased down about 1,000 roaming hogs that got loose in the storm, Roche said.
So many power lines were down that the Minnesota Department of Transportation said it had closed a section of Highway 251 through Freeborn County until at least midmorning Friday.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the state's emergency management director, Kris Eide, planned to visit the Wadena and Albert Lea areas Friday to meet with local officials and survey the damage.
---
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | June 2010 | ['(The New Zealand Herald)', '[permanent dead link]', '(ABC)', '(Serbia News Channel)'] |
The Japan Meteorological Agency announces Category 5 Typhoon Nabi is set to hit Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands and possibly Kyūshū on Monday. | A powerful typhoon churning towards Japan's Okinawa islands has strengthened to a category 5 storm, technically the same strength as Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged the US Gulf states.
An official at Japan's Meteorological Agency has warned Typhoon Nabi could reach Okinawa by Monday, and could also curve up to threaten Japan's southern-most main island of Kyushu.
He says by tomorrow morning, Nabi is expected to increase its wind speed enough to be dubbed violent - the strongest designation Japan uses for typhoons.
However, he also says cooler ocean temperatures near Japan mean Nabi is unlikely to have the same destructive power as Katrina.
Strong prevailing winds are likely to help dissipate its force relatively rapidly, once it approaches | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2005 | ['(ABC)'] |
Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj of the Democratic Party is elected as President of Mongolia. | The leader of the Democratic Party and two-time former prime minister, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, had campaigned on an anti-corruption ticket. Incumbent President Nambaryn Enkhbayar - of the former Communist party - admitted a "narrow" defeat. Official results are yet to be released. The election campaign was dominated by the issue of distributing the country's vast mineral wealth. President Nambaryn Enkhbayar admitted defeat in Sunday's poll, saying he respected the result, according to Chinese state media. He said that, according to parties' counting of the votes, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj - his only rival in the election - had won a narrow victory. Mongolian media are also reporting that Mr Elbegdorj has won. Widespread poverty
Speaking earlier, the Democratic Party chairman told supporters that Mongolia was "meeting a new morning, with a new president". The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Beijing says there were fears that a close result could lead to civil unrest. Allegations of vote rigging during last year's parliamentary poll sparked protests in which five people died and hundreds were hurt. Reports from the capital Ulan Bator say that the streets are calm but police and troops are on stand-by in case of trouble. In 1990, Mongolia abandoned its 70-year-old Soviet-style one-party state and embraced political and economic reforms. Democracy and privatisation were enshrined in a new constitution, but the collapse of the economy after the withdrawal of Soviet support triggered widespread poverty and unemployment in the sparsely-populated, landlocked country. | Government Job change - Election | May 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Ugandan army captures Caesar Achellam, a senior commander of the militant Lord's Resistance Army, in the Central African Republic. | A senior commander in the rebel Lord's Resistance Army has been captured by the Ugandan army, a spokesman has said.
Caesar Achellam was seized on Saturday following a struggle between Ugandan soldiers and a group of 30 rebels.
The commander, whom Ugandan officials say is a top rebel military strategist, was captured in the Central African Republic, one of several nations where the Ugandan-led LRA operates.
The most notorious wanted LRA leader is war crimes suspect Joseph Kony.
Following his arrest, Achellam told reporters: "The general of the division, Caesar Achellam, who has fought in the jungle since 1984, is from now on in the hands of the Ugandan Army."
"My coming out will have a big impact for the people still in the bush to come out and end this war soon," he said.
Ugandan army spokesman Felix Kulaigye, meanwhile, said: "The arrest of Major General Caesar Achellam is big progress because he is a big fish. "His capture is definitely going to cause an opinion shift within LRA."
The commander's wife, his young daughter and a helper were also held.
Kony's global notoriety has increased in recent months because of the internet video Kony 2012, which has been watched tens of millions of times since it was posted online by the US advocacy group Invisible Children.
He is wanted by the International Criminal Court for rape, mutilation and murder of civilians, as well as forcibly recruiting children to serve as soldiers and sex slaves.
The UN's special representative for Central Africa said on Saturday that Kony was having to move constantly in order to evade capture.
Abou Moussa said: "Contrary to what Kony used to do - that he would stay one month, two months on the ground - he is now moving almost every other day which means the pressure is mounting on him."
The Ugandan army is being assisted in its hunt for Kony by soldiers from other African nations, as well as US special forces.
The strength of his LRA is estimated at between 200 and 500 fighters.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | May 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
The world's biggest banks endorse a rescue plan, also supported by the United States Treasury, to restore the world's financial system. | The world's biggest banks have endorsed a private rescue plan to restore the world's financial system to health.
The plan also has the backing of the US Treasury, which urged private banks to take measures to restore confidence to fragile credit markets.
They have been spooked by the existence of billions of dollars in bad debts from US sub-prime mortgages.
Under the plan, the banks would package up their bad debts into a single "superfund" worth about $200bn.
This could then be sold off to private investors.
Speaking on the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank annual meeting, Josef Ackermann, chairman of Deutsche Bank and the bankers' trade association the Institute of International Finance (IIF), said that his members "welcomed market initiatives aimed at accelerating the restoration of confidence and liquidity" to world credit markets.
But he added that it was "premature to make a firm judgement as not all the details are known".
The three biggest US banks have backed the plan, but there has been some uncertainty as to whether European banks - and investors such as pension funds - would take part, with the fear of more undisclosed bad debts overhanging the discussion.
Mr Ackermann urged all banks to fully disclose the nature of their losses. Banks, he said, should take their losses in order to reassure the markets.
He added that "the system is healthy, the banks are strong, and we have not taken risks we could not adjust".
Further risks
But Bill Rhodes, the president of Citibank's international banking arm, warned that the crisis was not over, and could spill into emerging markets, and get worse in the US.
"The period immediately ahead is fraught with risks for the global economy - risks which could spill over into emerging markets' finance," he said.
The global economy seems set for more uncertain times
And although there are record capital flows - estimated by the IIF at $625bn this year - going to developing countries, "it would be a mistake for the emerging market authorities to be complacent just because their markets have performed better than the developed countries in recent turbulent times".
Mr Rhodes said the main danger, however, was that the sub-prime mortgage crisis would spread to the rest of the US housing market, causing a fall in house prices, and a decline in consumer confidence and spending. This could lead to a more serious recession in the US, which would in turn worsen the financial crisis.
Mr Rhodes said there were further risks - of a sharp collapse in prices in developing country stock markets, of rising inflation, driven by high oil and commodity prices, and of a potential collapse of the value of the US dollar, due to the growing trade imbalance with China and other Asian countries.
Learning lessons
The private banking sector takes some of the responsibility for the current problems, according to Mr Ackermann, but is keen to learn the lessons to prevent future crises.
It is considering the creation of a monitoring committee to look at financial market conditions in rich countries, which could serve as an early warning system where problems might be spotted before they became too serious.
And it is establishing a working group to help set standards in lending, and in the more prudent use of the some of the complex financial instruments which are at the root of the current turmoil.
It wants to work with the US Treasury, the IMF, and other financial regulators to stabilise the market, while it is concerned that an over-reaction which produced too much regulation would choke off financial innovation.
And the bankers want to urgently implement the new international banking rules known as Basel II, which have been held up by US objections.
Mr Ackermann admitted that the banks had been taken by surprise by the swift collapse of some key credit markets, which their models did not predict.
He said that it had not been fully appreciated that in a globalised world, the spread of risk had its downside, in a lack of understanding of the complex financial instruments and the nature of the risk that was now being sold around the world. | Government Policy Changes | October 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
In China, coal mine explosion in Shaanxi province kills 24–26 | 24 killed in Shaanxi mine blast By Ma Lie (China Daily) Updated: 2005-07-21 06:07
XIAN: Twenty-four miners were confirmed dead yesterday in a coal mine blast in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province as more bodies were recovered from the pit, the local government announced. Chinese villagers gather at the entrance of a coal mine pit in Tongchuan in northwest China's Shaanxi province July 20, 2005. [newsphoto]
Three miners were injured and 11 escaped unharmed. Rescuers are still searching for another two trapped miners, Xinhua reported. The blast occurred at the No 5 Coal Mine of the Jinsuoguan Town in Tongchuan at 2:30 pm on Tuesday when 40 miners were working underground, according to sources from Shaanxi Provincial Administrative Bureau of Coal Mine Production Safety Supervision. The private mine has proper production certificates, but the mine owner is being interviewed by police, said the administration. Local officials including vice-governor Hong Feng, rescue teams and police went to the mine soon after the accident. "The ventilation system underground was damaged by the gas blast and three tunnels caved in, which made it very difficult for us to search for the missing miners," said Du Shifu, a rescue worker. | Mine Collapses | July 2005 | ['(Xinhua)', '(China Daily)', '(Reuters)'] |
Austria plans to deploy soldiers on its border with Italy to stem an expected increase in migrants trying to get to northern Europe, according to Austrian Defence Minister Hans Peter Doskozil. "As the EU's external borders are not yet effectively protected, Austria will soon ramp up strict border controls. That means massive border controls on the Brenner Pass, and with soldiers," Doskozil told German daily newspaper Die Welt. | BERLIN (Reuters) - Austria plans to deploy soldiers at the Brenner border with Italy to stem an expected increase in migrants trying to get to northern Europe, Defence Minister Hans Peter Doskozil told news outlets on Saturday.
Austria, whose introduction of border restrictions in February has caused a sharp fall in the number of migrants to Germany, previously said it was preparing to introduce tighter controls if needed. But the minister’s choice of words appeared to toughen the discourse.
“As the EU’s external borders are not yet effectively protected, Austria will soon ramp up strict border controls. That means massive border controls at the Brenner (Pass), and with soldiers,” Doskozil told daily Die Welt.
Separately, he told the Austrian newspaper Oesterreich he was leaving open-ended the number of soldiers who might be deployed for border duty at the Alpine pass, saying it would be based on need.
“From the state of Tyrol alone, there are three companies with 100 men each ready to deploy,” Doskozil told Oesterreich. “If we need more forces for border protection, we’ll get them.”
Soldiers, already helping police handle migrants at borders, could help with border protection, migrant registrations, the humanitarian effort and deportations, he said.
Doskozil also reiterated his call for a civil-military EU mission to support the bloc’s border agency Frontex where needed at external borders, possibly in Greece, Bulgaria or Italy.
With the main migrant route through the Balkans and Austria largely closed, the number of migrants entering Germany from Austria fell more than sevenfold in March to below 5,000, the interior ministry in Berlin said on Saturday.
In February, 38,570 migrants arrived, already down sharply from 64,700 in January. Austria is the main entry point for migrants crossing into Germany.
But Vienna believes new routes will develop through Bulgaria or Albania as Mediterranean crossings to Italy from Libya resume.
On Monday, a deal takes effect between the EU and Turkey that is aimed at stopping the flow of migrants to Europe in return for political and financial rewards for Ankara, sealing off the main route by which a million migrants crossed the Aegean into Greece last year.
“We expect strong use to be made of the central Mediterranean route in the coming weeks,” said Doskozil, adding last week alone 5,000 refugees came that way.
“When the weather gets better, these numbers will increase strongly,” he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, under pressure to stem the influx of migrants to Germany after 1.1 million arrived last year, is critical of tighter border controls and is banking on the EU-Turkey deal being a success.
Under that agreement, Germany is to take in 1,600 migrants initially. About 40 people could arrive on Monday, said an interior ministry official.
Critics say the deal may make Europe soften its line towards Ankara on human rights, while aid agencies say safeguards needed to start returning refugees to Turkey from next week -- also part of the agreement -- are not yet in place.
Reporting by Madeline Chambers and John Miller in Zurich; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt and John Stonestreet
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
| Government Policy Changes | April 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Forty–seven people are injured in a collision between two Muni Metro light rail cars at the West Portal Station in San Francisco, United States. | Federal safety inspectors are investigating the cause of a Municipal Railway crash that injured 48 people, four of them severely, when one train rear-ended another at the West Portal Station on Saturday, authorities said.
A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said today that his agency has begun a formal probe of the accident.
Witnesses described a chaotic scene following the crash, which Muni spokesman Judson True said occurred just before 3 p.m. when an L-Taraval smashed into the back of a K-Ingleside train near the station's boarding platform.
The impact of the crash shattered the front window of the L train and crumpled its steel nose. The shattered windshield, apparently made of safety glass, stayed in place.
Both trains were headed in the outbound direction, but the K train was apparently stopped, authorities said.
The most seriously injured was the driver of the L train, who was conscious when paramedics arrived, said Deputy Fire Chief Pat Gardner. Three riders were also severely injured, authorities said. Those injuries were not life threatening, and all four patients were in stable condition, a nursing supervisor at San Francisco General Hospital said. Twenty-four people suffered serious injuries and were also taken to local hospitals by ambulance, authorities said. The remaining injuries were minor, and the victims were able to walk to a Muni bus that took them to the hospital. "This is probably one of the largest we've had" in recent years, Gardner said of the crash, referring to the number of people injured.
Muni investigators have interviewed the operator of the L train, True said. It is also standard procedure for train operators in accidents to be tested for drugs and alcohol.
The collision was the latest in a spate of mass transit accidents around the country. Last month, a Metro commuter train slammed into the rear of another subway train near Washington, D.C., killing nine people and injuring scores of others. In May, 49 people were injured when one Boston trolley car crashed into another.
Those accidents, as well as the violent collision of a commuter train with a freight train in September in Los Angeles, which killed 20 people, have prompted federal safety investigators to raise concerns about the nation's aging railcars, tracks and signal systems. Witnesses to Saturday's Muni crash said several people with head and neck injuries were loaded onto gurneys and taken away by ambulance. West Portal resident Linda Burke, 58, and her husband, Mike Burke, 59, were walking home after watching "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" at a nearby theater and were across the street when the crash occurred.
They said the K train appeared to be stopped when the L train slammed into it. "It sounded like a bomb or an explosion. We looked up and said, 'What the heck was that?' " Linda Burke said. "All this smoke was pouring out of the back of the streetcar" that was hit.
She said there was screaming and yelling; some passengers fell to the floor of the trains. People came running from nearby businesses to help, including one person who handed out napkins to bleeding victims.
The Burkes said the sound of the crash and the resultant damage suggested the L train had been going faster than it usually would have in the station. "He must have been flying the way the front end caved in," said Mike Burke. West Portal resident Dan Dudum, 48, was two doors down inside the Philosophers Club, a bar.
"It shook the building - all of a sudden the building went like that," he said, gesturing with his hand from side to side, "and I said, 'Hey, something's not right here.' "
"I didn't know what it was, but it was loud," Dudum said, adding that firefighters arrived seven minutes after the crash.
Muni personnel in yellow fluorescent vests swarmed the scene afterward, investigating the accident alongside more than 10 police officers and 40 firefighters and paramedics who blocked off the area with yellow police tape. Dozens of people stopped near the station - located at the end of the neighborhood's commercial district - to gawk at the crash. True said officials have not determined why the trains crashed.
"We will look at everything from mechanical issues to human error," he said, adding that the train's speed will be part of the investigation. West Portal resident Laurel Paul, who was in the nearby public library when the accident occurred, said she and her son rushed outside after hearing the crash. "There was a huge crowd gathering outside the station," she said. "I've been riding Muni since the 1970s, and I've never seen a train crumpled in the front with a shattered windshield."
The crash forced Muni to halt service in both directions in the area for about five hours Saturday and also prompted authorities to shut down the intersection of West Portal Avenue and Ulloa Street. Claremont Street, a block off West Portal Avenue, was also shut down.
Buses provided service between the West Portal and Castro stations and between West Portal and the western side of the city.
| Train collisions | July 2009 | ['(San Francisco Chronicle)', '(KGO–TV)'] |
Eight U.S. troops are killed and 14 wounded in a helicopter crash in south-eastern Afghanistan, the U.S.-led coalition has said. | Can carry 54 troops or 25,000 lbs (11,340 kg) of freight - more than its own weight
Crew of four
Fact file: Chinook
Eight US troops have been killed and 14 wounded in a helicopter crash in south-eastern Afghanistan, US-led coalition forces say.
The Chinook came down after the pilot reported engine trouble.
The crash happened in Zabul province, bordering Pakistan. A coalition statement said the Taleban had been building up forces in the area.
Coalition and Nato forces have lost several helicopters in Afghanistan in the last few years, most in accidents.
Not clear
Initial reports indicated that Sunday's crash was purely accidental.
"It was not enemy fire related," Col Tom Collins, of Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying.
"The pilot was able to radio in that he was having engine problems. We're confident it was not due to enemy action."
However, a statement issued by the US-led coalition forces later on Sunday did not specify the reason for the crash.
It said the CH-47 helicopter had "a sudden, unexplained loss of power and control and crashed in eastern Afghanistan".
It also said that: "Recent reporting indicated a Taleban build up for operations against the coalition forces in the region." There were 22 people on board, including the crew.
"Coalition forces strongly advise any Afghans in the area of the crash to stay away from the site for their own safety," the statement said. A Taleban spokesman said the helicopter had been shot down. Similar previous claims have turned out to be unfounded.
In April, 2005, at least 16 people died, 13 of them US personnel, when a Chinook crashed - the worst such disaster suffered by US forces there since the 2001 invasion.
In July, 2005, a US Chinook helicopter which was sent to back up a ground unit was shot down in the eastern province of Konar.
All 16 soldiers on board were killed. The Taleban say they brought it down.
Nato and coalition forces in Afghanistan are bracing for an expected spring offensive from regrouping Taleban fighters. | Air crash | February 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
The U.S. Geological Survey reports a magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck the central Chilean coast, south of the town of Coquimbo, at 6:05 PM EST. No immediate reports of damage or casualties; no tsunami alerts are in effect. | A strongly-felt earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 has struck Chile near Monte Patria in Limarí province, seismologists say. (more) The 5.6-magnitude earthquake at 8:05 p.m. local time on Saturday was centered on land about 11 kilometers east of Monte Patria, which is located in Limari province, according to Chile's National Seismological Center. It struck about 53 kilometers deep, making it a relatively shallow earthquake. The Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service of the Chilean Navy (SHOA) said the earthquake was not strong enough to generate a tsunami, and no tsunami alerts are in effect. The earthquake was strongly felt in the region, according to witnesses, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, although assessments were still underway. | Earthquakes | November 2015 | ['(Reuters)', '(BNO News)', '(USGS)'] |
In Yemen, president Ali Abdullah Saleh announces that he won't seek re–election next year. | President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been in office since 1978 Yemen's long-serving President Ali Abdullah Saleh has announced he will not seek re-election next year to pave the way for political change.
Saleh has ruled Yemen since unification in 1990 after 12 years as president of North Yemen. His declaration came during a speech to mark the 27th anniversary of his rise to power. "I will not contest the elections," he told a group of politicians, diplomats and journalists, referring to the polls due for September 2006. "I hope that all political parties - including the opposition and the [governing] General People's Congress - find young leaders to compete in the elections because we have to train ourselves in the practice of peaceful succession." SpeculationSome political analysts took Saleh at his word, saying Yemenis should be prepared for a new president next year. "I hope that all political parties find young leaders to compete in the elections because we have to train ourselves in the practice of peaceful succession"Ali Abdullah Saleh,President Other analysts, however, said Saleh was probably pandering to calls for reform by the United States which has pressed Arab allies, including Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, to allow more political freedom. "I hope that all political parties find young leaders to compete in the elections because we have to train ourselves in the practice of peaceful succession"Ali Abdullah Saleh,President Since the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US, Yemen has cooperated closely with the US on the "war on terror".
Yemen is the ancestral home of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Saleh's current seven-year presidential term ends next year. The constitution allows him to take office - if he wins - for one more term. Saleh won Yemen's first direct presidential election in 1999 with an overwhelming majority. His party still holds most of the seats in parliament, which must first approve candidates before they can run in the election. | Famous Person - Give a speech | July 2005 | ['(Yemeni Observer)', '(Al–Jazeera)', '(Reuters AlertNet)'] |
In baseball, the Cleveland Indians break the Major League Baseball record for longest winning streak with 22 wins in a row. The 1935 Chicago Cubs previously held the record with 21. | CLEVELAND — For anyone who may have questioned whether a team could be any better at any given moment — or a single stretch of baseball any more sublime and intoxicating — than the Cleveland Indians and the Winning Streak That Will Not Die had been over the course of three straight weeks without a loss, the answer came in moments small and large Thursday night at Progressive Field. And it amounted to: yes, absolutely.
It came crashing in with epic hits and thunderous roars at the end, all of them leading up to the Indians’ 22nd consecutive victory, a record. Flexing the rally muscles that some might have suspected had atrophied from acute nonuse during these days of easy blowouts and never-a-doubt wins, the Indians came from a run down in the ninth to catch the Kansas City Royals, then walked off a 3-2 victory in the 10th.
Trailing by a run and down to their last strike — the former a situation they had faced seldom during a run that began Aug. 24, the latter unprecedented during the streak — the Indians watched Francisco Lindor launch a ball off the left field wall, an RBI double that tied the score at 2.
[Past and future collide for Nationals in 5-2 win over Braves]
An inning later, with nobody out, second baseman Jose Ramirez stretched a single to center field into a hustle double, narrowly avoiding the tag at second. Two batters later, right fielder Jay Bruce laced a double down the right field line to win it, sending the Indians streaming out of their dugout to celebrate the most improbable of these history-making 22 wins.
As an October-tinged crowd of 30,874 stomped and hollered, Bruce was set upon by his Cleveland teammates somewhere near shortstop; they doused him with baby powder and bottled water, then started ripping the jersey clear off his back.
“It’s safe to say we’re in uncharted territory,” Bruce said. “You can’t draw this stuff, man. You really can’t.”
The Indians’ streak will stand as one of the great achievements in modern baseball, one perhaps best illustrated not by simple wins but by the fact that they have outscored opponents by a combined 142-37 during its length — a run differential of plus-105, better than many good-to-great teams, including the 2016 AL pennant-winning Indians, amass in an entire regular season.
But the Indians hadn’t treated any single win during the streak as anything more than another small milestone in baseball’s daily marathon over the hills and turns of a six-month regular season.
And if Thursday night’s was felt with an extra dose of emotion, it was only partly due to the fact the Indians now own sole possession of the longest winning streak in major league history, passing the 1935 Chicago Cubs, who won 21 straight (and notwithstanding the 26 straight, interrupted by a tie, won by the 1916 New York Giants).
It was also because, before Thursday night, the Indians not only had required neither extra innings nor a walk-off to win during the streak — but they hadn’t so much as trailed after the sixth inning.
“It’s not more satisfying; a win is a win,” Lindor said, toeing the company line even in the wake of Thursday’s late-inning heroics. The most he would acknowledge: “Emotions were pretty high. The entire crowd — it’s fun. And to see your teammates screaming on the top step of the dugout is pretty special.”
[Steinberg: For Washington sports fans, home is where the fear is]
But if the question was what could make a team on a 21-game winning streak fundamentally even better, the answer came in the seventh inning Thursday night, when the bullpen door opened, “MILLER TIME” flashed on the ribbon boards and a 6-foot-7 figure of shaggy hair and sharp angles came jogging across the outfield grass on his way to the mound.
The crowd stood and roared. It already knew that answer: Andrew Miller. The version of the Indians that won 21 straight did not have him; the one that won its 22nd straight did — even if it was only 11 pitches and one decent inning.
“He’s going to need some outings,” Manager Terry Francona said, “but that was a really good first effort.”
In the context of what truly matters to these Indians, this was the larger development on this night because Miller, the left-handed slayer of late-inning rallies, was back from the disabled list — just in time to get himself ready for the Indians’ real mission, which begins in earnest the first week of October.
Miller, quite possibly the best left-handed reliever in baseball and the MVP of the 2016 American League Championship Series, had missed the entirety of the Indians’ winning streak to this point while recovering from a knee injury, and his return, quite obviously, made them immediately better — assuming he’s at full health.
In mid-August, when he tried to come back from the same injury too soon, he wound up back on the disabled list after two appearances.
“I don’t want to miss any time. It’s not fun to sit on the sidelines,” he said. “But . . . at least [the injury] happened early enough that we were able to deal with it. I’d like to go on a nice little run here before the end of season and build up some positive stuff before the playoffs.”
With their division title all but secured, the Indians have the luxury of mapping out a progressive buildup for Miller that will involve six to seven appearances of gradually higher pitch counts, in hopes of getting him back to full power by Oct. 5, when the Indians expect to host Game 1 of the AL Division Series.
“The goal is for him to be the huge weapon that he can be,” Francona said.
[Boswell: When Nationals and Dodgers play this weekend, plenty is at stake]
In the 2016 postseason, Francona famously unleashed Miller to devastating effect, turning the big lefty into a multi-inning, high-leverage fireman who saw action in every inning from the fifth through the ninth over the course of 10 dazzling appearances — all of which lasted four outs or more and half of which exceeded 30 pitches.
He was, at that moment, the ultimate October weapon.
But interestingly, Francona indicated Thursday that he doesn’t plan to use Miller the same way in the 2017 postseason; while he might still call upon him in the fifth inning, if that’s where the game looks like it could be decided, he may not leave him in for the sixth and seventh — at least not if he can avoid it.
“He threw lot of pitches last [October]. That bothered me at times,” Francona said. “The intent was never to have him throw that many pitches. He was able to do it.
“We’d love for him to be a huge weapon. I don’t think it entails him throwing that many pitches.”
Perhaps because the streak had recently passed 21 and thus was now of legal drinking age, even Francona, an unwavering taskmaster of the one-game-at-a-time school, loosened his tongue Thursday and for the first time allowed himself a moment of big-picture pride in what his team has done through these past three weeks.
“It’s kind of cool: You’re hearing ‘Cleveland’ a lot,” he said. “If people are walking around with their chests out a little bit, I’m glad — because I like it here and I like the people here. So I think that’s maybe a byproduct of this [streak]. It’s not going to help you in the standings, but it’s good for Cleveland. Anything like that I think is terrific.”
The streak has been terrific, and thanks to the late-inning heroics of Lindor, Ramirez, Bruce and the others, it is both the longest in history and still alive. But what lasts longest is a legacy built on a World Series title, and with Miller back in the fold, the Indians came out of Thursday night only somewhat elevated as a regular season juggernaut but significantly elevated as a title-worthy one.
More on Major League Baseball: The unbeatable Indians are even better than you think they are
Dusty Baker has taken a good Nationals team and made it better
Five things that still matter as the Nationals finish up September
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To pause and restart automatic updates, click "Live" or "Paused". If paused, you'll be notified of the number of additional comments that have come in. | Sports Competition | September 2017 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
The parliament of Lithuania narrowly votes to impeach President Rolandas Paksas for violating the constitution. Parliamentary speaker Arturas Paulauskas will act as president for two months pending new elections. | Mr Paksas, 47, was accused of leaking classified material and giving citizenship to a Russian businessman in return for financial support. Mr Paksas, who repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, has been immediately dismissed from office, the head of the Supreme Court announced. The affair has embarrassed the Baltic state as it prepares to join the EU. This is a vendetta for my efforts to fight corruption in this country
Rolandas Paksas
Profile: Rolandas Paksas
Mr Paksas's survival had seemed unlikely after the constitutional court ruled last week that he had grossly violated the constitution. However, impeachment, which needed the votes of 85 members of the 141-seat parliament, was in the end only narrowly approved with 116 MPs taking part: "I do not feel guilty," he said, saying the vote was "not only my personal drama or tragedy but also a challenge for our country."
"This is all the system's revenge against me. This is a vendetta for my efforts to fight corruption in this country."
Russian donor
The scandal surfaced last October, when a state security report said some of the president's advisers had links to criminal gangs and the Russian secret service.
Although the president himself was not accused, a parliamentary inquiry said he was vulnerable to influence. Paksas still has support among some Lithuanians The charges centred on Russian businessman Yuri Borisov. After his election early last year, Mr Paksas gave Mr Borisov Lithuanian citizenship at his request. The businessman, who denies any impropriety, was the largest financial donor to the president's election campaign. The case has raised fears in some quarters in Lithuania of Russian influence in the ex-Soviet state's affairs. Lithuania won independence from the USSR in 1991. The largest of the Baltic states in terms of population, it also has the smallest Russian-speaking minority, being more than 80% ethnic Lithuanian. To stand again
Under the constitution, Mr Paksas is replaced by the parliamentary speaker, Arturas Paulauskas, his main political rival.
Mr Paulauskas would stand in as president for two months pending an election.
Mr Paksas served twice as mayor of Vilnius and twice as prime minister before becoming president in February last year after winning a surprise victory against incumbent Valdas Adamkus.
The BBC's Adam Easton in Vilnius says impeachment may not spell the end of Mr Paksas's political career. The popular former stunt pilot had pledged to stand again for office if impeached - a provision contained in the constitution - and opinion polls suggest he has a chance of winning. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2004 | ['(BBC)'] |
Ernest Bai Koroma is re–elected President of Sierra Leone in the general election, held on 17 November. | Sierra Leone's incumbent president was re-elected and sworn in on Friday night by the country's chief justice as Freetown, the capital of the war-scarred country, erupted in drumming and celebration. Ernest Bai Koroma won 58.7% of the vote.
His closest rival, the opposition leader and retired brigadier general Julius Maada Bio, came in second with 37.4%, according to the results announced by the National Electoral Commission chairwoman, Christiana Thorpe.
A total of eight challengers attempted to unseat Koroma in the election on 17 November, the third presidential poll since the end of Sierra Leone's horrific civil war in 2002. The 11-year war, which was dramatised in Blood Diamond, the 2006 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, left tens of thousands dead and wrecked the country's economy.
Rebels were known for hacking off the arms of their victims, asking them if they preferred "short sleeves" or "long sleeves", and the country is dotted with visual reminders of the war, including a league of amputee soccer teams.
"The people have spoken and their collective will has prevailed. This is a win for every Sierra Leonean," Koroma told the nation in his acceptance speech. "The time for politics is over ... This is the time for all of us to embrace each other.
"Let every All Peoples Congress member embrace every Sierra Leone Peoples party member," he said, naming his party and that of his main challenger.
The 59-year-old president was first elected in 2007 on a ticket of change, and says he has visibly improved the country's quality of life. His supporters point to newly paved roads and a government health care programme that has provided free medical treatment although there are serious concerns about its sustainability.
But his opponents argue that not enough progress has been made in the decade since the end of the war, drawing attention to Sierra Leone's dismal statistics, which include one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world.
Thorpe announced that anyone who contested the results had seven days to appeal to the country's supreme court. | Government Job change - Election | November 2012 | ['(The Guardian)', '(AFP via Google)'] |
The American-born Australian actor is being called a "potential suspect" in a domestic violence investigation. | LOS ANGELES Mel Gibson was named Thursday as a potential suspect in a domestic violence investigation involving his ex-girlfriend, Russian singer Oksana Grigorieva, earlier this year, sheriff's officials said. The disclosure came after detectives interviewed Grigorieva about the alleged attack at an undisclosed location in Malibu. Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said Grigorieva was the only person interviewed so far in the case. Gibson and Grigorieva have been involved in a nasty custody dispute over their infant daughter the subject of a confidential court case. Whitmore declined to disclose further details of the domestic violence investigation or any potential evidence. "We're in the process of verifying, verifying, verifying," Whitmore said. "All the allegations that have been put forth will be thoroughly investigated." A phone message left for Alan Nierob, Gibson's spokesman, was not immediately returned. Quiet on breakup
The actor has not publicly discussed the breakup with Grigorieva, 40. The former couple first revealed their relationship shortly after Gibson's wife, Robyn, filed for divorce last April. The divorce is pending. Court proceedings in the case involving the 8-month-old daughter of Gibson and Grigorieva have been conducted in closed session. Gibson's attorney, Stephen Kolodny, previously said the actor has paid Grigorieva "tens of thousands of dollars" and provided her with a home, vehicle and nanny since their breakup. He also accused the singer of violating the terms of a confidential custody agreement reached in May. Grigorieva has said she cannot discuss the case. Attorneys handling the matter for Gibson and Grigorieva did not respond to e-mails seeking comment Thursday. Early stages | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2010 | ['(MSNBC)', '(IMDB)'] |
At the 52nd Munich Security Conference in Germany, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says that NATO and Russia are "not in a cold-war situation but also not in the partnership that we established at the end of the Cold War" while the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says tensions between Russia and NATO have sent the world spiralling into a "new Cold War", blaming U.S. and European leaders for the souring of relations with Russia. He also rejected accusations that Russian warplanes have bombed civilians in Syria, saying it is "just not true". , | Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said strains between Russia and the West have pushed the world "into a new cold war".
"On an almost daily basis, we are being described the worst threat - be it to Nato as a whole, or to Europe, America or other countries," Mr Medvedev said.
He cited Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg's speeches and films depicting Russia starting a nuclear war.
"Sometimes I wonder if this is 2016 or 1962," Mr Medvedev said.
The Cold War was a period of ideological confrontation between the former Soviet Union and Western countries. It began after World War Two and ended with the collapse of the Soviet-led communist camp in the early 1990s.
The 45 years of tension were marked by espionage and proxy wars involving client states - all undertaken with the knowledge or fear of the nuclear catastrophe that actual war would bring.
The Nato alliance was established in 1949 to protect Western countries.
The six key moments of the Cold War relived
How the Cold War ended in 1989
BBC News - Could you stop World War Three-
Russia has recently come under strong criticism over its air strikes in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and over its role in neighbouring Ukraine, which culminated with the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
In an interview with the BBC at the same Munich conference, Mr Stoltenberg said Russia had changed borders by force and had become more assertive - and that Nato had to be able to respond to threats.
"We are not in a cold-war situation, but also not in the partnership that we established at the end of the Cold War," Mr Stoltenberg said. Nato, he said, did not want an escalation, but enhanced political dialogue with Russia.
Early this month, the BBC broadcast a programme entitled World War Three: Inside the War Room, which imagines a hypothetical Russian attack on its Baltic neighbours - Nato members - and nuclear confrontation.
Munich Security Conference
Hardliner Raisi set to win Iran election
Vote-counting shows Ebrahim Raisi - Iran's top judge - has so far received 62% of the vote.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | February 2016 | ['(Sky News)', '(BBC)'] |
Four people are killed on the Caribbean island of Dominica as a result of floods and landslides caused by Tropical Storm Erika. |
ROSEAU, Dominica — Tropical Storm Erika pounded the eastern Caribbean island of Dominica on Thursday, unleashing flooding and mudslides that killed at least four people and knocked out power and water supplies.
The storm, which was forecast to reach Florida as a hurricane by Monday, dumped 9 inches (23 centimeters) of rain on Dominica late Wednesday, followed by another 6 inches (15 centimeters) early Thursday, according to the weather service in the nearby island of Antigua.
Police Superintendent Daniel Carbon said three of the deaths occurred during a mudslide in the southeast of the island. Authorities recovered the bodies of an elderly blind man and two children from the home.
A fourth death occurred in the capital of Roseau. The man was found near his home following a mudslide but the cause of death has not yet been determined, Carbon told The Associated Press.
Even though the eye had passed, heavy wind and rain were still buffeting the island known for its lush forests and steep terrain, and authorities had yet to do a full damage assessment.
"We're advising people to stay put," Carbon said, adding that they have received reports of several injuries but that he had no details.
About 80 percent of the island was without electricity, and water supply was cut off, authorities said. The main airport was closed due to flooding, with water rushing over cars and at least one small plane, and the scaffolding of some buildings collapsed.
The main river that cuts through the capital overflowed its banks and surging water crashed into the principal bridge that leads into Roseau, whose roads were littered with fallen trees and light poles. Some streets were turned into fast-flowing rivers.
"The situation is grim. It is dangerous," said Ian Pinard, Dominica's communications minister.
Erika was centered about 160 miles (255 kilometers) west of Guadeloupe, and was moving west at 16 mph (26 kph) with maximum sustained winds that had slipped slightly to 45 mph (75 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Erika was expected to move near Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands on Thursday and be near or just north of the Dominican Republic on Friday as it heads toward South Florida early next week. The storm was not expected to gain strength in the next two days.
Erika is now more likely to hit the island of Hispaniola, which is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, said chief forecaster James Franklin at the National Hurricane Center.
"That would certainly not be good news for Hispaniola," he said. "They're very vulnerable to flooding. And even if Erika is a weak system, that could be very bad there."
Officials shuttered schools, government offices and businesses across the region and warned of flash flooding because of dry conditions caused by the worst drought to hit the Caribbean in recent years. Authorities warned power and water service might be temporarily cut off.
Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla said the storm could bring badly needed rains to the parched U.S. territory.
"We're happy given the dry conditions, but it does highlight the need to be on alert," he said, adding that heavy downpours could lead to flash floods.
Garcia activated the National Guard as a precaution and asked that everyone head home by noon on Thursday.
The heaviest rains were expected to hit Puerto Rico's eastern region, with the storm expected to pass about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of the island overnight Thursday, said Odalys Martinez, with the National Weather Service in San Juan.
Dozens of flights were canceled in the region, and the U.S. Coast Guard closed all ports in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
.
___
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | August 2015 | ['(WRAL)'] |
Eight inmates are acquitted of prison mutiny while one is convicted over a riot at HMP Birmingham in England described by the Prison Officers' Association as the worst violence they had seen for over 25 years. | Two inmates who took a selfie during a 15-hour riot at HMP Birmingham have been cleared of prison mutiny.
The photo of Carl Brookes and Ross Queen wearing prison officers' helmets was posted on social media during the disorder at the G4S-run jail in 2016.
The disturbance spread to four wings and saw 500 prisoners being let out of their cells.
The men previously admitted taking a photo or making a sound recording without authority.
The pair were among nine inmates on trial at Birmingham Crown Court over the riot.
Two other prisoners were convicted of using a mobile phone to film rampaging inmates.
Kash Wallace videoed the trouble and captured Ricardo Davis-McCann also filming the disorder on a mobile phone, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
Wallace's footage subsequently ended up on social media.
The five remaining inmates were all cleared of prison mutiny.
The riot, on 16 December, cost G4S about £6m.
Stolen keys were used to free the hundreds of prisoners from their cells before inmates threw TVs out of windows, built bonfires, pelted staff with missiles and paint and used an injured prisoner as "bait" during the disorder.
West Midlands Police, said it was "frightening" to watch the recorded footage after the riot, described by the Prison Officers' Association as the worst disorder since the Strangeways disorder 26 years ago.
Six other inmates were jailed for their part in the trouble last September.
Ross Queen, 31, was cleared of one count of prison mutiny and a second count of prison mutiny and failing to submit to lawful authorities. He previously admitted taking a photo or making a sound recording without authority.
Carl Brookes, 33, was cleared of one count of prison mutiny and a second count of prison mutiny and failing to submit to lawful authorities. He also previously admitted taking a photo or making a sound recording without authority.
Ricardo Davis-McCann, 23, was cleared of prison mutiny, but was convicted of taking a photo or making a sound recording without authority.
Kash Wallace, 25, was convicted of prison mutiny and also of taking a photo or making a sound recording without authority.
Jayon Foster, 35, was cleared of prison mutiny.
Mohammed Khan, 39, was cleared of prison mutiny.
Sean Kinsella, 31, denied and was cleared of prison mutiny.
Hayden Mills 23, denied and was cleared of prison mutiny.
Brodie Wadrup, 28, was cleared of prison mutiny.
Sentencing will follow at a later date.
Six inmates guilty over prison riot
Prisoners 'freed by stolen keys' in riot
Hundreds of prisoners moved after riot
Riot officers regain control of prison
| Riot | May 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Mayoral, regional and district council elections take place in Moscow and 75 other regions across Russia. | Opposition parties in Russia have alleged that local elections across the country were marred by fraud.
Mayoral, regional and district council votes were held across Russia on Sunday, with some 30 million people eligible to vote. Official results showed PM Vladimir Putin's United Russia party winning nearly every poll by a wide margin. But opposition parties say they were refused registration to take part and were denied media access. Votes were held in almost all regions, including Chechnya and Ingushetia. 'Loyalty'
As results came in on Monday, United Russia claimed victory after victory. In the vote for Moscow City Council, election officials said United Russia won 66% and the Communists 13%. Those figures were expected to give the ruling party all but three of the 35 seats in the Moscow parliament, strengthening the hand of Moscow's powerful mayor, Yuri Luzhkov. The opposition liberal Yabloko party failed to win 5%, losing its place on the council. The results, echoed across the country, wiped out opposition hopes that it could capitalise on the serious economic crisis in Russia, amid sharp negative growth and rising unemployment. Instead, that inspired loyalty to United Russia, according to senior party official Boris Gryzlov. "We can say that the voters and people of Russia, in a situation when we are fighting the global economic crisis, when we are struggling to stabilise the political situation, are with the party of power," he said. 'Votes taken'
Vladimir Churov, chairman of Russia's Central Election Commission, praised the electoral process. "The elections were recognised [as] valid and were well organised, with a quite high turnout," he told Itar-Tass. However, concerns over the polling led to one opposition leader, former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, calling on voters to boycott the elections or spoil their ballots. "These elections are illegitimate. They're nothing but a farce," he told the Associated Press. Mr Nemtsov was refused permission to stand in Moscow's city council election, AP reported, with election officials alleging the 5,000 signatures his party collected were forged. Another opposition party, Yabloko, also alleged irregularities in Moscow, saying voters had contacted party officials to say they tried to vote but found votes already cast in their names. Party observers also noticed large numbers of voters at a polling station who did not live in that voting area, Yabloko said, adding that it was preparing a complaint to election officials. | Government Job change - Election | October 2009 | ['(RIA Novosti)', '(The Guardian)', '(BBC)'] |
The European Parliament rejects a plan to abolish Freedom of Panorama. (NOS ). | A crucial vote took place at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France today. A key piece of text on ‘Freedom of Panorama’, in paragraph 46 of the proposal, was removed, confirmed Dutch MEP Marietje Schaake.
Only 40 of the 751 MEPs voted to keep it in.
However, Schaake’s amendment to extend Freedom of Panorama to all EU countries did not pass. The EU plan to abolish Freedom of Panorama – which it was feared would hit both amateur and professional photographers, even Facebook users – was first raised by German MEP Julia Reda. Speaking shortly after the vote, a spokesman for Reda told Amateur Photographer: ‘The point on freedom of panorama was deleted decisively, with only 40 out of the 751 MEPs sticking to it. ‘So we managed to deflect the attack on this right – although the Parliament also doesn’t call for its extension to all of Europe.’ Reda’s office added: ‘We’ll have another opportunity to push for this when the legislative proposal comes by the end of the year; for now it’s time to celebrate this success.’ On her website, Reda wrote: ‘… most Europeans will continue to be able to post selfies online and view photos of famous buildings on Wikipedia unencumbered by copyright. ‘We must now continue to fight for an extension of important copyright exceptions such as this one to all member states.’
Campaigners including Wikimedia had protested that several MEPs ‘were attempting to introduce a non-commercial clause’ into the Freedom of Panorama rules.
Wikimedia feared it would have been forced to remove an estimated 40,000 images from Wikipedia if the European Parliament had voted for a rule change.
Reacting to today’s vote, Stevie Benton, head of external relations at Wikimedia UK, said: ‘While I would have liked Freedom of Panorama to have been extended to all member states of the EU, I’m pleased that the amendment to introduce a non-commercial exception was deleted. ‘This means that Wikipedia, the other Wikimedia projects – and, indeed, anyone – can continue to make use of images taken in the UK’s public spaces.’
Yesterday, we reported how UK MEPs were lining up to blast the proposal, first tabled by French MEP Jean-Marie Cavada. Cavada wanted all European nations to adopt laws that may require permission from a building’s architect before an image is published commercially. The policy is similar to strict photography rules currently in force in France, for example. But Reda warned that nations currently protected by Freedom of Panorama, including the UK, would be subject to restrictions demanding that photographers seek a licence from the ‘architect or rightholder of the public artwork’. The European Parliament’s rejection of Cavada’s proposal came after a campaign against change led by Amateur Photographer and Wikimedia. A change.org petition against the EU plan gained more than 500,000 signatures. | Government Policy Changes | July 2015 | ['(Amateur Photographer)', '(Dutch)'] |
A series of coordinated bombings at the U.S. consulate in Peshawar and at a ruling party rally in the Pakistani NorthWest Frontier Province kills fifty people and injures one hundred. | PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Militants using a car bomb and firing weapons attacked the U.S. consulate in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Monday hours after a suicide bomber killed 38 people elsewhere in the northwest, officials said.
Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the attack on the consulate, in which eight people, including three militants, were killed but no one in the mission was hurt. They
vowed more violence.
Islamist attacks have raised fears for the future of the nuclear-armed U.S. ally, also beset by economic problems and chronic political wrangling.
But in a move that should ease political infighting, President Asif Ali Zardari called on parliament to approve quickly reforms that will see him give up his main powers.
The assault on the tightly guarded consulate was launched hours after the bomb blast at a rally of supporters of an ethnic Pashtun-based political party staunchly opposed to the militants.
The attacks underscored the danger posed by militants after a year of military offensives which have dealt the Islamists significant setbacks.
“I saw attackers in two vehicles. Some of them carried rocket-propelled grenades. They first opened fire at security personnel at the post near the consulate and then blasts went off,” Peshawar resident Siraj Afridi told Reuters.
A Pakistani intelligence official described the assault as a well-planned suicide attack. The White House condemned the attack while the U.S. embassy said both of Monday’s incidents reflected the militants’ desperation.
Related Coverage
U.S. diplomatic missions and staff have been attacked several times in Pakistan since the south Asian country threw its support behind the United States in a global campaign against militancy launched after the September 11, 2001, attacks on U.S. cities.
The blasts threw clouds of white smoke into the sky and residents said soldiers had cordoned off the scene and ordered residents to remain indoors. Helicopters hovered overhead.
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq said by telephone from an undisclosed location his group was behind the attack.
“Americans are our enemies. We carried out the attack on their consulate in Peshawar. We plan more such attacks,” Tariq said, while denying responsibility for the earlier blast at the political party rally.
Liaqat Ali, chief of police in Peshawar, which is the gateway to Afghanistan and has seen a string of bomb attacks over the past year, said the gunmen first attacked a security post on the approach to the consulate then set off a bomb at its gate.
Stock market dealers said the violence briefly brought some selling pressure, but the main index closed 0.30 percent higher at 10,447.84 on foreign buying.
Earlier, a suspected suicide bomber blew himself up at a rally of the Awami National Party (ANP), in the Lower Dir district, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Peshawar, killing 38 people, a hospital doctor said.
The ANP, which heads a coalition government in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and is also a member of the federal coalition government, is a largely secular party and opposes the militants battling the state.
Militants have attacked ANP gatherings before.
The meeting was called to celebrate the renaming of NWFP, which the party has long demanded. Under constitutional amendments expected to be approved in parliament this week, the province will be renamed Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, in a bid to represent its dominant Pashtun population.
Zardari, in an address to a joint session of the two-chamber parliament in Islamabad, said all parties had risen above partisan politics in an unprecedented show of solidarity in agreeing to the constitutional reforms.
“I call upon the parliament to pass the eighteenth constitutional amendment bill without delay,” Zardari said.
The amendments, which include the transfer to the prime minister of the presidential power to dismiss parliament, appoint military chiefs, judges and the election commissioner, should go some way to silencing Zardari’s critics. Many had assumed he would never agree to the changes.
Zardari, widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, came to power after February 2008 elections that ended nine years of military rule.
The biggest danger for Zardari remains old graft charges that were revived when the Supreme Court threw out a 2007 amnesty introduced by former president Pervez Musharraf as part of a proposed power-sharing deal with Bhutto.
The Supreme Court has called for the old cases be taken up.
In an veiled warning to the judiciary, Zardari called on all to uphold the supremacy of the constitution and for no one to overstep their authority. “This requires that each pillar of the state work in its constitutional limits, and does not trample on the domain of others,” he said.
Zardari also called for “an honorable and peaceful settlement of all outstanding disputes” with old rival India.
Additional reporting by Faris Ali, Kamran Haider, Zeeshan Haider, Faisal Aziz; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Ron Popeski
| Armed Conflict | April 2010 | ['(Reuters)'] |
AT&T reportedly agrees in principle to buy Time Warner for about $85 billion. | (Reuters) - AT&T Inc T.N reached a deal to buy media company Time Warner Inc TWX.N for more than $80 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
| Organization Merge | October 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The Assembly of Madrid holds a snap election after the ruling coalition of the People's Party and Ciudadanos breaks down. The People's Party, led by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, receives a landslide win in the election, doubling their number of seats, though falling four seats short of an absolute majority. | Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s conservatives take 65 of 136 seats and will need support of far-right Vox party
First published on Tue 4 May 2021 12.36 BST
Spain’s conservative People’s party has won a resounding victory but fallen just short of an absolute majority in a Madrid regional election dominated by the coronavirus pandemic and marked by a bitter and deeply polarised campaign.
The PP, led by incumbent regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, won 65 seats in the 136-seat regional assembly, more than doubling its tally in the 2019 regional election and taking more seats than all three leftwing parties combined. However, its failure to cross the majority threshold of 69 seats means it will now have to rely on the help of the far-right Vox party to form a new government.
The Socialist party of the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, suffered a bruising night that was compounded by the news that his former coalition partner, the Unidas Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias, was leaving Spanish politics. Not only did the Socialists slump from 37 seats to 24, they were also pipped to second place by the leftwing regional Más Madrid party, which also took 24 seats but which attracted a fractionally higher share of the vote.
Despite winning 13 seats – just one more seat than in 2019 – Vox is now guaranteed a pivotal role in Madrid politics. The far-left, anti-austerity Unidas Podemos won 10 seats – three more than last time – and came in fifth. But, as the count neared its end, Iglesias, who had resigned as a deputy prime minister in the coalition government to run in the regional election, announced he was leaving Spanish politics.
“I will remain committed to my country but I won’t get in the way of new leadership,” he said.
The centre-right Citizens party, once the great hope of the Spanish centre-ground, crashed out of the regional assembly, losing every one of the 26 seats it won two years ago. The participation rate was 76.2%, 11 percentage points up on 2019.
Ayuso hailed the result as “another triumph for freedom in Madrid” and told Sánchez his “days are numbered” while the PP’s national leader, Pablo Casado, said it represented a vote of no confidence in Spain’s leftwing coalition government.
Vox’s leader, Santiago Abascal, immediately announced that his party would help facilitate Ayuso’s return to power “to ensure that there is no way for the left to govern in Madrid”.
Mónica García, Más Madrid’s candidate, thanked the 600,000 people who had voted for her and said her party would “be the political force that leads the alternative in the Madrid region”.
The Socialist candidate, Ángel Gabilondo, said the party’s results “aren’t good and aren’t what we’d hoped for”, while the Citizens candidate, Edmundo Bal, claimed his shrinking party still represented “the antidote to extremes and polarisation”.
The snap election was triggered in March when Ayuso – who has dragged the Madrid PP far to the right of its national counterpart – responded to efforts to topple PP-led regional governments elsewhere in Spain by dissolving her coalition administration with Citizens.
Ayuso, a vociferous critic of the Sánchez government and an opponent of its Covid lockdowns, has refused to rule out a deal with Vox, saying it shares common ground with the PP on “some fundamental questions”.
While Ayuso’s attitude has won her the respect of many hospitality industry workers, her critics accuse her of putting the regional economy before people’s health. In May last year, the head of public health in the region resigned after disagreements over Ayuso’s response to the pandemic. Her insistence on keeping bars and restaurants open has been questioned.
The number of Covid cases per 100,000 people over the past fortnight stands at 343 in Madrid, compared with a national average of 214. In Madrid’s intensive care units, 44% of the beds are occupied by Covid patients; across Spain as a whole, the proportion is 22.9%.
By mid-morning on Tuesday, long queues had formed outside polling stations, where workers had been provided with two masks, face screens, disposable gloves and hand gel. Older voters were invited to cast their ballots between 10am and 12pm, while those with the virus or in quarantine were asked to vote in the final hour, between 7pm and 8pm.
The electoral campaign was littered with recriminations and accusations, and two of the candidates – including Ayuso – received death threats.
Last month Iglesias walked out of a radio debate after Vox’s candidate, Rocío Monasterio, tried to cast doubt on the death threat he and his family had received along with four assault rifle bullets.
Ayuso had seized on Iglesias’s candidacy to suggest Tuesday’s poll was a choice between “communism and freedom”, while Vox has been criticised for stigmatising unaccompanied migrant children in its election posters.
Sánchez, meanwhile, had claimed that a deal between the PP and Vox could herald “the beginning of the end of Madrid’s strong democracy and its many rights and freedoms”. | Government Job change - Election | May 2021 | ['(The Guardian)', '(BBC)'] |
The Supreme Court of Pakistan hears a petition from the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to be able to return to the country and contest elections. | Mr Sharif, who was deposed by President Pervez Musharraf in a coup, says he and his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, are being prevented from returning to Pakistan.
This is despite a 2004 Supreme Court order allowing them to come back. Nawaz Sharif, his brother Shahbaz Sharif and former PM Benazir Bhutto are all living in exile abroad.
Gen Musharraf ousted Mr Sharif in 1999, seizing power in a military coup. Observers say the government is determined to keep the Sharif brothers, as well as Ms Bhutto, away from the country until after the parliamentary elections.
Mr Sharif denies having done a deal with the government to stay away for 10 years.
Chief Justice Chaudhry has had a long run-in with Gen Musharraf
But the government's senior lawyer said Mr Sharif had agreed to the arrangement, and that he had documents he was prepared to show the court to prove it.
The application was heard by the Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry, whom the Supreme Court reinstated last month after his suspension by President Musharraf. The court will meet again next week. Gen Musharraf said earlier this week that return of exiled leaders could lead to anarchy in the country. In 1999 a special anti-terrorism court convicted Mr Sharif on charges of hijacking and terrorism and passed a sentence of life imprisonment. The ousted premier was charged with endangering the lives of the country's current military ruler, Gen Musharraf, and nearly 200 passengers on a commercial flight. Gen Musharraf was returning to Pakistan from Sri Lanka and Mr Sharif was said to have issued orders preventing his plane from landing in Karachi. The plane was eventually able to land and Mr Sharif was overthrown after the military seized control. In the same year Ms Bhutto and her husband were convicted of corruption and also given jail sentences.
The question of whether Mr Sharif and Ms Bhutto can be disqualified from contesting the election under a law blocking convicts from doing so is, according to observers, an open question. | Government Job change - Election | August 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
A Syrian arms dealer is jailed for 30 years for conspiring to sell weapons to Colombia's Revolutionary Armed Forces. | A Syrian-born arms dealer has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for conspiring to sell millions of dollars of weapons to Colombian rebels.
A New York court found Monzer al-Kassar guilty of masterminding sales of arms, including surface-to-air missiles and grenade launchers to left-wing rebels.
Prosecutors said he knew Farc rebels would use them against US operations aimed at disrupting the cocaine trade.
His Chilean associate Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy was sentenced to 25 years.
Al-Kassar, 63, lived in Spain and was known as the "prince of Marbella" for his lavish lifestyle.
During his trial, he was described as one of the world's most prolific arms dealers.
He and Godoy were caught in a sting operation by undercover intelligence officers who posed as Farc contacts and filmed the operation.
He said the pair agreed to sell "huge quantities of serious weapons to what they believed was a terrorist organisation who would use these weapons, amongst other things, to kill Americans and wreak havoc."
In a bid for leniency from the judge, al-Kassar said he was not "against Americans, America or against any other kind of nations."
He also quoted Jesus, the Koran and an old Arabic poem, Reuters news agency reported.
His defence lawyers had said he was a legitimate arms dealer, and had passed on information to Spanish authorities as an informant.
But Judge Rakoff called al-Kassar "a man of many faces".
"It's a tragedy that a person as intelligent has spent so much of his life in activities that were certainly not calculated to advance the human race."
Previously, the US Embassy in Madrid has said that since the 1970s al-Kassar sold weapons to the Palestinian Liberation Front and clients in Nicaragua, Bosnia, Croatia, Iran, Iraq and Somalia.
In 2006, he was named by the Iraqi government as one of its most wanted men for allegedly helping to arm insurgents. A UN report meanwhile called him an "international embargo buster".
He was acquitted in 1995 of supplying arms that were used in the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship off the coast of Egypt, which resulted in the death of an American, Leon Klinghoffer. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | February 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
The first secretary at the Swiss embassy in Tehran, Iran, is found dead after accidentally falling from the tower where she lived. | A senior member of staff at the Swiss embassy in Tehran has died after falling from the high-rise building where she lived, Iranian media report.
An emergency services spokesman told Mehr news agency that the 51-year-old woman was first secretary at the embassy but did not give her name.
Police in the Kamraniyeh area alerted paramedics on Tuesday morning but she had been "dead for a while", he said. The Swiss foreign ministry confirmed an employee had died in an accident.
"The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and its head Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis are shocked by the tragic death and express their deepest condolences to the family," a spokesperson said. The ministry added that it was in touch with the family and Iranian authorities.
It gave no further information about the circumstances of the death, citing data protection and privacy reasons.
The Iranian foreign ministry also expressed its condolences, according to the state news agency Irna. The ministry added that the death was under investigation by the relevant authorities and that the results would be made public soon.
Irna's report cited the emergency services as saying that suicide had already been ruled out.
Switzerland has represented US diplomatic interests in Iran since Washington and Tehran severed relations shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Switzerland launches humanitarian channel to Iran
| Famous Person - Death | May 2021 | ['(BBC)'] |
Former Prime Minister and Acting Head of State of Nepal Girija Prasad Koirala, "the elder statesman of South Asia" who brought down the King, dies in Kathmandu at the age of 86. | Updated: Mar 21, 2010 01:17
KATMANDU: Nepal’s former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, who served five terms, led mass protests that ended the king’s authoritarian rule and was a key figure in peace negotiations with communist rebels, died Saturday. He was 86.
The former rebels’ leader called Koirala’s death an “irreparable loss” to the ongoing peace process, which has been stalled since political parties have not been able to decide on the fate of the thousands of Maoist former rebel fighters who have been confined to UN-monitored camps for years.
Koirala’s daughter, Deputy Prime Minister Sujata Koirala, said her father was worried about the country in the last days of his life and tried work out an agreement between the political parties.
Koirala had been taken to his daughter’s house earlier in the week after several days in the hospital. He had heart problems and had been hospitalized several times in the past few months.
Koirala was president of the Nepali Congress party and led the mass street demonstrations in 2006 that forced then-King Gyanendra to give up his authoritarian rule, reinstate Parliament and appoint Koirala as caretaker prime minister. Soon after that, Koirala’s government stripped Gyanendra of all his powers and command of the army.
Gyanendra was dethroned and the centuries-old monarchy abolished in May 2008. Soon after that Koirala stepped down as prime minister to allow a new coalition government led by former communist rebels to take power. | Famous Person - Death | March 2010 | ['(Press TV)', '(The Times of India)', '(Xinhua)', '(Arab News)', '(ABC)', '(BBC)'] |
Fourteen people die in a plane crash in Honduras including a deputy minister in the Government of Honduras Rodolfo Robelo and former finance minister Carlos Chahin. | A small plane has crashed in Honduras, killing all 14 on board, including a government minister, Rodolfo Robelo. The plane was on a routine scheduled flight from the coastal city of San Pedro Sula to the capital, Tegucigalpa.
Also among those killed was former finance minister Carlos Chain and a trade union leader, Israel Salinas Jorge Castellanos. An investigation has been launched into the crash which happened in a heavily forested mountainous region. Officials said there was thick fog and strong winds in the area at the time.
The commander of the Air Force, Ruis Landa, said the plane - a Let 410 twin-engine, operated by Central American Airlines - had lost contact with air traffic control in a region south of Tegucigalpa.
Local residents heard the explosion as the aircraft hit the ground and raced to the scene to try to help any survivors, reported local newspaper El Heraldo. But when they reached the area, they found a chilling scene of scattered bodies, the local mayor told the newspaper.
Two crew were among the 14 who died. One of the pilots is reported to have survived the initial crash, but died before he could be taken to hospital.
The accident happened in the same area where a SAHSA airlines plane crashed in 1989, killing 131 people. | Air crash | February 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Singer George Michael is charged with possessing cannabis and being unfit for driving. | Singer George Michael has been charged with possession of cannabis and driving while unfit through drink or drugs following an incident last month, Scotland Yard has said.
Michael was arrested on 4 July in Hampstead, north London, after he allegedly crashed his car into a branch of photographic shop Snappy Snaps. The Wham! star, from nearby Highgate, was on police bail following the crash.
Police said Michael, 47, is due to appear before magistrates on 24 August.
The pop star, whose real name is Georgios Panayiotou, was charged when he reported to a police station in Camden, north London, on Thursday.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Voters in Venezuela go to the polls to elect new state governors, resulting in the incumbent socialist party winning the majority of the governorships, a result disputed by the opposition. | CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela’s opposition cried foul on Monday over the ruling socialists’ win in gubernatorial elections, raising the threat of more foreign sanctions following the vote in what the United States called “an authoritarian dictatorship.”
Breakingviews TV: Venezuela on the edge
04:16
President Nicolas Maduro’s candidates took 17 governorships, versus five for the opposition, in Sunday’s nationwide poll, according to the pro-government electoral board.
The socialists’ strong showing came despite devastating food shortages, triple-digit inflation, and a collapsing currency. Polls had suggested the opposition would easily win a majority.
Dismayed leaders of the Democratic Unity coalition demanded an audit after citing a litany of abuses, including multiple voting, state food handouts on the day of the poll, forced attendance at gunpoint and suspicious phone and power outages.
The opposition fell short of offering detailed evidence of outright fraud, however, and there were no conventional foreign observer missions to verify claims of vote-rigging.
“This is a process of electoral fraud without precedent in our history,” said opposition spokesman Angel Oropeza. An estimated 1 million voters were blocked from voting, he said, referring to claims the election board skewed results by relocating hundreds of polling places away from opposition strongholds.
Many dispirited opposition supporters now see foreign pressure as their only real hope of hurting Maduro ahead of next year’s presidential vote.
The United States condemned the elections as neither free nor fair and vowed to keep up pressure on Maduro for the erosion of democracy in the South American OPEC nation.
“As long as the Maduro regime conducts itself as an authoritarian dictatorship, we will work with members of the international community and bring the full weight of American economic and diplomatic power to bear in support of the Venezuelan people as they seek to restore their democracy,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.
Related Coverage
The Trump administration has already imposed sanctions on Maduro and top officials, including election board head Tibisay Lucena. Washington has also struck at the government’s ability to raise more funds via foreign debt.
The European Union could also take measures against Maduro, who was narrowly elected to replace the late leader Hugo Chavez in 2013.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who has also branded Venezuela a dictatorship, expressed concern at claims of “serious irregularities” and “lack of transparency” in the gubernatorial vote.
“France deplores this situation and is working with its EU partners to examine appropriate measures to help resolve the serious crisis,” the French foreign ministry said.
Venezuela’s government, which insisted in advance of Sunday’s vote that it would demonstrate its commitment to democracy, still retains significant support in poorer, rural settings. And it seems unlikely that supporters of the elite-led opposition, which has struggled to capitalize on discontent over the economy, will return to the streets en masse after months of grueling protests earlier this year.
The protests failed to pressure the government into holding an early presidential election, freeing scores of jailed activists or accepting foreign humanitarian aid.
At least 125 people died, while thousands were injured and arrested in violence.
“Obviously, this was a brutal fraud,” said David Osorio, 21, who lost an eye when he was hit by a gas cannister in the clashes. “But I don’t know if going back to the streets is best ... because the same will happen and many are simply not willing.”
A few hundred opposition protesters massed in front of the electoral council in the southern Bolivar state, where results were still not given by Monday evening. The National Guard used tear gas to scatter the crowd, according to a Reuters witness.
Various opposition leaders acknowledged disillusionment and people staying home had played a big role.
“We shot ourselves in the foot,” legislator Jose Guerra said, noting record turnout of 74 percent in a 2015 congress vote, which the opposition won, versus 61 percent on Sunday.
Flanked by his powerful wife, soldiers, and red-shirted party members, a jubilant Maduro painted the opposition as sore losers. “When they lose they cry fraud. When they win they shout ‘Down with Maduro,’” said Maduro, 54.
The opposition pocketed governorships including the turbulent Andean states of Merida and Tachira and the oil-producing region of Zulia.
The government, which had previously controlled 20 governorships, took states across Venezuela’s languid plains and steamy Caribbean coast. It won back populous Miranda state, which includes part of the capital Caracas, and also won in Barinas, Chavez’s home state, where his younger brother retained the top job.
| Government Job change - Election | October 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Bollywood star Salman Khan is convicted of culpable homicide for running over five men in Bombay in 2002, causing the death of one, and is sentenced to five years imprisonment. | An Indian court has sentenced Bollywood star Salman Khan to five years in jail for killing a homeless man in a 2002 hit-and-run driving incident in Mumbai. The man was among five people who were run over in the incident. The actor was charged with culpable homicide.
Khan had said his driver was behind the wheel, but the judge said the actor was driving the car and was under the influence of alcohol at the time.
Legal experts expect the actor to appeal against the verdict.
Khan's lawyers have already applied for bail in the Bombay high court which is expected to hear the case shortly, reports say. The actor remains in the trial court while his fate is being decided.
Correspondents say the guilty verdict is a huge setback for Khan although he could have been jailed for 10 years. The actor is one of Bollywood's biggest stars, appearing in more than 80 Hindi-language films. Several of his films, including Dabangg, Ready, Bodyguard, Ek Tha Tiger, Maine Pyar Kiya and Hum Aap Ke Hain Kaun, have been huge commercial hits.
On Wednesday morning, as the actor drove to court with his family and friends, fans prayed for the actor's acquittal.
But Judge DW Deshpande found him guilty on the charge of culpable homicide.
"You were driving the car; you were under the influence of alcohol," he told the actor as soon as the court proceedings began.
The 49-year-old actor was also found guilty of negligent driving and causing grievous harm to the victims and given separate terms for each offence, but defence lawyers said all the sentences would run concurrently. Within minutes of entering the courtroom, the judge informed Khan that he was guilty. After that, for the next three hours as the lawyers from both the sides presented their arguments over his punishment, Khan, who was dressed in a white shirt, remained calm and composed. His family and friends inside the court were hoping that he would get a jail term of three years or less.
But when the judge sentenced him to five years in prison, Khan's expression changed immediately. And even as his sisters tried to comfort him, the actor looked visibly upset.
Salman Khan: Bollywood's popular 'bad boy'
Several of his Bollywood colleagues spoke out in his support and expressed their sympathies. Actress Hema Malini said she was praying for him.
If the actor is put behind bars, it will affect several high-profile film projects he is involved in at the moment.
The case has gripped Bollywood and India for years.
Late on the night of 28 September 2002, Khan's Toyota Land Cruiser hit the American Express bakery in the Bandra area of Mumbai, authorities say.
The vehicle ran over five people sleeping on the street, killing 38-year-old Noor Ullah Khan and seriously injuring three others. Another person received minor injuries.
The prosecution alleged that Khan had been driving the car while drunk. Giving evidence in March., Khan had denied he was drunk or that he was driving the vehicle.
But many witnesses disagreed. A constable attached to Khan's security detail said in a statement to the police that the "drunk" actor had lost control of the car. The policeman died in 2007 of tuberculosis.
In April, Khan's driver told the court that he had crashed the car after a tyre burst but the court did not accept that version.
September 2002: Salman Khan's car runs over five people sleeping on a Mumbai street, killing a homeless man and injuring four others October 2002: Khan charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder - arrested but granted bail
May 2003: Court rejects his plea to drop culpable homicide charge June 2003: Bombay high court drops culpable homicide charge; actor is then tried for rash and negligent driving October 2007: Prime witness, a constable who served in his security detail, dies
March 2015: Khan tells the court he was not drunk and his driver was behind the wheel
May 2015: Khan found guilty, sent to jail for five years
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
A migrant boat carrying some 600 passengers capsizes off the coast of Kafr el-Sheikh Governorate, Egypt, killing at least 52 people, with hundreds more missing. | At least 42 people have drowned after a migrant boat capsized off the Egyptian coast, officials say.
The boat was carrying about 600 passengers, of whom about 150 have been rescued, state media reported.
It capsized off the coast of Kafr al-Sheikh.
Wednesday's incident comes after the head of the EU's border agency warned that increasing numbers of Europe-bound migrants are using Egypt as a departure point.
The boat was transporting Egyptian, Syrian, Sudanese, Eritrean and Somali migrants, security officials told Reuters. Health ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said the number of bodies recovered had reached 42 after local officials earlier told Reuters that the bodies of 20 men, 10 women and one child had been retrieved. Sudanese and "other African nationalities" are among the dead, AFP news agency reports.
It is not clear where the planned final destination was, although officials said the boat was probably heading for Italy.
Human rights researchers warned last month of a "devastating" lack of information for families of migrants thought to have drowned in the Mediterranean.
They say more than 6,600 refugees drowned in the Mediterranean in 2015 and the first half of this year. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) released figures in July suggesting that 2016 could become the worst year to date for migrant deaths.
It said that about 3,000 migrants and refugees had lost their lives so far this year trying to cross the Mediterranean.
But a report by UK academics warned that most bodies remain unidentified and their families are left not knowing if missing relatives are dead or alive.
The EU border agency Frontex said in August that more than 12,000 migrants arrived in Italy from Egypt between January and September, compared with 7,000 over the same period in 2015.
It says that Egypt is the "new hotspot" for people smugglers, with concerns that its population of about 80 million people may pose a major problem should it descend into chaos.
Frontex director Fabrice Leggeri said that work was being done to determine whether there was a link between the drop in numbers departing from Turkey - where only about 50 people a day try to make the journey to reach Greece compared to thousands this time last year - and the increase in numbers from Egypt.
The [Egyptian] route is growing," Mr Leggeri said. "The crossing is extremely dangerous [and can often] take longer than 10 days."
Other aid agencies have also warned about an increase in numbers from Egypt, especially after a migrant swap deal was agreed between the EU and Turkey in March.
"If you think that you have had a migrant crisis up until now, that will be a game changer," said Catherine Woollard, secretary general of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), a Brussels-based network of NGOs.
Ms Woollard said that some conflict and crisis experts are looking "at Egypt in terms of potential collapse".
The Egypt office of the IOM say high birth rates and few job opportunities are pushing young Egyptians into taking the risk.
However, officials say Libya still remains the biggest departure point with flows at around the same level this year as last year. | Shipwreck | September 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
India halts a plan to re–introduce cheetahs to the country by shipments from Africa. | NEW DELHI (AFP) - India's Supreme Court has halted a plan to re-introduce cheetahs to the country by shipping animals over from Africa after experts said the idea was 'totally misconceived'. The environment ministry had cleared the US$56 million (S$69.9 million) project which involved moving African cheetahs from Namibia to a wildlife sanctuary in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. But court-appointed adviser P.S. Narasimha said: 'Studies show that African cheetahs and Asian cheetahs are completely different, both genetically and also in their characteristics.' He told the court on Tuesday: 'The African cheetah obviously never existed in India,' adding that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) clearly warned against the introduction of alien species. | Government Policy Changes | May 2012 | ['(Straits Times)'] |
The death toll from flooding in Indonesia reaches 145 with West Papua most heavily affected. | Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) -- The death toll from rampant flooding in Indonesia has climbed to 144, emergency management officials said Monday.
As of Monday morning, more than 4,300 people were displaced, and about 1,000 houses were destroyed.
About 103 people remain missing, said the national disaster management and mitigation agency. Many still rely on generators, as electricity has not been restored, the agency said.
According to the World Health Organization, a flash flood was triggered earlier this month in the Wasior subdistrict of West Papua following heavy rainfall that broke a dam.
Thousands of houses were inundated, the group said in an emergency statement report.
In addition to the destroyed houses, several buildings, numerous bridges, places of worship and schools have been damaged. | Floods | October 2010 | ['(CNN)', '(Straits Times)', '(Jakarta Post)'] |
A partially–constructed building collapses onto a truck in Jacobs, Durban, South Africa, killing at least three people and hospitalising six more. , | Investigations are underway after three people were killed when a two storey building, which was under construction, collapsed onto a truck carrying tiles in Jacobs, Durban.
Construction workers were busy at the site on Chamberlin Road around midday when tragedy struck.
"There were a few of them [construction workers] that were busy and others were at lunch. But it came down so quickly and many people got hurt. It was a sad scene. People were scared," an eyewitness that works near the building told News24 shortly after the collapse on Wednesday.
The man, who did not want to be identified, said panic ensued.
"Everyone was very stressed. When it ... happened, we hoped it was just small injuries, but it was bad."
Labour Department spokesperson Lungelo Mkamba told News24 that occupational safety and health inspectors from the department were on site.
"We have dispatched our team. The details surrounding what led to the collapse are unclear ... for now, that is all we can say."
Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Thembeka Mbhele said that the injured were between the ages of 35 and 40 years old.
"We are not sure what caused this, but the various departments and emergency services have been on site. Once we receive a detailed report, we can share more about what caused this tragedy."
EMS spokesperson Robert Mckenzie said paramedics treated five patients at the scene for injuries ranging from critical to serious.
"Emergency services are still at the scene. The exact reason and circumstances resulting in the collapse are not known at this stage and are being investigated by the relevant authorities."
Recovery efforts were expected to continue through most of Wednesday night after an industrial crane was brought to the site to remove parts of the collapsed wall and rubble.
A large crowd had gathered around the site after news of the accident spread on social media. Traffic in the area was also negatively affected as emergency services with specialised vehicles made their way to assist. | Road Crash | March 2018 | ['(News 24)', '(Eyewitness News)'] |
The United Kingdom's Department for Transport announces a consultation process on raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph . | The Department of Transport is to launch a consultation on increasing the speed limit on England and Wales' motorways from 70mph to 80mph.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said the current limit, introduced in 1965, was out of date due to "huge advances in safety and motoring technology".
The consultation begins this year with a view to raising the limit in 2013. The Department for Transport says as many as 49% of drivers flout the current 70mph limit.
It says advances in technology have made cars much safer, contributing to a drop of more than 75% in the number of people killed on British roads since the 70mph limit was introduced.
As a result, it says it is time to look again at whether the current limit is "still appropriate".
But road safety charity Brake said it was opposed to any policy which could increase deaths on the road.
Mr Hammond said England and Wales' roads "should be the arteries of a healthy economy". He added: "Now it is time to put Britain back in the fast lane of global economies and look again at the motorway speed limit which is nearly 50 years old, and out of date thanks to huge advances in safety and motoring technology.
"Increasing the motorway speed limit to 80mph would generate economic benefits of hundreds of millions of pounds through shorter journey times."
Mr Hammond also said that motoring technology has "moved on enormously" from when the original limit was introduced. "Cars are much safer, they have more sophisticated equipment now than they did 40 or so years ago. They are capable of driving safely at higher speeds. There are enormous economic benefits to be had by increasing the speed limit and shortening journey times. "And the current limit has lost its legitimacy. We all know that many, many motorists who are otherwise law-abiding citizens routinely ignore the 70 miles per hour limit."
Mr Hammond also said he did not think the rise would have a "significant impact on safety". He added: "The experience in other countries where the limit has been raised, is that actually, the average increase in speed is really, very small. "What we are doing here, is bringing a lot of drivers who currently, routinely break the speed limit, back on the right side of the law - and that has to be a good thing." The government says road safety remains a priority, and says it is taking action to tackle uninsured drivers and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
BBC political correspondent Vicki Young said there had been some concerns within the cabinet about the change - Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is said to be concerned about road safety and and Energy Secretary Chris Huhne was worried about the pollution impact.
Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said: "There are good reasons for making 80 the new 70, and good reasons not to. Drivers travelling that 10mph quicker might reach their destination sooner but will use about 20% more fuel and emit 20% more CO2. "There is also likely to be a slight increase in road casualties. And what about enforcement? If police follow existing guidelines, many people could do 90mph before action is taken."
Stephen Joseph, chief executive of Campaign for Better Transport, said: "Increasing the motorway speed limit to 80mph would not help the economy and would increase costs for drivers.
"It would also add to pollution and increase road casualties. Responsible motorists know that driving steadily at or below 70mph is most fuel-efficient, reduces jams and is safer.
"This is an empty gesture that in the end would not benefit anyone."
Ellen Booth, senior campaigns officer at road safety charity Brake, said: "We are strongly opposed to the idea of raising the motorway speed limit.
"We would be strongly opposed to any policy that would increase deaths on the roads.
"To have such a policy would be unethical. Each death on the road affects not only the victim but their family too."
| Government Policy Changes | September 2011 | ['(128km/h)', '(BBC)', '(Sky News)'] |
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wraps up a controversial visit to Lebanon | Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has received a hero's welcome in southern Lebanon, close to the Israeli border.
Tens of thousands of people waved Iranian, Lebanese and Hezbollah flags as he spoke in a stadium in Bint Jbeil. They cheered as he praised what he called Lebanon's resistance against Israel. Mr Ahmadinejad has been on a two-day state visit described as provocative by Israel, the US and some Lebanese.
"You are a solid mountain. We are proud of you and will remain forever by your side," he told the crowd in Bint Jbeil, a Hezbollah bastion.
To thunderous applause he denounced the "Zionist regime" of Israel and said Israel would "disappear".
"The occupying Zionists today have no choice but to accept reality and go back to their countries of origin."
At the entrance to Bint Jbeil a giant banner read "welcome" in Farsi and Arabic. Signs and billboards said: "The south welcomes the protector of the resistance."
Iran contributed heavily to the cost of rebuilding villages destroyed in the south during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The border area between Lebanon and Israel is rarely without tension. In August, two Lebanese soldiers, a Lebanese journalist and a senior Israeli army officer were killed in a clash sparked by the trimming of a tree on the Israeli side of the frontier.
Mr Ahmadinejad also visited Qana, the site of deadly Israeli air strikes in 1996 and 2006.
He visited graves of the victims and later laid a wreath at a memorial.
On Wednesday, Mr Ahmadinejad's motorcade had been showered with rice and flowers on its way from Beirut airport to the presidential palace.
Many Lebanese are alarmed at the visit, as Iran backs Hezbollah, the powerful Shia Islamist group whose war with Israel left 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis dead.
Members of Lebanon's Western-backed parliamentary majority have called the visit a provocation, saying Mr Ahmadinejad was seeking to transform Lebanon into "an Iranian base on the Mediterranean".
Speaking during a visit to Kosovo, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington rejected any efforts "to destabilise or inflame tensions" in Lebanon.
Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Ahmadinejad's visit showed how far Hezbollah had become dependent on Tehran, and Lebanon had "become a tool in the hands of other entities".
Israel accuses Iran of supplying Hezbollah with weapons, but officials close to the group stress instead the Islamic Republic's support for reconstruction.
They say they have spent about $1bn (£600m) of Iranian money on humanitarian aid and rebuilding since 2006.
"Ahmadinejad has done a lot for Lebanon," 18-year-old engineering student Fatima Mazeh told the Associated Press. "He's not controlling Lebanon. Everyone has a mind and can think for himself. We are here to stand with him during the hardest times."
But elsewhere in the country, Hezbollah and its patron are viewed with suspicion by some.
"I am disgusted by this visit," Mona, a 23-year-old Christian, told the AFP news agency. "They refer to [Ahmadinejad] as a saviour, but all he has brought us is trouble."
The state visit also comes amid tension over a UN inquiry into the 2005 assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The UN tribunal is believed to be close to issuing indictments, including ones naming members of Hezbollah. Prime Minister Saad Hariri is under pressure from Hezbollah and Syria to denounce the inquiry into his father's death. | Diplomatic Visit | October 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Australian)'] |
Former Senator and Vice President Joe Biden announces he is running for the Democratic Party's nomination in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. | A former vice president known for — “My love affair with Amtrak.” “Back on Amtrak” — and his famous friend. “This also gives the internet one last chance to talk about our bromance.” Joe Biden is running for president. “Today, I am announcing my candidacy for president of the United States. He’s tried it before. “And with the grace of God and the support of the American people, I mean to be that kind of president.” Twice. “This is not about experience. It’s not about change. It’s about action.” So, why does he think the third time’s a charm? Biden may be betting that in this politically tumultuous time, voters are looking for a familiar face. He arrived in Washington before C-Span existed and before these members of Congress were born. His credentials are unmatched in the Democratic Party. He served two terms as vice president, 36 years in the Senate and has chaired powerful congressional committees. And he’s earned himself a few nicknames along the way. “Working-Class Joe.” “Working-Class Joe Biden.” “Old Uncle Joe Biden.” “Crazy Uncle Joe Biden, just being Biden.” So, what are Biden’s priorities? He’s a moderate Democrat and is likely to focus on: expanding health care, investing in education and rebuilding relationships with allies. “The America I see does not wish to turn our back on the world or our allies. We will be back.” But his decadeslong record comes with some baggage, including his support for the Iraq war. “President Bush is right to be concerned about Saddam Hussein’s relentless pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.” Tough anti-crime policies. “First, we have to join together to ensure that drug dealers are punished swiftly, surely and severely.” And his role in the Anita Hill hearing. “It is appropriate to ask Professor Hill anything any member wishes to ask her to plumb the depths of her credibility.” More recently, several women have come forward saying they were uncomfortable with the way Biden touched them. “I feel Joe Biden put his hands on my shoulders, get up very close to me from behind, lean in, smell my hair and then plant a slow kiss on the top of my head.” Biden responded on Twitter. “The boundaries of protected personal space have been reset and I get it. I will be more mindful and respectful of people’s personal space. So, how has Biden taken on President Trump? They’ve had their share of fighting words. “If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.” Trump shot back on Twitter, and said Biden “would go down fast and hard, crying all the way.” Biden later said he regretted his comments. So, what are Biden’s odds? He entered the race as an instant front-runner and he’s already leading in early polls. But as a white man in his late 70s, Biden’s test will be whether his popularity can outweigh the party’s thirst for generational change.
Biden Has a Long Record. Will This Help or Hurt Him? By Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced Thursday that he would seek the Democratic nomination to challenge President Trump in 2020, casting the election as a national emergency and asking Democrats to put the task of defeating Mr. Trump above all their other ambitions.
In a three-and-a-half minute video that focused on excoriating Mr. Trump, Mr. Biden presented himself as a steely leader for a country wracked by political conflict. Unlike the wide field of Democrats competing for the affections of the left, Mr. Biden avoided almost any talk of policy or ideology, signaling that he believes voters will embrace him as a figure of stability and maturity even in a partisan primary election.
The field of Democratic presidential candidates has been historically large, but all have dropped out except Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge President Trump. | Government Job change - Election | April 2019 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
At least 40 Syrian soldiers are killed in ambush in Western Iraq. | At least 40 Syrian soldiers and several Iraqis have been killed in western Iraq, officials in Baghdad say.
They were among a group who fled across the border into Iraq at the weekend to escape an attack by rebel fighters. They were being driven back to the border in Anbar province when they were attacked by gunmen, officials said.
Inside Syria, opposition activists said rebels had overrun the northern city of Raqqa, in what would be one of their biggest victories of the conflict.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the rebels had "near-total control" of Raqqa after days of fierce fighting.
A police chief was killed and two government security officials were detained, SOHR said.
Opposition fighters already control suburbs of the capital, Damascus, and parts of other major cities such as Aleppo and Homs.
Raqqa has been a refuge for hundreds of thousands of Syrians who fled the violence in other parts of the country; many others have fled to neighbouring countries.
Some 70,000 people have died in the conflict which began with the uprising against President Assad's rule two years ago.
The group of Syrian soldiers and government employees had entered Iraq through the Yaarubiyeh border in the northern Nineveh province over the weekend, as anti-government rebels launched an attack on the area.
They were being taken to the al-Waleed border crossing further south in Anbar when they were ambushed at Akashat, a senior Iraqi official told Reuters.
"Gunmen set up an ambush and killed 40 of them, plus some Iraqi soldiers who were protecting the convoy," he added.
The identity of the gunmen is not known.
They appeared to have been well-prepared for the assault, having with them roadside bombs, automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, officials said.
Iraq and Syria share a 600km (372 mile) border, and the government in Baghdad has often expressed concern that the violence in Syria could spill over into its own territory.
Anbar is a province dominated by Sunni Muslims who have been protesting for more than two months against the Shia-led government they accuse of trying to marginalise them.
The province has seen the formation of the Free Iraqi Army, a group openly supporting its fellow Sunnis in the rebel Free Syrian Army which is fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad, whose own Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shia Islam.
A spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister told AFP news agency that the attack in Anbar "confirms our fears of the attempt of some to move the conflict to Iraq", but, he added, "we will face these attempts by all sides with all of our power".
| Armed Conflict | March 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Paris, France, implements a pollution–reduction program that bans residents from driving cars built before 1997, and motorcycles built before 2000, on weekdays inside the city limits between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. |
Police patrol traffic in Paris as part of new anti-pollution measures aimed at punishing vehicles registered before 1997 that are forbidden to be driven during the week. Nearly 30 police officers stood guard on the morning of July 1, in the main squares of Paris to control and raise awareness among the drivers about the new measures.
Paris was at the forefront of public bike-sharing schemes, and it now has electric car-sharing schemes and is something of a laboratory for mobility. As of today, motorists with cars built before 1997, and motorcycles built before 2000, will no longer be able to drive them in the city during daylight hours on weekdays.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo says keeping old cars out of the city will help lower pollution levels. But not everyone is happy about it.
Marc Vernhet makes his living driving tourists around Paris in the classic French car known as the Deux Chevaux, or two-horse power. Peugeot Citroen no longer makes the model, but for collectors, it's a nostalgic symbol of the good old days. Vernhet says tourists from all over the world want to ride in them.
Marc Vernhet drives tourists around Paris in his Deux Chevaux. Because he uses his car for tourism, Vernhet is exempt from the ban.
"Tourists love that because they feel like real Parisians in the narrow streets of Paris," he says.
Because he uses his car for tourism, Vernhet is exempt from the ban. For now. So are old car owners whose vehicles are listed as official collector's items.
Antique car collectors were not the only ones to lobby against this new law. Pierre Chasseray, the executive director of an association called 40 Million Drivers, says the car ban discriminates against the poor and working class people.
"When you have an old car in France, it's because you don't have the money to buy a new one," he says. "So you can't say to this person that they can't drive their car. They bought their car and they need their car. Public transport is a solution, but it's not the solution for everybody."
Christophe Najdovsky, the deputy Paris mayor in charge of transport and public space, says most low-income Parisians actually don't own cars and do take public transport. The limits on old cars are about everyone's right to breathe better air, he insists.
"We know that the major source of pollution in Paris is traffic," he says. "Sixty-six percent of nitrogen dioxide and fine particles come from road traffic. And we know it's old cars that spew out the most toxic fumes. That's why we are progressively going to get rid of them."
Najdovsky says the ban will affect only about 1,000 out of the 600,000 cars on the city's streets every day.
The idea to restrict the most polluting cars gained traction last March, when the pollution levels in Paris briefly topped those of Beijing. That was partly due to an atmospheric phenomenon sometimes observed in the spring, known as inversion.
Romain Lacombe, the CEO of Plume Labs, a startup that tracks pollution levels in 400 cities, says inversion occurs when a lid of hot air on top of cold air traps the pollution on the ground.
"What happened more than a year ago now in Paris was a combination of an inversion layer and the usual pollution levels in the city," he says. "So that was quite a crisis."
The city responded by banning cars with even-numbered license plates one day and odd-numbered the next, until pollution levels came down.
For those caught flouting the new law, fines can go as high as $550. The new rules are some of the toughest restrictions on drivers in any European city. And they could get tougher. Hidalgo, the Paris mayor, has made no secret of her wish to ban all diesel cars from the city. They currently make up more than half the cars in France. | Government Policy Changes | July 2016 | ['(NPR)'] |
A Nepal Airlines plane carrying 18 people crashes in a forest in Arghakhanchi District, Nepal. , | KATMANDU, Nepal — A Nepal Airlines plane bound for the city of Jumla from Katmandu, the capital, crashed in the forests of western Nepal on Sunday, almost certainly killing all 18 people aboard, officials said.
An official at Tribhuvan International Airport in Katmandu blamed bad weather for the crash, saying it had been snowing for much of the day. The plane did not have de-icing equipment, which is needed in such conditions, the official said.
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This is an offer for a Basic Digital Access Subscription. The Basic Digital Access Subscription does not include e-reader editions (Kindle, Nook, etc.), NYT Games (the Crossword) or NYT Cooking. Mobile apps are not supported on all devices. These offers are not available for current subscribers. Other restrictions and taxes may apply. Offers and pricing are subject to change without notice. | Air crash | February 2014 | ['(New York Times)', '(USA Today)'] |
In the Netherlands a 45–year–old man is arrested following a DNA profiling match in connection with a high–profile rape and murder case of a sixteen–year–old girl on May 1, 1999. | Police in Friesland have arrested a local man in connection with the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1999.
The man was picked up following the mass dna testing of men living close to the field where Marianne Vaatstra’s body was found. According to television crime reporter Peter R de Vries, who has been central to keeping the case open, the dna match is 100%. ‘In ordinary words, you could say ‘the case is solved’’, De Vries told Nos radio. Farmer The suspect is said to be a white, 44-year-old man from the village of Oudwoude. ‘It is a farmer with his own company,’ De Vries said. The Telegraaf later identified the man as Jasper S, who has two children and whose wife is very active in village life. The man’s farm is some two kilometres from the field where Marianne’s body was found. He was 31 at the time of her death. According to media reports, he had voluntarily given a dna sample when police made an appeal this summer. Traces Nearly 6,600 men voluntarily gave a dna sample in a last ditch attempt to solve the murder earlier this year. The decision to launch the dna appeal came after De Vries in May broadcast information about a Playboy cigarette lighter found in Vaatstra’s bag which contains dna traces that match the traces found on the schoolgirl’s body. Tip-offs following the broadcast showed the lighter was on sale in the local area at the time, including in the village of Zwaagwesteinde where she lived. Police are due to give a news conference about the arrest later on Monday.
The DutchNews.nl team would like to thank all the generous readers who have made a donation in recent weeks. Your financial support has helped us to expand our coverage of the coronavirus crisis into the evenings and weekends and make sure you are kept up to date with the latest developments.
DutchNews. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | November 2012 | ['(DutchNews)'] |
FC Bayern Munich puts themselves in a strong position to reach the quarterfinals with a 3–1 away victory at Arsenal F.C. in London, England. | From the section Footballcomments690
Arsenal's Champions League ambitions - and their hopes of a first trophy since 2005 - look to be in tatters after they were well beaten by Bayern Munich at Emirates Stadium.
Arsene Wenger demanded an instant response from his players after the shock FA Cup fifth-round defeat at home by Championship side Blackburn Rovers on Saturday brought a storm of criticism for manager and players.
Bundesliga leaders Bayern were in no mood to offer any respite and made it a miserable few days for Arsenal as they established a commanding advantage ahead of the second leg of this last 16 tie in the Allianz Arena.
"The wider and more painful truth is even starker for Wenger after the runaway Bundesliga leaders spent 90 minutes plus stoppage time illustrating to The Emirates what Arsenal have become; how far they have fallen in European terms."
Read more from Phil
Toni Kroos and Thomas Mueller gave Bayern control with two early goals, and even though Lukas Podolski pulled a goal back for Arsenal in the second half, Mario Mandzukic's scrambled third left the Gunners requiring something bordering on miraculous in Germany.
Arsenal showed plenty of spirit, but Bayern simply carried too much quality and experience. All evidence suggests a fight for a place in the Premier League's top four can be Wenger's only realistic target for the rest of the season.
The old defensive fragility undermined Arsenal, and in attack they ran up against a resolute Bayern defence that offered little to the likes of Theo Walcott.
Arsenal's fragile confidence required some repair following the Blackburn defeat - but Bayern pounced ruthlessly on a vulnerable opponent to score twice in the first 21 minutes.
Kroos struck first after only seven minutes when he was left unattended on the edge of the area and showed fine technique in controlling a powerful volley into the turf that beat Arsenal keeper Wojciech Szczesny.
This is only the third time that Arsenal have lost two successive matches at the Emirates Stadium (May 2009 & Nov 2010) Arsenal's fans roared their team forward in raucous fashion, with no hint of dissent, but their plight worsened as they swiftly conceded another sloppy goal to ensure Bayern were in total command. Szczesny could only palm out Daniel van Buyten's near-post header and Mueller reacted quicker than Mikel Arteta to turn the rebound into the roof of the net.
Wenger's side were frustrated in their attempts to subdue Bayern and it resulted in first-half yellow cards for Bacary Sagna, Thomas Vermaelen and Arteta.
The Gunners showed reserves of resilience but Bayern's pace, power and relentless work-rate made them an ominous threat. Mandzukic almost added a third moments before half-time when his header was only inches wide from Philipp Lahm's right-wing cross.
Arsenal were in desperate straits and needed to muster a swift response. It came 10 minutes after the restart when Germany striker Podolski headed in after Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer failed to deal with a corner.
It offered Arsenal hope at last. And with his side finally gathering momentum, Wenger made a double change with 19 minutes left, sending on Olivier Giroud and Tomas Rosicky for Podolski and Aaron Ramsey.
Mario Mandzukic became the 10th different player to score a Champions League goal for Bayern Munich in 2012-13
Frenchman Giroud almost brought Arsenal level with his first touch, a snap-shot that was blocked, with more than an element of good fortune, by Neuer.
As Arsenal's supporters sensed the possibility of an unlikely comeback, Bayern scored what will surely prove to be a killer third goal that owed something to both accident and design.
Substitute Arjen Robben, on for Franck Ribery, played in the marauding Lahm. The Bayern captain found Mandzukic, who fell and half-hit his attempted finish only to see the bounce wrong-foot Szczesny and end up in the net. | Sports Competition | February 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(ESPN)'] |
The U.S. Department of Justice drops its prosecution of Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI. He previously pleaded guilty to the charges during the investigation led by Robert Mueller. | The move comes after the president and his allies stepped up their assault on the legal case against the former national security adviser.
Michael Flynn. | Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images
By JOSH GERSTEIN and KYLE CHENEY
05/07/2020 01:57 PM EDT
Updated: 05/07/2020 09:35 PM EDT
Link Copied
The Justice Department has abandoned its prosecution of President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, throwing in the towel on one of the most prominent cases brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.
The move represents a remarkable reversal two and half years after Flynn initially pleaded guilty to the FBI about his dealings with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. In that time, the case has taken a number of dramatic turns: Flynn went from the precipice of being sentenced in 2018, to abruptly switching legal teams in 2019, to trying to withdraw his guilty plea in 2020. Flynn's attempt to take back his plea led Attorney General William Barr in January to assign a federal prosecutor to review the case. It was that review that led to the move on Thursday to dismiss the case altogether. Department officials, including Barr, concluded in light of recently disclosed evidence that the FBI’s questioning of Flynn just four days after Trump’s inauguration lacked a proper investigative basis. Flynn admitted in front of two federal judges that he intentionally lied during that interview about his dealings with the Russian ambassador, but the retired U.S. Army lieutenant general formally retreated from those admissions in January.
"A review of the facts and circumstances of this case, including newly discovered and disclosed information, indicates that Mr. Flynn’s statements were never 'material' to any FBI investigation," read the motion filed Thursday seeking to dismiss the criminal prosecution.
The decision swiftly reverberated across Washington, where it is likely to have ramifications for the president's political fortunes, Barr's standing within his own Justice Department and Mueller's legacy. Trump, who had long complained that Flynn was being railroaded, hailed the development and wasted no time before making clear he wants to turn the tables on FBI and former Justice Department officials he believes corruptly went after Flynn.
“He was an innocent man,” Trump declared. “He is a great gentleman. He was targeted by the Obama administration and he was targeted in order to try and take down a president and what they’ve done is a disgrace and I hope a big price is going to be paid. A big price should be paid.”
Trump tied the prosecution of Flynn to the broader investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia, even arguing Thursday that those who probed the issue were guilty of “treason.” It had been widely expected Trump would pardon Flynn to prevent him from having to go to prison. But Barr's move relieves Trump of that decision and may have headed off the political blowback the president would have faced for issuing such a pardon.
Former FBI Director James Comey — who launched the investigations into Flynn and other Trump campaign advisers in 2016 — decried the decision to abandon the Flynn case, but urged those working at the Justice Department not to quit.
“The DOJ has lost its way. But, career people: please stay because America needs you. The country is hungry for honest, competent leadership,” Comey wrote on Twitter.
Andrew McCabe, who helped oversee the Russia probe as FBI deputy director from 2016 until 2018, called DOJ's justification for abandoning the case "patently false," arguing it "ignores the considerable national security risk [Flynn's] contacts raised."
"Today’s move by the Justice Department has nothing to do with the facts or the law — it is pure politics designed to please the president," added McCabe, who was a target of Trump's ire and eventually fired moments before his scheduled retirement over a media leak he authorized. McCabe is suing the department over his dismissal.
Barr, however, said on Thursday evening that he was upholding the department’s standards.
“At any stage during a proceeding, even after indictment or a conviction or a guilty plea, the department can move to dismiss the charges if we determine that our standards of prosecution have not been met,” he said in an interview on CBS News.
Asked by CBS’ Catherine Herridge whether he was doing Trump’s bidding in his decision to dismiss the charges, Barr replied: “No, I’m doing the law’s bidding. I’m doing my duty under the law, as I see it.”
On Capitol Hill, Republicans preached vindication while Democrats decried a miscarriage of justice. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said he would request a DOJ watchdog investigation and call Barr to testify about the decision.
"The integrity of our criminal justice system is at stake, and the American people deserve answers," the New York Democrat said in a statement.
The move to dismiss the case was approved by Barr at the urging of Jeffrey Jensen, the U.S. Attorney in St. Louis, whom Barr assigned in January to conduct a review of the case.
"Through the course of my review of Gen. Flynn’s case, I concluded the proper and just course was to dismiss the case," Jensen said in a statement. "I briefed Attorney General Barr on my findings, advised him on these conclusions, and he agreed."
FBI records turned over to the defense last week as part of Jensen’s review — made public in court filings — showed bureau officials were in the process of closing a counterintelligence investigation into Flynn in the first few days of January 2017. But they nixed those plans after learning of intercepts of Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador.
The filing seeking to drop the criminal case said those conversations were not a sufficient basis to keep the Flynn probe open.
“Even if he told the truth, Mr. Flynn’s statements could not have conceivably ‘influenced’ an investigation that had neither a legitimate counterintelligence nor criminal purpose,” Shea’s submission says. “A review of the facts and circumstances of this case, including newly discovered and disclosed information, indicates that Mr. Flynn’s statements were never 'material' to any FBI investigation.”
The 20-page Justice Department explanation for its decision to walk away from the Flynn case was accompanied by a slew of exhibits, including previously undisclosed FBI interviews with senior Obama Justice Department officials, including former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, who was acting attorney general in the early days of the Trump administration, and former National Security Division head Mary McCord.
The interviews suggest much of the wrangling over Flynn inside the outgoing administration was driven by territorial disputes. Comey repeatedly insisted that the FBI had to protect the secrecy of an ongoing criminal investigation, while intelligence officials and DOJ leaders, including Yates, emphatically urged informing the incoming Trump adinistration that Flynn had lied about his interactions with the Russian ambassador. Those concerns were compounded when Vice President Mike Pence repeated Flynn's incorrect information during a national television interview.
In a summary of her own interview about the matter, Yates indicated that she spoke to Comey, who raised the prospect that Pence himself was aware of Flynn's lie.
"The DOJ response was that they shouldn't assume the vice president was aware and knowingly lied," according to the record of Yates' interview. She also indicated she felt the FBI's position was based in part on a desire to maintain a good relationship with the Trump administration.
But when Sean Spicer, the new White House press secretary, repeated the erroneous information shortly after Trump's inauguration, Yates consulted with national security division lawyers and resolved to inform the White House about Flynn's conversations with Kislyak. When she informed Comey of the decision, he told her FBI agents were already on their way to interview Flynn.
While Trump called Flynn "innocent," the Justice Department submission stops just short of that. It does suggest that Flynn's statements to the FBI were not the kind of clear-cut lies that prosecutors seek to prove in court. "The Government is not persuaded that it could show that Mr. Flynn committed a false statement under its burden of proof," the filing said. "The statements in question were not by their nature easily falsifiable. In his interview, Mr. Flynn offered either equivocal ('I don’t know') or indirect responses, or claimed to not remember the matter in question."
Notably, the bombshell court filing Thursday asking U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to toss out the case bore the signature of only one prosecutor: U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Timothy Shea, a former Barr aide named to the post in January.
Moments before Shea's filing, the top prosecutor in the Flynn case, Brandon Van Grack, withdrew abruptly and without explanation. Van Grack had served as one of special counsel Robert Mueller's top lawyers and remained on the Flynn case even after Mueller's office closed down. He signaled his exit from the case in a terse, one-sentence filing with U.S. Sullivan. In another sign of discord, the prosecutor who handled the matter alongside Van Grack over the past year, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Ballentine, did not sign the filing seeking to drop the case. She did, however, appear to be the one who actually filed the document electronically with the court.
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After switching defense teams last year, Flynn began leveling a series of increasingly strident attacks at the prosecution, culminating in a motion in January to withdraw his guilty plea altogether. Later, Flynn's attorneys moved to have the case dismissed altogether on the grounds of egregious government misconduct.
In recent weeks and months, Flynn's defense — headed by Texas lawyer Sidney Powell — had escalated its attacks on Van Grack personally, alleging that he withheld evidence favorable to Flynn in defiance of an order from Sullivan requiring the prosecution to turn over such material.
A defense filing two weeks ago accused Van Grack of "incredible malfeasance" and of coercing Flynn's guilty plea in the fall of 2017 by making "baseless threats" to indict Flynn's son, Michael G. Flynn Jr.
Van Grack was the only member of Mueller's prosecution squad to take up a Justice Department leadership position after the Russia probe closed down, assuming a role last March overseeing the department's enforcement of the foreign-agent registration laws and other efforts to combat foreign influence in the U.S.
A Justice Department spokeswoman said Thursday afternoon that Van Grack was still working in that position. The court filings he submitted Thursday bore his title as chief of the Foreign Agent Registration Act Unit.
The filings did not indicate whether Van Grack was directed to withdraw from the Flynn case or elected to do so. He did not respond to messages Thursday seeking comment.
The dismissal of the case is subject to Sullivan's approval, but the Justice Department's filing Thursday suggested that should be more or less a formality. It would be extraordinary for a judge to order prosecutors to proceed with a case they are seeking to drop.
Trump personal lawyer Jay Sekulow said the Justice Department move amounted to an indictment of Mueller and his team.
"Justice has been served. The actions of the special counsel against Gen. Flynn were outrageous," Sekulow said. "The special counsel should be ashamed of the conduct of his agents and lawyers that he allowed. The attorney general and the Department of Justice are correcting a horrible wrong."
Trump also used the occasion of the Justice Department action to lash out at the press, particularly reporters who he viewed as complicit in amplifying a storyline about collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
"The media is totally guilty and all of those writers and so-called journalists. And they're not journalists. They’re thieves," the president said. "All of those journalists that received Pulitzer Prizes should be forced to give those Pulitzer Prizes back because they were all wrong." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2020 | ['(Politico)'] |
Sudan arrests four foreigners in the disputed border region with South Sudan on accusations of spying. | Updated: Apr 29, 2012 11:40
KHARTOUM/JUBA: Sudan said it had arrested a Briton, a Norwegian and a South African on Saturday, accusing them of illegally entering a disputed oil-producing border area to spy for its enemy South Sudan.
South Sudanese officials denied the allegations and said the men were working with the United Nations and aid groups clearing mines and had got lost in the remote territory close to the boundary between the two countries.
Sudanese army spokesman Al-Sawarmi Khaled said the three were arrested in Heglig - the scene of recent fighting between Sudan and South Sudan - traveling with a South Sudanese soldier in vehicles carrying military equipment.
“It is now confirmed without any doubt that South Sudan used the help of foreigners in their attack on Heglig. These foreigners were doing military work such as spying out the areas ... They had military equipment ... They have a military background,” Sawarmi said.
The group had been flown to Khartoum, he added.
A Reuters witness saw four men arriving on a civilian plane at Khartoum’s military airport.
One of the men, a Westerner, was wearing a t-shirt marked with the slogan “Norwegian People’s Aid. Mine Action South Africa.” Reporters were not allowed to talk to the men who were swiftly driven away in an unmarked white van.
South Sudanese Information Minister Barnaba Benjamin dismissed the Sudanese account as “nonsense,” telling Reuters the men were workers for aid groups and the United Nations and had been clearing mines.
South Sudan’s army spokesman Philip Aguer said military sources had told him a UN truck had got lost after leaving Paryang, just north of Bentiu, the capital of South Sudan’s Unity state, and was “caught by the Sudanese Armed Forces.”
Britain’s Foreign Office in London confirmed the Briton’s arrest and Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) South Sudan director Jan Ledang said one of its staff members had been detained.
“We are trying to confirm the nationalities of the three and the aim and motivation of the three,” Norway’s ambassador to Sudan, Jens-Petter Kjemprud, told Reuters.
MECHEM, a demining company and an arm of South Africa’s state arms company, Denel, said two of its employees, a South African and a South Sudanese, were arrested along with a United Nations employee.
“We are working on a UN demining contract and our employees have full UN immunity,” MECHEM’s chief executive officer, Ashley Williams, said in a statement e-mailed to Reuters.
The United Nations mission in South Sudan said one of its officials had been taken to Khartoum with three other men, without going into further detail.
More than three weeks of border fighting between Sudan and South Sudan’s 1,800 km (1,100 mile) contested border has brought the African neighbors close to an all-out war, nine months after the South gained independence from Sudan under a 2005 settlement.
South Sudan’s army seized Heglig earlier this month but announced a withdrawal more than a week ago, bowing to pressure from the United Nations.
Benjamin said Sudan’s war jets dropped eight bombs on Panakuach in Unity state on Saturday. Sudan’s army could not be immediately reached for comment.
Benjamin also said two SPLA soldiers has been killed on Friday after South Sudan repulsed an attack by what it said was a Sudanese-backed rebel militia near Malakal in its Upper Nile state.
China and the African Union (AU) have stepped up diplomatic efforts to try and bring Juba and Khartoum back to the negotiating table.
The United States circulated on Thursday a draft resolution at the UN Security Council that warns both states of sanctions if they do not comply with an AU seven-point peace plan. The deal urges both sides to cease hostilities within 48 hours and to withdraw troops from disputed areas.
The dispute has already halted most oil production in the two countries, damaging their fragile economies. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | April 2012 | ['(Arab News)'] |
At least 70 asylum seekers drown at sea after their boat sinks off the coast of Sicily with 27 rescued. | At least 70 migrants have been lost at sea after their boat capsized off Sicily, survivors have said.
The latest disaster to hit migrants trying to reach Italy emerged from a group rescued by the Italian navy who spoke to UN workers.
Thousands of migrants have tried to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa in recent days. Earlier, Italian officials said 45 people had died on another boat discovered two days ago.
Initial reports on Monday had put the number of deaths on the boat - which had been carrying about 600 migrants - at 30.
The navy said that those who died were crammed into a compartment below decks. They were either crushed or asphyxiated.
The discovery was made when rescuers boarded the vessel to evacuate a number of people said to be in distress, two of them pregnant women. The boat has since been towed to the port of Pozzallo in southern Sicily and the bodies of those who died have been taken away.
The cause of many of the migrant tragedies in recent months has been the poor quality of the overcrowded boats making the crossings to Italy, largely from Libya and Tunisia, The latest disaster to emerge involves a boat that capsized in the Strait of Sicily, the stretch of sea between the island and Tunisia. Local prosecutor Giovanni Salvi told Italian media that 101 people were apparently on board the overcrowded boat. The navy managed to rescue 27 of those on board, he said, emphasising that the details were yet to be confirmed.
There has been a significant increase in the number of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy in recent weeks.
EU border agency Frontex says almost 60,000 migrants have already landed in southern Italy this year. The record of 63,000 set in 2011 is likely to be broken within weeks.
Most are from Africa or the Middle East and pay large sums to people smugglers in Libya who transport them in unsafe fishing vessels. Officials say one reason for the rise in numbers is because of Libya's continuing political instability. Italy - which bears the brunt of migrants making the perilous crossing - launched a rescue operation in the Mediterranean last year but has repeatedly appealed for help from the EU to tackle the problem. | Shipwreck | July 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
Police in Germany arrest a gunman, nicknamed Rambo due to his acts, who disarmed four policemen and escaped in the Black Forest five days before. | German police have arrested a suspected gunman nicknamed "Rambo" after a five-day manhunt in the Black Forest.
Yves Rausch, 31, is said to have fled into the forest near Oppenau, in south-west Germany, on Sunday after threatening four police officers and taking their pistols.
An elite unit, helicopters, thermal detectors and sniffer dogs had been deployed to find him. More than 2,530 officers were involved in the operation, police said.
The suspect was found hiding in a bush with four handguns placed in front of him and an axe in his lap, deputy regional police chief Juergen Rieger told reporters.
Mr Rausch was slightly injured in the operation, as was a police officer by the axe, Mr Rieger added. Neither needed hospital treatment. A postal worker gave police information which helped lead to his arrest.
"I am very relieved - I think a line can be drawn under a really extraordinary situation for our little town," Mayor Uwe Gaiser said, according to Associated Press.
Police were initially called over reports of a suspicious man hanging around a hut in forest near Oppenau on Sunday. They found Mr Rausch in a hut on the edge of the forest, and said he had first appeared co-operative before suddenly pulling out a pistol and disarming the four officers. He was wearing camouflage gear.
Media reports have nicknamed him "Rambo" after the fictional, violent Vietnam war veteran who goes on the run from US police.
Police say he had lived in the Oppenau area a long time and he is believed to know the forest well.
His mother said he was evicted from his rented flat last year. It is unclear if it is the same flat which Bild reported he had rented above a local inn last year, where he had set up a shooting range in his attic.
He had gone to stay at an aunt's home before finally making a home for himself in the forest, his mother added. She described him as a "woodsman", saying "he wanted to escape into nature, to be free".
According to his mother, he grew his own vegetables, used the hut as his home, and carved wooden gnomes which he hoped to sell.
His mother said she had had a coffee with him at a local market on 8 July and he had appeared "perfectly normal".
He has a lengthy criminal record. Ten years ago, he was handed a juvenile sentence of more than three years for shooting a woman with a crossbow. Last year, he was found in possession of child pornography while under investigation for possession of explosives.
Setback for EU in legal fight with AstraZeneca
But the drug-maker faces hefty fines if it fails to supply doses of Covid-19 vaccine over the summer. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | July 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Greek coastguard says they rescued 242 migrants whose wooden boat sank north of the island of Lesbos, but at least three drowned, including two small boys. | ATHENS, Greece -- The Greek coast guard said it rescued 242 people off the eastern island of Lesbos Wednesday after the wooden boat they traveled in capsized, leaving at least three people dead.
Rescuers continue to search the rough waters for more survivors and the coast guard said it remains unclear how many people were on the boat when it went under.
The International Organization for Migration said in a statement some sources told it 200 people were onboard the boat, while others had told it 300.
The accident raised the total death toll from five separate incidents in the eastern Aegean Sea Wednesday to 11, as thousands of people continued to head to the Greek islands in frail boats from Turkey in stormy weather.
Greece is the main entry point for people from the Middle East and Africa seeking a better future in Europe. Well over half a million have arrived so far this year.
In a separate incident earlier Wednesday, a seven-year-old boy died off Lesbos while a 12-month-old girl was in critical condition in hospital from the same boat accident.
Another three children and a man died off the coast of Samos, while one woman and two children drowned off the islet of Agathonissi.
| Shipwreck | October 2015 | ['(Reuters)', '(AP via CBS News)'] |
Lieutenant General Sir John Kiszely resigns as president of the Royal British Legion following claims of his involvement with defense contract lobbying. | The president of the Royal British Legion, Lt Gen Sir John Kiszely, has resigned over claims he was involved in defence contract lobbying.
In a letter to the body's national chairman John Farmer, Sir John said it was "inappropriate... to remain as national president of the Legion".
He was one of several retired officers secretly filmed by the Sunday Times, allegedly saying he could influence decision-making over arms deals.
He denies breaking any lobbying rules. In the footage, seen by BBC News, Sir John allegedly said that his role gave him top-level access at "various extremely boring affairs".
He is shown saying he would be able to speak to the prime minister, the defence secretary and the chief of the defence staff at a Remembrance Day event.
"You are standing there waiting for the Queen with nothing else to talk about," he said.
Sir John had been president of the Legion since 2009. As well as supporting the armed forces community, the organisation "ensures that the nation annually marks their service and sacrifice" at Remembrance Day events.
In his letter of resignation, Sir John said he had always kept his "role of national president completely separate from any business interests".
He added he had "never used any access gained as president to raise the subject of, or discuss, any business interests whatsoever, let alone to make representations on behalf of clients. "But I made exaggerated and foolish claims to the contrary, incompatible with my position in the Legion." Sir John said he was due to step down in December, but believes it is in the body's "best interests" for him to stand down immediately.
The Legion's director general, Chris Simpkins, said he was satisfied that despite Sir John's comments, "no breach of the... code of conduct" had occurred.
He went on: "The Legion's work, including Remembrance events, must be kept free of any suggestion that they could be used for commercial or political gain. "Sir John's remarks suggested otherwise."
Mr Simpkins said a successor to Sir John would be publicly announced shortly.
Sir John was among four senior retired servicemen who appeared to suggest they could use their influence to lobby the government on defence procurement.
The Sunday Times alleged that Sir John, along with ex-MoD procurement chief Lt Gen Richard Applegate, said they had lobbied on multi-million pound deals while they were in "purdah", a two-year post-retirement period where they are not allowed to work in the private sector.
Former naval fleet commander Adm Sir Trevor Soar was shown saying he had "to be slightly careful of lobbying ministers" but said a way to get around the criteria was "basically [to] ignore it".
The paper also alleged that former head of the Army, Lord Dannatt, said he could speak to the MoD's top civil servant, a former school friend.
All four strongly breaching any government lobbying laws.
On Sunday, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it would investigate whether it was possible for anyone to secure "privileged access" and whether any rules had been broken.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond told the BBC access to MPs and senior civil servants by retired senior officers could be "tightened up or shut down", if the system was found to have been abused.
Sir John retired from the Army in 2007. He served with distinction in the Falklands War, and in Bosnia and the Gulf. He received many awards during his military career, including the Military Cross, the Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service and the Legion of Merit.
MoD to probe lobbying claim
Inquiry into Legion lobby claim
Military lobbying claims probed
Lobbying 'to be reformed by 2015'
Rogue lobbyists 'could face jail' | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | October 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Prime Minister of Libya Fayez al–Sarraj, of the Government of National Accord in Tripoli, suspends Minister of Interior Fathi Bashagha from duties. Sarraj says Bashaga will be investigated over a violent crackdown on street protests. | TRIPOLI (Reuters) - The head of Libya’s internationally recognised government suspended his powerful interior minister from his duties on Friday, saying his handling of street protests and a violent crackdown against them would be investigated.
The move coincides with reports of growing friction between Fayez al-Sarraj, Prime Minister of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), and Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha, an influential figure from the port city and military power base of Misrata.
Bashagha, who was nominated in 2018, played a central role during a 14-month offensive on Tripoli by eastern-based forces that the GNA repelled in June with military support from Turkey.
He is well regarded by the GNA’s international backers, and had announced steps to rein in the armed groups that hold real power in Tripoli. Loud gunfire could be heard over central Tripoli shortly after the decision was announced.
A decree issued by Sarraj said Bashagha would be investigated by the GNA leadership within 72 hours, and his duties would be assumed by a deputy minister, Khalid Ahmad Mazen. A separate decree assigned a regional force headed by Osama Jweili, a commander from another militarily powerful city, Zintan, to help ensure security in Tripoli.
In a statement, Bashagha expressed readiness for an investigation, but said it should be televised to ensure transparency.
Since Sunday protests over worsening living conditions and corruption have escalated in Tripoli. Armed men have used gunfire to disperse demonstrators, and Serraj has imposed a 24-hour curfew for four days to counter the new coronavirus, a move seen by critics as a tactic for curbing the protests.
The interior ministry under Bashagha said it was ready to protect peaceful protesters from armed groups.
There have long been tensions between armed groups from Tripoli and Misrata. Those from Misrata dominated the capital for several years after Libya split into rival factions based in the west and east of the country in 2014. They later lost their foothold to Tripoli-rooted groups.
. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | August 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Three American Muslims accused of using paintball games to train for a jihad are found guilty of conspiracy charges. | Prosecutors said the three were part of a "Virginia jihad network" that underwent paramilitary training in 2000 and 2001 in hopes of joining up with the Taliban (search). After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the group allegedly focused efforts on defending the former Afghan regime.
Masoud Khan, 34, of Gaithersburg, Md., was convicted of the most serious charges, including conspiracy to levy war against the United States and conspiracy to contribute services to the Taliban.
Seifullah Chapman, 31, of Alexandria, Va., and Hammad Abdur-Raheem, 35, of Falls Church, Va., were also convicted on conspiracy counts.
In brief remarks on her verdict, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema (search ) said she did not find credible testimony by the two defendants who took the stand. The three waived a jury trial.
Sentencing is scheduled for June.
"These convictions are a stark reminder that terrorist organizations are active in the United States," Attorney General John Ashcroft said. "We will not allow terrorist groups to exploit America's freedoms for their murderous goals. We will not stand by as United States citizens support terrorist causes."
Prosecutors said Khan traveled to Pakistan just days after the Sept. 11 attacks to train with a terrorist group called Lashkar-e-Taiba (search ), and that he planned to use his training alongside the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.
Muslim activists held a news conference outside the courthouse to denounce the federal government's treatment of Muslims after Sept. 11. Bernie Grimm, who represented Khan, said the case was the result of "9-11 hysteria."
"If I thought Mr. Khan had any role in aligning himself with Islamic extremists, I never would have represented him," he said. "This has to do with John Ashcroft, with George Bush getting re-elected. ... Today I'm embarrassed to be an American."
Khan did not testify during the four-week trial, but his lawyers said their Pakistani-born client never intended to join the Taliban and traveled to Pakistan to handle legal matters related to his father's death.
Chapman and prosecutors differ on his initial intent in traveling to the Lashkar camp. Prosecutors say he wanted to train for holy war, while Chapman testified that he simply wanted the opportunity for a grueling physical challenge in the rugged Pakistani mountains.
Abdur-Raheem, an Army veteran, never traveled to the Lashkar camp, but the government claims he aided the conspiracy by using his military expertise to train others for holy war during paintball games played in the woods near Fredericksburg. Abdur-Raheem testified that he played paintball for fun and was unaware that any group members considered the paintball games to be training for holy war.
A fourth defendant who had been on trial, Caliph Basha ibn Abdur-Raheem, was acquitted on all charges midway through the trial after Brinkema said she no saw evidence linking him to the conspiracy in any meaningful way.
Six members of the alleged conspiracy have already pleaded guilty to various charges related to the alleged conspiracy. Four were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 4 years to 11 ½ years. Two others pleaded guilty and have yet to be sentenced, but face mandatory minimum sentences of 20 and 15 years.
Five of those who entered guilty pleas testified for the prosecution at trial. Prosecutors could seek to have their sentences reduced if they are deemed to have cooperated with the investigation. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | March 2004 | ['(holy war)', '(Fox news)'] |
Former Antananarivo Mayor Andry Rajoelina demands that Malagasy President Marc Ravalomanana resign. | In his first public appearance since he went into hiding earlier this month, Madagascar’s opposition leader Andry Rajoelina called on his arch foe, President Marc Ravalomanana, to resign Saturday.
Speaking to a crowd of supporters shortly after the opposition declared it had seized power in the Indian Ocean island, Rajoelina called on Ravalomanana to "humbly leave power in the next four hours".
Reporting from Independence Square in Antananarivo, FRANCE 24’s Cyril Vanier said Rajoelina appeared on the platform before his supporters, flanked by military personnel in what was clearly meant as a signal that he enjoyed the country’s military support.
The former mayor of Antananarivo emerged from hiding Saturday to address a crowd of jubilant supporters sporting orange T-shirts, hats and scarves at Independence Square, which has been the epicentre of opposition protests in the past seven weeks.
But in his first response to Saturday’s events, Ravalomanana denied opposition claims that he had lost power.
In a communiqué released Saturday, the presidential office maintained that power was still in the president’s hands.
The political crisis in Madagascar broke out late last year when a bitter power struggle between Ravalomanana and Rajoelina saw supporters taking to the streets, which led to deadly crackdowns. More than 130 people have been killed in the turmoil, crippling the picturesque island nation’s critical tourism industry.
Earlier this week, army chief Gen. Edmond Rasolofomahandry was ousted after warning the feuding political leaders that they had 72 hours to resolve their differences. He was replaced by a rebel soldier.
Opposition declares it has seized power
Earlier Saturday, Roindefo Zafitsimivalo Monja, the opposition’s nominee for the prime minister’s post, read a statement by Rajoelina, which declared that the president, the national assembly, the senate, and the government had been “removed from their duties.”
Reporting from Madagascar’s capital of Antananarivo, FRANCE 24’s Cyril Vanier said residents of the city were glued to their radios as the opposition declared it was in power.
“The opposition is demanding that the constitutional courts oust the current president, Marc Ravalomanana, from power,” said Vanier. “They’re saying the new acting president is the opposition’s leader, the 34-year-old former mayor of the capital city, Andry Rajoelina.”
The opposition has announced it will hold a presidential election within two years.
International community monitoring the situation
With the events in Madagascar rapidly changing, the international community has been closely monitoring the situation.
In a communiqué released Saturday, the European Commission said it was “seriously preoccupied” with the political crisis in Madagascar, which could threaten the stability of the country.
While critics accuse Rajoelina, a 34-year-old former disc jokey, of being a maverick and a troublemaker, experts are still not sure whether he enjoys popular support across the island or has over-played his hand in a bitter personal and political feud.
“The question we have about the mayor of Antananarivo who hasn’t been elected president and doesn’t have support outside the capital city is, is he simply seeking power or does he have a programme for change,” said Douglas Yates, political science professor at the American University of Paris. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | March 2009 | ['(France 24)'] |
In NBA basketball, Miami Heat defeat the Boston Celtics to win their 3rd Eastern Conference title and proceed to the 2012 NBA Finals, where they will face Oklahoma City Thunder. | MIAMI HEAT 101 BOSTON CELTICS 88 MIAMI — The LeBron James who dropped jaws across the NBA with a performance for the ages in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals apparently was unavailable for duty early in Game 7. But James and the Miami Heat didn't pay the ultimate price. They still emerged with a hard-fought 101-88 victory over the Celtics, setting up a Finals battle against the Oklahoma City Thunder. But it was somewhat confounding to see James go from an unstoppable force, bent on willing his team to play in a deciding game of this series, to a player who didn't look to score on Saturday night and was all for having teammates help him beat the Celtics for the first three-and-half quarters. Now, can James win four games in the Finals and finally get his first ring? It's the burning question that weighs on James' broad shoulders, and it will be asked again and again starting Tuesday in Oklahoma City, when the Heat plays the Thunder in Game 1. To get there, James had a break-through victory, winning his first Game 7 in three tries as he sent Boston's Big Three into summer with questions whether we've seen the last of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen as a unit. But even with a night that goes in the books as a success, it's still a little baffling that James didn't go at the Celtics as he did up in Boston two days ago, when he dominated with 45 points. He still had 31 Saturday night — not a bad night, by any stretch. But not a monster night, either. "I always try to be in attack mode," James said. But this was night-and-day compared to Game 6. Only at rare times did James look to take over and that was one of the chief reasons the Heat found itself in a battle until the final minutes, when the Celtics could not find the basket during an anemic 15-point fourth quarter. Doc Rivers didn't find James' approach strange, since it was good enough to get the desired result. "I thought he played a very smart game and he let the game come to him,''Rivers said."And down the stretch, he took the game over and that's what great players do.''
When the final horn sounded and the Celtics went to the Heat to offer congratulations, Rivers had a little conversation with James about what lies ahead for the NBA's most scrutinized player. He's is in his third Finals and still looking for his first ring, after losing once in Cleveland in 2007 and last June when the Heat blew a 2-1 lead against Dallas, collapsing in the final three games. "I basically told him to go do it,''Rivers said. "He gets too much heat.'' Actually, James brings the heat on himself. He was the one who came down here to win not just one title, as he reminded everyone when he made his infamous Decision, but to win multiple championships. He talked about winning two, three, four, five, six, rather cavalierly, as if he was going to merely walk into a South Beach boutique and buy them with his new max-money deal. Game 6 was a signature moment for the three-time MVP. But in Game 7, he played for the majority of the night as if he didn't remember what he had done in Boston. He might have had found a lot of heat here, on this night, if the Celtics hadn't run out of gas That was the gamble James took, a big gamble, because he it was imperative he walk off the American Airlines Arena floor a winner, and by now everyone here and across the NBA landscape knows why. Because James, and no one else, set the bar. He finally seemed to remember Game 6 when he looked to score during several key possessions midway through the final quarter. His dunk with 8:00 to play put the Heat ahead for good and back in the Finals. But after that point, James didn't keep attacking. Instead, the Heat went to Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Together, the Big Three scored all of Miami's 28 points in the fourth, with Wade hitting several key baskets and Bosh finishing with 19 points. "We're happy to be back in this position,''James said."We look forward to the challenge.'' He does have a challenge, a big one.He didn't give us a replay of Game 6. Didn't really try, either. But the bottom line still reads in his favor: He gets to go to Oklahoma City, where Kevin Durant stands between him and the elusive ring.
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Roxana Baldetti, the Vice President of Guatemala, resigns over a corruption scandal. | Guatemala's vice president resigned Friday amid a customs corruption scandal that implicated her former private secretary and opened her up to an investigation, President Otto Perez Molina announced.
With a sober expression on his face, Perez Molina said Roxana Baldetti had abandoned her offices in the presidential palace and he was informing congress. He called the decision "brave" and thanked her for her service.
"Her resignation is due to a personal decision with the only interest being to leave her office voluntarily, to submit herself to and cooperate with whatever investigations may be necessary and above all within the due process," Perez Molina said.
Baldetti is the first Guatemalan vice president to step down due to a corruption case, although prosecutors have not implicated her in the scandal and she denies involvement.
Earlier in the day, she lost an appeal with the Constitutional Court seeking to overturn a ruling that gave congress a green light to begin an investigation into whether to strip her of the prosecutorial immunity that comes with office.
Recent days had seen rising calls for Baldetti's resignation by protesters and even influential business leaders.
After the announcement, hundreds of people celebrated in the streets of the capital with cheers, applause, firecrackers and honking car horns.
"Roxana's resignation is a victory for the people!" jubilant protesters chanted in central Constitution Square.
Perez Molina said he would send three names to congress for a new vice president to be picked from that shortlist.
Baldetti's onetime aide, Juan Carlos Monzon Rojas, is alleged to have been the ringleader of a customs scheme in which officials defrauded the state of millions of dollars by taking bribes to lower customs duties. Monzon's last known whereabouts were overseas, and he is currently being sought by authorities.
At least 50 private citizens and public servants, including Guatemala's current and former tax chiefs, are suspects in the customs scandal. Prosecutors said 27 are in custody.
Earlier Friday, authorities arrested five lawyers who allegedly bribed a judge to free suspects jailed in connection with the case.
Prosecutors and a U.N. investigative commission said the attorneys paid Judge Marta Sierra Stalling to release the three suspects on bail.
Authorities revoked bail and were seeking to lift Sierra Stalling's judicial immunity in order to launch an investigation. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | May 2015 | ['(AP via ABC News America)'] |
According to Israel's Defense minister, Ehud Barak, IDF chief of staff and Navy commander, the organisers are to blame for deaths from the Israeli attacks upon the flotilla, with Barak saying that the soldiers tried to board the ship peacefully but were forced to open fire to protect themselves. | "I am familiar with these types of operations and their possible developments, and I am familiar with the units which operated and with their commanders. They are the best of our people," the defense minister explained.
IDF takes over ship
"In light of the life-threatening situation, the soldiers were forced to use crowd dispersal means and firearms," he said, adding that some of the casualties were killed by firearms. According to Barak, 10 soldiers were injured in the incident, some from firearms and some from cold arms.
"The IHH organization, which was behind these unruly ship, is a violent and radical organization acting under the cover of humanitarian activity," Barak argued.
"This is the time for responsibility and I call on everyone to act with restraint and common sense and not let an anarchistic organization and radical elements seeking to undermine the public order to take advantage of this unfortunate incident for violence." IDF Chief of Staff Ashkenazi said that during the clash with the passengers of the Marmara ship, the activists used iron bars and knives.
"They even fired shots from a weapon snatched from one of the soldiers," he said. "It's clear beyond any doubt that the soldiers acted as required." Ashkenazi (L), Barak and Marom (Photo: Dalit Shacham)
Ashkenazi added that the soldiers were prepared for the mission, but that "the crowd dispersal equipment was not enough."
As for the organizers' intentions, the army chief insisted that "it had nothing to do with humanitarian aid. The activity was radical from the very first moment."
According to Ashkenazi, the Navy operation was aimed at preventing an unsupervised infiltration of people and cargo to Gaza.
Navy Commander Marom said that "through the incident, the fighters demonstrated courage and determination, while using a great amount of restraint."
According to Marom, the results of the deadly incident could have been much worse had the soldiers acted differently. "On all five ships there was no need for live ammunition to stop the sail, and with appropriate treatment we managed to stop the ships and take control of them."
Moving on to the Israeli injuries, the Navy chief said one fighter was suffering from a serous head injury, two others were injured by gunshots and one more was stabbed."
Marom added that before the violence began, the Marmara passengers rejected the army's calls with "obscene language and inappropriate behavior." He said the fighters who got on the ship were attacked by the 600 passengers with "unusual violence, which put their lives in danger."
According to the Navy commander, the soldiers responded with crowd dispersal means, but were forced to open fire due to the life-threatening situation.
Marom said his people "were physically, operationally and mentally prepared" for the operation, and noted that the sail's organizers were warned in the weeks before the incident not to approach the Gaza coast. | Armed Conflict | May 2010 | ['(Jerusalem Post)', '(Ynet)'] |
A rocket attack on government-held areas of the Syrian city of Aleppo kills 18 people including a number of civilians. | A rocket attack on regime-held areas of the Syrian city of Aleppo has killed at least 18 people, activists have said.
Aleppo is split between government and opposition-held districts and has seen some of worst fighting of the conflict.
Meanwhile, the Syrian government has said President Bashar al-Assad should lead any transitional government agreed at peace talks due in January.
Such a government is envisaged as a result of the talks, but the opposition has rejected any role for Mr Assad.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based activist group with links to the opposition, said 18 people had been killed in the Aleppo attack, including 10 government soldiers. The attack on the Furqan and Meridian neighbourhoods also wounded at least 30 people, the SOHR said.
The organisation said at least five government soldiers were among the dead.
More than two million Syrians have fled the country, according to the UN. Since the start of unrest in March 2011, more than 100,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the conflict.
In the early months of the uprising Aleppo, Syria's commercial capital, was largely spared the violence.
But the northern city became an battleground in summer 2012, and has since suffered extensive bloodshed. Two weeks ago activists reported that at least 40 people had died in government air strikes in the city.
Meanwhile, Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said any transitional government agreed at the talks would be led by Mr Assad.
"He is the leader of the transitional phase, if reached, as he is the leader of Syria and the resistance in the region," he told Syrian television.
He went on to describe the Arab Spring as a "US project" that had failed. Peace talks are scheduled to take place in Geneva on 22 January. Syria's main opposition coalition has said it will attend but has said it will not accept any outcome that leaves Mr Assad in power. Earlier this week the UN's human rights chief said an inquiry has produced evidence that responsibility for war crimes in Syria extends to the "highest level", including President Bashar al-Assad.
Also on Wednesday, Pope Francis led prayers for 12 nuns from the St Tekla convent in the historic town of Maaloula.
"Two days ago they were taken away by force by armed men. We pray for these nuns,... and for all people who have been detained because of the conflict," he said.
Reports indicate that the nuns came under the custody of rebel fighters when they seized the town on Monday, although what exactly has happened to them or whether they have been removed from Maaloula is unclear.
| Armed Conflict | December 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Yeti Airlines Flight 103 crashes in the Everest region of Nepal killing 18 passengers. | The Tenzing-Hillary airport is used by trekkers and mountaineersa as a gateway to Nepal's Everest region
3 days ago
KATHMANDU (AFP) — A passenger plane crashed on landing at a remote airfield in Nepal's Everest region on Wednesday, killing 18 people most of whom were German tourists, Nepalese officials said.
The Yeti Airlines aircraft, flying from the capital Kathmandu to Lukla in eastern Nepal, burst into flames after crash-landing near the sloping runway in heavy cloud, witnesses reported.
Of the 19 people on board, 14 were foreigners and five were Nepalese, and only one -- the Nepalese pilot of the Twin Otter plane -- survived, airport official Mohan Adhikari said.
"There were 12 Germans and two Australians on the flight," said Adhikari.
Officials earlier said the passenger manifest listed two of the tourists as Swiss, but they were later confirmed as Australian.
Security staff and volunteers took two hours to extinguish the fire in the wreckage of the plane.
Hundreds of tourists and residents from Lukla, 140 kilometres (90 miles) northeast of Kathmandu, watched the recovery operation, many in tears.
"I saw the plane start its descent, then cloud came in and we heard a loud noise and saw flames," said Bijaya Pratap Singha, a tour manager.
"We ran down to the end of the runway and saw everything was scattered and the plane was on fire."
Local officials told reporters the crash had been due to heavy cloud.
When the weather is clear, dozens of flights land every day at Lukla's Tenzing-Hillary airport, a gateway to Nepal's Everest region used by trekkers and mountaineers.
The airport was earlier this year renamed after Mount Everest's first conquerors, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
Just 20 metres (66 feet) wide and 550 metres long, its runway perches on a hillside at an angle of around 11 degrees and was built using funds from Hillary's Himalayan Trust.
Fast moving weather patterns at the tiny airport -- which is 2,757 metres above sea level -- mean bad weather frequently halts operations.
"We are devastated to hear of this accident," Ang Tsering Sherpa, the president of the Union of Asian Alpine Associations, told AFP.
"In the season there are up to 50 flights per day into Lukla so the pilots are very used to landing there."
Flights from Kathmandu to Lukla take just over half an hour.
The pilot who survived Wednesday's crash was flown to an intensive care unit in Kathmandu, where doctors said he was in a stable condition.
Yeti is a privately owned domestic airline founded in 1998 and which prides itself on running a service to many far-flung destinations across Nepal.
It has previously provided essential transport links to national and international relief teams working in Nepal as well as carrying many tourists.
The tourism trade is a major foreign currency earner for impoverished Nepal and since the end of a civil war in 2006 between the country's Maoists and the government, numbers of visitors have increased.
This year around 500,000 tourists are expected, the highest number since 1999, with many coming to trek in the stunning Himalayan mountains that form Nepal's northern border with Chinese-controlled Tibet.
The Everest Base Camp trek -- where tourists fly into Lukla and walk for around two weeks -- is one of the most popular routes. | Air crash | October 2008 | ['(AFP via Google News)'] |
Heavy fighting is reported in Qusair, Syria, as the Syrian army launches a major counter-offensive against rebel forces. | Fierce fighting has been reported in the strategic Syrian town of Qusair, as rebels and government forces backed by Hezbollah militants fight for control.
The state news agency reported that the army had taken control of most of the town on Monday, and killed more than 100 of what it called "terrorists".
Activists denied that Qusair had been captured, but said some 50 people had died in heavy shelling since Sunday.
They also said at least 23 Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon had been killed.
Qusair, a small town about 30km (18 miles) south-west of the city of Homs, is seen as important to both sides. It helps link Damascus with government strongholds on the Mediterranean coast, and is a conduit for rebel supplies and fighters from Lebanon, whose border is 10km (6 miles) away.
Fighting has raged for weeks around Qusair, which has been controlled by the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad for several months.
Following a day of heavy bombardment by aircraft and artillery, the army launched an offensive to recapture the town on Sunday. By the evening, they had taken the municipality building in the town centre and were advancing, according to state media.
The claim was denied by opposition activists, although they admitted the rebels had suffered very heavy casualties. They posted video on the internet showing chaotic scenes at what they said was a field hospital filled with wounded fighters and civilians trapped in the town.
On Monday morning, the Sana state news agency reported that army units had "restored security and stability" to most districts of Qusair, and "eliminated large numbers of terrorists, most of them non-Syrians". Twelve leading rebels allegedly among the dead were named.
However, state television's reports from the Qusair area were all filmed from well outside the town's perimeter and gave no sense that it had fallen almost entirely to the government forces, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut.
Activist groups also denied that the army had captured most of the town. One report said that six army tanks were destroyed as they tried to advance. Our correspondent says it is not clear how many civilians remain trapped in Qusair. Opposition sources estimate that at least 40,000 are still there, though it is thought many may have fled long ago, he adds. State television said that the army had set up a protected corridor for civilians to escape the fighting, but activists said many people feared persecution and torture once they entered government-controlled areas.
The main opposition alliance, the National Coalition, warned of an impending "massacre", and called for an emergency meeting of the Arab League.
There were also reports that members of the Lebanese Shia Islamist movement, Hezbollah, had joined the government side in the battle, while Lebanese Sunni militants were said to be supporting the rebels.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, said 23 elite Hezbollah fighters had been killed and about 70 wounded.
Several mortar rounds fired from Syria also struck Lebanon's north-eastern town of Hermel - a Hezbollah stronghold - on Sunday, Lebanon's National News Agency said. No casualties were reported.
In a separate development on Monday, Oxfam said Jordan and Lebanon were in urgent need of help to support hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled the fighting.
A combination of rising summer temperatures and poor sanitation posed increased health risks for the refugees, the British aid agency warned.
Many of those crossing the border from Syria end up in inadequate shelters, it added. Some refugees are living in an empty shopping centre; others on the outskirts of a cemetery.
The UN says more than 1.5 million Syrians have fled abroad. There are also an estimated 4.25 million internally displaced people.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned against setting arbitrary deadlines for the international conference proposed by Washington and Moscow to find a political solution to the conflict.
"Some our partners, and [US Secretary of State] John Kerry mentioned that a couple of days or a week should be enough," he told the government daily, Rossiskaya Gazeta. "Previous peace conferences have lasted months, even years," he added. "I don't want it to be the same with Syria. But it's absolutely counterproductive to set artificial time restrictions."
He also stressed the need to invite Iran, President Assad's strongest ally.
The UN says more than 80,000 people have been killed since the anti-government protests erupted in March 2011.
| Armed Conflict | May 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
A raging wildfire destroys dozens of homes and prompts the evacuation of more than 400 people from Portugal's Madeira island as flames spread near the island's capital, Funchal. Regional President Miguel Albuquerque says one person had suffered serious burns and scores of others had needed treatment for the effects of smoke. Flights have also been disrupted at Madeira Airport due to smoke. | Three people have died as wildfires raged in the city of Funchal, on the Portuguese island of Madeira.
All three are said to have been elderly people whose homes caught fire. A thousand people have evacuated from homes and hotels.
Fires have also been blazing on the mainland and there are reports of a fourth death in central Portugal.
The government has triggered the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, which enables other European states to help.
Italy has already released a Canadair aircraft to join the effort.
Several arrests have been made of people suspected of illegally starting fires.
Forest fires first took hold in the Portuguese mainland on Friday and on the island of Madeira, off the north-west African coast, on Monday, following weeks of dry weather and temperatures above 35C.
On Tuesday the flames encroached on Funchal, home to some 112,000 permanent residents and capital of an island that attracts more than a million tourists per year.
"Last night, the fire was 100m [330 feet] away from the hotel and you could hear gas bottles exploding," Ricardo Correia, a manager at the hotel Castanheiro, told AFP news agency. "We evacuated our 140 guests as a precaution," Mr Correia said, explaining they had spent the night in a sports stadium.
An iconic hotel on Funchal's outskirts, the five-star Choupana Hills, was gutted by the flames. Regional President Miguel Albuquerque told a news conference that the fire was still burning on several fronts but was "under control," AFP reported.
"The situation is complex but not catastrophic," he said.
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Prime Minister Antonio Costa have scheduled a visit to the island on Thursday.
On the mainland, firefighters were said to be exhausted after days battling the blazes.
In addition to three deaths in Madeira, a fourth death was reported - a man aged between 40 and 50 in the central region of Santarem.
There were 176 active fires burning on Wednesday afternoon, according to Portugal's civil protection agency, with 13 causing particular concern - mainly in the north-west of the mainland: More than 4,200 emergency workers are battling the flames across the country.
Firefighters are said to have blamed poor forest management for the fires, but President Rebelo de Sousa reportedly insisted the country had been well prepared. | Fire | August 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Britain's most senior military officer, Sir Jock Stirrup, agrees to leave before the end of his term in April 2011, according to the country's Defence Secretary Liam Fox. | Two of Britain's top defence officials will step down later this year, the government said today, but denied they were being blamed for mistakes in Afghanistan or for wasteful military spending.
Britain's most senior military officer, chief of the Defence Staff Jock Stirrup, and Bill Jeffrey, the top civil servant at the Ministry of Defence, are expected to leave towards the end of the year once a strategic defence review (SDR) ordered by Britain's new government has been completed.
"We've talked about the best time to be replacing our senior staff, probably at the end of the SDR in the autumn," defence secretary Liam Fox said in an interview with The Sunday Times newspaper, referring to the two men.
The strategic defence review will set out the future role of Britain's armed forces and may pave the way for cuts in defence spending as the Conservative-Liberal Democrat government formed after the May 6th election moves to rein in a big budget deficit.
The newspaper said the changes at the top of the Ministry of Defence were designed to improve the military's performance in the Afghanistan war and to cut wasteful spending, adding that both men were close to the former Labour government.
The armed forces and top civil servants in Britain are traditionally politically neutral.
Mr Stirrup's term had been due to end in 2009 but was extended for two years by former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown.
In a BBC interview, Mr Fox would not rule out a cut in troop numbers after the review: "I'm not saying that I've got any preconceived idea about the size and shape of the forces."
A study by the Royal United Services Institute, a defence thinktank, said this month Britain could be forced to cut ground troop numbers by 20 per cent by 2019 and to sharply reduce the number of its aircraft and ships to save money.
Mr Fox told the BBC that the two men had not been dismissed and portrayed their departure as their own decision.
He denied Mr Stirrup was too close to the previous government and said: "I really don't think, whatever mistakes may have been made in Afghanistan or anywhere else, that the blame should land anywhere else but firmly on the desks of the politicians."
British forces have been locked in some of the fiercest fighting against Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan and almost 300 British soldiers have now been killed there since 2001. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | June 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Irish Times)', '(Xinhua)'] |
The Roman Catholic Church defrocks Father Fernando Karadima, a priest at the center of a sex abuse scandal in Chile. | VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has defrocked a 88-year-old Chilean priest who sexually abused teenage boys over a period of many years and is at the center of a wider abuse scandal that is still under investigation, the Vatican said on Friday.
Father Fernando Karadima was defrocked, or “reduced to the lay state” by the pope on Thursday, a move the Vatican called “exceptional” and done “for the good of the Church”.
Karadima, who lives in a home for the elderly in the Chilean capital Santiago, was notified on Friday.
He was found guilty in a Vatican investigation in 2011 and ordered to live a life of “prayer and penitence”, but was not defrocked at the time, the final years of the reign of former Pope Benedict. That meant he was still a priest, although he could not minister in public.
Karadima, who has always denied wrongdoing, escaped civilian justice because of the statute of limitations in the country.
Seven Chilean bishops have resigned since June after an investigation into an alleged cover-up of Karadima’s crimes, some of them former proteges of Karadima, who prepared them for the priesthood as young men in Santiago’s up-scale, conservative El Bosque neighborhood.
Three Chilean men who said they were abused by Karadima accused one, Juan Barros, the former bishop of Osorno, of having witnessed Karadima abuse them.
During a trip to Chile in January, the pope said he had no proof against Barros, believed he was innocent, and that accusations against him were “slander” until proven otherwise.
But days after returning to Rome, the pope, citing new information, sent sexual abuse investigator Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta to Chile to speak to victims, witnesses and other Church members.
Scicluna produced a 2,300-page report accusing Chile’s bishops of “grave negligence” in investigating the allegations and said evidence of sex crimes had been destroyed.
In April, Francis, who is also grappling with sexual abuse crises in the United States, Germany and Australia, held four days of meetings in Rome with the three victims - Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo.
“I have a knot in my stomach. I never thought I would see this day,” Cruz said in a tweet thanking the pope. “He (Karadima) is criminal who has ruined so many people’s lives with his abuse. I hope thousands of survivors feel a bit of the relief I feel today.”
Following the meeting with the victims, Francis summoned all of Chile’s 34 bishops to Rome in May and they offered their resignations en masse. Francis has so far accepted seven, and appointed “apostolic administrators” to run their dioceses. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | September 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
United Nations Secretary–General Ban Ki–moon arrives in Cyprus to begin talks aimed at reuniting the country. | A U.N. blue beret soldier salutes as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon walks along some of the narrowest points of the U.N. controlled buffer zone separating the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south from the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north of Nicosia, the divided capital of ethnically split Cyprus, on Monday. Photo: AP.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was in Cyprus on Monday trying to inject new momentum into waning peace talks to reunify the divided eastern Mediterranean island.
In a show of peace, Mr. Ban, along with representatives of both the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities, released dozens of multi-coloured balloons along Ledra Street in central Nicosia.
As part of efforts to reunify the island, a symbolic wall dividing the two communities at Ledra Street was opened in 2008.
“I am here to encourage these two leaders to bring these talks to a successful conclusion,” Mr. Ban said as a group of 50 protesters, shouting “We Want Peace Now” could be seen demonstrating peacefully nearby.
The secretary general will meet with Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat separately before convening a joint meeting later the same day.
Both Mr. Christofias and Mr. Talat have so far conducted 16 months of peace talks with no breakthrough in sight.
“I am under no illusions that the Cyprus problem is easy to solve or about the difficulties that you face. At the same time, I am confident that a solution is possible and within reach,” Mr. Ban said upon his arrival to the island on Sunday.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded the northern third of the island in response to a Greek-inspired coup.
Greek Cypriots currently live in the south and Turkish Cypriots in the north. The two sides are divided by a UN-supervised buffer zone, which runs through the heart of the capital, Nicosia.
The UN chief’s visit is seen as an effort to shore up the faltering negotiations, which began in September 2008.
The last time a United Nations secretary general was in Cyprus was when Mr. Ban’s predecessor, Mr. Kofi Annan, came eight years ago and urged both communities to seize an “historic opportunity.” However, the Greek Cypriots overwhelmingly voted against a 2004 UN reunification blueprint in a referendum despite a Turkish referendum approving the plan.
The latest UN effort has led to significant progress in a series of areas of governance and power sharing. The two sides have, however, failed to agree on the core issues of property, security and territorial adjustments.
Any agreement between the two leaders will have to pass a referendum on both sides of the island.
Experts have expressed fears that the two leaders have little time left, with April elections in the occupied northern part of the island expected to bring a hardliner to power.
Mr. Talat is trailing in the polls to hardliner Dervis Eroglu. If he fails to secure re-election, the talks could be jeopardized.
European Union officials have said that progress at the Cyprus reunification talks are essential to helping Turkey’s slow-moving EU accession process move forward.
Although the peace talks and Turkey’s EU membership negotiations are separate processes, a breakthrough on one is likely to have a positive impact on the other.
Leaders have suggested that many of their differences revolve around how to deal with the thousands of property claims from people uprooted in past conflicts.
Greek Cypriot leaders have also criticized recent proposals by the Turkish Cypriots for separate rights to sign international agreements and control the island’s airspace. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | February 2010 | ['(The Hindu)', '(Deutsche Welle)', '(UN News Centre)'] |
The European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, John Dalli of Malta, resigns amid corruption charges that he denies. | John Dalli has resigned from the European Commission, the Commission announced in a shock announcement this afternoon.
It said that Mr Dalli resigned following an investigation by the EU's anti-fraud office into a complaint made in May by the tobacco producer Swedish Match. It alleged that a Maltese entrepreneur had used his contacts with Mr Dalli to gain advantage from the company, in return for seeking to influence a possible future legislative proposal on tobacco products.
Sources said that Foreign Minister Tonio Borg is viewed as the least controversial choice for appointment as European Commissioner.
Mr Dalli was appointed to the Commission in 2010 and was responsible for Health and Consumer Policy.
He was first elected to the Maltese parliament in 1987 and became parliamentary secretary for industry. He later became Minister of Economic Affairs before serving as Minister of Finance for 10 years, with the rare distinction of having introduced VAT twice – the second after the short-lived Labour government removed the tax in 1996.
Mr Dalli was beaten by Lawrence Gonzi in the 2004 PN leadership contest. He was appointed Foreign Minister but resigned after three months amid allegations relating to his conduct.
In 2007 he was made a consultant to the prime minister and following the last election he became Minister of Social Policy and piloted the rent reform before resigning to take up his appointment in Brussels.
Despite his high profile job Mr Dalli kept a close watch on Maltese politics, occasionally making statements which were critical of the government and of the Nationalist Party. Just over a week ago he said the PN seemed to be following a policy which was akin to apartheid, where one either said yes to the leader or else he was made uncomfortable. He also argued that government policies had changed and there was unfair distribution of wealth.
THE EU'S STATEMENT IN FULL
The European Commission in its statement this afternoon said:
"Commissioner John Dalli has today announced his resignation as a member of the Commission, with immediate effect.
"Mr Dalli informed the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso of his decision following an investigation by OLAF, the EU's antifraud office, into a complaint made in May 2012 by the tobacco producer, Swedish Match. The company alleged that a Maltese entrepreneur had used his contacts with Mr Dalli to try to gain financial advantages from the company in return for seeking to influence a possible future legislative proposal on tobacco products, in particular on the EU export ban on snus. As soon as the Commission received the complaint it immediately requested OLAF to investigate.
"The OLAF final report was sent to the Commission on 15 October. It found that the Maltese entrepreneur had approached the company using his contacts with Mr Dalli and sought to gain financial advantages in exchange for influence over a possible future legislative proposal on snus. No transaction was concluded between the company and the entrepreneur and no payment was made. The OLAF report did not find any conclusive evidence of the direct participation of Mr Dalli but did consider that he was aware of these events.
"The OLAF report showed clearly that the European Commission's decision making process and the position of the services concerned has not been affected at all by the matters under investigation.
"The final OLAF report and its recommendations are being sent by OLAF to the Attorney General of Malta. It will now be for the Maltese judiciary to decide how to follow up. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | October 2012 | ['(Times of Malta)', '(BBC)'] |
The United States House of Representatives ethics committee charges California Democrat Maxine Waters with breaking ethics rules. | A House ethics panel charged California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters today with breaking unspecified ethics rules -- making the 10-term veteran the second lawmaker to face an ethics trial just months before the midterm election.
Waters has been under investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics and the ethics committee for requesting a meeting in 2008 with then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to discuss minority-owned banks. The conversation focused on a single bank, OneUnited, according to a 2009 OCE report released today. Waters' husband had been a board member and stock holder in the bank at the time of the meeting.
The House ethics committee statement does not indicate when the committee will disclose the charges.
The new allegations come less than a week after an investigative panel formally charged Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., with 13 ethics violations stemming from donations he solicited for an education center bearing his name and his failure to pay taxes. Rangel has said his lawyers are trying to negotiate a settlement to avoid a lengthy trial.
In statement, Waters said she did not violate House rules.
"Therefore, I simply will not be forced to admit to something I did not do and instead have chosen to respond to charges made by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct in a public hearing," she said.
"The record will clearly show that in advocating on behalf of minority banks neither my office nor I benefited in any way, engaged in improper action or influenced anyone," she said.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2010 | ['(USA Today)'] |
A roadside bomb in Kunduz Province kills 15 civilians and injures two others. | ISLAMABAD - A roadside bomb in northern Afghanistan demolished a civilian vehicle Wednesday evening, killing least 15 civilians and injuring two others.
An Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman accused Taliban insurgents of planting the bomb in troubled Kunduz province.
Provincial officials said the victims, including women and children, were on their way to attend a wedding party in the Imam Sahib district, the scene of heavy fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban.
Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the Afghan war that entered its 19th year last month.
The United Nations has documented around 2,600 Afghan civilian deaths in the first nine months of 2019, with 5,600 wounded. | Armed Conflict | November 2019 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(VOA)'] |
At least 33 people drown after a boat capsizes on Lake Albert in Uganda. | LAKE ALBERT, Uganda, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- A boat capsized in Uganda's Lake Albert Monday killing at least 33, with dozens still missing, police said.
Severe weather is believed to have caused the accident after midnight on the lake, which marks the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Radio France Internationale reported Monday.
A police spokesman said waters are notoriously rough in the lake and boats are often not properly maintained and not equipped with life jackets.
Seventeen people survived the capsize, and the search is continuing for more, police spokesman Vincent Ssekate told RFI. The boat's carrying capacity is 40, but it was probably carrying considerably more, he said.
A government-controlled publication reported there were more than 90 people aboard. Last month another boat, carrying passengers and food products capsized on Lake Victoria while attempting to reach a mainland port in Entebbe. | Shipwreck | August 2010 | ['(UPI)', '(AFP)'] |
A car bombing in a busy street in Baghdad's largest Shi'ite neighbourhood kills at least 12 people. | Car bomb kills 12 in Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad A car bomb blast on a busy street of Baghdad’s largest Shiite neighborhood killed at least 12 people, Iraqi police and medical sources said Thursday.
The bomb, which exploded near a cafe in Sadr City late Wednesday, also left at least 33 people wounded, the sources said.
The sprawling northeastern district is hit by suicide, roadside and other bombs almost every week.
According to the United Nations, more than 1,110 people were killed in acts of violence across Iraq last month.
While the bloodshed has been mainly on the frontlines where federal, Kurdish and allied forces battle the Islamic State jihadist group, blasts and executions in Baghdad continue to take a heavy toll.
| Riot | October 2014 | ['(AFP via Al-Arabiyah)'] |
Iraqi security services announce the arrests of 20 suspected Islamic State militants in raids in Nineveh. | by Nehal Mostafa Apr 7, 2018, 6:41 pm Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Security services have arrested more than twenty Islamic State members in several operations in Nineveh province, while weapons and explosives were seized in their possession, security sources said on Saturday.
Speaking to BasNews website, Cap. Amir Watheq, from Nineveh police, said, “security troops arrested eight Islamic State members, possessing hand grenades in Makhmur, southeast of Mosul.”
“Troops cordoned off the area, where the militants were hiding and invaded their houses, then took them to Nineveh Operations Command headquarters for investigations.”
All hand grenades, in their possession, were confiscated.
In related news, Col. Khodier Saleh, of the Federal Police, said, “security services arrested an IS cell, composed of 15 members, which was planning to to attack troops deployed in western Mosul.”
“The cell members, were possessing weapons. All were arrested inside a tunnel,” he added. Thousands of Islamic State militants as well as Iraqi civilians were killed since the government campaign, backed by paramilitary troops and the coalition was launched in October 2016 to fight the militant group, which declared a self-styled “caliphate” from Mosul in June 2014.
Islamic State continues to launch sporadic attacks across Iraq against security troops. Security reports indicate that the militant group still poses threat against stability in the country.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced, in December, full liberation of Iraqi lands, declaring end of war against IS members.
I | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2018 | ['(Iraq News)'] |
The King of Thailand Bhumibol Adulyadej dies at the age of 88. He was the world's longest currently serving monarch. | Bangkok: Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch, has died after a long illness, plunging his south-east Asian country of 64 million people into a period of intense mourning and uncertainty. He was 88.
Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who was the world's longest-reigning monarch, has died in hospital aged 88.
Thai television interrupted programming to make the announcement shortly before 7pm Thai time.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha announced that Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn will succeed his father.
"The government will proceed with the succession. The government will inform the National Legislative Assembly that his Majesty the King appointed his heir on December 28 1972," Mr Prayuth said. The assembly was due to meet Thursday evening.
Mr Prayath said there would be a 12 month mourning period and flags would fly at half mast for 30 days. He said there could be no celebratory events held for 30 days, indicating there will be restrictions on bars and the selling of alcohol.
Revered by Thais, the king succeeded to the throne on June 9, 1946, when he was a gangly, thick-spectacled American-born 18-year-old who could barely speak Thai.
During 70 years on the throne he presided over the revival of a faltering centuries-old royal institution, growing in power and influence as he helped direct Thailand's social and economic development.
Thailand's National Assembly ended an extraordinary session late Thursday night without inviting a successor to the king to ascend to the throne.
"We are preparing the next moves," said a spokesman for the assembly, which is made up of military appointees. Assembly members wore black and stood in silence for nine minutes.
It is likely to be months before the Crown Prince's coronation as the new monarch,as Thailand goes through a period of intense national mourning.
Many businesses are expected to be closed or provide reduced services as Thais mourn the loss of the ninth Chakri king, whom many regard as semi-divine.
Western diplomats in Bangkok say tourists and expatriates in Thailand should wear black and respect the grief Thais will be feeling for their king, whose portrait hangs in every government building and in many shops and homes.
People in a crowd that had gathered at Bangkok's Siriraj hospital, where the king has been battling ailments for several years, openly wept as news of the death swept social media.
"Long live the King! Long live the King!" they cried, gazing up at the hospital building with tear-filled eyes.
Dozens of doctors wearing white coats solemnly sang the Thai national anthem in the hospital's foyer. One women wearing pink, a colour royal astrologists said was good for the king, collapsed hysterically in the hospital grounds holding photograph of the king and queen. But a Reuters reporter said most of the people at the hospital were dignified.
Four of the king's children, including 63-year-old Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, were at the hospital Thursday evening. The Crown Prince arrived in the country on Thursday from Germany where he owns a lakeside villa.
King Bhumibol had been treated for various ailments during a year-long hospitalisation in the Thai capital. He had not made a public appearance since January 2016.
Anxiety over his health and eventual succession has formed the backdrop to more than a decade of bitter political division in Thailand that has included military takeovers and sometimes violent street demonstrations.
The death follows a coup in May 2014 that toppled the democratically-elected government of Thailand's first female prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra.
King Bhumibol acceded to the throne after the mysterious shooting death of his brother, King Ananda Mahidol, at the Royal Palace in Bangkok on June 9, 1946.
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where his father was studying, King Bhumibol, whose name means "Strength of the Land, Incomparable Power", was educated in Switzerland before returning to Thailand to be crowned on May 5, 1950, with a promise to the nation: "We shall reign with righteousness, for the benefit and happiness of the Siamese [Thai] people."
He had married Queen Sirikit - then a 17-year-old student - a week earlier, and they had four children, one son and three daughters.
The queen, who turned 84 in August 2016, has also suffered ailments and hospitalisation in recent times.
News about the royal family is tightly controlled in Thailand, where laws protecting the royals from insult make it a crime to defame, insult or threaten the king, queen, heir to the throne or regent.
Former army chief and now Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha warned when he led the 2014 coup that anything deemed "offensive" to the monarchy would be dealt with harshly under the country's lese-majeste laws. | Famous Person - Death | October 2016 | ['(The Canberra Times)'] |
Four German pensioners aged 61 to 80 are found guilty of kidnapping their own financial adviser from his home and driving him 450km to southern Bavaria, with the ringleader and his accomplice being jailed. | Four German pensioners have been found guilty of kidnapping the financial adviser they blamed for US property investments that went awry.
The court found that the four, aged 61 to 80, abducted James Amburn and tried to force him to refund 2.5m euros (£2.25m; $3.4m) in lost investments. They took him from his home in western Germany and drove him 450km (280 miles) to southern Bavaria. He was freed after hiding a message to call police in a fax to his Swiss bank. The defendants had argued that they had invited Mr Amburn for a short holiday in upper Bavaria. But the judge in Traunstein, Bavaria, ruled that it was a "spectacular case of self-justice" and that in Germany, people could not take the law into their own hands.
They were found guilty of offences ranging from kidnapping to grievous bodily harm. The ringleader of the group, 74-year-old retired architect Roland Kaspar, was sentenced to six years in prison. His accomplice, a 61-year-old businessman, was sentenced to four years. Two women, one of them Kaspar's 80-year-old wife, received suspended sentences. The trial of another suspect, aged 67, has been postponed because he has health problems. Coded fax
When the group's attempts to recover their money in the courts failed, they kidnapped Mr Amburn from his home in Speyer, Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany last June. They tied him up with tape and gagged him, put him in a box in the boot of a car and drove him to Bavaria. Along the way, they beat him up, breaking two ribs when he tried to flee during a stop. They finally locked him in a well-prepared basement of a house close to the Chiemsee lake in Bavaria. He was then forced to sign papers promising to refund the money the pensioners had lost in the US property crash. But Mr Amburn managed to insert a message to call police in a fax sent to his Swiss bank. The bank then raised the alarm with German police, who stormed the lakeside house. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | March 2010 | ['(280 miles)', '(BBC)'] |
Seven people are shot dead in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with the gunman committing suicide and hostages being released. | Rodrick Shonte Dantzler killed his wife and a daughter along with five others is Grand Rapids' deadly murder spree before killing himself. We are collecting updates about the case and funeral services for the victims in this entry.
• Tuesday, Sept. 4: Police have released their report about the shooting, offering new details in the case.
• Monday, July 25: April Swanson, a survivor of Rodrick Dantzler's rampage describes the minutes of terror before being shot after they met by chance on the street.
• 1:03 p.m. Friday Celebrant Richard Karelse discusses what he was to say at today's memorial service for the four members of the Heeren family slain by Rodrick Dantzler.
• 7:45 p.m. Grand Rapids residents gather for community healing, reflection after murder spree kills 7. Mayor George Heartwell, who organized the gathering of 200, seemed pleased with the outcome while knowing it will take time for the community's wounds to heal.
• 11:45 a.m. Funeral, visitation begins for two families in mourning after mass murder. The Emkens family has gathered for a funeral, and the Heeren family is beginning their visitation.
• 11:40 a.m. Grand Rapids Press obituary for Rodrick Dantzler
• 6 a.m. Wednesday Court records offer new details on Grand Rapids mass murderer Rodrick Dantzler. "It appears that his anger had been out of control since he was a young boy," a psychologist wrote in 2002.
• 2:05 p.m. Today's 2 to 8 p.m. visitation for the Emkens family begins several days of mourning in Grand Rapids. Police Chief Kevin Belk was in attendance.
• 1 p.m. With newborn son, surviving sister in Heeren family on emotional roller coaster. Aimee Heeren today thanked the community and police for their support, prayers.
• 12:45 p.m. Mental health resources publicized as Grand Rapids copes with aftermath of Rodrick Dantzler killings
• 11:58 a.m. Grand Rapids City Commission honors police who dealt with Rodrick Dantzler's murder spree, chase, hostage situation. "I want to commend the extraordinary efforts of the officers, which saved lives," said Mayor George Heartwell.
• 7:35 a.m. Tuesday Rodrick Dantzler's hostages still shaken after Grand Rapids murder spree. "They're taking the steps toward recovery," family member says.
• 2:27 p.m. Grand Rapids mass murder victims inspire testimonials, prayers. Here is an opportunity to share your own reflections and memories.
• 8 a.m. Playing basketball with Rodrick Dantzler: CNN columnist LZ Granderson reflects on Grand Rapids' tragedy. "These sort of things are supposed to happen elsewhere," the former Press reporter writes.
• 7:30 a.m. Monday Read The Grand Rapids Press obituaries for murder spree victims Thomas, Rebecca , Jennifer and Kamrie Heeren. A Celebration of Life service will be held at 1 p.m. Friday.
• 5:27 p.m. Funeral arrangements set for Heeren family members, killed in Grand Rapids murder spree. Visitation is Thursday, with the funeral on Friday.
• 10:30 a.m. Read The Grand Rapids Press obituaries for murder spree victims Kimberlee, Amanda and Marissa Emkens. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m., Wednesday.
• 8:46 a.m. Patricia Emkens, who lost her only two daughters and granddaughter in Thursday's mass murder, speaks eloquently in the wake of the tragedy.
• 8:10 a.m. Sunday Grand Rapids preachers deal with questions about murder spree. But few offer sweeping answers — and one says we need to ask more.
• DAY 3 OVERVIEW: Rodrick Dantzler's family speaks after his murder spree kills 7 in Grand Rapids: 'He's no monster'
• 8:20 p.m. Gun used by Rodrick Dantzler in Grand Rapids mass murder was stolen. Police have determined the .40-caliber handgun used in the killings was stolen from a home in Kent County.
• 8 p.m. Rodrick Dantzler's neighbors say he was off bi-polar medication, going through separation when he killed 7, including wife, daughter. Family also confirms Dantzler and Jennifer Heeren were married.
• 8:30 a.m. Grand Rapids Police did what they could to stop killer Rodrick Dantzler on the run.
• 8:15 a.m. Saturday After Grand Rapids mass murder tragedy: How do we recover from this? Mental health professionals describe the ways we cope as a community.
• DAY 2 OVERVIEW: Heroes emerge in story of mass killing spree in Grand Rapids
• 10:35 p.m. Hundreds gather downtown to honor victims of Grand Rapids mass murder tragedy.
• 6:50 p.m. It's been two days of complicated coverage of complex events. Press artist and graphic designer Milt Klingensmith walks us through the details: who's who; where the police chase went; how many locations did police investigate.
• 5:19 p.m. Longtime Press columnist Tom Rademacher challenges online readers to keep conversations civil in light of this tragedy.
• 5 p.m. Saturday benefit is announced to help raise funeral funds for Emkens family murder victims.
• 4 p.m. In wake of Grand Rapids mass murder, The Grand Rapids Press offers one way to contribute to memories of victims online and possibly in print.
• 3:40 p.m. Rodrick Dantzler's killing spree spurs call for stronger stance against domestic violence.
• 3:15 p.m. Grand Rapids residents pour grief from mass murder tragedy into MyGR6 entries.
• 3 p.m. A makeshift memorial is forming on Plainfield Avenue NE as friends, neighbors, strangers gather at site where three people died Thursday.
• 2:45 p.m. Grand Rapids Police Facebook page floods with gratitude.
• 2:40 p.m. Huntington Bank accepts donations to support victims and starts account with $10,000 donation.
• 1:40 p.m. Small groups gather to reflect on tragedy.
• 1:23 p.m. Photos: See vehicle mass murder suspect Rodrick Dantzler dumped during police chase, manhunt.
Gallery: Rodrick Dantzler's Grand Rapids murder spree victims
• 12:30 p.m. Vigil for mass murder victims set for Grand Rapids park; church service announced.
•
12:15 p.m.
Profiles of Rodrick Dantzler's four other victims, all killed at 1270 Brynell Court NE:
Thomas Heeren, 51,
co-owner of Heeren Brothers Produce, his
wife Rebecca, 52,
; their daughter,
Jennifer, 29, a longtime girlfriend Dantzler's wife
and the daughter she had with him,
Kamrie, 12
.
• 11:45 a.m. We are reporting profiles of Rodrick Dantzler's seven victims, beginning with three victims at the Plainfield Avenue NE home: Amanda Renee Emkens, 27, and her daughter, Marissa Lynn Emkens, 10. Amanda's sister, Kimberlee Ann Emkens, 23, who also was killed, was an ex-girlfriend of Dantzler.
• 11:22 a.m. Rodrick Dantzler's violent history: His mother, girlfriends lived in fear. Four women have sought personal protection orders against Rodrick Dantzler, including his mother in 1996, citing his explosive temper and violence "without thinking."
• 11:20 a.m. Police Chief Kevin Belk says suspect Rodrick Dantzler "went out hunting people down." See video of Belk's press conference.
• 11:10 a.m. Police Chief Kevin Belk identifies all seven victims of mass murder and their relationships to suspect Rodrick Dantzler.
• 11:05 a.m. Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell introduces press conference, mourns with city.
• 11 a.m. Watch live video from today's press conference with Grand Rapids Police Chief Kevin Belk about Thursday's mass murder tragedy.
• 9:57 a.m. Bishop Walter Hurley on Grand Rapids tragedy: "We extend our prayers."
• 9:08 a.m. Grand Rapids Press Editor Paul Keep reflects on the tragedy: After Rodrick Dantzler's rampage, how can we afford not to have a strong social safety net?
• 9:10 a.m. A pickup truck driver stuck in a traffic jam in Grand Rapids says a titanium plate in his nose kept him from being severely wounded or killed by a gunman who fatally shot seven people and took his own life.
• 7:45: a.m. As Grand Rapids begins its first day of mourning for seven murder victims, a vigil is set for 8:30 p.m. tonight at Ford Museum, and candles, flowers and teddy bears grace the porch of the Plainfield Avenue home where three were slain.
• 7:20 a.m. Police have confirmed they will hold an 11 a.m. press conference today.
• 7:06 a.m. Mayor Heartwell on murder rampage: 'This has shaken us to the depths'. offered words of support to families and friends of the seven victims of murder rampage suspect Rodrick Dantzler, who later took his own life.
• 4:20 p.m. Grand Rapids police reportedly found four victims in unknown conditions at 1270 Brynell Court NE off 4 Mile Road; two bodies at 2046 Plainfield Avenue NE. They have gone to a house on Baynton NE near Aquinas College where a suspect may be.
• 4:15 p.m. Police are reporting four victims at a home on Brynell Court NE.
• 4:05 p.m. Police are trying to track down a suspect reportedly armed with an automatic .40 caliber handgun. Police are seeking a suspect in a tan Lincoln with license plate number BWK 2308.
• 3:38 p.m. Police investigate report of two dead in Plainfield Avenue home. It was not immediately clear whether the deaths were related to an incident on Janes Avenue NE.
• 3:23 p.m. Police block off neighborhood near Janes Avenue NE, near Knapp Street and Coit Avenue, following the standoff incident that began at 2:30 p.m., telling neighbors to stay inside.
• 2:41 p.m. A Grand Rapids man tells mother on phone that he killed his wife and police respond to the scene. The mother says heard gunshot on the phone.
| Riot | July 2011 | ['(AP via Google News)', '(Grand Rapids Press)'] |
US President Barack Obama concludes his visit to the Middle East with a trip to the famous ruins of the ancient city of Petra in Jordan. | US President Barack Obama has ended his visit to the Middle East with a trip to the famous ruins of the ancient city of Petra in Jordan.
The diplomatic part of his visit ended on Friday when he met King Abdullah and pledged an additional $200m (£131m) to help Syrian refugees in Jordan. Correspondents say his four-day visit has yielded mixed results.
He brokered an Israeli rapprochement with Turkey but there was little progress on the Palestinian issue.
The BBC's North America editor, Mark Mardell, says the American leader's clear warmth towards Israel comes at a price, and many in the Arab world will feel let down.
Yet, our editor adds, he brought a subtle message to young Israelis that every people deserves freedom and a land of its own. Mr Obama's Marine One helicopter touched down near Petra after an hour-long flight from the Jordanian capital, Amman.
The site of the ancient city, which is carved into rose-red stone, dates back 2,000 years and is Jordan's top tourist attraction, drawing more than half a million visitors each year.
Most of the president's time in the Middle East was spent in Israel where he held several meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A highlight of the visit came when Mr Netanyahu apologised to Turkey for "any errors that could have led to loss of life" during the 2010 commando raid on an aid flotilla that tried to breach the Gaza blockade.
He also agreed to compensate the families of the nine Turkish activists who were killed.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office said he had accepted the apology, "in the name of the Turkish people".
Mr Obama also briefly visited Ramallah in the West Bank to meet Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority.
He urged Palestinians to drop their demands for a freeze in Israeli settlement-building as a precondition for peace talks.
However, a spokesman for Mr Abbas said the Palestinian leader had told Mr Obama the precondition remained in place.
Speaking to an audience of young Israelis in Jerusalem, Mr Obama praised Jewish nationhood before turning the argument around by stressing the need for Palestinians to share these same values of self-determination and justice.
"It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of her own living their entire lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements of her parents every single day," Mr Obama said.
The US leader is due to return to Washington later on Saturday.
In pictures: Obama in Middle East
Israeli apology for flotilla deaths
| Diplomatic Visit | March 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(CBC)', '(CNN)'] |
Heavy flooding in Peru kills at least 67 people and forces thousands to abandon their homes. | Devastating downpour, caused by high ocean temperatures, could not have been predicted, president said, months after state of emergency declared for wildfires
Last modified on Wed 14 Feb 2018 17.04 GMT
Sixty-seven people have been killed and thousands more forced to evacuate by intense rains which damaged 115,000 homes and destroyed more than 100 bridges in Peru’s worst floods in recent memory.
“We are confronting a serious climatic problem,” said Peru’s president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, in a broadcast to the nation on Friday afternoon. “There hasn’t been an incident of this strength along the coast of Peru since 1998.”
The disaster – which came after a period of severe drought – has been blamed on abnormally high temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, and fuelled criticism that the country is ill-prepared for the growing challenges of climate change.
Over the past three days, the downpour has burst river banks, created mudslides, collapsed bridges, closed roads and forced school suspensions in swaths of the west and north of the country.
Rains continued to lash the northern Piura region where streets remained flooded in the regional capital and homes had been washed away in poorer neighbourhoods.
By Thursday night, the floodwaters had subsided in the city’s La Primavera slum, but the floor of Shirley Moran’s home was a sea of dried mud and half-buried children’s toys.
“The water came up to our knees, the only thing we could do was run for our lives and to try and keep calm,” said Moran in the battered home she shared with five siblings.
Even the capital city, Lima, where a desert climate means that rain is rare, was lashed by a downpour which flooded outlying neighbourhoods. With temperatures still high, the meteorological agency expects the rain front to move inland and south over the coming days and has issued a highest-level weather warning for the Amazon part of the Cusco, Ucayali and Huánuco regions.
It is not the first time this year that Peru has been affected. Two months ago, tourists in Machu Picchu were stranded by mudslides and had to be airlifted.
The prime minister, Fernando Zavala, said 176 districts had already declared emergencies.
Abraham Levy, a Peruvian meteorologist, said the weather conditions were “extremely unusual” and the storms and flooding were caused by the “atypical” warming of sea surface temperatures off Peru’s northern coast by five to six degrees to 29C.
He described the phenomenon as a “coastal El Niño”. The last time this was seen was nearly a century ago in 1925.
“We’ve had these kinds of El Niños as long as we have historical data, so it’s very difficult to link climate change or even global warming to these events,” he said.
Other scientists say a global trend of rising sea temperatures was likely to have contributed to the recent storms. In November Peru declared a state of emergency when wildfires tore through drought-stricken areas burning nearly 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) of land. “We’ve rarely seen this kind of rapid and quick change in climatic conditions,” Juber Ruiz, from Peru’s civil defense institute, told Reuters.
Scientists accused Peruvian authorities of ignoring a warning to countries in the region that there was a severe risk of drought, and opposition politicians have accused the government of failing to respond adequately to forecasts of increasingly frequent extreme weather events.
“We know the ‘coastal El Niño’ comes from time to time. We know we are a country that is extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change. We should have prepared ourselves better,” said the leader of the New Peru movement, Verónika Mendoza, earlier this week. The frustrations of those affected were evident in Tambogrande, Piura, where dozens called for help as the country’s education minister, Marilú Martens, briefly visited the town by helicopter.
“We are dealing with this emergency in the short term, but of course we need long-term strategies to avoid these situations so the people are not continually suffering in these emergencies,” Martens told the Guardian. She said the government has set aside $800m Peruvian soles for Peru’s hard-hit north and would implement programmes to prevent the spread of diseases such as dengue, which is spread by mosquitoes which breed in stagnant water. A spokesman for the Peruvian ministry of environment said it was premature to attribute the floods to climate change though there are studies which suggest the El Niño phenomenon will become more frequent as a result of global warming.
“It is a duty of our government and society to work in order to reduce risk of vulnerability,” said Dimitri Gutiérrez. “Part of this work should be investing more for urban and territorial use planning.” | Floods | March 2017 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
An official study released by the Chinese government reveals that about one-fifth of China's soil is contaminated. | Almost a fifth of China's soil is contaminated, an official study released by the government has shown. Conducted between 2005-2013, it found that 16.1% of China's soil and 19.4% of its arable land showed contamination. The report, by the Environmental Protection Ministry, named cadmium, nickel and arsenic as top pollutants. There is growing concern, both from the government and the public, that China's rapid industrialisation is causing irreparable damage to its environment. The study took samples across an area of 6.3 million square kilometres, two-thirds of China's land area. "The survey showed that it is hard to be optimistic about the state of soil nationwide," the ministry said in a statement on its website.
"Due to long periods of extensive industrial development and high pollutant emissions, some regions have suffered deteriorating land quality and serious soil pollution."
Because of the "grim situation", the state would implement measures including a "soil pollution plan" and better legislation. Levels of pollution ranged from slight to severe. About 82.8% of the polluted land was contaminated by inorganic materials, with levels noticeably higher than the previous survey between 1986 and 1990, Xinhua news agency quoted the report as saying. "Pollution is severe in three major industrial zones, the Yangtze River Delta in east China, the Pearl River Delta in south China and the northeast corner that used to be a heavy industrial hub," the agency said.
The report had previously been classified as a state secret because of its sensitivity. There is growing fear in China over the effect that modernisation has had on the country's air, water and soil. The central government has promised to make tackling the issue a top priority - but vested interests and lax enforcement of regulations at local level make this challenging.
The public, meanwhile, have become increasingly vocal - both on the issue of smog and, in several cases, by taking to the streets to protest against the proposed construction of chemical plants in their cities. Clashes at China environmental rally
Understanding the politics of Chinese smog
China's coal addiction 'shortens lives'
China's strolling eco-warriors
Setback for EU in legal fight with AstraZeneca
But the drug-maker faces hefty fines if it fails to supply doses of Covid-19 vaccine over the summer. | Environment Pollution | April 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |