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Street battles between anti–government protesters and riot police in Sudan leave at least 19 people dead, including two policemen, as well as hundreds injured. Amnesty International puts the death toll at 37. | Authorities say at least 19 killed in protests against bread prices as Egypt offers Sudan’s government its support.
At least 19 people have been killed in clashes between Sudanese anti-riot police and protesters in demonstrations triggered by a rise in bread prices, according to a government official.
Speaking on state television on Thursday, Boshara Juma, government spokesperson, said: “Nineteen people lost their lives in the incidents including two from security forces”.
At least 219 others were wounded, he added.
Sudanese authorities had previously said eight people have been killed in clashes in Khartoum and several other cities since the protests began on December 19.
However, rights group Amnesty International on Monday put the death toll at 37
Protests initially started in towns and villages and later spread to Khartoum, as people rallied against the government tripling the price of a loaf of bread from one Sudanese pound to three ($0.02 to $0.06).
Demonstrators have also been marching against Sudan’s dire economic situation and some have called for President Omar al-Bashir‘s resignation.
Doctors and journalists have launched a strike in support of the protests.
Police and security officers remained deployed in several parts of the Sudanese capital on Thursday, but no new demonstrations were held.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, during a visit to Khartoum on Thursday, voiced support for Bashir and his government saying Cairo was “confident that Sudan will overcome the present situation”.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Bashir at the presidential palace, Shoukry said the “stability of Sudan means (the) stability of Egypt”.
“Egypt is always ready to support Sudan and the ability of Sudanese people as per the government of Sudan’s vision and policies,” said Shoukry, who was visiting the Sudanese capital alongside Cairo’s intelligence chief General Abbas Kamel.
The minister’s comments were the first remarks by a top regional Arab official in support of Bashir’s government since protests began.
After the protests erupted, Bashir, who has been in power since a 1989 coup, vowed to “take real reforms” to tackle the country’s financial difficulties.
Sudan is grappling with an acute foreign currency crisis, soaring inflation, and shortages of bread and fuel despite the lifting of an economic embargo by the US in October 2017.
But activists and opposition groups continued to call on people to take to the streets again.
“We urge the Sudanese people to continue their demonstrations until success is achieved by overthrowing the regime,” the Sudanese Communist Party said in a statement on Thursday.
Several members of the party have been arrested by security agents since the protests started.
“We also call on all opposition parties to unite and work together to coordinate this movement,” it added.
| Riot | December 2018 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
Chinese and Japanese diplomats meet in Beijing to lay out their respective countries' positions on the Senkaku Islands dispute. | China urged Japan on Tuesday to correct its "erroneous" actions over the Senkaku Islands, over which bilateral tensions are mounting.
At a meeting with visiting Vice Foreign Minister Chikao Kawai, Zhang Zhijun--his Chinese counterpart--said, "The Japanese side must abandon any illusion, face up to its erroneous actions and correct them with credible steps."
Zhang urged Tokyo to "recommit itself to the consensus and understanding" reached between the two countries so as to return bilateral relations to "the right track of sound and stable growth" soon, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
During the meeting, which lasted four hours, the two diplomats agreed to further discuss the islands, which are also claimed by China, where they are known as Diaoyu.
The uninhabited islands, which are under the effective control of Japan, lie in the East China Sea between Okinawa Island and Taiwan. Tensions rose after the central government purchased three of the five islands this month.
The Chinese government believes Japan has unilaterally scrapped the bilateral basic principle of shelving the Senkaku issue through the purchase, despite Chinese opposition.
Beijing claims the principle was agreed on in 1972 by then Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai when the two countries normalized diplomatic relations.
China is calling for Japan to rescind the nationalization of the three islands, although it does not expect Tokyo to comply, informed sources said.
By putting pressure on Tokyo, Beijing is trying to elicit concessions from Japan, whose official position is that there is no territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands, the sources said.
"We aim to persuade Japan to recognize the dispute and return to the principle of shelving the issue," a Chinese Foreign Ministry executive said. "Then we will try to keep the status quo [of the islands] through dialogue."
Following the meeting, Kawai declined to tell reporters what was discussed. "We exchanged frank views on each other's thoughts and positions," he said.
Kawai is believed to have sought Chinese understanding by explaining that the government bought the three islands to ensure peaceful and stable management of them.
He is also believed to have denied the existence of the 1972 agreement and maintained there is no change in Japan's view that no territorial dispute exists over the islands.
According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Zhang told Kawai that Japan "has disregarded the repeated and stern representations made by the Chinese side" on the issue.
Zhang said Japan has "denied the important understanding and consensus reached between the older generation of leaders of the two countries and has openly taken the illegal step of 'nationalizing' Diaoyu Dao in defiance of historical and legal evidence." | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | September 2012 | ['(Kyodo News via The Japan Times)', '(Jiji Press via Yomiuri Shimbun)'] |
Police make 12 arrests following protest marches by the English Defence League and opposing groups in Blackburn, Lancashire. | Protests by the English Defence League and opposing groups in Blackburn led to 12 arrests in a major police operation.
About 2,000 EDL supporters gathered for their protest near King George's Hall on Northgate, according to police.
Opposing protesters, who were kept about 150m (490ft) away, said their gathering was a celebration of multi-culturalism.
Lancashire Police said officers wanted to thank the majority of protesters for a "relatively peaceful" operation.
Some fireworks were reportedly thrown at officers, who contained a group of youths linked to the counter-protest. Police said that demonstration attracted about 500 people.
The 12 arrests made during the day included a 48-year-old man, from Blackburn, who was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.
Others were arrested on suspicion of offences including breach of the peace, affray, being drunk and disorderly and using threatening words or behaviour.
Skirmishes broke out among supporters during the EDL rally, despite an appeal for a peaceful event from the organisers.
One man was punched to the floor, while coins and a pint glass were thrown.
EDL spokesman Tony Curtis blamed the fracas on a more extreme splinter group.
"Once we got rid of the troublemakers it got better. It was a good demonstration," he said.
A small group of EDL supporters also broke away from the main demonstration area and were quickly brought under control by police, the force said.
Ch Supt Bob Eastwood, who earlier described policing the demonstrations as Lancashire Police's biggest ever operation, said there had been no "significant disorder".
"The events have passed mostly without incident and I would like to thank the local community for their help and tolerance during the events and the lead up to them," he said.
"The aim of the policing operation was to allow for peaceful protests which we have demonstrated is possible through careful planning and successful communication at all levels.
The EDL demonstration finished at about 1415 BST, while Blackburn and Darwen Unite Against Racism (BADUAR) ended their protest at Sudell Cross at 1500 GMT.
Hundreds of police, along with mounted officers and steel barriers, kept the two sides apart in areas away from the general public.
Some roads were closed during the event and a number of smaller traders in the town centre remained closed on Saturday.
The force had restricted numbers to 3,000 from each side for the "safety of the community".
| Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
In rugby union, New Zealand defeat Australia 34–17 to win the 2015 Rugby World Cup. | Last updated on 31 October 201531 October 2015.From the section Rugby Union
New Zealand held off a fierce Australian comeback to win a thrilling World Cup final and become the first team to retain their title.
Wonderful tries from Nehe Milner-Skudder and Ma'a Nonu had given the All Blacks a 21-3 lead early in the second half before David Pocock and Tevita Kuridrani struck back.
With 15 minutes to go there were just four points in it, but a nerveless long-distance drop-goal and penalty from Dan Carter snatched back control.
And when replacement Beauden Barrett sprinted away on to Ben Smith's clearing kick at the death history was made, with New Zealand also becoming the first three-time champions of the world.
Relive the action on BBC Radio 5 live
The achievement is a fitting farewell to their phalanx of retiring greats.
Carter was outstanding under a ferocious Wallaby assault, landing 19 points from the tee, and his captain Richie McCaw was not far behind as their side was tested to the limit.
They have been the outstanding side of this generation, and once again found a way to win when the heat came on from their great trans-Tasman rivals.
The All Blacks came out at pace, McCaw smashing opposite number Michael Hooper, Wallabies' skipper Stephen Moore bloodied in the face and Carter curling over a testing penalty from out wide for 3-0 before Bernard Foley's simpler effort levelled it up.
Australia were targeting the great fly-half, Scott Sio lucky to escape a yellow card for a late hit and Sekope Kepu giving away a penalty for a high tackle that Carter popped over to retake the lead.
Matt Giteau was next to feel the intensity, clattered trying to tackle Kieran Read and unable to continue with what looked like concussion.
It was often messy and never less than flat-out, New Zealand dominating territory and possession but having to content themselves with a third Carter penalty, this time from way out right.
Then it came, a wonderful team move of magic hands and sweet timing - Conrad Smith finding space down the right, Aaron Smith popping up on his inside, McCaw taking his pass at pace and putting Milner-Skudder in at the corner.
Another perfect kick from Carter added the conversion for 16-3 at half-time and the Wallabies were sinking fast.
No team has ever scored so many in the first period of a World Cup final, and the brilliance resumed a minute into the second half.
This time it was Sonny Bill Williams, on for Conrad Smith, who sucked in three defenders before off-loading to Nonu, the wrecking-ball centre careering past the despairing Kurtley Beale and Drew Mitchell on a 40-metre run to the line.
Despite Carter's missed conversion the All Blacks appeared unstoppable, but when Ben Smith was sin-binned for tip-tackling Mitchell, Australia struck back - driving a maul off the line-out, Pocock at the back for the try, Foley curling over the conversion for 21-10.
Suddenly the men in gold sensed a chance and when Will Genia dinked a kick into the wide spaces in the right-hand corner, Ashley-Cooper was there to feed Kuridrani and send the huge centre away through Carter's tackle for another splendid score.
With Foley's conversion sailing over, 14 unanswered points had come in 11 minutes, and a thrilling contest was wide open once again.
Carter would have his revenge. From 40m out he struck the sweetest of drop-goals to extend the lead to 24-17, and then nailed a penalty from just inside the opposition half with seven minutes left.
Australia kept pressing, but when the ball was turned over in the New Zealand 22 Smith kicked clear, Barrett out-paced the despairing Pocock and the party could begin.
After missing the 2011 World Cup final through injury, this was the perfect ending for world rugby's most perfect 10.
Carter could not dream of a better finale to his 12-year, 112-cap All Black career, and few would deny him the moment after what he has given the game down the years.
All Blacks fly-half Dan Carter: "I'm pretty grateful to be where I am considering what happened four years ago. I'm so proud of the team. To win back-to-back World Cups is a dream come true - it's a special feeling to be part of such a great team."
All Blacks captain Richie McCaw: "We said four years ago that we get on the road again with this being the end goal, try and do something no-one else has done. I'm so proud of the guys. We lost a bit of momentum in the second half but we kept our composure and came back strong." Australia captain Stephen Moore: "It's all about New Zealand tonight - they thoroughly deserved to win. They have been the best team in the tournament and they played really well tonight. "There are no excuses from us, I'm proud of the effort we put in and the way we fought our way back into the match. Sometimes you just come up against a better team and that was the case tonight." | Sports Competition | October 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
China launches its first lunar orbiter, Chang'e 1, on an exploration mission to the moon. | The satellite, named Chang'e I, took off from the Xichang Centre in south-west China's Sichuan province at 1800 local time (1000 GMT).
Analysts say it is a key step towards China's aim of putting a man on the Moon by 2020, in the latest stage of an Asian space race with Japan and India Earlier this month, a Japanese lunar probe entered orbit around the Moon.
India is planning a lunar mission for April next year.
Gathering pace
State TV broadcast the launch of the unmanned Chang'e I, named after a Chinese goddess who flew to the Moon.
"The operation is normal," voices in the control room were heard to say shortly after the launch.
Thousands of people living within 2.5km (1.6 miles) of the site and under the flight trajectory had been evacuated as standard procedure, officials at the Xichang Centre said. The satellite is expected to enter lunar orbit in early November and start sending back pictures of the Moon's surface later that month. Efforts by Asian nations to advance their space programmes have gathered pace in recent years.
In 2003, China became the first Asian nation to use its own rocket to put an astronaut in space.
Four years later, Beijing triggered international concern by destroying a weather satellite as part of a weapons test. | New achievements in aerospace | October 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Two missiles fired from American drone aircraft kill at least 25 people in South Waziristan, Pakistan. | ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Two missiles fired from American drone aircraft killed more than 30 people, including Qaeda and Taliban fighters, near the Pakistani border with Afghanistan on Saturday, according to a Pakistani intelligence official and residents of the area.
The missiles struck three compounds, including one where the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, and foreign and local fighters loyal to him sometimes gather, the official and residents said.
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.
| Armed Conflict | February 2009 | ['(New York Times)'] |
Musician Wyclef Jean confirms he is to announce plans to stand for the presidency in Haiti. | Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean has said he will run for president of the earthquake-hit Caribbean country. The Fugees star will officially announce his candidacy on Larry King's CNN show on Thursday, media reports say. Haiti is scheduled to elect a new leader on 28 November.
The country was hit by a devastating earthquake in January which killed more than 250,000 people. Wyclef, who is ambassador-at-large of Haiti, told Time magazine that the devastation that followed the earthquake had motivated him to make a bid for the leadership. "If not for the earthquake, I probably would have waited another 10 years before doing this," Jean said. "The quake drove home to me that Haiti can't wait another 10 years for us to bring it into the 21st Century."
Wyclef, who lives in New York, is founder of the humanitarian Yele Haiti Foundation, and has played a prominent role in securing aid since the earthquake that left 1.5 million people homeless. The singer and producer, who left Haiti as a child and grew up in Brooklyn, also plans to build a bridge between the Haiti and the Haitian diaspora in the US. Wyclef is hugely popular in Haiti where half of the population is under 21-years-old.
He told Time his secret weapon in the election campaign would be that Haiti's "enormous youth population doesn't believe in politicians any more". Others who have declared their candidacy include the former diplomat Garaudy Laguerre and Raymond Joseph, Haiti's current ambassador to the US and Wyclef's uncle. Other likely candidates include former prime ministers and another popular Haitian musician, Michel Martelly, also known as "Sweet Micky".
Candidates have until 7 August to register.
Current President Rene Preval is barred by the constitution from seeking a new term.
| Government Job change - Election | August 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
A court in Tanzania sentences three men to death by hanging for killing a 14–year–old albino boy, Matatizo Dunia, to steal parts of his anatomy. It is the country's first conviction for this offence. | A court in north-western Tanzania has sentenced three men to death by hanging for killing a 14-year-old albino boy.
They were found guilty of attacking Matatizo Dunia and severing his legs in Bukombe district in Shinyanga province. In the past two years there has been a huge rise in murders of albino people. Witchdoctors use their body parts in potions they claim bring prosperity. Dozens of people have been arrested, but the justice system is notoriously slow and this is the first conviction. In July a court in neighbouring Burundi sentenced one person to life in prison and eight others to jail for the murder of albino people whose remains were sold in Tanzania. Lucrative business
The three men attacked and killed the young boy last December - one of a string of more than 50 albino murders that have taken place in Tanzania over the past two years. They have the right to appeal against the death sentence - a punishment their lawyers described as unexpected. Albino people are killed because potions made from their body parts are believed to bring good luck and wealth. Witchdoctors in Tanzania and other parts of East Africa - especially Burundi - have made tens of thousands of dollars from selling potions and other items made from the bones, hair, skin and genitals of dead albino people. Witchdoctors pay a lot of money for body parts. The Tanzanian government has publicly stated its desire to end the killings. In March, President Jakaya Kikwete called on Tanzanians to come forward with any information they might have. Officials banned witchdoctors from practising, however many have continued to work. Some correspondents say it is possible that Wednesday's death sentence will deter people from killing albino people. But BBC Africa analyst Mary Harper says in a country as poor as Tanzania, it is likely that some murders will continue because so much money can be made from selling the body parts. There are estimated to be about 17,000 albino people living in Tanzania. They lack pigment in their skin and appear pale. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | September 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Former President of South Korea Lee Myung-bak is detained on charges of taking bribes when he was in office. | SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean former president Lee Myung-bak was detained early on Friday on charges of taking bribes when he was in office, becoming the country’s fourth leader to end up behind bars.
Lee was grilled by prosecutors earlier this month over nearly 20 charges that involve suspicions he took around 11 billion won ($10.28 million) unlawfully from a number of institutions and individuals He denies any wrongdoing.
A South Korean judge issued the arrest warrant late on Thursday, saying Lee could destroy evidence. The former president was driven to a detention center in Seoul soon after midnight.
Lee, in office from 2008 to 2013, says the investigation into the bribery allegations is politically motivated by prosecutors under the incumbent liberal administration.
Last year, Lee’s successor ex-president Park Geun-hye was ousted from office after an influence-peddling scandal and is standing trial on charges of bribery, abuse of power and coercion. South Korean prosecutors are seeking a 30-year jail term for Park and a Seoul court will deliver a verdict in early April.
Reporting by Christine Kim and Jane Chung; Editing by Andrew Heavens
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | March 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
At least 20 African migrants die when their boat sinks off the coast of Tunisia as they tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea to the Italian island of Lampedusa. The coast guard confirmed they had rescued people and were searching for others who were on the boat, which was carrying a total of 45 people. | TUNIS (Reuters) -At least 20 African migrants died when their boat sank off Tunisia on Thursday as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to the Italian island of Lampedusa, a Tunisian security official said.
The coastguard rescued five people and was searching for about 20 others who were still unaccounted for, the official told Reuters.
The coastline near the Tunisian port city of Sfax has become a major departure point for people fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa and the Middle East and searching for a better life in Europe.
“The boat sank about six miles from the coast of Sfax. Twenty bodies were recovered, five others were rescued, and all are from sub-Saharan Africa,” the security official, Ali Ayari, said.
Around 45 people were on the boat when it sank, he added.
Reporting by Tarek Amara;Editing by Alison Williams and Andrew Heavens
| Shipwreck | December 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A pipeline explosion causes a fire and destroys dozens of buildings in Lagos, Nigeria, killing at least 15 people. | LAGOS (Reuters) - An explosion at a gas processing plant on Sunday killed at least 15 people and destroyed about 50 buildings after a fire broke out in a suburb of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, emergency services said.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said the explosion was triggered after a truck hit some gas cylinders stacked in a gas processing plant near the corporation’s pipeline in Abule Ado area of Lagos state.
The impact of the explosion led to the collapse of nearby houses, damaged NNPC’s pipeline and caused the corporation to halt pumping operations on the Atlas Cove-Mosimi pipeline, the state-owned oil company said in a statement.
Several people were injured and taken to hospital, according to Ibrahim Farinloye, zonal coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
Plumes of smoke billowed into the air as people watched, while firefighters tried to quench the flames, a Reuters witness said.
Farinloye told Reuters that “the explosion destroyed over 50 residential houses.”
Pipeline fires in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude oil producer, are common and they are mostly caused by theft and sabotage. The methods used to steal oil often result in accidents that cause fires.
“The fire started with smoke,” one eyewitness said. “The smoke was coming up and later we heard a sound ... and some houses collapsed even the roofs.”
NNPC said that the temporary shutdown of the petroleum products pipeline would not affect the normal supply of products to the Lagos and surrounding towns.
Reporting by Angela Ukomadu and Seun Sanni in Lagos; Camillus Eboh in Abuja; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha, Editing by William Maclean and Alexandra Hudson
| Fire | March 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The United States Government sets aside an area in Alaska twice the size of the United Kingdom as a "critical habitat" for polar bears. | The US has designated a "critical habitat" for polar bears living on Alaska's disappearing sea ice.
The area - twice the size of the United Kingdom - has been set aside to help stave off the danger of extinction, the US Fish and Wildlife Service said. The territory includes locations where oil and gas companies want to drill. Environmentalists hope the designation will make it more difficult for companies to get permits to operate in the region. "This critical habitat designation enables us to work with federal partners to ensure their actions within its boundaries do not harm polar bear populations," said Tom Strickland, assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks. Any proposed economic activity in the area, which covers 187,000 sq miles (almost 500,000 sq km) must now be weighed against its impact on the polar bear population, Mr Strickland said in a statement.
Most of the designated habitat is sea ice and includes some of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, where the oil company Shell wants to drill. Shell was due to start drilling in the Arctic earlier this year, until the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico brought the plans to a temporary halt. It is now aiming to start drilling in 2011.
Environmentalists welcomed the move. "Now we need the Obama administration to actually make it mean something so we can write the bear's recovery plan - not its obituary," said Kassie Siegel from the Center for Biological Diversity.
Ms Siegel urged the US government to impose a moratorium on oil and gas drilling in bear habitat areas. Environmentalists also want the polar bear to be listed as an endangered species. Currently the US interior department describes them as "threatened" or likely to become endangered because the sea ice on which they live and hunt is melting.
| Government Policy Changes | November 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Chairman of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council and former Chief Justice Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi dies at the age of 70. | Kevin Spacey is facing a felony charge for allegedly sexually assaulting the teenage son of a former Boston TV news anchor at a bar in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in July 2016, authorities said Monday.
Spacey is due to be arraigned on a charge of indecent assault and battery at Nantucket District Court on Jan. 7, according to court documents.
The announcement of the charge coincided with the first post on Spacey's official Twitter account in more than a year: A three-minute video titled "Let Me Be Frank," which features Spacey speaking as Frank Underwood, his character from Netflix's "House of Cards".
Spacey's previous most recent post was an October 2017 statement in response to actor Anthony Rapp's accusation that Spacey had made a sexual advance decades earlier, when Rapp was 14.
In the video posted to his account on Monday, Spacey appears to hint at the allegations. "You trusted me even though you knew you shouldn't," Spacey says in the video, filmed as he stands in a kitchen. He later adds, "Soon enough you will know the full truth."
The Nantucket sexual assault claim against Spacey surfaced last year. Heather Unruh, a former anchor for Boston WCVB-TV, held a press conference in November 2017 where she said that her son was groped by Spacey in July 2016 while working at The Club Car in Nantucket. Her son was 18 at the time of the alleged incident.
Spacey, 59, who starred on "House of Cards," was fired by Netflix in November 2017 as sexual assault accusations surfaced. Spacey also lost a role in a Ridley Scott film.
Representatives for Spacey and Netflix did not immediately return NBC News' requests for comment.
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LONDON (Reuters) – Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, a senior Iranian cleric and a former chief justice, died in Tehran on Monday after a long illness, state media reported. Shahroudi, 70, was a close ally of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and had been seen by analysts as a possible successor to him. He cut short a visit to Germany for treatment in January when activists referred him to German prosecutors, citing his record of passing death sentences which they said amounted to a crime against humanity.
Shahroudi was head of Iran’s hardline judiciary for a decade until 2009, but he implemented some reforms including banning death penalty by stoning, arguing it was tarnishing Iran’s image.
However, human rights groups say he failed to put an end to arbitrary arrests of political and human rights activists, and mistreatment and torture of the prisoners. Dozens of newspapers were banned under his watch and many journalists and bloggers faced long term sentences.
Shahroudi was appointed by Khamenei in 2017 as the head of the Expediency Council, a body intended to resolve disputes between parliament and a watchdog body, the Guardian Council.
He was born in the city of Najaf in Iraq to Iranian parents. In the 1970s he was jailed and tortured by Saddam Hussein’s security forces because of his political activities.
He moved to Iran after the Islamic revolution in 1979 and was promoted to top posts. In recent years, Shahroudi aimed to raise his profile in Iraq as a replacement for Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the top Shi’ite cleric and a powerful figure in Iraq.
(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
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The parents of American college student Otto Warmbier are entitled to more than $500 million in damages from the government of North Korea, a judge ruled on Monday.
Fred and Cindy Warmbier, of Wyoming, Ohio, filed a suit against the North Korean government in a federal court in Washington last April seeking $1 billion in damages.
Otto Warmbier, 22, was arrested in North Korea in January 2016 for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison but died last year after being released from the country in a coma follow 17 months of torture in captivity.
The Warmbiers' lawsuit claimed that North Korea violated international law by forcing their son to confess to carrying out an act of subversion on behalf of the U.S. government.
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled on Monday "that the defendant Democratic People's Republic of Korea ("North Korea") shall be liable for damages in the amount of $501,134,683.80," according to court documents. | Famous Person - Death | December 2018 | ['(Euronews)'] |
War crimes charges are formally requested against 12 Belgian government officials and military officers in connection with the assassination of Congo's first democratically elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, as historians agree on a highlevel Belgian conspiracy, with Westernbacked dictator Mobutu Sese Seko succeeding Lumumba until he was overthrown in 1997. | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A son of Congo’s first democratically elected leader, Patrice Lumumba, will seek the prosecution on war crimes of 12 Belgian officials suspected of aiding his father’s assassination in 1961.
Lawyers for Francois Lumumba plan to file the complaint at a Brussels court in October, they announced on Tuesday, a week before the Democratic Republic of Congo celebrates 50 years of independence from former colonial master Belgium.
“I want to know how he died. There are many books I can read and everything has been said, but there is no justice,” Guy Lumumba, the leader’s youngest son, told a news conference at which Francois was not present.
The complaint will assert that the Belgian government and military officials were involved in the transfer of Lumumba from the capital to the region of Katanga, and that they failed to prevent him being tortured and killed.
Patrice Lumumba came to power after the country won independence from colonial ruler Belgium in 1960. His government was overthrown in a coup led by Joseph-Desire Mobutu, the young head of Congo’s army.
Lumumba, mistrusted by Washington due to his close ties to the Soviet Union, escaped house arrest in January 1961 only to be recaptured, beaten, and killed by Mobutu’s soldiers with the assistance of Belgian officers, the complaint will say.
A 2001 Belgian parliamentary probe found that Belgium was “morally responsible” for the murder of Lumumba. Belgium has since officially apologised for its role in the death.
“Belgium was party to the conflict in Congo at the time. A conflict between several sovereign states -- Belgium and Congo -- which makes this an armed international conflict during which war crimes were committed,” lawyer Christophe Marchand said.
He declined to disclose the names of the 12 potential defendants, saying only that they were all in Congo at the time of Lumumba’s death.
Under the Mobutu regime, the vast central African country was plagued by corruption.
The Belgian government’s decision to accept an invitation to Congo’s independence day celebrations on June 30 has already stirred controversy because of tense relations between Belgium and its former colony.
King Albert will be the first Belgian monarch to visit the country in 25 years.
“This is a symbolic moment. Fifty years of independence is a good thing but we need to make clear that justice has not yet been done in the murder of Lumumba,” Marchand said.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | June 2010 | ['(AP)', '(AFP)', '(Reuters)', '(Taiwan News)'] |
Unidentified gunmen shoot and kill Benghazi's police chief Faraj al-Deirsy in front of his home in the latest attack against security officials in Libya's second largest city. | Faraj al-Deirsy, head of Benghazi police, shot dead in the latest attack on Libyan security officials.
A top security official in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi was killed in front of his home overnight, security officials have said, in the latest violence to plague the city.
Faraj al-Deirsy, head of Benghazi police, died from multiple gunshot wounds, police and interior ministry sources said on Wednesday.
“This happened in front of his house when unknown attackers opened fire and hit him before fleeing,” a police source said.
An interior ministry official confirmed that Deirsy, in charge of security in Benghazi, had been killed.
Libya has been hit by persistent instability since the overthrow of Muammer Gaddafi last year.
Authorities are still trying to disarm numerous groups, mostly militias who took part in the uprising, who refuse to lay down their weapons.
Wednesday’s incident was one of a number of attacks in Benghazi, where local groups have also staged protests demanding more powers for eastern Libya and objecting to what they say is the central authorities’ neglect of the region.
In September, the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed in an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, the cradle of Libya’s revolt that began in February 2011.
Attacks in Benghazi and Tripoli leave at least eight wounded, including three policemen.
Update posted on a social media site about the deadly Benghazi attack being seen as a clue by US agencies, website says.
Many blame politicians for funnelling money to paramilitary groups at the expense of creating an army and police force.
Assailants shoot dead Mohammed Hadia, senior military official who defected during revolt that ousted Gaddafi.
| Armed Conflict | November 2012 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
Police injure hundreds of people in Hudaida by firing tear gas and live rounds at them as they approach one of the presidential palaces. | Yemeni security forces have fired on anti-government protesters, killing at least 15 people and wounding many more, medical sources say.
Witnesses said snipers opened fire from the rooftops when demonstrators reached the governor's offices in Taiz.
Snipers had also reportedly shot at protesters during a march in the fourth-largest city, Hudaida. The unrest follows weeks of nationwide protests calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to stand down.
He has ruled the country for 32 years, but has signalled that he has no plans to leave immediately.
The US has been a key ally of his, but analysts say Washington appears to be losing patience with him.
Countries in the Gulf Co-operation Council regional bloc have offered to host talks between Mr Saleh and opposition groups.
But Mr Saleh has been taking an increasingly hard line with the protesters, and has not publicly responded to offers of mediation.
On Monday, crowds of protesters in the south-western city of Taiz began marching toward Freedom Square - the focal point of protests, where demonstrators have been camping out. When the march passed the governor's headquarters, troops blocked the procession and clashes broke out.
Activists described chaotic scenes, with live ammunition being fired and military police taking away the bodies of dead protesters.
"It was heavy gunfire from all directions. Some were firing from the rooftop of the governor's building," a witness told the Associated Press.
Hospital sources said at least 15 people had been killed, and 30 more were wounded.
Tanks and armoured vehicles are now blocking entrances to the city and have surrounded Freedom Square, arresting anyone who tries to leave.
The port city of Hudaida saw demonstrators gather in solidarity with people in Taiz and attempt to march on the city's presidential palace.
But police opened fire on them with live ammunition and tear gas leaving dozens injured, witnesses and doctors said.
"They suddenly gathered around the province's administrative building and headed to the presidential palace, but police stopped them by firing gunshots in the air and using tear gas. I saw a lot of plain-clothes police attack them too," an unnamed witness told Reuters news agency.
Collapsing economy
A BBC correspondent in the country, who cannot be named for security reasons, says President Saleh is under immense pressure.
He has lost allies, the army is split, the government has lost control of entire areas of the country and the economy is collapsing, says our correspondent. The opposition coalition Common Forum, which includes the five biggest opposition groups in Yemen, has offered a five-point plan for Mr Saleh to hand over power:
Officials have said they have not yet received a copy of the plan - but speaking at a meeting in Sanaa with representatives from Taiz Province on Sunday, President Saleh called on Common Forum to "end the crisis through calling off protests and removing roadblocks".
| Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
After initial hesitation, Pakistan ultimately accepts $5 million in aid from India; it subsequently calls it a "very welcome initiative". | Pakistan has accepted a "very welcome" offer of financial aid for flood victims from its neighbour and perennial rival India, a donation indicating improving relations between the regional powers despite the relatively modest sum involved.
The $5m (£3.2m) donation was made as "a goodwill offer for solidarity", a spokesman for India's foreign ministry said.
Pakistan's foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, told Indian television that his government was happy to take the money. "I think this initiative of India is a very welcome initiative," he said from New York, where he is attending a special UN assembly on the floods, which have spread across a fifth of the nation. At least 8 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid.
The move came a day after India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, spoke to his Pakistani counterpart, Yousuf Raza Gilani, to express his condolences.
India had previously faced criticism for not joining in the international efforts to help its neighbour.
The two countries have experienced turbulent relations since partition in 1947, fighting two wars over the disputed territory of Kashmir. Relations plummeted anew in 2008 when Islamist militants who, according to India, were assisted by Pakistan's security services, undertook a bloody terrorist raid on Mumbai.
While offers of aid are continuing to arrive from around the world – the UK has now pledged almost £65m in direct assistance – relief agencies warn that rapid action is needed. The UN's World Food Programme has called for more helicopters to deliver aid to remote areas, saying it currently had the use of just 10.
The need is all the more urgent amid increasing fears of major outbreaks of disease. "With over 38,000 reported cases of acute diarrhoea already and at least one confirmed cholera death, the spectre of major cholera outbreaks is real," Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta of the women and child health division at Aga Khan University in Karachi wrote in the Lancet medical journal.
Pakistan's government moved to try and assuage fears that militant Islamist groups could fill the vacuum caused by aid not arriving and exploit anger against the civilian administration.
"The banned organisations are not allowed to visit flood-hit areas," Pakistan's interior minister, Rehman Malik, told Reuters. "We will arrest members of banned organisations collecting funds and will try them under the anti-terrorism act."
The country's president, Asif Ali Zardari, has warned that militants are trying to use the floods to promote their agendas, as they did after a devastating earthquake in Kashmir in 2005.
The US has now promised almost £100m in assistance, while the UN says it has received pledges for about 60% of its appeal for around £300m to help flood victims.
According to forecasters, the floods could begin to recede in Punjab province but there is a danger of more rain in Sindh over the next week. These provinces, where the majority of Pakistanis live, have been hit hardest by the floods. | Financial Aid | August 2010 | ['(The Times of India)', '(The Guardian)', '(The Sydney Morning Herald)', '(BBC)'] |
Shoko Asahara, the leader of a Japanese cult that gassed the Tokyo subway in 1995, is sentenced to death by hanging. | The sarin gas attack, which killed 12 people and injured thousands more, shocked Japan and shed light on the fanatical Aum Shinrikyo group.
Eleven other Aum members have received death sentences, though none have been executed pending appeals.
Asahara's lawyers said he would appeal too, a process which could take years.
Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, stood passively and said nothing as he was found guilty of all 13 charges of murder and attempted murder.
SHOKO ASAHARA
1955 - Born in Yatsushiro, real name Chizuo Matsumoto
1987 - Starts Aum Shinrikyo
1994 - First sarin attack
1995 - Tokyo subway attack
1996 - Goes on trial
2004 - Trial ends
Profile of Shoko Asahara
A commute like no other
Thousands of people arrived to try to get a courtside seat; spectators were reportedly chosen by lottery.
The judges in the Tokyo District Court rejected defence arguments that Asahara had lost control of his followers by the time of the 1995 attack.
His crimes included ordering another sarin gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, in 1994, which killed seven people, and the killing of several wayward cult members or their relatives. But it was the Tokyo subway attack at the height of the city's rush hour, which most shocked Japan. Survivors still suffer from headaches, breathing troubles and dizziness. Day of judgment in pictures
"I can't think of any other sentence but death for Asahara," said Yasutomo Kusakai, a 22-year-old college student outside the court.
"Many people were killed, and he's supposed to be the mastermind of the crimes that affected the society in a big way."
The verdict is the culmination of a nearly eight-year trial, during which Asahara has remained largely silent.
It is still not clear exactly why Asahara ordered the Tokyo attack. The group mixed Buddhist, Hindu and Christian tenets and believed some kind of Armageddon was imminent. The group had also begun to feel threatened by the police at the time of the subway strike and some analysts believe it was in part designed to delay and confuse the authorities.
Aum is still operating, albeit under the new name of Aleph and with a supposedly benign new remit. However, the Japanese police still monitor it closely and believe it is still dangerous. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | February 2004 | ['(BBC)'] |
David Kabua is elected President of the Marshall Islands by the national legislature. He succeeds Hilda Heine, who was seeking a second term, but lost in the first session vote. | Mr Kabua, a veteran politician and former cabinet minister who is the second son of founding president Amata Kabua, won the vote by 20-12 with one abstention.
President David Kabua, right, with Majuro Atoll local government councillor Randy Jack.
Mr Kabua has previously held the health and internal affairs ministerial portfolios.
Mr Kabua was seen as a presidential candidate who could bring rival candidates together as a leader acceptable to most factions, said RNZ Pacific correspondent Giff Johnson.
He described Mr Kabua as a likeable man, with a "low-key personality".
"He's been in Parliament for a couple of decades. Mostly he has been a backbencher, has been in Cabinet before, just somebody who is easy to get along with. [He] knows everybody and I guess you would describe him as a middle-of-the-road person, not likely to make a lot of waves."
Hilda Heine lost the position after a vote was carried out during the first session of Parliament today after the November general election.
Kenneth Kedi was re-elected as Speaker during the session.
A president in the Marshall Islands is usually inaugrated within a week of being elected and once they have sorted their Cabinet.
Voter turnout in the national election was the lowest in five elections.
Fewer than 40 percent of registered voters cast their ballots, continuing a downward trend since the high of 64 percent was set in 2003, according to information released by the Marshall Islands Electoral Administration on Friday.
Copyright © 2020, Radio New Zealand
Voter turnout in the November 2019 national election in the Marshall Islands was the lowest in five elections. | Government Job change - Election | January 2020 | ['(Radio New Zealand)'] |
At least 2,000 hectares and 20 homes are destroyed and hundreds of people are evacuated after a suspected arson causes forest fires in Valparaíso, Chile. | Chilean authorities are on high alert in the region of Valparaiso where forest fires have destroyed at least 20 homes, forcing people to flee.
The forest fires have burned some 2,000 hectares of wood and brush in the hills near the port of Valparaiso. At the weekend, hundreds of residents had to leave as the fires neared their homes. Officials suspect arson and say a 12-year-old boy could be responsible for at least one of the fires. Firefighters continued working on Sunday to douse the flames, aided by aeroplane and helicopter crews. Residents told of how they were given little notice to leave as the fires approached. "Everything was lost in the fire. I had to leave everything there. I could only save what I have here. The only things are these, everything else burned," one said. Thick smoke from the nearby fires has enveloped the port of Valparaiso, although forecasters say more humid weather and lower temperatures in the coming days may help the work to put out the fires. | Fire | December 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Pressure is raised in Hungary for authorities to arrest alleged former Nazi war criminal László Csatáry, 97, who was discovered living in Hungary. Csatáry is wanted in connection with his role in the deportation of Jews to death camps during the Second World War. | HUNGARY is under pressure to prosecute the world's most wanted surviving Nazi war criminal after France demanded that ''there can be no immunity'' for those accused of carrying out the Holocaust.
The French foreign ministry joined Nazi hunters and Jewish community groups in calling on Hungarian prosecutors to arrest Laszlo Csatary, 97, for his role in the deportation of 15,700 Jews to Auschwitz.
The French foreign ministry joined Nazi hunters and Jewish community groups in calling on Hungarian prosecutors to arrest Laszlo Csatary for his role in the deportation of 15,700 Jews to Auschwitz.Credit:AFP
''We believe that Nazi criminals, wherever they are, must answer for their acts before justice,'' a spokesman for the French foreign ministry said.
Csatary, who tops the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's most-wanted list of Nazi war criminals, was discovered living in Budapest under his own name.
He had been living in Canada but left when he was found by investigators in 1995.
Csatary fled Europe after being sentenced to death in absentia in 1948 by a Czech court. He was found guilty of crimes committed while he was a police chief in Kosice, then part of Hungary.
He was renowned for his brutality and was said to have beaten women with a whip and forced them to dig holes with their hands. During the war, he deported thousands of Jews to death camps and is accused of complicity in the killing of at least 16,000 people.
Csatary has officially been under investigation by the Hungarian authorities since September 11, 2011. It was reported locally that he has been under police surveillance since April. Sources told The Daily Telegraph that the investigation was taking a long time because the crimes ''took place 68 years ago in an area that now falls under the jurisdiction of another country''.
Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem, handed more evidence to Hungarian prosecutors last week, highlighting Csatary's key role in the deportation of about 300 Jews. Almost all were murdered.
He said he was frustrated by the lack of action by Hungarian authorities. ''This man is healthy and he drives his own car,'' he said. ''Nothing has happened and I am very frustrated.
''The passage of time does not diminish his guilt and old age should not provide protection for the perpetrators of the Holocaust.''
Jewish students protested in the street where Csatary lives on Monday night, demanding his immediate arrest. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | July 2012 | ['(Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
An 8.1 magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of New Zealand's North Island, initially prompting a tsunami warning. The earthquake was preceded by a 7.4 magnitude foreshock and followed by a 6.1 magnitude aftershock. | A magnitude 8.1 earthquake off the coast of New Zealand has triggered a tsunami warning for coastal parts of New Zealand.
The earthquake struck near the Kermadec Islands at 8.28am, with people in certain eastern areas of the North Island told to go immediately to high ground.
It followed two smaller quakes. A 7.4 magnitude quake hit near the Kermadec Islands about 6.40am, at a depth of about 56km.
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck at 2.27am. It struck 105km to the east of Te Araroa. An earlier tsunami warning was also issued for the east coast of the North Island following this quake.o one on Kermadec Islands during earthquakes and tsunami warning The “severe” earthquake was felt by more that 50,000 people, according to Geonet reports.
The vast majority of felt reports classified the quake as weak or moderate in strength.
Wellington man Wilson Chau said the rolling earthquake lasted “a good 30-ish seconds”.
I've felt a few in Masterton by now, but by Christ I was in that doorway quick this time round.I hope everyone is ok #eqnz
Christchurch-based Bonnie Brown said the earthquake felt very different to the Canterbury quakes.
It was a long, slow, rolling earthquake, she said.
“My windows were making noise and my third-storey bedroom was rocking and rolling. “It went for what felt was a long time.” | Earthquakes | March 2021 | ['(Stuff.co.nz)'] |
Lt. General Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf steps down as leader of the Transitional Military Council in favor of Lt. General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan. | The head of Sudan's military council has stood down a day after leading a coup that toppled long-time leader Omar al-Bashir amid a wave of protests.
Defence Minister Awad Ibn Auf announced his decision on state TV, naming as his successor Lt-Gen Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan.
The army has said it will stay in power for two years, followed by elections. But protest leaders say they will not leave the streets until the military hands over to a civilian government. Mr Bashir's downfall followed months of unrest that began in December over rising prices. Mr Ibn Auf was head of military intelligence during the Darfur conflict in the 2000s. The US imposed sanctions on him in 2007. From what I’m told, Burhan seen as respected in the army and as less Islamist than, say, Ibn Auf.
The new man in charge is also a top military figure, but the Associated Press news agency reports that his record is cleaner than other Sudanese generals. He is also said to have met with protesters to hear their views.
Mr Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the Darfur conflict.
However, the military council has said it will not extradite Mr Bashir, who denies the charges, although he may be put on trial in Sudan.
Despite Mr Bashir's removal on Thursday, demonstrators had refused to disperse, camping out outside army headquarters in the capital, Khartoum, in defiance of a curfew.
In its first response, the military council came out and denied it was seeking power, telling the protesters that they would decide the country's future, while the army maintained public order.
A few hours later, Mr Ibn Auf announced he was resigning and would be replaced by Lt-Gen Burhan. "In order to ensure the cohesion of the security system, and the armed forces in particular, from cracks and strife, and relying on God, let us begin this path of change," he said.
Protesters celebrated his abrupt departure but the Sudan Professionals Association, which has been spearheading the demonstrations, later announced that the sit-in would continue.
"We call on the armed forces to ensure the immediate transfer of power to a transitional civilian government," they said on Facebook.
They further called for the abolition of "arbitrary decisions by leaders that do not represent the people" and the detention of "all symbols of the former regime who were involved in crimes against the people".
"Until these demands are fully met, we must continue with our sit-in at the General Command of the Armed Forces," the SPA said.
Meanwhile, police said at least 16 people had been killed by stray bullets at the protests on Thursday and Friday.
Awad Ibn Ouf has stepped down to be replaced by a general the senior military hope will be more acceptable to the protesters. The momentum is with civil society.
The regime has floundered since this phase of protests began. The old ways of coercion haven't worked and they face a civil society that is well organised and disciplined. This is a further retreat. It is unlikely to be the last.
And there's the economic crisis brought about by misrule, corruption and loss of oil revenues. Even the regime's friends in the Middle East and Asia will think twice about rescue packages if it looks like a new version of the old venality and brutality. That's an important pressure.
This is an exciting moment. Just think about the role of women in all of this, of social media and civil society. It's happening in Sudan but the significance of these forces working peacefully for change is universal. Yes it's very precarious, but also full of possibility. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | April 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
A bus in Fundación, department of Magdalena, Colombia, ignites while transporting children from a religious service, killing 31 children. | Thirty-one children and one adult burned to death and another 24 youngsters were injured after a bus caught fire in northern Colombia.
The vehicle was returning from a religious service in the town of Fundación, near the historic city of Cartagena, when it erupted in flames around noon on Sunday, the local mayor, Luz Stella Duran, told reporters.
Most of the victims were between 1 and 8 years old, and many of the survivors are battling horrific injuries in hospitals in the area of nearby Santa Marta.
“The injured have second- and third-degree burns, and many are still in a critical condition,” Cesar Uruena, working for the Red Cross, told Agence France-Presse.
Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos traveled to Fundación on Sunday, where he promised that the authorities would cover all medical and funeral expenses faced by the families.
“The entire country is in mourning for the death of these children,” said Santos, who is currently in the midst of a bitter election campaign ahead of May 25 national polls.
The police initially blamed the blaze on a mechanical problem. Nevertheless, furious locals quickly besieged the home of the driver, who vanished shortly after the incident.
One witness told CNN affiliate Caracol that the driver had left the children to put gasoline into the vehicle’s tank. | Road Crash | May 2014 | ['(TIME)'] |
Ethnic clashes in southern Ethiopia lead to the killing of at least 18 people and wounding of 12 others. | Ethnic clashes in southern Ethiopia are reported to have left at least 18 people dead and 12 others injured.
More than 20,000 people have crossed into Kenya to escape the fighting, the Kenyan Red Cross says.
A spokesman told the BBC that people were continuing to cross the border although Ethiopian government forces had intervened to stop the fighting. The clashes, in the Moyale area, are thought to have been sparked by a simmering dispute over land rights.
Fighting involving the Borana and Garri communities is said to have started mid-week, and to have continued until Friday.
Local reports speak of armed militias taking up positions in outlying villages on Wednesday, with the fighting spreading to Moyale town, on the Ethiopia-Kenya border, on Thursday. Many of those who fled across the border into the Kenyan side of Moyale are having to sleep out in the open.
The Red Cross says it is providing those who have been displaced with food, water and tarpaulins.
| Armed Conflict | July 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Following the result of the constitutional referendum, Matteo Renzi will resign from his office as Prime Minister of Italy. With most ballots counted, the "No" vote leads with 60%. | Outgoing Italian PM Matteo Renzi has agreed to stay in power until the Senate passes its 2017 budget in the coming days, the president says. Mr Renzi formally resigned on Monday after his defeat in a constitutional referendum a day earlier, but the president requested the delay.
President Sergio Mattarella will later have to either choose a new prime minister or call early elections.
European leaders have been playing down the risks of fallout from the crisis.
It comes amid fears of long-term instability for the country's troubled banking sector in the long-term. Shares in Italian banks lost ground following news of Mr Renzi's defeat.
Sunday's No vote on constitutional reform was widely seen as a rejection of establishment politics in Italy. Mr Renzi held a final brief cabinet meeting on Monday evening, before travelling to the presidential palace to submit his formal resignation.
President Mattarella then asked him to stay on for the budget bill, which is expected to be passed by the Senate in a matter of days.
He wanted to avoid "the risks of a provisional budget", the president said in a statement (in Italian). The BBC's James Reynolds in Rome says the move will help to reassure markets that the referendum result has not derailed the country's affairs.
Anti-establishment opposition parties have been calling for early elections, although it is unclear yet whether this will happen. Instead, the president may appoint a caretaker administration led by Mr Renzi's Democratic Party, which would carry on until an election due in the spring of 2018.
Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan is the favourite to succeed Mr Renzi as prime minister. The No vote won with nearly 60% against 40% for the Yes campaign. With a turnout of nearly 70%, it was a heavier than expected defeat for the government.
Mr Renzi staked his political future on his attempt to change Italy's cumbersome political system. He wanted to strengthen central government and weaken the Senate, the upper house of parliament.
His opponents - including some within his own party - had argued that the reforms would give the prime minister too much power. The electorate agreed.
More than a resounding victory for the No camp, it was a chance for a medley of populist parties to reject establishment politics. The opposition, headed by the Five Star Movement, capitalised on Mr Renzi's declining popularity, years of economic stagnation, and the problems caused by tens of thousands of migrants arriving in Italy from Africa.
After the vote, Mr Renzi defended his record, saying exports and job numbers were up and unemployment was down to 11.7%.
Five Star's leader, Beppe Grillo, has called for an election "within a week". The result is being seen as a blow to the EU, although there is no question of Italy leaving the union.
Both Five Star and the Northern League are opposed to the eurozone but not to membership of the EU itself.
Reuters news agency quoted German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble as saying there was no reason for a euro crisis but that Italy urgently needed a functioning government.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel said she "took note with regret" of Mr Renzi's resignation but Germany would offer to work closely with the next Italian government.
But the leader of the far-right Front National in France, Marine Le Pen, tweeted: "The Italians have disavowed the EU and Renzi. We must listen to this thirst for freedom of nations." Markets seemed to have taken Mr Renzi's departure in their stride. The euro fell initially to a 20-month low but rebounded again. Shares in Italian banks lost ground on Monday afternoon, following a dip and rebound in the morning.
But there are concerns over the long-term financial stability in the eurozone's third largest economy. The economy is 12% smaller than when the financial crisis began in 2008. The banks remain weak and the country's debt-to-GDP ratio, at 133%, (second only to Greece's in the eurozone) means many Italian banks are in need of refinancing.
There is a risk that the failure of a major bank - such as the troubled Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena - could set off a wider crisis, but repairing the banks becomes more difficult amid political uncertainty. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | December 2016 | ['(BBC News)'] |
An Iraqi suicide bomber kills 48 people and wounds almost 100 in a restaurant north of Kirkuk celebrating the end of Eid alAdha. | BAGHDAD A suicide bomber attacked a packed restaurant on Thursday where Sunni Arabs and Kurds were meeting to ease friction in the tense northern city of Kirkuk. At least 48 people were killed in the bombing, apparently aimed at provoking extremists along widening ethnic fault lines just as American plans to withdraw militarily from Iraq became official.
Nearly 100 were wounded in the bombing, which was the deadliest in Iraq in six months. It occurred north of Kirkuk in a huge restaurant filled with as many as 3,000 people celebrating the end of the holiday Id al-Adha. Reporting was contributed by Graham Bowley from New York; Atheer Kakan, Tareq Maher, Riyadh Mohammed, Abeer Mohammed, Campbell Robertson, Suadad al-Salhy and Alissa J. Rubin from Baghdad; and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Kirkuk.
| Armed Conflict | December 2008 | ['(NYT)'] |
Burmese protest leader U Gambira is released by authorities in Yangon after being held overnight. | Burmese monk Shin Gambira, one of the leaders of anti-government protests in 2007, has been released after briefly being detained by the authorities. Gambira had been taken from a monastery in Rangoon early on Friday morning, his brother told the BBC. Officials had said he was merely being questioned and was not charged.
Gambira had been released as part of an amnesty last month, but continued his criticism of the civilian, military-backed government.
The US State Department had expressed concern over his latest detention.
One of the leaders of the All-Burmese Monks Alliance, the 31-year-old was arrested in November 2007, weeks after the monk-led ''saffron revolution'' protests were crushed.
Less than three weeks later, he was jailed for 68 years, including 12 of hard labour. He was one of 651 people freed on 13 January in what was the most significant release of political prisoners since the country began a series of reforms aimed at encouraging the lifting of sanctions imposed by the European Union and United States.
But after his release, Gambira reportedly began re-opening monasteries that were locked up by the authorities since the protests.
In interviews, he expressed deep scepticism about reforms taking place in Burma, says the BBC's Rachel Harvey in Burma.
An EU official is due to visit Burma on Saturday to offer 150m euros ($199m, £126m) in aid following the series of recent reforms.
Andris Piebalgs, the European Union development commissioner, will meet with President Thein Sein as well as pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is contesting upcoming by-elections. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | February 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
In road bicycle racing, Gerald Ciolek of Germany wins 2013 Milan – San Remo single–day cycling race, the fourth stage of the 2013 UCI World Tour season. | Last updated on 17 March 201317 March 2013.From the section Cycling
German sprinter Gerald Ciolek won the snow-hit Milan-San Remo classic one-day race.
Ciolek, riding for South African Team MTN, finished ahead of favourite Slovakian Peter Sagan and Swiss Fabian Cancellara in a sprint finish.
Team Sky's Ian Stannard was the best-placed British rider in sixth, with Mark Cavendish ninth, 14 seconds behind in the chasing pack.
The 298km race was temporarily halted after 117 kilometres.
Because of the appalling weather conditions, team buses had to transport the riders about 50km, bypassing the crucial climb of La Manie, to restart 130km from the finish.
A six-man group that had broken away from the main peloton was allowed to resume racing with an advantage of seven minutes, 10 seconds but a number of riders decided to abandon the race, including 2011 winner Matthew Goss and British duo David Millar and Geraint Thomas, who crashed.
Belgium's Tom Boonen, a Classics specialist, also quit the race and told Belgian channel Sporza: "There are two reasons for me giving up. First, I'm frozen and I don't want to be sick. Second, it's a statement to the organisers."
The leading group were caught 30km from the line and world road race champion Philippe Gilbert chose his moment to launch a challenge before France's Sylvain Chavanel, Britain's Stannard and Russia's Eduard Vorganov made their own bid on the final climb at Poggio, 10km from the finish, as they opened up a 27-second lead.
The trio were caught on the descent into San Remo and as Vorganov drifted away, Stannard, the weaker of the sprinters in the leading bunch, attacked again inside the final couple of kilometres.
But he was easily caught as 2008 race winner Cancellara, Sagan and Ciolek challenged for the podium places in the final 200m.
Sagan led the way but Ciolek emerged from his slipstream to win the race by a matter of inches after five hours, 37 minutes and 20 seconds of racing.
"I was on Sagan's wheel - and that was the best place to be," said the 26-year-old German after his first Classic success.
"This is an unbelievable success for us and just an incredible day. We just came here as a wildcard and now we're standing here with the trophy."
Stannard was awarded the same time as the winner and his sixth place represents Team Sky's best finish in the race.
Cavendish was beaten in the sprint for the minor places by Alexander Kristoff.
Milan-San Remo one-day race results:
1. Gerald Ciolek (Germany/Team MTN) 5:37:20" 2. Peter Sagan (Slovakia/Cannondale) ST 3. Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland/RadioShack) 4. Sylvain Chavanel (France/Omega Pharma-Quick-Step) 5. Luca Paolini (Italy/Katusha) 6. Ian Stannard (Britain/Team Sky) 7. Taylor Phinney (US/BMC Racing) 8. Alexander Kristoff (Norway/Katusha) +14" 9. Mark Cavendish (Britain/Omega Pharma-Quick-Step) 10. Bernhard Eisel (Austria/Team Sky) | Sports Competition | March 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Proceedings begin in the trial of Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, former chairman of the giant insurance company AIG, on charges of accounting fraud. The 2005 indictment accuses Greenberg and AIG's former CFO of setting up bogus reinsurance transactions to conceal the insurer's financial difficulties in 2000 and 2001. | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Opening arguments began on Tuesday in the trial of former American International Group Inc chairman Maurice “Hank” Greenberg over accounting fraud at the insurance giant some 16 years ago.
Greenberg, 91, is facing civil charges from the New York Attorney General’s Office of orchestrating a $500 million transaction to inflate the insurer’s reserves and a $200 million transaction to hide underwriting losses. Former AIG Chief Financial Officer Howard Smith is also named as a defendant.
The two men “designed, created, negotiated and implemented every major aspect” of the two fraudulent transactions in the case, Assistant Attorney General David Ellenhorn said in his opening statement.
Greenberg, who sat at the defense table in New York state court in Manhattan, is expected to testify during the trial.
David Boies, Greenberg’s lawyer, said in his opening that the attorney general’s office would not be able to prove any wrongdoing.
“This case is devoid of any admissible evidence that ties Mr. Greenberg to anything improper in either of these transactions,” Boies said.
Vincent Sama, who represents Smith, will give his opening on Wednesday.
The case, filed by then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in 2005 and continued by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, did not go to trial for more than a decade, due to legal wrangling that twice made its way to the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court.
Greenberg nearly settled the case in 2008 with a $100 million gift to charity, Boies told Reuters on Monday, but the market crashed that September along with the value of Greenberg’s AIG stock holdings.
Damages were dropped from the case in 2013 after Greenberg and Smith entered into a $115 million settlement with AIG shareholders, but Schneiderman wants to claw back millions in bonuses, plus interest, paid to the defendants during the period the alleged fraud took place.
Ellenhorn said on Tuesday the state was seeking $46 million from Greenberg and $6 million from Smith, subtracting around $16 million the two paid in a 2009 settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the improper accounting.
The attorney general also is seeking to bar the executives from serving as officers or directors of public companies.
Justice Charles Ramos of New York state court in Manhattan will decide the non-jury case, which may run into early next year with breaks between trial dates.
“My fear is at the end of this trial I will know more about reinsurance than I ever wanted,” the judge quipped.
Leaving court on Tuesday, Greenberg told Reuters the case “never should have gotten to this point,” but that it would be good “to set the facts out.”
The defendant, who is still the head of C.V. Starr, a private insurance company, said he was about to fly to Argentina for a conference.
Greenberg led AIG for four decades before he was ousted in 2005. The following year, AIG paid $1.64 billion to settle federal and state probes into its business practices.
The case is People v Greenberg et al, New York State Supreme Court, New York County No. 401720-2005.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2016 | ['(Reuters)', '(The New York Times)'] |
Zac Sunderland, at the age of 17, becomes the youngest person to sail around the world alone. | Zac Sunderland, 17, completed the 45,000km (28,000-mile) voyage in 13 months, facing storms, equipment breakdown and suspected pirates. Hundreds of people cheered as he sailed his 11m (36ft) yacht, the Intrepid, into Marina Del Rey, California. Zac Sunderland told the BBC that the experience had been tough but he had never thought of giving up. He told the crowds waiting in his home state: "It's awesome to be back."
"In other countries, 13 people are living in a dirt hut and when you meet them, they're the kindest, most generous people," he said. . Zac Sunderland describes how it feels to be back home
The teenager set sail from Marina del Rey on 14 June last year. He was in constant contact with his family via satellite and met his father at several places en route. During his time at sea, he ate mostly freeze-dried food and suffered sleep deprivation when his yacht was damaged. He also had a close encounter with suspected pirates in the Indian Ocean, when they circled his boat before apparently being scared off. Rival attempt
Zac may only have a short time to enjoy his new world record. A younger sailor, Mike Perham from the UK, is expected to complete his own round-the-world trip in about three weeks time. The American said he was not too concerned by that. "Someone's going to beat it some day," he said. He added that he was already planning his next challenge. "I'm hoping to set off on my next adventure soon - Mount Everest or to the Arctic Circle," he said. What are these? | Break historical records | July 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Nokia, the telecommunications giant based in Finland, announces that it has gained control of French counterpart Alcatel–Lucent, and sets the date for formal consolidation as January 14. | HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland’s Nokia said on Monday it has gained control of French counterpart Alcatel-Lucent following its 15.6-billion-euro ($17 billion) all-share offer and the two telecom equipment makers would start to combine their operations next week.
The Alcatel acquisition will put Nokia into a stronger position to compete with Sweden’s Ericsson and China’s Huawei in a market for telecom network gear where limited growth and tough competition are pressuring prices.
The French stock market authority said interim results from the offer showed Nokia would hold around 79 percent of Alcatel shares.
The offers in France and the United States will be reopened this month, and the final results will be published in February.
Nokia said it will move quickly to press on with integration ahead of the formal closure of the deal, expected during the first quarter.
“As of January 14, 2016, Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent will offer a combined end-to-end portfolio of the scope and scale to meet the needs of our global customers,” Nokia Chief Executive Rajeev Suri said.
Shares in the company rose 0.6 percent by 1410 GMT on the Helsinki bourse which was down 2.1 percent.
The stock is still down about 10 percent since the announcement of the deal in April as investors have worried about the integration process and special terms negotiated by the French government.
But in October, Nokia brought forward the deal’s 900 million euro cost-saving target by a year to 2018.
“They are well on track with this deal, it seems they have calculated the deal’s ‘margins of safety’ rather carefully. Now, they can keep up a positive news flow,” said Jukka Oksaharju, strategist at Nordnet brokerage.
The deal, set to become the biggest transaction in Finland’s corporate history, follows a string of M&A moves that have restructured former mobile phone giant Nokia in recent years.
In 2013, it took control of its network business by buying out Siemens from a joint venture, and in 2014 it sold the ailing mobile phone business to Microsoft. Last year it also sold navigation business HERE. ($1 = 0.9184 euros)
Editing by Jason Neely and Keith Weir
| Organization Merge | January 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A court in the United Kingdom sentences 36–year–old Indonesian national Reynhard Sinaga to life imprisonment for sexually assaulting at least 48 young men in Manchester. Sinaga was convicted of a total of 159 sex offences, and is said to be Britain's most prolific serial rapist. | A man convicted of 159 sex offences, including 136 rapes, will "never be safe to be released", a judge has said. Reynhard Sinaga was found guilty of luring 48 men from outside Manchester clubs to his flat, where he drugged and assaulted them - filming the attacks.
Police say they have evidence Sinaga, 36, who is being named for the first time, targeted at least 190 victims.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Sinaga was "the most prolific rapist in British legal history".
The judge ruled his life sentence must include a minimum of 30 years in jail.
Reporting restrictions were also lifted at a sentencing hearing at Manchester Crown Court on Monday, meaning Sinaga could be identified for the first time.
The post-graduate student was already serving life, with a minimum term of 20 years, for the offences he was convicted of in two earlier trials, which took place in summer 2018 and last spring.
Across four separate trials, the Indonesian national was found guilty of 136 counts of rape, eight counts of attempted rape, 14 counts of sexual assault, and one count of assault by penetration, against a total of 48 victims.
Detectives say they have been unable to identify a further 70 victims and are now appealing for anyone who believes they may have been abused by Sinaga to come forward.
At the hearing, Judge Suzanne Goddard QC said Sinaga was "an evil serial sexual predator who has preyed upon young men" who wanted "nothing more than a good night out with their friends".
"In my judgment you are a highly dangerous, cunning and deceitful individual who will never be safe to be released," she said - adding that the decision to release prisoners is made by the Parole Board.
Sinaga would wait for men leaving nightclubs and bars before leading them to his flat in Montana House, Princess Street, often with the offer of somewhere to have a drink or call a taxi.
He drugged his victims before assaulting them while they were unconscious. When the victims woke up many of them had no memory of what had happened.
The student, who denied the charges, had claimed all the sexual activity was consensual and that each man had agreed to being filmed while pretending to be asleep - a defence described by the judge as "ludicrous".
At an earlier sentencing, the judge said she was sure that Sinaga had used a form of date rape drug such as GHB.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said she was "deeply concerned" by the use of such a drug.
In victim impact statements read out in court, one victim said Sinaga had "destroyed a part of my life", while another said: "I hope he never comes out of prison and he rots in hell."
"I have periods where I can't get up and face the day," another added. Many of the victims were unaware they had been raped until they were contacted by police. Lisa Waters, of the St Mary's Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Manchester, where victims received support, said some men found this "very difficult to process", with some experiencing mental health issues and suicidal thoughts.
Sinaga, who was studying for a PHD at the University of Leeds, carried out his attacks over several years.
The rapist was caught in June 2017 when one victim, who regained consciousness while being assaulted, fought Sinaga off and called the police.
When officers seized Sinaga's phone they found he had filmed each of his attacks - amounting to hundreds of hours of footage.
The discovery led to the launch of the largest rape inquiry in British history.
Assistant Chief Constable Mabbs Hussain said the true extent of Sinaga's offending would probably never be known. "We suspect he's offended over a period of 10 years," he said. "The information and evidence we are going from is largely from trophies that he's collected from the victims of his crimes." Investigators traced dozens of victims from the videos using clues found in Sinaga's Manchester flat, such as stolen phones, ID cards and watches. The University of Manchester, where Sinaga was previously a student, said some members of its community had been "directly affected" by the case and it had set up a dedicated confidential phone line to offer support. A statement from Vice-Chancellor Dame Nancy Rothwell, said the news was "profoundly distressing" and her thoughts were with all those affected. Judge Goddard said the "scale and enormity" of Sinaga's offending meant it was "accurate" for one of his victims to have described him as a monster.
She added that Sinaga had shown "not a jot of remorse" and at times appeared to be "actually enjoying the trial process".
Following the sentencing, Ian Rushton, from the CPS, said Sinaga was "the most prolific rapist in British legal history" and possibly "in the world".
"His extreme sense of sexual entitlement almost defies belief and he would no doubt still be adding to his staggering tally had he not been caught," he said.
He added that he thought Sinaga took "a particular pleasure in preying on heterosexual men".
Home Secretary Priti Patel said in response to Sinaga's "truly sickening crimes" she had asked an independent council to prioritise a review into whether controls for drugs like GHB were "tough enough".
GHB (gammahydroxybutyrate) is a class C drug. Anyone found in possession of it can be imprisoned for up to two years.
Sinaga's trials took place across 18 months at Manchester Crown Court, resulting in unanimous guilty verdicts on all charges.
His convictions relate to crimes he committed from January 2015 to June 2017, but police believe he began offending years earlier.
Greater Manchester Police said anyone who believes they might have been attacked by Sinaga can report information online or call its police line on 0800 092 0410 from inside the UK or 0207 158 0124 from abroad.
The force said anyone in need of support from specialist agencies could call 0800 056 0154 from within the UK or 0207 158 0011 from abroad.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | January 2020 | ['(BBC News)', '(Reuters)'] |
Kandahar massacre: U.S. staff sergeant Robert Bales avoids the death penalty by pleading guilty to the murder of 16 Afghan civilians, including 9 children. | JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the enigmatic figure at the center of the worst American war crime in recent memory, admitted for the first time on Wednesday deliberately killing 16 Afghan civilians last year, most of them women and children.
He took the oath in a military court, swore to tell the truth, and conceded in crisp “yes sirs” and “no sirs” every major charge against him that he shot some victims, and shot and burned others, and did so with complete awareness that he was acting on his own, without compunction or mercy or under orders by a superior Army officer. The guilty plea removes the possibility of the death penalty in the case.
But the curtain of enigma about the man himself, and his descent into darkness and murder on the night of the killings, remained firmly in place. The millions of Americans who have pondered the mechanisms of atrocity since the attacks in March 2012 were left in the dark. Even Sergeant Bales himself, finally pressed by the presiding judge, Col. Jeffery Nance, to explain more deeply what happened, seemed baffled.
“What was your reason for killing them?” Colonel Nance finally asked.
Sergeant Bales, 39, seated at the defense table in his blue service uniform, hands clasped before him thumbs often nervously twitching said he had asked himself the same question “a million times.”
“There’s not a good reason in this world for why I did the horrible things I did,” he said.
Asked by Colonel Nance whether he had poured kerosene on some of his victims and set them on fire as the charges against him specified, Sergeant Bales said he remembered seeing a kerosene lamp in one of the village compounds, and later found matches in his pocket. But bodies themselves on fire? He did not remember that, he said. Then he conceded that the cumulative evidence was clear that it must have happened, and that he must, in fact, have done it. “It’s the only thing that makes sense, sir,” Sergeant Bales said.
Asked by the judge about his illegal use of steroids, another charge Sergeant Bales admitted to on Wednesday, the defendant said he had wanted to get stronger, or “huge and jacked,” as he put in an interview quoted by the court. Asked by the judge what other effects the drugs might have had, Sergeant Bales said: “Sir, it definitely increased my irritability and anger.”
Whether those mood shifts played into the crime was unaddressed.
The murders, in two poor villages in the Panjwai district of Kandahar Province, had global repercussions. United States-Afghan relations shuddered as villages in the area erupted in protest. Critics of America’s decade of conflict in the region since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, seized on the stresses experienced in the war by soldiers like Sergeant Bales, who was on his fourth overseas deployment in 10 years. Victims testified in a pretrial, or Article 32, hearing at the base last fall that a figure, cloaked in darkness with blindingly bright lights on his weapon, burst into their homes early on the morning of March 11, 2012. In gripping testimony via live video feed from Afghanistan, they described a man they could not identify who killed people in their beds, leaving brains on pillows.
Fellow soldiers told the court in the Article 32 hearing that they had been drinking together earlier that night, against regulations, and that Sergeant Bales had later walked back into the camp, wearing a cape, his clothes spotted with blood.
But until Wednesday, when Sergeant Bales used phrases like, “then I did kill her by shooting her,” over and over in numbing repetition, the figure at the center of the case was described only obliquely and in shadow, from those who saw him or suffered at his hands. And even then, in the parade of mostly monotone guilty admissions, anyone waiting for tears of regret or remorse was disappointed.
Even though Wednesday’s hearing removed the death penalty from consideration in the case, Sergeant Bales still faces a sentencing trial, scheduled for August, to determine whether he will receive life in prison with the possibility of parole, or life without parole.
At that time, Sergeant Bales and his lawyers could present evidence of extenuating or mitigating circumstances, and Sergeant Bales would have an opportunity to testify, the judge said. That phase of the case is also likely to bring up questions of the defendant’s life, character and mental states, and the stresses of the wars he helped fight. | Armed Conflict | June 2013 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(New York Times)'] |
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission says that Robert Mugabe's ZANU–PF party has won 142 seats of 210 seats in the general election. | Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's party has won a huge majority in parliament in this week's elections, officials say.
With most seats declared, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said Zanu-PF had won 137 seats in the 210-seat chamber, just short of two-thirds.
Results in the presidential race have yet to be announced.
Mr Mugabe's main rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, has already dismissed the election as "a sham".
Mr Tsvangirai, 61, who heads the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and is running for president against Mr Mugabe, said the vote was "null and void". A local monitoring group has also said that the poll was "seriously compromised". However, the two main observer groups have broadly endorsed the election, saying it was free and peaceful.
Earlier reports from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said Zanu-PF had won 142 seats but this was later corrected following some recounts. The AFP news agency reports that 186 seats have been declared with 24 results still to come.
If Zanu-PF clinches a two-thirds majority it will be able to change Zimbabwe's constitution. African Union (AU) mission head Olusegun Obasanjo dismissed the complaints of fraud, saying the election was fair and free "from the campaigning point of view".
He acknowledged incidents "that could have been avoided and even tended to have breached the law" but added: "All in all, up to the close of the polls, we do not believe that these incidences (incidents) will amount to the result not representing the will of the people."
The former Nigerian president added: "I have never seen an election that is perfect. The process continues and we have to limit our comments."
Monitors from the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) described the elections as "free and peaceful" but said it was too early to call them fair.
"In democracy we not only vote, not only campaign, but accept the hard facts, particularly the outcome," said Sadc mission head Bernard Membe.
The AU assessment sharply contrasted to that of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) - the largest group of domestic monitors with some 7,000 people on the ground. It said on Thursday that the elections were "seriously compromised", with as many as one million people unable to cast their ballots. The ZESN said potential voters were much more likely to be turned away from polling stations in urban areas, where support for Mr Tsvangirai is strong, than in President Mugabe's rural strongholds. The group also alleged significant irregularities before the poll. It said that 99.7% of rural voters were registered on the electoral roll in June compared with only 67.9% of urban voters.
Zanu-PF and the MDC have formed an uneasy coalition government since 2009. That deal ended deadly violence that erupted after a disputed presidential poll the previous year.
Mr Mugabe, 89, is running for a seventh term. His Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said on Friday that Zanu-PF was "headed for an unprecedented landslide".
"If anyone is dissatisfied, the courts are there. I invite Tsvangirai to go to court if he has any grounds to justify what he has been saying,'' he told journalists.
Under Zimbabwean law, seven days are set aside for legal challenges with another two days for rulings to be made. After that, the swearing-in of a new government takes place.
The BBC's Andrew Harding in Johannesburg says some strong legal challenges are likely, with perhaps a few results overturned.
Amid rising tension, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on President Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai to send "clear messages of calm" to their supporters.
His spokesman, Martin Nesirky, said Mr Ban wanted any election disputes to be handled "transparently and fairly".
| Government Job change - Election | August 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Russian troops continue to withdraw from the Georgian city of Gori, where the major Georgian army base was dismantled by Russian troops soon after the conflict ended. Two Russian APCs still remain at a checkpoint near the city, Reuters reports. | TBILISI (Reuters) - Russia announced it would begin withdrawing forces from Georgia on Monday after a war that dealt a humiliating blow to the Black Sea state and raised fears for energy supplies to Europe.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, whose failed invasion of the pro-Russian breakaway region of South Ossetia triggered a Russian backlash that shocked the West, called for international monitoring of the pullout.
“I think the world should watch,” he told a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Tbilisi. Merkel said the world would indeed be watching for Russia to withdraw quickly under the terms of a six-point peace plan brokered by France.
The United States, which has warned Moscow its military actions in the former Soviet republic could seriously damage relations with the West, urged Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to withdraw troops quickly.
“This time I hope he means it,” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told NBC’s “Meet the Press”. “The word of the Russian president needs to be upheld by his forces or people are going to begin to wonder if Russia can be trusted.”
Moscow has given no firm deadline for its complete withdrawal. A statement from the Kremlin read: “From tomorrow (Monday), Russia will begin the withdrawal of the military contingent which was moved to reinforce Russian peacekeepers after the Georgian aggression against South Ossetia.”
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Russia must withdraw “without delay”, adding that he would call European Union leaders to an extraordinary summit on the crisis if the peace deal were not respected “rapidly and totally”.
Underlining continued high tension, Russia’s Defence Ministry said Georgia was planning a “major provocative act” in the city of Gori, captured by Russian forces on Tuesday as they fanned out from the disputed region into the Georgian heartland.
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It said Georgia was forming bands of mercenaries who would be given Russian uniforms and told to loot and pillage.
Georgia issued a swift denial. “Such a provocation would only be staged by the Russian side, with the aim of keeping Russian military units in the conflict zone,” the Georgian Interior Ministry said in a statement.
A United Nations aid convoy which entered Gori on Sunday reported evidence of large-scale looting. “While the buildings did not appear to be very damaged, there are clear signs of massive looting of both shops and private accommodations,” the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said.
Russian troops remained in position around Gori, which commands the approaches to South Ossetia and the main east-west highway and should be central to covering a Russian withdrawal.
Major-General Vyacheslav Borisov, now a familiar figure touring the area of his command around Gori in a Georgian four-wheel drive, could not say when he would be moving out.
“We were the first in, so we’ll be the last out,” Borisov told Reuters at the roadside near Gori.
There was no sign of shooting and troops appeared relaxed.
A Georgian official accused Russian forces of destroying Georgian television and radio transmitters in the Gori region and installing their own.
Each side has accused the other of attempted genocide. Russia says some 1,600 people were killed in the initial Georgian shelling of the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali while Georgia accuses Russian and irregular forces of leveling Georgian villages around Tskhinvali.
The 10-day confrontation killed around 200 Georgians, dealt a crushing blow to the country’s military, damaged its economy, disrupted road and rail links and drew criticism in the West of Saakashvili’s handling of the crisis.
The Russian action rattled the West, which transports oil and gas from the Caspian region through pipelines across Georgian territory, a route favored because it bypasses Russia. Some saw dark portents in Russia launching its first invasion of a former Soviet state.
Russia argued it was justified in intervening to protect South Ossetians, but Moscow also suffered losses, both human and economic. The campaign sent Russian stocks tumbling to their lowest in nearly two years and worried foreign investors.
Russia has made clear it sees no prospect in the foreseeable future of South Ossetia being reintegrated into Georgia.
Talks are under way to establish international agreement on a peacekeeping force, which seems likely, whatever Georgia’s objections, to include a large Russian contingent.
Merkel, in remarks likely to irk the Kremlin, reiterated the prospect of NATO membership for Georgia, which as a Soviet republic housed Moscow’s frontline radar and missile defenses.
“In December we will have a first evaluation of the situation and we are on a clear path in the direction of NATO membership,” she said. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told CNN Georgian NATO membership was “very much still on the table”.
| Armed Conflict | August 2008 | ['(Reuters)'] |
An explosion caused by a gas leak devastated a block of flats in Magnitogorsk, Russia, killing 14 people while 27 others are missing. | An 11-month-old boy rescued from the ruins of a collapsed apartment block in the Russian city of Magnitogorsk is said to be conscious but in an "extremely serious" condition.
The country's health ministry says he has severe frostbite to his limbs, a head injury and multiple leg fractures.
The boy, named Ivan, has been evacuated to Moscow for treatment.
His mother also survived the suspected gas explosion, which killed at least 14 people. Twenty-seven people remain unaccounted for.
Ivan was found after spending more than 30 hours in sub-zero temperatures in the rubble of the apartment block.
He was found wrapped in a blanket and in his cot in the Urals region city, about 1,695km (1,053 miles) east of Moscow, where the daytime temperature is about -17C.
One rescuer, Pyotr Gritsenko has described how the infant, whom he initially thought to be a girl, was found.
"[We made sure there was] silence so we could hear if sounds were coming or not," he told Russian state TV channel Rossia 24.
"One of the rescuers in our group, Andrei Valman, heard a child crying near the adjacent apartment block, near the part that was still standing. "After that, we stopped all our equipment in order to make sure again, and listened. When we said 'Quiet!' the baby reacted and went quiet too. When we said 'Where are you?' she started to react again. "When we were certain, the head of our centre, who is more experienced, said 'This is where we'll work' and told us to start removing the rubble."
The blast, at 06:02 local time is thought to have ripped through the first floor, which houses some offices, and the seven storeys above then collapsed. The building was home to 120 people, and 48 flats collapsed in the blast. Nearby flats were also damaged.
"I woke up and felt myself falling," one witness told Russian television, according to news agency AFP. "The walls were gone. My mother was screaming and my son had been buried."
Another witness spoke of a "wave of fire" which followed the explosion.
A criminal investigation has been opened into the disaster.
Wednesday has been declared a day of mourning in Magnitogorsk. | Gas explosion | December 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
In American football, the Cleveland Browns defeat the Tennessee Titans 41-35 to secure their first winning season since 2007. | The Browns wide receiver generated headlines early last week when he expressed confidence his team could prevail in its highly anticipated clash with the Tennessee Titans.
“I don’t look at the Titans as like a super team,” Hodge said on Nov. 30. “They can get beat like anybody else. We’re going into this game expecting to win, and we’re expecting to do our thing.”
More:Browns-Titans Snap Judgments: Baker Mayfield and Kevin Stefanski each deliver big in big win
Hodge suffered a hamstring injury in Thursday's practice and sat out Sunday, so he couldn't back up his talk in what figured to be a stellar measuring-stick game.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield did it for Hodge, though, and the Browns earned a signature victory Sunday by triumphing 41-35 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.
The Browns improved to 9-3, their best record through 12 games since 1994. They also clinched their first winning season since 2007, when they finished 10-6 but missed the postseason.
Now they're in the driver's seat to seize the first of three AFC wild-card spots.
Mayfield finished 25-of-33 passing (75.8%) for 334 yards and four touchdowns. He avoided an interception for the fifth consecutive game and posted a passer rating of 147. He didn't take a sack. His receivers dropped at least three of his passes.
"We had some unfortunate drops there in big moments, and the numbers would be even better. [Mayfield is] playing at a high level, and he has to continue to do so. We're counting on him, and he knows that,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said on Zoom.
Mayfield and Co. proved they were fired up to play meaningful football in December by putting together their best half of the season with the Browns pushing for their first playoff berth since 2002.
The effort resulted in the Browns setting a franchise record for most points in a half and capturing a 38-7 halftime lead against the Titans (8-4). The previous team record was 35 points in a half, most recently on Nov. 28, 2004, in a 58-48 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Mayfield said the Browns played their most "complete game" thus far, but he added their best ball is still ahead of them.
"I know we didn’t finish the way we wanted to by any means, but the first half, that was the most complete half that we played,” he said.
The Browns scored on each of their first five drives for the first time in the expansion era.
Mayfield had never quarterbacked a more dominant half against a playoff-caliber opponent since the Browns drafted him first overall in 2018. He went 20-of-25 passing (80%) for 290 yards and four touchdowns without an interception for a rating of 154.6 through two quarters.
He became the second player in Browns history to throw four touchdown passes in a first half. The other is Hall of Fame quarterback Otto Graham, who accomplished the feat on Dec. 2, 1951.
"We base our game plan off the run game, but we’re going to do whatever it takes to win week in and week out," Mayfield said. "So in the first half, it was spreading them out.”
Mayfield threw scoring strikes of 2 yards to receiver Jarvis Landry, 1 yard to backup offensive tackle Kendall Lamm, 75 yards to rookie receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones and 17 yards to receiver Rashard Higgins.
“Baker was on fire," Browns running back Nick Chubb said. "That's the guy that I know."
After missing some throws in the previous two games, Mayfield seemed to be at the top of his game.
"The job’s not finished yet, but playing confident, being who I am, not looking for any approval on the outside is how I’ve always been the best at what I’ve done," he said. "So that’s how I need to do it."
Asked about his improvement, Mayfield borrowed a line from Dwight Schrute of "The Office" when he said, "Whenever I'm about to do something, I think, ‘Would an idiot do that?’ And if they would, then I don’t do that.”
The Titans rallied with touchdowns on back-to-back possessions to begin the second half before the Browns assembled an eight-play, 50-yard drive ending with Cody Parkey's 43-yard field goal and a 20-point cushion with 5:29 left in the third quarter.
The Titans trimmed their deficit to 41-28 when running back Jeremy McNichols rushed for a 1-yard TD with 1:23 left in the fourth quarter.
Browns linebacker Malcolm Smith recovered the ensuing onside kick. On fourth-and-1 from the Tennessee 36, Mayfield fumbled on a quarterback sneak, safety Kenny Vaccaro recovered and returned 53 yards before running back Kareem Hunt tackled him at the Cleveland 13 with 48 seconds left to play.
On fourth-and-5, quarterback Ryan Tannehill completed an 8-yard touchdown pass to receiver Cameron Batson, and the Titans cut the Browns' lead to 41-35 with 28 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
But Browns fullback Andy Janovich recovered the onside kick to seal the victory. Janovich had missed the previous two games after contracting COVID-19.
"We've got to finish better, and that starts with me," Mayfield said. "... Obviously, if I hold onto the damn football, it’s not going to be close."
Despite Mayfield's lost fumble, the Browns won the turnover battle 3-1 and sacked Tannehill three times. Star defensive end Myles Garrett notched a sack during the fourth quarter of his first game back from a bout with COVID-19.
"We did have a great game, but we still had a lot of errors," Chubb said. "We can play more clean football. The sky's the limit for us. We've got to keep going.”
The Titans thrashed the Browns 43-13 in the 2019 season opener. The Browns racked up 18 penalties for 182 yards in the first game with Freddie Kitchens as their head coach.
Stefanski is at the helm now, and he has the look of a legitimate NFL Coach of the Year candidate.
The Browns jumped out to a 17-0 lead.
“Coach has been on us about starting fast," Chubb said. "… We came out hot. We came out ready to play, and it showed.”
They went ahead 3-0 with Parkey's 27-yard field goal at the end of the game's opening possession, but Peoples-Jones cost them four points three plays earlier. On first-and-10 at the Tennessee 13, Peoples-Jones dropped a would-be touchdown pass from Mayfield over the middle at the 5 with an open lane to the end zone.
Then the defense, using five linemen to combat Tennessee's rushing attack, stepped up during its first series. Titans coach and Walsh Jesuit High School graduate Mike Vrabel decided to go for it on fourth-and-1 from the Cleveland 42-yard line, but star running back Derrick Henry fell just shy of a first down when defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson tackled him with 7:51 remaining in the opening quarter. Vrabel challenged the spot of the ball, but the turnover on downs stood after a replay review.
"That was outstanding," Stefanski said. "We talked all week [about how it's] a tough, tough task to try and slow that player down. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Derrick Henry. The guys came through by being gap sound and gang tackling."
The Browns capitalized on the momentum when Landry beat cornerback Malcolm Butler, who stumbled in coverage, and caught a 2-yard TD pass from Mayfield in the back of the end zone with 3:19 left in the first quarter.
The Browns had two impressive third-down conversions during the nine-play, 59-yard drive.
On third-and-2 from the Tennessee 30, Chubb pitched the ball to Landry, then Landry threw a 6-yard pass to Mayfield along the left sideline on a trick play.
“Every morning I wake up, toe tap, get out of bed and go into the bathroom," Mayfield said. "Before I brush my teeth, I toe tap.”
Then on third-and-6 from the 8, Higgins held on for a contested 7-yard catch at the goal line. Landry scored two plays later.
On the next play from scrimmage, Richardson made another crucial play for the defense by forcing Henry to fumble. Strong safety Karl Joseph recovered for the Browns at the Tennessee 21 with 3:09 left in the first quarter.
Stefanski used some more creativity to ensure the Browns would make the Titans pay for Henry's lost fumble. Lamm entered the game as an extra offensive lineman on third-and-goal, and he was wide open in the end zone when Mayfield threw a 1-yard TD pass to him with 14:56 left in the second quarter. Stefanski said the play was installed this past week, and it resulted in Lamm becoming the first Browns offensive lineman to catch a TD pass since Shaun O’Hara on Sept. 23, 2001.
The Titans finally scored during the next series when Tannehill completed a 17-yard TD pass to receiver Corey Davis, who caught the ball over cornerback Kevin Johnson in the end zone with 13:14 left in the second quarter.
The Browns countered immediately, and Peoples-Jones earned redemption for his dropped pass during the game's initial series. Filling Hodges' role as the No. 3 receiver, Peoples-Jones torched cornerback Breon Borders with an out-and-up double move and caught a 75-yard TD pass from Mayfield with 13:04 left in the second quarter.
“Guys are going to drop the ball," Stefanski said. "... You have to really just move on from those. He moved on, we moved on and knew he was going to make a great play there.”
The next time the Browns got the ball, Higgins beat Borders on a go route into the end zone and hauled in a 17-yard TD pass from Mayfield with 5:46 left in the second quarter.
Then on the Browns' next possession Chubb rushed for a 1-yard TD on third-and-goal, and Cleveland extended its lead to 38-7 with 55 seconds left before halftime.
Henry passed Chubb in the 2019 season finale to win the NFL's rushing title by 46 yards. In August, Chubb said finishing runner-up to Henry is “just more motivation,” and Stefanski named Chubb the Browns' game captain Sunday. Chubb responded with a better outing than Henry. Chubb rushed for 80 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries (4.4 average). Henry had 60 yards on 15 carries (4 average).
"Both sides expected for us to come in running the ball. We have great backs on both sides, and I think we used that to our advantage," Chubb said. "We were protecting our runs with the great play actions and throwing it over their heads 'cause every time we had play action those guys would run up and bite.”
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. He covered Sunday's game from home due to travel restrictions related to the pandemic. | Sports Competition | December 2020 | ['(USA Today)'] |
Turkish authorities suspend nearly 12,800 police officers from duty over their suspected links with U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. | ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish authorities suspended nearly 13,000 police officers, detained dozens of air force officers and shut down a TV station on Tuesday, widening a state-ordered clampdown against perceived enemies in the wake of July’s failed coup.
The police headquarters said 12,801 officers, including 2,523 chiefs, were suspended because of their suspected links to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating the attempt to overthrow the government.
Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, denies any link to the coup attempt, which led to the deaths of more than 240 people.
The suspensions were ordered hours after Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus announced that the cabinet had approved a 90-day extension to a state of emergency, renewing President Tayyip Erdogan’s powers to govern by decree at least until January.
The emergency extension, which parliamentary is likely to wave through, means Erdogan can take decisions without oversight of the Constitutional Court, Turkey’s highest legal body.
As well as suspending five percent of the entire police force, the authorities detained 33 air force officers in raids across the country, the private Dogan news agency reported, and the transmission of TV station IMC was cut following accusations of spreading “terrorist propaganda”.
State-run Anadolu Agency said 37 people working in the Interior Ministry’s headquarters had also been removed from their posts, although no explanation was given.
Since the July 15 insurrection, Erdogan has taken steps to rid state institutions of staff deemed disloyal or potential enemies. About 100,000 people in the military, civil service, police, judiciary and universities have been sacked or suspended from their jobs, and 32,000 arrested.
The government says its aim is to rid institutions of links to Gulen, whose organization it calls a terrorist network.
One of the police officers suspended on Tuesday, a 26-year-old man, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head in a park in the Mediterranean city of Mersin, Dogan reported.
The relentless crackdown has caused consternation among Turkey’s Western allies and human rights groups, who fear Erdogan is using the unsuccessful coup as a pretext to curtail any dissent, while at the same time intensifying his moves against suspected Kurdish militants and sympathizers.
On Tuesday evening, the armed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) attacked a Turkish military outpost in the predominantly Kurdish southeast, in Diyarbikar province, killing two soldiers and wounding three others, the local governor said.
“An attack has been made by the divisive terrorist organization on military personnel,” the governor’s office said in a statement, using the usual terminology to describe the PKK.
In August, Turkish forces launched an offensive into northern Syria in support of rebels fighting against Islamic State, creating a security corridor along the Turkey-Syria border that also appears designed to push Kurdish militia away.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Tuesday that the YPG Kurdish militia, which is backed by the United States, was filling a vacuum left by Islamic State and said Turkish forces were prepared to go after Kurdish fighters in the same way.
“We know how to cleanse the PYD/YPG, just as we cleansed Daesh from Jarablus,” he said, referring to Islamic State.
Ankara fears Kurdish militants fighting for greater autonomy in Turkey could benefit from turmoil in the region.
In a further sign of the government’s desire to move rapidly to quell domestic opposition, Yildirim said the judicial process needed to be speeded up, especially when it came to prosecuting those accused of backing the coup.
“One of the main goals is shortening the time it takes to prosecute people,” he said. “We are starting this with the July 15 coup plotters. We are doing this quickly.”
While Turkey cracks down at home and expands its footprint in Syria, it also wants the United States to extradite Gulen so he can be prosecuted on charges that he masterminded the failed insurrection.
On Sunday, Turkish counter-terrorism police detained Gulen’s brother in Izmir, where he was staying at a relative’s house. Several of Gulen’s relatives, including a nephew, niece and cousins, have been arrested since July 15.
Erdogan’s security clampdown may be bolstering his own authority but it has had economic repercussions, with credit ratings agencies downgrading the country’s debt to “junk” and the lira weakening against the dollar.
On Tuesday, Yildirim lowered the growth outlook for 2016, saying the economy was likely to expand 3.2 percent, well below an original 4.5 percent forecast, while inflation for the year is set to hit 7.5 percent.
Writing by Luke Baker; Editing by Ralph Boulton
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | October 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Tehran's Grand Bazaar starts a large strike after Iranian rial plunged to a record low against the US dollar on the market. | Videos have surfaced across social media showing hundreds of protesters in Iran’s Tehran Bazaar on Monday, chanting slogans condemning the government’s failed economic policies.
Several activists shared videos of angry crowds of protesters shouting economic and political slogans like “We don’t want the dollar to be at 100,000 riyals” and “Strike”. People are also seen chanting at merchants to close their stalls at the bazaar.
The Iranian rial plunged to a record low against the US dollar on the unofficial market on Sunday, continuing its drop amid fears of returning US sanctions after President Donald Trump in May withdrew from a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program.
The dollar was being offered for as much as 87,000 rials, compared to around 75,500 on Thursday, the last trading day before Iran’s weekend, according to foreign exchange website Bonbast.com, which tracks the unofficial market.
As the protests are ongoing, a picture of Rouhani taking a walk in a sporting outfit caused more anger among social media users, where Iranian activists criticized Rouhani’s ignoring of the country’s economic crisis.
There were also several reports of currency exchange offices in Tehran not buying or selling hard currencies, especially the US dollar, for fear of extreme currency fluctuations.
Several Iranian citizens have also noted that this decline in the Iranian riyal is directly affecting their everyday lives, as food prices have steadily risen. Many have begun buying and storing food items in bulk for fear of a rise in prices in the coming period.
To back up protesters in Iran, the main Iranian opposition the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has dedicated this year’s meeting in Paris to the cause: “#Free Iran; the Alternative”.
In last year’s address, Maryam Rajavi, President of the NCRI said that the regime is “besieged by the poor and unemployed youths who additionally want regime change”.
On June 30, Iranians from all over the world will gather in Paris to show their support for protesters and strikers in Iran. According to media reports, the event has attracted over 100,000 Iranian diaspora each year.
Similar to the current protests, the Tehran bazaar strike of 1979, which was nicknamed the pulse of the Iranian economy, was one of the main factors in the fall of the Shah’s rule at the time, and contributed greatly to his departure from the country.
Videos have surfaced across social media showing hundreds of protesters in Iran’s Tehran Bazaar on Monday, chanting slogans condemning the government’s failed economic policies.
Several activists shared videos of angry crowds of protesters shouting economic and political slogans like “We don’t want the dollar to be at 100,000 riyals” and “Strike”. People are also seen chanting at merchants to close their stalls at the bazaar.
The Iranian rial plunged to a record low against the US dollar on the unofficial market on Sunday, continuing its drop amid fears of returning US sanctions after President Donald Trump in May withdrew from a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program.
The dollar was being offered for as much as 87,000 rials, compared to around 75,500 on Thursday, the last trading day before Iran’s weekend, according to foreign exchange website Bonbast.com, which tracks the unofficial market.
As the protests are ongoing, a picture of Rouhani taking a walk in a sporting outfit caused more anger among social media users, where Iranian activists criticized Rouhani’s ignoring of the country’s economic crisis.
There were also several reports of currency exchange offices in Tehran not buying or selling hard currencies, especially the US dollar, for fear of extreme currency fluctuations.
Several Iranian citizens have also noted that this decline in the Iranian riyal is directly affecting their everyday lives, as food prices have steadily risen. Many have begun buying and storing food items in bulk for fear of a rise in prices in the coming period.
To back up protesters in Iran, the main Iranian opposition the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has dedicated this year’s meeting in Paris to the cause: “#Free Iran; the Alternative”.
In last year’s address, Maryam Rajavi, President of the NCRI said that the regime is “besieged by the poor and unemployed youths who additionally want regime change”.
| Strike | June 2018 | ['(Trend)', '(Al-Arabiya)'] |
At least 11 firefighters, who had gone inside a hash oil manufacturing building in downtown Los Angeles after an initial report of a fire, are injured following an explosion. | LOS ANGELES (AP) — An explosion Saturday at a hash oil manufacturer in downtown Los Angeles injured 11 firefighters who had gone inside and on the roof to try to knock down a fire and then had to run for their lives when a ball of flames shot out the building and scorched a fire truck across the street. Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Erik Scott said “one significant explosion” shook the neighborhood around 6:30 p.m. Firefighters inside had to run through a wall of flames he estimated as 30 feet high and wide, and those on the roof scrambled down a ladder that was engulfed in fire.
Scott said people at the scene described the explosion as sounding like a freight train or jet engine. Some of the fleeing firefighters were on fire and tore off their protective equipment and left it on the sidewalk, along with melted helmets, Scott said. “The was one of the worst scenes I’ve seen,” he said. All 11 firefighters suffered burns ranging from minor to serious. Three were listed as critical condition, and two of them were on ventilators. All were expected to survive.
“The good news is everybody’s going to make it,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a news conference outside the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center where all the injured were treated. “Things could have been so much worse,” said Los Angeles Fire Department Medical Director Dr. Marc Eckstein, who works at the hospital and helped treat the injured. Firefighters were called to 327 East Boyd St. in the city’s Toy District for a report of a fire at a one-story commercial building. There was light to moderate smoke when firefighters entered the building and went on the roof, normal procedures to try to quickly knock down any flames. Los Angeles Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said one of the firefighters inside the building thought things didn’t seem right — the pressure from the smoke and heat coming from the rear of the building were increasing. He directed everyone to get out, and as they quickly started exiting the building as it was rocked by the explosion. Firefighters on the roof scrambled down ladders with their protective coats on fire. The wall of flames shot out the building and burned seats inside a fire truck across the street.
More than 200 firefighters rushed to the scene, and dozens of engines, trucks and rescue vehicles clogged the streets. The fire spread to several nearby buildings, but firefighters were able to douse it in about an hour. The injured firefighters were rushed to the hospital. Those who remained at the scene, unaware of the seriousness of their colleagues’ injuries, were traumatized by what had transpired, Terrazas said.
“You can imagine the amount of emotional stress,” he said.
Scott said the building was a warehouse for SmokeTokes, which he described as a maker of “butane honey oil.” Butane is an odorless gas that easily ignites, and it’s used in the process to extract the high-inducing chemical THC from cannabis to create a highly potent concentrate also known as hash oil. The oil is used in vape pens, edibles, waxes and other products.
On its website, SmokeTokes advertises a variety of products including “puff bars,” pipes, “dab” tools, vaporizers, “torches and butane,” and cartridges. The company says it is “an international distributor and wholesaler of smoking and vaping products, and related accessories.” Founded in 2009, it offers “discounts to loyal customers, fast shipping, a huge catalog of products and customer service that is untouched.” | Fire | May 2020 | ['(NBC News)', '(The Associated Press)'] |
Government officials from Cuba and the U.S. met in Havana, beginning settlement discussions surrounding $1.9 billion worth of U.S. assets seized by Fidel Castro’s regime in the early 1960s. By law, the United States embargo against Cuba cannot cease until settlements are made. | HAVANA — U.S. and Cuban officials met in Havana on Tuesday to begin negotiating a possible settlement for $1.9 billion worth of American assets seized by Fidel Castro’s government in the early 1960s, as well as other claims built up over years of strained relations.
The talks were a breakthrough and would have been hard to imagine before President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro announced plans last December to normalize relations.
[Here are the 20 largest U.S. property claims in Cuba] A settlement would be especially significant because it would address the chain of events that led to the U.S. trade embargo, which by law cannot be lifted until the claims are resolved.
A U.S. State Department official told reporters that reaching a settlement was “a top priority” for the United States. The official said Tuesday’s talks were “fruitful” and would continue in 2016.
Cuba experts said the most important thing was that the negotiations occurred at all.
“Merely for the two nations to sit down and talk in an orderly, professional manner about claims, after so many decades, is a major achievement,” said Richard Feinberg, a Cuba expert at the Brookings Institution who published a report this month proposing possible solutions for the two sides.
“Settlement of U.S. claims would be a huge step forward toward fully normalizing U.S.-Cuban economic relations and would give live ammunition to those who favor lifting the economic embargo,” Feinberg said.
The State Department official said the U.S. side also provided information on the additional $2 billion or so in judgments awarded to plaintiffs who have sued the Cuban government in U.S. courts, proceedings that Havana does not recognize. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity under State Department ground rules.
[U.S. officials are frustrated with lack of progress in trade with Cuba] U.S. and Cuban diplomats have held numerous meetings this year on their normalization agenda. But Tuesday’s session was the first time the two governments made a formal attempt to talk about the past and one of its most complicated chapters, in which Castro’s nationalization policy devoured U.S. factories, farms and sugar mills in the early years of his Marxist revolution.
At 6 percent annual interest, the claims would be worth about $8 billion today.
Preliminary discussions for compensation to U.S. companies broke off in 1960 after President Dwight D. Eisenhower suspended Cuba’s sugar export quota to the United States. The Cuban government’s property grab accelerated after that, and Cuba would eventually seize virtually all private businesses, down to shoeshine stands and the ice cream carts of street vendors.
Tuesday’s talks did not address the issue of property taken from Cuban citizens. Cuba settled claims with Canada, Spain and other governments decades ago, but those amounts were dwarfed by the American claims.
While recognizing that U.S. plaintiffs were never compensated, Cuba has presented counter-claims totaling more than $1 trillion, citing damages from a half-century of U.S. trade sanctions and the loss of life and property stemming from attacks by U.S.-backed militants, such as in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961.
Trade experts and lawyers say the Cuban government will have a difficult time recovering damages from sanctions. It may have a better argument citing the attacks, they say — part of what may be the government’s broader strategy of having the competing claims cancel each other.
“There is no international court to take a look at this, so it’s a bilateral negotiation, and the Cubans are very tough, very clever,” said Pedro Freyre, a Cuba expert at the Akerman LLP law firm in Miami.
Freyre said it was a positive sign that the sides were even talking about the issue. “It’s the first time the two countries are going back to look at this history and try to sort out a system for fixing it.” “You don’t have this conversation if you haven’t built some mutual trust and respect,” he said.
The 50 largest U.S. claims against Cuba account for more than three-quarters of the $1.9 billion, and most are corporate — not individual — grievances. The largest, at $267 million, belongs to the Cuban Electric Company, Havana’s major power utility at the time it was taken. After changing hands through corporate mergers and sales, the majority of its shares today are owned by Office Depot. Other U.S. companies that have claims include Texaco, Coca-Cola and Colgate-Palmolive. Half of the top 10 largest claimants are sugar companies that lost their mills and railways. Several of the companies no longer exist, and the claims have been passed down to heirs. Feinberg and others say the fact that most of the money is owed to U.S. companies could make the negotiations easier, if some of the firms are willing to accept tax breaks or other concessions from the Cuban government to ease their potential return to the island.The other nearly 5,000 individual claims against Cuba amount only to about $200 million, a relatively modest amount, Feinberg said, even for the cash-strapped communist government | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | December 2015 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz issues an apology for the removal of a passenger from an overbooked flight on April 9, which has since gone viral. United Airlines stock drops more than 4%, a loss of £800 million to the company's value. | The boss of United Airlines has apologised for the "truly horrific" incident in which a passenger was forcibly dragged, screaming, from a flight.
Oscar Munoz said he "continues to be disturbed" by the incident, captured on a video that went viral on Twitter.
He said the company would "fix what's broken so it never happens again".
The family of the passenger, David Dao, issued a statement expressing gratitude for the "outpouring of support".
He is undergoing treatment at a Chicago hospital.
The footage taken inside the airliner shows a man being pulled out of his seat and dragged, screaming, down the aisle. He is later seen with blood on his face.
The flight from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky, on Sunday evening had been fully booked, United spokesman Jonathan Guerin told USA Today newspaper. The airline wanted to get four passengers to leave the flight to make room for four staff members who were needed in Louisville the next day.
United had previously described the flight as overbooked.
United Airline's public relations disaster
Why do airlines overbook?
Three passengers agreed to leave the plane.
But Dr Dao said he worked in a hospital and needed to see his patients the next day, an eyewitness tweeted.
A video that appears to show him dazed and with blood around his mouth, saying "just kill me", having run back on the plane, also emerged online.
Earlier, Mr Munoz had defended employees' conduct and said the passenger had been "disruptive and belligerent". Employees were "left with no choice but to call Chicago Aviation Security Officers to assist in removing the customer from the flight", he added.
He came under intense criticism online and the incident reached the ears of the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, who called it "troubling".
Would you change your flight for money?
The statement released on behalf of Dr Dao said the family "wants the world to know that they are very appreciative of the outpouring of prayers, concern and support they have received".
It said the family was at present only concerned with Dr Dao's medical care and would not be making further statements until he was discharged.
One of the aviation security officers involved in removing Dr Dao from the plane has been "placed on leave", the Chicago Department of Aviation said, and his actions were "obviously not condoned by the department".
It also said it would carry out a review into the incident, which it said was "not in accordance with our standard operating procedure".
The US Department of Transportation is reviewing whether United complied with rules on overbooking.
US media say David Dao is a medical doctor from Elizabethtown, Kentucky. United earlier said it was trying to talk to him directly in order to "further address and resolve this situation".
United's parent company's share price plummeted on Tuesday.
Stock in United Continental Holdings dropped by more than 4% at one point with nearly $1bn (£800m) wiped off its value, but the share prices later recovered and were down just 1% when markets closed. | Financial Crisis | April 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
In Bougainville, Joseph Kabui is elected president of the autonomous government | Former separatist rebel Joseph Kabui beat his nearest rival, former governor John Momis, by 14,000 votes.
The poll has been seen as a key test of a UN-brokered peace deal, which ended a 10-year separatist campaign by rebels hoping to secede from Papua New Guinea.
New Zealand election observer Andrew Ladley called Mr Kabui's win a "landslide victory".
But Mr Momis questioned the results, and said he was considering a legal challenge.
"A new day is now dawning today," Mr Kabui told local media on Monday.
"Today is also the journey to see that Bougainville is no longer a province of PNG [ Papua New Guinea] but it is an autonomous region in PNG. That everyone must understand now," he said. Mr Kabui, head of the People's Congress Party, is a former ally of Francis Ona, who led the separatist campaign that left up to 15,000 people dead.
The rebellion began in 1989 as a dispute over land and alleged environmental damage between islanders and multinational copper mining companies. But it became a brutal war of independence, involving government forces, well-armed militias and foreign mercenaries. Under a deal signed in August 2001, the two sides agreed that Bougainville should have greater self-government and eventually a referendum on independence, within 10-15 years. The election of an autonomous government is being seen as a major test of the agreement, and an important step towards full independence. Bougainville's fledgling administration will run the island, with Papua New Guinea's federal government retaining control over defence and the economy.
Voting lasted a fortnight because of the island's rugged terrain. Some of the electorate had to walk for days or travel by canoe to reach polling stations. | Government Job change - Election | June 2005 | ['(Radio Australia)', '(BBC)'] |
The International Criminal Court orders the first accused at The Hague, Thomas Lubanga from the Democratic Republic of the Congo accused of allegedly recruiting child soldiers, be freed. | Judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague have ordered the accused in its first case - Thomas Lubanga from Democratic Republic of Congo - to be freed.
However, he will not be released for at least five days, while the prosecution considers whether to appeal.
The trial was suspended last week after judges cited procedural irregularities.
Mr Lubanga has pleaded not guilty to charges of recruiting child soldiers.
The office of the prosecutor - Luis Moreno-Ocampo - was found to have not identified a key witness.
Judge Adrian Fulford said Mr Lubanga should be "freed without condition", saying his detention was "no longer fair" after the trial was suspended.
In their ruling, the judges said: "An accused cannot be held in preventative custody on a speculative basis, namely that at some stage in the future the proceedings may be resurrected." However, the prosecution has five days to seek an appeal and, if the challenge is accepted, Mr Lubanga will remain in detention until that appeal is heard, the ICC said in a statement.
It is understood that the prosecution will appeal.
The trial of Mr Lubanga, which opened in 2009 after a seven-month delay over disputed confidential evidence, has been plagued by legal challenges.
The first witness at the trial retracted his testimony after first saying he had been recruited by Mr Lubanga's fighters on his way home from school. One of the problems facing the court is that Bunia - the capital of the Ituri region where Mr Lubanga was a rebel leader - was still considered a conflict zone.
This meant the safety of potential witnesses could not be guaranteed.
Mr Lubanga led the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), an ethnic Hema militia - one of six groups that fought for control of the gold-rich Ituri region from 1999 until 2003.
The land struggle turned into an inter-ethnic war in which an estimated 50,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands were left homeless. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | July 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(CNN)', '(Reuters India)'] |
Lawmakers in Macedonia approve a government proposal to set September 30 as the target date of a referendum to change the country's name. | Macedonia's parliament has approved a government proposal setting September 30 as the date for a referendum on a deal with Greece to rename the country.
Sixty-eight deputies in the 120-member parliament voted on July 30 in favor of holding a referendum on the question: "Are you in favor of NATO and EU membership, and accepting the name agreement between the Republic of Macedonia and Greece?"
Ahead of the vote, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev told reporters the agreement -- aimed at ending a long-running dispute with Greece that should help pave the way for Macedonia to join the European Union and NATO security alliance -- will "define the future of the Republic of Macedonia."
Protests have taken place both in Greece and Macedonia since their foreign ministers signed a deal on June 17 to rename the country the Republic of North Macedonia -- North Macedonia for short.
Macedonian lawmakers later voted in favor of the bill to ratify the agreement, which is strongly opposed by the main opposition party, VMRO-DPMNE .
The nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party also disputes the announced referendum question, saying the deal with Athens should not be linked with the country's EU and NATO membership bids.
The party's deputies did not attend the vote in protest.
"The question must be understandable, simple...it should state, 'Do you support or oppose the agreement with Greece which envisages a name change,'" VMRO-DPMNE deputy head Aleksandar Nikolovski told RFE/RL before the vote.
The name dispute between Skopje and Athens dates back to 1991, when Macedonia peacefully broke away from Yugoslavia, declaring its independence under the name Republic of Macedonia.
Neighboring Greece has objected to the name Macedonia, saying it implies territorial claims on the northern Greek region with the same name.
Because of Greek objections, Macedonia was admitted to the UN under a provisional name, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). In 2019, RFE/RL's Balkan Service marked 25 years of reporting in one of the world’s most contested regions, championing professionalism and moderation in a media landscape that is sharply divided along ethnic and partisan lines. | Government Policy Changes | July 2018 | ['(RFE/RL)'] |
At least 6 people are killed and dozens injured when a 6.0–magnitude earthquake strikes northern Italy. | An earthquake in northern Italy has killed at least seven people and caused serious damage to buildings in several towns, local officials say. The magnitude-6.0 quake struck in the middle of the night, about 35km (22 miles) north of the city of Bologna. The tremor caused "significant damage to the cultural heritage" of Emilia Romagna region, the government said.
Later on Sunday, a magnitude-5.1 aftershock hit the region, causing more buildings to collapse. The aftershock destroyed a clock tower and made a firefighter fall from a wall in the town of Finale Emilia, near the epicentre of the first tremor. Sunday's quake was the worst to hit the country since the L'Aquila tremor killed nearly 300 people in central Italy in 2009.
The earthquake struck at a relatively shallow depth of 10km just after 04:00 local time (02:00 GMT).
It was felt across a large swathe of northern Italy, including the cities of Bologna, Ferrara, Verona and Mantua and as far away as Milan and Venice.
The tremor forced many terrified residents into the streets.
Two people were killed in Sant'Agostino when a ceramics factory collapsed. The mother of one of the victims told local media that "he wasn't supposed to be there. He changed shifts with a friend". Another person - believed to be a Moroccan national - was killed in Ponte Rodoni do Bondeno. In Tecopress di Dosso, one worker died when the roof of a foundry collapsed, Rai News24 reports.
Local media say three women died as a result of illness induced by the tremors: a 37-year-old German national, near Bologna, who was said to have had a heart attack, a centenarian in Sant'Agostino and an octogenarian.
About 50 people were injured - but no-one seriously.
More than 3,000 people were later evacuated from their homes amid fears of fresh tremors.
"I was woken at around 04:00 by the quake, it was strong and lasted up to a minute, maybe more," Frankie Thompson, a UK travel journalist in Bologna, told the BBC. "Church bells were set off spontaneously... followed by an eerie silence. Small aftershocks kept coming and going until maybe 05:50 when a stronger tremor shook us again but not as long and dramatic as the first," she added.
Britain's David Trew, who is staying in a hotel in Ferrara, told the BBC: "I was sound asleep when the tremors started. I was having quite a vivid dream, and the first few seconds of the quake became part of the dream. "As I began to wake up it took me a few seconds to realise that it was actually happening for real. I fumbled around in the darkness, now very scared. The room was shaking violently, plaster was dropping off the ceiling into my hair and all over the floor." One local resident told Ansa: "I heard a big bang and I ran on the terrace, I was afraid of falling." TV footage later showed people inspecting damaged houses, offices and historic buildings. Parts of a castle in Finale Emilia collapsed. Emergency officials ordered the evacuation of patients from hospitals as a precautionary measure.
Northern Italy is frequently rocked by minor earthquakes, but the country is well-prepared to deal with them, the BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome reports.
In January, a magnitude-5.3 quake hit northern Italy but caused no injuries.
In pictures: Italy earthquake
Italy lives with quake threat
How earthquakes happen
Long-range prediction - really?
| Earthquakes | May 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(Los Angeles Times)'] |
Former First Lady Imelda Marcos is elected as representative of Ilocos Norte. | Imelda Marcos, the widow of deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos famous for her vast collection of shoes, won a seat in the House of Representatives Tuesday.
It's a fresh taste of power for the former first lady, 80, who fled the country more than two decades ago after a popular uprising toppled the Marcoses from power.
The family headed to Hawaii in 1986 after Ferdinand Marcos was ousted and opposition leader Corazon Aquino, whose son Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III looks set to be proclaimed president after Monday's vote, was installed.
Marcos won a seat representing the province of Ilocos Norte in the 269-member House of Representatives with 109,571 votes, while eldest child Imee, 56, won as provincial governor with 196,160 votes.
Her only son Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., 52, appeared headed for the 24-seat Senate, placing seventh in the race for 12 vacant seats, according to partial official returns of Monday's national elections.
The clan has won various positions since the 1990s after returning from exile but the Marcos heirs have never before managed a position as high as the nationally-elected senate.
Imelda had served in Congress from 1995-1998, representing her birthplace Leyte province in the central islands.
A local election official in Laoag City, capital of Ilocos Norte, said Imelda won 109,571 votes to 27,359 for Mariano Nalupta, a former ally, for the congressional seat.
Imelda Marcos became an object of scorn for her extravagant lifestyle when a gigantic collection of shoes was found in the presidential palace after the family fled the country. Her husband died in Hawaii in 1989.
The family has used its old political strongholds in the far north and central islands to claw its way back to political influence.
But Imelda fared poorly when she contested the presidency in 1992, when former general Fidel Ramos won.
She has made it clear she wants to achieve redemption for her late husband, who is accused of stealing billions of dollars from state coffers during his 20-year rule.
"I did this to ensure and uphold political integrity and the truth," she told AFP in an interview in March when asked why she had decided to run for parliament.
She pointed to her experience as a key member of her husband's government, both as housing minister and governor of the Manila capital region, as proof she was worthy of public office.
And age was no issue, she insisted.
"It is true that I am 80 years old, but I can also be a grandmother for our country."
Emmanuel Amistad, executive director of human rights group Task Force Detainees, said the victory showed how quickly Filipinos forget their past.
"Filipinos have a short memory and they have forgotten the abuses of the father. There is an entirely new generation now and a lot of the youth do not know the experiences of martial law," he said.
Marcos declared martial law in 1972, imposing one-man rule and jailing political opponents led by the father of the incoming president, Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, who was freed in 1980 for a US heart operation.
When the opposition leader returned to Manila in 1983 to mount a fresh challenge against Marcos, he was shot dead my military escorts at what is now known as the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Rommel Banlaoi, director of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, said the political revival of the Marcos family was just another symptom of the country's personality-oriented politics.
"In the Philippines, we vote in terms of personality, not in terms of track records. The Marcoses ring a very loud bell in politics," he told AFP.
| Government Job change - Election | May 2010 | ['(Philippine Daily Inquirer)'] |
19–year–old Maria Sharapova wins her second Grand Slam, upsetting Justin Henin–Hardenne 6–4, 6–4 in the final of the 2006 U.S. Open. | Maria Sharapova claimed the second grand slam of her fledgling career with a convincing 6-4, 6-4 win over Justine Henin-Hardenne in the final of the US Open today.
The 19-year-old Russian claimed her first grand slam since her 2004 Wimbledon triumph with a commanding performance against the Belgian at Flushing Meadows in New York.
In a tense and tightly-fought contest before a capacity crowd of 23,000 at the Arthur Ashe Stadium, Sharapova's greater weight of shot and power-serving proved too much for the speed and counter-attacking skills of the Belgian.
After Henin-Hardenne netted on match point, Sharapova sunk to her knees and held her head in her hands before running off court to embrace father Yuri.
"I figured I lost the last four times against Justine so I thought I would just flip everything 360 degrees and do the total opposite," she said.
"I am so happy it's here in New York - my favourite city."
Henin-Hardenne, who made it to all four grand slam finals in 2006, said Sharapova had fully deserved her win.
"She been a real fighter tonight and she deserves it," she said.
Henin-Hardenne staved off two break points in the opening game against the big-hitting Russian, who defeated top seed Amelie Mauresmo of France in three sets in the semi-finals.
Clad in her all-black Audrey Hepburn-inspired "night" outfit, Sharapova then served up two double faults on her own serve and Henin-Hardenne made her pay, breaking with a cracking forehand from mid-court for a 2-0 lead.
The third seed hit back immediately, a deft half-volley drop-shot at the net setting up break point which she grabbed with a big forehand drive.
She levelled for 2-2, and games went with serve after that until 4-4 when Henin-Hardenne opened the door to Sharapova with two sloppy backhands into the net.
The Russian then drew a forehand error that brought up two break points, the second of which she converted with a thumping cross-court forehand of her own that Henin-Hardenne could not return.
Sharapova's forehand again did the damage in the next game, setting up set point with a drive down the line before clinching it with a service winner.
That was the same score as in the Australian Open semi-final in January, a match in which Henin-Hardenne hit back to win.
Sharapova flung in another two double faults at 0-1 down at the start of the second set, but she still managed to level.
Henin-Hardenne won the longest rally of the final to level at deuce and 3-2 up, but Sharapova fought her way out of trouble with two big serves.
The following game was crucial as Henin-Hardenne wavered again and two forehands, one long and one into the net, gave the Russian the break she was looking for.
She served out twice for the title.
Henin-Hardenne had the satisfaction of being only the seventh woman in history to contest all four grand slam finals in the same year.
She also lost to Amelie Mauresmo in the Australian Open and Wimbledon finals and won the French Open final for her fifth grand slam win against Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia.
-AFP
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This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced.
AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) | Sports Competition | September 2006 | ['(Australian Broadcasting Corporation)'] |
Incumbent President of Palau Tommy Remengesau narrowly leads his brother-in-law, Surangel Whipps Jr., by 78 votes. Final results are expected to be announced later in November. | In the Palau presidential race, the incumbent, Tommy Remengesau, is leading his brother-in-law Surangel Whipps Junior, by less than a hundred votes.
Photo: 123 RF
The Electoral Commission said absentee votes, which will be counted after the 8th of November, will decide the outcome of the national election.
But the Election Service Administrator Elenita Bennie Brel said the final result will not be announced until later this month.
Elenita Bennie Brel said this is partly due to electoral provisions but is also because the absentee ballots will be sorted and counted manually in-front of representatives of the candidates.
"We want to make this election very fair and transparent for everyone who has concern and wants to come in. So after November 8 the counting of the absentee ballots and then it takes another 15 days for the board [of the electoral commission] to certify them," she said.
Figures supplied by Native ex-pat radio show that as of Wednesday night, Mr Remengesau had collected 4108 votes just 78 more than Surangel Whipps Junior.
A reduction of the number of Senators from 13 to 11 and the subsequent reversal of that decision delayed the printing and sending of absentee ballots until 17th October.
Valid absentee ballots have to be postmarked by November 1st but the Palau Electoral Commission reportedly put out an informal announcement that anyone who received their ballot late could still submit it as long as it was accompanied by a complaint letter.
Early results from Tuesday's general election in Palau have Senator Surangel Whipps Jr. leading in the presidential race.
Voters in Palau head to the polls today to cast their ballots in the Republic's general election. | Government Job change - Election | November 2016 | ['(Radio New Zealand International)'] |
In the Netherlands State Secretary for Economic Affairs Co Verdaas resigns following an expense–affair after only thirty–one days in office. | Junior economic minister Co Verdaas has resigned following a row over expenses claimed while he was a member of Gelderland provincial council.
Verdaas, a provincial councillor in Gelderland before joining Mark Rutte’s second cabinet, had for years charged the province for travelling between Nijmegen and Arnhem where the provincial authority is located. However, Verdaas in fact lived in Zwolle, which is in Overijssel province. Councillors are supposed to live in the province they represent. Integrity ‘I have decided to repay the money to the province,’ Verdaas said in a statement. ‘My job is supposed to set an example and my integrity should be beyond all reproach,’ he said. ‘I do not wish to burden the job, the cabinet and my party with any more discussion about this.’ Verdaas, 46, was an MP for the Labour party between 2003 and 2006. As junior minister in the economic affairs ministry, he had special responsibility for farming. Pay Verdaas, who has been in the job for one month, will be entitled to the special unemployment benefit for ministers of €9,000 a month for six months, news agency ANP said. Labour leader Diederik Samsom said Verdaas’s resignation is a loss for the Labour party and the government.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | December 2012 | ['(DutchNews)'] |
The leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, Pedro Sánchez, resigns. | The leader of Spain's opposition Socialists, Pedro Sanchez, has resigned, in a move that could end months of political deadlock. Mr Sanchez stood down after losing a vote by the party's federal committee over supporting the formation of a conservative-led governing coalition - a move he had strongly opposed.
The past week had already seen almost half of the party's executive resign.
Spain has been in a political limbo for the past nine months.
The results of a general election in December 2015 left a hung parliament. The majority Popular Party (PP) under acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has sought to form a coalition government but Mr Sanchez repeatedly blocked their attempts.
In attempt to break the stalemate, a second election was held on 26 June 2016 but, again, no party won an absolute majority. The Socialist Party (PSOE) has long been divided between supporters of Mr Sanchez and those who want to end the stalemate by supporting a coalition.
Many delegates at Saturday's federal committee meeting at party headquarters in Madrid had turned up hoping to force Mr Sanchez out.
On Wednesday, 17 of the 35 members of the PSOE executive resigned in protest at Mr Sanchez's stance.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | October 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
A Taliban attack on a National Directorate of Security compound in the central Maidan Wardak Province, kills 126 security personnel, according to local officials. | The Taliban have launched a major attack on an Afghan military compound in central Maidan Wardak province, officials have said, with some putting the death toll at more than 100 people.
Monday’s incident at a campus of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) is the latest in a series of deadly attacks in recent months by the Taliban, which has seized control of about half of Afghanistan.
The Afghan authorities said the attack started on Monday morning, when a US-made armoured Humvee vehicle was driven into the compound and blown up. Gunmen also opened fire, before being killed by security forces.
Government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have given differing estimates of the death toll. One said it could be as high as 126 people and another said yet more were thought to have been wounded. “Eight special commandos are among the dead,” said a senior member of Kabul’s defence ministry. An official from the Afghan public health ministry said the total of killed and wounded could be about 140 people.
However, others offered a more conservative estimate. A senior NDS official in Kabul said at least 50 people were killed or wounded. Abdurrahman Mangal, a spokesman for the provincial governor in Maidan Wardak, said 12 people were killed and 12 were injured when the car bomb exploded near the Afghan special forces unit.
Defence ministry officials said the Taliban had used the Humvee, which had been captured from Afghan forces, as a bomb in order to breach the military fortifications.
Hussein Ali Baligh, a member of the local provincial council, said: “This morning, around 7am, a Humvee entered the NDS block in the city … about 150 NDS personnel were present at the time of the attack. The Humvee exploded right after entering the compound. The building has totally been collapsed.” At least two gunmen followed up the attack before being killed themselves.
He said the attack sparked concerns in the province over how a Humvee that had been in the hands of government forces could pass through checkpoints while packed with explosives. “It shows the weakness of our forces,” he said. “Our forces are brave, but their commanders have weaknesses.”
Sharif Hotak, a member of the provincial council in Maidan Wardak, said he had seen the bodies of 35 Afghan forces personnel in hospital. “Many more were killed. Several bodies were transported to Kabul city and many injured were transferred to hospitals in Kabul,” said Hotak, adding that “the government was hiding the accurate casualty figures to prevent a further dip in morale of the Afghan forces”.Government officials in Maidan Wardak and Kabul declined to comment when asked if they were obscuring the death toll.
Two senior officials in the interior ministry said the exact casualty figure was not being disclosed to prevent unrest within the armed forces. “I have been told not to make the death toll figures public. It is frustrating to hide the facts,” said a senior interior ministry official in Kabul.
The office of the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, said the “enemies of the country” had carried out an attack against NDS personnel in Maidan Shahr, the provincial capital. “They killed and wounded a number of our beloved and honest sons,” he said.
He added: “Terrorist groups and their foreign supporters cannot weaken the high morale of our brave security and defence forces, because they have a great will to repress terrorists.” Ghani ordered the officials to investigate this attack.
In recent years, the Afghan government has stopped releasing detailed casualty figures. Last year, Ghani said 28,000 Afghan police officers and soldiers had been killed since 2015, breaking the longstanding suppression of casualty data.
Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack. Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Islamist militant group, claimed it had killed 190 people.
Last week, Taliban fighters set off a car bomb outside a highly fortified compound in Kabul, killing at least five people and wounding more than 110 Afghans and expats.
Some analysts have suggested the recent increase in the intensity of Taliban attacks is a ploy by the group to gain the upper hand in ongoing talks with the US Afghan envoy. | Armed Conflict | January 2019 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Queensland Liberal National Party voters elect Lawrence Springborg as their leader with John–Paul Langbroek as deputy leader. | Lawrence Springborg has been elected as leader of Queensland's Liberal National Party, with John-Paul Langbroek as deputy leader.
Caretaker premier Campbell Newman called the party room meeting after he lost his seat at last weekend's election and declared his political career over. Deputy leader Jeff Seeney stood down.
LNP MPs met at Parliament House in Brisbane on Saturday morning for the leadership ballot.
Mr Springborg was elected to Parliament in 1989 as the Member for Southern Downs as a 21-year-old and has attracted criticism as a "career politician".
He led the Opposition for the LNP to three election defeats in 2004, 2006 and 2009.
Mr Springborg was also deputy to John-Paul Langbroek in 2011 when Mr Newman made his bid to become the premier from outside of Queensland Parliament.
Mr Springborg later became health minister in the Newman government.
After the party room meeting he thanked his LNP colleagues for the trust they had placed in him and Mr Langbroek.
"We believe we have the right level of competence and experience to take our party forward in what are very interesting times in Queensland," he said.
"I think it's probably fair to say for those that have observed politics in Queensland over a long period of time that nothing should really ever surprise us with regards to those particular outcomes."
He said the party understood the people of Queensland were disappointed in certain aspects of the LNP government.
"We understand that the people of Queensland wanted us to be far more empathetic with the concerns they have," he said.
"We understand that the people of Queensland want us to know that as we have to make those particular decisions, which aren't always popular but sometimes we have to make them, that we actually have a proper consideration in a compassionate and real way about the impacts and the consequence of those decisions, as necessary as they may be.
"We're going to be making sure as we travel forward - whether it be hopefully in government or opposition - that we rebuild that faith and trust which the people of Queensland should invariably expect of their elected representatives."
Mr Langbroek, the Member for Surfers Paradise, was the Newman government's education minister.
He had a relatively quiet term in office, following a controversial stint as LNP leader in 2009.
At that time, Mr Langbroek was lambasted in the media for various gaffes and embarrassments, including the revelation that he carried a teddy bear at university, in the style of a character in the novel Brideshead Revisited.
In July 2014, he said he had no interest in returning to the leadership role.
On Saturday, Mr Langbroek said although he was "very proud" the LNP had all its seats returned on the Gold Coast, the LNP would be focused on all of Queensland.
"We want to work together to make sure that whether you're from the Gold Coast or north Queensland or Brisbane - wherever it is in Queensland, we have the commitment to be ministers to deliver services that Queenslanders expect," he said.
"It's that trust that we want to make sure Queenslanders can have in us in uncertain times to make sure we keep delivering for the citizens of Queensland.
"That's my commitment as deputy leader of the LNP."
Mr Springborg said Mr Newman led the LNP "through very, very difficult times".
"I think no-one should actually take away from the things that Campbell Newman actually achieved in government," he said.
"But the people of Queensland ... passed their judgment on our government and they said they would like to have a different direction in the future and I respect that.
"Anyone who actually stands up to put their hand up for public office regardless of what people might think or whatever the case may be, deserve recognition and acknowledgment for that.
"The people of Queensland made their judgment - Campbell actually accepts that, we all accept that, and we move now to a different stage of politics in this state."
With about 85 per cent of the vote counted following last Saturday's election, Labor appears closest to forming a minority government, with independent MP Peter Wellington declaring his support for the ALP on Thursday.
The Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ) said it should get a clearer picture of the election outcome by mid next week. There are several seats in doubt - Ferny Grove, Lockyer, Mansfield, Maryborough, Mount Ommaney and Whitsunday.
On Wednesday, LNP state president Bruce McIver said a by-election in the Brisbane electorate of Ferny Grove would be the "most likely outcome" following revelations Palmer United Party candidate Mark Taverner was an undischarged bankrupt.
That ruled Mr Taverner ineligible from running for Parliament, leaving the ECQ to seek crown law advice on what to do next. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | February 2015 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
Egyptian police arrest 10 people in relation to the 2006 Dahab bombings, which has killed 24 people and injured more than 80 on 24 April. | Egyptian police arrested 10 people yesterday as divers began the task of retrieving human remains from the sea after Monday's triple bombing attack. The onslaught on the Sinai beach resort at Dahab, at the height of Egypt's tourist season, killed 24 people and injured more than 80, many of them foreigners. Witnesses described scenes of havoc in Dahab's main hospital after the explosions. Holidaymakers told reporters of medics unable to cope with the injured victims and of botched treatments.
A local diving instructor, whose offer of blood to the hospital was refused, told local media: "I could see children bleeding everywhere - it was a nightmare."
The blasts injured at least 40 Egyptians, three Danes, two Britons, two Italians, an American and an Israeli, according to the Interior Ministry. The small town, which is popular with students and backpackers, has limited facilities compared to the larger resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, and was clearly overwhelmed by number of casualties. The injured were told by staff to "go to Sharm" - referring to the larger resort 50 miles to the south.
Many of the injured were eventually transferred to hospitals in Sharm el-Sheikh and Cairo. The two Britons hurt, Henry Luce, 60, and Sam Still, 75, have been transferred to the Nasser Hospital in Cairo. The British embassy said their injuries were not life-threatening, but a British doctor was being flown to Cairo to oversee their care. Embassy staff were still working to identify the remaining injured.
Israel, which closed a border crossing with Egypt following the blasts and issued a travel warning to its citizens, offered medical assistance but it was refused.
Zoheir Garana, the Minister of Tourism, refused to be drawn on the identity of the attackers.
Egyptian security services have conducted a shadowy campaign in the peninsula in the past 12 months, arresting more than 135 people they believe were related to the Taba bombings in October 2004.
Dahab has long held the reputation as Egypt's most relaxed holiday resort. But it was always the poor relation of nearby Sharm el-Sheikh, more popular with young backpackers than those with more money to spend. A slew of cheap eateries and bars line the seafront and nothing much happens quickly. Visitors sit on pillows, eat fish, smoke pipes and watch the stars.
Official sources, who have been keen to deny al-Qa'ida involvement in Sinai, are at odds about the means of attack. The governor of South Sinai province, Mohamed Hani, said on Monday that he thought suicide bombers were responsible, while local security officials were quoted as saying the explosions were from time bombs. The attacks were designed to maximise casualties against Egyptians, coming as they did on the busy holiday of Shem al-Nessim.
Over the past two years, more than 100 people have been killed in terrorist attacks in Sinai, leading commentators to conclude that the government is ineffective at handling the problem. Since Egypt's repossession of the Sinai in 1979, the expanding tourist industry has not benefited local Bedouin and some analysts believe the government has little real knowledge of the level of disaffection among local people. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2006 | ['(Independent)'] |
Taiwanese negotiators led by Chiang Pin–kung, Chairman of the Strait Exchange Foundation, travel to the People's Republic of China to conduct talks on improving Cross–Strait relations. | China and Taiwan have agreed to establish offices in each other's territory to facilitate travel amid warming bilateral ties. The agreement came as delegations from both sides met in Beijing for the first formal talks for almost a decade. They are also hoping to finalise agreements on direct passenger flights and increasing tourist traffic. Bilateral relations have thawed since the election in March of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou.
He favours closer ties with China and, when he took office in May, said maintaining regional stability was his priority. Shortly after that, Chinese President Hu Jintao met the head of Taiwan's governing Kuomintang party in Beijing, the most senior meeting between the two sides since they split at the end of a civil war in 1949. Goodwill gestures
In the absence of formal diplomatic ties which would allow direct government-to-government talks, semi-official bodies have been established on both sides to conduct the discussions, which take place in Beijing's Diaoyutai guesthouse until 14 June.
They are the first formal talks since dialogue was suspended in 1999, when Taiwan's leaders angered Beijing by leaning towards formal independence. The talks appeared to bear their first fruit on Thursday morning, with delegates agreeing for the first time to set up permanent offices in each other's territories.
The offices will help facilitate travel between China and Taiwan such as handling visa applications, but their role could expand in future, said the Taiwanese body involved in the talks, the Straits Exchange Foundation.
"The two associations should push forward for the full normalisation of trade and culture exchanges of the two sides," the foundation said in a statement.
In another apparent gesture of goodwill, China's chief negotiator Chen Yunlin accepted an invitation to visit Taipei on an unspecified date later this year.
An agreement is expected to be signed on Friday, after which Taiwan's top delegate, Chiang Pin-kung, is due to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao. Mutual benefit
Other items on the talks agenda include the establishment of direct weekend charter flights and increasing the number of mainland Chinese tourists allowed to visit Taiwan. At the moment direct flights between the two sides are restricted to major holidays and numbers of Chinese tourists limited. But economic problems - including inflation and a growing wealth gap - are high on the list of public grievances in Taiwan at the moment, and so local businesses are keen for the income a new influx of tourists would bring. Beijing also has good reason to encourage smiling handshakes and headlines about cross-straits friendliness, analysts say. Two months before the Olympics, the Chinese government is very sensitive to international criticism, and Beijing's long-standing threat to use force against Taiwan, if it takes steps towards independence, continues to be an obvious focus for concern. The two sides hope that the negotiations will pave the way for regular meetings, helping to improve cross-strait relations after decades of tensions and mistrust. "As long as we have mutual trust and understanding... these talks are going to become an important communication mechanism for cross-strait development," said China's Mr Chen. But while economic growth and a reduction in cross-straits tension will certainly be welcome, an agreement on core political principles - including re-affirmation of the One China principle - may be harder to reach. Are you in the region? Would you be affected by direct passenger flights between China and Taiwan? Do you think the talks can lead to better relations? Send us your comments using the form below. The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide. What are these? | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | June 2008 | ['(BBC News)', '(AP via Yahoo! News)'] |
The National Football League announces an investigation into the Washington Football Team for allegations of workplace sexual harassment. | The NFL’s investigation into allegations of workplace sexual harassment at the Washington Football Team uncovered a confidential settlement from a decade ago, court records show, and an emergency motion filed Monday said team owner Daniel Snyder plans to intervene in a legal dispute over which details surrounding the settlement can become public.
The name of the complainant in the settlement, that person’s job and the nature of the allegations have not been made public, but the available records show lawyer Beth Wilkinson, who is leading the league’s probe into the team’s workplace, encountering resistance from the team’s former lawyer.
David P. Donovan, who served as the team’s general counsel from 2005 to 2011, sued Wilkinson last month in federal court in Virginia to stop her from disclosing information pertaining to a 2009 confidential agreement to which Donovan is a party. In the suit filed Nov. 9, Donovan sought to keep private all court records, including any public notice of the lawsuit itself, arguing that making the proceedings public would “undermine public confidence in the enforceability of confidential agreements between private parties.” That request was denied Nov. 17.
Donovan dropped the suit Nov. 23, but Wilkinson’s lawyers urged the court to decide which documents in the case could be unsealed “so the public can understand what [Donovan] is trying to accomplish through this lawsuit and how it relates to the investigation writ-large.”
Washington Football Team minority owners have a deal to sell, but Daniel Snyder is blocking it
Court records over what information should be redacted from the public record refer to the agreement as a “settlement” and make reference to the characterization of “the nature of misconduct.”
After Wilkinson submitted some redacted filings to the court, Donovan filed an emergency motion Monday, seeking to delay those disclosures, saying Snyder and the team intend to intervene in the case for the purpose of “asserting privilege and privacy or related interests over information that is under seal.” U.S. Magistrate Judge Ivan Davis granted the motion Monday afternoon.
Snyder has pledged to cooperate with the investigation and to release current and former employees from nondisclosure agreements for the purposes of talking to investigators.
Donovan declined to comment. Wilkinson and her attorneys also did not reply to requests for comment. Washington Football Team spokeswoman Julie A. Jensen did not respond to requests for comment. Snyder did not reply to requests for comment sent to a public relations representative and an attorney he has hired. The NFL also did not respond to a request for comment.
The existence of the 2009 settlement might never have entered the public record had Donovan not sought an injunction against Wilkinson from the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. Wilkinson filed sealed affidavits in support of her motions from three people, including Lisa Friel, the NFL’s special counsel for investigations. Friel did not respond to a request for comment.
“Simply because parties don’t like allegations don’t mean those allegations are sealable,” Davis told Donovan’s lawyers at a Nov. 20 hearing, according to a transcript requested by The Washington Post after news of the dispute was reported by Law360.com. “The fact that these details may come out, your client shouldn’t file a federal lawsuit.”
Wilkinson was scheduled to interview Snyder on Nov. 18, court records show.
In his court filings, Donovan describes himself as a “party” to the settlement, though it’s unclear whether Donovan simply negotiated the deal or was involved in another way.
Donovan, who also served as the team’s chief operating officer for three years, was a partner in the WilmerHale law firm on and off for more than 25 years until his retirement in 2018.
Davis laid out a complicated set of rules describing which court documents would be made public and which words in those documents would be redacted. According to his Nov. 25 ruling, the phrases “settlement” and “settlement agreement,” the name of the “complainant,” that person’s title and “references to the matter giving rise to allegations” should be redacted. Other requests to block information from the public were denied.
NFL asked Snyder to ‘back off’ use of private investigators, lawyer says, as PI visits rattle ex-employees
Wilkinson was hired by Snyder to conduct an “independent” investigation, following a July report by The Post in which 15 women said they were sexually harassed while working for the team. A month later, another 25 women made similar claims in another Post report, which also described lewd videos produced by the team from outtakes of cheerleader calendar shoots in 2008 and 2010.
Snyder has pledged to address problems in his team’s workplace culture.
The league assumed oversight of Wilkinson’s probe in August. The Post reported that some former team employees said they had been approached by private investigators, who at times did not identify themselves or whom they were working for. Joe Tacopina, an attorney representing Snyder, said in August that activity by private investigations was related to Snyder’s defamation suit against an India-based news company — Media, Entertainment, Arts, WorldWide — not Wilkinson’s investigation.
Mark Maske and Alice Crites contributed to this report.
Washington Football Team settled sexual misconduct claim against Daniel Snyder for $1.6 million
15 women accuse former Redskins employees of sexual harassment and verbal abuse
Lewd cheerleader videos, sexist rules: Ex-employees decry Washington’s NFL team workplace
Washington Football Team ownership dispute escalates with allegations of financial malfeasance
Washington Football minority owners have a deal to sell, but Daniel Snyder is blocking it
Harassment claims and dwindling donations: The fall of Snyder’s nonprofit for Native Americans
How Snyder became an NFL owner 20 years ago | A visual guide to 20 seasons of Snyder’s ownership
The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | December 2020 | ['(The Washington Post)'] |
A strong 6.2 magnitude earthquake occurs in southern Iran with reports of injuries and property damage. | TEHRAN, Iran - A strong earthquake of 6.2 magnitude hit southern Iran early Saturday, the US Geological Survey said, with local media reporting of damaged villages and several injuries.
The epicentre of the quake was measured at 85 kilometres southeast of the southern town of Minab at 0208 GMT, the USGS said in a statement. It was at a depth of 36.44 km.
Head of Iran's Red Crescent rescue corps Mahmoud Mozafar told the Fars news agency that at least 11 people had been injured in five villages which were "severely" hit by the quake.
The Mehr news agency, quoted him as saying that "several houses were leveled" based on preliminary reports.
The reports said rescue teams were dispatched to the affected area.
The USGS said there was a 35 percent chance of fatalities from the quake which the Hong Kong Observatory measured at 6.1 magnitude.
Iran's Seismological Centre has registered a series of aftershocks, measuring between 4.1 and 5.2.
Iran sits astride several major fault lines and is prone to frequent earthquakes, some of which have been devastating.
Last month, the biggest earthquake to hit the country in 50 years, measuring 7.8, killed a woman and injured more than a dozen other people in the southeast.
At least 40 people were killed across the border in Pakistan where hundreds of mud homes were leveled.
A double earthquake, one measuring 6.2 and the other 6.0, struck northwestern Iran last August, killing more than 300 people and injuring 3,000.
In December 2003, a massive quake struck the southern city of Bam. It killed 26,271 people - about a quarter of the population - and destroyed the city's ancient mud-built citadel. | Earthquakes | May 2013 | ['(AFP via AsiaOne)'] |
An explosion occurs in Seaside Park, New Jersey, shortly before the USMC 5K run in the area. No injuries or fatalities are reported. | SEASIDE PARK -A pipe-bomb-style device detonated in a garbage can at the start of the route of a Marine Corps charity race Saturdaymorning, injuring no one, but sparking a massive law-enforcement response and suspicions of terrorism.
The FBI said it was "unaware of any known threat" to public safety, in an early-eveningpress conference that lasted about two minutes.Brad Cohen, the special agent in charge of the Newark FBI office, said the agency's Joint Terrorism Task Force was taking the lead in investigation into the explosion. He saidthe agency was working to make sure there was "no stone left unturned" in the probe.
Multiple agencies are investigating the incident and whether the motive was terror, said Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office..
"You would have to assume that at a military-type event, the U.S. Marines, a device is placed along the route of a charity event, it would be hard to think it would be anything else,’’ Della Fave said.
The device went off about 9:35 a.m. at Ocean Avenue and D Street, where the Seaside Semper Five5K race had been scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m., Della Favesaid.
Problems with registration for the race delayed its start and possibly spared people from injury, he said.
“When it went off, there was nobody in the area,’’ Della Fave said.
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Attack failed
Della Fave said multiple explosive devices were enclosed in the trash can, designed to send shrapnel flying, but because only one of them detonated, “it appears it didn’t do the damage it was supposed to.’’
Police sources say there were as many as three inside the trash can.Remnants and residue from the bomb are being sent to an FBI lab for analysis, a law-enforcement source said.
A number of questions remain unanswered as of Saturdaynight: how the bomb was detonated; what type of explosive was used; and if any surveillance camera caught a suspect planting the device.
Della Fave said there were about 3,000 people assembled at the registration area for the race when the pipe-bomb detonated.
A four-block area surrounding D Street was evacuated as law-enforcement swept the area for more explosive devices, but none aside from those in the one garbage can were found, Della Fave said.Francis Larkin, chief of police for Seaside Park, saidresidents could return home starting at 6 p.m. Saturday, but thatresidents of C, D and E streets would have to produce identification to gain entry. Larkinsaid beaches would remain closed in the area of C, D and E streets.
Traffic across the Thomas A. Mathis Bridge was shut down around 12:30 p.m., but the bridge reopened about an hour later.
IN NYC:Possible explosion reported in NYC’s Chelsea neighborhood; dozens hurt
The arson unit of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office initially was leading the investigation into the incident, aided by the New Jersey State Police bomb squad, the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office, and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,Firearms and Exposives, but Della Fave said the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office would be taking over the probe.
A State Police helicopter hovered over Seaside Park, while emergency vehicles flooded the streets, and bomb-sniffing dogs made the rounds. Police officers walked the streets carrying long guns.
A barbecue festival in Seaside Heights wenton as planned, but the mayor of Point Pleasant Beach decided to cancel its annualseafood festival because of the day’s events, Della Fave said.
“The New Jersey State Police will ascertain the level of sophistication of the explosive device and its timing device,’’ Della Fave added.Gov. Chris Christie was briefed on the incident by Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino, and Col. Rick Fuentes, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, according to a news release.
“Working with the FBI and ATF, we are taking every step to ensure the safety of the public and to determine who was responsible for this explosion, which occurred at a time when runners in this charity race could have been in harm’s way,”Porrino said in a news release. “We are grateful that nobody was injured, but this is a serious act of violence against the people of New Jersey. We will not rest until we find the person or persons responsible.”
Seaside Park residents received an emergency alert call Saturday afternoon from police, asking residents to report any suspicious packages, and notifyingthem to be aware there will be a long-term police presence in town.
Terrorism comes to the Shore?
If it is proven to be terrorism, the Jersey Shore would join other communities that have experienced acts of terrorism. For some, it evoked disquieting memories of the Boston Marathon bombing more than three years ago, when two pressure cooker bombs exploded, killing three and wounding more than 260. Several officials publicly acknowledged how lucky it was that the Seaside Park race was delayed, possibly sparing runners from any injuries in the blast.
Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-New Jersey, who represents Seaside Park in the U.S. House of Representatives, went to the scene Saturday evening to thank first responders and make certain Ocean County and Seaside Parkofficials were satisfied with the federal response.
"I don't know that," MacArthur answered when asked whether terrorism had come to the Shore. "They'rerunning down leads, they have a pretty good handle on what happened and how it got placed and where, and even some sense of when. But I just don't think I should be speculating at this point on what the motives of the attackers were."
Whoever was behind Saturday's bombing in Seaside Park one or more terrorists, or an individual who is simply "unhinged" this is the world we live in today, MacArthur said.
"And we have to be vigilant, that's why it's so important to support law enforcement, that is why I came (here) ... the local police orthe county, there are even other towns and counties that are here. They need to know how much we appreciate what they do because they're protecting us every day."
Confusion over race delay
Throughout the day Saturday, there were two explanationsofferedby authorities and event organizersas to what caused the start of the Seaside Semper Five Marine Corps Charity 5K to be delayed, perhaps inadvertently saving lives and avoiding injuries.
CathyHowath, 50, of Upper Saddle River, and her sister, Janie Murphy, 52, of Bridgewater, were among those who signed up to run in the 5K.
But before the race was supposed to gooff, the discovery of a backpack near a media tent sent off a repetitive announcement over a bullhorn, Howath said.
“They kept making the announcement, ‘There’s an unclaimed, blue backpack by the News 12 tent and the radio station tent. If this is your backpackplease come and claim it.’ It was said repeatedly,’’ Howath said.
Eventually, a student from Donovan Catholic High School in Toms River claimed the backpack, Murphy said. She and her sister said they believe this also delayed the start of the race and spared participants from injury.
“It was a blessing in disguise, because the pipe bomb would have gone off when the 5K was going,’’ Howath said.
An earlier fun-run for children had already started, however, and people participating in that reportedhearing the explosive detonate, Howath said.
"We never heard it,’’ she said. “They just started moving people (away from the boardwalk.) We still didn’t know why.’’
By afternoon, Howath and Murphy, like other runners, were stranded on Central Avenue, unable to get back to their car.
“We’re stranded no phone, no money, nothing,’’ Howath said, who said she was supposed to be at work at 1:30 p.m. at a garden center in Woodcliff Lake.
LarryMigliorisi, ofToms River, a volunteer for the event with the Marine Corp League’s local Cpl. William H. Smith Detachment of Lacey, waited for news on a sidewalk about two blocks west of the beachfront, also unable to retrieve his car.
“Our vehicle is right by the Boardwalk and we’re not allowed to go up there,” Migliorisi said. “They told us to keep moving out (away from the beachfront) because there might be other explosive devices.”
Like Howath and Murphy, hedid not hear any explosion, he said, but he explained there were actuallytwo delays at the start of the race that might have prevented injuries or fatalities.
The first delay was the result of an unexpected surge in on-site registration for the event, Migliorisisaid. The turnout resulted in organizers needing more time to accommodate everyone who had lined up to participate and get their materials for the race.
“The nine o’clock race the one mile did not go off on time, it went off at about 9:15,” he said. “And the 5K was supposed to be going off at 9:30 which would’ve been delayed. But at that point in time, when they found (the)backpack, they announced that its owner come and get it. They made that announcement on numerous occasions and when nobody claimed it, they evacuated us all out.”
'It's a terrible thing'
Stephen Rumbolo, 18, of Ortley Beach, said he arrived on D Street soon after the bombing after a friend told him something had exploded.
"We saw everybody roll up, all the squad cars, the ATF, they all came up, there were big guns everywhere. I had to move my car out of the waythey hada bunch of cars.They were making us move from corner to corner," Rumbolo said.
Mary Rizzon of Bridgewater was staying at the Desert Palm Inn on Ocean Avenue in Seaside Park, the last leg of what was supposed to be a tranquil post-Labor Day trip up the Jersey Shore that began in Cape May. On Saturday afternoon, Rizzon stood in front of the motel with a look of shock on her face. “It’s a terrible thing,” Rizzon repeated. “A lot of people heard the explosion. … There were all military people here.”
An Ocean County sheriff’s vehicle drove slowlyalong Ocean Avenue instructing pedestrians over its loudspeaker to take shelter.
“They won’t let us on the beach,” Rizzon said. Some people had nowhere to go. A few of the runners, still wearing their race bibs could not get to their vehicles because they were parked inside the evacuation zone.
Jacqueline O'Hara, 75, had the opposite problem. She hadmade the trip Saturday from her primary residence in Verona to her second homein Seaside Park, with a quick stopat the ShopRite on Route 37 in Toms River to pick up a few groceries. Upon trying to enter the barrier island in the afternoon, O'Haradiscovered that not only could she not get across the bridge, but thather house on D Street near Ocean Avenue was nearground zero of the failed attack.
"EighteenDannon Coffee Yogurts,a gallon of milk and carrots," O'Hara said, explaining that she turned around and went back to the supermarket to return the perishables. "At 12:30, one o'clock, we were told we weren't going to be able to come in and get to our house."
Other municipal officialson the Shore said they were monitoring the situation in Seaside Park.
Belmar Mayor Matt Doherty said on Twitter that police had inspected and cleared all garbage cans and would bring them in overnight in response to the explosion in Seaside Park.
Asbury Park Mayor John Moor said that the city's police department was aware of the situation and "taking any necessary steps."
In Tinton Falls, the borough police department sentouta "CodeRED" email blast ahead of the town's "Hustle4Hannah 5K & Kids Fun Run," scheduled for Sunday.
There would be no overnight parking allowedon the streets in the vicinity of its race and added precautions were tobe implemented inthe area of the Monmouth Regional High School campus, the alert read. "Participants and spectators will be prohibited from bringing personal bags into the area. All personal bags must be left in your vehicles. Police will knock on doors to have vehicles removed off the streets. ...All violators will be towed."
MacArthur, who serves on the House Committee on Armed Services, said each town must do what it believes to be in the best interests of public safety. However, the congressmanadded that it is the disruption of normal life and the effectuation of public fear that is the objective of those who commit these acts. | Armed Conflict | September 2016 | ['(Asbury Park Press)'] |
Three additional people are killed by Hamas' rockets in Lod, while an IDF soldier is killed as a military jeep outside Gaza is bombed, thereby bringing the Israeli death toll to seven. | The deadly exchange of fire between Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli military has escalated significantly, with the UN fearing a "full-scale war".
More than 1,000 rockets have been fired by Palestinian militants, Israel says.
Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Gaza, destroying three tower blocks and killing senior Hamas officials.
Since Monday at least 65 Palestinians and six people in Israel have died.
That includes 16 Palestinian children caught up in the conflict. UN Secretary General António Guterres said he was "gravely concerned" by the ongoing violence.
In a phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken condemned Hamas rocket attacks but said Israel had an obligation to avoid civilian casualties.
He said he had sent Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Hady Amr to meet both sides. The fighting erupted on Monday night after weeks of rising Israeli-Palestinian tension in East Jerusalem which culminated in clashes at a holy site revered by Muslims and Jews.
Violent unrest in towns in Israel with mixed Jewish and Arab populations has led to hundreds of arrests. Lod near Tel Aviv is under a state of emergency.
Mr Netanyahu said the government would use all its strength to protect Israel from enemies on the outside and rioters on the inside.
But the Palestinian Authority condemned Israel's "military aggression" in a tweet, saying it was "traumatizing an already beleaguered population of 2 million people".
Militants in Gaza began firing rockets into Israel on Monday night, and Israel responded by hitting targets in the territory.
On Wednesday Israel said it had killed senior officials of the Hamas group in Gaza, and was also targeting missile launching sites.
"This was only the beginning. We will inflict blows on them that they have never dreamed of," said the Israeli prime minister.
Hamas - which runs Gaza - confirmed the death of its commander in Gaza City and other "warriors".
"Thousands of leaders and soldiers will follow in their footsteps," Hamas said in a statement reported by Reuters news agency.
But the Russian foreign ministry in a statement quoted a Hamas spokesman as saying the movement was ready for a ceasefire if Israel stopped "violent acts" in East Jerusalem and "illegal measures in respect of its native Arab residents".
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says that more than 360 people have been injured there since the conflict began, as well as the 65 who have died.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said on Wednesday that their strikes on Gaza were the largest since the conflict in 2014.
On Wednesday a third high-rise building in Gaza was destroyed. Hamas said it was incensed by "the enemy's targeting of residential towers". Residents had been warned to evacuate the buildings before fighter jets attacked; however health officials said there were still civilian deaths.
Five members of one family were killed in an air strike on Tuesday, including two young brothers, according to AFP news agency.
An 11-year-old resident of Gaza, Yasmine, told Save the Children Tuesday had been the worst night of her life.
"I had pain in my stomach from the fear and my parents were trying to comfort me and tell me the bombing was far away but I could feel that it was close," she told the charity. "Tomorrow is Eid and we won't be celebrating because of this conflict." Millions of Israelis were heading to bomb shelters on Wednesday evening, according to the IDF, as sirens warning of rockets sounded across the country.
On Wednesday morning an Israeli soldier was killed by an anti-tank missile fired from Gaza into Israel, authorities said.
There were conflicting reports on the fate of a six-year-old boy hit in a rocket attack on the town of Sderot, with some saying he had died in the attack.
Two people, a man and his teenage daughter, were killed in Lod when a rocket hit their car. They were both Israeli Arabs.
Israeli police reported what they called violent riots in dozens of areas of the country overnight, with 270 people arrested.
Synagogues and businesses in Lod were set on fire.
Mr Netanyahu described the riots as "unbearable" and said they reminded the Jewish people of their past.
Israeli police said that Lod would be placed under curfew from 20:00 local time on Wednesday until 04:00 on Thursday to preserve the safety and property of residents.
The fighting between Israel and Hamas was triggered by days of escalating clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at a holy hilltop compound in East Jerusalem. The site is revered by both Muslims, who call it the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), and Jews, for whom it is known as the Temple Mount. Hamas demanded Israel remove police from there and the nearby predominantly Arab district of Sheikh Jarrah, where Palestinian families face eviction by Jewish settlers. Hamas launched rockets when its ultimatum went unheeded.
Palestinian anger had already been stoked by weeks of rising tension in East Jerusalem, inflamed by a series of confrontations with police since the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in mid-April.
It was further fuelled by the threatened eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem by Jewish settlers and Israel's annual celebration of its capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, known as Jerusalem Day.
The fate of the city, with its deep religious and national significance to both sides, lies at the heart of the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict. Israel in effect annexed East Jerusalem in 1980 and considers the entire city its capital, though this is not recognised by the vast majority of other countries. Palestinians claim the eastern half of Jerusalem as the capital of a hoped-for state of their own.
| Armed Conflict | May 2021 | ['(BBC)'] |
A 7.1 magnitude earthquake occurs in Papua New Guinea's East New Britain province with the potential to generate a local tsunami. |
A powerful earthquake shook Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific today, just a day after another tremor rattled the region.
The 6.8 magnitude quake struck south west of the town of Kokopo in the north east of the country, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. An expert has warned the tremors could be foreshocks ahead of bigger seismic event.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said hazardous tsunami waves were possible within 190 miles of the epicentre, but the risk passed shortly thereafter and the advisory was lifted.
Tremor: A powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake shook Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific on Friday
There were no reports of damage or injuries, said Chris McKee, assistant director of Geophysical Observatory in the capital, Port Moresby.
The area closest to the epicentre is sparsely populated, and it was unlikely the quake caused any structural damage, he said.
A 6.7 magnitude earthquake hit the same region on Thursday, but there were no reports of serious damage.
'This is the second earthquake that has occurred in that region over the last two days,' co-director of the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre Daniel Jaksa said.
'The previous one was about 10 kilometres to the south east of this particular epicentre. It's a very uninhabited region off the island of New Britain.
'The earthquake was a measure of 7.1, so that's about 30 times smaller than the earthquake in Nepal.'
South Pacific: The 6.8 magnitude quake struck south west of the town of Kokopo in the north east of Papua New Guinea
Mr Jaksa said earthquakes of similar magnitudes that occur within 24 hours were not common, and cautioned there was a possibility the tremors could be foreshocks ahead of a bigger seismic event.
'The probabilities of another earthquake in that region actually increases with an event like this, but it's one of the most active earthquake zones in the world,' he said.
'Unfortunately this is completely unpredictable. Certainly the potential is there for a larger event to occur but a lot of the time, it doesn't.'
Papua New Guinea sits on the Ring of Fire, the arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes are common.
| Earthquakes | May 2015 | ['(AP via Daily Mail)'] |
In chess, Ukraine wins 2013 Women's World Team Chess Championship ahead of China and Russia in Astana, Kazakhstan. | The Ukrainian team of Anna Ushenina, Kateryna Lagno, Mariya Muzychuk, Inna Gaponenko and Natalia Zhukova won gold at the 2013 Women's World Team Championships in Kazakhstan after drawing their final match with Russia.
It was a fine victory for Ukraine who were undefeated in all their nine matches during the tournament, winning seven and drawing two. Their final round match with Russia was something of an anti-climax, with all games being fairly bloodless draws.
China narrowly defeated India 2½-1½ thanks to a win on top board by Ju Wenjun, and the Chinese team finished in silver medal position. Russia took the bronze.
The final complete results and standings
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Anna Ushenina
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Kateryna Lagno
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Ju Wenjun helped China to the silver medal
The complete results in round 9
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The time control was 40 moves in 90 minutes, then 30 minutes to finish with a 30 second increment from the start of the game. | Sports Competition | March 2013 | ['(Chess News)', '(ChessBase)'] |
Approximately 1,000 prisoners are released in Bangladesh as the country tries to reduce overcrowding in its prisons. | About 1,000 long-serving prisoners in Bangladesh have been released in a bid to ease overcrowding in jails. Officials say it is the first time that so many prisoners serving life terms have been freed.
Normally, prisoners sentenced to life for violent crimes have to serve at least 30 years in jail.
Campaigners say Bangladesh's 67 prisons are notoriously overcrowded - holding 75,000 inmates - and living conditions inside them are appalling. They say that the country's jails are holding three times more inmates than their capacity, and are filthy, unhygienic and almost without medical facilities.
The campaigners warn that the situation has now reached a critical point.
Officials admit that overcrowding is a major issue, but say they are releasing these prisoners because they have served more than 20 years. A number of female prisoners were among those freed on Thursday. "We will release more prisoners in future because the process has already started," prisons inspector general Ashraful Islam told the BBC.
Reports say prison overcrowding is particularly severe in women's facilities. Dhaka's central jail is currently holding 540 female prisoners, although officially the facility should only hold 134 inmates.
Activists say rights abuses are common and prisoners are often victims of violence inflicted by the prison guards. They say that overcrowding also causes contagious diseases such as tuberculosis. Independent observers are not usually allowed in to see the conditions of prisoners. Activists say one way to reduce the overcrowding would be to release those prisoners who have spent years awaiting trial.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | August 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
In golf, Japan's Hinako Shibuno wins the year's final major championship by one shot over American Lizette Salas. Shibuno, a 20-year-old rookie on the Japan LPGA Tour, was playing outside her home country for the first time, and was also playing for the first time in a major recognized by the U.S. LPGA. | MILTON KEYNES, England -- Hinako Shibuno of Japan finished with a birdie to win the Women's British Open by one shot over Lizette Salas on Sunday as she wrapped up a stunning major championship debut.
The 20-year-old Shibuno, a rookie on the Japan LPGA Tour who was playing for the first time outside of her country, birdied five of the final nine holes in a 4-under 68 and 18-under 270 overall.
"I was also thinking about if I were to make this putt, how I was going to celebrate," Shibuno said of approaching the 18th. "Eat a lot of sweets."
Largely unknown before the championship, Shibuno -- nicknamed "Smiling Cinderella" -- started Sunday with a two-stroke lead but lost it with a double bogey on the par-4 3rd. She bounced back with birdies on Nos. 5 and 7 before a bogey on the 8th at Woburn Golf Club.
But in three of four rounds, Shibuno has shone on the back nine. She did it in 31 on Sunday -- and just 30 on Thursday and Saturday.
"Now that I've won, I think a lot of the Japanese people will know me, but in actuality, I just wanted to live a quiet life," Shibuno said.
"I was looking online, and I did see that it's been 42 years since a Japanese player has last won. I do feel that I have accomplished something great, but I really don't know the reason why I was able to accomplish it."
Salas, who started the final round tied for fourth, quickly played herself into contention with three birdies in the first four holes, and she added five more in a 7-under 65.
But the American will regret not taking another birdie chance on the 18th when she shared the lead with Shibuno.
"I told myself, `You got this. You're made for this.' I put a good stroke on it. I'm not going to lie, I was nervous," Salas said after her best finish at a major. "You know, I haven't been in that position in a long time. Gave it a good stroke. I controlled all my thoughts. It just didn't drop."
Jin Young Ko, who was seeking her third major title of the year after winning the Evian Championship last week, was two shots back in third after a bogey-free 66.
"I had a little pressure, but I like that pressure," Ko said.
Morgan Pressel (67) finished fourth at 15 under, just ahead of former leader Ashleigh Buhai (70), whose hopes were dented Saturday when she let a five-shot lead slip. The 30-year-old South African finished fifth at 14 under.
"If you had given me a top five at the beginning of the week, I most certainly would have taken it," Buhai said.
Also, Celine Boutier shot a 66 to finish the tournament at 12 under, followed by Carlota Ciganda (70) at 11 under and second-ranked Sung Hyun Park (73) at 10 under.
American Nelly Korda (68) tied for ninth with Jeongeun Lee6 (71) at 9 under, two shots ahead of Lexi Thompson (67). | Sports Competition | August 2019 | ['(AP via ESPN)'] |
Two Red Cross aid workers are found dead after being detained for questioning by unknown men claiming to be police. | The bodies of the two men were found in Ratnapura district, about 100km (60 miles) south-east of Colombo.
The aid workers had been abducted by gunmen claiming to be police.
The defence ministry said police were investigating the deaths, which came amid heavy fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels.
"The two were part of a group of six aid workers brought from Batticaloa (in the island's east) for a training programme related to tsunami relief work last week," Red Cross director general Neville Nanayakkara told the news agency AFP.
"Some people in civilian clothes said they were from the police and wanted to see the identity cards of the six workers," Mr Nanayakkara said. "They took away two of them, saying it was for further questioning."
According to reports, both of the men were members of the country's Tamil minority.
The deaths mark the worst attack against aid workers in Sri Lanka since the killings of 17 employees of a French organisation in August. | Famous Person - Death | June 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake occurs in northern Tanzania, near Lake Victoria, killing at least 13 people and injuring 200 others. Tanzanian authorities report significant damage in the town of Bukoba. The governments of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda report tremors. | By Afp Published: 22:43 BST, 10 September 2016 | Updated: 22:43 BST, 10 September 2016 At least 13 people were killed and 203 injured in northwest Tanzania when a 5.7 magnitude earthquake hit the country Saturday, local authorities told AFP.
"The toll has climbed from 11 people dead to 13 and from 192 injured to 203," said Deodatus Kinawilo, District Commissioner for Bukoba, the town close to the epicentre of the quake.
"For now, the situation is calm and under control," said Kinawilo, who was reached by telephone.
Earthquakes are fairly common in the Great Lakes region but are almost always of low intensity ©Tony Karumba (AFP/File)
"Some people have been discharged from hospital," he told AFP. "We don't expect many more injuries. We'll see tomorrow."
Residents of Bukoba had said earlier that some houses there had caved in, and Augustine Ollomi, the Kagera province police chief in charge of the Bukoba district, had said "rescue operations are ongoing".
The epicentre of the 1227 GMT quake was about 25 kilometres (15 miles) east of the north-western town of Nsunga on the border of Lake Victoria, according to the US Geological Survey.
Earthquakes are fairly common in the Great Lakes region but are almost always of low intensity.
An AFP correspondent in Dar es Salaam whose mother's family lives in Bukoba said 10 family houses had collapsed.
"My brother was driving around town, suddenly he heard the ground shaking and people starting running around and buildings collapsing," he said.
The quake rattled the entire province of Kagera. Parts of Mwanza region further south also felt the quake but there was no impact, he said.
No damage had been reported in the economic capital, Dar es Salaam, which is located some 1,400 kilometres southeast of Bukoba.
"It's safe in Dar but we are still worried about the safety of our family," the AFP correspondent added. "The regional hospital is overwhelmed and can't handle any more patients."
"Emergency operations are poor and the government isn't saying anything," he said.
The earthquake was felt as far away as Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Kenya, the US Geological Survey said.
"The walls of my home shook as well as the fridge and the cupboards," said an AFP correspondent in the Ugandan capital Kampala.
AFP journalists in Democratic Republic of Congo said it was felt, though faintly, in Bukavu in the east, but not in nearby Goma or Lubumbashi. | Earthquakes | September 2016 | ['(BBC)', '(AFP via The Daily Mail)'] |
During U.S. Labor Day holiday activities in Boston, President Barack Obama announces a new executive order requiring federal government contractors to offer workers seven days of paid sick leave per year. On July 1st, Massachusetts became the third state, Connecticut and California being the others, with similar requirements. | BOSTON -- President Obama rallied union workers here Monday, unveiling a new executive order that will require federal contractors to offer employees up to seven days of paid sick leave, a move he sought to contrast with Republican economic policies.
Obama announced the new directive, which the White House said could benefit more than 300,000 workers, during a Labor Day speech in Boston. It was the latest in the White House’s year-long effort to pressure Congress to approve legislation that would provide similar benefits for millions of private-sector workers.
"Right now, you have parents who have to choose between losing income or staying home with a sick child," Obama told a crowd of 765 supporters, including many labor officials, during the annual Greater Boston Labor Council breakfast, sponsored by the AFL-CIO.
Under the executive order, workers on federal contracts would be eligible for paid leave if they are sick or caring for a sick relative. They will earn one hour of leave for every 30 hours worked, with a maximum of seven days a year, officials said. The new order won’t take effect until after Obama leaves office in early 2017.
With the campaign for his successor underway, the president drew a sharp contrast between his administration's policies and those of Republicans. The GOP believes the best way to stimulate the economy is to cut taxes and loosen regulation, Obama said.
Republicans think "just wait, look up in sky, and see prosperity come raining down on us on top of whatever high-rise is in New York City," he said. "That’s not how the economy works."
In particular, Obama mocked Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), a presidential hopeful whose support for anti-union laws in his state made him popular within the national GOP but angered labor leaders. Without mentioning him by name, the president ridiculed Walker for suggesting, in February, that "busting unions prepared him to fight ISIL" -- a reference to the Islamic State militant group.
During a campaign appearance at a diner in Rochester, N.H., Walker responded by saying that while Obama "stands with the big government union bosses, we stand with hard-working people."
Walker added that "the president and his allies fear us more than anybody else in the race because they know we don't just talk about it, we get it done. We fight, we win, we actually get results and we've done it without compromising our conservative principles."
The president’s Boston trip was intended to serve as a rallying point with organized labor heading into the 2016 elections. Obama and labor leaders butted heads this spring over the president's successful push to win additional authority from Congress to complete international trade deals.
But big labor has been buoyed by the White House and congressional Democrats' commitment to championing parental leave and sick leave laws, as popular support has grown for such measures in many parts of the country. An estimated 44 million private-sector workers -- about 40 percent of the workforce -- do not have access to paid sick leave, according to the White House.
Labor Secretary Thomas Perez and a host of labor leaders joined Obama on Air Force One for the quick trip to Boston. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who attended the speech, was among those who traveled home on the presidential jet.
Before heading home to Washington, Obama made an unannounced lunchtime stop at Union Oyster House, a historical landmark established in 1716, where he surprised patrons by ordering 10 clam chowders to go.
“We’ll eat them on Air Force One,” he told the bartender.
Obama signed a presidential memorandum in January directing agencies to allow federal workers to take six weeks of advanced paid sick leave to care for a new child or ill family members.
Despite a heavy push by the Obama administration, however, proposals for paid sick leave have languished in the GOP-controlled Congress, much like efforts to increase the minimum wage.
The United States is one of just a handful of countries that do not offer paid leave; congressional Republicans have introduced measures offering workplace flexibility and tax credits in some instances, but they have opposed mandating paid leave.
The push for paid leave has gained momentum across the country, although it tends to be in Democratic-leaning states and cities. The president highlighted a Massachusetts law, approved by voters in November, that provides employees with up to 40 hours of sick leave per year. That law went into effect in July.
During his remarks at the breakfast, Obama playfully noted that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, whose four-game suspension by the National Football League was overturned last week by a federal judge, had the strong backing of the players association.
"Even Brady's happy he's got a union," Obama said. "They had his back. You know if Brady needs a union, we definitely need unions."
The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. | Government Policy Changes | September 2015 | ['(Washington Post)', '(Huffington Post)'] |
The Italian Supreme Court has confirmed the victory of centre–left opposition candidate Romano Prodi in last week's contested Italian general election, 2006, dismissing complaints by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that the vote was marred by irregularities. | Mr Berlusconi made no comment after the ruling, but his aides said he was still refusing to concede.
The court confirmed a narrow win for centre-left opposition leader Mr Prodi, nine days after polls closed, after reviewing disputed ballots. Mr Prodi said there were "no further doubts about our victory".
Mr Prodi has difficult work ahead, but I think he is up to the challenge
Nyakairu, USA
"We will work to deserve the trust that our voters have shown us and to earn the trust of those who have legitimately decided to vote for the other coalition," the 66-year-old Mr Prodi said.
Asked if he had received a telephone call from Mr Berlusconi, Mr Prodi said: "I'm waiting."
The serving Economy Minister, Giulio Tremonti, a close ally of Mr Berlusconi, said he still did not recognise the court's ruling and called for further checks.
But one of the parties in the centre-right coalition, the UDC party, has broken ranks and admitted defeat.
Mr Berlusconi could mount a legal challenge in the days to come but he may find himself increasingly isolated by his coalition partners, correspondents say.
However some analysts believe Mr Berlusconi is simply trying to undermine Mr Prodi's government-in-waiting, hoping it will be short-lived - in effect, conducting the next election campaign.
The Corte di Cassazione reviewed 5,200 ballots not immediately included in the overall count, as the voting intentions were not clear.
It ruled that Mr Prodi had won the lower house by a margin of some 24,000 votes - a similar margin to the one previously announced.
Mr Berlusconi's allies had urged the court not to rush the checking of the ballots and to give a verdict "beyond any reasonable doubt".
Mr Prodi claimed victory in the polls after official results showed he had won just enough seats to control the Senate (upper house) after having already won a lower house majority.
A review of contested ballots in the Senate is still under way.
Further delay
The new parliament is scheduled to convene on 28 April.
Although the court ruling means Mr Prodi can work on forming a government, it cannot be sworn in for a month.
Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi has said he will not seek a second term when his seven year-mandate ends in mid-May.
His departure means Mr Prodi will have to wait until parliament elects a new president before his government can be sworn in and he can be made prime minister.
Under the constitution, the president must give the mandate to form a government, and Mr Ciampi has already said he will leave the task to his successor. | Government Job change - Election | April 2006 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
American television officials issue an apology following the broadcast of two hours of pornography on two children's channels. | TV bosses in the US have apologised after preview clips of the Playboy channel were accidentally played out on two children's channels.
A Time Warner Cable (TWC) spokesman said a "technical glitch" was to blame for the mistake, which lasted two hours in parts of North Carolina on Tuesday. The company was made aware of the error after parents called in to report it. TWC said it had procedures in place to catch errors, but it was not picked up as it affected only a small area. 'Worst time'
"We're very, very sorry it happened - we know parents are concerned," spokesman Keith Poston told local news station WRAL. "It took about an hour or so once we were notified of the problem to actually get it fixed. "It was a technical glitch and unfortunately it hit at the worst possible time on the worst possible channels," he added. The error occurred on the Kids On Demand and Kids Preschool On Demand channels where clips from Playboy TV appeared in the top right hand corner. Although a menu of available children's programming was listed on the left side of the screen, previews showing nude women engaged in explicit conversations were shown where previews of children's shows normally would appear. Mr Poston said the explicit content aired from about 0615 to 0815 local time in parts of Cary, Garner, Morrisville, Wilson, Goldsboro, Willow Spring and Johnston County, but added most areas just went black when the equipment failed. Time Warner said it regretted the glitch and had fixed the problem so it would not happen again. | Famous Person - Give a speech | March 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)', '(Radio Netherlands Worldwide)', '(The Times of India)'] |
Pope Francis prays for victims of the earthquake in Albania and sends “heartfelt condolences” to Albanian President Ilir Meta. The quake's epicenter is less than 20 miles from Tirana, the country’s capital city, which has a population of 900,000. Additional earthquakes occurred in southern Bosnia and the Greek island of Crete. | Pope Francis expressed his condolences Wednesday for those who have been affected by or who have died in a devastating earthquake which struck Albania Nov. 26.
At least 25 people have been confirmed dead and more than 600 injured, according to authorities. Searches are continuing for those who are missing in the rubble of collapsed buildings.
The pope sent “heartfelt condolences” to Albanian President Ilir Meta Nov. 27, in a telegram signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
“Commending the souls of the deceased to God’s mercy, he assures the injured and all those affected by this disaster of his closeness in prayer,” it stated.
“Upon the emergency personnel in their relief efforts, His Holiness invokes blessings of strength, and he entrusts the people of Albania to the loving providence of the Almighty.”
The epicenter of the 6.4 magnitude quake struck less than 20 miles from the Balkan country’s capital city of Tirana, which has a population of 900,000.
The most damage was sustained by the city of Durres, which sits on the Adriatic coast, and by the inland town of Thumane.
It was the most powerful quake in Albania since an earthquake of 6.9 magnitude hit the country in 1979, killing 136 people and injuring at least 1,000.
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The poorest country in Europe, Albania has requested aid from neighboring countries in the search to find missing people and clean up ruined buildings.
Neighboring Greece has offered support and other countries, including France, Italy, Romania, Turkey, Serbia, and the United States have all sent over rescue teams and disaster experts, according to the AP.
Residents of Durres were sleeping in tents and cars the night after the earthquake as significant aftershocks continued.
Southern Bosnia experienced a smaller earthquake after that in Albania. There was also a small quake which hit off the coast of the island of Crete Wednesday.
Pope Francis made a one-day trip to Albania in September 2014, where he celebrated Mass in Mother Teresa Square in Tirana and had an emotional meeting with one of the last survivors of Communist persecution in the country.
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After hearing the testimony of Fr. Ernest Troshani Simoni, now 91, the two embraced and Pope Francis wiped tears from his eyes.
In November 2016, Pope Francis made Simoni a cardinal. | Earthquakes | November 2019 | ['(CNA)'] |
John Boehner schedules his resignation from the position of Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and from Congress for the end of October. , | House Speaker John A. Boehner, faced with a constant conservative rebellion, announced Friday he will step down at the end of October, a move that shocked Capitol Hill and exposed the deep tensions within the Republican Party over how to use its congressional majority.
Boehner’s nearly five-year hold on the speaker’s gavel had grown increasingly unsteady amid threats from more than 30 Republicans that they would force a no-confidence vote in his speaker’s position, which would have forced him to rely on Democratic votes in order to remain in charge.
[What John Boehner told me the night before he said he was quitting]
Conservatives have pushed Boehner (R-Ohio) and his leadership team to take a more confrontational approach with President Obama over issues such as government spending, abortion, immigration and Obamacare, a stance that more moderate Republicans argue is completely unrealistic in a divided government.
The tensions only grew in recent weeks with the need to fund to government by month’s end drawing closer and Boehner said at an afternoon news conference that he made the decision to resign Friday morning. He informed his colleagues at a meeting of the House Republican conference shortly thereafter.
“Last night I started thinking about this,” he told reporters. “I woke up, I said my prayers, and decided today was the day I’ll do that. Simple as that.”
Pope Francis’s visit to Capitol Hill Thursday was a milestone moment in Boehner’s career, one he described as “emotional” while tearing up as he recalled the pope asking him to pray for him in a private moment in the Capitol. But Boehner, a devout Catholic, dismissed speculation that the papal visit inspired his decision to retire saying he had long contemplated stepping down — planning at one point to announce his retirement on his birthday in November.
“I don’t want my members to go through this, and I certainly don’t want the institution to go through this,” he said of the expected challenge to his leadership from conservatives. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | September 2015 | ['(The New York Times)', '(Washington Post)'] |
SpaceX successfully launches and deploys 24 satellites, including LightSail 2, Green Propellant Infusion Mission, and the Deep Space Atomic Clock, into orbit via its Falcon Heavy rocket. Falcon Heavy's sideboosters both returned safely to their landing pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, while the rocket's center booster failed to land on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean, exploding in the sea. | The powerful rocket is carrying an assortment of cargo, including a solar sail, an atomic clock and the ashes of 152 people.
transcript
Control room: “Three, two, one, zero — ignition.” Announcer: “Two plus 25 seconds into flight under the thrust of over five million pounds, Falcon Heavy is headed to space. We’re getting ready to throttle down — over the cheering in the background. It’s going on midnight with a lot of people here at SpaceX. Side boosters have separated, they’re getting ready for their burn back to Cape Canaveral. You can see on the left and right views the side boosters have ignited. The center core continues under full power. Everything looking good. We have shutdown on the center car —” Control room: “Stage separation confirmed.” [cheering] Announcer: “We have successful separation and ignition. We’re coming up on shutdown of the two side boosters. And we’ve heard the callout: side booster, boost back, shutdown. The center core, you can see, is not doing a boost back. It’s headed downrange to the drone ship. Here comes fairing separation. We have confirmation of the payload fairing separation.”
Watch SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Launch By Shannon Stirone
The world’s most powerful operating rocket took flight again early on Tuesday morning.
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2:30 a.m. Eastern time, its powerful boosters lighting up the Space Coast with fiery trails, and later creating loud sonic booms as two of its flaming launch vehicles touched down successfully on landing pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It was the third trip for Falcon Heavy. The first test launch occurred in 2018 and the second in April when it carried a Saudi telecommunications satellite to orbit. This time it carried 24 satellites for the Defense Department and other customers, and Mr. Musk called it SpaceX’s “most difficult launch ever.” The mission’s completion could lead to additional business from the United States government for Falcon Heavy. | New achievements in aerospace | June 2019 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
A suicide-bomb attack on a Shia Muslim procession in Nigeria's northern Kano state leaves at least 21 people dead. | A suicide bomber has killed at least 21 people in an attack on a Shia Muslim procession in Nigeria's Kano state, eyewitnesses and organisers say.
The bomber ran into the crowd and detonated his device before he could be spotted, an organiser told AFP.
The attack happened shortly after a man was arrested in possession of a bomb, a witness told the BBC.
The blast took place in the village of Dakasoye, about 20km (13 miles) south of the provincial capital, Kano.
"We lost 21 people and several others have been injured," Muhammad Turi from the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) said. Police said they did not know who was behind the attack, but IMN organisers blamed the Sunni militant group Boko Haram.
Meeting Nigeria's Shia leader
The procession - an annual event lasting seven days - continued after the blast.
"We are not surprised that we've been attacked because this is the situation all over the country. This will not deter us from our religious observance," said Mr Turi.
The procession travels from Kano to Zaria in neighbouring Kaduna state, where the IMN, the country's biggest Shia organisation, has its headquarters.
Security forces had been ordered away from the procession after clashes between pilgrims and the army left several people dead last year, including three sons of its leader Sheikh el-Zakzaky.
Most of Nigeria's Muslims are Sunnis and correspondents say there are underlying tensions between them and Shia Muslims.
Boko Haram's six-year insurgency has killed thousands and made more than 2m people homeless. The group condemns Shias as heretics who should be killed.
The militants have increasingly attacked civilian targets since being pushed out of territory they controlled by a military offensive.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has given the military commanders until next month to end the conflict, but there are fears bomb attacks may continue. | Armed Conflict | November 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
Heavily armed Taliban insurgents launch multiple coordinated militant attacks on the British, Russian and German embassies, NATO's headquarters, military bases and the Afghan parliament in central Kabul, Afghanistan, and other cities, including Jalalabad and Gardēz. | Fighting is continuing in Kabul where militants have staged a wave of co-ordinated gun and rocket attacks.
Foreign embassies, Nato's HQ and the parliament were hit in the first major attack on Afghan capital in more than six months. The attackers also struck in the provinces of Logar, Paktia and Nangarhar. The Taliban said it was the start of a "spring offensive" .
Two Afghan security force members and 17 militants were reportedly killed.
A further 17 Afghan police officers and nine civilians were injured, the Afghan interior ministry said.
The last attack on Kabul on this scale was in September 2011 when heavily armed insurgents took over an unfinished high-rise building and opened fire on the US embassy and Nato headquarters. That attack left at least 14 Afghans dead. The Taliban said Sunday's attacks marked the start of a "spring offensive". Their "fighting season" tends to begin when the warmer weather melts snow in mountain passes along the border with Pakistan, allowing fighters to cross into Afghanistan. Among Sunday's targets was the British embassy, with two rockets hitting a guard tower and a rocket-propelled grenade fired at a house used by British diplomats, but no staff were hurt, the Foreign Office later confirmed.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said he "strongly" condemned the attacks, and praised Afghan government forces for responding "bravely, promptly and effectively". Reports of explosions and gunfire in Kabul continued to come in 12 hours after the attacks began around 13:15 local time (08:45 GMT). Insurgents still holding out in the city could be heard shouting "We will fight to death", Afghan officials told BBC News.
They are said to be fending off Afghan security forces with hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades in the diplomatic quarter. The attackers focused their assault on Western embassies in the central diplomatic area and around parliament but also attacked international troops in the east of the city. The Taliban listed as targets the German and British embassies, the Kabul Star hotel, the headquarters of the Nato-led international force (Isaf), and parliament house. The list also included the ruined Darul Aman palace outside the capital.
A spokesman for the domestic security service, Lutfullah Mashal, said one of the targets was Afghan Vice-President Mohammad Karim Khalili.
But the attackers were captured before reaching Mr Khalili's home, he said.
At the parliament, a number of MPs joined the fight against the insurgents, Kandahar lawmaker Naeem Hameedzai Lalai said.
Speaking to the Associated Press news agency, he said he had climbed the tower of the parliament building and fired on insurgents with an assault rifle.
"I shot up to 400 or 500 bullets from my Kalashnikov at the attackers," he said. "They fired two rocket-propelled grenades at the parliament." Large explosions rattled the diplomatic quarter where a Reuters correspondent spoke of black smoke rising from embassies as rocket-propelled grenades whizzed overhead.
Residents could be seen running for cover as sirens wailed. Some insurgents reportedly took up firing positions in a building under construction.
Mohammad Zakar, a 27-year-old mechanic who has a shop near a building commandeered by the militants, told AP he had seen two Land Cruisers pull up and two militants jumping out.
"They opened fire on an intelligence service guard and killed him," he said. "They also fired and killed an Afghan policeman and then they jumped into the building. All the shops closed. I ran away."
Afghan security officials told BBC News two "security guards" had been killed. Some damage was reported to the embassies of Germany and Japan but Russia denied reports that its mission had been hit "despite the close proximity of the fighting". In eastern Kabul, in the Camp Warehouse area, a convoy of French troops returned fire after coming under attack.
Greek and Turkish troops manning a nearby base also came under heavy attack and responded with machine-guns, AP reports.
Afghan security forces captured two suicide bombers alive before they were able to reach their intended targets, according to Isaf. Isaf said Afghan forces had taken the lead in repelling the attacks, which it dismissed as "largely ineffective"
. However, images from Kabul and the provinces appeared to show Isaf and US troops and aircraft in the area of fighting.
Late on Sunday, Kabul's police chief, Gen Ayub Salangi, told BBC News that fighting in the Camp Warehouse area had ended, but there was continuing violence both in the diplomatic quarter and close to parliament.
Eleven police officers and five civilians were wounded in Kabul while four insurgents were killed, police say. Suicide bombers attacked a US air base near the eastern city of Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province. Four civilians were wounded and seven insurgents were killed, police said. The dead reportedly include four suicide attackers dressed in burqas and women's clothes, who were shot dead while making an attack. According to officials Mirwais Yasini, an MP from Nangarhar, told BBC News: ''This shows the Taliban don't want peace." The MP said it was clear an intelligence failure had occurred. | Armed Conflict | April 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(The Daily Telegraph)'] |
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrives by train in Vladivostok, Russia, for his first talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, expected to start Thursday. | North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has arrived in the far east of Russia for a summit with President Vladimir Putin.
Mr Kim arrived by train in the Pacific Coast city of Vladivostok for his first talks with the Russian president, which are expected to start on Thursday. He was welcomed by officials with a traditional offering of bread and salt.
Russia says they will discuss the Korean peninsula's "nuclear problem" but Mr Kim is also said to be seeking support after talks with the US failed.
US President Donald Trump and Mr Kim met in Hanoi earlier this year to discuss North Korea's nuclear weapons programme but the summit - their second - ended without agreement.
The North Korean leader greeted Russian officials warmly on his arrival in Vladivostok.
After tasting traditional korovai bread and salt, Mr Kim was entertained by a brass band before he got inside a car flanked by bodyguards who - in now familiar scenes - jogged alongside the vehicle as it departed. "I arrived in Russia bearing the warm feelings of our people, and as I already said, I hope this visit will be successful and useful," Mr Kim told Russian TV earlier, after crossing the border at Khasan.
"I hope that during the talks with respected President Putin, I will be able to discuss in a concrete manner issues relating to the settlement of the situation on the Korean peninsula, and to the development of our bilateral relations."
It is due to take place on Thursday afternoon at about 13:00 (03:00 GMT) on Russky island, just off Vladivostok, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russia's Interfax news agency.
Russian and North Korean national flags are already in place on the island, where the leaders are expected to meet on a university campus. Mr Putin was expected to arrive for the summit later. According to his spokesman, the Kremlin believes the six-party talks on North Korea, which are currently stalled, are the only efficient way of addressing the issue of nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula.
Those talks, which began in 2003, involve the two Koreas as well as China, Japan, Russia and the US.
"There are no other efficient international mechanisms at the moment," Mr Peskov told reporters.
"But, on the other hand, efforts are being made by other countries. Here all efforts merit support as long as they really aim at de-nuclearisation and resolving the problem of the two Koreas."
This visit is being widely viewed as an opportunity for North Korea to show it has powerful allies following the breakdown of nuclear talks with the US earlier this year, the BBC's Laura Bicker says.
The country has blamed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for the collapse of the Hanoi summit in February. Earlier this month North Korea demanded that Mr Pompeo be removed from nuclear talks, accusing him of "talking nonsense" and asking for someone "more careful" to replace him.
The summit is also an opportunity for Pyongyang to show that its economic future does not depend solely on the US, our correspondent adds.
Mr Kim may also try to put pressure on Moscow to ease sanctions.
Analysts believe this summit is a chance for Russia to show that it is an important player on the Korean peninsula.
President Putin has been eager to meet the North Korean leader for quite some time. Yet amid the two Trump-Kim summits, the Kremlin has been somewhat sidelined.
Russia, like the US and China, is uncomfortable with North Korea being a nuclear state. Senior officials say the Kremlin is hoping to see a reduction in tensions on the peninsula.
Mr Putin's foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, said the situation there had "stabilised somewhat" in recent months. "Russia intends to help in any way possible to cement that positive trend," he told reporters on Tuesday.
A South Korean foreign ministry spokesman said Russia "shares our viewpoints" on denuclearisation and peace on the peninsula.
Nuclear activity seems to be continuing in North Korea, and the country said it had tested a new "tactical guided weapon" - thought to be a short-range missile - earlier in April. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union (of which Russia is the main successor state) maintained close military and trade links with its communist ally, North Korea, for ideological and strategic reasons.
After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, trade links with post-communist Russia shrank and North Korea leaned towards China as its main ally. Under President Putin, Russia recovered economically and in 2014 he wrote off most of North Korea's Soviet-era debt in a major goodwill gesture.
While it is arguable how much leverage Russia has with the North today, the communist state still regards it as one of the least hostile foreign powers. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | April 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
Fiftytwo people die during combat between Peru's Army and indigenous peoples in the Amazon Rainforest. | YURIMAGUAS, Peru (Reuters) - Indigenous protesters and Peru’s army refused to back down and a truce looked distant on Saturday, after two battles in the Amazon jungle killed some 50 people in the worst crisis of President Alan Garcia’s term.
A relative of one of the police officers killed after clashes in the Bagua province walks next to the coffin during a mourning ceremony in Lima, June 6, 2009. Hundreds of Peruvian Indians protesting mining and oil exploration in their native lands held 38 police hostage on Saturday after battles with security forces killed up to 33 people in the worst violence of President Alan Garcia's government. The government reported the deaths of three protesters and 11 police officers, some from spear wounds. Indigenous leaders said at least 22 protesters were killed. REUTERS/Mariana Bazo
Protesters said 30 of their own died and the government said 22 members of the security forces perished in two days of clashes over Garcia’s drive to bring foreign companies to the rainforest to open mines and drill for oil.
The bloodshed has prompted widespread calls for Garcia’s prime minister to quit, underscored divisions between elites in Lima and the rural poor and threatened to derail the government’s push to further open Peru to foreign investors.
Garcia lashed out at the protesters, saying they had attacked their own country, acted like terrorists and may have been incited by foreigners. A fierce critic of leftist leaders elsewhere in Latin America, Garcia did not say who he meant.
The army imposed curfews, but thousands of Indians with wooden spears vowed to dig in at blockades along remote Amazon highways and keep protesting if government forces did not halt efforts to break up their demonstrations.
“We are fighting because we fear our land will be taken away,” said Denis Tangoa 38, a protester at one blockade.
About 10 police officers kidnapped by protesters were killed and nearly two dozen were freed when troops moved in to end a hostage crisis, National Police Chief Miguel Hidalgo told Peru’s RPP radio on Saturday. Several hostages were reported missing.
BATTLE AT ‘DEVIL’S CURVE’
In a clash on Friday, 11 police died when they broke up a roadblock, about 870 miles north of Lima along a stretch of highway known as “Devil’s Curve” the government said.
At least thirty protesters were killed, according to Champion Nonimgo from AIDESEP, Peru’s leading indigenous rights group. “We are talking about more than 30 indigenous deaths so far,” Nonimgo said.
The government put the number of protesters killed in Friday’s clash at nine.
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Garcia blamed leftist opponents for the violence and his office issued a statement saying protesters had “carefully planned an attack against Peru” and used “methods identical those of the Shining Path.”
The Shining Path was a brutal insurgency that waged war against the state in the 1980s and 1990s, until its leaders were caught and holdouts went into cocaine trafficking.
“Shame on those politicians who can’t win elections so they get together irrational groups to do what they did,” said Garcia.
Indigenous tribes, worried they will lose control over natural resources, have protested since April seeking to force Congress to repeal new laws that encourage foreign mining and energy companies to invest billions of dollars in the rain forest.
“We are not going to give up until they reverse these laws that will damage us. They want to take away our lands and forest and make our traditions disappear,” said Luis Huansi, a leader of the Shawi tribe at a roadblock between the towns of Tarapoto and Yurimaguas.
Men, women and children from the subsistence farming region had occupied the highway. Some were dressed in long red tunics, wore headbands and carried wooden spears. Families have set up tents of plastic sheeting along the roadside.
Though Garcia is a favorite of investors, his approval rating is 30 percent and he is especially unpopular in the Amazon, where development has lagged.
Critics say he has not done enough to reduce the poverty rate from 36 percent and that economic boom times failed to reach the poor before the current downturn.
They also fault Garcia’s policies favoring free markets and foreign investment as mainly benefiting urban elites.
Garcia claims he will cut poverty faster than a new wave of leftist presidents that he often trades barbs with: Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. But he has yet to win support from the poor.
Indigenous groups oppose laws passed last year as Garcia moved to bring Peru’s regulatory framework into compliance with a free-trade agreement with the United States.
Tribes said Garcia’s allies acted in bad faith when they blocked a motion in Congress on Thursday to open debate on a law they want overturned. Violence erupted the next day.
| Armed Conflict | June 2009 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Voters re-elect Michael D. Higgins as President of Ireland and vote to remove the offense of blasphemy from the Constitution, with winning margins of over 30% in both votes, according to exit polls. | Mr Higgins is the first incumbent in 50 years to face a challenge in his bid for a second seven-year term.
The president is Ireland's "first citizen", but has limited power - the role is mainly symbolic and he or she cannot get involved in daily politics. Voters are also being asked whether they want to remove the offence of "blasphemy" from the constitution.
Many were unaware there was such an offence until referred controversial remarks made by the actor and writer Stephen Fry on an RTE programme about what he regarded as God's cruelty, to the police force, the Garda Siochana.
But the matter was dropped when gardai (police officers) could find no-one who was offended.
The last person to be prosecuted for blasphemy was in 1855 when the British ruled Ireland.
In the presidential poll, Mr Higgins' rivals include:
The three businessmen were all "dragons" in the Irish version of the Dragons' Den TV programme.
Polls suggest that people will vote overwhelmingly to remove references to the offence of "blasphemy" from the constitution.
The measure has the support of all the main parties and the main Christian churches.
People living on islands off the coast of Donegal, Mayo and Galway have already voted in the presidential election and referendum on blasphemy to guarantee that weather conditions would not prevent their ballots being counted with the rest of the country.
Polls will be open from 07:00 local time until 22:00.
Counting in centres across the state will begin on Saturday at 09:00.
The official result, expected on Saturday evening, will be announced at Dublin castle. How do you become Irish president
| Government Job change - Election | October 2018 | ['(The Guardian)', '(BBC)'] |
Egyptian authorities arrest Mahmoud Ezzat, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. He was serving a sentence in absentia and was detained in a hideout in Cairo. | Egyptian authorities have arrested the Muslim Brotherhood leader Mahmoud Ezzat, according to a statement from the Interior Ministry on Friday.
Ezzat was serving as one of the leaders of the organization's military wing in absentia and was arrested in a hideout in Cairo, said the ministry.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
The ministry said that it had discovered Ezzat in a fifth floor apartment in New Cairo as part of its wider operation to track down dissident Brotherhood leaders.
In a statement, the ministry listed the alleged crimes committed and roles played by Ezzat.
"The terrorist leader is primarily responsible for establishing the armed wing of the terrorist Brotherhood organization and supervising the management of terrorist and sabotage operations committed by the organization in the country after the June 30, 2013 revolution until its arrest, which was most notable:
According to Al Arabiya sources, Ezzat had been moving between a series of underground hideouts in the Egyptian capital and using technology to avoid being tracked.
After being arrested, Ezzat was moved to a security headquarters where he will be interrogated.
A security team from the National Security Agency and the Ministry of Interior is currently unloading several computers and mobile phones found with Ezzat, added the source, saying that the authorities are collecting data from the devices.
Authorities are also reportedly looking into a number of people who frequented the hideout where Ezzat was caught.
Read more:
Mahmoud Ezzat named Muslim Brotherhood’s new leader
Qatar-linked media outlets in rare clash: Muslim Brotherhood vs. Arabist secularists
Qatar, Turkey, Muslim Brotherhood leading campaign to ‘vilify’ UAE: Gargash
Egyptian authorities have arrested the Muslim Brotherhood leader Mahmoud Ezzat, according to a statement from the Interior Ministry on Friday.
Ezzat was serving as one of the leaders of the organization's military wing in absentia and was arrested in a hideout in Cairo, said the ministry.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
The ministry said that it had discovered Ezzat in a fifth floor apartment in New Cairo as part of its wider operation to track down dissident Brotherhood leaders.
In a statement, the ministry listed the alleged crimes committed and roles played by Ezzat.
"The terrorist leader is primarily responsible for establishing the armed wing of the terrorist Brotherhood organization and supervising the management of terrorist and sabotage operations committed by the organization in the country after the June 30, 2013 revolution until its arrest, which was most notable:
According to Al Arabiya sources, Ezzat had been moving between a series of underground hideouts in the Egyptian capital and using technology to avoid being tracked.
. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | August 2020 | ['(Al Arabiya)'] |
William Hague, the United Kingdom Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, commences a two day tour of Myanmar. | On the first visit by a UK foreign secretary to Burma for 55 years, he said that releasing all detainees would be the price for lifting sanctions.
His counterpart Wunna Maung Lwi promised that changes in Burma were "irreversible". But he later said Burma did not acknowledge there were political prisoners.
Mr Hague said: "My message is, if you want those sanctions - those restrictive measures as we call them - lifted, then it is very important to show that you are completing this process of reform.
"We believe now that you are sincere about it, so now get ahead quickly and complete it by releasing the remaining political prisoners and by showing that the upcoming elections are free and fair."
Mr Hague's visit is the latest by top world diplomats after Burma's first elections in 20 years, which brought in a nominally civilian government.
Since then the new administration has freed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and begun a process of dialogue. Last month she formally registered her National League for Democracy as a political party, after boycotting the 2010 polls because of electoral laws that prevented her taking part. In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Ms Suu Kyu said she was optimistic Burma would hold democratic elections "in my lifetime" - but she was not sure of whether she herself would run.
In December US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Burma, in what was seen as an endorsement of the reform process - although Western observers say much more is needed.
Mr Hague is the first British foreign secretary to visit Burma since 1955. In the capital Nay Pyi Taw he held talks with President Thein Sein, a former top general who stepped down to contest the polls as a civilian, and a host of other top officials. He will also meet Aung San Suu Kyi, representatives of some of Burma's ethnic minority groups and dissidents in Rangoon, Burma's commercial capital. Ms Suu Kyi's party plans to contest by-elections in April that could see her elected to parliament. Her party secured a landslide victory in polls in 1990 but was never allowed to take power. Mr Hague made the comments after meeting his counterpart in Nay Pyi Taw.
"The foreign minister has reaffirmed commitments that have been made to release political prisoners," he told reporters. "He said the changes are irreversible and I welcome that way of thinking," Mr Hague added. "I stressed that the world will judge the government by its actions."
But in an interview with the BBC Burmese service later, Wunna Maung Lwi said Burma did not acknowledge there were political prisoners.
They are all criminals, he said, and it was up to the president to decide when prisoners were released - adding that prisoners had already been freed on three recent occasions. The government, he said, was focused on the development of the whole country.
Between 600 and 1,000 journalists, dissidents and monks who led anti-government protests in 2007 are thought to remain behind bars in Burma.
In her interview with the BBC, Ms Suu Kyi said all political prisoners must be freed - regardless of whether the government admitted their existence.
She said the country had not yet reached the stage where she could say Western investment ought to be encouraged.
There is now a general acceptance that change is under way in Burma, says the BBC's Rachel Harvey in Rangoon, but it is not clear how far or how fast any transition will be. And the different account of the talks by the two senior diplomats may merely be explained by the different audiences they were addressing, says our correspondent.
| Diplomatic Visit | January 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(Xinhua)'] |
Clashes break out between migrants and riot police at the Mòria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos after a policeman reportedly hit a minor. The violence occurred as a Greek migration minister was visiting the center. Several refugees/migrants are reported injured. | Clashes have broken out between police and stone-throwing migrants at a detention centre on the Greek island of Lesbos, police said.
Images posted on social media showed burning rubbish and parts of the Moria camp being evacuated.
The unrest came during a visit by the Greek migration minister and a Dutch minister.
The migrants are angry about the detention conditions and an EU deal to return economic migrants to Turkey.
Moria camp was visited by the Pope earlier this month.
The unaccompanied minors section of the camp was particularly affected by the unrest, AFP news agency reported.
About 3,000 people are being held in Moria, waiting to hear what will happen to them.
A spokesman for the UN refugee agency said the migrants were "angry and frustrated" and there had been a "surge in violence" in recent days.
Moria was turned into a closed detention centre after the deportation deal was announced.
Under the EU-Turkey agreement, migrants who have arrived illegally in Greece since 20 March are to be sent back to Turkey if they do not apply for asylum or if their claim is rejected.
For each Syrian migrant returned to Turkey, the EU is to take in another Syrian who has made a legitimate request.
Earlier, 49 migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Myanmar became the third group of migrants to be returned to Turkey under the deal.
| Riot | April 2016 | ['(BBC)', '(The Telegraph)'] |
Results of yesterday's snap election are counted, revealing a hung parliament as the Conservative Party fails to retain its parliamentary majority, despite remaining the party with the most seats. Prime Minister Theresa May announced that she will form a minority government with the support of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party. | Theresa May has said she will put together a government with the support of the Democratic Unionists to guide the UK through crucial Brexit talks.
Speaking after visiting Buckingham Palace, she said only her party had the "legitimacy" to govern, despite falling eight seats short of a majority.
Later, she said she "obviously wanted a different result" and felt "sorry" for colleagues who lost their seats.
But Labour said they were the "real winners".
The Lib Dems said Mrs May should be "ashamed" of carrying on.
The Tories needed 326 seats to win another majority but they fell short and must rely on the DUP to continue to rule. In a short statement outside Downing Street after an audience with the Queen, Mrs May said she would join with her DUP "friends" to "get to work" on Brexit.
Referring to the "strong relationship" she had with the DUP but giving little detail of how their arrangement might work, she said she intended to form a government which could "provide certainty and lead Britain forward at this critical time for our country".
"Our two parties have enjoyed a strong relationship over many years," she said. "And this gives me the confidence to believe that we will be able to work together in the interests of the whole United Kingdom."
It is thought Mrs May will seek some kind of informal arrangement with the DUP that could see it "lend" its support to the Tories on a vote-by-vote basis, known as "confidence and supply". Later, she told reporters that she had "wanted to achieve a larger majority but that was not the result". "I'm sorry for all those candidates... who weren't successful, and also particularly sorry for MPs and ministers who'd contributed so much to our country, and who lost their seats and didn't deserve to lose their seats. "As I reflect on the results, I will reflect on what I need to do in the future to take the party forward."
DUP leader Arlene Foster confirmed that she had spoken to Mrs May and that they would speak further to "explore how it may be possible to bring stability to this nation at this time of great challenge".
While always striving for the "best deal" for Northern Ireland and its people, she said her party would always have the best interests of the UK at heart.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has since sought assurances from Mrs May that any deal with the DUP will not affect LGBTI rights across the UK. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where same-sex marriage is not legal.
A source close to Ms Davidson, who is gay, told the BBC: "The PM needs to remember there are more Scottish Conservatives than DUP MPs." Who are the DUP?
The DUP are pro-union (not Europe but UK), pro-Brexit and socially conservative.
The party, which returned 10 MPs to Westminster, has garnered a reputation for its strong, sometimes controversial views.
It opposes same-sex marriage and is anti-abortion - abortion remains illegal in Northern Ireland, except in specific medical cases.
One MP is a devout climate change denier, while a former MP once called for creationism - the belief that human life did not evolve over millions of years but was created by God - to be taught alongside evolution in science classes.
During the election campaign, the DUP's Emma Little-Pengelly was endorsed by the three biggest loyalist paramilitary organisations.
In an ongoing Cabinet reshuffle, five cabinet ministers are certain to stay: Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon; Brexit Secretary David Davis; Home Secretary Amber Rudd; Chancellor Philip Hammond and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. Mr Hammond said, in a tweet, that he was "pleased to be reappointed so we can now get on and negotiate a Brexit deal that supports British jobs, business and prosperity". Mr Johnson tweeted that he was "delighted", adding "lots of great work to do for greatest country on earth".
However, those rarely seen on the campaign trail, including Andrea Leadsom, Priti Patel and Liam Fox, could be out, says BBC political correspondent Eleanor Garnier.
Comebacks from Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Gove and prominent leave campaigner Dominic Raab were being floated, she adds.
Where does this leave Labour?
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has denounced Mrs May's plan to head up a minority government, calling for her to "make way" for a government that would be "truly representative of the people of this country".
He said Labour was ready to form a minority government of its own, after far exceeding expectations by picking up 30 seats in England, Wales and Scotland.
But even if it joined together in a so-called progressive alliance with the SNP, Lib Dems, Green Party and Plaid Cymru, it would only reach 314 seats - short of the 326 figure needed.
"We are ready to serve the people who have put their trust in us," he said, while stressing he would not enter into any "pacts or deals" with other parties.
Former Labour cabinet minister Lord Mandelson said the "surprise" result was a political "earthquake", and he'd been "wrong" to criticise Mr Corbyn's leadership of the party.
There are three posts that Mr Corbyn now needs to fill in the shadow cabinet, but sources say an announcement is not likely until Sunday at the earliest.
Streatham MP Chuka Umunna, a leading figure on the right of the party, has said he would accept a role in the shadow cabinet. What about Scotland?
The SNP remains the largest party in Scotland but lost 21 seats to the Tories, Labour and the Lib Dems. Leading figures in the party such as Alex Salmond and Angus Robertson were defeated.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said her party's plans for a second independence referendum were "undoubtedly" a factor in the results, and she would "reflect carefully".
Ruth Davidson - whose Scottish Conservatives went from one seat to 13 - said Ms Sturgeon should now take a second referendum "off the table".
.
The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg said the PM has returned to No 10 a "diminished figure", having ended up with 13 fewer seats than when she called the election in April.
She had called the election with the stated reason that it would strengthen her hand in negotiations for the UK to leave the EU - the talks are due to start on 19 June.
But the Tories are on 318 seats, ahead of Labour on 262 following its late win in Kensington, the SNP 35 and the Lib Dems on 12. The DUP won 10 seats.
As it stands, the Tories and the DUP would have 328 MPs in the Commons, giving it a wafer-thin majority although as Sinn Fein will not be taking its seven seats, the new administration will have slightly more room for manoeuvre.Reaction to Theresa May's performance
After losing her majority, Mr Corbyn called on the prime minister to quit and Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said she should resign "if she has an ounce of self-respect".
Some in her own party have also called for her resignation, with Anna Soubry saying she should consider her position after a "disastrous" campaign.
However, other MPs have urged her to stay on - Iain Duncan Smith said a leadership contest would be a "catastrophe".
Tory MP Philip Davies said his party had made "a pig's ear" of the campaign, and fellow Tory MP Nigel Evans said his party had "shot ourselves in the head".
Mrs May's former director of communications, Katie Perrior, said the party should never have run a Presidential-style campaign when the leader is "shy" and doesn't like doing interviews.
The Green Party, which held its one seat at the election but saw its total vote halve, said a Conservative government propped up by the DUP would be a "coalition of chaos".
"The DUP, I don't think, are the kind of people you want calling the shots," co-leader Jonathan Bartley said.
Downing Street said Mrs May received congratulatory calls from French President Emmanuel Macron, who said he was pleased that she would continue to be a close partner, and US President Donald Trump, who agreed with her that they looked forward to close co-operation.
Where does this leave Brexit and the Conservative manifesto?
Britain's exit from the European Union has been plunged into uncertainty, says BBC diplomatic correspondent James Landale.
The government - and the DUP - may have to rethink their strategy, and the EU will be dismayed to be facing a divided British parliament in a divided Britain, he adds.
European Council president Donald Tusk says there is now "no time to lose" over Brexit and the European Parliament's chief negotiator, Guy Verhofstadt, said the result was an "own goal" which made negotiations more "complicated". Read more from James here
BBC analysts says the Conservative's election manifesto may also be in jeopardy.
Policies, such as new grammar schools and social care reforms, are likely to get ditched, they say. Without a majority in the Commons, members of the Lords might feel entitled to block them.
Also, within the Conservative party, there is a widespread perception that the manifesto was a disaster which they need to distance themselves from, they add.
Other big shocks and surprises
In a night of high drama, former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg lost his seat while current leader Tim Farron clung on by less than 800 votes in his Cumbrian constituency.
Vince Cable and Jo Swinson are among the Lib Dems returning to the Commons after winning back their former seats.
UKIP leader Paul Nuttall quit after his party failed to win any seats and saw its vote collapse across the country. Former party chairman Steve Crowther will lead the party on an interim basis.
Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, which gained three seats taking its total to seven, said it had been a "very good election for republicanism", and appealed for "calm reflection" on how to go forward.
| Government Job change - Election | June 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
African heads of state meet. | African Union leaders have agreed to reinforce the AU peacekeeping force in Somalia to tackle al-Shabab militants.
At a summit in Uganda, they approved a request to send 2,000 more troops to the Somali capital Mogadishu.
Rules of engagement are to be changed to allow the troops to fire first if they are facing imminent attack.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had wanted a tougher mandate to "eliminate" the al-Qaeda linked group that allowed forces to go on the offensive. He told the BBC that AU peacekeepers were "confused" by the current mandate.
"They don't understand what they are doing. So they need a robust answer, a robust incisive answer," he said.
Dozens of people were killed two weeks ago in twin bomb attacks in Uganda's capital, Kampala, which al-Shabab said it had carried out. Mr Museveni's call for the AU force to be able to go on the offensive against al-Shabab was not taken up by the African Union leaders, but the force will now be able to carry out pre-emptive attacks against the hard-line Islamist insurgents.
The summit also approved requests for new equipment for the force. Troops from Uganda form a large part of the AU's 6,000-strong peacekeeping mission in Somalia. Burundi is the only other country to contribute to the force, known as Amisom.
BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross says the extra 2,000 troops are likely to come from Guinea and Djibouti - as previously announced - but precise numbers and dates for their deployment remain unclear.
Before the Kampala summit, Somalia's embattled UN-backed government had asked for troops from Muslim countries to prevent al-Shabab portraying the AU force as "infidels".
Both Guinea and Djibouti have Muslim majorities.
The government, backed by the AU, controls only a few parts of the capital, Mogadishu, while al-Shabab and its allies run much of southern Somalia.
The African leaders gathered in Kampala amid tight security and a heavy military presence. They observed a two-minute silence for the victims of the 11 July bomb attacks, which targeted people who were watching the football World Cup final at a Kampala restaurant and a sports ground.
Mr Museveni told AU delegates that "many of the organisers" of the attack had been arrested and their interrogation was "yielding very good information".
In a statement released before the meeting, Mr Museveni said the attacks would worsen al-Shabab's situation.
"These reactionary groups have now committed aggression against our country," the statement said. "We have a right of self-defence. We shall now go for them."
Our correspondent says there is concern that any offensive against al-Shabab could increase the number of civilian deaths and make the AU mission extremely unpopular with the Somali population.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | July 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
China's National People's Congress Standing Committee members vote in favor of amendments of the Hong Kong Basic Law Annex I and II to overhaul the electoral system. The amendments are widely seen as a move to further reduce the influence of the opposition pro-democracy camp in the wake of the widespread anti-government protests of 2019 and the electoral landslide of the 2019 District Council election. | China’s top legislative body has approved major changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system, with the 167 members present all voting in favour of the overhaul. The move reduces the number of seats in the legislature which are democratically elected by the public, and introduces a vetting committee to pre-approve potential candidates. Beijing loyalist Tam Yiu-chung – Hong Kong’s sole delegate to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC) – said on Tuesday that members unanimously approved the amendments to Annex I and II of the Basic Law to revamp the city’s elections. In a video released by the DAB, the city’s largest pro-Beijing Party, Tam said that the city’s legislature – expanded from 70 to 90 members – will see 40 members selected by the Election Committee. The committee, largely made up of pro-Beijing loyalists, currently selects the city’s chief executive.
The Election Committee will see more representatives from patriotic groups, Tam said, as well as members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and other national organisations.
The remaining seats will go to 30 lawmakers in functional constituencies, while only 20 seats will be democratically elected by the public. Functional constituencies consist of professional or special interest groups, such as commerce, industrial, accountancy or education.
Tuesday’s vote came around three weeks after China’s rubber-stamp passed a resolution to “improve” the existing electoral rules in Hong Kong, with an aim to ensure only “patriots” administer the semi-autonomous region. Tam also said district councillors will be ousted from the Election Committee, which increase its membership by 300, from the current 1,200. He said the move will “depoliticise” the government advisory body, preventing it from becoming a platform for “anti-China forces” to disrupt the city and paralyse the government.
Currently, 17 out of 18 district councils in Hong Kong are controlled by the pro-democracy camp, following their landslide victory in 2019. They are seen as the last opposition force left in the government, after pan-democratic lawmakers resigned en masse last November in protest to the disqualification of four of their colleagues.
Tam said there will be ten geographical constituencies with two seats per area. But he said the NPCSC did not lay out details of how exactly the new geographical constituencies will be drawn: “Some concrete details can only be released when the SAR government conducts local legislative works. Right now, it is the overall arrangement and the distribution of some quotas,” he said.
Tam said police national security unit and the Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the HKSAR will play a role in helping a new vetting committee to review the qualification of candidates for the Election Committee, the chief executive and the legislature. “Because the national security committee and police are more familiar, they can have a more comprehensive understanding of whether the candidate is suitable or not, whether [he or she] upholds the Basic Law… and other relevant requirements,” Tam said. After passing the scrutiny of the vetting committee, legislative election hopefuls will also need to secure at least two nominations from each of the five sectors in the Election Committee, Tam said.
The pro-Beijing figure added the changes approved by the NPCSC will take effect on Wednesday.
The implementation of the electoral changes is similar to the enactment of the national security law last June 30. Beijing passed the controversial legislation that outlaws secession, subversion, collusion with foreign powers and terrorist acts without local legislative oversight.
At a weekly press briefing on Tuesday before Beijing approved the details of the overhaul, Chief Executive Carrie Lam hailed the “improvements” and said she will hold a press conference later to announce the follow-up work by the local government: “We have a duty to explain to people of Hong Kong why the improvements were needed,” Lam said. The government will also need to go through with local legislation and conduct elections later on during the year,” Lam said.
An estimated HK$2.5 million tax dollars have already been spent in less than two weeks to promote Beijing’s overhaul, HKFP reported last week.
| Government Policy Changes | March 2021 | ['(Hong Kong Free Press)'] |
French security forces shoot suspect Ziyed Ben Belgacem dead in Paris' Orly Airport after he put the pellet gun to her head and took away an assault rifle from one of three soldiers from "Sentinelle" operation patrolling the airport. Belgacem had earlier shot a police officer with a pellet gun. Later, he had threatened a bar and then carjacked another vehicle to the airport. | French security forces have shot dead a gunman as he attacked a patrol at Orly airport south of Paris.
Ziyed Ben Belgacem was killed after putting a gun to a female soldier's head saying he wanted to "die by Allah", officials say.
Earlier on Saturday the 39-year-old had been involved in a shooting and then a carjacking in the Paris area.
Belgacem had been reported as radicalised in the past, and was on a police watch-list.
His criminal record included convictions for armed robbery and drugs offences, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters.
He fell under the influence of Islamist radicals was while serving prison time.
The attack comes at a sensitive time. France has presidential elections starting next month and remains under a state of emergency. The soldiers at Orly were part of Operation Sentinel - involving thousands of soldiers deployed to provide back-up to the police after the Charlie Hebdo attack in January 2015 and the Paris attacks of November 2015. Early on Saturday morning, Belgacem was stopped at a checkpoint in Garges-les-Gonesse, north of Paris, where he lives.
He fired at police with a pellet gun before escaping in a car that was later found abandoned.
Police say he then stole a car at gunpoint from a woman at Vitry, south of Paris. That car was later found at Orly airport.
Belgacem arrived at the airport and attacked the military patrol in the south terminal. He tried to seize the servicewoman's automatic weapon, put his gun to her head and said: "I'm here to die by Allah. In any case, people are going to die."
He was then shot dead by two other soldiers.
A copy of the Koran was found on his body, Mr Molins added.
Intelligence agents searched his home in Garges-les-Gonesse for evidence of Islamist sympathies, but reportedly found nothing. However, traces of cocaine were discovered during the search. The BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says the picture is building up of a man on the criminal fringes of society, who also consorted with Islamist radicals.
Orly - located 13km (8 miles) south of Paris - is the capital's second-largest airport.
Both the west and the south terminals were closed during the security operation. An estimated 3,000 passengers were evacuated.
Many flights were suspended, with some arrivals diverted to Charles de Gaulle airport.
But the terminals reopened later in the day and normal flight operations were said to be resuming.
Ellie Guttetter, 18, from the US said: "We were sitting in Hall Three when all of a sudden people started running and telling us to run with them.
"The people running were passengers and flight attendants. It was pretty chaotic and everyone was panicking - it was scary." Another eyewitness, Meredith Dixon, described seeing panicked airline personnel, with no security or police personnel to usher people outside the airport complex. | Armed Conflict | March 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
Judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia find former President of the Republika Srpska Radovan Karadžić guilty of committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Bosnia during the Bosnian War and is sentenced to 40 years in prison. Karadžić is found to be "criminally responsible" for the Srebrenica massacre. | Wartime leader of Bosnian Serbs found guilty of 10 of 11 charges at international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić has been found guilty of genocide over the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica and sentenced to 40 years in jail.
The key verdict from a United Nations tribunal in The Hague was delivered 18 months after a five-year trial of Karadžić, accused of being one of the chief architects of atrocities during the 1992-95 Balkans war.
The 70-year-old, who insisted his actions were aimed at protecting Serbs during the Bosnian conflict, was found guilty of 10 out of the 11 charges he faced at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Prosecutors said that Karadžić, as political leader and commander-in-chief of Serb forces in Bosnia, was responsible for some the worst acts of brutality during the war, including the 44-month deadly siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 massacre of more than 8,000 Bosnian men and boys in the Srebrenica enclave.
Speaking after the verdicts, Serge Brammertz, the tribunal’s chief prosecutor, said: “Moments like this should also remind us that in innumerable conflicts around the world today, millions of victims are now waiting for their own justice. This judgement shows that it is possible to deliver it.”
The presiding ICTY judge delivering the ruling, O-Gon Kwon, cleared Karadžić of one charge: responsibility for genocide in attacks on other towns and villages where Croats and Bosnians were driven out.
On Srebrenica, Kwon said: “On the basis of the totality of the evidence, the [ICTY] finds that the accused shared the expanded common purpose of killing the Bosnian Muslim males of Srebrenica and that he significantly contributed to it.”
Karadžić was the only person with the power to intervene and protect those being killed, Kwon said. “Far from that,” he said, “the accused ordered Bosnian male detainees to be transferred elsewhere to be killed. With full knowledge of the ongoing killing, Karadžić declared a state of war in Srebrenica.” Karadžić’s other convictions were for five counts of crimes against humanity and four of war crimes, including taking UN peacekeepers hostage, deporting civilians, murder and attacks on combatants. During the 100-minute verdict and sentencing, Karadžić sat impassively, not in the dock but on the defence bench, as he opted throughout the five-year trial to act as his own lead counsel.
He smiled and nodded to one or two familiar faces from the Serb press in the gallery, but hardly glanced at the public gallery, which was packed with survivors and victims’ family members, mostly women grieving lost sons and husbands. They obeyed the tribunal instructions to stay quiet throughout the proceedings, though there was a quiet grunt of disappointment when Karadžić was acquitted of one of the genocide charges. The only time Karadžić appeared nervous was when he stood to receive sentence, his arms stiff by his side. His lawyer said he would appeal.
Outside the tribunal, there was anger that Karadžić did not receive a life sentence. “Is the tribunal not ashamed? Do the Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats not have a right to justice? He got 40 years. That’s not enough,” said Kada Hotic, one of the bereaved mothers from Srebrenica.
The verdicts are the most significant moment in the 23-year existence of the ICTY, and among the last it will deliver. Set up in 1993, the court has so far indicted 161 suspects. Of those, 80 were convicted and sentenced, 18 acquitted, 13 sent back to local courts and 36 had the indictments withdrawn or died.
The former psychiatrist and charismatic politician, still with his characteristic bouffant hairstyle, is the most senior Balkans leader to face judgment at the ICTY. The former Serbian president Slobodan Milošević died in his cell in The Hague in 2006 before judges could deliver their verdicts on his trial.
Apart from Karadžić, three suspects remain on trial, including his military chief, Ratko Mladić and Serb ultranationalist Vojislav Šešelj. Eight cases are being appealed and two defendants are to face retrials. The judgment in Šešelj’s case is scheduled for next Thursday.
Karadžić was indicted along with Mladić in 1995 but evaded arrest until he was captured in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2008. At the time he was posing as New Age healer Dr Dragan Dabic, and was disguised by a thick beard and shaggy hair. More than 20 years after the guns fell silent in Bosnia, Karadžić is still considered a hero in Serb-controlled parts of the country, and the verdict is unlikely to help reconcile the enduring deep divisions in Bosnia and the region. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | March 2016 | ['(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)', '(The Guardian)'] |
Five people are killed when a plane crashes near a Walmart supermarket in Lafayette, Louisiana. One occupant survives, while three others on the ground are injured. | Five people have been killed after a plane crashed next to a Walmart supermarket in Lafayette, Louisiana. One person from onboard the plane survived. The plane hit a car as it crashed, injuring the driver. Two more people on the ground were also hurt. The plane was taking off from the airport when it crashed just after 9:00 local time (15:00 GMT). The impact of the crash blew out the windows of a nearby post office. One of the victims has been identified as sports reporter Carley Ann McCord. Her husband confirmed her death to the Associated Press. The Walmart supermarket was evacuated, KATC News reported. Kevin Jackson, a local resident, saw the crash and told KLFY News: "I was right outside before the crash. I noticed [the plane] was low and smoking like hell. It shook my trailer. "I knew something was bad. I went in my house, and all you heard was this massive explosion."
Louisiana Governor John Edwards said on Twitter that he was "praying for the families and friends of everyone affected by this terrible tragedy". | Air crash | December 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
China and the United States sign a $45 billion export deal, including 200 Boeing airplanes. | The US has signed a $45bn (£28bn) export deal with China, according to a Washington official.
The trade deal includes a $19bn purchase of 200 Boeing aircraft.
It comes amid an official state visit by China's President Hu Jintao to the States.
Boeing chief executive Jim McNerney was among a host of American chief executives present at a Wednesday meeting with Presidents Hu and Barack Obama at the White House.
Among the other company heads attending were Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs and Jeff Immelt of General Electric.
The official said the trade deal included orders for US agriculture, telecoms and computer companies, and would create 235,000 jobs.
Other beneficiaries of the agreement were technology company Honeywell, construction equipment maker Caterpillar, and Westinghouse Electric, a nuclear power company that is a subsidiary of Japan's Toshiba.
The Chinese order comes in the wake of another six month postponement to Boeing's new Dreamliner plane.
It may help the plane maker square up to European arch-rival Airbus, which recently announced a late rush of December orders had helped it beat Boeing with a 52% market share last year.
| Sign Agreement | January 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
President of Bangladesh Zillur Rahman dies in office at the age of 84 after a long illness at a hospital in Singapore. | The president of Bangladesh, Zillur Rahman, has died after a long illness, a spokesman for the prime minister's office in Dhaka has announced.
The president, 84, had been undergoing treatment at a hospital in Singapore. President Rahman was elected by parliament to the largely ceremonial role in February 2009. Mr Rahman was a stalwart of the Awami League - now in power in Bangladesh - and a close friend of the country's first president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Sheikh Mujib was the father of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Mr Rahman was sentenced to 20 years in jail during Bangladesh's 1971 war of liberation from Pakistan and was again imprisoned for four years after Sheikh Mujib's assassination in 1975. He also briefly went to jail after elections in 1986 while he was an Awami League MP.
He was being treated in Singapore for kidney and respiratory problems.
Bangladesh profile
Bitter legacy of Bangladeshi hero's killing
President of Bangladesh | Famous Person - Death | March 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(AP via ABC News)', '[permanent dead link]'] |
Ivorians head to the polls to elect their President. Incumbent Alassane Ouattara seeks a third term, while main opposition candidates Pascal Affi N'Guessan and Henri Konan Bédié say it is illegal for Ouattara to seek a third term and have boycotted the election and called for civil disobedience. | At least 14 people have been killed since riots broke out in August after President Alassane Ouattara said he would run again following the sudden death of his preferred successor.
The main opposition candidates, Pascal Affi N'Guessan and Henri Konan Bédié, said it was illegal for Mr Ouattara to stand for a third term.
They boycotted the vote and have called for civil disobedience.
Polls closed on schedule at 18:00 local time (GMT). Votes are now being counted, according to Reuters news agency.
There were reports of disturbances in opposition strongholds on Saturday, with roads blocked and election material burned. After voting in Abidjan, Mr Ouattara called for an end to the protests.
"I call on those who called for civil disobedience, which led to the loss of life, to stop," he said.
"They should stop because Ivory Coast needs peace, these are criminal acts and we hope that all this can stop, so that after the election this country may continue on its course of progress, which it has enjoyed over the last few years."
He also urged people to cast their ballots.
"I have just accomplished my civic duty. I ask all our citizens who love peace and patriotism to go and vote. It is an important day for democracy," he said.
According to the constitution, Ivory Coast has a two-term presidential limit. Mr Ouattara - who has been elected twice - initially said he would stand down.
But, in July, the ruling party's previous presidential nominee, Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, died of a heart attack.
Mr Ouattara subsequently announced that he would run for president after all.
His supporters argued that a constitutional change in 2016 reset the clock and that his first term did not count.
His opponents do not share that view, arguing instead that it is illegal for Mr Ouattara to run for a third term.
There has been a decades-long quarrel between some of the country's leading political figures.
In 2010, Laurent Gbagbo, who was president at the time, refused to concede to Mr Ouattara following the election in that year and this sparked a bitter civil war.
More than 3,000 people were killed in the five months of violence.
Mr Gbagbo also put himself forward to stand in this year's election but the electoral commission blocked him because he had been convicted in the Ivorian courts. He was one of nearly 40 potential candidates who were turned down by the commission.
Old men, chocolate and Ivory Coast's bitter election
| Government Job change - Election | October 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
The death toll from Saturday night's earthquake in Ecuador rises to 262 with more than 2,500 people injured. (AP² via Miami Herald) | A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Ecuador has killed at least 77 people and injured more than 500, Vice-President Jorge Glas says.
The quake, Ecuador's largest since 1979, hit at 18:58 on Saturday (23:58 GMT) near the northern town of Muisne.
Widespread severe damage is reported, with a bridge destroyed as far south as Guayaquil about 300km (190 miles) away.
President Rafael Correa, who is flying back from a trip to Italy, has decreed a state of emergency.
He said: "This is a very painful test. I ask the country to be calm and united... Let's be strong; we will overcome this."
He added: "Roads and hospitals can be rebuilt; you cannot recover lost lives. That's what hurts the most."
In pictures: Ecuador earthquake
Ecuador quake - your stories
History of deadly earthquakes
Can quakes be predicted?
Mr Glas said that at least 77 people had died and 588 had been injured, adding that the figures could rise as a number of affected areas had not yet been reached.
He called for calm, particularly in the city of Portoviejo, amid reports of a "lack of public order", and said that 10,000 troops and 3,500 police had been mobilised for the affected areas.
Gabriel Alcivar, mayor of the town of Pedernales, which is close to the epicentre, said: "We're trying to do the most we can but there's almost nothing we can do."
He said dozens of buildings had been flattened and looting had broken out.
"This wasn't just a house that collapsed, it was an entire town," Mr Alcivar said.
Carla Peralto, a resident of Boyaca, one of the worst-affected areas, told the BBC: "I never felt something like that in my life. It was so strong. I was feeling very, very scared... I was thinking 'God, please stop that because maybe I die today'."
Serious damage was also reported in the city of Manta, with an airport tower among the buildings destroyed.
Manta resident Ramon Solorzano told Reuters: "Most people are out in the streets with backpacks on, heading for higher ground. The streets are cracked. The power is out and phones are down."
The US Geological Survey said the earthquake struck at a fairly shallow depth of 19.2km (11.9 miles), about 27km from Muisne in a sparsely populated area.
There have been a number of aftershocks, the biggest at 5.6.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a message saying that the threat of a tsunami had now mostly passed and that any remaining risk should be evaluated by local authorities.
However, it earlier said tsunami waves reaching 0.3 to one metre above the tide level were possible for some coasts of Ecuador. Any damage that had occurred might not be visible until daylight.
Quito resident Cristian Ibarra Santillan told the BBC he grabbed his dog and hid under a table, but when he realised the quake "wasn't going away and that I might be found here if the worst happened" he ran out into the street.
"We could see the electricity lines shaking - in other parts of the city, they've collapsed."
Work at the main oil refinery at Esmeraldas was temporarily halted as a precautionary measure.
Many regional leaders, including the presidents of Peru, Colombia and Venezuela, have expressed solidarity with Ecuador.
The quake was also felt in Colombia, where patients in a clinic in the city of Cali were evacuated from the building.
Ecuador is well used to earthquakes. There have been seven 7.0 magnitude or greater events within 250km of this latest tremor since 1900. And some of these have resulted in very considerable loss of life, not just from the shaking but also from tsunami waves.
The country sits on the so-called "Ring of Fire" - the arc of high seismic activity that extends right around the Pacific basin. At its location, Ecuador fronts the boundary between the Nazca and South American tectonic plates.
These are vast slabs of the Earth's surface that grind past each other at a rate of about 65mm per year. The Nazca plate, which makes up the Pacific Ocean floor in this region, is being pulled down (subducted) and under the South American coast.
It is a process that has helped build the Andes and Ecuador's many volcanoes, including the mighty Chimborazo.
Models that try to forecast the likely casualty numbers from the nature of the quake and local building construction methods indicate this event could be very serious, with the number of deaths running into the hundreds. Deadly Ecuador quake rattles Quito
| Earthquakes | April 2016 | ['(AP via Fox News)', '(BBC)', '(AFP/Reuters via ABC News Australia)'] |
A U.S. drone attack kills at least nine insurgents in Pakistan's North Waziristan. | An American drone has fired a volley of missiles into a house close to the Afghan border, killing up to nine suspected militants, according to Pakistani officials.
Up to eight missiles were fired at a house in the Dra Nishtar area of North Waziristan early on Saturday, Pakistani intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity.
North Waziristan is considered a training ground for Islamist militants from many parts of the world. American regards it as a command and control centre for insurgents fighting US troops in neighbouring Afghanistan. The identities and affiliations of those killed on Saturday were not immediately known.
The strike is the second American drone operation in Pakistan in a week and comes as the US tries to rebuild its relationship with the government in Islamabad, which in November blocked the passage of US and Nato war supplies to neighbouring Afghanistan. Tensions reached new heights when Nato aircraft bombed and killed Pakistani soldiers at a border post.
The Pakistani parliament has called for an end to the drone strikes, which many in the country regard as an unacceptable violation of sovereignty. There have been significantly fewer strikes this year.
But America is unwilling to stop completely because the use of drones has weakened al-Qaida and associated groups in Pakistan's tribal regions, large parts of which are not under the control of the Pakistani state. In the past Pakistan's intelligence agency has co-operated with the attacks but the government has not publicly acknowledged this.
Civilians have also been killed in the drone attacks but the United States doesn't publicly investigate or apologise for these mistakes. | Armed Conflict | May 2012 | ['(AP via The Guardian)', '(NineMSN)'] |
Caitlan Coleman, an American woman kidnapped and held hostage for five years in Afghanistan, accused her husband Joshua Boyle physically and emotionally abusing her while the family was being held by Taliban-linked militants. | Caitlan Coleman accused Joshua Boyle of physically and emotionally abusing her while they were held by Taliban-linked militants
Last modified on Wed 5 Sep 2018 22.55 BST
The American woman who was kidnapped in Afghanistan and held hostage for five years giving birth to three children while in captivity has accused her husband of physically and emotionally abusing her while the family was being held by Taliban-linked militants.
The allegations levied by Caitlan Coleman against her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle are contained in newly unsealed court documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen.
In the documents, filed earlier this year as part of a family court application aimed at allowing Coleman to leave Canada and return to the US with the couple’s children, Coleman accused her husband of exacerbating the nightmarish ordeal.
“JB (Joshua Boyle) regularly threatened to kill me by setting me on fire,” Coleman who is expecting the couple’s fourth child said in an affidavit. Her husband, she claimed, “had uncontrolled rage, instituted corporal punishment of me, and struck me in a fit of rage”.
None of the allegations contained in the affidavit have been proven in court.
Boyle, 34, denied the allegations, and in his own 23-page affidavit, he accused Coleman of assaulting him and of having untreated mental health issues that he claimed caused her to neglect the couple’s children. Boyle, Coleman and their three young children were rescued in Pakistan in late 2017. The couple had been abducted five years earlier while backpacking through Afghanistan. Coleman was five months pregnant at the time.
Shortly after the family landed on Canadian soil, Boyle told reporters that his wife had been raped and one of their children was killed during their time in captivity. The allegations were later denied by the Taliban.
After a short stay with Boyle’s parents the family attempted to build a normal life in Ottawa, renting an apartment and giving their children their first-ever taste of freedom.
Months later, the couple was locked in a custody battle in an Ontario court. The Ottawa judge who considered the case said she had not seen anything to suggest that Coleman suffers a mental health issue that would affect her ability to parent.
“The court does have evidence, on the other hand, that CC (Caitlan Coleman) is healthily and protectively parenting the children,” the judge noted as she granted Coleman temporary custody of the children.
“To say that the circumstances of this case are tragic in the extreme would be an understatement,” the judge added. “Under the exceptional circumstances of this case, requiring CC and the children to remain in Ottawa would be akin to once again holding them hostage.”
Coleman, 32, is reportedly now living in her home state of Pennsylvania with the children.
The judge also issued an order preventing Boyle from contacting or approaching Coleman and the children.
According to court documents, the pair met in 2002. Four years later, Coleman, a manager at a Quiznos sandwich restaurant, and Boyle, an aspiring journalist, struck up a turbulent, on-off again relationship.
Their shared interests kept them together, according to Boyle’s affidavit. “We both wanted to travel by way of backpacking, and we both wanted to see the world.”
The couple married in 2011 while traveling in Central America. After Coleman launched divorce proceedings in 2012, Boyle travelled to Pennsylvania and the couple were reconciled, according to the Ottawa Citizen.
They agreed to travel Central Asia, pushing forward with their plans even after discovering Coleman was pregnant, according to Boyle’s affidavit. He said he was open about his desire to travel to Afghanistan, hoping to make contacts and gain experience that would help him land a job in journalism.
In court documents filed by Coleman, she said she reluctantly agreed to embark on the trip after Boyle promised Afghanistan would not be on the itinerary. Boyle only revealed his plans to travel to the country after they had landed in the region, she claimed, “so that I would not back out”.
The pair was abducted after leaving a Kabul guesthouse in a taxi, and held by the Taliban-linked Haqqani network.
The documents presented in family court, however offer contrasting takes on how the couple handled life in captivity, with both claiming to have been primary caregivers to the children.
Coleman accused Boyle of increasingly erratic and irrational behaviour as the years dragged on, saying that he was fixated on “depicting me as an enemy in his life”.
The guards would often separate them, after which Boyle would accuse her of betraying him by “accepting niceties from the guards and not asking for him more often”, she claimed.
The abuse by Boyle escalated over the years, she alleged. He would confine her to a small shower stall for weeks at a time, she claimed, and alleged that after a disagreement in 2017, Boyle “hit me in the face hard enough to break my cheekbone”.
Boyle repeatedly told her that she was “one of the worst people in the world”, Coleman claimed, alleging that her husband suggested at one point that a “husband who kills his wife is justified”.
In his affidavit, Boyle alleged Coleman neglected the children while in captivity, leaving him in the role of primary caregiver. He said that he often went without food in order to ensure his pregnant wife and children had enough to eat and spent hours crafting toys and gifts out of anything he could find.
In a second affidavit provided to the court, Coleman alleged that she did not share her husband’s interest in extremism, pointing to Boyle’s earlier marriage to Zaynab Khadr the eldest daughter of a now-deceased member of Osama bin Laden’s inner circle as an example.
In his affidavit, Boyle described the trauma of readjusting to life in Canada. “While captivity was the worst thing that ever happened to me,” he said, “the adjustment to coming home was a very close second”.
Two months after the family returned to Canada, Boyle was arrested on more than a dozen charges including sexual assault, misleading police and making death threats. He was released on bail in June. The Ontario Court has banned the identification of Boyle’s alleged victims. | Armed Conflict | September 2018 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
A tornado, accompanied by heavy rainfall and hailstones, kills at least 98 people and injures 800 in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu . One-hour rainfall reached 102 millimeters in Lianshui County. | BEIJING (Reuters) - A tornado, hail storms and driving rain killed at least 78 people and injured some 500 in eastern China on Thursday, flattening power lines, overturning cars and ripping roofs off houses in Jiangsu province.
The storm struck mid-afternoon near Yancheng city, a few hours’ drive north of China’s commercial capital, Shanghai, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.
Winds of 125 km per hour (78 mph) battered several townships in Funing county, the official Xinhua news agency said.
“I heard the gales and ran upstairs to shut the windows,” Funing resident Xie Litian, 62, told Xinhua.
“I had hardly reached the top of the stairs when I heard a boom and saw the entire wall with the windows on it torn away.” When the storm subsided and Xie escaped, all the neighboring houses were gone.
“It was like the end of the world,” Xie said.
Of the roughly 500 hurt about 200 have serious injuries. Power and communications are down in some areas and emergency supplies, including 1,000 tents, have been rushed to the scene, the civil affairs ministry said in a statement.
Pictures posted online showed injured people lying amid destroyed houses, overturned cars, split tree trunks and broken power lines.
The summer often brings severe weather to China. Severe floods in the south killed at least 22 people and left 20 missing earlier this week.
Last June, a freak storm led to the sinking of a Yangtze River cruise ship that killed 442 people, many of them elderly tourists. Only 12 people survived when the Eastern Star capsized in what was China’s worst shipping disaster in seven decades.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | June 2016 | ['(JSTV)', '(about four inches)', '(Reuters)', '(China Radio International)'] |
North Korea revises its constitution, removing all references to communism, while mentioning human rights for the first time, as well as stating Kim Jong–il as its "Supreme Leader". | SEOUL, Sept 28 (Reuters) - North Korea has revised its constitution to give even more power to leader Kim Jong-il, ditch communism and elevate his "military first" ideology, South Korea's Unification Ministry said on Monday.
Though there is little doubt over the 67-year-old Kim's power, secured by his role as chairman of the National Defence Commission, the new constitution removes any risk of ambiguity.
"The chairman is the highest general of the entire military and commands the entire country," according to a text of the constitution enacted by the reclusive North in April and only now released by the South Korean government.
The chairman is now the country's "supreme leader". Though the position had become the seat of power under Kim, the previous constitution in 1998 simply said the chairman oversees matters of state.
It was April when Kim, often referred to by a fawning state media as "Dear Leader", returned to the public eye after being felled by what is widely speculated to have been a stroke the previous August.
That in turn was followed by the hermit state's second nuclear test, mounting threats against a hostile world and the launch of a 5-month campaign to boost its broken economy.
It was also then that word reached outside the secretive state that Kim appeared to have picked his third son as successor to the world's first communist dynasty, whose rule is underpinned by a personality cult.
But the Unification Ministry said the new charter removes all reference to communism, the guiding ideology when Kim's father Kim Il-sung founded North Korea -- of which since his death in 1994 he has been eternal president.
Often in its place is "songun", the policy of placing the military first and which has been Kim junior's ruling principle.
South Korean media quoted an official from the North as saying that it made the change because it felt the ideals of communism are "hard to fulfil".
The new constitution adds assurances for protecting human rights, even though North Korea has one of the world's worst records.
Experts on the North's state propaganda said the military first ideology has helped Kim dodge responsibility for the country's sharp economic decline by arguing that heavy defence spending was needed to overcome threats posed by the United States.
It has also meant that the bulk of the North's limited resources have gone into beefing up a million-strong military at the expense of the rest of the population who make up one of Asia's poorest societies.
The North's economy was once richer than South Korea, which now ranks the fourth largest in Asia. North Korea has only grown weaker since Kim took power and after a famine in the 1990s killed an estimated 1 million of the North's then population of 22 million people. (Editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Dean Yates) | Government Policy Changes | September 2009 | ['(RTHK)', '(Associated Press)', '(Korea Times)', '(Reuters)'] |
Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano sends a cloud of smoke, ash and steam around 5,900 feet above the peak, the largest eruption since 2013. | On Thursday, Popocatépetl volcano registered an eruptive event and an exhalation of 1,800 meters, representing its largest activity since 2013.
On Twitter, Carlos Valdés González, General Director of Mexico's National Center for Disaster Prevention (Centro Nacional de Prevención de Desastres abbreviated Cenapred), wrote in Spanish: “This is the largest activity since 2013.”
The eruptive event was registered by the Tlamacas station, located 4.5 kilometers away from the volcano and by the Altzomoni station, 12 kilometers away.
"Monitoring the Popocatepetl volcano activity, from the CENAPRED."
Mexico's National Coordinator for Civil Protection, Luis Felipe Puente emphasized that the Popocatépetl volcano spewed a 1,800-meter fumarole with a moderate content of ash towards the South and South-East.
sg
Copyright © Todos los derechos reservados | EL UNIVERSAL, Compañía Periodística Nacional. De no existir previa autorización, queda expresamente prohibida la Publicación, retransmisión, edición y cualquier otro uso de los contenidos | Volcano Eruption | November 2017 | ['(1798 meters)', '(Yahoo! News)', '(El Universal)'] |
The United Nations Security Council meets amid concerns of military strikes in Syria by the United States and its allies following a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria last weekend, with the United States ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, accusing Russia of lies and covering for the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which she said had used chemical weapons at least 50 times in the past seven years of warfare, and the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, blaming the United States, France and the UK for escalating tensions. | Diplomats for the United States and Russia traded blame at a U.N. Security Council meeting Friday amid warnings that any U.S. strikes in response to a suspected chemical attack in Syria could lead to a larger regional and possibly global confrontation.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, accused Russia of lying and covering up for its ally, the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which she said had used chemical weapons at least 50 times in the past seven years of warfare.
“Russia can complain all it wants about fake news, but no one is buying its lies and its coverups,” she said of Syria’s strongest ally. “Russia was supposed to guarantee Assad would not use chemical weapons, and Russia did the opposite.”
Trump signals a more deliberate approach on Syria
Haley’s Russian counterpart, Vassily Nebenzia, in turn accused the United States and its key allies France and Britain of bellicose rhetoric and saber-rattling that have heightened tensions.
“Why are you seeking to plunge the Middle East into such difficulties, provoking one conflict after another, pitting one state against another?” he said, claiming that anti-government militias had received “instructions” to begin an offensive as soon as an act of force begins. “Is the latest wave of chaos being unleashed only for the sake of that?”
Just before the Security Council meeting began, Haley told reporters: “At some point, you have to do something. At some point, you have to say ‘enough.’ ”
Russia called for the emergency meeting on Syria as tensions remained high over a potential U.S. airstrike in response to last Saturday’s suspected chemical weapons attack that killed dozens in the town of Douma. The United States, France and Britain have said the Syrian government is most likely responsible for the deaths in Douma. Russia and Syria have both denied it.
As the prospect of a U.S. strike loomed, the first team of investigators from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons arrived in Syria to look for evidence, with a second team expected soon.
U.N. Secretary General António Guterres told the Security Council that he feared events could escalate rapidly into a regional and even global conflict, and he urged all states “to act responsibly in these dangerous circumstances.”
Trump chooses impulse over strategy as crises mount
One of the biggest questions concerning a potential U.S. strike on Syria is how Russia would react. The country is Assad’s most powerful ally and has thousands of troops and military advisers, as well as air defense systems, deployed in Syria.
Russia’s military has threatened to shoot down any U.S. missiles that put Russian lives at risk.
Russia also could fire at the launch platforms used — potentially U.S. planes or ships. Russian officials have said U.S. and Russian military staffs remain in contact regarding Syria, even as Russian media have carried stories in recent days about the potential outbreak of “World War III” as a consequence of a U.S. airstrike against Assad.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned French President Emmanuel Macron in a phone call Friday that the situation remained tense, the Kremlin said in a statement.
“Most important, it is imperative to avoid badly planned and dangerous actions that would be crude violations of the U.N. Charter and would have unpredictable consequences,” the Kremlin said. “Both leaders directed the ministers of defense and foreign affairs to maintain close contact with the goal of de-escalating the situation.”
France’s U.N. ambassador, François Delattre, said the Syrian government’s decision to use chemical weapons meant that it had “reached a point of no return,” necessitating a “robust, united and steadfast response.”
Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Karen Pierce, noted that Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet “has agreed on the need to take action to alleviate humanitarian distress and to deter the further use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime.”
Announcement of that approval Thursday did not specify that the response should be military, although that was the expectation.
“We will continue to work with our friends and allies to coordinate an international response to that end,” Pierce said Friday.
Opposition lawmakers urged May to first seek Parliament’s consent before committing to any military action. Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry on Friday presented what it said was new evidence showing that Britain had staged the chemical attack. Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a ministry spokesman, alleged that a group of people, some with video cameras, had run into a hospital in the area and doused patients with water while shouting that there had been a chemical attack. Footage of the ensuing panic formed the evidence of the attack, Konashenkov said, according to the RIA Novosti state news agency.
Troianovski reported from Moscow. William Booth in London and Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | April 2018 | ['(The Washington Post)'] |
In South Africa, police look for the three killers of Thulani Zulu, a Zulu prince and an ANC official. Thulani Zulu was killed in a drive–by shooting. IFP also condemns the act (SABC | Durban - Police have launched a manhunt for three men after the drive-by killing of Zulu prince and ANC branch chairperson Thulani Zulu, a spokesperson said on Thursday. "There were three men in the car from which the shots were fired, we are looking for these men," said Captain Vusi Mbatha from Nongoma, northern KwaZulu-Natal, where the murder took place on Wednesday. He said there was no indication yet that the crime was politically motivated. The African National Congress also urged the public to remain calm, and not speculate on the motive until the police had done their work. ANC provincial spokesperson Mtholephi Mthimkhulu expressed the party's "shock and devastation" at the killing. He said Prince Zulu had been a stalwart worker for the ANC. "In the early 90s he was instrumental in clandestinely mobilising for the ANC in the area which was then a no-go area for the movement," he said. The Inkatha Freedom Party's KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson Velaphi Ndlovu on Thursday condemned the killing. "The IFP is saddened by the killing of Prince Thulani Zulu in Nongoma yesterday. We send our deepest condolences to his family and friends. "We know from personal experience the pain that comes with senseless killing," said Ndlovu. Zulu was driving two employees home on Wednesday afternoon, when a maroon-coloured Isuzu bakkie drove past, and an occupant fired three shots at the prince, Mbatha said. Zulu was fatally injured in the head. His two passengers were injured, but not killed. The bakkie was found shortly afterwards 10km from the scene of the crime. Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula has said the incident confirms the need for a commission to investigate political violence in the province, the SABC reported. Mbatha appealed to anyone who witnessed the incident, or who had information, to contact the police. | Famous Person - Death | March 2005 | ['(IOL)', '(News24)', '(BBC)'] |
Lebanon confiscates a shipment of arms and ammunition meant for Syrian rebels and arrests 11 crewmembers. | The Lebanese navy is holding a Sierra Leone-registered ship and says it has confiscated a large consignment of arms and ammunition it was carrying.
The 11 crew members were detained after three shipping containers full of heavy and light weapons were found on the Lutfallah II.
The BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says it is believed the consignment was destined for the rebels in Syria.
Some of the arms were labelled as Libyan, says Reuters news agency.
The ship's owner told Reuters it was due to unload in Tripoli, northern Lebanon.
Milos Strugar, a spokesman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) which assists Lebanon in preventing illegal arms entering the country, confirmed to the BBC that it was bound for a Lebanese port.
Tripoli is a hotbed of support for the Syrian opposition, and the authorities in Damascus have frequently complained about arms being smuggled from the areas into the country, our correspondent says. Violence has fallen in Syria since a ceasefire was put in place, but activist groups still counted some 40 deaths in fighting across the country over the weekend.
The dead included 26 civilians killed by government forces, said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Russia has accused Libya of supporting the Syrian rebels and providing them with weapons.
Lebanese media say there was light, medium and heavy weaponry in the consignment.
The ship is reported to have begun its voyage from Libya, stopped off in Alexandria in Egypt, and then headed for the port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon before it was intercepted. It is now being held at the port of Salaata near Beirut. AP news agency reported that the containers had been placed on Lebanese army flatbed trucks and taken away.
They are now being held under lock and key at an army base.
The owner of the Lutfallah II told Reuters that he was told the ship was carrying engine oil, and was unaware of any weapons. "The law doesn't allow me to open and inspect the containers," he said. He said the ship was originally asked to carry 12 containers of "general cargo" from Libya to Lebanon. After three days of delay it left only carrying the three containers, he told Reuters.
On Saturday Syrian rebel gunmen in inflatable dinghies attacked a military unit on the Mediterranean coast, with deaths on both sides, state media report.
It is thought to be the first rebel assault from the sea. The violence comes despite a shaky ceasefire in force since 12 April.
Syria's official news agency Sana said a military unit had foiled a "terrorist attempt" to infiltrate the country overnight by boat in Latakia province.
The UN currently has about 15 observers in Syria monitoring a shaky ceasefire, which came into force on 12 April, and hopes to have the full advance team of 30 in place by Monday.
Violence has been continuing despite the truce.
On Thursday UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that Syria's government was "in contravention" of a UN- and Arab League-backed peace plan.
Mr Ban has demanded that Damascus comply with the peace plan brokered by international peace envoy Kofi Annan without delay.
The Security Council has approved the deployment of up to 300 monitors. Norwegian Maj Gen Robert Mood, who is to lead the team, arrived in Damascus on Sunday.
"To achieve the success of Kofi Annan's six-point plan... I call on all to stop the violence and to help us on a continued cessation of armed violence in all its forms," Gen Mood told reporters.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Kosovo Police arrest Ikballe Berisha Huduti, the founder of a now defunct Islamic organization called Kur'ani, in Pristina following an order from the prosecution after she was accused of inciting terrorist acts for social media comments against the United States over the death of Qasem Soleimani. | PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo police arrested a woman on Tuesday accused of inciting terrorist acts for social media comments against the United States over the killing of Iranian Commander Qassem Soleimani.
Police said that Ikballe Berisha Huduti, the founder of a now defunct pro-Islamic organization called Kur’ani, was arrested following an order from the prosecution and she will remain in detention for 48 hours awaiting a court decision.
Police said she was detained on charges of “incitement to commit a terrorist offence.”
Huduti wrote comments on her private Facebook page criticizing Washington after the U.S. forces killed Soleimani on Friday.
“By killing the master of the house you have killed all members of the family, then revenge is obligatory but it has no border,” Huduti wrote, according to Pristina media which had screenshots of her postings.
She deleted her messages and said on Facebook that her words were taken out of context by local media. She said in other postings she had praised U.S. democracy and U.S. support for Kosovo in 1999 when conflict erupted between ethnic Serbs and Albanians in the former Yugoslavia.
Showing a photo of her with the former hard-line leader of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, media in Kosovo have described Huduti as a strong supporter of the Iranian government. Her organization was closed by police in 2016. But she denied wrongdoing and there were never any charges against her.
Kosovo has been a strong supporter of the United States. When the Iranian general was killed, Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said: “Kosovo stands firm in support of the U.S. in its right to self-defense.”
Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Cynthia Osterman
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2020 | ['(Reuters)', '(The New York Times)'] |
Six high ranking Pakistan Army officers, including a lieutenant–general and major–general, are sacked by Chief of Army Staff Raheel Sharif amid corruption allegations within the army. Sharif said corruption had to be uprooted to fight terrorism. | At least six high-ranking Pakistani army officers, including a lieutenant-general and major-general, have been sacked amid corruption allegations.
The unprecedented move comes two days after the head of the army, Gen Raheel Sharif, said corruption had to be uprooted to fight terrorism.
An initial army statement that said 11 officers had been dismissed has now been retracted. Details of the allegations against the officers were not immediately released.
Observers say the timing of the announcement and the remarks by Gen Sharif are designed to put pressure on the government.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is still dealing with controversy at home after details of his family's offshore assets were revealed in the so-called Panama Papers.
Military officials insist that accountability within the forces is an ongoing process, though often kept secret for reasons of morale. But this time there has been what looks like a deliberate leak.
It is not known when the officers were sacked, but the disclosure has come at a time when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is battling a crisis of legitimacy after the Panama Papers leaks revealed that his family held foreign assets in the names of offshore companies.
The timing of the disclosure is significant. It will not only increase pressure on Mr Sharif, but also deflect muted but growing references to corruption within the military, which many believe runs deeper than it seems.
They say that while the military's internal systems work as a well-oiled machine, audit rules often crumble when it comes to the accounting of procurement and supplies. There have also been long-standing allegations that senior officials controlling border posts have been protecting smugglers. And questions have been raised over the use of unaudited funds that until recently flowed to various militant networks through military agencies, though the agencies have often denied such a role.
Pakistan's prime minister and the Panama Papers
Sharif's son defends offshore companies
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | April 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |