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Russian ice hockey player Dmitri Uchaykin dies from cerebral hemorrhage in hospital after receiving a high check in a game for HC Ertis–Pavlodar in the Kazakhstan Major League. | Tragic news out of the Kazakhstan Vyschaya Liga, the highest professional hockey league in Kazakhstan, where Russian forward Dmitri Uchaykin has passed away the morning after being hospitalized due to a hit to the head.
Uchaykin suited up Saturday night for his club, HC Ertis-Pavlodar, in a game versus HC Arystan. Midway through the game, he was knocked unconscious on a high hit from Arystan forward Donatas Kumeliuskas.
He was taken immediately to hospital, lapsing into a coma on the way there. The following morning, he died. From The Hockey House:
He died at 4am this morning due to a cerebral hemorrhage, which, according to wikipedia, “is a subtype of intracranial hemorrhage that occurs within the brain tissue itself. Intracerebral hemorrhage can be caused by brain trauma, or it can occur spontaneously in hemorrhagic stroke”.
Uchaykin leaves behind a pregnant wife and a young daughter. He spent a big majority of his professional career with Amur Khabarovsk in multiple levels of Russian hockey, including the KHL, before getting traded to Gazovik Tyumen (Russia2) mid season in 2008-2009. He would later play two seasons with Yermak Angarsk (VHL/Russia2) before finishing off the last two seasons of his career with Ertis Pavlodar in Kazakhstan.
His club announced his passing in a brief statement on their website, expressing "condolences to the families and friends of Dmitry."
There doesn't appear to be video of the hit available, which seems reasonable under the circumstances, but this brief clip from the game has appeared on Youtube. It ends with a 20-second shot of Uchaykin's team photo.
It goes without saying that this is the nightmare scenario in professional hockey right now. The speed of the game has increased, as has the strength of the players. But the human brain remains as fragile as ever.
Hits to the head have become a hot topic in hockey over the past few years, as the governing bodies of the sport have made strides towards taking headshots more seriously. Clearly, more strides are required.
Uchaykin was 33 years old.
s/t to James Mirtle.
Trailing by as many as 25, the Clippers got a boost from Staples Center's first capacity crowd of the year to rally and reach the West finals.
Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman, stars of Saturday Night Live when the show was in its infancy, appeared on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen Thursday, where they spoke about the fight between Bill Murray and Chevy Chase in 1978. After leaving the show, Chase had returned to host. Murray and Chase exchanged some deeply hurtful words following dress rehearsal, which soon resulted in a physical altercation just minutes before Chase took the stage to deliver the monologue. “I think Jane and I, and Gilda both witnessed it,” Newman said. “But, ya know, it was very sad and painful and awful.” “It was that sad kind of tension that you would get in a family,” Curtin added, “and everybody goes to their corners because they don't want to have to deal with the tension, and it was uncomfortable. You could understand, you know, there were these two bull mooses (sic) going at each other, so the testosterone was surging and stuff happens.”
The Clippers rallied from 25 down to shock the Jazz in Game 6 and advance to the conference finals for the first time in franchise history.
Only the low 60 players and ties earn weekend tee times at America's national championship. | Famous Person - Death | March 2013 | ['(Yahoo! Sports)'] |
Colombian Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo permits a U.S. Army unit to resume its advisory mission in the country after the Colombian Senate found that it did not constitute a deployment of foreign troops. A court had suspended the mission in early July after the opposition argued it did count as foreign troop movement, and thus needed Senate authorization. | BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia has given the green light for a U.S. Army unit to restart an advisory mission in the country after senators found its activities did not constitute deployment of foreign troops, the defense minister said on Thursday.
A court ordered the government to suspend training conducted by the 53-person U.S. specialist unit at the start of July after a group of opposition legislators filed legal action, saying movement of foreign troops in the country should be authorized by the Senate.
After President Ivan Duque submitted information demonstrating his “political control” of the unit’s activities, 69 lawmakers from seven parties signed a letter saying the unit’s presence did not constitute deployment of foreign troops, but is cooperation in the fight against drugs.
“The president, in exercising his constitutional powers, has allowed training and assessment by U.S. military personnel to continue,” Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo told journalists.
Colombia faces constant pressure from the United States, a top destination for cocaine, to reduce the size of crops of coca, the drug’s chief ingredient.
Duque has set a target to destroy 130,000 hectares of coca crops this year, up from 100,000 last year, and has signaled aerial spraying of the herbicide glyphosate could restart.
Last year cocaine production capacity in Colombia rose 1.5% to 1,137 metric tons according to the United Nations, even though the size of coca crops fell to their lowest level in six years.
This month the United States said it would help Colombia harness billions of dollars in investments to drive economic and social development and improve security in rural zones affected by drug trafficking.
| Government Policy Changes | August 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Multiple gunshots strike the public safety headquarters of the San Antonio, Texas, Police Department. No injuries are reported. | Multiple gunshots were fired at the San Antonio Police headquarters building Saturday night, and police are seeking a suspect who was seen running from the area, SAPD Chief William McManus said.
The shots were fired just before 10 p.m. Saturday. There were no reports of injuries, but bullet marks were found on the exterior wall of the building, McManus said. Shell casings were discovered in a nearby alley.
Minnesota protesters throw fireworks, rocks at police in I-94 shutdown
The area near the building in the 300 block of South Santa Rosa was closed off as the investigation continued. Several police cars were seen at a nearby corner blocking access to the area.
One person was detained near the building, but McManus said that person was not a suspect. Police are still looking for a man seen running southbound away from the headquarters building. He was wearing an orange shirt and blue pants.
McManus said a car was found near the crime scene, and it was believed that it could be connected to the shooting. The SAPD Bomb Squad was checking the vehicle just after midnight to make sure it was clear. Then it was expected to be towed and impounded.
This incident comes as police departments nationwide are on edge following the shooting of 12 police officers in Dallas. | Riot | July 2016 | ['(USA Today)'] |
A medical aircraft crashes into a resort in Pansol, Philippines. All nine on board are killed, with two injuries on the ground. | ll nine people on board a small medical evacuation plane were killed after it crashed into a resort in the Philippines and exploded into flames.
The light plane crashed into a resort compound in Pansol village in Laguna province near the foothills of Mount Makiling on Sunday.
Rescuers retrieved nine bodies from the wreckage, police said.
Two people on the ground were injured and brought to a hospital. Eric Apolonio, a spokesman of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, said the light plane was on a medical evacuation flight from southern Dipolog city in Zamboanga del Norte province.
It disappeared from radar for unknown reasons as it flew over Laguna, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of the capital, he said. The plane was supposed to land in Manila.
The nine on board the plane included two pilots, two nurses, a doctor, a patient, the patient's wife and two other people, police said. Videos posted online by witnesses showed flames and black smoke billowing from the private resort compound in Pansol, a district popular for its hot springs and swimming pools.
Firefighters and an ambulance can be seen near the scene of the crash as local officials asked villagers to step back to a safe distance. The crash happened during the monsoon season, when fewer people visit Pansol's resorts compared to the hot summer months that ended in June. | Air crash | September 2019 | ['(The Evening Standard)'] |
A 5.9 magnitude earthquake strikes 60 miles west of Wellington, New Zealand. No injuries are reported. | Leader says she can feel ‘quite a decent shake here’ as the 5.8 quake strikes during a live interview
First published on Sun 24 May 2020 22.57 BST
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has developed a reputation for keeping her cool in the face of a crisis. But an earthquake first thing on Monday morning as she was interviewed live on television seemed like an unusually trying way to start a week.
“We’re just having a bit of an earthquake here,” Ardern told Ryan Bridge, a host for Newshub’s AM Show, live on air. Casting her eyes to the ceiling of the room she was standing in at New Zealand’s parliament in Wellington, she remained in place as the television camera jolted.
The 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit 30 km north-west of Levin, a town about an hour’s drive north from the capital, at a depth of 37 km, according to the country’s seismology agency. No injuries or structural damage have been reported.
“Quite a decent shake here, but if you see things moving behind me, the Beehive moves more than most,” Ardern said, referring to the name given to the main parliament building, as the room rattled around her.
The quake lasted about 15 seconds and was felt by tens of thousands of New Zealanders as far afield as Auckland in the north and Dunedin on the South Island.
“We’re fine,” Ardern told Bridge, signalling she was ready to continue the interview as the quake rolled to a close. “I’m not under any hanging lights.”
Ardern later told reporters that the first thought to mind as the room began to shake was, “Are you serious?”
Ardern, like most New Zealanders, is accustomed to earthquakes. New Zealand lies on the seismically active “Ring of Fire”, a 40,000km arc of volcanoes and ocean trenches girdling much of the Pacific Ocean.
In 2010 and 2011, two major quakes devastated the South Island city of Christchurch, killing 185 people. And in 2016, another near the town of Kaikoura caused damage throughout the top of the South Island and bottom of the North, with some major buildings in Wellington still closed for earthquake strengthening.
There did not appear to be any such damage on Monday, even close to the earthquake’s epicentre.
Quite the shake in Wairarapa #eqnz I hope everyone else is OK. pic.twitter.com/amDDRnPlrn
But Grant Robertson, the finance minister, said in a tweet that the quake was “not what we need right now.”
Others were more dramatic. “I believe after earthquake and plague, the next one is frogs,” one Twitter user said.
Civil defence officials did not have anything to say about frogs but quickly ruled out the threat of a tsunami.
A Wellington councillor, Fleur Fitzsimons, reported a strange coincidence during the rumble.
“Eek, on the phone to the mayor talking about earthquake strengthening the Central Library when that earthquake hit! #eqnz #Wellington,” she wrote on Twitter. The capital’s main library was forced out of use in 2019 when it was discovered to be unsafe. | Earthquakes | May 2020 | ['(97\xa0km)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Hissene Habre, ex president of Chad, is sentenced to life in prison for ordering rape, sexual slavery and killings during his rule from 1982 to 1990. | Chad's ex-ruler Hissene Habre has been convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison at a landmark trial in Senegal. The judge convicted him of rape, sexual slavery and ordering killings during his rule from 1982 to 1990.
Victims and families of those killed cheered and embraced each other in the courtroom after the verdict was given.
It was the first time an African Union-backed court had tried a former ruler for human rights abuses. Habre, who received strong backing from the US while in power, has been given 15 days to appeal.
Survivors from the Habre era welcomed the verdict. "This is a historic day for Chad and for Africa. It is the first time that an African head of state has been found guilty in another African country," Yamasoum Konar, a representative of one of the victims' groups, told the BBC.
"This will be a lesson to other dictators in Africa," he added. After he was sentenced, Habre remained defiant, raising his arms and shouting to his supporters as he was led from the courtroom.
"Down with France-Afrique!" he shouted, using a term which is critical of France's influence in its former colonies. Throughout the nine-month trial, he refused to recognise the court's legitimacy, frequently disrupting proceedings.
The ex-president denied accusations that he ordered the killing of 40,000 people during his rule from 1982 to 1990.
His critics dubbed him "Africa's Pinochet" because of the atrocities committed during his rule.
Survivors had recounted gruesome details of the torture carried out by Habre's feared secret police.
One of the most notorious detention centres in the capital N'Djamena was a converted swimming pool.
Witnesses said victims endured electric shocks, near-asphyxia, cigarette burns and having gas squirted into their eyes.
Analysis: Abdourahmane Dia, BBC Afrique, Dakar
The verdict will be seen as a major step forward by those who are campaigning for African leaders to be tried on the continent for war crimes. They have been pushing for a permanent African court of justice to be set up, believing war crimes suspects should be prosecuted on the continent rather than at the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC). But some people were critical of the AU-backed court, set up specifically to try him. They argued that it was under Western influence as it had been partly funded by the European Union and US. However, survivors of Habre's atrocities did not seem to care who funded the court. They were just relieved that justice had been done, 25 years after his rule ended. Some of his victims were subjected to "supplice des baguettes" (torture by sticks), when the victim's head is put between sticks joined by rope which is then twisted.
Gberdao Gustave Kam, president of the special court, said Habre had also committed three acts of rape.
Habre was arrested in Senegal, where he was exiled, in 2013. Many of his victims campaigned for him to be tried following his overthrow in 1990.
"Today will be carved into justice as the day that a band of unrelenting survivors brought their dictator to justice," said Reed Brody from Human Rights Watch, who has worked on the case for 17 years and was in court for the judgement.
In 2005, a court in Belgium issued a warrant for his arrest, claiming universal jurisdiction but, after Senegal referred the issue to the African Union, the AU asked Senegal to try Mr Habre "on behalf of Africa".
In 2013, a court in Chad sentenced him to death in absentia for crimes against humanity.
• Born in 1942 to ethnic Toubou herders in northern Chad
• Given scholarship to study political science in France • First came to the world's attention in 1974 when his rebels captured three European hostages to ransom for money and arms
• Seized power in 1982 allegedly with the help of the CIA • Ousted by current President Idriss Deby in 1990
• Accused of systematically persecuting groups he distrusted
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez announces that the national currency, the bolívar, will be devalued for the first time since 2005, by between 17% and 50%. | Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has announced that the national currency, the bolivar, will be devalued for the first time since 2005, by at least 17%.
The bolivar, whose rate is set by government decree, will be devalued from its current rate of 2.15 to the US dollar to 2.60 for "priority" imports. However, the bolivar will be worth 4.30 to the dollar, a 50% devaluation, for items considered non-essential. Mr Chavez was under pressure to devalue to boost revenue from oil exports. The country is currently facing 25% inflation, as well as reduced foreign earnings. However, the bolivar is far more devalued on the parallel, unofficial currency market where it trades at rates as high as six bolivars to a US dollar. Food and health care imports, and the public sector will be able to take advantage of the lower of the two official rates. However, cars, chemicals, petrochemical and electronics will be charged at the higher rate. President Chavez said that the two official rates would have the effect of "limiting imports that are not strictly necessary and stimulating export policy". What are these? | Financial Crisis | January 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
The President of the People's Republic of China Hu Jintao meets with the Vice–President–elect of Republic of China Vincent Siew in the highest level talks between the two sides since 1949. | It was the highest-level contact between the two governments since their post-civil war split in 1949.
The meeting, on the sidelines of a business conference on China's Hainan island, was short.
But correspondents say it represented an important signal that both sides now want to improve relations, after several years of worsening ties.
'Common trust'
Mr Siew is the running-mate of Ma Ying-jeou, who won a convincing victory in Taiwan's elections in March, and has vowed to improve the island's standing with its much bigger neighbour once he takes office on 20 May.
The BBC's Caroline Gluck in Taiwan's capital, Taipei, says that while this may have been a low-key 20-minute meeting, it was one laden with symbolism. She says expectations are high that the meeting could mark a watershed in relations which had been severely strained during the eight-year administration of Taiwan's independence-leaning President Chen Shui-bian.
Mr Siew was already attending the Boao Forum for Asia in his capacity as chairman of the Cross-Strait Common Market Foundation, a non-profit group that works to improve economic co-operation between Taiwan and China.
After exchanging pleasantries with his Taiwanese visitor, Mr Hu said improving relations required efforts from both sides.
"On this occasion I am happy to exchange opinions on the cross-strait economy with Mr Siew," he said. Before the meeting, Mr Siew said: "I hope that through this meeting we can deepen the understanding between the two sides and also create a basis for common trust."
Although under President Chen economic links have steadily tied the Taiwan closer to the mainland, China has aimed hundreds of missiles at the island.
Beijing regards Taiwan as part of its territory, and has aggressively countered any moves to formalise Taiwan's de facto independence.
Ahead of the meeting, US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte labelled it "a good way forward" in efforts to settle differences between the two sides. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | April 2008 | ['(Taiwan)', '(BBC News)'] |
The People's Republic of China expresses its opposition to unilateral sanctions against North Korea in the wake of the imposition of new sanctions by the United States on the country in response to its recent nuclear and rocket tests. | BEIJING (Reuters) - China expressed its opposition on Thursday to unilateral sanctions against North Korea saying they could raise tension, after the United States imposed new curbs on the isolated country in retaliation for its nuclear and rocket tests.
China opposes new U.S. curbs on North Korea
01:08
U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday imposed sweeping new sanctions on North Korea intended to further isolate its leadership after recent actions seen by the United States and its allies as provocative.
The new sanctions threaten to ban from the global financial system anyone who does business with broad swaths of North Korea’s economy, including its financial, mining and transport sectors.
The so-called secondary sanctions will compel banks to freeze the assets of anyone who breaks the blockade, potentially squeezing out North Korea’s business ties, including those with China.
Asked whether China was worried the sanctions could affect “normal” business links between Chinese banks and North Korea, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said this was something China was “paying attention to”.
“First, as I’ve said many times before, China always opposes any country imposing unilateral sanctions,” Lu told a daily news briefing in Beijing.
“Second, under the present situation where the situation on the Korean Peninsula is complex and sensitive, we oppose any moves that may further worsen tensions there.”
“Third, we have clearly stressed many times in meetings with the relevant county, any so-called unilateral sanctions imposed by any country should neither affect nor harm China’s reasonable interests.”
China is North Korea’s sole major ally but it disapproves of its nuclear program and calls for the Korean peninsula to be free of nuclear weapons.
While China has signed up for tough new U.N. sanctions against North Korea, it has said repeatedly sanctions are not the answer and that only a resumption of talks can resolve the dispute over North Korea’s weapons program.
The U.S. measures, which vastly expand a U.S. blockade of North Korea, prohibit the export of goods from the United States to North Korea.
U.S. officials had previously believed a blanket trade ban would be ineffective without a stronger commitment from China, North Korea’s largest trading partner.
North Korea conducted a nuclear test on Jan. 6, and on Feb. 7 it launched a rocket that the United States and its allies said employed banned ballistic missile technology. China signed on to the new U.N. sanctions against North Korea this month.
But U.S. officials and experts have often questioned China’s commitment to enforcing sanctions on North Korea. China fears that too-harsh measures will destabilize the North. | Government Policy Changes | March 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Colombian government and FARC representatives meet in Havana, and President Juan Manuel Santos will meet with presidential predecessors Álvaro Uribe, the accord opposition leader, and Andrés Pastrana Arango, to continue negotiations to end the 52-year war that has killed around a quarter of a million people. , | Juan Manuel Santos will meet presidential predecessors to discuss peace with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The ceasefire has been extended after a peace deal was rejected Sunday by 50.2 percent of voters.
Juan Manuel Santos will meet presidential predecessors Alvaro Uribe and Andres Pastrana to discuss peace with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Uribe had condemned a proposed truce as too lenient - throwing the process into disarray and giving the former president a major victory in Sunday's referendum.
Santos tweeted that he invited his predecessors "to dialogue ... in a constructive spirit."
In Sunday's referendum, just over 50.2 percent of voters rejected the government's hard-fought peace deal with FARC. The result contradicted opinion polls and shocked Santos, who has staked his legacy on the peace process.
'No plan B'
With both sides now scrambling to find a solution, Santos announced on Tuesday that the ceasefire deal will be extended until October 31. "I hope by then we can finalize the agreement an end the conflict," he said. However, Wednesday's talks between Santos, Uribe and Pastrana will determine whether the current peace accord can still be rescued.
Santos has a complicated history with former President Uribe, who has staked his own legacy on his fight against FARC. The current executive had served as Uribe's defense minister from 2006 to 2009, leading a major army offensive against the nominally Marxist rebels. Uribe had campaigned for Santos in his 2010 election campaign.
The president shifted gears after succeeding Uribe and opened peace talks with FARC, which led his former boss to brand him a traitor. Uribe and his right-wing allies have also claimed that the peace deal would grant the rebels lenient sentences with no jail time for crimes committed during the conflict and allow them to relaunch as a political party. Government soldiers would have received similar leniency.
The erstwhile allies are thought to have last met in early 2011, after Santos had already initiated peace talks with FARC in secret. Santos repeatedly offered to meet his right-wing predecessor after formal talks with the rebels opened in Cuba in November 2012, but no sit-down materialized.
The government and right-wing paramilitaries have battled FARC for half a century in a conflict that has left more than 218,000 people dead, over 45,000 missing and about 5 million displaced. Pastrana, who was president from 1998 to 2002, also opposed the peace deal, though his Conservative Party had campaigned for a "yes" vote in the referendum. The truce had also been supported by right-wing leaders in the United States.
"The thing is, just as the government has its deal breakers, so does the FARC; so we have to see if it is willing to reopen the accord," Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin said. "There was no plan B: We believed the nation wanted peace."
On Tuesday, the government's lead negotiators, Humberto de la Calle and Sergio Jaramillo, returned to a Havana convention center to meet their FARC counterparts and discuss the results. Even "no" voters say they want an end to war, and the government and FARC have kept their ceasefire.
mkg/bw (EFE, Reuters, AFP, AP)
Colombia's peace referendum defeat has prompted UN chief Ban Ki-moon to dispatch his special envoy for more talks. FARC rebels say they will "fix" the deal rejected by a voters' margin of merely 54,000. (03.10.2016) | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | October 2016 | ['(Reuters)', '(Deutsche Welle)'] |
At least 51 people are killed when a bus traveling from the Kenyan capital Nairobi to Kisumu veers off the road and overturns. | At least 50 people were killed when a bus travelling from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, to Kisumu, in the west, veered off the road, police say.
The bus was overloaded and speeding, a survivor told local media. Police said the driver lost control and the vehicle plunged down a slope at a notorious accident black spot. The roof was ripped off. Twelve women and seven children were among those killed in the crash on Wednesday morning. The bus was carrying at least 70 passengers, some standing, a male survivor told The Standard. He said the driver was not following traffic rules but that he chose not to raise his concerns because the bus crew would have beaten him up. He described the bus crew as "very arrogant". The government agency in charge of road safety said the bus did not have a license to travel at night. The accident happened at 05:00 local time (02:00 GMT) in Fort Ternan town, 80km (50 miles) away from Kisumu, local media reported.
An eyewitness described hearing "a long hooting sound, then a screech that was followed by a bang and loud screams," the Daily Nation reported. A number of people were taken to hospital, it said. Kenyan roads can be notoriously dangerous and the World Health Organization (WHO) has ranked Kenya as one of the world's worst countries for road safety.
In the past 10 months, 2,345 people have been killed in road crashes across the country, an 8% increase compared with last year, the BBC's Wanyama Chebusiri in Nairobi, reports. Claims of police taking bribes from traffic offenders have also contributed to road accidents in the country, our reporter adds.
Dozens killed in Kenya bus crash
. | Road Crash | October 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu announces Russia plans to build a new military base on the Kuril Islands, a group of Pacific islands it seized from Japan at the end of World War II. | Russia plans to build a military base on the Kuril islands, a group of Pacific islands it seized from Japan at the end of World War Two, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Thursday, according to the Interfax news agency.
The move is likely to worsen already frayed relations with Tokyo which lays claim to the Southern Kuril, known in Japan as the Northern Territories.
The dispute is so acrimonious that Moscow and Tokyo have still not signed a formal peace treaty after the war.
Russia is also building or plans to build a series of new Arctic military bases, including on Wrangel Island, Kotelny Island and at Cape Schmidt, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted as saying on Thursday by the Interfax news agency.
"We are not keeping this a secret - we have practically created a base on the Novosibirsk Islands, the Island of Kotelny. This is a big military base, there was no such in the Soviet period," it quoted Shoigu as saying. | Organization Established | October 2015 | ['(Business Insider)'] |
The delegation from Saudi Arabia departed from the meeting of the Arab League, offended by remarks of the Foreign Minister of Iraq, Ibrahim al–Jaafari, an indication of increasing tension among Arab states. | The Saudi delegation at the Arab League stormed out of a meeting after Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari defended the Shi’ite Hashd Shaabi militia grouping, an Iraqi foreign ministry source told Reuters on Friday.
Tensions between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslim powers have been on the rise as sectarian wars rage in Syria, Yemen and Iraq, and the Arab League has become a forum for predominantly Sunni countries, led by Saudi Arabia, to air grievances with regional Shi’ite power Iran.
“The Saudi delegation withdrew from the meeting hall after the speech of Foreign Minister Al-Jaafari who rejected speaking against Hashd Shaabi and other resistance groups,” the source said, declining to be named.
“In his speech he said that Hashd Shaabi and Hezbollah have preserved the dignity of the Arabs and those who call them terrorists are the terrorists,” he said.
A Saudi foreign ministry spokesman could not be reached for comment.
In January, Iraq summoned the Saudi ambassador after he suggested Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias were exacerbating sectarian tensions in Iraq.
Morocco said last month that it would not host the 2016 Arab League meeting as scheduled, saying it wanted to avoid giving a false impression of unity in the Arab world.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | March 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
In basketball, the Golden State Warriors defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games to win the 2017 NBA Finals. It is the second time they have won the Finals in last three years. Kevin Durant is declared NBA Finals MVP. | And they did it in style, with 19,596 souls at sold-out Oracle Arena spending the fourth quarter standing and staring and screaming.
The Warriors, considered by many as a Super Team, derided by some as Super Villains, are Super Champions.
With Kevin Durant scoring a team-high 39 points and Stephen Curry tossing in 34, the Warriors outlasted a resilient Cavaliers team 129-120 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals Monday night to win their second title in three years.
Andre Iguodala fired in 20 points off the bench, Klay Thompson had 11 and Draymond Green added 10, along with a team-high 11 rebounds as the Warriors concluded the postseason at 16-1, the highest postseason win percentage in NBA history.
The Warriors won despite giving away 25 points in turnovers, being outscored in the paint 62-52 and being outshot 53.4 percent to 51.1. Cleveland won the second-chance-points battle 20-15 and the fast-break points battle 25-18.
LeBron James poured in a game-high 41 points to lead Cleveland, while Kyrie Irving tossed in 26 -- 0 in the fourth quarter.
STANDOUT PERFORMER:Iguodala was tremendous off the bench. Curry did plenty of damage. Green brought fire and hard-hat production. Durant punctuated a magnificent Finals performance with his best offensive show.
Durant’s line: 39 points (14-of-20 shooting from the field, including 5-of-7 beyond the arc, 6-of-6 from the line), seven rebounds and five assists. He played 40 minutes and finished plus-18.
TURNING POINT:Trailing the Cavaliers 41-33 after a James dunk with 10:14 left in the second quarter, the Warriors reeled off a 21-2 run to go up 54-43 on a Curry floater with 4:40 left in the half.
The Cavs trailed by 11 (71-60) at the half, by five (98-93) after three quarters. They got as close as three (98-95) early in the fourth before the Warriors pulled away down the stretch, outscoring the 31-27 in the final quarter.
INJURY UPDATE:Warriors: No injuries listed. C Damian Jones and F Kevon Looney were placed on the inactive list.
Cavs: No injuries listed. G Kay Felder and C Edy Tavares were placed on the inactive list. | Sports Competition | June 2017 | ['(NBC News)'] |
20 people are killed in a bus crash near Rostov–on–Don, Russia. | At least 20 people have been killed in a crash between a bus and a petrol tanker in south Russia, officials say.
The accident happened on a highway near Samarskoye, south of Rostov-on-Don. Rescue workers are still at the crash site and officials say the death toll may rise. Nine injured people are in serious condition at nearby hospitals. The bus was travelling from Krasnodar to Volgodonsk when it hit the tanker head-on. The weather and visibility were reportedly good at the time. Rescue workers said that, judging by the position of the vehicles on the road following the crash, they believed the tanker had crossed into the oncoming lane. An investigation has been begun. The collision did not cause a fire to break out, they said. It was not immediately clear if the tanker had been carrying a full load of petrol. The ministry of emergency situations for the Rostov region said there had been 27 passengers on board the bus. The drivers of both vehicles were killed, a member of the rescue team told the Interfax news agency. | Road Crash | July 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
BBC DirectorGeneral George Entwistle appears before the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee to answer questions about the Corporation's handling of allegations of sexual abuse against Jimmy Savile. | Corporation chief's appears before select committee as two charities set up in Savile's name announce they will close
Attitudes inside the BBC towards sexual exploitation of teenage girls have changed since the 1960s, when Jimmy Savile started out as a serial abuser but not enough, the Director General of the BBC told MPs today.
George Entwistle faced hours of grilling by members of the Commons Culture Committee, on the morning after a Panorama programme seen by 5.1 million viewers showed how the former disc jockey had been able to get away with his activities across four decades, including abusing young girls on BBC premises.
His appearance coincided with an announcement that two charities linked with Jimmy Savile are to close down. The trustees of the Jimmy Savile Charitable Trust and the Jimmy Savile Stoke Mandeville Hospital Trust, which operates independently of the hospital, said they had given "much consideration" to a possible change of name but added: whatever new name they may adopt, the charities will always be linked in the public's mind with the late Jimmy Savile. The trustees cannot see a future for either charity.”
Mr Entwistle heaped blame for the decision not to broadcast a Newsnight investigation into Jimmy Savile’s activities last year on the programme’s Editor, Peter Rippon. He denied that he had personally failed to show leadership, telling MPs: “The system failed.”
The Tory MP Philip Davies demanded to know whether there have been similar allegation s about anyone now working for the BBC. He was told: “New allegations are being made and are coming in. What I am looking at is all the existing current allegations."
He added that he would be "worried if there was anything in excess of five" sexual harassment claims made a year against BBC employees - but insisted no level of cases was acceptable.”
Mr Entwistle also said that watching the Panorama programme last night had convinced that the BBC was wrong not to broadcast an earlier investigation by Newsnight, in which Kiran Ward, a former pupil at Duncroft Approve School, in Middlesex, described being abused by Savile, and seeing others being exploited by him and by the singer Gary Glitter.
The decision not to broadcast was made by the editor of Newsnight, Peter Rippon, who “stepped aside” form his post on Monday after the BBC had admitted that a blog he had written defending his decision was inaccurate.
In an email sent last November, Peter Rippon pointed out "our sources so far are just the women" a remark which the Conservative MP Therese Coffey said was "chilling."
Mr Entwistle said: "That phrase, on the face of it, isn't in the least defensible, of course. I do believe the culture has changed since the Seventies and Eighties but I'm not convinced it has changed as much as it should have.
"This is something the BBC simply has to get right and I'm not sure we have got it right in every respect at the moment."
He added that he is bringing in Dinah Rose QC to look at how the BBC handles sexual harassment cases.
Mr Entwistle rejected an accusation that the BBC had handled the scandal badly. He admitted that it was “a very, very grave matter indeed”, and said that when the scale and credibility of the allegations came to light he immediately personally contacted the police.
But when the committee chairman, John Whittingdale suggested that there were serious questions to be answered about whether the BBC had attempted to suppress the truth “to avoid embarrassment” Mr Entwistle replied: “No, I wouldn't accept that. I would accept that there have been times when we have taken longer to do things than in a perfect world I would have liked.
”But I think if you looked at what we have achieved since the scale of the crisis became clear, I think you see we have done much of what we should have done and done it in the right order and with proper respect paid to the right authorities.“
Mr Entwistle’s appearance at the committee comes just hours after the BBC was accused of a fresh cover-up, after it emerged that its lawyers blocked the publication of emails implicating senior executives in the decision to drop a Newsnight investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile.
The Daily Telegraph reported that a series of emails sent by the reporter Liz MacKean to an unnamed friend were blocked from appearing in last night’s Panorama investigation into the BBC’s reaction to the Jimmy Savile scandal.
In one email, sent on November 30 2011, Ms MacKean described how Peter Rippon, the Newsnight editor, was having a “panic attack” about the affair. He allegedly told Ms MacKean it was “a very long political chain”.
Mr Entwistle admitted the scandal had raised questions of trust and reputation in the BBC.
He told MPs: ”There's no question that what Jimmy Savile did and the way the BBC behaved ... the culture and practices of the BBC seems to allow Jimmy Savile to do what he did, will raise question of trust for us and reputation for us. There's no question about that.
“It is a gravely serious matter and one cannot look back at it with anything but horror that his activities went on as long as they did undetected.
”Of course, that is a matter of grave regret to me.“
Mr Entwistle said the inquiry by Nick Pollard, former head of Sky News, into why the Newsnight investigation into Jimmy Savile was dropped is expected to report back ”in weeks“.
He admitted a factually inaccurate account of the scandal in a blog by Newsnight editor Peter Rippon, who stepped aside yesterday, had caused embarrassment.
Mr Entwistle said: ”If I can take the correction to the blog first, there's no doubt that it is a matter of regret and embarrassment that the version of events recorded in Peter Rippon's blog on October 2 did not turn out to be as accurate as they should have been.“
Mr Rippon defended his decision to axe the report in a BBC blog earlier this month but yesterday the corporation issued a correction.
He originally said there was no evidence that staff at the Duncroft approved school could have known about allegations that Savile abused children, but the BBC said: ”In fact, some allegations were made (mostly in general terms) that some of the Duncroft staff knew or may have known about the abuse.“
Mr Rippon also said the women who spoke to Newsnight journalists had already spoken to police, but the BBC now says that is untrue and Newsnight uncovered new evidence about Savile's alleged crimes.
The corrected blog post said that while no allegations were made that BBC staff were aware of Savile's behaviour, Newsnight did hear allegations of “abusive conduct on BBC premises“
Mr Entwistle told the committee that he had not personally spoken to any of those involved in preparing the Newsnight film.
He said he felt it was better to operate through the BBC "chain of command", so that he could remain an impartial judge of any subsequent disciplinary case, and had therefore left it to head of news Helen Boaden and deputy director of news Stephen Mitchell to deal directly with the programme.
He said: "I don't believe it would have been appropriate for me to do a detailed examination of what were contended-over documents myself, for fear that I would simply become irrevocably embroiled in that and unable to exercise the authority I am here to exercise as Director-General."
Mr Entwistle said Ms Boaden had spoken to the Newsnight team only briefly during the investigation.
"I understand that Helen's only conversation with Peter (Rippon) in respect of the Newsnight investigation was to remind him that, just because Jimmy Savile was dead, it didn't mean that there could be any skimping in journalistic standards, and that the usual BBC standards would apply," said Mr Entwistle.
Asked whether Mr Rippon might have interpreted that as pressure from above to drop the investigation, the Director-General replied: "I don't regard it as an inappropriate point in any sense to make to an editor. BBC journalistic standards are exactly what Helen is there to support."
Committee member Ben Bradshaw told Mr Entwistle that he appeared to have been "seriously let down by BBC managers".
But Mr Entwistle replied: "I don't think it's right to make that judgment now. The reviews are there to shed light on every aspect of this. Only once the reviews have heard evidence from all the relevant people and made a study of all the documentation will we know exactly what happened."
Mr Entwistle said he was "very disappointed indeed" to learn that a blog published under Mr Rippon's name was incorrect.
"What I relied upon is something that in my BBC career I've always been able to rely upon, which is the editor of a programme having a full grip and understanding of an investigation they were in charge of," he said. "In this case that doesn't appear to have been the case, and that is disappointing." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | October 2012 | ['(The Independent)'] |
The UK's Department of Health is to investigate the decision to appoint the broadcaster Sir James Savile as head of a taskforce overseeing the high security Broadmoor Hospital, a facility for the criminally insane, following recent allegations of sexual abuse. He was appointed to the position in the late 1980s. | The Department of Health (DoH) is to investigate the decision to appoint Sir Jimmy Savile as head of a taskforce overseeing Broadmoor hospital in 1988.
It comes after the Sun reported claims he abused a 17-year-old patient on a visit to the psychiatric hospital in Berkshire as a fundraiser in the 1970s.
The DoH said the abuse claims were "disturbing" and the entertainer should not have been appointed to the role.
Police said they now had 340 lines of inquiry on the sex abuse claims.
Savile, who presented Top of The Pops and Jim'll Fix It in the 1970s and 80s, died in October 2011, aged 84 but sexual abuse allegations against him have only emerged this month.
The DoH had responsibility for running the high-security hospital when Savile was appointed, but West London Mental Health NHS Trust has been in charge since 2001.
A DoH spokesman said: "We will investigate the Department of Health's conduct in apparently appointing Savile to this role. "Although the framework for child protection and safeguarding for Broadmoor and other special hospital patients changed radically in 1999, we of course want to establish the circumstances and see if any lessons can be learned. "In hindsight he should very obviously not have been appointed. Had anyone involved in the appointment been aware of allegations of abuse against Savile, we would not have expected him to have been appointed."
He added: "These are extremely disturbing allegations and we would expect any part of the NHS that is involved to cooperate fully with any investigation." The Guardian reported that Savile's appointment came in 1988, after the hospital's management board was dismissed by the then health secretary Ken Clarke.
However, Mr Clarke's special adviser said the Conservative MP, who was made health secretary in July 1988, had no recollection of this, and the appointment may not have been made when he was in his post.
Alan Franey, who was on the taskforce with Savile, said it was set up by the DoH following a critical report which said patients were too institutionalised and not offered enough care at Broadmoor.
The hospital now houses only male adult patients, but in the 80s accompanied children were allowed to visit relatives at the hospital. Mr Franey said that as a member of the taskforce, Savile would have been able to "come and go at the hospital as he pleased". "I am shocked at what I've heard and read. This is not my experience of Jimmy Savile who I met informally," he said.
In an interview with the BBC one former patient at Broadmoor said Savile had already been turned away by Rampton hospital in Nottinghamshire.
Steven George, who was known as Alison Pink while at the hospital and has since had a sex change, described how he felt after the abuse.
He said: "It was like another insult. I'm in a top security hospital and someone has got to me again. When does it stop?"
Mr George, who was released from Broadmoor in the 1990s when he was 38 years old, says he told the police about what had happened but they did not believe him and wrote down nothing about his allegations.
He said of the inquiries which have recently been launched: "It's the right action but it's a bit late."
Mr George, now 60, said he was "not in it for compensation" but just wanted the "enablers" brought to justice.
Janet Cope, 71, who was Savile's personal assistant for 30 years, said she visited Broadmoor with him, adding: "I knew he had the keys but didn't think anything of it."
She said of the continued claims: "I don't believe it, but I wasn't with him 24/7."
When the BBC asked the DoH to explain what Savile's role involved, how much access he had to patients, how he came to be appointed to the role and whether he had keys to the hospital, a spokeswoman said: "We have to wait for the police investigation to uncover the facts.
"This issue dates back to the late 80s and will take time to gather all the facts."
The Metropolitan Police said it was now in contact with 40 potential victims of Savile and continued to liaise with 14 police forces. The Met has officially recorded 12 allegations of sexual offences but expects this number to grow.
The BBC said it would not be able to comment on the claims while the police investigation was ongoing.
In separate developments:
Department of Health
West London Mental Health Trust
Metropolitan Police
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How the Delta variant took hold in the UK. VideoHow the Delta variant took hold in the UK | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | October 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Ugandan presidential candidate Kizza Besigye is released from prison. Besigye was arrested on November 14 on treason and rape charges. | Kampala - A Ugandan High Court judge on Monday ordered the immediate release on bail of jailed opposition leader Kizza Besigye, ruling that his continued detention despite an earlier similar order was illegal.
Justice John Bosco Katutsi, who was presiding over Besigye's criminal trials on rape and treason charges, said the state must comply with a November High Court decision that granted Besigye bail and suspended proceedings against him before a military tribunal.
Besigye, who was seen as the main rival to President Yoweri Museveni in elections next month, had denied all charges against him and said they were politically motivated.
Katutsi said: "The accused should be released forthwith unless he is being held on other charges." He spoke as he ruled on a defence motion that sought to force the government to release Besigye pending completion of his High Court rape and treason trials. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | January 2006 | ['(News24)'] |
Indonesian authorities discover debris from the submarine that went missing on Wednesday, as well as an oil spill off the island of Bali. In response, the navy declares the submarine's status changed from missing to sunk, and it also declares its 53 crew members to be dead. | Indonesian officials say debris from a missing submarine was found after the vessel sank as hopes of rescuing 53 sailors on board faded.
The search team on Sunday focused on pinpointing the sub’s exact location. Authorities warned any salvage operation would be risky and difficult in the deep waters.
Singapore’s MV Swift Rescue – a submarine rescue vessel – arrived to aid in the recovery effort, the navy said. Neighbouring Malaysia as well as the United States, India and Australia were among the nations helping in the search.
Items located from the stricken submarine included a bottle of lubricant and a device that protects a torpedo, Air Marshall Hadi Tjahjanto said.
“The objects found near the last location of the submarine are believed to be parts of the submarine,” he said. “These objects would have never got out of the submarine unless there was pressure.”
The submarine – one of five in Indonesia’s fleet – disappeared on Wednesday during live torpedo training exercises off the Indonesian holiday island of Bali.
Navy chief Yudo Margono said on Saturday that rescuers found several items, including parts of a torpedo straightener, a grease bottle believed to be used to oil the periscope, and prayer rugs from the submarine.
“With the authentic evidence we found believed to be from the submarine, we have now moved from the sub miss phase to sub sunk,” Margono said.
Indonesia earlier considered the submarine that disappeared off Bali as just missing. But now officials declared the submarine sank.
Authorities said it was unlikely that there was an explosion on board the submarine, Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington reported from the Indonesian capital Jakarta.
“In that event [an explosion], they would have heard it by now at this stage,” she said, adding that authorities were still exploring the possibilities for medical evacuations.
Officials also said the oxygen supply for its 53 crew ran out early on Saturday.
Margono said a scan had detected the submarine at 850 metres (2,788 feet), well beyond its survivable limits. The submarine is designed to withstand a depth of up to 500 metres (1,640 feet).
“If it’s an explosion it will be in pieces. The cracks happened gradually in some parts when it went down from 300 metres to 400 metres to 500 metres … If there was an explosion, it would be heard by the sonar,” said Margono, adding no bodies were found so far.
The military said it was preparing “to evacuate” the vessel.
“The submarine is found at a depth that is far beyond the crush depth of the boat. There’ll be no survivors at all, assuming that none of those on board managed to escape before it fell below the crush depth,” said Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore who specialises in naval affairs and maritime security.
“The evacuation they’re talking about, I surmise they’re referring likely to the eventual retrieval of the debris or whatever is left of the submarine that can be salvaged, with the hope of at least retrieving the remains of the crew,” Koh told Al Jazeera.
There have been no signs of life from the submarine, but family members have held out hope.
Berda Asmara, the wife of Second Sergeant Guntur Ari Prasetya, said she is still optimistic that her husband survived.
“Nothing is certain yet … The important thing is that we don’t stop praying and hopefully everyone will come home safely and in good health,” she told Al Jazeera.
The vessel was scheduled to conduct training exercises when it asked for permission to dive. It lost contact shortly after.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Sunday he sent his condolences to the families of the 53 crew.
“All of us Indonesians express our deep sorrow over this tragedy, especially to the families of the submarine crew,” he said.
The search focused on an area near the starting position of its last dive where an oil slick was found.
The cause of the disappearance is still uncertain. The navy has said an electrical failure could have left the submarine unable to execute emergency procedures to resurface.
The German-built diesel-powered KRI Nanggala-402 has been in service in Indonesia since 1981 and was carrying 49 crew members and three gunners as well as its commander, the Indonesian defence ministry said.
Indonesian navy’s retired rear admiral Frans Wuwung, who previously headed the submarine’s machinery room, said he believed a blackout was likely on the vessel.
“I hope my brothers will be found safe and well because they are professionals and they know what they are doing. But the ship can withstand a maximum depth of 300 metres, maybe 500. Any more than that and I don’t dare comment. May God bless them. I am so sorry,” he told Al Jazeera.
Frank Owen of the Submarine Institute of Australia told Al Jazeera that a flood was likely the reason for the sinking of the ship.
“Almost exclusively what causes a submarine to sink is taking on more water, then what the buoyancy can counteract,” he said via Skype from Canberra, Australia.
Aisyah Llewellyn and Reno Surya in Surabaya, Indonesia, contributed to this report
There has been no contact from the KRI Nanggala-402 and the 53 crew on board for more than 24 hours.
Officials say air supply of the submarine would last only until Saturday as search team spots ‘high magnetic force’.
As fears mount over the fate of the 53 missing submarine crew members, their families are refusing to give up hope.
German-built craft is equipped with enough oxygen that would last only until Saturday morning after losing power.
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We understand that your online privacy is very important and consenting to our collection of some personal information takes great trust. We ask for this consent because it allows Al Jazeera to provide an experience that truly gives a voice to the voiceless. | Shipwreck | April 2021 | ['(Jakarta Globe)', '(CBS News)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
The Community of the People wins Greenland's parliamentary election. | The left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit (Community of the People, IA) party has won Greenland's parliamentary elections, official results show.
The party ousted the Social Democratic Siumut Party, which has governed the territory for 30 years. With all districts counted, the IA had nearly 44% of the vote and Siumut just over 26%, the election commission said. IA will be the first party to govern the semi-autonomous Danish territory under an expanded home-rule agreement. IA leader Kuupik Kleist told supporters celebrating in the capital, Nuuk: "Greenland deserves this." Current Prime Minister Hans Enoksen had called the election early, after Greenland voters approved plans in November to give their government more powers. He said he had wanted to give islanders the chance to decide who would be leading them into the "new era". Under the new status, Greenlanders will be able to make decisions on most issues. But the authorities will continue to negotiate with Denmark on defence and foreign affairs. Correspondents say the polls were seen as a turning point in Greenland's path to partial independence from Denmark. | Government Job change - Election | June 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Former Rwandan administrator Dominique Ntawukulilyayo is given a 25–year sentence of imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda after being convicted of the transportation of soldiers during the Rwandan Genocide. | The United Nations tribunal for Rwanda has sentenced a Rwandan former official to 25 years in jail for his role in the 1994 genocide.
Dominique Ntawukulilyayo, 68, was accused of transporting soldiers to an area of the southern Gisagara district where Tutsis had taken refuge.
Thousands of people who had been promised protection were killed.
About 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu militias in 100 days during Rwanda's genocide.
Ntawukulilyayo was indicted by the indicted the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which is based in Tanzania, in 2005 and was arrested in December 2007 in Carcassonne in France.
He fought his extradition but transferred to the ICTR in June 2008. Ntawukulilyayo, who was the deputy administrator of Gisagara district during the genocide, was acquitted of other charges of complicity in genocide and direct and public incitement to commit genocide.
Ntawukulilyayo's lawyer told AFP news agency that he would appeal against the verdict.
"This ruling which was not reached unanimously opens the possibility that Dominique Ntawukulilyayo has high chances of getting an acquittal on appeal," Maroufa Diabira said.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Target announces that their chief executive and chairman, Gregg Steinhafel, has resigned. | It follows a difficult year for the retailer, which was the victim of a data breach that shook customer confidence and hurt profits.
Up to 70 million customers had payment card and personal data stolen from the company's databases in December.
Target's chief information officer, Beth Jacob, who oversaw Target's computer systems, resigned in March. In a statement, the US retailer said: "After extensive discussions, the board and Gregg Steinhafel have decided that now is the right time for new leadership at Target." Chief financial officer John Mulligan will take over as interim president and chief executive, the company added. Roxanne Austin, a current member of Target's board of directors, has been appointed as interim non-executive chair of the board.
The data breach cost Target $17m (£10m) and the firm said that it was overhauling its security systems. In March, the firm reported a 46% plunge in profits. It earned $520m in the three months to 1 February.
The company has already said that it can not estimate future expenses relating to the breach and has issued a profit warning for 2014.
It is being sued by at least 11 customers over the security breach. The lawsuits, each seeking class-action status, were filed in US courts.
At the end of April, Target announced that Bob DeRodes, who has 40 years' experience in information technology, was its new chief information officer.
At the time, Target said it was continuing its search for a chief information security officer and a chief compliance officer.
Mr Steinhafel joined Target as a trainee in 1979 and in a career spanning 35 years worked his way to the top.
He had been the firm's chief executive since 2008.
Target has struggled in recent years, partly because of a difficult expansion into Canada, but also growing competition from rivals. Under his leadership, Target began to expand into fresh groceries and also introduced a 5% discount to customers who used its branded debit and credit cards.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | May 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Attorney General of Israel Avichai Mandelblit orders a criminal investigation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged corruption in two different cases. | Israel’s attorney general has ordered police to open a criminal investigation into two unspecified matters involving the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Channel 10 television has said.
A spokeswoman for Israel’s justice ministry declined to respond to the report. Netanyahu has in the past denied wrongdoing in the purchase of submarines from Germany, where media have reported a potential conflict of interest involving his lawyer.
The Channel 10 report on Wednesday said one of the two cases that the attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, had been examining was not known to the public.
Netanyahu and his family have been subject to a series of allegations over the past two decades. In 1997, it was decided that there was not enough evidence to charge him over the appointment of an attorney general, though prosecutors said they had a “tangible suspicion” about Netanyahu’s role in the scandal.
According to the New York Times, Netanyahu reacted by saying that he had “erred in the making of the selection, but I did not commit any crime”. He added: “As far as I am concerned, and I think as far as the majority of the public in Israel is concerned, this affair is behind us.”
There followed a series of allegations about the use of public funds in the Netanyahu household. Israeli police recommended in 2000 that Netanyahu – then between his stints as prime minister – be charged with corruption over claims he and his wife, Sara, benefited from more than £60,000 in state gifts.
The attorney general refused, however, saying there were “difficulties with the evidence”, which was not sufficient for a trial.
Netanyahu admitted this year that he had accepted thousands of euros from Arnaud Mimran, who was later convicted of fraud and sentenced to eight years in prison.
And in May it was reported that Sara Netanyahu could face fraud charges over the management of the prime minister’s residence. The claims reportedly focused on whether the state was defrauded into paying for private expenses.
She and her husband’s office have denied any wrongdoing. It has been reported that prosecutors are still looking at the case. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | December 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, between the Syrian opposition and the Syrian Government, meant to build on a fragile ceasefire currently in effect in the Syrian Civil War, end with no breakthrough reported. | Rebel factions and representatives of the Syrian government joined peace talks in the Kazakh capital, Astana, that began on January 23. The negotiations, facilitated by Russia, Iran, and Turkey, were fraught from the beginning, with Syria's UN ambassador referring to the rebel fighters as terrorists.
The first day of talks aimed at solidifying the cease-fire in Syria’s civil war have ended in the Kazakh capital, Astana, with no breakthroughs reported.
Delegations from both the Syrian government and the opposition participated in the sessions on January 23 but did not address one another directly.
Yahya al-Aridi, the spokesman for the Syrian opposition at the talks, said his group met with the Russian and Turkish delegations in the presence of UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura to discuss details of a nationwide cease-fire.
Aleksandr Lavrentyev, the special representative of the Russian president at the talks, said the "intensity of emotions was rather high" but that the government representatives and the opposition delegation "refrained from any abrasive actions toward each other," Interfax reported.
"We think that the first day was rather successful," he added.
In their opening statements, the two sides differed markedly in their interpretation of the purpose of the current cease-fire. Government delegation head Bashar al-Jaafari said it was needed to separate those opposition groups interested in "the political process" from those affiliated with Islamic State or Al-Qaeda.
Opposition spokesman Muhammad Allush said the cease-fire should be the first step toward a political settlement "involving the departure of President Bashar al-Assad and the ruling gang." Allush also called for Iranian forces and Iran-backed militias to leave Syria.
Allush called for putting foreign militias fighting alongside Assad's army on the list of terrorist organizations. He said such groups include Lebanon's Hizballah.
He added that Syrian civilians were facing two forms of terror: "the terrorism of Bashar Assad" and the "terrorism of [Islamic State]," AP reported.
The talks are being facilitated by Russia, Iran, and Turkey, and are being monitored by the U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan and the UN special envoy on Syria, Staffan de Mistura.
Syrian National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar told AP that although Turkey was one of the sponsors of the talks, Ankara "still has a long way to prove its intentions," as it is still supporting Syrian opposition groups.
De Mistura told Interfax that he was optimistic the cease-fire can be secured throughout Syria if the parties can agree to a monitoring mechanism. He called for both sides to renounce the use of military means.
In an opening statement read out by Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev expressed hope the Astana meeting "will create the necessary conditions for all concerned parties to find a suitable solution to the Syrian crisis."
Russian news agency Interfax quoted an unnamed source as saying the Syrian government delegation was sitting with the Iranian representatives, while the opposition delegation was with their Turkish counterparts for the opening statements.
The talks are primarily aimed at bolstering a cease-fire agreement reached in December and at advancing the conflict-resolution process that has been proceeding in Geneva under UN auspices. The next session of the Geneva talks is set for February 8.
Russia and Turkey have backed opposing sides, with Moscow supporting Assad and Turkey backing rebels seeking his ouster. Moscow has given crucial diplomatic and military support to Assad throughout the six-year civil war and helped avert his government's possible defeat by launching a campaign of air strikes in September 2015. Russia and Turkey remain at odds over whether Assad should remain in power or step down, though Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Mehmet Simsek said on January 20 that it was no longer realistic for Turkey to "insist on a settlement without Assad."
The talks come at a time when the Syrian government is a strong position, having recaptured the eastern part of the city of Aleppo from rebels in December in an offensive backed by Russia.
Syrian opposition leaders say that consolidating the current cease-fire will be their main goal during talks, not Assad’s future.
"At this stage, we have one goal, which has been agreed upon by all the parties included," Osama Abu Zaid, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army, told Al Jazeera. "That is to consolidate the cease-fire. That is why we came here."
The Russia, Iranian, and Turkish representatives met on January 22 to draft a potential agreement for signing.
More than 300,000 people have been killed in Syria’s civil war, which followed a deadly government crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 2011, and about half of the country’s population has been displaced. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | January 2017 | ['(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)'] |
The King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, has been taken to hospital, overtly for tests; however, the BBC quotes an unofficial source who claims the King has water in his lungs. | The authorities say he is in good health after being admitted for tests in the capital, Riyadh, on Friday.
But some medical sources suggest the king is being treated for possible pneumonia following a bout of flu.
The BBC's Frank Gardner says there have been rumours about King Fahd's health before but the latest scare could be more serious.
In 1995 he suffered a stroke, and Crown Prince Abdullah has performed most of his functions since then.
Prince Abdullah is regarded as successor to the throne.
Opposition sources in London predict that if the king dies there may well be a power struggle against the ruling princes.
There is no change in the internal situation in Saudi Arabia. Everything is normal
Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi adviser
There is heavy security around Riyadh's King Faisal hospital. Saudi security sources said a number of princes from the ruling family have been arriving in the capital.
The royal palace has not given details of the king's symptoms.
On Saturday Reuters news agency quoted officials as saying he was stable following treatment to drain water from his lungs.
The health scare came as leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council were preparing to meet in Riyadh on Saturday.
Saudi TV showed Prince Abdullah speaking to leaders from Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, Reuters reported.
King Fahd, who is in his early 80s, has been little more than a titular leader since suffering his stroke.
However, he has remained an important figure in the region and the ultimate arbiter of Saudi policy.
Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil producer and has emerged from being an underdeveloped desert kingdom to become one of the wealthiest nations in the region.
On Wednesday, rumours of his failing health sent the value of Saudi stocks tumbling by 5%. | Famous Person - Sick | May 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
Teeth and bones from a range of animals, including hyenas, deer and rhinos, are discovered by archaeologists inside a cave in Devon, England. | Teeth and bones from late Ice Age animals, including hyenas, deer and woolly rhinos, have been discovered by archaeologists at a cave in Devon.
The dig at Kents Cavern, Torquay, also unearthed a 15,000-year-old spearpoint, known as a "sagaie", which is made from reindeer antler from the same era. The spearpoint is thought to be the first complete one found in the UK. The dig, organised by the University of Durham and the University of Sheffield, is part of a study into Neanderthals. Improve understanding
The team at the helm of the privately-funded dig is trying to discover exactly when and why Neanderthals became extinct. It is also hoping to discover when our own species first came to the UK and if it is connected to the death of Neanderthal Man, as well as finding out more about the nature of later Ice Age life in the cave. Some items found during the dig are sent away, after cleaning, for radiocarbon dating to accurately check their age. It is believed that the teeth and bones from the hyena could date back more than 25,000 years. Dr Paul Pettitt, senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Sheffield, said: "Our excavation is still in its early days but has already unearthed excellently-preserved fossils and a spearpoint of antler from the Ice Age. "Our research will dramatically improve our understanding of life between 10,000 and 50,000 years ago." Before the dig could go ahead, permission had to be sought from the government because Kents Cavern is the oldest recognisable human dwelling in Britain and is classed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. | New archeological discoveries | September 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
There are mass arrests in the United States and Italy in an antiMafia sweep including three suspected senior members of the Gambino crime family. | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Police in the United States and Italy arrested 77 suspected members of the Mafia on Thursday, including some of its most wanted leaders, for an array of crimes going back more than 30 years.
Big mafia roundup in New York
01:52
The three-year joint investigation sought to prevent organized crime in New York and Sicily from reuniting their drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations, officials in both countries said.
U.S. authorities rounded up 58 suspects with the help of an informant deep inside the Gambino crime family. Police said the source helped nail the three top Gambino members not already in jail.
A U.S. grand jury indicted 62 suspects with charges including murder, extortion, loan-sharking, gambling, cocaine and marijuana distribution, money laundering, bribing labor officials and embezzling union funds, U.S. and New York state officials said.
“Organized crime still exists,” New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo told a news conference. “We like to think it’s a vestige of the past. It’s not. It is as unrelenting as weeds that continue to sprout in the cracks in society.”
The U.S. investigation focused on the Gambino family once run by the late John Gotti. The indictment charges one Gambino family soldier, Charles Carneglia, with at least five murders dating to 1976.
Associates of the Genovese and Bonanno families were also arrested.
More than 300 Italian police were mobilized, mostly in Sicily, in an operation code-named “Old Bridge,” arresting 19 suspects and filing new allegations against four others already detained for separate crimes.
Italian prosecutors said the operation sought to block the re-establishment of the New York-Palermo axis, which ran drug trafficking in the 1980s.
“There was an attempt to rekindle ties between Cosa Nostra in Palermo and New York because the Sicilian Mafia wanted to get back into drug trafficking in a big way,” top anti-Mafia prosecutor Francesco Messineo told reporters in Rome.
The joint probe focused on the Inzerillo family, which was forced to leave Sicily in the 1980s after a Mafia turf war and rebased in the United States. They became known as “the runaways” and there was a split in the Sicilian Mafia over whether they should be allowed to return.
Among those arrested were suspects linked to Salvatore Lo Piccolo, who was arrested on November 5 in Sicily. He had become the new “boss of bosses” after the arrest in 2006 of Bernardo Provenzano, who had been on the run for 43 years.
Caretaker Prime Minister Romano Prodi praised what he called a “brilliant operation against organized crime.”
In what appeared to be a separate operation in Naples, police arrested a suspected leading figure of that southern city’s criminal underworld on Thursday.
Vincenzo Licciardi, 42, purportedly a boss of the Camorra crime group, was arrested in a Naples suburb. He had been on the run since 2004 and was one of Italy’s 30 most wanted criminals, police said.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | February 2008 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The Spanish government formally unveils plans to liberalise the country's abortion law. | Under the proposal approved by the cabinet, abortion would be made available on demand for the first time. Girls as young as 16 would be allowed to terminate a pregnancy without parental consent. Ministers say it is about "rights and respect" for women. The conservative opposition says young people may see abortion as a form of contraception. Spain's current law allows a pregnancy to be terminated in three circumstances - in the aftermath of a rape, when a foetus shows genetic defects, and when the health of the pregnant woman is at risk. The government's proposal is that abortion should be made available on demand during the first 14 weeks of a pregnancy. Ideological clash
The opposition has vowed to challenge the bill, arguing that it does not have broad support in Spanish society. The Catholic Church also opposes any change in the law, and has called on its followers to join an anti-abortion rally in Madrid next month. This is the latest ideological clash between Spain's Catholic right and a left-wing government, which has already legalised gay marriage and made it easier to get divorced. The existing abortion law was passed in 1985 - a decade after the death of General Franco. On paper, it appears strict. But in practice, many Spanish women have been able to secure abortions by arguing that pregnancy was endangering their mental health. | Government Policy Changes | September 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
The former President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, leaves the resort town of Sharm el–Sheikh, Egypt to return to Cairo for his trial. | An ailing, 83-year-old Hosni Mubarak, lying ashen-faced on a hospital bed inside a metal defendants cage with his two sons standing protectively beside him in white prison uniforms, pleaded innocent to charges of corruption and complicity in the killing of protesters at the start of his historic trial on Wednesday.
The spectacle, aired live on state television, was the biggest humiliation for Egypt's former president since his ouster nearly six months ago after an 18-day uprising.
But it went a long way to satisfy one of the key demands that has united protesters since February 11, the day he was toppled.
It was the first time Egyptians have seen Mubarak since Feb 10, when he gave a defiant TV address refusing to resign.
"I am delighted that I see them in a cage. I feel that my son's soul is finally starting to be at rest and that his blood will cool," said Saeeda Hassan Abdel-Raouf, the mother of a 22-year-old protester killed in the uprising.
In the courtroom, a prosecutor read the charges against Mubarak - that he was an accomplice along with his then-interior minister in the "intentional and premeditated murder of peaceful protesters" and that he and his sons received gifts from a prominent businessman in return for guaranteeing him a lowered price in a land deal with the state.
"Yes, I am here," Mubarak said, raising his hand slightly when the judge asked him to identify himself and enter a plea.
"I deny all these accusations completely," he said.
Mubarak was wheeled into the defendant's cage on a hospital bed, a sheet pulled up to his chest. Though he was pale and his eyes were ringed with red, he appeared alert and aware of what was going on.
He showed little discernible emotion. With him in the cage were his nine co-defendants, including his two sons - one-time heir apparent Gamal and wealthy businessman Alaa - his former interior minister Habib el-Adly, and six top former police officials.
From time to time, Mubarak craned his head to see the proceedings. Other times, he crooked his elbow over his face as if in exhaustion.
Defendants are traditionally held in cages during trials in Egypt. About an hour after the session began, there was a recess and the defendants were led out of the cage.
Up to the last minute, many Egyptians had doubted that Mubarak would actually appear at the trial.
There was scepticism that he would show up at the trial up until the moment early Wednesday when Mubarak was taken from his hospital room in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to a military plane that flew him to a military airport in Cairo.
From there, he was transferred by helicopter to the police academy where the trial was held.
Mubarak has been living in Sharm since he was ousted and has been under arrest in a hospital there since April, reportedly suffering from heart problems. Doctors have reported that he is growing increasingly depressed.
In February, as protests raged around him, Mubarak vowed he would die on Egyptian soil.
The last time Egyptians saw him, he appeared on state TV, handing most of his powers to his vice president but refusing to resign. He proclaimed he was "adamant to continue to shoulder my responsibility."
The next day, his resignation was announced and Mubarak fled to a palatial residence in Sharm el-Sheikh. The ruling generals who took power from him - and who were all appointed by Mubarak before the uprising - appeared reluctant to prosecute him, but protests flared anew, pressuring action.
In April, Mubarak was moved to a Sharm el-Sheikh hospital and put under arrest while his sons and former cronies were held in Cairo's Torah Prison.
The prosecution is an unprecedented moment in the Arab world, the first time a modern Mideast leader has been put on trial fully by his own people.
Mubarak, el-Adly, and six top police officers are charged in connection with the killings of protesters. All eight could face the death penalty if convicted. The charge sheet said that Mubarak "allowed (el-Adly) to use live ammunition" in the crackdown on protesters. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2011 | ['(AFP via The Melbourne Age)'] |
New Jersey becomes the third U.S. state to offer civil unions to homosexual couples, including all the rights and responsibilities of heterosexual marriage. | TEANECK, N.J., Feb. 19 — Just after the stroke of midnight, Steven Goldstein and Daniel Gross reaffirmed their civil union vows here and ushered in a new era for same-sex couples in New Jersey.
The brief ceremony officiated by State Senator Loretta Weinberg and attended by family, friends and a crush of news media was believed to have been the first after civil unions for gay couples were permitted under state law.
| Government Policy Changes | February 2007 | ['(NY Times)'] |
CNN's veteran Middle East editor Octavia Nasr writes on Twitter that she "respected" the recently deceased Lebanese Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah. The comment is deleted from Twitter and Nasr is promptly sacked by CNN. | CNN has sacked a veteran Middle East editor after she wrote on Twitter that she "respected" a late senior Lebanese cleric said to have inspired Hezbollah.
A CNN official said Octavia Nasr was leaving the US TV news network because her credibility had been "compromised".
Nasr has described her 140-character remarks about Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who died on Sunday, as an "error of judgement".
She said she had been referring to his "pioneering" views on women's rights.
Ayatollah Fadlallah, Lebanon's top Shia Muslim cleric, died at the age of 74. He was customarily described as the spiritual leader of the militant movement Hezbollah when it was formed in 1982 - a claim both he and the group denied.
Ms Nasr was CNN's senior editor of Middle East affairs and had been with the network for two decades, largely in an off-camera role.
After hearing of Ayatollah Fadlallah's death, she wrote on the micro-blogging site Twitter: "Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah... One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot."
In a blog post on Tuesday, she wrote: "Reaction to my tweet was immediate, overwhelming and provides a good lesson on why 140 characters should not be used to comment on controversial or sensitive issues, especially those dealing with the Middle East."
The offending Twitter post now appears to have been deleted.
. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | July 2010 | ['(BBC News)', '(The Australian)'] |
Winter storms will return to the United Kingdom with flood warnings in place for parts of Gloucestershire, Berkshire, Surrey and Somerset. | Thousands of sandbags are being piled up to protect homes and businesses as more heavy rain and gale-force winds sweep across southern Britain.
With river levels expected to rise, the Environment Agency has made 30,000 sandbags available to properties near the Thames in Berkshire and Surrey.
Princes William and Harry have helped pile sandbags in Datchet, Berkshire.
All train services west of Plymouth are cancelled for the rest of the day, and there will be no replacement buses.
First Great Western said coach companies had refused to run rail replacement services in Cornwall due to the "unsafe" conditions.
In Wales, more than 16,000 properties remain without power following Wednesday's winds of up to 112mph.
A man has died in hospital after being hit by a falling tree in his garden in Gwynedd during Wednesday's storm.
The Environment Agency has issued 24 severe flood warnings covering parts of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Berkshire and Surrey.
The latest warnings are for various places along the south coast of England.
The Met Office said that following the heavy rain that had fallen in many places during the day, it expected "potentially damaging" severe gales in southern England during the evening and into Saturday morning.
Snow has started falling in parts of northern England, Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland.
BBC Weather's Peter Gibbs said that with gusts of up to 80mph likely, there was a danger of high tides bringing fresh coastal flooding. The weather is expected to gradually improve on Saturday, the Met Office says, leaving a better day on Sunday and "less intense" showers on Monday.
The Environment Agency said flood levels on the Thames had "stabilised in the last 24 hours", but the latest rainfall would cause levels to rise again and stay high for several days.
Programme director Peter Willison said: "This remains a very live event. I expect we will see further property flooding."
Alex Tribick from the Spelthorne Business Forum in Surrey said the local currency had "changed from the pound to the sandbag".
Earlier, Prime Minister David Cameron said the government would "fight at every front to help people" hit by floods.
He said money would be no object in a "massive national effort", saying: "I want people to know that the government absolutely stands behind this relief effort."
In other developments: An amber warning for rain in the South West has now expired, but an amber warning for wind and yellow warnings for rain, wind and snow have been issued, covering much of the UK in the coming hours.
Gusts could reach up to 85mph, while more snow is expected on high ground in Wales, northern England, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The Energy Networks Association said electricity had been restored to 572,291 properties across the UK since Wednesday's storms, but 16,092 homes, mostly in north Wales, remained cut off.
Some parts of the Somerset Levels have been flooded for several weeks, while areas near the Thames in Berkshire and Surrey have seen major flooding in recent days.
As well as the 24 severe flood warnings, the Environment Agency has issued more than 400 less serious flood warnings and alerts, mostly in southern England and the Midlands.
In addition to the cancellation of all trains in Cornwall, there is widespread disruption on UK railways and Network Rail is advising customers to check before travelling.
Some roads are closed because of flooding. See BBC Travel News for more.
Meanwhile, a Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado jet has captured detailed aerial pictures of areas affected by the floods.
High-resolution imagery captured from the aircraft, deployed from RAF Marham, in Norfolk, will help in the planning of relief operations.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said: "This Tornado-borne surveillance capability is very much proven in a combat role in Afghanistan but its versatility is underlined by its use today, here at home, to support ongoing flood relief efforts." | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | February 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
A bomb hits a mosque in Ghazni, Afghanistan, killing two and wounding over 40. | At least two people were killed in an explosion inside a mosque in the central province of Ghazni on Friday evening, local officials confirmed. The explosion happened when worshipers were busy in evening prayers, the provincial governor’s spokesman Arif Noori said.
He said that 20 others were wounded in the explosion which was as a resulted of an embedded explosive device inside the Mohammadiya mosque in Khak-e-Ghariban area in the city of Ghazni.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Ghazni has recently witnessed heavy clashes between government forces and the Taliban. Last month, the Afghan forces retook the control of Deh Yak district in the province which was under the Taliban influence for almost two years.
The provincial governor’s spokesman said that one child and a man was killed in the blast.
| Armed Conflict | July 2019 | ['(Tolo News)'] |
IBM Roadrunner, once the world's fastest supercomputer, is decommissioned. | Created to monitor the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, the IBM supercomputer was the first to break the petaflop barrier.
Four years ago, Roadrunner was the world's fastest supercomputer. But it has lost a step on today's speed leaders and will be shut down today in preparation for dismantling.
Created in 2008 to monitor the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, the IBM supercomputer was the first system to break the petaflop barrier, hitting 1.026 petaflops shortly after its installation at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. (1 petaflop is equal to a quadrillion, or one thousand trillion, calculations per second.) It would ultimately sit atop of the Top500 supercomputers list three times.
In its five years of operation, the Roadrunner was the "workhorse" behind the National Nuclear Security Administration's Advanced Simulation and Computing program, providing key computer simulations for the Stockpile Stewardship Program.
"Roadrunner exemplified stockpile stewardship: an excellent team integrating complex codes with advanced computing architectures to ensure a safe, secure and effective deterrent," Chris Deeney, NNSA assistant deputy administrator for Stockpile Stewardship, said in a statement. "Roadrunner and its successes have positioned us well to weather the technology changes on the HPC horizon as we implement stockpile modernization without recourse to underground testing."
Based on the IBM QS22 blades and x86 chips from Advanced Micro Devices, the $121 million Roadrunner was the world's first hybrid supercomputer. In total, Roadrunner took up 278 refrigerator-size server racks, connecting 6,562 dual-core AMD Opteron and 12,240 Cell chips -- advanced versions of the same processor that powers Sony's PlayStation 3.
"Roadrunner was a truly pioneering idea," Gary Grider, of the Laboratory's High Performance Computing Division, said in a statement. "Roadrunner got everyone thinking in new ways about how to build and use a supercomputer. Specialized processors are being included in new ways on new systems, and being used in novel ways. Our demonstration with Roadrunner caused everyone to pay attention."
While Roadrunner is still one of the world's 30 fastest supercomputers, advances in chip design have left it behind. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Titan supercomputer is currently the speed leader, clocking in at 17.59 petaflops per second. Built by Cray, the system is composed of 18,688 nodes, with each containing a 16-core AMD Opteron processor and an Nvidia Tesla GPU.
In addition to Roadrunner's weapons-monitoring duties, it also helped map the HIV genetic tree and simulated the Big Bang in an attempt to better understand dark matter, calculating the physics behind 64 billion proto-galaxies, each about the size of a billion of our suns.
Before Roadrunner is dismantled, researchers will have about a month to perform experiments on the operating system's memory compression techniques to aid design of future supercomputers.
"Even in death, we are trying to learn from Roadrunner," Grider said. "These are things we never could try while Roadrunner was running production problems."
| Break historical records | March 2013 | ['(CNET)'] |
Three Turkish ministers resign amid a corruption scandal involving bribery in the awarding of construction projects. | One of three Turkish cabinet ministers who have resigned over a corruption scandal, Environment Minister Erdogan Bayraktar, has urged Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to step down.
Mr Bayraktar, Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan and Interior Minister Muammer Guler quit after their sons were taken into custody.
All three deny any wrongdoing.
Police are investigating allegations of illicit money transfers to Iran and bribery for construction projects.
All three ministers had appeared with Mr Erdogan in front of a crowd of supporters on Tuesday night on his return to Esenboga airport in Ankara from a trip to Pakistan.
In a telephone interview with NTV television, Mr Bayraktar complained of being put under pressure to resign by Mr Erdogan.
He insisted that "a great proportion" of construction projects that were under investigation were approved by the prime minister himself, adding: "I want to express my belief that the esteemed prime minister should also resign."
In a further blow to Mr Erdogan, MP and former interior minister Idris Naim Sahin said he was resigning from the ruling AK Party.
Mr Erdogan was reportedly meeting the president late on Wednesday with details of his new cabinet.
The sons of Mr Caglayan and Mr Guler, along with the chief executive officer of the state-run bank Halkbank, are among 24 people who have been arrested on bribery charges.
Mr Bayraktar's son was detained as part of the inquiry but later released from custody.
Media reports say police seized $4.5m (£2.75m; 3.29m euros) in cash that was stashed in shoe boxes in the home of the bank's CEO, while more than $1m in cash was reportedly discovered in the home of Mr Guler's son, Baris.
Mr Erdogan has denounced the corruption probe as a plot by foreign and Turkish forces to discredit his government ahead of local elections in March.
But he said his ruling party would not try to sweep the allegations under the carpet.
"The AK Party does not overlook or tolerate corruption. If it does, it will have removed its raison d'etre," Mr Erdogan told a meeting of his party in the capital, Ankara.
Commentators believe the scandal stems from a power struggle between Mr Erdogan's government and an influential US-based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who is said to have many followers within Turkey's police and judiciary.
Mr Gulen, who has denied any involvement in the investigation, left Turkey in 1999 after being accused by the then government of plotting to establish an Islamic state. He was cleared of that charge but has never returned to Turkey and now lives in Pennsylvania. The government has dismissed dozens of police officials who were either involved in the investigation or thought to be linked to Mr Gulen.
Journalists have been prevented from entering police buildings, leading to claims that the government is trying to impede the investigation.
The opposition had long called for Mr Caglayan and Mr Guler to resign, saying they should not remain in positions where they would be able to influence the investigation.
As he resigned on Wednesday, Mr Caglayan questioned the legitimacy of the investigation. "It is clear that the operation is a dirty conspiracy against our government, our party and our country,'' he said in a statement.
"I am leaving my position at the economy ministry to spoil this ugly plot, which has involved my colleagues and my son, and to allow for the truth to be exposed.''
Mr Guler told reporters on Tuesday that he was the victim of a political plot and that there is nothing his family could not account for.
He also said alleged wiretap recordings of a conversation with his son - reportedly used as evidence by police for the arrests - were tampered with, and that the cash discovered in his son's house was money earned from the sale of a villa.
Clashes as Turkey PM condemns 'plot'
Turkey PM decries 'dirty probe plot'
Erdogan's threat from wounded ally
Profile: Hizmet
Sons of Turkish ministers arrested
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | December 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
The death toll of eastern Turkey's recent earthquake reaches 366, as emergency services continue to search the rubble of Van for survivors. | Earthquake rescuers in eastern Turkey have pulled a two-week-old girl from the wreckage of an apartment building, freeing her from the arms of her mother, who was still trapped.
The baby, named as Azra Karaduman, was freed from the rubble in the town of Ercis, which was badly hit by the quake. Her mother, Semiha, had been clasping her daughter to her chest.
Television footage showed orange-clad rescuers clapping as the naked infant was carried from the rubble. She was wrapped in a blanket and passed to doctors.
Several hours later the mother, who had been pinned down next to a sofa, was freed, and the child's grandmother was also believed to be alive. Azra's father was thought to be inside the building and it was not known if he had survived.
"I am so excited. What can I say? Let God help them," Azra's other grandmother, Sevim Yigit, said as the infant was rescued.
Two days after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake, however, such success stories are growing rare. A total of 366 people are now known to have died in Van province, near the Iranian border, according to Turkey's disaster and emergency administration. More than 2,200 buildings were destroyed, many of them in the worst-affected zone near Ercis.
Van, the much bigger provincial capital about 60 miles to the south, was also affected by the earthquake, but most of the remaining rescue efforts are concentrated in Ercis.
Another point of media focus in the town has been nine-year-old Oguz Isler, who was pulled on Sunday from another toppled apartment building, where his aunt had lived. Since then he has been outside the wrecked building awaiting news of his parents and other relatives who remain buried inside.
"They should send more people," he said, being comforted by an aunt. The boy had been trapped with his sister and a cousin on a third-floor stairwell as they tried to escape when the quake hit. A steel door fell over him.
He said: "I fell on the ground face down. When I tried to move my head, it hit the door. I tried to get out and was able to open a gap with my fists in the wall but could not move my body further.
"The wall crumbled quickly when I hit it. We started shouting, 'help! we're here'. They found us a few hours later, they took me out about eight-and-a-half hours later." The sister and cousin were also pulled out alive.
Initially there was criticism about the speed of the emergency response, but it now appears to be operating well. The country is used to earthquakes and revamped its response following a severe quake in the north-west in 1999 which killed more than 17,000 people.
Another part of the operation is the provision of emergency shelter to tens of thousands of people whose homes have been destroyed or rendered unsafe amid the regular aftershocks.
"It is a very urgent situation," said Hakki Erskoy, a disaster manager for the Turkish Red Crescent, adding that his organisation was dealing with 40,000 homeless people. "Right now, we are facing a race against time to provide shelter for people."
The organisation has set up tented relief camps in two stadiums in Ercis, and distributed tents to those who prefer to remain near their homes. It was also handing out supplies such as blankets, sleeping bags and heaters.
Some significant relief efforts were being organised via social media such as Twitter and Facebook.
Erhan Çelik, a journalist for Turkey's Kanal 7 TV station, passed to his 22,000 Twitter followers an appeal for people to offer accommodation to those made homeless. Within a few hours, he said, he had received 17,000 emails in response. | Earthquakes | October 2011 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Venezuela's democratic opposition wins the Sakharov Prize, the European Union's top human rights award. | The opposition in Venezuela and the country's political prisoners have won the European Union's top human rights award, the Sakharov prize.
The president of the European Union Parliament , Antonio Tajani, said many people in Venezuela had been deprived of their fundamental freedoms. He called the president a "dictator" and said: "We cannot remain silent."
The freedom of thought prize is awarded annually in memory of Andrei Sakharov, a Soviet scientist and dissident.
Venezuela is mired in a deep political and economic crisis which has left the South American country deeply polarised between supporters of the socialist government headed by President Nicolas Maduro, and its opponents.
More than 120 people were killed in protest-related violence during a spate of anti-government demonstrations earlier this year.
Announcing the recipients of the prize, Mr Tajani said that "we must defend democracy, freedom and human rights". "And, for that reason, we have decided to award the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to the democratic opposition, recalling our total support for the National Assembly of Venezuela - a democratically-elected parliament - the only parliament democratically elected," Mr Tajani said.
Mr Tajani was referring to the current stand-off between Venezuela's National Assembly, dominated by opposition parties, and the constituent assembly, made up exclusively of government supporters.
The latter is a "superbody" and its powers trump those of the executive and legislative.
The constituent assembly has been controversial from the start with critics of Mr Maduro denouncing it as a way to bypass the opposition-dominated National Assembly.
While the Sakharov Prize praised the National Assembly for its "exceptional contribution to the fight for human rights", the prize is unlikely to change the government's attitude towards the opposition-controlled body.
The government routinely dismisses criticism by international bodies as "meddling" or lies.
In September, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza accused the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights of lying after the office published a report highlighting the excessive use of force by Venezuelan security forces at anti-government protests.
The Sakharov Prize also praised the role of political prisoners in Venezuela and those protesting for freedom. The European Parliament said in a statement that it wanted to "express its proximity to and pay tribute to the Venezuelan people: to all those who have been unjustly jailed for expressing their opinion, to those struggling to survive on a daily basis because of a brutal regime, to those families in mourning because they have lost loved ones in months of uninterrupted protests for freedom."
The €50,000-prize ($58,000; £45,000) will be awarded on 13 December in Strasbourg.
Last year's prize was awarded to two Yazidi women who escaped sexual enslavement by so-called Islamic State (IS) in Iraq.
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Dylann Roof, the suspect in the murder of nine people in the American city of Charleston, South Carolina, is indicted on dozens of federal offenses including hate crimes. | Man suspected of killing nine black churchgoers in Charleston indicted by federal grand jury on dozens of charges, some of which carry the death penalty
The 21-year-old man suspected of killing nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, has been indicted on dozens of federal charges, US attorney general Loretta Lynch announced on Wednesday.
Lynch said a federal grand jury indicted Roof on 33 hate crime charges, including murder and attempted murder, stemming from what she described as a months-long plot to kill African Americans at worship in a black church. Roof could face the death penalty as a result of the charges, though Lynch said prosecutors have not decided whether to seek the punishment. “Racially motivated violence such as this is the original domestic terrorism,” said Lynch, while praising the families of the Emanuel AME shooting victims as pillars of “true grace”.
“On that summer evening, [Roof] found his target: African Americans engaged in worship,” said Lynch. “Met with welcome by the ministers of the church and its parishioners, he joined them in their Bible study group. The parishioners had Bibles. Dylann Roof has his gun, eight magazines loaded with hollow-point bullets. While the parishioners were engaged in Bible study, Dylann Roof drew his pistol and opened fire.”
The grand jury indicted Roof under two separate federal hate crimes statutes, Lynch said, specifically citing the 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
The charges are in addition to murder and weapons charges he already faces at the county level. Both the federal and state charges can include the death penalty, though no decision has yet been made on whether to seek Roof’s execution.
Roof is accused of entering the Emanuel AME church in Charleston on 17 June and sitting through an hour of Bible study before fatally shooting nine people and fleeing. He was captured 240 miles away in Shelby, North Carolina.
In addition to evidence gathered at the scene and photos in which he appears waving a Confederate flag, authorities also suspect Roof is the author of a widely cited racist screed, published on a website called the Last Rhodesian, a reference to the now-defunct African nation whose leader was openly racist.
The federal charges come as Roof faces nine counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder and a weapons charge in Charleston County, counts on which South Carolina prosecutors could choose to seek the death penalty. Roof cannot be charged with hate crimes in state court, however South Carolina is among just five states, including the southern states of Georgia and Arkansas, that have no hate crimes laws. A hate crime is not a distinct federal offense, but rather an existing criminal offense that is motivated by bias, such as alleged racial bias in Roof’s case. The FBI often helps local jurisdictions investigate these acts, such as arson or murder. That evidence may be used to bring civil rights charges against a defendant, under the US Justice Department’s purview. The FBI looks at hate crime prosecutions as a “backstop” to prosecutions by local law enforcement. In 2012, the FBI helped investigate more than 200 hate crimes, the agency said on its website. Nationally, almost 6,000 hate crimes were reported to local law enforcement agencies in 2013, according to the FBI. That is the most recent year for which data is available. However, it’s unclear how reliable this data is.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2015 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
At least 14 people are killed at a religious site in Bambari, Central African Republic, amid clashes between armed groups and security forces. | Rights group calls for investigation amid clashes between Central African Republic security forces and armed groups.
At least 14 people have been killed at a religious site in the Central African Republic (CAR) amid clashes between armed groups and security forces, according to material gathered by rights group Amnesty International.
Following the analysis of satellite images, testimonies and photographs, Amnesty International published a report on Thursday detailing an attack that took place on February 16 in Bambari, CAR’s fifth biggest town, located in the centre of the country, 380 kilometres (236 miles) from the capital Bangui.
Since January President Faustin-Archange Touadéra’s government has gone on the offensive following a resurgence in violence ahead of presidential and legislative elections held on December 27. Six armed groups joined forces under the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) to stop the elections from taking place while occupying several towns.
Crisis Evidence Lab, set up to help fact-finding human rights organisations, received one video showing at least 14 bodies laying on the floor of a religious site in the east of the city following an attack that took place a day before the government said it had “completely liberated” the town from armed groups.
While the video did not provide enough information to assess the identity of the victims, parts of it showed they were not wearing military clothes and that a woman and a child were among the dead.
The footage showed the building had been damaged by explosives and bullets, with the wounds on at least three of the bodies also consistent with such an attack, Amnesty said.
Amnesty also said “many people” have been displaced in the southeastern city of Bangassou while humanitarian aid into the country was blocked.
The human rights group is calling for an independent investigation into the documented violence.
“In a country where conflict has been raging for two decades, the authorities must now clearly prioritise the protection of human rights and the fight against impunity for those who violate them,” said Abdoulaye Diarra, Amnesty International Central Africa researcher.
“An important first step is to open independent investigations into the violations and abuses documented,” he added.
The escalation of violence has led to a deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the mineral-rich country. At least 2.8 million people, more than half of the country’s population, need aid and protection, according to the United Nations.
On Tuesday, UNICEF said the surge in fighting has put education on hold for 50 percent of the children across the country.
The resulting war divided the country of almost five million people largely along religious and ethnic lines, with the ensuing chaos creating a hotchpotch of armed groups that still control large swathes of territory.
Bozize fled abroad after being toppled in 2013. He returned in late 2019 but was barred from running in the December 27 vote. President Touadéra has claimed the six armed groups acted in concert with the former president.
Touadéra won re-election in the first round of the polls, according to official figures, but the turnout was just 35 percent as many voters were unable to cast their ballot.
Bozize denies giving any support to the six groups, but the government on January 4 launched an inquiry into him for “rebellion”.
| Armed Conflict | February 2021 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
A worker at a Foxconn subsidiary undergoes a fatal fall from a dormitory building in Foshan, Guangdong. | BEIJING—A worker at an affiliate of technology giant Foxconn died Tuesday in south China after falling from a dorm building, state media said, after a spate of similar deaths hit the Taiwanese firm this year.
Foxconn -- which assembles Apple's iPhone -- has seen a series of suicides in its Chinese plants this year that has put the spotlight on conditions for millions of factory workers in the "workshop of the world".
A total of 11 Chinese employees have committed suicide this year at Foxconn plants by jumping from buildings, including 10 in the southern city of Shenzhen.
It was unclear whether the latest death was also suicide.
The official Xinhua news agency said the 18-year-old fell from the sixth floor of a building belonging to Chimei Innolux Corp.
Co-workers said the young man was an intern from the northern province of Hebei and had only started the summer job in Foshan city last month, the report said.
Xinhua said the local government and police had confirmed the death and a manager at Foxconn in Shenzhen, which is not far from Foshan, also verified the information. The cause of death is being investigated.
A spokeswoman for Chimei told Dow Jones Newswires that the worker was not directly employed by the firm but by an outsourced human resources company.
Labor rights activists have blamed suicides at Foxconn -- the world's largest maker of computer components and a supplier to leading brands such as Dell and Nokia -- on tough working conditions in its factories.
But company founder Terry Gou has said none of the suicides was directly work-related and that he was cleared by Chinese authorities of any wrongdoing in the period up to the suicides.
Foxconn, which employs an estimated 400,000 workers in Shenzhen alone, has reacted to the suicides by giving its staff there a pay rise of 67 percent, to 2,000 yuan (around 290 US dollars) a month, effective from October 1.
The company has also announced it will upgrade dormitories in Shenzhen in a bid to prevent more suicides.
| Famous Person - Death | July 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Philippine Daily Inquirer)', '(Reuters India)', '(The Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
Five people are confirmed dead and three injured following an accidental rocket explosion on a naval test range near Severodvinsk, Russia on Thursday August 8th. The rocket used an experimental nuclear isotope liquid fuel source, causing a brief localized spike in radiation. 9500 nearby residents were evacuated. | Five people were killed and three injured following a rocket explosion on an Arctic naval test range in Russia on Thursday, state nuclear company Rosatom confirmed. Rosatom said the accident occurred during tests on a liquid propellant rocket engine. The three injured staff members suffered serious burns in the accident. Authorities had previously said that two people died and six were injured in the blast at the site in Nyonoksa. The company told Russian media that its engineering and technical team had been working on the "isotope power source" for the propulsion system. The Nyonoksa site carries out tests for virtually every missile system used by the Russian navy, including sea-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and anti-aircraft missiles.
Authorities in Severodvinsk, 47km (29 miles) east of Nyonoksa said that radiation levels shortly after the blast were higher than normal for about 40 minutes but returned to normal. Locals have rushed to buy medical iodine, with pharmacies' stocks of iodine reported to be running out in the cities of Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk. The rush for iodine was reported earlier by a news website for the Arkhangelsk region, 29.ru.
It also said medics who evacuated the injured at Nyonoksa wore chemical and nuclear protection suits.
There was a rush on iodine stocks during the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, which sent a huge plume of radiation across Europe.
On Thursday the Severodvinsk administration reported a 40-minute spike in radiation, which reached 2 microsieverts per hour, then fell back to the normal 0.11 microsieverts. Both levels are too small to cause radiation sickness.
The administration has now deleted its statement online about the spike. The BBC asked officials there why, and they said "because this incident comes under the authority of the defence ministry".
The defence ministry insisted that "there have been no harmful chemicals released into the atmosphere, the radiation levels are normal".
It is the second accident involving Russia's military this week.
On Monday, one person was killed and eight others were injured in a blaze at an ammunition dump in Siberia.
Flying munitions damaged a school and a kindergarten in the area. More than 9,500 people were evacuated. Russians buy up iodine in rocket radiation scare
'Brief radiation spike' after explosion in Russia
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.
UK Covid infections continue rise, driven by Delta
Tokyo Olympics: No fans is 'least risky' option
Asia's Covid stars struggle with exit strategies
Why residents of these paradise islands are furious
The Gurkha veterans fighting for Covid care. VideoThe Gurkha veterans fighting for Covid care
Troubled US teens left traumatised by tough love camps
Why doesn't North Korea have enough food?
Le Pen set for regional power with eye on presidency
How the Delta variant took hold in the UK. VideoHow the Delta variant took hold in the UK | Military Exercise | August 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
Negotiators from the United States Senate and House of Representatives reach a budget agreement. | Congressional negotiators signed off Thursday evening on a $1 trillion spending agreement for 2012 for federal agencies, barely 27 hours before a deadline that could have led to a government shutdown. After dropping minor policy prescriptions that President Obama opposed, members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees gave final approval to the plan after a four-day standoff related to Obama’s demands to extend the payroll tax holiday for 160 million workers.
That negotiation, lawmakers and aides said, also could be headed toward an agreement, with lawmakers considering extending the $120 billion tax break for two months to buy more time to determine how they offset the benefit’s cost so it does not add to the federal deficit.
The White House initially had pushed Congress to delay the spending plan until the issue of the payroll tax was resolved, a move that raised the specter of a government shutdown and threatened to increase workers’ withholding tax at the start of the new year. Linking the two measures only complicated the negotiations, however, and Republicans did not give in to Obama’s demands on how to set up the payroll tax provision. With the holiday season upon them, some aides suggested that lawmakers’ exhaustion and eagerness to leave the embattled Capitol for several weeks served as key factors in reaching the deals. Next year’s session will begin in late January. “In spite of many unnecessary obstacles, it is good to see that responsible leadership and good governance can triumph,” House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) said Thursday night, referring to the spending plan. The legislation will provide the full funding for the rest of fiscal 2012 for most of the government, including the Pentagon, the Education Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. Now that the spending deal has been clinched — votes are expected in both chambers Friday — the payroll tax issue remains the last fight for the acrimonious first session of the 112th Congress, one that has been marked by repeated brinkmanship. After several days of trading blame on both issues, there was a broad shift in tone Thursday morning in negotiations on the tax plan. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) predicted the impasse would be resolved soon. And House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told everyone to “step back and take a deep breath.”
“I think there’s an easy way to untangle all of this,” Boehner said. “We just need to let the members do their jobs, and we need to let the two institutions do their work.”
Talks on the payroll tax holiday lasted deep into Thursday night. They had picked up steam 24 hours earlier, when Democrats dropped their demand that the cut be paid for with a new surtax on those who earn more than $1 million a year.
“Yeah, that’s gone,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) confirmed Thursday evening. Baucus, who is negotiating the tax package for Democrats, continued pushing to complete a year-long extension of the payroll tax provision, coupled with extended unemployment benefits and an important tweak to the Medicare reimbursement rate for doctors. “There’s momentum building toward a comprehensive agreement, but still there are a lot of pieces to put together,” Baucus said. But senior Democratic and Republican aides said an agreement had been secured to at least continue the tax break for two months, at a cost of $40 billion. Among the ideas being considered to pay for the cut, aides said, were raising fees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac collect from lenders and ending a tax break on the sale of corporate jets.
Extending the payroll tax cut has become politically critical for Obama, the only major piece of his roughly $450 billion jobs plan that is likely to win approval. As part of a separate tax deal a year ago, the federal withholding tax dropped from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent in 2011, which gave the average worker an extra $1,000, and the president has argued that continuing the holiday for another year would help steady the economy. In exchange for agreeing to that extension, Republicans continued to insist on concessions intended to lure votes from conservatives who say the tax holiday is bad economic policy. Their most important demands were speeding up approval of the construction of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, reforms to unemployment insurance, higher Medicare premiums for upper-income seniors and a year-long extension of a two-year pay freeze for federal workers. Baucus said one consideration was to link the eligibility period of unemployment benefits to the level of joblessness in each state. Republicans remained publicly quiet about the proposal to temporarily extend the tax break, but one senior GOP adviser noted that it would lead to two more months of Republicans pushing for the oil pipeline.
The hardball tactic of linking tax-holiday negotiations — as well as jobless benefits — to the completion of the must-pass spending bill irritated some Democrats who had worked with Republicans for months to reach the appropriations deal.
Rep. James P. Moran (D-Va.), who sits on the key committee, said some Democrats had told the White House that “they should not be using federal employees as pawns in a larger issue.”
“I don’t blame them for trying to use every means available to them,” he said. “But I just don’t think that it’s right.” While seeking leverage on the tax dispute, the White House also expressed lingering concerns about some of the policy items in the spending bill, including restrictions on travel to Cuba and a minor provision related to oversight of financial trades. The spending agreement Thursday eliminated language that would have limited trips to Cuba to once every three years for those with family living there, and would have placed stricter limits on remitting money to relatives on the island.
Remaining in the legislation is a ban on the District spending local tax money on abortion.
The funding bill sets government spending for the year at $1.043 trillion, a level agreed to in an August deal that raised the nation’s legal borrowing limit. The figure represents a 1.5 percent drop in spending from the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. That doesn’t count $115 billion for overseas military operations, a $43 billion dip since this past year as the war in Iraq winds down. It also doesn’t include $8.1 billion in emergency disaster-relief spending.
The measure outlines spending for three-fourths of the government — all but the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, State, and Transportation, as well as NASA and some smaller agencies — which were settled in a November deal.
As Congress works to lower the federal deficit and reduce government spending, most domestic programs will see cuts.
The measure omits funding for the Internal Revenue Service to prepare for the 2014 implementation of the federal health-care law. But it increases funding for border agents and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It includes $8.4 billion for the EPA — a $233 million drop from last year. And provides $550 million for Obama’s signature Race to the Top education program, a cut of more than 20 percent.
| Sign Agreement | December 2011 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
More than 200 departures are delayed and about 50 arrivals and departures are cancelled after lightning hit the aircraft fuel system at London Stansted Airport. Violent thunderstorm accompanied by heavy rain overnight caused flooding and property damage; the UK was struck by lightning more than 60,000 times in 24 hours, according to the Met Office. | As electric storms sweep the UK, people snap and film the spectacular light show that could last until Wednesday.
By Bethany Minelle, news reporter Sunday 27 May 2018 14:04, UK
Electric storms have swept through the UK, creating dramatic skyscapes worthy of a Hollywood film.
After a sunny start to the Bank Holiday weekend, with temperatures reaching 27C (80.6F), Saturday's balmy evening eventually broke into a violent thunderstorm accompanied by heavy rain.
The UK was struck by lightning more than 60,000 times in 24 hours, according to the Met Office.
Temperatures overnight did not fall below 15C (59F), he said, adding: "For the end of May that's a pretty hot and humid night, so everything was primed.
"We had some storms coming in from northern France and some building up in the Channel and they sort of spread out and have been working their way in.
"It looks like there just one huge area of thundery showers that worked across London just before midnight."
During the early hours of this morning we caught this lightning strike over the base #p1195 pic.twitter.com/dZnSy2epg7
London Fire Brigade said it received more than 500 weather-related calls, most of them due to flooding.
In Warwickshire, five properties were struck by lightning and in Dawlish, Devon, a phone box burst into flames after a telephone pole was also hit by lightning.
Flights from Stansted Airport were disrupted on Sunday after the fuelling system was damaged by a lightning strike.
It’s a bit stormy here in London on the Thames ! @Lauratobin1 @bbcweather @SkyNews pic.twitter.com/tWuDYgP5Yu
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution posted a photo of the storm above the Thames, lighting up the water close to their rescue station.
A dramatic shot of lightning illuminating the Shard in the capital was captured by data journalist Matthew Smith.
Stunning #lightning storm above #London right now. Viewed from the roof at Wapping. #thunder #weather. pic.twitter.com/vpmNeZHQQa
Videos shot in Wapping and Chiswick show the strobing effect of the lightning, as it flashes across the night sky.
Consistent lightning over London⚡ #lightning #thunderstorm #thunder #beautiful #LondonEye pic.twitter.com/YeeaOnVHAA
A video taken in South Ruislip, Middlesex, by Thomas Wheeler shows the lightning in slow motion, as it snakes across the sky flash by flash.
Sick slow mo I got of the Thunder and light in London #weather #thunderstorm #slowmo #Lightning pic.twitter.com/xgZ5ldc3bS
Nearly 1,000 properties were left without power in the Midlands following the storm and 17 flood alerts have been issued for parts of the Thames Valley. | Floods | May 2018 | ['(Sky News)', '(Sky News2)'] |
Up to 500 people are feared to have drowned off the coast of Libya in the Mediterranean last week, in what would be the deadliest migrant shipwreck in months. | Hundreds of people are feared to have drowned in the southern Mediterranean last week, in what would be the deadliest migrant shipwreck in months.
A repurposed fishing boat overloaded by smugglers with up to 500 Africans hoping to reach Italy from eastern Libya sank as passengers from smaller boats were trying to board it, survivors told the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). The survivors’ accounts described panicked passengers desperately trying to stay afloat by jumping between vessels.
A death toll of just half the size would bring the total number of mortalities in the Mediterranean in 2016 to over 1,000 – more than a quarter of last year’s record tally.
The IOM said its staff met on Tuesday with survivors of the incident who were rescued on Saturday by a Filipino cargo ship off the Libyan coast. The group said some 200 migrants left the Libyan coastal city of Tobruk on several small boats, each carrying between 30 to 40 people and bound for a larger vessel on the high seas.
IOM said the larger vessel, which was already desperately overcrowded with about 300 people, “began taking on water” when the newcomers got on. As the larger vessel began to sink, “panicking passengers tried to jump into the smaller boats they had arrived in.”
A Somali community leader in Egypt said that some of the dead appeared to have been part of Egypt’s Somali expatriate community. “Families in Egypt are weeping for their children who drowned in the sea,” he said. “I keep seeing pictures of the people who drowned on social media. Some of them were my students.”
The 41 survivors included those who had yet to be transferred from the one of the smaller vessels, as well as a number of those who swam back to it after the larger one began to sink. They include people from Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt. The survivors “claim to have been part of, and to have witnessed, a large shipwreck that took place in the Mediterranean Sea claiming the lives of approximately 500 people,” UNHCR said.
After the shipwreck, they were left to drift in one of the smaller boats, until they were spotted and rescued by a merchant ship on 16 April and taken to the Greek mainland. The date of the sinking itself is unclear, but by coincidence it would have happened near the anniversary of the Mediterranean’s deadliest modern shipwreck.
The survivors’ testimonies clarify a situation that was the subject of conflicting rumours for several days. Previous versions had variously claimed that the boat left from Egypt, or that survivors had been taken to Italy or a Greek island.
The survivors will not be deported to Turkey under the terms of a new deal between Turkey and the EU, since they departed from Libya – a war-torn country with whom the EU has not yet negotiated a returns agreement.
As a result, their arrivals highlight the limits of the EU-Turkey deal as a means of preventing migration to Europe. While the deal has made it harder for people to reach Greece, other routes to Europe exist – including from Libya. More than 170,000 people reached Europe from Libya in 2014, while 150,000 tried the same route in 2015. Nearly 25,000 have already followed in their wake in 2016, roughly the same level as this time last year. The flow onsists almost exclusively of people from sub-Saharan Africa. Syrians have yet to reach Libya following the closure of the Greek route, but migration specialists expect them to try again from Libya in increasing numbers later in the year.
The shipwreck has prompted renewed calls from refugee advocates for western countries to provide safe and legal access to Europe. | Shipwreck | April 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Two security forces later confirm to Reuters that President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta and Prime Minister Boubou Cissé have been detained by the mutinying forces. The two men are believed to have been transported to Kati. | Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Prime Minister Boubou Cisse and several officials were arrested by mutinying soldiers on Tuesday, local media reported.
Keita and Cisse were taken to the Kati military camp, located 15 kilometers (9 miles) northwest of the capital Bamako, at around 4.30 p.m. local time (1630 GMT), according to Journal du Mali.
Earlier, it was reported that gunshots were heard at the military camp, while military trucks were also seen on the road heading toward the capital. The military reportedly blocked the road from the town of Kati to Bamako, and businesses and offices were also closed.
Sources told online newspaper MaliActu that a number of officials, including the finance minister, speaker of the national assembly, and several other prominent figures, were also arrested by unidentified gunmen.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairman of the African Union Commission, condemned the arrests.
“I strongly condemn the arrest of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the Prime Minister and other members of the Malian Government and call for their immediate release,” Mahamat said in a Twitter post.
“I strongly condemn any attempt at anti-constitutional change and call on the mutineers to cease all use of violence and respect for republican institutions,” he added.
Mali has been rocked by protests for several months as demonstrators call for the resignation of President Keita.
On social media posts, French and Belgian embassies in Mali urged their citizens to limit their movement given the tense situation in Bamako at the moment.
The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali issued a message recommending to the UN personnel "to avoid the Kati area and all unnecessary road movements in Bamako until further notice," MaliActu reported.
The house of Justice Minister Kassoum Tapo was set on fire and vandalized by young demonstrators in Bamako on Tuesday, according to International Security and Conflict Research.
The military mutiny comes at a time when, for several months, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has been undertaking initiatives and deploying mediation efforts between all the Malian parties, the West African body said in a statement on Tuesday.
''ECOWAS calls on the military to return to their barracks without delay, asking all Malian stakeholders to prioritize dialogue to resolve the crisis facing their country.
''ECOWAS reiterates its firm opposition to any unconstitutional political change and invites the military to remain in a republican posture,'' it said.
Last month the head of the African Union Commission urged calm, continued dialogue and negotiations for the diligent implementation of consensual solutions to preserve peace, stability, and social cohesion in Mali.
Tensions erupted in Mali in 2012 following a failed coup and a Tuareg rebellion that ultimately allowed al-Qaeda-linked militant groups to take over the northern half of the country. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | August 2020 | ['(France 24)', '(Andolu Agency)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
National League for Democracy General Secretary Aung San Suu Kyi's trial for violating house arrest begins in Burma. | Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Undercover BBC correspondent: 'People here are very angry'
Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has gone on trial at the notorious Insein prison in Rangoon.
She is charged with breaching the terms of her house arrest, because of a visit by an American man who swam across a lake to her house earlier this month. Dozens of supporters gathered near the jail as the trial got under way. It has now been adjourned for the day. Many observers see the charges as a pretext to ensure Ms Suu Kyi is in jail during next year's elections. Ms Suu Kyi has already spent 13 of the past 19 years in jail or detained in her home, and faces a further three to five years' imprisonment if found guilty of these latest charges. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Suu Kyi supporters gather near prison
It is unclear how long the trial will take, but estimates range from a few days to several weeks, as the government is expected to summon 22 witnesses to support its claim. Two of Ms Suu Kyi's assistants are on trial with her, and Mr Yettaw is also being tried. Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won landslide elections rejected by the military in 1990, and she was awarded the Nobel peace prize soon after. Wire barricades
Security is tight around Insein prison, says a BBC reporter in Rangoon - whose name is being withheld for his safety, because all foreign journalists are barred from Burma. Dozens of supporters, including prominent members of her National League for Democracy party, gathered near the jail in quiet protest. But riot police set up barbed wire barricades to prevent them getting too close and plain-clothes officers filmed them. The ambassadors of Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy were barred from entering the prison, but the US consul was reportedly allowed in, possibly to see Mr Yettaw. Mr Yettaw was thought to be in the courtroom with Ms Suu Kyi on the first day of the trial, though it is unclear whether he was being tried as part of the case against Ms Suu Kyi. There are no outside observers, but unnamed Burmese and opposition officials said proceedings had now been adjourned until Tuesday, after several hours of testimony. Mr Yettaw arrived on her back lawn in Rangoon earlier this month, after swimming across a lake using home-made flippers. He was almost certainly uninvited, and Ms Suu Kyi's lawyers say she will plead not guilty to breaking the terms of her house arrest, saying he was allowed to stay only because he pleaded exhaustion. Ms Suu Kyi's home is one of the most closely guarded locations in Rangoon, and her supporters believe the military authorities must have allowed the man to reach it, as he tried the same stunt unsuccessfully last November. According to Burma's constitution, Ms Suu Kyi was scheduled to be freed on 27 May after six consecutive years of house arrest. The misguided exploits of an apparently well-intentioned individual have now given the military government a pretext to keep her locked up, say correspondents. Analysts say the trial shows that the military junta still fears Aung San Suu Kyi's influence over Burmese people, despite the fact she has been in detention for most of the past two decades. They are keen to keep her detained in the run-up to the elections in 2010 - largely derided as a sham by the international community. Foreign protests
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Ms Suu Kyi's prosecution is taking place in such haste and secrecy, and on such bizarre charges, that it has already been dismissed as farcical by many governments around the world. Protests against the trial took place at outside Burmese embassies around the world on Monday. US President Barack Obama formally extended sanctions against Burma on Friday. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
An apartment building explosion in Silver Spring, Maryland, kills at least two and injures 34, with five to seven people missing. The blast has displaced more than 90 residents. Fire and rescue responded to "a smell of gas" on July 25. The cause of the explosion is being investigated. | Follow NBC News Crews sifting through debris of a powerful explosion and fire that gutted a Maryland apartment building recovered two bodies Thursday and were looking for others still missing, officials said.
The identities of the victims at the Silver Spring complex were still not known, said Montgomery County Assistant Police Chief Russ Hamill, and it was unclear exactly how many people were not found amid the chaos.
Related: More coverage on NBC Washington
"As a result of this discovery, this scene and event will be handled as a death investigation," Hamill told reporters.
Police earlier said five to seven peole could not be located following the blast at the Flower Branch Apartments, which was rocked just before midnight Wednesday. Rescue dogs were being used to search the rubble, although parts of the four-story apartment building needed to be secured before investigators could go inside.
The blast was so powerful, according to regional disaster director Paul Carden, that many people were "blown out of their beds."
More than 160 fire and rescue workers were called to the scene to help fight a fire that followed the blast, Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said.
Thirty-one people were transported to the hospital in addition to three firefighters who had non-life-threatening injuries. The firefighters were treated and released.
Kitchens in the building's apartments were reportedly fitted with stoves powered by natural gas.
Hamill said residents noted smelling gas before the explosion, but that the investigation is still in its "very preliminary stages."
Video taken from the scene early Thursday showed firefighters continuing to hose down the charred debris of the brick building. Rows of windows appeared blown out and belongings were strewn in nearby tree branches and piled on the ground.
ATF & MCFRS Fire & Explosive Investigators have a large debris field to search & document, some items >300 away pic.twitter.com/fcAr5FDlKr
Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Chief Dorcus Howard Richards told The Washington Post that firefighters in a nearby station heard the explosion and were on the scene quickly.
When firefighters arrived, they received reports of people trapped inside, said Montgomery County Fire Capt. Oscar Garcia.
Officials declared the scene a “mass casualty incident,” NBC Washington reported.
In total, 98 residents have been displaced from 28 apartments, Goldstein told reporters.
The building is home to many residents who speak Spanish and translators were being brought onto the scene to assist families.
Several people unaccounted for in apartment explosion and fire in Silver Spring. pic.twitter.com/YiwTHqPSIt
Among the 31 residents hospitalized, injuries ranged from broken bones to smoke inhalation and burns.
"People were dropping children and jumping out of other windows,'' Goldstein said. "Everybody was getting out of the building as rapidly as possible.''
One unnamed woman at the scene told NBC Washington that she was searching for her uncle after her calls to his cellphone went unanswered.
"He lived in the building that collapsed. We're here waiting and nobody tells us, nobody say anything to us," she said.
The explosion hit like an earthquake, resident Carlos Ingles told NBC Washington. He said instead of fleeing the flames, he tried to help others who couldn't find their way out.
"Children, they were thrown from the top," he said. "I don't have words." | Gas explosion | August 2016 | ['(The Washington Post)', '(NBC News)'] |
A magnitude 6.2 earthquake strikes the Majene Regency in West Sulawesi, Indonesia, killing at least 42 people and wounding more than 820 others. It was preceded by a foreshock measuring 5.7 a few hours before. | JAKARTA (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake killed at least 42 people and injured hundreds on Indonesia’s island of Sulawesi on Friday, trapping several under rubble and unleashing dozens of aftershocks as authorities warned of more quakes that could trigger a tsunami.
Thousands of frightened residents fled their homes for higher ground when the magnitude 6.2-quake struck 6 km (4 miles) northeast of the town of Majene, at a depth of just 10 km, shortly before 1.30 a.m.
The quake and aftershocks damaged more than 300 homes and two hotels, as well as flattening a hospital and the office of a regional governor, where authorities told Reuters several people have been trapped under the rubble.
“Praise be to God, for now OK, but we just felt another aftershock,” said Sukri Efendy, a 26-year-old resident of the area.
As many as 42 people have been killed, mostly in Mamuju and the rest in the neighbouring district of Majene, the country’s national disaster mitigation agency said in a situation report on Friday evening. More than 820 people were injured, it said.
The heightened seismic activity set off three landslides, severed electricity supplies, and damaged bridges linking to regional hubs, such as the city of Makassar. Heavy rain was also worsening conditions for those seeking shelter.
No tsunami warning was issued but the head of Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), Dwikorita Karnawati, told a news conference that aftershocks could follow, with a possibility that another powerful quake could trigger a tsunami.
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There had been at least 26 aftershocks, she said, with Friday’s quake preceded by a quake of 5.9 magnitude the previous day.
Mamuju resident Muhammad Ansari Iriyanto, 31, told Reuters that everyone panicked and sought refuge in the nearby hills and mountains.
“Mamuju is now empty, everyone went to the mountains,” he said. “Lots of buildings collapsed and people are afraid of a tsunami.”
Another resident Syahir Muhammad said: “It’s raining and we need help.”
Videos shared on social media showed residents fleeing to higher ground on motorcycles, and a young girl trapped under rubble as people tried to shift debris with their hands. Rescue workers used cutting and lifting equipment to free survivors and find the dead.
President Joko Widodo offered condolences to the victims, urging people to stay calm and authorities to step up search efforts.
Emerging workers are now trying to restoring telecoms and bridge links and ensure the delivery of tents, food and medical supplies, said West Sulawesi provincial government spokesman Safaruddin.
About 15,000 people have fled their homes since the quake, the disaster agency has said, with the coronavirus pandemic likely to complicate the distribution of aid.
“It is certainly one of the most challenging, this (disaster) was one of our fears and now we are putting all of that planning and protocols into place,” said Jan Gelfand, head of the International Federation of Red Cross in Indonesia.
Straddling the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia is regularly hit by earthquakes.
In 2018, a devastating 6.2-magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami struck the city of Palu, in Sulawesi, killing thousands.
A 9.1-magnitude quake off the north of Sumatra island triggered a tsunami on Boxing Day in 2004 that lashed coastal areas of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and nine other nations, killing more than 230,000 people.
Graphic: Quake in Indonesia's Sulawesi
Additional reporting by Angie Teo; Additional reporting by Yishu Ng in Singapore added as Writing by Kate Lamb; Editing by Gerry Doyle, Clarence Fernandez and Alison Williams
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
| Earthquakes | January 2021 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A court in Turkey sentences a former mayor of a Kurdish city and opposition member to 16 years in prison for "being a member of a terrorist group, abusing power and inciting to violence and hatred". The head of a local human rights organization says "all the charges against her are fabricated". | A Turkish court sentenced a former mayor of a Kurdish city and opposition member to 16 years in jail for being a member of terrorist group, “abusing of power,” and “inciting hatred and violence,” in what is Turkey’s latest crackdown on pro-Kurdish parties.
Kaya, who was arrested in January 2017, is a member of the People’s Democratic Party, or HDP, which has been accused by the Turkish government of having links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The 16-year sentence against the former mayor is “illegal and unlawful,” the HDP’s head of legal affairs and human rights Omid Dada told Al Arabiya.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
“All charges against her are fabricated and our party is subject of political genocide,” he added.
“We reject such politicized rulings, and we confirm that the ruling was based on incorrect and false evidence provided by a Turkish special forces officer named Onal Oyar, who is currently being held on charges of torture and corruption,” Dada said.
Turkey has arrested 93 heads of Kurdish municipalities who won the local elections in 2014, out of which 83 were dismissed from their posts, according to Dada.
:
Iran, Turkey likely coordinating attacks on Kurdish areas, say experts, mayor
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party vows to pursue push for democracy, vows more protests
A Turkish court sentenced a former mayor of a Kurdish city and opposition member to 16 years in jail for being a member of terrorist group, “abusing of power,” and “inciting hatred and violence,” in what is Turkey’s latest crackdown on pro-Kurdish parties.
Kaya, who was arrested in January 2017, is a member of the People’s Democratic Party, or HDP, which has been accused by the Turkish government of having links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The 16-year sentence against the former mayor is “illegal and unlawful,” the HDP’s head of legal affairs and human rights Omid Dada told Al Arabiya.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
“All charges against her are fabricated and our party is subject of political genocide,” he added.
“We reject such politicized rulings, and we confirm that the ruling was based on incorrect and false evidence provided by a Turkish special forces officer named Onal Oyar, who is currently being held on charges of torture and corruption,” Dada said.
Turkey has arrested 93 heads of Kurdish municipalities who won the local elections in 2014, out of which 83 were dismissed from their posts, according to Dada. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | June 2020 | ['(Al Arabiya)'] |
Five members of the NATO-led coalition die and five others are injured in a non-combat helicopter crash in Kabul. The Associated Press reported the chopper collided with a monitoring balloon on landing. Nationalities weren't identified by NATO's Resolute Support; the British said two were Royal Air Force personnel. | A coalition helicopter crashed in the Afghan capital of Kabul Sunday, killing five and injuring five in the latest mass casualty event in the country in recent weeks. Two American troops were among the dead.
Two British servicemembers and a French civilian contractor also died in what the NATO-led military mission described as a "non-hostile incident." The crash involving a British Puma Mk 2 helicopter happened at 4:15 p.m. local time at Camp Resolute Support in Kabul and an investigation is underway. .
"We're deeply saddened by the loss of our teammates," said U.S. Brig. Gen. Wilson Shoffner, military communications chief in Afghanistan. "Our heartfelt condolences go out to the families and friends of those affected in this tragic incident and we pray for the full recovery of the injured."
An Afghan security guard who witnessed Sunday's crash told the Associated Press the helicopter appeared to strike a monitoring balloon as it was landing. "It seemed like the cable was turned around the helicopter rotor," the security guard, Najibullah, said. Like many in Afghanistan, he goes by one name. He said the helicopter went down and then black smoke rose from the area.
A second helicopter circled the area three or four times and then landed at a nearby airport, he said.
U..S. Army Col. Brian Tribus, a spokesman in Afghanistan for U.S. and NATO forces, confirmed the accident involved a NATO aircraft and an observation balloon, according to the Military Times. The monitoring balloon was severed from its mooring in the incident, he said, without providing further details.
Elsewhere, a suicide bomber targeted a convoy of foreign troops attached to the Resolute Support mission in Kabul on Sunday, according to The Associated Press. There were no reports of casualties, but three Afghans were wounded in the attack, according to Kabul city police chief Gen. Abdul Rahman Rahimi.
Sunday's violence follows an Oct. 1 crash of a C-130 transport plane near Jalalabad. Six U.S. servicemembers and five civilian contractors were killed, as well as several Afghan civilians on the ground. At the time, President Obama said the deaths served as a reminder "... of the sacrifice brave Americans and our Afghan partners make each and every day in the name of freedom and security."
Another crash in a remote region in southern Afghanistan in August killed 17 Afghan soldiers. That helicopter crash was initially blamed on technical problems and was among the deadliest events for the Afghan military since U.S. and NATO forces concluded their combat missions last year, shifting to a support and training role. | Air crash | October 2015 | ['(BBC)', '(CNN)', '(USA Today)'] |
The Coordinating Council of the Belarusian opposition report that two of its members, Sergei Dylevsky and Olga Kovalkova, have been detained by police in Minsk. | Belarusian authorities have detained two leading opposition activists who have helped spearhead a wave of protests demanding the resignation of the country’s authoritarian ruler of 26 years
On Location: June 18, 2021
MINSK, Belarus -- Belarusian authorities on Monday detained two leading opposition activists who have helped spearhead a wave of protests demanding the resignation of the country's authoritarian ruler of 26 years.
The opposition’s Coordination Council said its members Sergei Dylevsky and Olga Kovalkova were detained by police in the capital, Minsk. City police confirmed their detention.
The move signals President Alexander Lukashenko’s determination to stifle the massive demonstrations that have entered their third week. It comes a day after the 65-year-old Belarusian leader toted an assault rifle in a show of force as he arrived at his residence by helicopter as protesters rallied nearby.
Last week, Lukashenko's warned the council created to negotiate a transition of power that it could face criminal accusations for creating what he described as a parallel government. The Belarusian prosecutors then opened a criminal inquiry into the council members on charges of undermining national security, claims rejected by the council's members.
Dylevsky played a leading role in organizing the strike at the Minsk Tractor Plant, part of a series of labor actions that engulfed the nation's top industrial plants last week in a major challenge to Lukashenko. Kovalkova is a top associate of the main opposition challenger in the vote, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who moved to Lithuania after the vote under official pressure.
The detention of opposition activists follows Sunday's demonstration in Minsk that drew an estimated 200,000 people pushing for President Alexander Lukashenko to step down following the Aug. 9 election, which the opposition saw as rigged. The previous Sunday saw a similar number of demonstrators, the largest the ex-Soviet nation of 9.5 million people ever saw.
Video on Sunday showed Lukashenko getting off his helicopter with a Kalashnikov automatic rifle. Initially, the weapon had no ammunition clip but later the Belarusian leader, who cultivates an aura of machismo, attached it in a show of aggression.
He commented to his aides that the protesters “ran away like threats” and then thanked riot police who encircled the residence for safeguarding it.
“We will deal with them,” he said about the demonstrators.
Shortly before he spoke, the demonstrators approached the edges of the presidential residence grounds, but were stopped by lines of police in full riot gear and dispersed soon after amid rain.
Lukashenko has dismissed the demonstrators as foreign-directed puppets and blamed the U.S. for instigating the protests that erupted after officials declared him the winner with 80% of the vote.
The protests were galvanized by a brutal post-election crackdown, which saw nearly 7,000 people detained and hundreds injured after police dispersed peaceful protesters with rubber bullets, stun grenades and clubs. As crowds of protesters swelled amid public outrage, the authorities backed off and let demonstrations go unhindered. However, the authorities again beefed up police cordons around the city since last week and threatened opposition activists with criminal charges.
The United States and the European Union have dismissed the Belarusian election as neither free nor fair and urged authorities to engage in dialogue with the opposition.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, whose country currently holds the European Union’s presidency, said during a visit to Ukraine on Monday that “the extremely critical situation in Belarus can only be solved through an inclusive dialogue locally.”
Maas urged Lukashenko to "recognize the reality on the streets of his country but also the reality in the heads of the people in this country.”
He said that thee Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe would be the right format to “initiate this dialogue.” He said German officials are calling on Russia to use what influence it has with Lukashenko “to make clear to him that he can no longer get past this dialogue.”
In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that Russia hasn't had any contacts with the Belarusian opposition, noting that such a move would amount to meddling in its neighbor's internal affairs.
“We consider it wrong and have no intention to do so, at least not during the current ‘hot’ stage,” he said.
The two countries have a union treaty envisaging close political, economic and military ties, and Lukashenko said he secured Putin's promise of security assistance if need be. The Belarusian leader has sought to rally Moscow's support by trying to cast his foes as anti-Russia, even though the protesters carried no anti-Russia slogans. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | August 2020 | ['(AP via ABC News)'] |
An African Union mission arrives in Libya to negotiate a settlement in the 2011 Libyan civil war between Muammar Gaddafi and his opponents. | South African President Jacob Zuma says the Libyan government has accepted an African Union peace proposal to end the eight-week-old conflict.
Mr Zuma's AU delegation met Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli on Sunday. An AU team is going to the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
But rebel spokesmen said there could be no truce unless Col Gaddafi stepped down and his forces withdrew.
In Ajdabiya, pro-Gaddafi forces have pushed back rebels in fierce fighting. Nato says its planes destroyed 25 government tanks on Sunday alone.
The alliance said it had "taken note" of the AU initiative and welcomed efforts to save Libyan civilians.
The AU deal's main points are:
"The brother leader [Col Gaddafi] delegation has accepted the roadmap as presented by us," Mr Zuma declared. "We have to give the ceasefire a chance," he said, after several hours of talks. In all, the AU mission comprised representatives from five nations: presidents Jacob Zuma of South Africa, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz of Mauritania, Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali and Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo-Brazzaville, and Uganda's Foreign Minister Henry Oryem Okello. The five-strong panel was approved by the European Union.
Welcoming the AU initiative, Nato spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said the alliance had "always made it clear that there could be no purely military solution to this crisis". "We welcome all contributions to the broad international effort aimed at stopping the violence against the civilian population in Libya."
Mr Zuma is now returning to South Africa. His foreign minister and the other AU heads of state are travelling on to Benghazi.
Rebel spokesman Mustafa Gheriani told Reuters the proposal would be considered, but "the Libyan people have made it very clear that Gaddafi must step down".
Another spokesman, Shamsiddin Abdulmolah, told AFP news agency: "The people must be allowed to go into the streets to express their opinion and the soldiers must return to their barracks." "The world has seen these offers of ceasefires before and within 15 minutes [Col Gaddafi] starts shooting again," he added.
The British-based representative of the Libyan opposition leadership, Guma al-Gamaty, has told the BBC that any deal designed to keep Col Gaddafi or his sons in place would not be acceptable. The BBC's Jon Leyne in Benghazi says the opposition will be very uneasy that they are in danger of being outmanoeuvred by this delegation, which they will see as being very sympathetic to Col Gaddafi.
An AU official said the idea of Col Gaddafi stepping down had been discussed, but gave no further details.
"There was some discussion on this but I cannot report on this. It has to remain confidential," said AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Ramtane Lamamra. "It's up to the Libyan people to choose their leaders democratically."
Nato air strikes have been continuing: the alliance says its planes destroyed 25 government tanks on Sunday alone.
Eleven were reportedly destroyed as they approached Ajdabiya and 14 were destroyed earlier near Misrata, the only city in western Libya still in rebel hands. Accusing government forces of "brutally shelling" civilian areas, Nato said it was responding to a desperate situation in the two towns, under its UN mandate to protect civilians. It was one of the biggest series of air strikes since the coalition's initial onslaught, our correspondent says. Heavy gunfire and loud explosions were heard in the town on Sunday, with reports of intense shelling of the town from the west, from where pro-Gaddafi forces are attacking.
Ajdabiya is important to the opposition as it controls a strategic crossroads and is the last town before the main rebel city of Benghazi.
Our correspondent says the rebels reported capturing Algerian mercenaries from Col Gaddafi's forces, though this cannot be independently verified.
Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said government forces had shot down two rebel helicopters in the east but this also cannot be confirmed.
He said: "A clear violation was committed by the rebels to [UN] resolution 1973 relating to the no-fly zone."
Speaking in Brussels, the commander of the Nato operation, Lt Gen Charles Bouchard, said that air strikes were also targeting government ammunition bunkers and lines of communication.
He cited as "an example of Nato impartiality" a report that a MiG 23 jet flown by rebel forces had been intercepted and forced to land within minutes of taking off from Benina Airfield near Benghazi on Saturday.
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The 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference concludes with an agreement for a two–year process to develop a new treaty on climate change. | The world’s faltering effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions got a new lease on life on Saturday, as delegates from 187 countries agreed to negotiate a new accord over the next two years pushing the crucial debates about United States participation into the administration of a new American president.
Many officials and environmental campaigners said American negotiators had remained obstructionist until the final hour of the two-week convention and had changed their stance only after public rebukes that included boos and hisses from other delegates. | Sign Agreement | December 2007 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
In the U.S., after mounting criticism over his handling of racial issues, University of Missouri System president Tim Wolfe announces his resignation; the Board of Curators votes to accept his resignation. R. Bowen Loftin, chancellor of the flagship Columbia campus, announces he will step down from his post by the end of the year. | COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The president of the University of Missouri system stepped down Monday, and the flagship Columbia campus' chancellor announced he will "transition" into a different position at the end of year amid criticism of their handling of student complaints about race and discrimination.
President Tim Wolfe said his resignation was effective immediately. He made the announcement at the start of what had been expected to be a long, closed-door meeting of the school's governing board. He largely preempted that session in a halting statement that was simultaneously apologetic, clumsy and defiant.
"This is not the way change comes about," he said, alluding to recent protests. "We stopped listening to each other."
He urged students, faculty and staff to "use my resignation to heal and start talking again to make the changes necessary."
Hours later, the top administrator of the Columbia campus, Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin, announced he would step down at the end of the year and shift to leading research efforts.
The deans of nine university departments wrote to Wolfe and the university system's governing board on Monday calling for Loftin's removal and citing a "deep concern about the multitude of crises on our flagship campus.''
The University of Missouri senior vice chancellor for research and graduate studies will serve as interim chancellor for the Columbia campus after Loftin's resignation takes effect at the end of the year. Hank Foley said he wants "to make people feel included and make them feel that this is their campus.''
A poor audio feed for the one board member attending the meeting via conference call left Wolfe standing awkwardly at the podium for nearly three minutes after he read only the first sentence of his statement.
The race complaints came to a head over the weekend, when at least 30 black members of the football team announced they would not participate in team activities until Wolfe was gone.
For months, black student groups have complained of racial slurs and other slights on the overwhelmingly white flagship campus of the state's four-college system. Frustrations flared during the homecoming parade Oct. 10, when protesters blocked Wolfe's car, and he did not get out to talk to them. The protesters were removed by police.
Black members of the football team joined the outcry Saturday night. By Sunday, a campus sit-in had grown, graduate student groups planned walkouts and politicians began to weigh in.
Until Monday, Wolfe did not indicate he had any intention of stepping down. He agreed in a statement Sunday that "change is needed" and said the university was working to draw up a plan by April to promote diversity and tolerance.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said in a statement that Wolfe's resignation was "a necessary step toward healing and reconciliation on the University of Missouri campus."
"There is more work to do, and now the University of Missouri must move forward -- united by a commitment to excellence and respect and tolerance for all," Nixon said.
The Tigers' next game is Saturday against BYU at Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs. Canceling the game could have cost the school more than $1 million. Players have confirmed the game will be played as scheduled, and they'll practice Tuesday.
"The athletes of color on the University of Missouri football team truly believe 'Injustice Anywhere is a threat to Justice Everywhere,'" the players said in their statement Saturday. "We will no longer participate in any football related activities until President Tim Wolfe resigns or is removed due to his negligence toward marginalized students' experience. WE ARE UNITED!!!!!"
Football coach Gary Pinkel expressed solidarity on Twitter and posted a picture of the players and coaches locking arms.
The Mizzou Family stands as one. We are united. We are behind our players. #ConcernedStudent1950 GP pic.twitter.com/fMHbPPTTKl
Pinkel addressed the media Monday afternoon.
BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said Monday that he is glad the game will be played and glad Mizzou is headed in the right direction.
"I think Missouri's been dealing with some really important but also difficult issues," Mendenhall said. "We're grateful that they're able to reach a resolution -- or a beginning of a resolution, might be more applicable to say. We look forward to preparing for the game at Arrowhead Stadium."
Practice and other team activities for Missouri were canceled Sunday. A statement issued by Pinkel and Missouri athletic director Mack Rhoades linked the return of the protesting football players to the end of a hunger strike by a black graduate student who began the effort Nov. 2 and has vowed to not eat until Wolfe is gone.
"Our focus right now is on the health of Jonathan Butler, the concerns of our student-athletes and working with our community to address this serious issue," the statement said.
Butler, appearing on CNN in the wake of Wolfe's resignation, said his strike is over.
"This is a great first step towards change," Butler said.
Former Missouri linebacker Michael Sam said he brought Butler water on Wednesday and noted how much more attention was put on the school in less than a week.
"There was nobody here [Wednesday]. Two tents and a reporter," Sam said. "Things change when sports gets involved."
The governing board said an interim system president would be named soon, and board members vowed Monday to work toward a "culture of respect.''
The board planned to appoint an officer to oversee diversity and equality at all four campuses. It also promised a full review of other policies, more support for victims of discrimination and a more diverse faculty.
Payton Head, the Missouri Students Association president, called those changes a step "in the right direction.''
"It's great to see that from the UM system," he said. "It's something that I honestly I didn't expect but had been hoping for for a long time."
The protests began after Head, who is black, said in September that people in a passing pickup truck shouted racial slurs at him. In early October, members of a black student organization said slurs were hurled at them by an apparently drunken white student.
Also, a swastika drawn in feces was found recently in a dormitory bathroom.
Many of the protests have been led by an organization called Concerned Student 1950, which gets its name from the year the university accepted its first black student. The organization's members besieged Wolfe's car at the parade, and they have been conducting a sit-in on a campus plaza since Nov. 2.
Two trucks flying Confederate flags drove past the site Sunday, a move many saw as an attempt at intimidation. At least 150 students -- a larger crowd than on previous days -- gathered at the plaza Sunday night to pray, sing and read Bible verses. Many students planned to camp there overnight, despite temperatures that had dropped into the upper-30s.
Also joining in the protest effort were two graduate student groups that called for walkouts Monday and Tuesday and the student government at the Columbia campus, the Missouri Students Association.
The association said Sunday in a letter to the system's governing body that there had been "an increase in tension and inequality with no systemic support" since last year's fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, which is about 120 miles east of Columbia.
Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, was shot and killed by a white police officer during a struggle, and his death helped spawn the Black Lives Matter movement rebuking police treatment of minorities.
The association said Wolfe heads a university leadership that "has undeniably failed us and the students that we represent."
"He has not only enabled a culture of racism since the start of his tenure in 2012, but blatantly ignored and disrespected the concerns of students," the group wrote.
Concerned Student 1950 has demanded, among other things, that Wolfe "acknowledge his white male privilege," that he be immediately removed and that the school adopt a mandatory racial-awareness program and hire more black faculty and staff.
One of the sit-in participants, Abigail Hollis, a black undergraduate, said the campus is "unhealthy and unsafe for us."
"The way white students are treated is in stark contrast to the way black students and other marginalized students are treated, and it's time to stop that," Hollis said. "It's 2015."
The school's undergraduate population is 79 percent white and 8 percent black. The state is about 83 percent white and nearly 12 percent black.
Wolfe, 57, is a former software executive and Missouri business school graduate whose father taught at the university. He was hired as president in 2011, succeeding another former business executive who lacked experience in academia.
Lawmakers and elected officials began to weigh in Sunday. The chairman of a Missouri House higher education committee, Republican Rep. Steve Cookson, said in a statement that Wolfe "can no longer effectively lead" and should leave his post.
Joining in calling for Wolfe's resignation was Assistant House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty, the highest-ranking black member of that chamber. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | November 2015 | ['(ESPN)', '(USA Today)', '(ABC News)'] |
Thousands of supporters of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra gather outside the home of a royal adviser accused of involvement in the 2006 coup that ousted the Prime Minister. | KHAO YAI THIANG, Thailand (Reuters) - Thousands of supporters of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra rallied on Monday outside the rural home of a royal adviser they accuse of involvement in the 2006 coup that toppled the billionaire.
A woman decorated in Thailand's national colours greets the crowd from the stage during a protest by the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) in Khao Yai Thiang January 11, 2010. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
At least 5,000 protesters from the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) gathered to denounce Surayud Chulanont for his alleged illegal occupation of forest land in the mountains of northeastern Thailand.
Surayud sits on the Privy Council and the UDD says members of this body orchestrated the military coup that ousted Thaksin in September 2006. Former army chief Surayud became premier one month later and served until elections in December 2007.
The protest by the “red shirts” is seen as the prelude to an offensive later this month by pro-Thaksin elements inside and outside parliament to bring down the embattled coalition government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
Concern about the planned protests has unsettled the stock market in Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy. Previous clashes led to downgrades in Thailand’s credit ratings.
Prosecutors agreed last week Surayud was not the rightful owner of the plot of land, which he will have to return to the state. Tanapit Moonprauk, a spokesman for the Attorney-General’s office, said prosecutors would not press charges against Surayud because he had not intended to break the law.
However, the UDD, which draws its support largely from the rural poor who helped Thaksin twice win election landslides, accuse Surayud and Thailand’s powerful elite of hypocrisy.
“DOUBLE STANDARDS”
“We are here because there is a double standard in law enforcement,” protest leader Supon Attawong said on a makeshift stage near Surayud’s house, drawing loud cheers from the crowd.
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“This area was meant to be allocated to the landless. What is this if not unlawful privilege?”
The UDD is planning a prolonged anti-government rally while the pro-Thaksin Puea Thai party prepares for a censure debate, probably in February, to exploit cracks in Abhisit’s coalition. It comes ahead of a court verdict on whether to confiscate $2.3 billion of assets belonging to the Shinawatra family.
The UDD insists it is a pro-democracy movement opposed to the domination of Thai politics by royalist business elites, the military and the aristocracy, elements they say have conspired to remove governments elected by the majority.
Thai political scientist Thitinan Pongsudhirak said it was unlikely Monday’s demonstration or rallies later this month would succeed in toppling the government, which the UDD has been attempting to do since Abhisit took office a year ago.
Thitinan said the Oxford-educated premier’s best hope of easing Thailand’s polarizing five-year political crisis was to engage with the UDD.
“Yes, there is much hypocrisy and double standard. They can protest and cause rumblings, but it is unlikely to derail the government,” Thitinan said. “You can protest all you want but you won’t succeed without powerful backers.
“Right now, it appears the government is winning, but they would be making a mistake if they don’t address (UDD) grievances, setting the stage for more frustration and anger.”
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2010 | ['(Thai News Agency)', '(Reuters)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Millions of voters in the world's third biggest democracy participated in Indonesia's local elections in 264 regions, just over half of the country's electorates. There is heightened security due to threats by domestic terror groups linked to the Islamic State, as well as increased scrutiny to prevent electoral fraud. Direct elections to choose local leaders were established a decade ago. Official results from the polls will not be available until December 18, 2015. | Voters in about half of Indonesia's administrative regions are choosing local leaders. The country's first such simultaneous elections are seen as a way to strengthen democracy following the downfall of dictator Suharto.
About 100 million Indonesians were eligible to go to the polls on Wednesday in a simultaneous series of elections to choose leaders for nine provinces, 224 districts and 36 cities. In total, elections are being held in about half of the local administrations in the world's third biggest democracy. The enormous undertaking includes Surabaya, the second-largest city.
"I hope the local head elections will be smooth and peaceful as this will demonstrate that our democracy is in good shape," Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Tuesday.
Direct elections to choose local leaders were established a decade ago as part of democratic reforms in which power was heavily decentralized following the 1998 fall of Suharto, who had held power for more than 30 years. However, Wednesday's vote was the first time so many had been organized to take place on a single day. Officials were thereby hoping to make the system more efficient and save money.
Analysts say the elections are focused on local issues; however Philips Vermonte, a political analyst at Jakarta think-tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies said as more of them took place simultaneously, they could begin to be seen as a measure of the performance of the national leadership.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo once served as Mayor of Jakarta.
Anti-corruption activists have raised concerns, however, about dynasties forming in local politics and fuelling corruption.
"Incumbents' children, brothers, sisters, relatives and even wives are running in elections to extend family control," German news agency dpa quoted Donal Farid, a researcher at private watchdog Indonesia Corruption Watch as saying.
| Government Job change - Election | December 2015 | ['(Straits Times)', '(Deutsche Welle)'] |
The Portland Trail Blazers defeat the Denver Nuggets 140-137 in quadruple overtime, making the game the first quadruple overtime game in the playoffs since 1953. | CJ McCollum matched his career playoff high with 41 points, Rodney Hood hit a go-ahead three-pointer with 18.6 seconds left in the NBA postseason record-tying fourth overtime and the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Denver Nuggets 140-137 on Friday night to take a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference semifinals.
It was the second quadruple-overtime playoff game in NBA history, joining a 1953 game between the Boston Celtics and the Syracuse Nationals.
McCollum scored 28 points after the third quarter and Damian Lillard added 28 in the game for Portland, which stretched its winning streak at home to 12 games dating back to the regular season. Hood came off the bench to score seven points in the final OT and help the Blazers remain unbeaten at home this postseason.
FAKE, FIRE, FOR THE LEAD... RODNEY HOOD! ?#RipCity 138#MileHighBasketball 1375.6 left in 4OT on @ESPNNBA. POR ball. pic.twitter.com/qG44y4gvUC
Nikola Jokic had his third triple-double of the playoffs with 33 points, 18 rebounds and 14 assists, but missed a crucial free throw with 5.6 seconds to go. The 7ft center played 65 minutes, two shy of the postseason record.
Jamal Murray had a playoff-high 34 points for the Nuggets.
Game 4 is Sunday.
Hood’s jumper re-tied the game at 133 with just over a minute left in the final overtime. Will Barton missed the first of two free throws for Denver before Hood added a baseline jumper. Paul Millsap’s hook shot with 27 seconds left gave the Nuggets the edge.
But Hood’s three-pointer gave Portland a 138-136 lead as time wound down. Jokic missed the first of two free throws for Denver and Seth Curry made free throws for the Blazers to close it out.
Hood finished with 19 points.
Denver pulled in front 97-95 with under 3 minutes left in regulation. Lillard’s floater with 31 seconds left gave Portland a 102-100 lead, before Barton’s layup tied it. Al-Farouq Aminu missed a three-pointer for Portland with 6.7 seconds to go.
In the first overtime, McCollum’s layup tied it at 109 with 8.7 seconds left and Jokic missed an off-balance three-pointer at the buzzer.
With the game knotted at 118 in the second overtime, Jokic missed a three-pointer and a jump ball with 5.7 seconds left was grabbed by McCollum. Portland called a timeout with 4.1 seconds on the clock but Lillard missed a three-point attempt as time ran out.
Millsap’s jumper with 32 seconds left gave the Nuggets a 129-125 lead in the third overtime, but Lillard’s bank shot closed the gap and he added a layup that re-tied it again with 8.4 seconds left.
The Blazers, in the conference semifinals since 2016, have won the last two games after second-seeded Denver’s victory in Game 1.
Maurice Harkless started for the Blazers after rolling his ankle in the second quarter of Game 2 and sitting out the rest of the way.
Torrey Craig was also day-to-day but started for Denver, wearing a clear mask after his nose was bloodied in Wednesday’s game.
Murray struggled with what looked like a right thigh injury that he tried to remedy by riding an exercise bike during Game 2, but it didn’t appear to be bothering him Friday and he led all scorers with 16 points in the opening half.
Portland led by as many as 10 points in the opening half but the Nuggets pulled in front 38-37 on Murray’s running three-pointer. Portland went into the break with just a 48-47 edge.
The Nuggets went ahead early in the second half. Enes Kanter, who at times rubbed the shoulder he hurt in the final first-round game against the Thunder, hit a three-pointer followed by a layup and a free throw to tie the game at 62 and slow Denver’s momentum.
Giannis Antetokounmpo kept attacking and the Boston Celtics kept fouling.
The fouls may have slowed the second half of Game 3, but nothing could stop Antetokounmpo from putting together a signature performance in TD Garden.
Antetokounmpo had 32 points and 13 rebounds, George Hill finished with 21 points and the Milwaukee Bucks beat Boston 123-116 on Friday night to take a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Khris Middleton added 20 points.
Antetokounmpo had only 13 field goal attempts but had 16 points from the free throw line in a game that featured 53 total fouls called – 39 in the second half. Including Milwaukee’s two regular-season games in Boston, Antetokounmpo has scored 30 or more points in each of his trips to TD Garden in 2018-19.
“I’m just gonna keep being aggressive. That’s what my teammates want me to do,” Antetokounmpo said. “If I have to take it all the way, I’ll take it all the way.”
Kyrie Irving scored 29 points and Jayson Tatum had 20 for the Celtics, who host Game 4 on Monday.
Boston led by a point at the half but was outscored 40-31 in the third quarter and trailed by as many as 17 points in the final period.
The Celtics were also outscored 52-24 in the paint and had 18 turnovers leading to 28 Milwaukee points.
Irving acknowledged the fouls did slow down the game and stunt Boston’s efforts late.
“It’s getting ridiculous at this point,” Irving said, using an expletive to describe the lulls the fouls created.
The Bucks threw the Celtics a tactical curveball in Game 2, inserting Nikola Mirotic into the starting lineup in place of Sterling Brown.
In Game 3 it was Celtics coach Brad Stevens who brought new wrinkles, notably going with a small lineup that featured 6-foot-7 Semi Ojeleye guarding the 6-11 Antetokounmpo when he returned to the game at the start of the second quarter and again in the third quarter.
Boston also kept going at Antetokounmpo throughout the game when it had the ball. It included a one-handed dunk by Jaylen Brown over the Bucks’ star early in the third quarter that brought the Celtics fans inside TD Garden to their feet. It was reminiscent of a two-handed dunk he had over Antetokounmpo in Boston’s Game 1 win.
Friday’s version complemented several nice defensive plays by Brown, including blocking a Tony Snell lay-up attempt off the backboard.
Still, Milwaukee managed to keep racking up points in the paint. The Bucks led by as many as 12 in the third quarter and took a 95-87 lead into the fourth.
That was the score when Brown was called for his fifth foul with 10:53 left on what appeared to be a light touch of Eric Bledsoe near the baseline. It brought animated protests from both Brown and Stevens. A few trips later, Tatum received a technical for protesting his foul of Antetokounmpo.
Stevens said he didn’t think his team was overly frustrated by the foul calls.
“I just think ultimately they made a lot of plays in that quarter and we didn’t,” he said.
The Bucks started to rack up points at the line and their lead grew to 114-97 by the time Brown came back into the game with 4:53 remaining.
Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said Antetokounmpo is hard to stop when he’s this locked in to finding ways to score and get his teammates involved.
“He’s just such a force. He can get through cracks,” Budenholzer said. “He’s going to finish or get to the free throw line a lot if he keeps playing like this.” | Sports Competition | May 2019 | ['(The Guardian)', '(Vladtv)'] |
Four third–party U.S. presidential election candidates—representing the Libertarian, Green, Constitution, and Justice parties, who were excluded from the high–profile televised encounters between Mitt Romney or Barack Obama—attend their own presidential debate hosted in Chicago by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, which hopes for a more transparent and open electoral system. Romney and Obama refuse invitations to attend the debate, televised on international news channels but on no major U.S. network. | CHICAGO -- President Obama squared off against Mitt Romney for the final time Monday night, but debate season in the presidential campaign isn’t quite over.
Four third-party candidates will take their turn here Tuesday night in a debate that should be filled with policy and political positions as different as can be from one another.
Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson, Green Party nominee Jill Stein, Constitution Party nominee Virgil Goode, and Justice Party nominee Rocky Anderson will participate in a session moderated by former CNN host Larry King will moderate and hosted by the nonpartisan Free and Equal Elections Foundation.
None of the four candidates are strangers to politics. Johnson served two terms as governor of New Mexico and pursued the Republican presidential nomination in 2011 before opting for the Libertarian nod. Goode represented a central Virginia district in Congress as a Democrat, independent, and Republican. Anderson was the mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, while Stein ran against Romney in the 2002 Massachusetts governor’s race.
While each candidate has his or her share of loyal followers, polling shows they have barely registered a blip on the national radar. Goode, Johnson, and Stein each claimed one percent support in an early September Gallup poll of national adults. Johnson registered three percent support in an early September CNN/ORC survey of those likeliest to vote.
If the race between Obama and Romney is very close in some key swing states that have independent and libertarian streaks, Johnson’s presence on the ballot could affect the Obama-Romney matchup. In particular, Colorado, New Hampshire and Nevada are the battlegrounds where Johnson could prove a nuisance to his major party competition.
A survey of the Colorado race conducted last week by Democratic automated pollster Public Policy Polling showed Johnson pulling four percent support, while a recent Suffolk University survey showed the former New Mexico governor pulling 2 percent support in New Hampshire.
We’ll have a complete wrap of the debate -- which begins at 9 p.m. ET – later tonight right here on The Fix. You can also follow the debate in real time on Election 2012, where we’ll live blog it. We’ll also aim to bring you short dispatches throughout the day on Election 2012 and Twitter.
The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. | Government Job change - Election | October 2012 | ['(with the Republican Party)', '(with the Democratic Party)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(VOR)', '(The Washington Post)', '(Press TV)', '(The Sacramento Bee)'] |
The Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs confirms that independent member of the Verkhovna Rada Valeriy Davydenko has been found dead in his office in Kiev with a gunshot wound to the head. | A Ukrainian lawmaker has been found dead from a gunshot to the head at his office in central Kyiv, the Interior Ministry of Ukraine confirmed.
Valery Davydenko, 47, an independent member of parliament, was found dead in the bathroom of his office with a gunshot wound to the head. A gun was discovered next to his body.
| Famous Person - Death | May 2020 | ['(Kyiv Post)'] |
Ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi's trial starts in Cairo's police academy. He faces charges of inciting violence and murder in connection with clashes at the presidential palace in Cairo in December 2012. | The charges relateto the deaths of about a dozen people in clashes outside the presidential palace in December after Mr Mursi enraged his opponents with a decree expanding his powers.
The defendants could face a life sentence or death penalty if found guilty.
Mr Mursi, an Islamist who was toppled by the army in July after mass protests against him,struck a defiant tone on the first day of his trial.
He chanted"down with military rule"and called himself the country's only "legitimate"president.
Mr Mursiappeared angry and interrupted the session repeatedly, prompting a judge to adjourn the case.
Opponents of Egypt's army-backed government say the trial is part of a campaign to crush Mr Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood movement and revive a police state.
It is the second time in just over two years that an overthrown president has been in court in Egypt, a nation said by government critics to have reverted to authoritarian rule.
The trial is not being aired on state television and journalists were barred from bringing their telephones into the courtroom set up in a Cairo police academy. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | November 2013 | ['(Reuters)', '(RTE)'] |
Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova are exiled to remote prison camps located in Perm and Mordovia, home to parts of the Soviet–era gulag system. Their exact locations are unknown, even to their lawyers and family members. They had petitioned to be held in Moscow which would have allowed them to watch their young children grow. | Two members of the anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot have been sent to remote prison camps to serve their sentences, the group has said.
Maria Alyokhina, 24, will serve the rest of her two-year term at a women's prison camp in Perm, a Siberian region notorious for hosting some of the Soviet Union's harshest camps. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, has been sent to Mordovia, a region that also hosts a high number of prisons.
"These are the harshest camps of all the possible choices," the band said via its Twitter account on Monday.
Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for performing an anti-Putin "punk anthem" in a Moscow cathedral in February. They argued that their conviction was part of a growing crackdown on free speech and political activism in Russia.
They are expected to serve the rest of their sentences, which end in March 2014, in the camps, where conditions are reportedly dire.
A third member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released earlier this month after being given a suspended sentence. Pussy Riot's supporters have argued that her release was designed to give the appearance of mercy from the authorities.
Confusion reigned on Monday as relatives and lawyers tried to assess exactly where the women were sent. Both Perm and Mordovia host several prison camps, some of which comprised the Soviet-era gulag system. Prison authorities declined to comment on the women's whereabouts.
Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova had petitioned to serve their sentences in Moscow, arguing that they wanted to be close to their children. Alyokhina has a five-year-old son named Filipp, while Tolokonnikova has a four-year-old daughter named Gera. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | October 2012 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Police in Brazil arrest almost the entire council in the city of Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul, on suspicion of fraud and corruption, leaving the city without a government. | Brazilian police have arrested almost the entire local council in the southern city of Dourados, leaving an unprecedented power vacuum.
Mayor Ari Artuzi, his wife, deputy, and 25 other people were detained on suspicion of fraud and corruption.
Prosecutors accuse the mayor of heading a complex corruption racket. Mr Artuzi's allies reject the charges. A judge has been appointed to run the city of 200,000 people in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Legal experts say there are no legal provisions in Brazil for the situation in Dourados, where in effect there is no-one to run the government.
A spokesman for the council said Dourados had been left in limbo by the arrests.
Police say some 200 officers were involved in the anti-corruption operation, which began in May.
They say 100,000 reais ($57,000; £37,000) was seized from the mayor's house during the investigation.
Prosecutors accuse Mr Artuzi and his collaborators of taking a 10% cut of all public works contracts and using the money for election campaigns and to bribe other local politicians. Among those arrested are the city's councillors for finance and administration and a hospital director.
The police have up to five days to charge or release the suspects.
Brazil governor faces fraud probe
Country profile: Brazil
As it happened: One Covid vaccine dose cuts hospital risk by 75%
But the number of Delta variant cases recorded in the UK has risen by 79% in a week, figures show. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | September 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Latin American Herald Tribune)'] |
At least eight people are killed and 137 injured after a strong storm hits western and central Romania. | BUCHAREST (Reuters) - A strong storm killed eight people and injured at least 67 in western Romania on Sunday as winds of up to 100 kph (over 60 mph) also brought destruction to parts of Serbia and Croatia, officials said.
Road and rail traffic in parts of Romania was halted by fallen trees. Several hospitals, schools and apartment buildings had roofs damaged and dozens of towns and villages were left without electricity.
Some of the casualties were people strolling outside or coming out of supermarkets, the emergency services said. A group of tourists was stranded for an hour in a chairlift in the northern county of Maramures.
In Serbia, a man went missing on his boat on the Danube river near Belgrade and six people, including a five-year-old child, were injured by falling trees. Arcing from power lines, caused by the high winds, triggered several wildfires.
In Croatia, flooding brought traffic to a standstill in several coastal towns.
“We can’t fight the weather,” Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose told Antena3 TV. “The entire medical sector is focused on the injured.”
He said the government would help support the communities hit by the storm.
Nicolae Robu, mayor of the Romanian city of Timisoara spoke to local TV station Digi24 as he was surveying the scene outside.
“There are dozens of trees on the ground, roads blocked, we are out of electricity and water. There are roofs torn off houses, apartment buildings. There are overturned trucks. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Romania’s national weather agency has issued warnings of strong winds and rainstorms for western areas.
Emergency responders have urged people to take shelter indoors, unplug household appliances and park in areas not close to trees or power lines.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2017 | ['(Washington Post)', '(Reuters)'] |
Two of Ethiopia's main opposition leaders call for a rerun of Sunday's elections won by Western–backed Meles Zenawi. They say the elections were not free and fair and that two politicians were killed by security forces. | ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi rejected opposition calls for a fresh election on Wednesday, after the Europe Union and the United States said his landslide victory did not meet international standards.
But the 55-year-old leader who came to power in 1991 offered the opposition an olive branch, saying forums may be used to give opponents a say in key legislative proposals and how political parties are funded.
The electoral board said Tuesday the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and allied parties had won 534 seats out of 536 declared, giving Meles most seats in the 547-member parliament.
Meles said the government would not carry out earlier threats to prosecute some opponents which he said had broken campaign codes.
“The call for fresh elections is completely unjustified and clearly contradicts the law,” Meles told a news conference.
“For them to call for a fresh general re-election based on allegations, allegations that have been characterized as unproven and unprovable, even by the observers, would be going a bit too far,” he said.
At the last election in 2005, an opposition coalition cried foul after the EPRDF and its allies won 327 seats. Riots erupted in the capital on two separate occasions. Security forces killed 193 protesters and seven policemen died.
A European Union observer mission said this year’s election was marred by the EPRDF’s use of state resources for campaigning, putting the opposition at a disadvantage ahead of the vote, but this did not mean the count itself was invalid.
The United States, which earlier said Ethiopia’s election failed to meet international standards, said the government’s next steps could help determine the future of U.S. ties to the country, a key U.S. ally in the fight against the rise of militant Islamism in the Horn of Africa.
“Moving forward we will again be talking directly to the government and making clear what we feel it has to do to expand political space for more inclusive results in future elections,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told a news briefing.
“To the extent that Ethiopia values the relationship with the United States, then we think they should heed this very direct and strong message.”
“NOT A PROTECTORATE”
An eight-party opposition coalition called Medrek, which has won only one parliamentary seat so far, wants the vote rerun.
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi addresses a news conference at his office in the capital Addis Ababa, May 26, 2010. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya
“This election -- let me take that word back, this activity -- that took place on May 23, we don’t consider it a genuine election but rather a drama acted by the EPRDF,” Medrek chairman Beyene Petros told reporters in the capital Addis Ababa.
The second biggest opposition party, the All Ethiopian Unity Organization, also called for a new election.
Western diplomats are watching closely to see how for the opposition will go after many of its senior leaders lost their seats in the parliamentary victory for Meles, who is looking to foreign investors to help accelerate development.
There was hardly any violence on election day and no signs yet of street protests against the sheer scale of the expected EPRDF win, which has effectively wiped out the opposition, even in its traditional strongholds.
The opposition has consistently said it would not call for street protests, but it may challenge the result in court.
Police shot dead two opposition members in the sensitive Oromia region, but Meles said they were isolated incidents and not a sign of a wider crackdown on dissent. He said the government would not repeat the mass arrests of opposition leaders and supporters that followed the 2005 poll.
“It would be absolutely stupid for us to repay these people with viciousness,” Meles said. “It has not happened, it will not happen. We respect these noble people.”
The newly-mandated prime minister said Ethiopia’s “excellent” ties with the United States and the EU would not be hurt by their criticism of the poll. He said he would not be cowed by any threat to cut aid to one of the world’s poorest nations.
“The United States has every right to use its taxpayers money as it sees fit. If they feel that the outcome of the elections are such that they cannot continue our partnership, that’s fine. We shall be very grateful for the assistance they have given us so far, and move on,” he said.
“Clearly we are not a protectorate.”
additional reporting by Andrew Quinn in Washington; Editing by Matthew Jones | Government Job change - Election | May 2010 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(BBC)', '(The Hindu)', '(Reuters)'] |
The death toll from storms in the Mid–Atlantic states of the United States reaches 13, with millions out of power and states of emergencies declared in the states of Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland as well as the District of Columbia. | WASHINGTON—Millions across the mid-Atlantic region sweltered Saturday in the aftermath of violent storms that pummeled the eastern U.S. with high winds and downed trees, killing at least 13 people and leaving 3 million without power during a heat wave.
Power officials said the outages wouldn't be repaired for several days to a week, likening the damage to a serious hurricane. Emergencies were declared in Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, the District of Columbia and Virginia, where Gov. Bob McDonnell said the state had its largest non-hurricane outage in history, as more storms threatened. "This is a very dangerous situation," the governor said.
In West Virginia, 232 Amtrak passengers were stranded Friday night on a train that was blocked on both sides by trees that fell on the tracks, spending about 20 hours at a rural station before buses picked them up. And in Illinois, storm damage forced the transfer of dozens of maximum-security, mentally ill prisoners from one prison to another.
In some Virginia suburbs of Washington, emergency 911 call centers were out of service; residents were told to call local police and fire departments. Huge trees fell across streets in Washington, leaving cars crunched up next to them, and onto the fairway at the AT&T National golf tournament in Maryland. Cell phone and Internet service was spotty, gas stations shut down and residents were urged to conserve water until sewage plants returned to power.
The outages were especially dangerous because they left the region without air conditioning in an oppressive heat. Temperatures soared to highs in the mid-90s in Baltimore and Washington, where it had hit 104 on Friday.
"I've called everybody except for the state police to try to get power going," said Karen Fryer, resident services director at two assisted living facilities in Washington. The facilities had generator power, but needed to go out for portable air conditioning units, and Fryer worried about a few of her 100 residents who needed backup power for portable oxygen.
The stranded train passengers spent more than 20 hours on the train after they stopped around 11 p.m. on Friday at a station near rural Prince, W.Va.
Brooke Richart, a 26-year-old teacher from New York City, said she was among the stuck passengers. To pass the time, she read half a book, talked to the people around her and took walks outside the train.
"We tried to walk up the side of the mountain to see if anyone could get cell service. We didn't have cell service the entire time we were down there," she said.
Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm said the passengers were picked up by buses, which departed by 8:20 p.m. Saturday. The buses will travel to the stations along the original route, dropping off passengers along the way.
The stranded passengers on the train bound from New York to Chicago had lights, air conditioning and food the entire time, Kulm said. He wasn't aware of any injuries or health problems.
Richart was traveling to her hometown of Cincinnati. She said the ride had mostly been smooth, with a few delays, before they stopped in Prince. The storm had already passed through by the time they stopped.
She said the train attendants and her fellow passengers were extremely nice -- watching each others' children and sharing food.
She said her family had a hard time figuring out where she in conversations with Amtrak customer service representatives. But by the time the buses arrived, her father had also come to pick her up and drive her the rest of the way.
"It gets a little trying," she said. "Thankfully we could go in and out of the train because we were there so long. If you wanted to stretch your legs or take a walk, you could do that."
The storm did damage from Indiana to New Jersey, although the bulk of it was in West Virginia, Washington and suburban Virginia and Maryland. At least six of the dead were killed in Virginia, including a 90-year-old woman asleep in bed when a tree slammed into her home. Two young cousins in New Jersey were killed when a tree fell on their tent while camping. Two were killed in Maryland, one in Ohio, one in Kentucky and one in Washington.
Illinois corrections officials transferred 78 inmates from a prison in Dixon to the Pontiac Correctional Center after storms Friday night caused significant damage, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Stacey Solano said.
No one was injured, Solano said. Generators are providing power to the prison, which is locked down, confining remaining inmates to their cells.
Utility officials said it could take at least several days to restore power to all customers because of the sheer magnitude of the outages and the destruction. Winds and toppled trees brought down entire power lines, and debris has to be cleared from power stations and other structures. All of that takes time and can't be accomplished with the flip of a switch.
"This is very unfortunate timing," said Myra Oppel, a spokeswoman for Pepco, which reported over 400,000 outages in Washington and its suburbs. "We do understand the hardship that this brings, especially with the heat as intense at is. We will be working around the clock until we get the last customer on."
Especially at risk were children, the sick and the elderly. In Charleston, W.Va., firefighters helped several people using walkers and wheelchairs get to emergency shelters. One of them, David Gunnoe, uses a wheelchair and had to spend the night in the community room of his apartment complex because the power -- and his elevator -- went out. Rescuers went up five floors to retrieve his medication.
Gunnoe said he was grateful for the air conditioning, but hoped power would be restored so he could go home.
"It doesn't matter if it's under a rock some place. When you get used to a place, it's home," he said.
More than 20 elderly residents at an apartment home in Indianapolis were displaced when the facility lost power due to a downed tree. Most were bused to a Red Cross facility to spend the night, and others who depend on oxygen assistance were given other accommodations, the fire department said.
Others sought refuge in shopping malls, movie theaters and other places where the air conditioning would be turned to "high."
In Richmond, Va., Tracey Phalen relaxed with her teenage son under the shade of a coffee-house umbrella rather than suffer through the stifling heat of her house, which lost power.
"We'll probably go to a movie theater at the top of the day," she said.
Phalen said Hurricane Irene left her home dark for six days last summer, "and this is reminiscent of that," she said.
Others scheduled impromptu "staycations" or took shelter with friends and relatives.
Robert Clements, 28, said he showered by flashlight on Friday night after power went out at his home in Fairfax, Va. The apartment complex where he lives told his fiancee that power wouldn't be back on for at least two days, and she booked a hotel on Saturday.
Clements' fiancee, 27-year-old Ann Marie Tropiano, said she tried to go to the pool, but it was closed because there was no electricity so the pumps weren't working. She figured the electricity would eventually come back on, but she awoke to find her thermostat reading 81 degrees and slowly climbing. Closing the blinds and curtains didn't help.
"It feels like an oven," she said.
At the AT&T National in Bethesda, Md., trees cracked at their trunks crashed onto the 14th hole and onto ropes that had lined the fairways. The third round of play was suspended for several hours Saturday and was closed to volunteers and spectators. Mark Russell, the PGA Tour's vice president of rules and competition, couldn't remember another time that a tour event was closed to fans.
"It's too dangerous out here," Russell said. "There's a lot of huge limbs. There's a lot of debris. It's like a tornado came through here. It's just not safe."
The outages disrupted service for many subscribers to Netflix, Instagram and Pinterest when the storm cut power to some of Amazon Inc.'s operations. The video and photo sharing services took to Twitter and Facebook to update subscribers on the outages. Netflix and Pinterest had restored service by Saturday afternoon.
------
Associated Press writers Vicki Smith in Morgantown, W.Va.; Larry O'Dell in Richmond, Va.; Pam Ramsey in Charleston, W.Va.; Norman Gomlak and Jonathan Drew in Atlanta; Jeffrey McMurray in Chicago; Doug Ferguson in Bethesda, Md.; and Rebecca Miller in Philadelphia contributed to this report. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | June 2012 | ['(AP via Boston Globe)'] |
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad announces his intention to renegotiate a 1962 water agreement with Singapore, which the latter country regards as sacrosanct. | The price of water being sold to Singapore is "ridiculous", and Malaysia will make a presentation to its neighbour on renegotiating the terms of the water supply deal, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Monday (Jun 25).
"I think it is manifestly ridiculous that we should sell water at 3 sen per thousand gallons. That was okay way back in the 1990s or 1930s. But now what can you buy with 3 sen? Nothing," the 92-year-old told Channel NewsAsia in an exclusive interview.
Earlier, Bloomberg had reported that Dr Mahathir intended to go back to the drawing board on the water accord, which is set to expire in 2061.
"We are studying the case properly and we’ll make a presentation," he told Channel NewsAsia.
The revival of the water issue comes on the back of Dr Mahathir's decision to scrap the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail project agreed upon by the previous Najib Razak administration.
Dr Mahathir had cited a need to reduce the country's debt and liabilities exceeding RM1 trillion (US$251 billion) as the reason for scrapping the deal. Singapore has, however, stated that it has not been informed of Malaysia's intent.
At the interview, Dr Mahathir was asked about his foreign policy decisions, and he conceded that Malaysia had yet to inform Singapore about its intentions on both issues.
"Sometimes we make public statements without actually finalising the process," he said. "When we want to make a decision we don't wait until we inform Singapore, we just say something. Of course they would want to know, and we will inform them in time."
Asked if there is any timeframe on when he's planning to inform Singapore, he said: "It's not so urgent."
Dr Mahathir repeated this during a press conference on Monday evening, when he was asked again if he would be speaking to Singapore on renegotiating the water deal.
"It's not urgent," he reiterated. "We have many other problems that we have to focus on".
At the same conference, he also confirmed that the water issue had not been discussed in Cabinet before he made his comments, but that he was "pressed to announce" the issue after being "asked by the press".
Earlier, Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister said any bilateral problems that may arise from these choices could be resolved.
"I think whether we like it or not, Singapore is our closest neighbour and we have a common history. Whether we like it or not, we have to live with each other," he said.
"There will be little problems, conflicts and all that, (but) we'll resolve them."
WATER AGREEMENT "SACROSANCT" TO SINGAPORE
In a response to Dr Mahathir's comments later on Monday, the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said both Malaysia and Singapore must "comply fully" with the provisions of the 1962 Water Agreement and the 1965 Separation Agreement.
"The 1962 Water Agreement is a fundamental agreement that was guaranteed by both governments in the 1965 Separation Agreement which was registered with the UN," a spokesperson said in a statement.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Malaysia's former prime minister Najib Razak in January had reaffirmed the importance of undertaking measures to ensure the reliable and adequate water supply from the Johore River as provided for in the 1962 Water Agreement.
In a joint statement issued after a Singapore-Malaysia Leaders' Retreat, both countries also affirmed the terms of the agreement, under which Singapore is given full and exclusive rights to draw up to a maximum of 250 million gallons (mgd) of water per day from the Johore River.
In return, Johor is entitled to buy treated water of the same volume as up to 2 per cent of the water extracted by Singapore on any given day, or about 5 mgd if Singapore draws its full entitlement of water from the Johor River.
In February this year, then-Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Chan Chun Sing said Singapore must ensure that it has an adequate supply of water by the 2050s, before the water agreement with Malaysia expires in 2061.
Under national water agency PUB’s masterplan, NEWater and desalination will meet 85 per cent of Singapore’s water demand by 2060. That is also when the total water demand is expected to double.
In a written Parliamentary reply to Member of Parliament for Marine Parade GRC Seah Kian Peng in January 2017, Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan said the 1962 Water Agreement was "sacrosanct" to Singapore.
"It was guaranteed by both the Governments of Malaysia and Singapore under the 1965 Separation Agreement, which was deposited with the United Nations," he said.
In March 2017, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said Singapore must be psychologically prepared to face water shortages if its reservoirs dry up and when the second water agreement with Malaysia ends in 2061.
At present, imported water meets half of Singapore’s water needs. But water levels in Johor’s Linggiu Reservoir are falling. There is also the danger of prolonged dry weather, Mr Teo said at the time. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | June 2018 | ['(CNA)'] |
Police report multiple stabbings at a planned "white pride" rally in Sacramento, California, between the Traditionalist Workers Party and counter–protesters. The Sacramento Fire Department reports seven people were taken to local hospitals, two with life–threatening wounds. | Updated on: June 27, 2016 / 12:09 AM
/ CBS/AP
SACRAMENTO -- Several people were stabbed Sunday when members of right-wing extremists groups holding a rally outside the California state Capitol building in Sacramento clashed with counter-protesters, authorities said.
Authorities say a total of 10 people were taken to the hospital.
The Sacramento Fire Department says the injured included nine men and one woman ranging from 19 to 58 years old. At least five suffered stab wounds.
California Highway Patrol Officer George Granada says about 30 members of the Traditionalist Worker Party gathered at the Capitol for a rally when they were met by about 400 counter-protesters and a fight broke out around noon Sunday.
Fire officials said on Twitter that the protesters have cleared from the Capitol about three hours after the chaos began.
UPDATE: Protesters have cleared from CA State Capitol. Sac Fire transported an additional 2 patients, total of 7. pic.twitter.com/R1Z6oXynHK
The injured victims were all present while the protest took place, said Sacramento Police spokesman Matt McPhail.
He said it was still unclear whether and how they were involved.
Sacramento police said in a press release Sunday evening that during the event, police were approached by a citizen who located a loaded handgun on the State Capitol grounds. The firearm was turned over to police custody and was booked as evidence.
The Traditionalist Workers Party had scheduled and received a permit to protest at noon Sunday in front of the Capitol.
Matthew Heimbach, chairman of the Traditionalist Worker Party, tells the Los Angeles Times that his group and the Golden State Skinheads organized the Sunday rally.
Vice chairman Matt Parrott, who was not present at the Sacramento rally, says it was a peaceful march and blamed "leftist radicals" for instigating the violence.
Heimbach says that in the clash, one of their marchers had been stabbed in an artery and six of the "anti-fascists" had also been stabbed.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has described TWP as a group formed in 2015 as the political wing of the Traditionalist Youth Network, which aims to "indoctrinate high school and college students into white nationalism."
This group in front of the Capitol says the Nazis are being protected. They say they won bc the nazis aren't there pic.twitter.com/CRsR4YeZ0O
Scene on the steps of the Capitol pic.twitter.com/kAgfAGs02D
In a post on their website TWP described the gathering as their "Thermopylae," in reference to the infamous Greek battle site where a small Spartan force stood up to a massive Persian army.
They claimed the purpose of their gathering was a "protest against globalization and in defense of the right to free expression."
The Bay Area Independent reports "members of the Traditionalist Workers Party, Golden State Skinheads, Blood & Honor, National Socialist Movement and Ku Klux Klan," had all planned to attend.
Anti-fascist groups have been preparing a counter-protest, which they say will aim to shut down the "Nazi mega-rally."
It is unclear how exactly the violence at the Capitol began.
Insane video. Crowd sees any signs of "Nazis" and they run&attack. A lot of people bleeding/getting maced. @ABC10 pic.twitter.com/PoFhILfZ95
Police in Riot gear lines up on L by Capitol pic.twitter.com/2Gfo1AIB8F
A similar violent incident happened at a KKK rally near Los Angeles earlier this year, when Klan members were confronted by counter-protesters and mayhem ensued.
Witness video captured the brawl in an Anaheim park about 3 miles from Disneyland. Several protesters could be seen kicking a KKK member. One Klansman with an American flag used the pole's tip to stab a man.
Officers on scene said they witnessed a Klan member stab a protester with a knife. They found a third counter-protester in a car also stabbed.
First published on June 26, 2016 / 3:50 PM
| Protest_Online Condemnation | June 2016 | ['(CBS News)', '(ABC News)'] |
Near Colorado Springs, destructive wildfires claim hundreds of homes and at least 2 lives. | COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The damage from the Black Forest wildfire continued to grow Wednesday with 80 to possibly more than 100 homes already burned, officials said.
The fire, one of four burning in the state, has consumed about 8,000 acres, said Dave Rose, chief public information officer for El Paso County. There is zero containment of the fire, which was first reported about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.
This blaze is about 10 miles east from last year’s Waldo Canyon fire, which destroyed 346 homes and killed two people.
Rose said the people were feeling a sense of dread but also resolve. “It’s the sense of, ‘Yes, here we go again,’ but also, ‘We’re going to get through it again,’ ” Rose said.
According to Rose, 7,358 people have been evacuated from 2,625 homes. The homes that have been destroyed include primary residences on large 2- to 5-acre lots, some with horses, and more densely populated suburban subdivisions. No injuries have been reported, he said. But officials were concerned because some people refused to evacuate.
“Our worst fear is some may have paid dearly for that,” Rose said.
In addition there were “dozens” who needed emergency rescues Tuesday night.
Temperatures are slightly cooler than Tuesday, which is expected to help firefighters. But winds were expected to again pick up in the afternoon. One of the problems has been the winds moving in a variety of directions that has made it difficult for firefighters, he said.
As of Wednesday morning, the fire was being fought by 155 personnel, 48 trucks and other equipment and six planes.
Other Colorado fires include the Royal Gorge, which forced the evacuation of 900 inmates.
| Fire | June 2013 | ['(LA Times)'] |
The government of Iraqi Kurdistan announces that they won the referendum by over 92% of the vote. | Referendum result overwhelmingly endorses Kurdish independence from Baghdad as central government mounts pressure to 'cancel' vote and its outcome
Almost 93 per cent of those who took part in the referendum on support for Kurdish independence from Iraq have voted to split from Baghdad, officials have said.
The results of Monday's vote were announced on Wednesday evening by election officials in Irbil, the semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG)'s capital. A total of 92.73 per cent said 'yes' in response to the question, "Do you want the Kurdistan Region and the Kurdistani areas outside the administration of the Region to become an independent state?”, head of the electoral commission Hendrin Mohammed told reporters. Turn out had been high, with approximately 72 per cent of the 4.5 million registered voters.
The Kurdish decision to hold a vote on divorcing the central government has greatly angered Baghdad: Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's government has refused to recognised the referendum, declaring it unconstitutional. Multiple attempts were made to delay or derail it, including a Supreme Court order last week.
The international community - and in particular Washington DC - had advised against it, worried the vote could stoke already inflamed Irbil-Baghdad tensions and affect the fight to destroy Isis in its remaining strongholds in the country. Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Abadi demanded in a speech that the Kurdish authorities "cancel" the referendum and its results.
He ordered the KRG to give up control of its international airports by Friday, adding that Kurdish forces must also withdraw from disputed areas currently under KRG control such as Kirkuk.
"We won't have a dialogue about the referendum outcome," Mr Abadi told parliament. "If [the KRG] want to start talks, they must cancel the referendum and its outcome." GETTY
AP
REUTERS
The Kurdish people – who number roughly 30 million across several countries – were left stateless when the Ottoman Empire collapsed a century ago. While the vote was met with enthusiasm by the Kurdish diaspora all over the world, Baghdad and Iraq's Arab population have expressed concerns that areas involved in the referendum include places such as Kirkuk, which is an ethnically mixed and oil-rich province. Also on Wednesday, parliament voted to approve a 13-point resolution giving Mr Abadi the mandate to deploy troops in Kirkuk, which has been under KRG control since Kurdish forces began to wrest control of the country back from Isis, although the prime minister stressed that force would not be utliised to avoid a "fight between Iraqi citizens."
Baghdad also sees the referendum as a Kurdish effort to take control of Iraqi oil revenue.
Within the KRG, the vote is widely seen as consolidating President Masoud Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party's grip on power, giving him a mandate in future dealings with Mr Abadi.
As well as Iraq, neighbouring Iran and Turkey bitterly oppose Kurdish independence on economic and security grounds.
Both countries closed their airspace to the Iraqi Kurdish region as voting took place on Monday, worried that the likely 'yes' result would fuel the desire for an independent Kurdistan within their own significant Kurdish populations. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent troops and tanks to the border with the KRG earlier this week, where they have been joined for joint exercises with Iraqi soliders.
Further economic and military action were both options on the table for Ankara, he said, adding that Turkey could shut off both oil pipelines and truck deliveries to the KRG, letting it "starve". | Government Job change - Election | September 2017 | ['(The Independent)'] |
ROC presidential election, 2004: Wei Chueh, one of four Buddhist masters in Taiwan, controversially endorses Lien Chan. | Wei Chueh, one of four Buddhist masters in Taiwan, called on his followers on Wednesday to support Lien Chan of the former ruling party, the Kuomintang, which has traditionally favoured eventual reunification with the mainland. But at a news conference on Thursday, a leading Buddhist nun attacked the monk, saying it was wrong for religious leaders to campaign on political issues. President Chen's referendum is a "joke", the monk said
While politicians in Taiwan are often seen at temples across the island trying to drum up support while they are out campaigning, religious leaders have tended to steer clear of politics, refusing to openly endorse any candidate.
So the call by one of Taiwan's main Buddhist masters - openly urging his supporters to back the opposition - has proved controversial. Wei Chueh joined congregants cheering for Lien Chan and his running mate, James Soong, as they visited his temple in central Taiwan.
He also urged his supporters to boycott an election-day referendum organised by their opponent, current president Chen Shui-bian.
The referendum, which will ask voters if they support new talks with China and if they favour boosting the island's military defences, had become an international joke, said the monk.
But Shih Chao Hwei, a leading nun from the Association of Buddhist Monasteries in Taiwan, hit back at his comments, saying he was twisting the truth to suit his political views.
Religious leaders should not engage in political campaigning, she said.
Supporters of the Buddhist master say he has as many as one million followers in Taiwan and with the election now neck and neck, the votes of such a large group could be crucial. But other Buddhists have played down the impact of his political calls, saying Buddhist doctrine teaches that people should listen to themselves rather than relying on other figures telling them which way to vote. | Government Job change - Election | March 2004 | ['(BBC)'] |
Two Palestinians held in Israeli prisons are reportedly close to death, having refused to eat for 74 days. A further 1,600 prisoners have been on hunger strike since 17 April. Leaders of the strikers wait for a response from the Israeli Prison Service to calls for negotiation on issues such as the allowing of family visits for prisoners from Gaza and the ending of the use of extended solitary confinement. (Ha'aretz) | Reports indicate that progress in negotiations has been made, though hunger strike to continue as a number of issues remain unresolved.
Hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners will continue their strike in the coming days, though a decision to expand the strike has not been reached. Kadura Fars, the head of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club, told Haaretz that the committee appointed by the prisoners is still waiting for answers from the Israel Prison Service concerning certain points of negotiation.
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Get unlimited access to the smartest and most reliable reporting on Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Cancel | Protest_Online Condemnation | May 2012 | ['(Daily Telegraph)'] |
The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt nominates chairman Khairat El–Shater as a candidate for the presidential elections in May 2012. | The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has nominated its deputy chairman, Khairat al-Shatir, as its candidate for the presidential elections in May.
The choice of Mr Shatir, the group's financier, reverses a pledge made earlier by the group's leaders not to contest the election.
It will raise concerns among liberals and the military that the Brotherhood could become too powerful.
Correspondents say its ties with the ruling council have steadily worsened.
There had been much speculation about whether it would opt to field a candidate following the party's legislative election success in November.
The movement's political arm then won around a third of the vote, and nearly half the seats in the first parliamentary election since the fall of Hosni Mubarak last year.
Mahmoud Hussein, the group's deputy leader, said it had decided to field a candidate following "attempts to abort the revolution". Only a few days remain before the close of nominations.
Challenge
The announcement ends months of speculation about who the Muslim Brotherhood would throw its weight behind, says the BBC's Yolande Knell in Cairo.
Mr Shatir, a wealthy businessman, has long been a senior member of the Islamist group and its main financier.
He spent 12 years in prison because of his connection with the Brotherhood, which was previously banned. He was released only after last year's uprising.
In an official statement, the Muslim Brotherhood said it had reversed its decision not to contest the presidency to overcome risks to Egypt's revolution and the transfer from military to civilian rule.
The Brotherhood already dominates Egypt's newly elected parliament and the panel set up to draft the new constitution.
But it complains that its attempts to form a new cabinet have been blocked and there have been threats to dissolve parliament.
The ruling military council has been in conflict with the Brotherhood over the appointment of cabinet ministers.
The Brotherhood argues presidential candidates from the ousted government could present a further challenge. | Government Job change - Election | April 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Around 40 people are killed by an American cruise missile strike targeting al-Qaeda-linked militants at a Huras al-Din base in Syria's rebel-held Idlib Governorate, where the Syrian government earlier began a unilateral ceasefire. | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. forces struck an al Qaeda facility north of Idlib in Syria on Saturday in an attack aimed at the organization’s leadership, U.S. Central Command, part of the Department of Defense, said.
“This operation targeted AQ-S leaders responsible for attacks threatening U.S. citizens, our partners, and innocent civilians,” Lt. Col. Earl Brown, Central Command Chief of Media Operations, said in an emailed statement.
Brown said the destruction of the facility would further constrain al Qaeda’s ability to carry out attacks and destabilize the region.
“Northwest Syria remains a safe haven where AQ-S leaders actively coordinate terrorist activities throughout the region and in the West,” Brown said. “With our allies and partners, we will continue to target violent extremists to prevent them from using Syria as a safe haven.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said air strikes pounded bases belonging to jihadist fighters in Syria’s northwest. The UK-based monitor said the strikes, near the town of Maarat Misrin in Idlib province, killed more than 40 militants, including some commanders.
Syria’s northwest corner, which includes Idlib, is the last big chunk of the country still in rebel hands after more than eight years of war.
The dominant force in Idlib is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist alliance formerly known as the Nusra Front, which cut ties to al Qaeda in 2016. However, a wide array of factions, including Turkey-backed rebels, also have a presence.
U.S. air strikes have hit a number of Nusra commanders in northwest Syria in recent years.
Reporting by Diane Bartz, Lucia Mutikani and Idrees Ali in Washington and Khalil Ashawi in Istanbul; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien
| Armed Conflict | August 2019 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
A suicide bomber in a market kills at least 21 people and wounds more than 30 in Hangu, Pakistan. | At least 21 people have been killed and dozens injured in a suicide bomb attack outside a Shia mosque in the north-western Pakistani town of Hangu, reports say.
The attack took place as worshippers were leaving Friday prayers.
The town of Hangu is close to Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal regions, which have a strong Taliban and al-Qaeda presence.
The town is also known for sectarian violence against Shias.
No group has yet said it carried out the attack.
Local police chief Mian Mohammad Saeed said the bomb went off at one of the exits of the Shia mosque leading to the Pat Bazaar.
"It was a suicide attack which targeted Shias but Sunni Muslims also fell victim since their mosque and some shops were also very close to the site," he said.
TV footage showed several small shops damaged and a wall pitted with shrapnel.
A motorcycle was packed with 7kg of explosives in a narrow street, police said.
Security forces have cordoned off the area, and the injured have been taken to a local hospital.
"As soon as I reached the mosque exit, a huge blast rocked the area. Many people fell on me with the impact of the blast," eyewitness Muzammil Hussain told AFP news agency.
"I saw red and bloodied pieces of human flesh everywhere. It was a scene I'd never seen in my life before."
Hangu is a Sunni majority town, but is located on the main route to the mainly Shia Kurram region.
Pakistan has experienced worsening sectarian violence in recent years. In November, 23 Shia Muslims were killed by a bomb in the city of Rawalpindi, and last month 19 pilgrims died in an attack on a bus convoy in Baluchistan.
Then on 10 January, more than 80 people died in twin blasts in a snooker hall in a Shia area of the city of Quetta. | Armed Conflict | February 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)', '(The New York Times)'] |
Mining company Samarco agrees to pay $4.4bn reais (£804m) in compensation to victims of the Bento Rodrigues dam disaster in Brazil. | The owners of a Brazilian mine that suffered a dam burst, setting off a deadly mudslide, have agreed to pay 4.4bn reais (£804m) in damages. Samarco - co-owned by Vale and BHP Billiton - will pay 2bn reais in 2016 and 1.2bn each in 2017 and 2018. The Brazilian government originally demanded 20bn reais to address what is considered the country's worst environmental disaster. The accident triggered a mudslide that killed 19 people.
The mudslide also wiped out entire districts and polluted a major river in south-east Brazil.
"This agreement demonstrates our commitment to repairing the damage caused and to contributing to a lasting improvement in the Rio Doce," Samarco said in a statement. Under the terms of the agreement Brazilian Vale and Australian BHP Billiton will be jointly responsible for the payments if Samarco cannot make them. The money is being divided into two categories - environmental restoration and compensation for communities. In February, a police investigation determined Samarco executive had been negligent. Six of the mine's executives including its president were charged with homicide. Mining companies fined over dam burst | Organization Fine | March 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
Colonel Ivan Petrik, chief of staff of the Russian ground force in South Ossetia, is confirmed dead from wounds he suffered in the Friday blast in Tskhinvali. | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia blamed Georgia on Saturday for an explosion that killed Russian soldiers in Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia.
A senior Russian peacekeeping officer was among seven soldiers killed on Friday when a car blew up at the Russian peacekeepers’ base in Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, the Russian military said.
Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted South Ossetia’s Interior Ministry as saying a total of 11 people had been killed, including civilians. The RIA agency quoted a military spokesman as saying Colonel Ivan Petrik, the Russian peacekeepers’ chief of staff, had been killed in his office.
Georgia sent troops and tanks in August to assert control of the pro-Russian separatist region, but was routed by Russian forces, which went on to occupy parts of the Georgian heartland.
Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office, told Itar-Tass news agency that the office had “all grounds to believe that the explosion in Tskhinvali was arranged by the secret services of Georgia and is aimed at Russian peacekeepers to destabilize the situation.”
Russia’s RIA news agency quoted the commander of Russia’s forces in Georgia, Major-General Marat Kulakhmetov, as saying they had stopped two cars on Friday in the village of Ditsa, in a Russian-controlled buffer zone around South Ossetia, and escorted them to Tskhinvali.
As they were being searched, a bomb went off.
Georgia denied the charges, saying it would have had to find Ossetians to take the car into the area under Russian control.
“I don’t understand the logic. How could the Georgian secret service plan that the Ossetians would steal the car and that the Russians would take it to their base. Are we geniuses or what?” Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said.
“The Georgians did not take any car to Ossetian territory or drive it to the Russian base.”
Utiashvili suggested the Russians were trying to delay their withdrawal from the buffer zone, due to be complete by October 10 under a French-mediated ceasefire agreement.
Unarmed EU monitors have entered the buffer zone to monitor the agreement. A spokesman for the mission said they were patrolling as normal on Saturday.
| Armed Conflict | October 2008 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Hurricane Gustav weakens to a tropical storm in central Louisiana after being responsible for 7 deaths in the United States and more than 90 in the Caribbean. | NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Gustav weakened to a tropical storm Monday night and all coastal warnings were discontinued, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Authorities said Monday at least seven deaths had been blamed on the storm, MSNBC reported.
At 11 p.m. EDT the storm was centered about 20 miles southwest of Alexandria, La., and was moving toward the northwest at about 13 mph with maximum sustained winds of about 60 mph with higher gusts.
The storm was likely to continue moving on that track with a decrease in forward speed into Tuesday, and to cross western Louisiana Monday night and reach northeastern Texas Tuesday. Gustav is likely to be downgraded to a tropical depression Tuesday, forecasters said.
A few tornadoes were possible in the lower Mississippi Valley and the central Gulf Coast Monday night and early Tuesday.
Louisiana officials said Monday the Caernarvon Mississippi River diversion in Plaquemines Parish would be opened to take pressure off a levee that was being overtopped -- but not breached -- in Braithwaite, near the St. Bernard Parish line, the Times-Picayune of New Orleans reported. Floodwaters spilled over the top of the levee, threatening the Braithwaite Park subdivision, the newspaper said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said flooding in New Orleans' Upper Ninth Ward doesn't pose a danger. Up to six inches of flooding had been reported in the beleaguered area from water spilling over the western side of the Industrial Canal floodwall, Times-Picayune said.
A hurricane warning remains in effect from just east of Cameron Island, La., to the Mississippi-Alabama border, including New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain. A tropical storm warning was in effect from Cameron westward to just east of High Island, Texas, and from the Mississippi-Alabama border to the Florida-Alabama border.
A storm surge of 10-14 feet above normal tide levels was expected near and to the east of where Gustav's center crosses the coast, the hurricane center said.
Gustav was expected to produce a total rainfall of up to a foot over portions of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas, and also could spark a few tornadoes over the central Gulf Coast, the center said.
The storm killed more than 90 people in Haiti, Dominican Republic and Cuba before it entered the Gulf of Mexico during the weekend. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2008 | ['(UPI)'] |
Uruguayan voters elect Broad Front candidate José Mujica as their new president. | MONTEVIDEO, Nov 29 (Reuters) - A former guerrilla fighter who has pledged to take a moderate path won Uruguay’s presidential run-off election on Sunday and his rightist opponent conceded.
Jose Mujica, 74, who waged an armed revolt against a democratically elected government in the 1960s and 1970s and was jailed for 14 years, was ahead with 51.2 percent of the vote, according to a quick count of the ballots by Factum polling group.
Two other pollsters made similar projections and Uruguayan television stations called the vote a victory for Mujica.
His rival, rightist former President Luis Lacalle, conceded the election, Lacalle’s running mate Jorge Larranaga said.
A Mujica victory would keep in power the ruling Broad Front coalition credited by many Uruguayans with lifting the country out of an economic slump earlier this decade and stoking growth this year in the face of the global slowdown.
Mujica, a farmer and former agriculture minister and senator, vows to continue investor-friendly policies that have helped the economy in one of Latin America’s most stable countries to expand for six straight years.
He campaigned praising Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Latin America’s leading moderate leftist, signaling he does not intend to bring Uruguay closer to more hard-line leaders like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
The new president of Uruguay will take office on March 1 and serve a five-year term.
Lacalle has raised questions about Mujica’s militant past, suggesting the former guerrilla fighter would be more radical than he seemed on the campaign trail.
But Mujica said he will stay the course set by outgoing President Tabare Vazquez, Uruguay’s first socialist leader. Vazquez is barred from seeking a second consecutive term.
“It’s going to be the same dog, but with a different collar,” Mujica said. | Government Job change - Election | November 2009 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A Palestinian terrorist fatally stabs a 21-year-old Israeli woman at the Gush Etzion junction in the West Bank; the attacker is shot and killed by Israeli soldiers. | An Israeli woman was killed in a stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion Junction, near the West Bank settlements of Efrat and Alon Shvut, on Sunday afternoon.
The woman was administered emergency treatment at the scene before ambulances evacuated her to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in nearby Jerusalem, where she was declared dead.
She was later named as Hadar Buchris, 21, of Safed.
The terrorist was shot and killed by security forces at the scene. The Shin Bet security service later named him as Wissam Tawabte, 34, from Beit Fajjar, a nearby Palestinian village. He did not have previous links to terror activity, the Shin Bet said.
Davidi Perl, the head of the Etzion Regional Council, said the IDF must restrict Palestinians’ freedom of movement and close off villages in order to prevent terror attacks in the future. | Armed Conflict | November 2015 | ['(Ynet News)', '(Times of Israel)'] |
Today's parliamentary election is forecast to end Spain's two-party system as the traditional powers, the center-right People's Party and the center-left Socialist Workers' Party , are facing real challenges from the anti-austerity Podemos Party and the liberal Ciudadanos party (C's). Analysts expect a high turnout. | Spain is taking part in a general election on December 20 that looks set to change its political system for good. How come?
To understand what's going on, we need to look back at the protests that filled the squares of Spain in May 2011 and triggered one of the most dynamic and sustained episodes of citizen mobilization the country has ever seen.
Initially youth-led but ultimately galvanizing citizens of all ages, the protesters demanded "Real Democracy Now!" by calling for an end to a political system that alternated power between two parties that both served the interests of political and economic elites rather than the Spanish people.
Given the acute effects of the economic crisis and ensuing austerity policies, these demands were met with widespread support from an astonishing 80 percent of the population one year after the May 2011 protests.
Although the so-called 15-M was at first a staunchly anti-partisan, pro-democracy movement, everything changed when a party "project" was created that aimed to combine elements of participatory social movements with an electoral challenge to the parties in power.
Although not convincing all 15-M participants, many decided to put their energies into the new party—Podemos. Just four months after forming in 2014, it managed to win 1.2 million votes and five seats in the European Parliament, heralding a radical shift in Spain's political landscape.
These results spurred the setup of an array of municipal platforms that managed to take control of some of Spain's major cities, including Madrid, Barcelona and, in a historic upset in May 2015, Valencia.
The support of these coalitions for Podemos in the national elections (where Podemos is presenting on coalition lists in some regions, notably Catalonia), and especially Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, has also been important.
Podemos's ability to capture political ground rested on two key strategies: defining itself as a party of ordinary citizens that was neither left nor right, and attacking the political establishment as representing a corrupt "caste" that refused to listen to the demands and needs of ordinary citizens.
But the blows Podemos dealt to the established parties' credibility and legitimacy presented an opportunity for other "new" political actors and just such a force has emerged in the form of upstart Ciudadanos.
Competing upstarts
Following a spectacular entrance onto the political scene, which saw Podemos shoot to the number one position in the polls in January 2015, it has been somewhat upstaged by a "new" challenger, the right-wing party Ciudadanos.
Despite not really being new—it has existed in Catalonia for more than 10 years—the party, with its young leader Albert Rivera, has managed to sell itself as a more centrist alternative to Podemos.
It has made anti-corruption a key part of its rhetoric, and even adopted a slight modification of Podemos's campaign slogan in the European parliamentary elections for its campaign slogan in the general elections: "¿Cuándo fue la última vez que votaste con ilusión?" (When was the last time you voted with hope/excitement?) became Ciudadanos's slogan "Vota con ilusión" (Vote with hope/excitement).
But despite being perceived as fresh new alternatives that hope to capture the political center, the two parties remain profoundly different.
Ciudadanos is a socially and fiscally conservative party with an ideology close to the ruling Popular Party, although it uses primaries for candidate selection and has written anti-corruption measures and restrictions on party donations into its "commitment to democratic regeneration."
Podemos, on the other hand, is a socially and fiscally progressive party, close to the main opposition Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) on many issues, with decentralized and participatory mechanisms for internal party decision-making, solely crowdfunded finances and a general commitment to transparency.
Most citizens see Ciudadanos as a centrist party that scores well across a wide range of social and economic issues and Podemos as a left-wing party that scores very high in social issues but lower on economic issues. The support they have garnered has changed the profile of both the PSOE and the Popular Party (PP), who are now moving further left and right respectively.
Whereas Podemos is taking votes from the PSOE, Ciudadanos has managed to take votes from both the PP and the PSOE. Both receive support from young voters.
Generational split
The polls show a marked generational split, with Podemos as the favorite party among voters younger than 35 and especially with first time voters, and Ciudadanos occupying the top spot with voters aged between 35 and 44.
PSOE and PP supporters, on the other hand, are significantly older: the PP is in fourth place among voters under the age of 45, but shoots up to first among voters over 65, from whom it has 53 percent of its support.
This generational split will have a lasting significance well be beyond these elections. The PP depends on a base of voters much older than the rest of the electorate, while Podemos and Ciudadanos are getting a lot of support from first-time voters. That means they're probably here to stay, since Spanish voters seem to dependably stick with the party they choose the first time they vote.
What the polls say
All the major polls indicate a win for the PP, but by a very small margin, with 41 percent of voters still undecided as of December 14. The range offered by the eight major polls indicate 103-128 seats for the PP, 76-94 seats for the PSOE, 52-72 seats for Ciudadanos, and 45-63 seats for Podemos.
The last polls that can legally be published came out on the same day as a televised debate between current president Mariano Rajoy (PP) and PSOE candidate Pedro Sánchez. Post–debate feeling seemed to indicate a "win" for the PSOE and a "loss" for the PP, but in the absence of hard data, it is impossible to say what effect the debate will have on the elections.
Whatever the outcome, it's clear that the era of two-party rule is over, and that no party can expect to win an absolute majority. Forming a government will probably require pacts between more than two parties—and according to the CIS pre-electoral survey, 58.2 percent of Spanish voters would be happy with that. | Government Job change - Election | December 2015 | ['(PP)', '(PSOE)', '(Reuters via Huffington Post)', '(Newsweek)'] |
Three CNN journalists, Thomas Frank, Eric Lichtblau, and Lex Haris, resign after the publication of a Russia-related article involving President Donald Trump that was retracted. , | CNN accepted the resignations Monday of three journalists involved in a retracted story about a supposed investigation into a pre-inaugural meeting between an associate of President Donald Trump and the head of a Russian investment fund.
The story was posted on the network's website on Thursday and was removed, with all links disabled, Friday night. CNN immediately apologized to Anthony Scaramucci, the Trump transition team member who was reported to be involved in the meeting.
The story's author, Thomas Frank, was among those who resigned, according to a network executive who requested anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss personnel issues. Also losing their jobs were Eric Lichtblau, an assistant managing editor in CNN's Washington bureau, and Lex Haris, head of the investigations unit.
CNN, in initially taking down the story, said it didn't meet its editorial standards. The episode is a damaging blow for a network that Trump has frequently derided as "fake news," and for a story that never even made it onto any of CNN's television networks.
The story had been quickly questioned both internally and externally, including by the conservative site Breitbart News. It was determined that the story was posted without going through the expected checks and balances for a story of such sensitivity, the executive said.
The failure to follow proper procedures is what led to the resignations, the CNN executive said.
It's not immediately clear what in the story is factually incorrect, or whether CNN will continue to report on the issue. The retracted story had said the Senate intelligence committee was looking into a January 16 discussion between Scaramucci and Kirill Dmitriev, whose Russian Direct Investment Fund guides investments by U.S. entities in Russia. Scaramucci, in the story, said he exchanged pleasantries in a restaurant with Dmitriev.
The report also said that two Democratic senators wanted to know whether Scaramucci had indicated in the meeting whether sanctions against Russia would be lifted, a decision that could impact the investment fund.
Following the retraction, Scaramucci tweeted that CNN "did the right thing. Classy move. Apology accepted. Everyone makes mistakes. Moving on."
Haris, in a statement to CNN's "Reliable Sources," noted that he'd been with CNN since 2001, "and am sure about one thing: This is a news organization that prizes accuracy and fairness above all else. I am leaving, but will carry those principles wherever I go."
———
This story has been amended to correct congressional committee's name to Senate intelligence committee, and to correct the spelling of Lex Haris' name. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | June 2017 | ['(ABC News)', '(Washington Post)'] |
Novak Djokovic beats Roger Federer in Cincinnati, becoming the first player to win singles titles in all nine ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments in his career. | MASON, OHIO—Novak Djokovic gave his racket to a fan and tossed his sweatbands into the stands. No need for mementos from this victory. The long-awaited Rookwood pottery trophy would be plenty.
Djokovic finally mastered the one tournament that’s eluded him, beating nemesis Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4 on Sunday for his first Western & Southern Open championship.
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MASON, OHIO—Novak Djokovic gave his racket to a fan and tossed his sweatbands into the stands. No need for mementos from this victory. The long-awaited Rookwood pottery trophy would be plenty.
Djokovic finally mastered the one tournament that’s eluded him, beating nemesis Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4 on Sunday for his first Western & Southern Open championship.
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Special offer just for you. Unlimited access.
MASON, OHIO—Novak Djokovic gave his racket to a fan and tossed his sweatbands into the stands. No need for mementos from this victory. The long-awaited Rookwood pottery trophy would be plenty.
Djokovic finally mastered the one tournament that’s eluded him, beating nemesis Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4 on Sunday for his first Western & Southern Open championship.
He got the better of a nostalgic rematch — they hadn’t played in two years because of injuries — and broke through in a tournament that Federer has won seven times, never losing a title match.
Read more:
Novak Djokovic keeps unbeaten record against Milos Raonic
Raonic back as top-ranked Canadian after Shapovalov slides six spots
“Thank you for letting me win once in Cincinnati,” he told Federer as they stood on court for the trophy presentation.
After reaching the final five times and losing every time — three to Federer — Djokovic jumped and punched the air in celebration of his breakthrough. He’s the first to claim all nine ATP Masters 1000 events since the series started in 1990, something that had become his quest after so many close calls.
“That’s what the headline should be about — this is such an amazing accomplishment,” Federer said. “He’s the first to do it. I think it’s very difficult to win Masters 1000s. These performances don’t come easy.”
Djokovic leads their all-time series 24-22, doing better in the biggest matches. He’s 3-1 against Federer in Grand Slam finals and 12-6 overall in championship matches, including wins at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2015.
Djokovic completed a long comeback from elbow problems by winning his fourth Wimbledon title last month, then set out to get his hard-court game in order for the U.S. Open. He got better as the rainy week went on in Cincinnati, playing his best at the end.
“This seems to be a bit unreal, to be honest, to be back at this level,” he said.
Federer’s serve had been untouchable all week — held for 46 consecutive games. Djokovic broke that streak to go up 4-3 in the opening set, prompting Federer to mutter angrily. Djokovic served out the set, and then traded breaks with Federer early in the second set.
Federer’s game was off — 28 unforced errors — and Djokovic took full advantage. He broke him again to go up 4-3 and served it out.
In the women’s bracket, top-ranked Simona Halep let a match point slip away during the second-set tiebreaker, and Kiki Bertens rallied for a 2-6, 7-6 (6), 6-2 victory in her first hard-court final.
Bertens served a 109 m.p.h. ace , flipped her racket away, fell to her knees and raised both arms. Moments later, she covered her face for a joyous cry, wiping the tears away with her sweat-soaked blue wristband.
One point away from another loss, she had pulled off her biggest win, one that left her as stunned as everyone else.
“I cannot find words for this moment,” she said.
The Dutch clay-court specialist ended Halep’s streak of nine straight wins, including the title at Montreal a week earlier. She’d never beaten a top-ranked player, but wore down Halep at the end of her two draining weeks.
During the week in Cincinnati, Halep had one match suspended overnight by rain and wound up playing twice in one day to reach the semifinals. She controlled the first set on Sunday and had a chance to close it out, leading 6-5 in the tiebreaker.
When that slipped away, she never recovered, playing her worst in the final set — 13 unforced errors that gave Bertens a chance to pull away.
“I had a match (point), so I was there,” Halep said. “I didn’t take my chance. In the third set , I was empty and I couldn’t fight anymore.”
Halep will be ranked No. 1 through the U.S. Open. She fell to 0-3 in Cincinnati finals, finishing as the runner-up in 2015 and each of the last two years.
“I need a little bit of rest because I’m exhausted,” Halep said. “But I also take the positive from these two weeks. It’s a great confidence (boost).”
Bertens has worked on her hard-court game and her confidence on the surface. In three previous appearances in Cincinnati, she won a total of one match. She became the first unseeded player to win in Cincinnati since Vera Zvonareva in 2006. | Sports Competition | August 2018 | ['(The Star)'] |
Russia and Tajikistan begin joint military exercises near the Afghan–Tajik border to deter potential Taliban attacks. | Dushanbe (Tajikistan) (AFP) - Russia and Tajikistan on Tuesday began joint military exercises near the Tajik-Afghan border to prepare to ward off potential Taliban attacks.
More than 10,000 troops, mostly Tajik reservists, will take part in the first such drills in the area by the ex-Soviet allies, Tajikistan's defence ministry said.
Combined forces will practice "eliminating terrorists who broke through" from Afghanistan in an imagined incursion, it said.
Some 400 soldiers and 80 pieces of Russian military equipment were deployed from a military base in Tajikistan for exercises due to last until Friday, the Russian army said.
The drills will take place just over the border from the Afghan province of Badakhshan.
Russia and Tajikistan have intensified military cooperation since US-led forces began withdrawing from Afghanistan in large numbers in 2014.
This is the first time they have held exercises in the sometimes restive Tajik province of Gorno-Badakhshan, where clashes between government and rebel forces took place in 2012.
Previous exercises were held in the country's southern Khatlon province.
China has beefed up its security assistance in the country in recent times, notably building infrastructure on the 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan and holding its own drills with Tajikistan in 2016.
The border is a haven for drug traffickers and was guarded by Russian troops before they stepped back in 2005. Afghanistan is the world's biggest opium producer. | Military Exercise | July 2018 | ['(Yahoo)'] |
Negotiators from the European Union and the United States reach a deal on sharing trans–Atlantic passenger data used in anti–terrorism investigations. | European Union and US negotiators have reached a deal on the sharing of trans-Atlantic air passenger data used in anti-terror investigations, diplomats said in Luxembourg today.
Details of the exact deal were not yet clear after marathon talks which started late yesterday.
The EU diplomats said EU government representatives had not yet been formally notified of the deal.
A 2004 trans-Atlantic air passenger privacy deal - which the EU high court voided last May for technical reasons - lapsed after negotiators missed an October 1 deadline.
Negotiations collapsed last week when EU negotiators - seeking a simple replacement accord - could not agree to US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's request for a more routine sharing of passenger data among US law enforcement agencies.
Reaching a new deal had been an EU priority to ensure airlines can continue to legally submit 34 pieces of data about passengers flying from Europe to US destinations. Such data - including passengers' names, addresses and credit card details - must be transferred to US authorities within 15 minutes of a flight's departure for the United States.
Washington had warned that airlines failing to share passenger data faced fines of up to 6,000 dollars (£3,200) per passenger and the loss of landing rights.
European Union and US negotiators have reached a deal on the sharing of trans-Atlantic air passenger data used in anti-terror investigations, diplomats said in Luxembourg today.
Details of the exact deal were not yet clear after marathon talks which started late yesterday.
The EU diplomats said EU government representatives had not yet been formally notified of the deal.
A 2004 trans-Atlantic air passenger privacy deal - which the EU high court voided last May for technical reasons - lapsed after negotiators missed an October 1 deadline.
Negotiations collapsed last week when EU negotiators - seeking a simple replacement accord - could not agree to US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's request for a more routine sharing of passenger data among US law enforcement agencies.
Reaching a new deal had been an EU priority to ensure airlines can continue to legally submit 34 pieces of data about passengers flying from Europe to US destinations. Such data - including passengers' names, addresses and credit card details - must be transferred to US authorities within 15 minutes of a flight's departure for the United States.
Washington had warned that airlines failing to share passenger data faced fines of up to 6,000 dollars (£3,200) per passenger and the loss of landing rights. | Sign Agreement | October 2006 | ['(The Independent)'] |
The parliament of Ukraine passes a language law in a vote of 278 to 38 that will secure the use of Ukrainian as the country's only official language. | KYIV -- Ukraine's parliament has approved legislation that its authors say will "secure" the use of Ukrainian as the official "state language."
Ukraine's outgoing President Petro Poroshenko has said that he will sign the bill into law before he leaves office in early June.
But Ukraine's president-elect, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has criticized the bill as a set of "prohibitions and punishments" that will complicate bureaucratic procedures and "increase the number of officials instead of reducing them."
In an April 25 statement on his Facebook page, Zelenskiy said his view "is that the state should promote the development of the Ukrainian language by creating incentives and positive examples."
"After my appointment to the post of president, a thorough analysis of this law will be made to ensure that it meets all the constitutional rights and interests of all Ukrainian citizens," Zelenskiy said, adding that he will respond "in accordance with the constitutional powers of the president of Ukraine and in the interest of citizens."
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters in Moscow that the bill contradicts the Ukrainian Constitution and promotes the "Ukrainization" of the country.
"It is actually a law on forced Ukrainization, basically a total one. Its texts envision significant restrictions, and in some case directly ban the use of Russian and the languages of ethnic minorities in different spheres of social life," Zakharova said.
The bill says "the only official state language in Ukraine is the Ukrainian language."
It says "attempts" to introduce other languages as the state language would be considered as "activities with the goal to forcibly change the constitutional order."
The bill also introduces a legal concept known as the "public humiliation of the Ukrainian language," which it defines as "illegal activity equated to desecration of Ukraine's state symbols" under the country's criminal code.
It allows language quotas for state and private television broadcasts and says at least half of the text in printed media must be in Ukrainian.
The legislation also calls for the introduction of "language inspectors who will be present at all gatherings and sessions of any state bodies."
They would be empowered to demand documents from political parties and public organizations and to impose punitive fines of up to $450 if they determine the documents are "not in Ukrainian."
The bill also calls for the establishment of a state-run "center for the Ukrainian language" to issue certificates that confirm the language fluency of Ukrainian citizens.
Public posts that require Ukrainian fluency under the bill include the presidency, the speaker of parliament and all parliamentary deputies, government ministers, the head of the state security service, the prosecutor-general, the chief of the Ukrainian National Bank, and local council members.
The Ukrainian language also would be mandatory in all official documents, court records, elections and referendums, international treaties, and labor agreements,.
The bill says the language rules would not apply to private conversations or religious rituals.
The language issue is controversial among Russian speakers in Ukraine.
Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine claim Kyiv is deliberately curtailing the use of the Russian language.
| Government Policy Changes | April 2019 | ['(RFE/RL)'] |
An Aerogaviota-operated Antonov An-26 plane crashes in western Artemisa Province, Cuba, killing eight troops on board. | By Scott Campbell For Mailonline Published: 20:02 BST, 29 April 2017 | Updated: 21:51 BST, 29 April 2017 88
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A military plane has crashed in Cuba reportedly killing everyone on board.
The Antonov An-26 aircraft owned by Cuban airline AeroGaviota came down near the western province of Pinar Del Rio just 50 miles from the capital Havana.
The area where the plane came down is known as Las Lomas de San Cristóbal that is 'difficult to access by land'.
Reports suggest that eight people on board died in the crash.
The plane that crashed was an Antonov An-26 aircraft owned by Cuban airline AeroGaviota, similar to this one (stock photo)
The turboprop plane is thought to have taken off from the country's Baracoa Airport which regularly offers domestic flights.
The Cuban News Agency reported: 'The eight military personnel on board, including the crew, died.
'A commission of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces is investigating the causes of the accident.'
In 2002 four Britons were among 16 people who died when a light aircraft crashed in Cuba.
The plane, an Antonov AN-2 operated by the state airline Aerotaxi, went down near the city of Santa Clara, about 160 miles east of the capital Havana.
The aircraft had been on a round-trip from Cienfuegos on Cuba's southern coast and the island resort of Cayo Coco, in the north.
| Air crash | April 2017 | ['(Daily Mail)', '(AP via Miami Herald)'] |
U.S. Attorney General William Barr, in a letter to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel, declares that Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, members of "The Beatles" ISIL cell, will not be given the death penalty if found guilty. Prior attempts by the United States to get the UK Home Office to cooperate on the terrorists' prosecution had been stymied due to the latter's long–standing policy of refusing to extradite citizens or aid in their prosecution if the death penalty was sought. | Two Islamic State suspects will not face the death penalty if convicted of the killings of Western hostages in Iraq and Syria, the US has told the UK.
Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh are accused of being the last two members of an IS cell dubbed "The Beatles" because of their UK accents. The US sought the UK's help in the case but a legal fight over the use of the death penalty has stymied co-operation.
The US has now made clear the two will not be executed if found guilty.
In a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel, US Attorney General William Barr said the US authorities would not seek the death penalty against the two men and "if imposed, it will not be carried out". In the light of the assurances, he said he hoped the UK would share "important evidence" about the men promptly.
"If we receive the requested evidence and attendant cooperation from the UK, we intend to proceed with a United States prosecution," he wrote.
"Indeed, it is these unique circumstances that have led me to provide the assurance offered in this letter."
A Home Office spokesman said the UK "continue to work closely with international partners to ensure that those who have committed crimes in the name of Daesh are brought to justice". The pair, who are in US military custody in Iraq, were British citizens, but have been stripped of their UK nationality.
They are alleged to have been members of an IS kidnap gang behind the killings of a number of Western hostages, including American journalists and British aid workers, in Iraq and Syria in 2014. The victims were beheaded and their deaths filmed and broadcast on social media.
The UK believes the men cannot be legally extradited to the US, but in 2018 it emerged that the US was preparing the ground to prosecute the men - and that it had asked the UK for information that would help convict them. In response, ministers said they would share intelligence, without opposing a death penalty sentence.
But co-operation with the US was halted after the mother of El Shafee Elsheikh launched a legal challenge, arguing the UK's position was in breach of its internationally recognised opposition to capital punishment. Several relatives of the murdered western hostages have said they want the men to face a fair trial, rather than the death penalty.
Diane Foley, whose son James, an American journalist, was murdered by the cell in 2014, said: "I am very hopeful that with this assurance that the death penalty will be waived, that will allow the United Kingdom and United States to pool their evidence so that true justice might be served."
"I feel that the death penalty is too easy. It allows them to be martyrs... I really feel if they truly have done these horrible crimes, they really need to face life imprisonment, so they have a chance for redemption themselves and a chance to really recognise the horror of what they've done to others," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
In the past Britain has sought assurances from foreign governments that the death penalty would not be used in cases where the UK provided information or extradited suspects.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the US government's demand to use crucial evidence from the UK in the case was unlawful.
At the time, the UK said it was "a long-standing position" to oppose the death penalty but added that in this case it was "a priority to make sure that these men face criminal prosecution".
However, the UK has made clear that if the pair were sent to the controversial US military prison Guantanamo Bay - where suspects have been detained without trial - the UK would withhold intelligence.
The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner said the US was warning that if the issue was not settled by the middle of October, the two men would be handed over to the Iraqi government. IS once controlled 88,000 sq km (34,000 sq miles) of territory stretching from western Syria to eastern Iraq. It imposed its brutal rule on almost eight million people.
The liberation of that territory control exposed the magnitude of the abuses inflicted on their inhabitants, including summary killings, torture, amputations, ethno-sectarian attacks, rape and sexual slavery imposed on women and girls. Hundreds of mass graves containing the remains of thousands of people have also been discovered.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
A new aftershock with a magnitude of 5.4 hits southern Kyushu island. A Japanese spokesman says 1,500 people have been injured, 80 seriously, since Thursday. | A new aftershock measuring 5.4 hit southern Japan early Saturday, following a 7.0-magnitude quake that killed at least six people overnight.
Kumamoto Prefectural official Tomoyuki Tanaka told The Associated Press that the death toll in the latest temblor was still unclear.
More than 400 people were reported injured.
A magnitude-6.5 quake struck late Thursday, killing 10 people. Aftershocks have been rattling various areas in Kyushu, one of Japan's main four islands.
Hundreds of patients were evacuated early Saturday from a hospital near collapse after a powerful magnitude-7.0 earthquake — the second major temblor in barely 24 hours — struck the southwest Japanese island of Kyushu, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Police said at least one person was confirmed dead in that quake.
The 500-bed city hospital in Kumamoto was one of several buildings nearly demolished by the quake, according to the Japanese broadcaster NHK.
First responders were also receiving calls from residents reporting people trapped inside houses and buildings, NHK reports. Video showed a resident, apparently rescued from underneath a collapsed house, on a stretcher being taken to a hospital by ambulance.
Tens of thousands of people reportedly fled their homes as the quake rocked the area around 1:25 a.m. local time early Saturday. In Uto, about 17 miles south of Kumamoto, the city hall partially collapsed, Kyodo News reports.
The earthquake was centered a half mile from Kumamoto, the capital city of the Kumamoto prefecture, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The region is located on the southwestern-most main island of Kyushu, where 13 million people live.
Mashiki, a suburb of Kumamoto, was the worst-hit town in Thursday's quake, a magnitude-6.2. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had planned to travel to the area Saturday, but canceled the trip following the second temblor, Kyodo News reports.
Saturday's quake was about 6.3 times bigger on a seismogram and 15.8 times stronger in its energy release than Thursday's temblor, according to the USGS.
About 5-10% of earthquakes are followed by a bigger one within a few days, said John Vidale, a seismologist at the University of Washington in Seattle. But magnitude-6 and larger quakes, especially so close to major cities, aren't common, he added.
"This one-two punch with a serious impact is fortunately quite rare," Vidale said.
Saturday’s quake occurred where two tectonic plates converge. The Philippine Sea plate is sliding under the Eurasia plate at a speed of about 2 inches a year, according to USGS.
Early Friday, rescuers pulled an eight-month-old baby girl from rubble in Mashiki after the magnitude-6.2 quake struck the area at 9:26 p.m. the previous night.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said over 140 aftershocks were recorded by Friday evening and warned more strong tremors might occur in the coming days, Kyodo news agency reported.
More than 44,000 people sought shelter in schools and community centers after the quake hit Thursday, with some spending the night outdoors, Reuters reported.
Powerful earthquake in Japan leaves 9 dead, hundreds injured
Buildings were damaged, highways crumbled and a bullet train was derailed by the quake, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported. It said no passengers were aboard the train and there were no injuries.
None of the nuclear power plants in the affected area reported damage, according to a statement released by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s office.
In 2011, an earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan, killing more than 16,000 people. About 2,500 remain missing. | Earthquakes | April 2016 | ['(AP)', '(USA Today)'] |
United Nations Secretary–General Ban Ki–moon outlines seven priorities for 2010 and urges a renewed focus on sustainable development, ending poverty, disease and hunger. | January 10, 2010 (UNITED NATIONS) — UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon urged the Sudanese parties to exert more efforts to successfully complete the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended more than two decades of civil war and where over two million people were killed.
Ban Ki-Moon’s issued his appeal on Saturday January 9 at the fifth anniversary of the CPA which was signed in 2005 between the Sudanese government and the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in Nairobi.
The two parties, during the past five years, have made considerable progress in the CPA implementation, Ban said. "However, the final year of the CPA will be an extremely challenging one, especially as the parties prepare for elections and the exercise of the right of self-determination for Southern Sudan," he stressed.
The UN chief pointed out that these challenges require to establish urgently the legal, political and institutional framework for the conduct in a suitable atmosphere the upcoming election, referenda and popular consultations.
"It is also important that they engage now in substantive discussions on post-referendum arrangements, regardless of the outcome of the referendum," he added.
He further urged effort to improve protection for all Sudanese through continued improvements in the areas of human rights, humanitarian recovery, rule of law and development.
The people of Sudan have witnessed the horrible consequences of war and have waited more than twenty years for the benefits of peace. If the CPA is to deliver this peace, it will require a substantially increased commitment by the parties, with the support of the international community.
Ban also said that support for the successful implementation of the CPA is one of the UN’s top priorities for this year, and that the world body will work closely with all actors to help the parties meet the final benchmarks of the peace agreement.
| Famous Person - Give a speech | January 2010 | ['(UN News Centre)', '(Sudan Tribune)'] |
A protester is shot dead by security forces in Qatif, eastern Saudi Arabia, amid a demonstration calling for the release of Shia prisoners and democratic reforms. | Munir al-Medani, 21, was shot in the chest late on Thursday when police fired on a demonstration in the town of Qatif, in Eastern Province, they added.
The police confirmed a man had died, but said officers had responded after being shot at by unidentified gunmen.
The protesters were reportedly demanding the release of Shia political prisoners and democratic reforms.
Qatif is home to a Shia majority that has long complained of marginalisation at the hands of the Sunni ruling family, the Al Saud.
Saudi opposition websites said at least six other people were injured at Thursday's demonstration. Photographs and videos posted online meanwhile showed a young man identified as Medani covered in blood.
A police spokesman in Eastern Province later told the state news agency, SPA, that one "rioter" had been killed and three wounded.
"A security force patrol came under heavy gunfire from masked men while it was carrying out its duties in al-Shwaika area of Qatif," he said.
There was "an exchange of fire that left four of the rioters wounded, one of whom died before reaching hospital", he added.
Protests erupted in Eastern Province in March when the popular uprising in neighbouring Bahrain, which has a Shia majority and a Sunni royal family, was crushed with the assistance of Saudi and other Gulf troops.
In November, four Shia men were shot dead by security forces over four days in Qatif. The interior ministry said they had been armed and operating on "foreign orders" - generally seen as code for Iran.
Another protester was shot dead last month in the town of al-Awamiya.
About 500 people have been arrested since March. Activists say 80 remain in custody, including author Nazir al-Majid and human rights activist Fadil al-Munasif. | Protest_Online Condemnation | February 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Rebels in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk say they are holding four missing Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe monitors and the observers may be released soon. | Pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine have admitted they are holding four international monitors and said they may free them soon, Interfax says.
"We'll clarify who they are, where they were heading and why, and will set them free," the self-proclaimed mayor of Sloviansk told the Russian news agency.
The members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe were stopped near Donetsk on Monday.
Fighting between pro-Kiev and rebel forces has worsened in recent days.
The four missing monitors - who are Turkish, Swiss, Estonian and Danish - are members of a monitoring mission sent to assess security in the area.
The town's self-proclaimed Mayor Vyacheslav Ponomaryov told Interfax on Thursday: "We know where they are, all is well with them."
He said the men had decided to travel to a separatist-held area despite having been warned "against going anywhere for a while" - the four held had been "the most eager ones".
"Of course they were detained," he said, although he insisted they had not been arrested.
The OSCE has said it does not know the monitors' whereabouts, but Mr Ponomaryov told another Russian news agency they were being held in the village of Makeyevka.
The BBC's Mark Lowen in eastern Ukraine says there have been cases of kidnapping as lawlessness has reigned amid fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia militias. People have been either detained or attacked at rebel checkpoints.
Ukraine's President-elect Petro Poroshenko has vowed to tackle the eastern uprising, promising to deal firmly with "bandits" and "murderers".
On Wednesday the OSCE said it had lost contact with another 11 observers near Donetsk, but the group got back in touch later in the day.
Last month the rebels held seven OSCE-linked military observers for a week in Sloviansk, before releasing them without condition.
Also in April, US journalist Simon Ostrovsky was abducted near Sloviansk, saying afterwards he had been beaten and held in a basement for three days.
Mr Poroshenko, a confectionery magnate, won 54.7% of the vote in last Sunday's presidential election, according to final results announced on Thursday,
Voting was severely disrupted in the east, which has also seen an upsurge in fighting this week.
The separatists say they lost up to 100 fighters as they tried to seize Donetsk airport from pro-Kiev forces on Monday.
Further clashes were reported in several areas in recent days.
Pro-Russian separatists in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk declared independence after referendums on 11 May, which were not recognised by Kiev or its Western allies.
The separatists took their cue from a disputed referendum in Crimea, which led to Russia's annexation of the southern peninsula.
Kiev and the West accuse Russia of stoking separatist sentiment in eastern Ukraine - a claim President Vladimir Putin denies.
Meanwhile Russian state-run energy giant Gazprom has told Ukraine it has until midnight on Thursday to pay $2bn (1.2bn; 1.4bn euros) it says it is owed by Kiev.
If no payment is made, Gazprom has threatened a halt in gas supplies next week which would affect parts of Europe.
| Armed Conflict | May 2014 | ['(BBC)', '(AP via Yahoo! News)'] |
Xi Jinping is chosen as the General Secretary and Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party and the next leader of the People's Republic of China. | Xi Jinping has been confirmed as the man to lead China for the next decade. Mr Xi led the new Politburo Standing Committee onto the stage at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, signalling his elevation to the top of China's ruling Communist Party.
The party faced great challenges but would work to meet "expectations of both history and the people", he said.
Most of the new committee are seen as politically conservative, and perceived reformers did not get promotion. Xi Jinping replaces Hu Jintao, under whose administration China has seen a decade of extraordinary growth.
The move marks the official passing of power from one generation to the next. Mr Xi was followed out onto the stage by Li Keqiang, the man set to succeed Premier Wen Jiabao, and five other men - meaning that the size of the all-powerful Standing Committee had been reduced from nine to seven. Those five, in order of seniority, were Vice-Premier Zhang Dejiang, Shanghai party boss Yu Zhengsheng, propaganda chief Liu Yunshan, Vice-Premier Wang Qishan and Tianjin party boss Zhang Gaoli. The new leaders had great responsibilities, Mr Xi said, but their mission was to be united, and to lead the party and the people to make the Chinese nation stronger and more powerful. "The people's desire for a better life is what we shall fight for," he said. Corruption had to be addressed, he said, and better party discipline was needed. "The party faces many severe challenges, and there are also many pressing problems within the party that need to be resolved, particularly corruption, being divorced from the people, going through formalities and bureaucratism caused by some party officials," Mr Xi said.
"We must make every effort to solve these problems. The whole party must stay on full alert." The new Standing Committee was endorsed in a vote early on Thursday by the new party Central Committee, but in reality the decisions had been made in advance. The new leaders will gradually take over in the next few months, with Hu Jintao's presidency formally coming to an end at the annual parliament session in March 2013.
Mr Xi has also been named chairman of the Central Military Commission, a Xinhua news agency report said, ending uncertainty over whether that post would be transferred from Hu Jintao immediately. Mr Hu's predecessor, Jiang Zemin, held on to the post for two years after he stood down from the party leadership. New Standing Committee member Wang Qishan has also been named head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection - the party's anti-corruption watchdog. Mr Xi, a former Shanghai party chief, was appointed to the politburo in 2007. A "princeling" - a relative of one of China's revolutionary elders - he has spent almost four decades in the Communist Party, serving in top posts in both Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, as well as Shanghai. His speech drew praise online, with a number of netizens liking his more informal style. "This big boss at least is talking like a human being. I won't comment on the rest," well-known Chinese journalist Gong Xiaoyue said via micro-blog. Mr Xi, 59, is said to be a protégé of Jiang Zemin, while Li Keqiang is said to have been Mr Hu's preferred successor. Mr Hu has been the Communist Party chief since he led the Standing Committee line-up out on stage in November 2002. Under his administration China has seen a decade of rapid development, overtaking Japan as the world's second-largest economy. But the development has been uneven, leading to a widening wealth gap, environmental challenges and rumbling social discontent over inequality and corruption. Analysts say there has been division at the very top of the leadership in the lead-up to the party congress, with two rival factions jostling for position and influence. The transition process has also been complicated by the scandal that engulfed Chongqing party leader Bo Xilai - a powerful high-flier once seen as a strong contender for the top leadership. His wife has been jailed for murdering a British businessman and he looks set to face trial on a raft of corruption-related charges. That notwithstanding, the power transition process has been orderly, for only the second time in 60 years of Communist Party rule. "The ostensible lack of drama throughout the week-long session may disappoint sensation seekers," China Daily said in an editorial on Thursday before the new Standing Committee line-up was announced.
"But the confidence in continuity, instead of revolutionary ideas and dramatic approaches, means a better tomorrow is attainable." Kim ready for 'dialogue and confrontation' with US | Government Job change - Election | November 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
James Murdoch resigns as Chairman of BSkyB in the wake of the News International phone hacking scandal. | James Murdoch has resigned from his role as chairman of UK broadcaster BSkyB, but will remain on the board. The move is part of an effort to distance that company from the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World newspaper, once a Murdoch title.
It means he no longer has a major role at a UK company. He also stood down as chairman of the newspaper publisher, News International, last month.
His father Rupert founded its parent company, News Corporation.
News Corporation had to drop its plans to take over the 61% of profit-making BSkyB it does not own as the hacking scandal began to gather momentum.
James Murdoch said in a statement
that he did not want BSkyB to be undermined by "matters outside this company".
Sources told Robert Peston, the BBC's business editor, that it was Mr Murdoch's own decision to leave.
Mr Murdoch said on Tuesday: "As attention continues to be paid to past events at News International, I am determined that the interests of BSkyB should not be undermined by matters outside the scope of this company.
"I am aware that my role as chairman could become a lightning rod for BSkyB and I believe that my resignation will help to ensure that there is no false conflation with events at a separate organisation."
News International shut down the News of the World last July due to a storm of allegations of widespread wrongdoing, including the hacking of the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. Our correspondent says that Mr Murdoch has been braced for serious criticism of his stewardship of News International by the Commons Culture, Media and Sport select committee.
However, he adds that his resignation has not been prompted by any advance knowledge of the report into hacking due for release soon by the committee. John Whittingdale, chairman of the committee, told Sky News its final report is taking so long to produce because it is a "developing saga".
"I certainly would hope we would be able to publish it perhaps by the end of the month but I don't want to put a firm date on it," he said. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | April 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
An explosion at an Abadan oil refinery in southwestern Iran during a visit by the President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad leads to a fire killing two workers and injuring 20. | TEHRAN — A deadly blast during the inauguration of a major oil refinery by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad killed at least four and injured 20, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported Tuesday. Authorities ruled out any form of sabotage and instead spoke of an industrial incident caused by a gas leak at the Abadan oil refinery, in one of the largest and oldest industrial complexes in Iran. According to Mehr, a “testing machine” exploded almost directly after it was placed in the area where Ahmadinejad was preparing to give a speech. “Immediately after this explosion, all those present left the scene and the president then delivered his speech in Golestan Club,” on the refinery site, the news agency said.
The explosion caused a fire that raged for hours and released poisonous gases, Mehr reported. Authorities warned that there was a risk of further explosions, the news agency said. Security forces have sealed off the area and planes were dispatched from Tehran to help evacuate some of the wounded. Some independent media outlets said the death toll from the blast was much higher than what was reported by the state-controlled news services. The Khabar Online Web site, for example, which tends to be critical of Ahmadinejad, quoted an engineer at the refinery who said at least 30 people had been killed.
The Washington Post could not independently confirm the death toll.
Khabar also reported that German engineers who had been working on the site had refused to come to the inauguration because of safety concerns that arose Monday.
The Islamic Republic News Agency — which is headed by an ally of the president — made the explosion sound insignificant. “Due to a gas leakage there was a minor fire which was immediately put out by operational forces. The damaged section will return into production in coming days,” IRNA quoted Mohammad Reza Zahiri, chairman of the Abadan refinery managing board, as saying.
In recent months Iran has been hit by a string of accidents, including several explosions of gas transportation lines that officials said were caused by “terrorists.”
But in the Abadan incident, lawmakers accused Ahmadinejad of ignoring “well-known technical problems” and rushing to open the refinery too soon.
“This incident was not an act of intentional sabotage,” said Hamid-Reza Katouzian, head of Iran’s parliamentary energy committee, who is known for his criticism of Ahmadinejad. “Experts had warned that the refinery was not ready to be inaugurated.” Last week, after merging several ministries, Ahmadinejad appointed himself the caretaker of Iran’s oil ministry, a move labeled illegal by his opponents.
Erdbrink reported from Amsterdam.
| Fire | May 2011 | ['(Ynet)', '(AP via Washington Post)'] |
The Eiffel Tower in Paris shuts down after workers go on a strike over ticketing changes. | Aug. 1 (UPI) -- The Eiffel Tower in Paris shut down on Wednesday afternoon after workers went on strike over ticketing changes.
The official Eiffel Tower Twitter account said the strike began at 4 p.m. and instructed visitors who had already purchased tickets to check their email accounts for further instruction.
"We are truly sorry for the inconvenience," the account wrote.
Gail Boisclair, a Condé Nast Traveler specialist and the owner and founder of the Perfectly Paris apartment rental service, said the strike began in response to a new access policy that resulted in long lines for tours of the tower.
The Eiffel Tower has two elevators, one for people who arrive without reservations and another for those who purchased their tickets in advance. In July, management increased the number of tickets available for advanced booking from 20 percent to 50 percent.
"The workers don't understand why, in non-peak hours, the people in the line without pre-booked tickets cannot use the lift for the people with a reserved time slot, since it will sometimes be going up only partially full while there is still a huge queue at the other lift," Boisclair said. | Strike | August 2018 | ['(Upi)'] |
Voters in Burundi go to the polls for a presidential election amidst gunfire and violence with President Pierre Nkurunziza seeking a third term and opposition parties boycotting the election. At least two people have been killed in election violence. , | At least one policeman and a civilian were killed in overnight violence before Burundi's presidential vote on Tuesday, a presidential official said, after blasts and gunfire echoed around the capital.
.
Presidential adviser Willy Nyamitwe blamed the opposition and those behind weeks of protests for the violence, putting the death toll at two. "People do it to intimidate voters. They don't want the voters to go to the polls," he told Reuters.
President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to seek a third-term in office has plunged the East African nation into its worst crisis since an ethnically charged civil war ended in 2005.
Though street protests and a would-be coup were quelled, almost daily violence has left the country tense.
A grenade exploded in the centre of the capital but caused no casualties, deputy police spokesperson Pierre Nkurikiye said.
Grenade blasts marred a June parliamentary poll, which the opposition also boycotted.
Diplomats worry that the disorder may see Burundi slide back into civil war, a frightening prospect for a Great Lakes region still scarred by the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which about 800 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.
Nkurunziza's government has pledged to push ahead with Tuesday's election, ignoring calls from the African Union (AU), United States and other Western powers for the vote to be delayed due to growing insecurity. | Government Job change - Election | July 2015 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters via SABC)'] |
Three crew members are missing and one worker is injured following the head–on collision of two BNSF Railway freight trains near the American town of Panhandle, Texas. Officials, concerned that flames from box car fires could cause a fast–moving grass fire, order an evacuation of some nearby areas. | Three missing crew members from the two freight trains that collided head-on in the Texas Panhandle are presumed dead, the Texas Department of Public Safety said Wednesday.
Emergency personnel at the scene of Tuesday's collision about 25 miles northeast of Amarillo have moved to a recovery operation, DPS Sgt. Dan Buesing said. Each train had a two-member crew. One man jumped in the moments before the crash and remained hospitalized Wednesday with injuries that are not considered life-threatening.
The two BNSF Railway freight trains were on the same track when they collided, triggering a fireball and causing containers and cars to tumble onto one another in a pileup. The wreckage continued to smolder early Wednesday as crews worked to remove the charred, twisted box cars from the tracks.
One train had earlier stopped in Amarillo to refuel for its trip to Chicago, and that diesel fuel contributed to a fire that burned into the night, Buesing said.
"You have two engines on each train with fuel and the eastbound train had stopped in the Amarillo yard and may have had extra fuel added for the trip out east," he said. The westbound train was headed to Los Angeles.
Freight cars and containers were derailed and strewn about 400 yards from the collision site just outside the town of Panhandle, Buesing said. Floodlights were brought in overnight to aid emergency workers trying to quell the flames and start the search for the three crew members, he said.
Both trains carried stacked containers of consumer goods, such as paper products, clothing, television sets and computers.
It's not clear how fast the trains were traveling when they collided, but the speed limit in that area is 70 mph and BNSF spokesman Joe Faust said they were "traveling at less than track speed." It also wasn't clear why the trains were on the same track.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said the NTSB has opened an investigation, and the Federal Railroad Administration said it has investigators on site.
BNSF has pledged to meet a 2018 federal deadline to adopt technology, called positive train control or PTC, that relies on GPS, wireless radio and computers to monitor train positions and automatically slow or stop trains that are in danger of colliding, derailing due to excessive speed or about to enter track where crews are working or that is otherwise off limits. At least three freight railroads have said they'll need an extension to 2020.
Faust said the collision is the type of accident PTC can prevent and that BNSF is "aggressively" pursuing it "across our network."
"While sections of the track operated by the eastbound train involved in this accident have PTC installed and are being tested, the section of track where the incident occurred will be installed later this year," he said in a statement released Tuesday.
It's not unusual to have an accident in the Panhandle involving a truck that's struck by a freight train, Buesing said, but the magnitude of Tuesday's accident was startling.
Tuesday's accident is at least the second in recent years involving BNSF trains striking one another. In September 2013, three were involved in a wreck near Amarillo that injured five crew members, according to an NTSB report. The federal agency in that incident faulted the crew in one train for improperly proceeding past a signal and striking the rear of a stationary train, and cars that derailed were then struck by a train passing in the opposite direction.
| Train collisions | June 2016 | ['(AP via MSN)'] |
Salva Kiir Mayardit is inaugurated as the first elected president of Southern Sudan. | Salva Kiir, the leader of south Sudan's former rebel group the SPLM, has been sworn in as the first elected president of the semi-autonomous southern region.
It follows his landslide victory in April's elections, part of the peace deal that ended a 21-year civil war between north and south. Next year, the people of Southern Sudan will vote on possible independence. A BBC correspondent in Juba says it is widely believed that, given a free poll, they will vote in favour. Most of Sudan's lucrative oil is in the south, and the exact boundary with the north still has to be defined. 'Battle for unity'
The BBC's James Copnall in Juba says Mr Kiir is more of an old soldier than a natural politician. But in becoming south Sudan's first elected president Mr Kiir faces huge political challenges, he says.
The region is one of the least developed on Earth - one of the reasons for long civil war that ended in 2005. At his swearing-in ceremony, where dancers, dressed in beads and ostrich feathers, joined the celebrations, Mr Kiir did not advocate directly for either independence or continued unity. But he did say the battle for unity has almost been lost - a heavy hint about which way he thinks southerners will vote - directly criticising President Omar al-Bashir's National Congress Party. "Our partners in the National Congress Party were not in a hurry to take concrete measures to keep Sudan united. "The entire interim period has thus been allowed to lapse without serious and meaningful actions to achieve that goal. Now that time has practically run out, a sense of panic seems to be setting in as people realise that the battle for unity is about to be lost." Our reporter says the remarks would not have pleased Ali Osman Taha, Sudan's second vice-president, who represented Khartoum at the ceremony. 'Mistakes'
But the bulk of Mr Kiir's speech set out his agenda and governing philosophy for the next five years. He admitted he had made mistakes in the five years he has, in effect, run the south. He also promised to cut down on corruption, and to increase the percentage of women in every level of government. Mr Kiir's Sudan People's Liberation Movement has had to turn from a fighting force to one that governs. He was keen to stress there was no chance of a return to north-south war. "We shall never allow ourselves to be driven back to war," he said. Many inside and outside of Sudan are worried that the tensions linked to the referendum, and the fact the south has much of Sudan's oil, could lead to a new civil conflict. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | May 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(France24)', '(The Washington Post)'] |
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, former foreign minister is leading in Afghan presidential election, 2014 with 44% votes followed by Ashraf Ghani with 33% votes, according to latest partial results. | Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah has extended his lead over his rival Ashraf Ghani, according to latest partial results from the presidential election.
Dr Abdullah, a former foreign minister, has 44% of the vote while Mr Ghani has 33%, election officials say. About half the votes have been counted.
About seven million people voted across 34 provinces in the 5 April poll.
A runoff will take place in late May if no candidate gets a majority.
Final results are expected on 14 May. Independent Election Commission chairman Ahmad Yousuf Nouristani has warned that the current statistics are "partial" and "changeable".
Speaking after the latest results were announced, Dr Abdullah said he was ready for a second round.
"It's important that the process is a free and fair one," he told AP news agency. "If it goes to the second round in accordance to the rule of law, we are ready for that as well. At this stage, we believe that another round might not be needed."
Zalmai Rassoul, another former foreign minister, who is believed to be President Hamid Karzai's preferred successor, has 10% of the vote from the first round.
The Taliban failed to disrupt the first round but warmer weather, at the height of the so-called fighting season, would make a second round more of a security challenge, the BBC's David Loyn in Kabul reports.
If this lead widens further as more results come in, then Dr Abdullah's ability to form a government on his terms would be unstoppable, our correspondent adds.
Possible electoral fraud has been a concern, but the election body responsible for dealing with complaints has previously said that it would be weeks before it rules on the issue.
There were allegations of large-scale fraud when Mr Karzai was re-elected in 2009. Dr Abdullah came second in that poll.
Mr Karzai is barred by the constitution from seeking a third term.
The next president will face several challenging issues, including the expected withdrawal of foreign combat troops from Afghanistan and ongoing attacks by the Taliban.
| Government Job change - Election | April 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
US actor Peter Falk, best known for his role as Columbo, dies at the age of 83. | Updated | Peter Falk, the character actor best known for playing the rumpled cop on TV's Columbo, died Thursday in his Beverly Hills home. He suffered from Alzheimer's disease.
By Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY
Peter Falk was best known as the star of 'Columbo.'
By Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY
Peter Falk was best known as the star of 'Columbo.'
Falk, 83, was a five-time Emmy Award winner, four for his portrayal of the police lieutenant on episodic TV and television films from 1971 to 1993. In a ubiquitous trench coat, the absent-minded Columbo — whose first name was never revealed — was a slightly built, unassuming character who subtly hounded murderers with dogged persistence. Inevitably, he confronted suspects with the comment "just one more thing," which became part of the title for his 2006 autobiography, Just One More Thing: Stories From My Life.
Born in New York City, Peter Michael Falk was the son of a dry goods store owner and accountant. At age 3, a tumor forced the removal of Falk's right eye. Despite the handicap, he was a good athlete. In a 1997 interview with Cigar Aficionado magazine — Falk, like his Columbo, was a consistent cigar smoker — Falk recalled an argument he got into during a high school baseball game. "The umpire called me out at third base when I was sure I was safe. I got so mad I took out my glass eye, handed it to him and said, 'Try this.' I got such a laugh you wouldn't believe."
After graduating from high school, he served in the Merchant Marine. Falk eventually received a masters degree in public administration from Syracuse University and worked as a Connecticut state management analyst. He began dabbling as a stage actor, and despite early admonishments that his glass eye would limit his acting career started getting film roles in 1958.
Falk earned successive Academy Award nominations for best supporting actor for 1960's Murder, Inc. and 1961's Pocketful of Miracles. In 1962, he won an Emmy for appearing in The Price of Tomatoes, a Dick Powell Theatre drama.
He was a longtime close friend of actor, writer and director John Cassavetes and his wife, actress Gena Rowlands. Falk worked with Cassavetes in '70s movies such as Husbands and Mikey and Nicky.
Falk's 1960 marriage to fellow Syracuse University student Alyce Mayo ended in divorce in 1976. He married Shera Danese, who appeared in six Columbo movies, in 1977. His daughter Catherine Falk filed for conservatorship of his estate in December 2008, touching off a legal feud with Danese, who Falk had named legal guardian when he was first diagnosed with Alzheimer's. | Famous Person - Death | June 2011 | ['(USA Today)'] |