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China cancels events commemorating the 40th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations with Japan. (Kyodo News, AFP, and Jiji Press via The Japan Times) | BEIJING--China has canceled a large-scale ceremony scheduled for Thursday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China.
According to the Xinhua News Agency, the China-Japan Friendship Association, the ceremony's Chinese organizer, said Sunday it decided not to hold the ceremony "out of consideration for the current situation," virtually acknowledging that the Japanese government's purchase of the Senkaku Islands is the cause of the cancellation.
The association also said it would like to consider hosting the ceremony later this year if bilateral ties improve.
Although no ceremony will be held, the Chinese side said Tang Jiaxuan, head of the association, and other important figures will meet with chiefs of seven Japanese groups promoting bilateral friendship if they visit China, according to the sources.
Thursday's ceremony was scheduled to be held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing as the climactic event marking the 40th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties, which falls on Saturday. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | September 2012 | ['(Mainichi Shimbun)', '(Jiji Press via Yomiuri Shimbun)'] |
Pope Benedict XVI encounters allegations he was responsible for obstructing the punishment of American paedophile priest Stephen Kiesle by signing a letter in 1985 the first time he has been directly accused of involvement in the Catholic Church's ongoing international child sex abuse scandal. | The Pope is facing allegations he was responsible for delaying Church action against a paedophile priest - the first time he has been accused so directly.
The allegations stem from a letter signed by Benedict XVI in 1985, when he was a senior Vatican official. Associated Press said it had obtained the letter, signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, resisting the defrocking of offending US priest Stephen Kiesle. The Vatican says he was exercising due caution before sacking the priest. Cardinal Ratzinger - who was at the time the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - said the "good of the universal Church" needed to be considered in any defrocking, AP reported. The Vatican claims the letter must be considered in its true context of a lengthy exchange of correspondence between California and Rome about defrocking an American priest who was a known child molester.
The Pope's critics claim that he stalled and left unanswered for years letters concerning alleged cases of sexual abuse by priests.
American bishops are coming under increasing pressure from their flocks to explain why the church in Rome did not take more robust action or took no action at all.
So they are releasing confidential documents which put the future Pope's lack of action in a bad light.
The Vatican insists that the Pope was only exercising due caution before sacking a priest for sexual misconduct.
Vatican officials say the letter was part of a long correspondence and should not be taken out of context. Vatican spokesman Rev Federico Lombardi said: "The press office doesn't believe it is necessary to respond to every single document taken out of context regarding particular legal situations." The allegations come as the Vatican says the Pope is willing to meet more victims of clerical abuse, and as the Vatican prepares to publish a guide on the internet about how bishops should deal with accusations of sexual abuse. The Catholic Church has been hit by a series of child abuse scandals, including in Ireland, the US, Germany and Norway, and has faced criticism for failing to deal adequately with the problem. 'Grave significance'
AP said the Rev Kiesle was sentenced to three years of probation in 1978 for lewd conduct with two young boys in San Francisco. It said the Oakland diocese had recommended Kiesle's removal in 1981 but that that did not happen until 1987. Cardinal Ratzinger took over the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which at the time dealt with some sex abuse cases, in 1981. AP says the 1985 correspondence, written in Latin, shows Cardinal Ratzinger saying that Kiesle's removal would need careful review. Cardinal Ratzinger urged "as much paternal care as possible" for Kiesle. Kiesle was sentenced to six years in prison in 2004 after admitting molesting a young girl in 1995. Kiesle is now 63 and is on the registered sex offenders list in California. On Friday, the Vatican urged Catholic dioceses around the world to co-operate with police investigating sex abuse allegations against priests. Father Lombardi acknowledged that the Church had lost public trust and said Church law could no longer be placed above civil laws if that trust were to be recovered. He also said Pope Benedict was prepared to meet more victims of abuse to offer them moral support. BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott says this is an abrupt change of tone by the Vatican. He says officials had previously accused critics of trying to smear the Pope personally and only last weekend said he should ignore petty gossip directed at him. Meanwhile Italian media have reported that the Vatican is to issue guidelines on its website on Monday on fighting paedophilia. The Vatican has ruled out any possibility of a papal resignation over the scandals. What are these? | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)', '(The Times)', '(LA Times)', '(The J Post)'] |
The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant against Mahmoud al-Werfalli for the war crime of murder following the circulation of several videos in which he appears to oversee the execution of over 30 prisoners. | THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for a Libyan National Army (LNA)commander accused over the alleged execution of dozens of prisoners.
Prosecutors at the world’s permanent war crimes court are seeking Mahmoud al-Werfalli’s hand-over to face charges of murder during the armed conflict in Libya.
According to the ICC, Werfalli “is alleged to have directly committed and to have ordered the commission of murder as a war crime” during seven incidents, involving 33 persons in June and July 2017 in and near Benghazi.
The LNA, which controls the eastern part of Libya, has been pushing to expand its presence in the central and southern part of the country where it has been vying for control with forces linked to the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli and other groups.
The United Nations called for the LNA to suspend Werfalli after a video in March allegedly showed Werfalli shooting dead three men who were kneeling and facing a wall with their hands tied behind their backs.
The LNA said it would investigate any potential war crimes but has not released any details of such a probe.
In June, two further videos appeared to show summary executions carried out by LNA fighters on his orders.
The ICC has jurisdiction over war crimes in Libya after a referral by the United Nations Security Council in 2011 and has been investigating alleged atrocities there.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2017 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
Metro Bank opens its first branch, in Holborn, London, the first wholly new high street bank in the United Kingdom for more than a century. | The first High Street bank to launch in the UK for more than 100 years has opened its first branch in Holborn in London.
Metro Bank says it will emphasise good customer service, including long opening hours seven days a week.
The bank will open 10 more stores in the next two years, and aims to have more than 200 in Greater London within ten years.
Metro Bank hopes to gain customers dissatisfied with their existing banks.
"I have opened 500 similar locations in America," Vernon Hill, one of the bank's founders, told BBC News. "Britons are dying for revolution in the banking business, focused on service, and we are here to provide it." The bank promises to let people open a full account with debit and credit cards in just 15 minutes and its branches will be open every day, including Sundays, apart from four public holidays a year.
"We believe customers simply want a better experience from their bank, the kind they typically get from a great retailer and that's what we intend to give them," said chairman Anthony Thomson.
Metro Bank's overdraft rate will be a standard 15%, personal loans will be charged at 10%, while annual interest paid on instant access savings will be just 0.5%.
However analysts said that the mortgage and savings products being launched were not yet competitive enough to enter the best-buy tables.
"Although they are offering all these other benefits, such as longer opening hours, one of the main things for people is a competitive interest rate," said Michelle Slade, of financial information service Moneyfacts.
"If they have not got at least a reasonable rate of interest, people will discount them. They are going to struggle to get market share."
Vernon Hill, the co-founder of Metro Bank along with chairman Anthony Thomson, hopes to replicate his success in the USA.
During his career there he opened four new banks and grew one, called Commerce Bank, from one branch in 1973 to eventually 500 outlets. Metro
Setback for EU in legal fight with AstraZeneca
But the drug-maker faces hefty fines if it fails to supply doses of Covid-19 vaccine over the summer. | Organization Established | July 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Iraq War: A car bomb kills at least 10 people in Baghdad. | BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A car bomb ripped through a bustling shopping district in a religiously mixed neighborhood of western Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people and wounding about 20 as the U.S.-Iraqi security operation entered its third week.
The midmorning blast in Baiyaa, a Sunni-Shiite neighborhood, sent flames and debris shooting two stories high, witnesses said. The force of the explosion peeled back corrugated tin roofs. Hours later, charred clothing still clung to the remnants of vendors' stalls.
Imad Jassim, who owns a shop in Baiyaa's market, said he ran out into the street when he heard the explosion.
"People were in a state of panic. There was a lot of blood on the ground, and we helped carry the wounded to the ambulances," Jassim said. "The terrorists behind this massacre want to paralyze life in Baghdad by attacking markets and public crowds."
Hours after the Baiyaa attack, police said guards outside the Bab al-Sheik police station in central Baghdad fired on a suicide truck bomber as he approached them. The bomber changed course and crashed into a cement barrier, detonating his explosives. Two civilians were killed and two policemen and another civilian were wounded in the blast and exchange of gunfire, police said.
The casualty count in the Baiyaa blast was provided by police and hospital officials.
While rescue workers swept still-smoldering debris in Baiyaa, U.S. and Iraqi government spokesmen held news conferences across town to praise what they called a dramatic decrease in violence.
Although car bombings and suicide attacks occur daily, Rear Adm. Mark Fox said overall violence had abated. Still, he cautioned more time was needed to secure Baghdad.
"Although we've seen some initial progress, we know our enemies will continue to attempt to disrupt our efforts, and that improving security in Iraq will take time," he told reporters.
Iraq's spokesman for the Baghdad plan, Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Mousawi, called the drop in attacks "remarkable."
But a senior U.S. commander warned against optimistic conclusions after a couple of weeks.
"We could maintain security here, we could have things look good for one or two weeks," Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno told CNN. "But when we've done that, we've always had problems not maintaining it." | Riot | February 2007 | ['(AP via Washington Post)'] |
The death toll from yesterday's flash floods in the American towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, rises to 12 with one person still missing. , | Follow NBC News Twelve people have been confirmed dead and a 13th was missing Tuesday after a flash flood described as a "wall of water" swept away two vehicles containing members of two families in Utah the day before, officials said.
"This hit with a vengeance we haven't seen for some time," said Kevin Barlow, the assistant fire chief in Hildale, Utah.
Searchers continued to search for the missing person Tuesday night near the town of Hildale, located near the Arizona border.
A total of 16 people — three adults and the rest children, ranging from 4 years old to teenagers — were returning from a park at around 5 p.m. local time Monday (7 p.m. ET) when they found the road blocked by floods, Hildale Mayor Philip Barlow said.
"Unbeknownst to them, a flash flood had developed up in the canyon and it came rushing down, and it actually came around behind the vehicles and engulfed the vehicles," the mayor said. "I've lived here all my life, and I've never seen anything like this," he said.
Three children were found alive. The names of those killed were not released Tuesday by officials.
Joseph Jessop said the victims included members of his family.
"My family and my friend's family were swept away in this flash flood. We express our sincere gratitude for the kindness and assistance in this inexpressible time of sorrow," Jessop said at an afternoon news conference.
Jessop said his family was part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Texas in 2008 when it was raided by the government. He said his family recently lost another home, which he blamed on religious persecution.
"We survived the FLDS raid in Texas in 2008, have been forced to find a home and have our appeals for redress unanswered," Jessop said in a statement. "But now in an instant our families are gone."
"We know God is guiding in all things, and trust in him to heal our wounded hearts at this time." Jessop said.
The floods came after heavy rains fell in the canyons just north of Hildale and its sister town of Colorado City, Arizona, sending waves of water barreling through the streets. They sit at the foot of picturesque red rock cliffs about 315 miles south of Salt Lake City.
Hildale resident Guy Timpson told NBC News that searchers were were trying to sort through "a mass of debris."
"We’ve got quite an effort going on,” he said. “It’s been pretty amazing to see the community coming together to do what they can."
Rain hampered search efforts Tuesday, Washington County Sheriff Cory Pulsipher said, but was ongoing Tuesday evening. "We’re not gonna give up until we absolutely have to," he said.
The search effort was scaled back Tuesday night but would resume in earnest in the morning, the Utah Department of Public Safety Division of Emergency Management said.
Ted Barlow, who lives in Colorado City, described the storm as among the worst in decades.
The downpour lasted for about 20 to 30 minutes and brought rapid and intense flooding from nearby mountains.
"Everyone is family here, and it's a tragedy however you look at it," Barlow said.
JUST IN: 8 dead in flash flooding near Utah-Arizona border, according to Hildale Fire Dept. pic.twitter.com/XKGU3tRrW3
Meanwhile, four people were found dead and three more were missing Tuesday after flash floods in a canyon in nearby Zion National Park on Monday, the National Park Service said.
The group was canyoneering in Keyhole Canyon when storms dropped more than a half-inch of rain in an hour and Monday caused floods, the park service said. Zion National Park is about a 40-mile drive north of Hildale.
Hildale served as a home base for polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs.
Members of the sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, whose members believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven, are believed to be discouraged from watching TV, using the Internet or having much contact with the outside world.
More than four years after Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting underage girls he considered brides, the community is split between loyalists who still believe Jeffs is a victim of religious persecution and defectors who are embracing government efforts to pull the town into modern society.
Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox told residents that the state is doing all it can to help. He called the flash floods "one of the worst weather related disasters in the history of the state of Utah."
"We just want Hildale to know that we love you, that we’re thinking about you, and that we’re here to serve you," Cox said at a press conference. "I hope this will bring the state and these communities closer together as we work together to bring to an end this very difficult time."
Shamar Walters is a reporter for NBC News' Social Newsgathering team based in New York City. | Floods | September 2015 | ['(AP via ABC News)', '(NBC News)'] |
Protests break out in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India, over the caricatures of Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a local newspaper. | Srinagar, November 09; Protests broke out in many parts of the valley on Friday against a caricature of the spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatullah Syed Ali Khamenei, which appeared in a local newspaper today.
The cartoon which appeared on the opinion page of Urdu daily Uqab along with a write up on (Iraq ki taqsim aur amrika key mansobe) ”American designs for Iraq’s division” enraged many Muslims of Kashmir sparking wide spread protests in many parts of the state.
A police official from the central township of Magam said that protestors erected barricades and burned rubber tires in the town’s main square and blocked a major highway for several hours. They were chanting slogans like Down with USA and long live Khamenei.
Reports of similar protests have come in from central Budgam, and northern Baramulla districts as well. In the capital Srinagar, protestors burned the copies of the newspaper and pelted stones on passing vehicles in Aalamgir Bazar, Nageen and Bemina to express their anger.
Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen leader and former Hurriyat Conference chairman Maulana Abbas Ansari urged media to exercise caution while portraying religious personalities which otherwise hurt the sentiments of people. Anjamun-e-Sharie Shiayan president Agha Syed Hassan al Mosavi described the publication of the derogatory cartoon an American conspiracy. Manzoor Anjum, the chief editor of the daily Uqab, regretted the publication and said that his paper would be publishing a front page apology on the issue on Saturday. He said that it was due to a technical error that a wrong cartoon appeared in an otherwise good write up on the vital issue facing the ummah. | Protest_Online Condemnation | November 2007 | ['(Kashmir Observer)'] |
Barcelona's streets are paralyzed as protesters peacefully demand independence on the National Day of Catalonia. Police say the demonstrators numbered 1.5 million; organizers estimate the numbers at 2 million. No incidences of violence are reported. The protest is the largest in Catalonia's history. (El País) | Some 1.5 million people have been taking part in Catalonia's annual independence rally in Barcelona, according to police.
Tens of thousands of people poured into the city waving the region's independence flag and brandishing the colours red and yellow.
This year's march aimed to be the biggest ever - and a protest against the Spanish government's tax laws.
Catalonia wants Madrid to review its tax agreement and provide a bailout.
The size of the turnout for the rally, which is held annually on 11 September to mark the Siege of Barcelona 300 years ago, forced organisers to change its route.
Alfred Bosch, an MP from the Republican left of Catalonia, told the BBC: "All the flags I can see are the pro-independence flags of Catalonia with the lonely star right in the middle of the triangle.
"And everybody is wearing these flags. I have never seen so many pro-independence flags in my all life."
Protester Teresa Cabanes told Reuters: "This is a blow for the government. People like me came from everywhere. I don't think they were expecting something as big."
The huge volume of people overwhelmed the mobile phone network, which shut down for hours as a result, reports say. Spain's economic crisis, which has left one out of four people unemployed, has sharpened Catalonia's demand for fiscal independence from Spain, as well as political autonomy.
Catalonia, which is Spain's wealthiest region and represents a fifth of the Spanish economy, wants to be able to raise its own taxes and spend them. Last month, Catalonia demanded a bailout from Madrid of 5bn euros (£4bn), on the basis that it believes the central government owes the region that much in overpaid taxes.
But, as with the rest of Spain, the region faces big economic challenges.
Catalonia has to take out 13bn euros (£10bn) in loans this year to refinance maturing debt, on top of funding its deficit for the current year.
The BBC's Madrid correspondent, Tom Burridge, also says economists have warned that the Catalan government has barely enough money to pay its public sector workers.
Pro-autonomy leaders claim Catalonia pays a disproportionate level of taxes to Madrid in relation to the funding it receives.
Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said fiscal independence for Catalonia would achieve nothing in the country's overall battle against economic collapse.
Mr Rajoy and Catalonia's regional leader, Artur Mas, are due to meet on 20 September.
Spain's struggling economy has declined for three consecutive quarters as it continues to suffer from the effects of its property bust caused by the financial crisis.
Other regions have appealed to the government for bailouts. The latest, Andalusia, asked for an immediate injection of 1bn euros (£800m) last week.
Valencia and Murcia have also requested bailouts in recent weeks.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | September 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(El Punt)'] |
The Governor of Alabama Kay Ivey signs the Human Life Protection Act into law, effective six months after signing, bans all abortions in the state of Alabama, except when "abortion is necessary in order to prevent a serious health risk" to the woman according to the bill's text. The law reclassifies abortion as a Class A felony and attempted abortion as a Class C felony. (WBRC Birmingham, AL) | MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law Wednesday afternoon a bill that bans nearly all abortions.
The Alabama legislature on Tuesday gave final approval to the nation’s most restrictive abortion law, a measure that makes performing abortion a felony at any stage of pregnancy with almost no exceptions.
Ivey said Wednesday morning she would review the bill thoroughly before signing it.
“I’ll certainly review the bill when it comes across my desk. We’ll review it thoroughly - the legal department, etc. And then I’ll make a final decision,” she said.
By late afternoon, Ivey had signed the bill, issuing a statement that read, in part: “Today, I signed into law the Alabama Human Life Protection Act, a bill that was approved by overwhelming majorities in both chambers of the Legislature. To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God."
The governor’s office declined requests for a Wednesday evening on-camera interview.
Last week, the Senate chamber fell into chaos when an amendment to add exceptions in the case of rape or incest was removed in a hasty voice vote. When asked if she supported the exceptions, Ivey said “all human life is precious.”
The bill makes performing an abortion at any stage of pregnancy a felony unless the mother’s health is in danger.
Some conservatives are seeking to ignite legal fights in the hopes of getting the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit the landmark 1973 decision that made the procedure legal.
Ivey addressed the legality of the legislation in her signing statement saying "In all meaningful respects, this bill closely resembles an abortion ban that has been a part of Alabama law for well over 100 years. As today’s bill itself recognizes, that longstanding abortion law has been rendered “unenforceable as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade.”
But she added, "No matter one’s personal view on abortion, we can all recognize that, at least for the short term, this bill may similarly be unenforceable. As citizens of this great country, we must always respect the authority of the U.S. Supreme Court even when we disagree with their decisions. Many Americans, myself included, disagreed when Roe v. Wade was handed down in 1973. The sponsors of this bill believe that it is time, once again, for the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit this important matter, and they believe this act may bring about the best opportunity for this to occur. "
Despite being signed into law, the abortion legislation doesn’t go into effect for six months. Lawsuits to block it from ever becoming active have already been promised.
Among the first to slam the abortion legislation was the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU. It’s an organization familiar with fighting and winning cases against the state when it comes to restrictions on abortion access.
As the Senate was nearing approval of the bill Tuesday night, ACLU Alabama was tweeting a photo of a check for $1.7 million the state was forced to pay it after losing a 2013 abortion law court fight.
The ACLU says it will sue again to stop the latest law from going into effect.
Randall Marshall, Executive Director of ACLU of Alabama released this statement Wednesday evening: “By signing this bill, the governor and her colleagues in the state legislature have decided to waste millions in Alabama taxpayer dollars in order to defend a bill that is simply a political effort to overturn 46 years of precedent that has followed the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. We will not allow that to happen, and we will see them in court. Despite the governor signing this bill, clinics will remain open, and abortion is still a safe, legal medical procedure at all clinics in Alabama."
Asked about legal fees from a fight, Ivey said “You certainly cannot deter your efforts to protect the unborn because of costs, even if it means going to the United States Supreme Court.” | Government Policy Changes | May 2019 | ['(CBS News)'] |
Israeli Zionist extremists block a road near Tel Aviv during rush hour. Protesting the proposed Israeli pull-out from the Gaza Strip, they set tires alight and sit down on the road. Several are arrested and police are able to end the blockade within minutes. | Israeli ultranationalists opposed to the looming withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip blocked a major highway at rush hour but were dispersed within minutes, police have said.
The sit-down protest on Sunday on Tel Aviv's Ayalon highway, in which tyres were set alight on the tarmac, was the latest attempt by radicals to disrupt plans for the evacuation of Gaza's 21 Jewish settlements and another four in the West Bank.
"We were expecting something like this," Tel Aviv police chief David Tsur told Israel's Army Radio. "Within a few minutes, the traffic was opened in both directions. We have several arrests."
A series of synchronised highway demonstrations last month paralysed traffic in much of Israel for several hours.
Sunday's protest took place as police were deployed in Jerusalem to stop a planned far-right march on a site revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), fearing it could spark Palestinian riots.
Israeli officials have voiced concern that ultranationalists could mount coordinated protests to distract security forces who would otherwise carry out the withdrawals scheduled to begin on 20 July. | Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2005 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Voters in the Comoros head to the polls to elect a new President. | Presidential elections are taking place in the Comoros Islands for the first time since a referendum to increase term limits.
Previously the presidency was rotated around the three Indian Ocean Islands every five years - a system which was put in place to stop constant coups. Thanks to the referendum outcome, President Azali Assoumani is able to run for re-election. He is running against 12 opponents but is widely expected to win. The Supreme Court barred some of Mr Azali's rivals including the former President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi, who is accused of corruption. The opposition have reported irregularities in Sunday's vote. A dozen polling stations have been ransacked on the Anjouan island, an official from the electoral commission told AFP news agency. Witnesses told AFP that the polling stations were attacked after people found filled ballot boxes.
| Government Job change - Election | March 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
Italy's economy falls into recession for the third time in a decade after declining GDP growth in late 2018. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte blames the recession on external factors, including trade tensions between the United States and China. | Italy’s economy fell into recession in the final three months of 2018, in a blow to the country’s governing radical centre-right coalition, which pledged to boost the country’s persistently low GDP growth.
The 0.2% drop in the eurozone’s third largest economy between October and December followed a 0.1% fall in the previous three months, the Italian statistics agency said. Declining GDP growth over two consecutive quarters put Italy in recession. It is the third time the country has fallen into recession in a decade.
Amid weakening growth rates across the eurozone, which led to the 19-member currency bloc increasing its GDP by only 0.2% in the final three months of 2018, Italy is likely to be forced to rewrite its forecasts for growth in 2019.
James Athey of Aberdeen Standard Investments said: “The growth forecasts on which the budget was based have already been blown out of the water and eurozone growth continues to weaken. Italy is going to have to face up to some real problems.”
Italy’s economy has been shrinking steadily since the rightwing League party formed a coalition with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement.
Analysts have blamed much of the slump on a running battle between Rome and Brussels over the coalition’s plans to increase its budget deficit and stimulate the economy with a range of tax cuts and spending increases.
The dispute ran for months, hurting economic confidence and driving up Italy’s borrowing costs, before a settlement was reached just before Christmas.
Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, blamed the recession on external factors, including trade tensions between the US and China.
The deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio, the head of the Five Star Movement, said the recession was proof that Europe’s budget rules should be relaxed to allow Italy to stimulate its economy back to growth.
Di Maio heaped blame for the downturn on the previous centre-left government, which was ousted last spring. He said this year’s EU parliamentary elections would effectively be a referendum on eurozone fiscal policy, adding: “I believe this referendum will have a positive outcome for those who are against austerity.”
Andrea Iannelli, an investment analyst at the fund manager Fidelity International, said the government was right to highlight falling demand from its neighbours and trade wars for the country’s woes.
“However, the standoff between the government and the European authorities over the budget in the summer of 2018 has exacerbated the country’s weaknesses.
“The sell-off in Italian assets and rise in yields is now feeding through into tighter lending conditions and weaker macro data,” he said.
The EU statistics agency, Eurostat, said the eurozone expanded by 1.8% in 2018 overall, the slowest rate of growth since 2014 and significantly down from 2017’s 2.3%.
One indication of the general slowdown across the continent came from European companies listed on the Stoxx 600 index, which have begun to report weaker earnings growth. The latest analysis by I/B/E/S Refinitiv shows profits are rising by an average 3.6% compared with the 4.8% expected last week and the 6% expected at the beginning of the year.
Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, suffered an unexpected contraction in the third quarter largely because of changes in emissions standards that dented car sales.
Uncertainty over Britain’s exit from the EU also weighed on sentiment that is expected to drag down growth in the final quarter when the data becomes available next month.
German retail sales fell at their steepest rate since 2007 in December and exports of cars to China also declined.
The dip in the eurozone’s fortunes could prompt the European Central Bank, which predicted a 0.4% growth rate in the final quarter, to cut its growth forecast of 1.7% for 2019.
In separate figures released by Eurostat, unemployment in the eurozone remained at 7.9%. It equalled its lowest rate in more than 10 years in December and matched economists’ forecasts.
The jobless rates fell slightly in Italy and Spain, which still have the highest unemployment levels in the eurozone after Greece. Across the eurozone 75,000 fewer people were out of work than in November.
In the wider 28-country European Union, the jobless rate was 6.6% in December, also unchanged from November. | Financial Crisis | January 2019 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Thousands of people, inspired by the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, take to the streets of Algiers to protest against their own regime and to call for the removal of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. | Thousands of people are holding a pro-democracy rally in Algeria's capital Algiers, defying a government ban. Scuffles broke out between the protesters and riot police and a number of people were reportedly arrested. Algeria - like Egypt, Tunisia and other countries in the region - has recently witnessed demonstrations for greater freedoms and better living standards. Public demonstrations are banned in Algeria because of a state of emergency still in place since 1992.
The protesters gathered at Algiers' 1 May Square on Saturday morning. They chanted "Bouteflika out!" - in reference to the country's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Some demonstrators waved copies of a newspaper front page with the headline about the ousting of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Friday, Reuters reports.
About 30,000 police are reportedly deployed in and around capital, and extra police with water cannons are on stand-by. At least 15 police vans, jeeps and buses were lined up at the square and about the same number on a nearby side-street outside the city's Mustapha hospital.
Small military-style armoured vehicles were also parked at junctions around the city.
There is also said to be a crowd of supporters of President Bouteflika on the streets. On Friday, the authorities stopped people from gathering to celebrate the fall of Mr Mubarak. The authorities want to avert any popular uprising similar to those in Tunisia and Egypt, as some Algerians say it is time to seize the moment, the BBC's Chloe Arnold in Algiers says. However, others here say there is less of an appetite for political upheaval than in other countries in the region, our correspondent adds. Algeria has a bloody recent history: it is emerging from two decades of violence with as many as 250,000 people losing their lives in a conflict between security forces and Islamist militants. Earlier this month, President Bouteflika said the country's state of emergency would be lifted in the "very near future".
| Protest_Online Condemnation | February 2011 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(BBC)', '(France24)', '(Herald Sun)'] |
An earthquake of Richter scale 6.5 magnitude strikes the Pacific coasts of Guatemala and Mexico. | A strong earthquake of magnitude 6.5 struck in the Pacific near Guatemala's border with Mexico, the U.S. Geological Survey said on Thursday. REUTERS/Graphics
TAPACHULA, Mexico (Reuters) - A strong 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck in the Pacific near the Mexico-Guatemala border on Thursday, but there was no tsunami alert and no initial reports of casualties.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was 25 miles southwest of the Mexican city of Tapachula, on the border with Guatemala, with a depth of about 47 miles.
“Fortunately, no victims or damage has been reported in the city or the rural area,” said civil protection official Herbert Schoeder in Tapachula, where people ran out on the streets in alarm as buildings began shaking.
A Reuters reporter in Guatemala City said he felt shaking for 30 seconds, but there appeared to be no major damage and no reports of casualties, according to the Guatemalan emergency services.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no threat of a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami.
Earthquakes above magnitude 6 can cause widespread damage in populated areas. Thursday’s quake was initially measured at magnitude 6.7.
Heavy rain in recent weeks has left rural parts of Guatemala prone to mudslides.
“This kind of earthquake could result in damage. The edges of roads in mountainous areas are unstable,” said Raul Mazariegos, a spokesman at Guatemala’s natural disasters institute.
Three years ago, mudslides killed hundreds of people in Guatemala, where many live in poor hillside villages that are hard for rescue workers to reach.
| Earthquakes | October 2008 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbott and the Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe sign a free trade agreement in the Australian capital Canberra. | Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has called for Japan and Australia to walk forward with "no limit," likening the countries' new economic and military agreements to taking part in a rugby scrum together.
Mr Abe addressed a special joint sitting of federal parliament today on the first full day of his visit to Australia.
Speaking in English, he reiterated his nation's vow of peace made after World War II, sending his condolences to Australians killed and traumatised in that conflict.
Mr Abe said he had "absolutely no words to say" when despairing about the numerous "young Australians with bright futures" who lost their lives fighting Japanese forces.
"May I most humbly speak for Japan on behalf of the Japanese people here in sending my most sincere condolences towards the many souls who lost their lives," he told the parliament.
A free trade deal may have been the headline news, but when Japanese PM Shinzo Abe tours Canberra it will be security that tops his agenda, writes Hitoshi Nasu.
"This [peace] vow that Japan made after the war is still fully alive today. It will never change going forward," he pledged.
He said that deepened economic and defence ties had led to a new era in the relationship between the two nations.
"We will now join up in a scrum just like in rugby," he said, drawing laughter from MPs.
"Let us walk forward together - Australia and Japan with no limit – yes, we can do it."
The Japanese leader called for the vast seas and skies linking the Pacific and Indian oceans to be "open and free".
"In everything we say and do we must follow the law and never fall back into force and coercion," he said.
"When there are disputes, we must always use peaceful means to find solutions."
Mr Abe is signing economic and security treaties with his counterpart Prime Minister Tony Abbott during his three-day visit to Australia.
Senior Japanese officials told the ABC that his decision to speak in English was a statement of "friendship and regard".
It is only the third major speech the Japanese leader has delivered in English as prime minister.
He urged Australian parliamentarians to tell young people to travel to Japan, and promised to do the same for Australia.
He finished his speech by singling out Olympic swimming legend Dawn Fraser, who was in the public gallery to watch the speech.
Mr Abe said he was "dazzled" by Fraser's power in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and thanked her for attending his speech.
"Ms Fraser," he said, "to me, you are Australia."
"I hope very much that you bring forth a new dawn to Japan and new dawn to the future of Australia-Japan relations," he said, urging her to attend the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Speaking a short time later, Ms Fraser said Mr Abbott invited her to attend Mr Abe's speech.
She said "it was a great honour" to have been personally praised by the Japanese prime minister.
"It was very exciting," she told reporters.
"He's a lovely prime minister with a lovely sense of humour."
In his address, Prime Minister Tony Abbott sought to reassure Beijing that Australia's stronger security ties with Japan were not aimed at China.
"Ours is not a partnership against anyone," Mr Abbott said.
Mr Abbott also began his address by directly addressing the fact that the two countries fought each other during World War II.
He acknowledged that at times Australians had not felt "kindly toward Japan", but said the nation was now "grateful" for Japanese investment.
"Since 1957, Australian coal, iron ore and gas has powered Japan's prosperity and Japanese cars, consumer goods and electronics have transformed Australians' lives," he said.
Labor leader Bill Shorten said the friendship between Australia and Japan ran deeper than "treaties or trade agreements, summits or state dinners."
He said Australia stood by Japan during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami which also led to the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown.
"Australian hearts went out to our friends in Japan. Within days, Australian search and rescue personnel, defence operation response officers, three C-17 aircraft were on the scene helping with the clean-up, the search and rescue effort," he said.
Mr Abe also thanked former prime minister Julia Gillard for Australia's assistance at the time, and noted the bipartisan support for the alliance.
Labor Senator Sue Lines criticised the Prime Minister for not raising the issue of whaling.
"No mention of whales as yet by Abbott in his address to Japanese PM," the senator tweeted.
Earlier Mr Abe and his wife were formally welcomed to Canberra in a ceremony outside Parliament.
His trip is the first official visit by a Japanese leader since 2002. In 2007 he visited Australia as prime minister to attend the APEC summit in Sydney.
Mr Abe and Mr Abbott have signed the Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement, described by Mr Abbott as "the first free trade agreement that Japan has made with a major developed economy".
Mr Abe has told Parliament that Australia and Japan will also conclude an agreement on the transfer of defence equipment and technology.
It will bring Australia's cooperation in line with agreements Japan already has with the United States and the United Kingdom.
Trade Minister Andrew Robb says there is a natural relationship between economic and military agreements because Australia is "so strongly and deeply economically tied" to China, Japan and Korea.
"Fifty-one per cent of all of our exports now go to Korea, Japan and China. It is in our interests, our absolute interest, to have peace in the region," Mr Robb told AM.
"And the best way in our view to do that is to have strong security ties with all three countries."
Nationals senator Matt Canavan welcomes the signing of the agreement, saying it will see Australian produce converted into cars.
"We as a nation are not going to make cars any more here in this country, but the way we are going to make a car in the future is we're going to grow wheat, we're going to grow cotton, we're going to grow beef, we're going to put it on a boat, wave goodbye to it and then magically another boat will come in the other direction with a car on it, probably from Japan," he said.
However, Senator Canavan's senior colleague Senator John Williams raised concerns about foreign investment in Australian farmland.
"I want to see Australians sell the food, not the farm," he said.
The Opposition's spokeswoman on trade, Penny Wong, has criticised the Government for not releasing details of the free trade agreement, which was struck in April, in full.
"No-one can make a judgment about this agreement if the Government continues to refuse to release it," she said.
"This is an agreement that has already been negotiated ... the only information Australians have is a five-page glossy pamphlet. I think they deserve more."
The Government says it will release the full text of the agreement this afternoon.
Mr Abe will also meet Mr Shorten tonight.
Labor's foreign spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said Labor would be raising the issue of whaling with Mr Abe.
"Being such close friends does allow us to raise issues like whaling, where there has been some differences of opinion," Ms Plibersek told ABC News 24.
Asked whether Mr Abbott should also be raising whaling, Ms Plibersek said it was a matter for the Prime Minister.
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
| Sign Agreement | July 2014 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
The Polynesian state of Tonga declares a Zika virus epidemic with two confirmed cases and 265 suspected cases. | Tonga has declared a Zika epidemic after confirming two people have contracted the mosquito-borne virus, with 265 suspected cases.
Health Minister Saia Piukala said three New Zealand-based Tongans who travelled to the islands for a holiday had returned home and also tested positive.
Dr Piukala said the 265 suspected cases were from those who had sought treatment for acute fever, skin rashes and flu-like symptoms.
He said 35 specimens had been sent overseas for further analysis.
The government had launched an awareness campaign and was trying to destroy potential mosquito breeding areas.
Dr Piukala said schools had been closing for one day at a time throughout the kingdom.
"The age group commonly affected here is age one to 15 years old, so that's the primary school and high school age group.
"The reason for the Public Health Department, (closing schools for one day), the school do the clean up and our staff will go and do the mosquito spraying to protect students from being bitten by mosquitoes."
Photo: AFP
French Polynesia's health ministry said the territory was Zika-free and that there was no known risk for travellers to Tahiti.
Two years ago, more than 60 percent of French Polynesia's population of 280,000 contracted Zika, making most people now immune to the disease.
42 people developped Guillaume Barre as a result of the infection.
The ministry said 18 malformed babies were born to Zika patients, and about 10 to 12 of them had signs of microcephaly.
It said when Zika struck the territory also had an outbreak of chikungunya and dengue.
Dengue is yet to be eliminated.
Copyright ? 2016, Radio New Zealand
American Samoa's Department of Health has recorded 25 suspected cases of the Zika virus.
Five cases of Zika have been reported in New Zealand in the last week, bringing the total number of people treated for the disease this year to 11.
Tonga has declared a Zika epidemic after confirming a number at least two people have contracted the virus and 265 could have it. Audio
The World Health Organisation cautions that the mosquito-borne Zika virus, linked to birth defects, could spread to to Africa and Asia which have the highest birth rates in the world. Audio
Health authorities in the Northern Marianas say they are on high alert to make sure the zika virus does not reach the islands' shores. | Disease Outbreaks | February 2016 | ['(Radio New Zealand)'] |
China threatens tariffs of 25% on the import of 106 U.S. products, including soybeans and Boeing aircraft in reaction to a previous U.S. threat of tariffs worth up to $50 billion. | The proposed measures follow a similar US list of $50 billion worth of Chinese imports that could be subject to tariffs. China's list includes 106 items that could be slapped with additional 25 percent import fees.
China on Wednesday responded to the Trump administration's planned tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese products with proposed tariff increases for goods including soybeans, planes, cars, frozen beef, cotton and chemicals.
China's Commerce and Finance ministries announced that Beijing's list of 25 percent additional tariffs on US goods covered 106 items with a trade value matching the $50 billion figure.
The move by China is the latest in ongoing tit-for-tat measures between the countries.
| Government Policy Changes | April 2018 | ['(Deutsche Welle)'] |
South Korea bans the launching of propaganda leaflets into North Korea. The balloon propaganda campaigns have been used by North Korean defectors and Korean reunification activists for decades to spread anti-government propaganda, news from the outside world that is restricted in the North, money, food, and USBs containing South Korean media. The ban also outlaws the use of loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts. Violators of the ban will face up to three years in prison or 30 million won ($27,400) in fines. | SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea on Monday banned the launching of propaganda leaflets into North Korea, drawing the criticism of rights activists and defiance from a prominent North Korean defector who said he would not stop sending messages to his homeland.
'We'll keep sending leaflets to North Korea'
01:21
Defectors and other campaigners in South Korea have for decades sent anti-North Korean leaflets over the tightly guarded border, usually by balloon or in bottles on border rivers. They also send food, medicine, money, mini radios and USB sticks containing South Korean news and dramas.
Isolated North Korea has long denounced the practice and recently stepped up its condemnation of it, to the alarm of a South Korean government intent on improving ties on the divided peninsula.
The South Korean parliament voted on Monday to amend the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act to bar any scattering of printed materials, goods, money and other items of value across the heavily fortified frontier.
It also restricts loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts, which the South’s military once championed as part of psychological warfare against the North until it withdrew the equipment following a 2018 summit between the two Koreas.
The ban will take effect in three months and violators face up to three years in prison or 30 million won ($27,400) in fines.
The change was approved despite efforts by opposition lawmakers to block the super-majority of the ruling party of President Moon Jae-in, who is keen to improve cross-border ties.
The bill was introduced in June after Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said South Korea should ban the leaflets or face the “worst phase” of relations.
“They’re trying to put Kim Yo Jong’s order into law at her single word,” Tae Yong-ho, an opposition lawmaker and former North Korean diplomat, said in a 10-hour filibuster speech, adding the bill would only help Kim’s government continue “enslaving” its people.
Park Sang-hak, a defector who has already been stripped of a license for his leaflet-launching group and faces a prosecution investigation, said he would not give up his 15-year campaign.
“I’ll keep sending leaflets to tell the truth because North Koreans have the right to know,” he told Reuters. “I’m not afraid of being jailed”.
Park and some other 20 rights groups in South Korea vowed to challenge the law’s constitutionality, while Human Rights Watch called the ban a “misguided strategy” by South Korea to win Kim’s favour.
“It criminalises sending remittances to families in North Korea and denies their rights to outside information,” said Shin Hee-seok of the Transitional Justice Working Group.
“Such appeasement efforts only risk inviting further North Korean provocations and demands.”
Chris Smith, a U.S. Republican congressman co-chairing a bipartisan human rights commission, issued a statement criticising the amendment as “ill-conceived, frightening” for facilitating the imprisonment of people for simply sharing information.
When asked about Smith’s statement, South Korean’s Unification Ministry, which handles ties with North Korea, said the bill was a “minimal effort to protect the lives and safety of residents in border regions”.
| Government Policy Changes | December 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The UK Government unveils its plans to reform the House of Lords to make it a mostly elected chamber. | Prime Minister David Cameron has called for MPs to support Lords reform, as the government unveils its plans for a mostly elected House of Lords.
He said it was "time to make progress" after 100 years of attempts to transform Parliament's second chamber.
The cabinet agreed on Tuesday to push for 80% of the house to be chosen by voters. The number of peers is also expected to be almost halved from 800.
Mr Cameron is likely to face a rebellion by Conservative MPs.
Many Tory MPs believe constitutional change should not be a priority and up to 100 are expected to oppose the bill.
Labour is backing change, despite opposition from some of its MPs.
The proposals in the House of Lords Reform Bill include:
Changes to the Lords were promised by all three main parties at the last general election, but Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and his fellow Liberal Democrats are seen as the main driving force behind the coalition government's plans.
At Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Cameron said a majority of MPs and the wider public were in favour of a mainly elected House of Lords and urged MPs to back the government's bill.
He said: "If those who support Lords reform don't get out there and back it, it won't happen. That is the crucial point."
Mr Clegg said: "The coalition stands on the brink of an historic achievement. After more than a hundred years of debates, cross-party talks, green papers, white papers, command papers and a Royal Commission, we are finally introducing a bill to create a democratic and legitimate House of Lords."
The government had initially intended to cut the number of peers to 300, but this was raised to 450 after a committee of MPs suggested this might make Parliament's second chamber too small to scrutinise legislation properly.
But some opponents of the bill, including many on the Conservative benches, argue that elected peers could undermine the supremacy of the Commons by creating a rival chamber.
The bill is expected to receive a second reading in the Commons before MPs rise for the summer recess on 17 July. Ministers aim to complete its passage into law by next May. That timetable is far from certain, however, given opposition in both Houses.
Conservative MP Jesse Norman said he planned to rebel, adding there was "no question whatsoever" that he could support it.
He told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "This a constitutional monstrosity as a bill and it should never have reached the House of Commons."
Conor Burns, another Tory MP, said he would be prepared to risk losing his job as parliamentary private secretary to Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson by opposing the bill.
After the second reading of the bill, MPs will be asked to vote on a "programme motion" limiting the amount of time the Commons can spend debating the changes.
Mr Burns told the BBC's News Channel: "If it is a disciplinary matter to vote in a way that was a free vote in previous parliaments... then so be it. I feel very strongly about this. This is about the constitution of the United Kingdom. We have never before in Parliament guillotined bills of such constitutional magnitude."
He said he expected a "significant" number of Conservative MPs to vote against a time-limited debate.
The prime minister's spokesman said Conservative MPs would be ordered to vote in favour of the government's proposals.
Labour leader Ed Miliband is also said to be facing a revolt from some of his senior MPs over his support for changes to the Lords, with former Home Secretary David Blunkett openly criticising the decision.
Fellow former Labour Home Secretary Lord Reid told the BBC's News Channel: "If anyone thinks that you will create a new class of 450 senators, with a term three times as long as MPs, with constituencies 10 times as big, with no constituency business to do... and that will not become the primary house, they are deluding themselves. "It will not only rival the House of Commons; it will supersede it."
In the Lords, several peers questioned whether the bill would adequately protect the supremacy of the Commons.
Labour's Lord Richard, who chaired the joint committee on Lords reform, said the government should look at further ways of "buttressing" it as the primary chamber.
Former Conservative cabinet ministers Lord Gummer and Lord Forsyth both criticised the proposal for future members to be elected from a list of candidates, chosen by political parties, saying it would undermine the independence of members.
Labour's Baroness Symons questioned whether new members of the Lords "sent with the backing of millions of votes" from eight large regional constituencies and for 15 years would defer to MPs, elected with fewer votes for shorter five-year terms.
These new members, she said, would be "much more powerful than colleagues down the other end of the corridor".
But Lord Strathclyde, the leader of the House of Lords, defended the bill, saying the government believes a democratic mandate would give the Lords greater legitimacy and enhance its ability to revise legislation and hold the executive to account.
| Government Policy Changes | June 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Megan Young from the Philippines is crowned Miss World 2013 at Bali Nusa Dua International Convention Center, South Kuta, Bali, Indonesia. | The 2013 Miss World pageant has been won by Miss Philippines, Megan Young, on the Indonesian island of Bali.
US-born Ms Young, 23, beat 126 other contestants and pledged to be "the best Miss World ever".
The competition was moved to Bali from the capital, Jakarta, because of protests from hardline Muslim groups.
Security for Saturday's event was high in Bali, a resort island with a majority Hindu population, but no further demonstrations were reported.
Miss France, Marine Lorphelin, came second in the contest and Miss Ghana, Carranzar Naa Okailey Shooter, took third place. Wearing a glittering gown, Ms Young, who moved to the Philippines at the age of 10, wept as the Miss World sash was put over her shoulder by 2012 winner Miss China.
She told the cheering crowd in Nusa Dua in southern Bali she would "be myself in everything I do, to share what I know and to educate people".
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country and the organisers had originally offered to abandon the contest's bikini round in an attempt to address complaints of pornography and immorality.
Protests were led by the hardline Islamic Defenders' Front (FPI), which had planned to cross to the island from East Java but were prevented when the port was shut late on Friday.
The event, broadcast in 180 countries, was guarded by heavily armed police with water cannon while some 1,000 FPI members held a prayer session at a mosque outside Jakarta.
| Awards ceremony | September 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Ronnie Biggs, one of the participants of the Great Train Robbery, is freed on medical grounds. | This morning, once the paperwork is complete, three prison staff who have been mounting a round-the-clock bedwatch on a sick man close to his 80th birthday will slip away, leaving one of Britain's most notorious villains free.
Their departure from the bedside of the Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs at the Norfolk and Norwich University hospital will bring to a close the last chapter in the history of Britain's most famous robbery, a saga that has spanned four decades and two continents.
The official letter informing Biggs that the justice secretary, Jack Straw, had finally granted his family's application for compassionate release on medical grounds was hand-delivered yesterday to his bedside by a senior governor from Norwich prison. Straw said he had taken the decision as Biggs's condition was not expected to improve.
The train robber, who will turn 80 on Saturday, is suffering from severe pneumonia and is unable to eat, speak or walk. Doctors have said there is "not much hope for him" and he will never fulfil his stated ambition on his return to Britain to "walk into a Margate pub as an Englishman and buy a pint of bitter".
Straw, who refused a parole board recommendation to release Biggs on 1 July, said the two decisions involved different considerations.
"I made the decision to refuse parole principally because Mr Biggs had shown no remorse for his crimes nor respect for the punishments given to him and because the parole board found his propensity to breach trust a very significant factor," he said. The parole board had said they believed the risk posed by Biggs was "manageable".
The justice secretary said the decision to release him on compassionate grounds involved considering the medical evidence against well established criteria – especially whether death was likely to occur soon and whether the prisoner was bedridden or severely incapacitated.
"The medical evidence clearly shows that Mr Biggs is very ill and that his condition has deteriorated recently, culminating in his readmission to hospital," said Straw. "His condition is not expected to improve. It is for that reason I am granting Mr Biggs compassionate release on medical grounds."
Biggs will be formally released on licence today from serving the rest of his 30-year sentence, but will remain at Norfolk and Norwich hospital.
Biggs was "over the moon", according to his son, Michael, who said his father communicated by pointing to letters on a spelling board.
"As a family we're absolutely delighted, common sense has prevailed," Michael Biggs said. "My father has fortunately been released on compassionate grounds. I've just been able to spend some time with my father and he in his own words – it took him a long time using a spelling board – but he is over the moon.
"We are very hopeful that my father will be able to survive the next few days."
Biggs has to undergo minor surgery to change a tube in his stomach and put in a clear one.
His legal adviser, Giovanni Di Stefano, said Biggs knew of the decision: "He is being released effectively to die and that cannot be considered a victory … it's a victory for common sense."
He went on: "This man is ill, he's going to die, he is not going to any pub." Di Stefano thanked the justice secretary for his decision.
The family wrote to Straw asking him to end "further procrastination" as the 79-year-old's life hung in the balance. Doctors at Norfolk and Norwich University hospital have said he has "little hope of recovery". They have agreed with his son that Biggs will not be resuscitated if his heart stops. Biggs was transferred from Norwich prison to hospital 10 days ago.
He is fed through a tube and communicates by pointing at letters on a card. In recent years he has suffered strokes.
Dr Helen May, who is responsible for Biggs's care, has said he "remains frail and in poor condition" although he was a "little brighter". In a letter about his condition, she said: "On July 28 Mr Biggs was unresponsive and unable to communicate." He had little hope of recovery because of his frailty and poor nutritional status.
Biggs, from Lambeth, south London, was a member of the 15-strong gang that attacked the Glasgow to London mail train at Ledburn, Buckinghamshire, in August 1963 and made off with £2.6m in used banknotes.
After 15 months in prison he escaped and spent more than 30 years on the run, living in Australia and Brazil before returning to Britian in 2001 for medical treatment. Earlier requests for release on compassionate grounds were refused in 2006 and 2007 and last month.
A total of 48 prisoners who were serving lengthy sentences in prisons in England and Wales have been released on compassionate grounds over the past five years.
Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of Napo, the probation union said Straw should have released the train robber in July when it was recommended.
"It's just a great shame he wasn't released two months ago on the recommendation of the parole board," he said. "There have been just 11 occasions in the last five years when parole board decisions involving men serving 15 years or more have been overturned. This year it has happened on just one occasion – that of Ronnie Biggs." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | August 2009 | ['(UK Guardian)'] |
The six approved candidates, including the incumbent Hassan Rouhani, begin campaigning. | ANKARA (Reuters) - Campaigning officially started on Friday for Iran’s May presidential election, pitting pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani against hardliners just as the United States reassesses its policy on the Islamic Republic.
A hardline watchdog body in charge of vetting candidates and laws, the Guardian Council, approved six candidates on Thursday for the May 19 vote - including Rouhani - but hardline former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was disqualified.
A witness who was near Ahmadinejad’s house in eastern Tehran on Thursday night told Reuters that “around 50 police officers had blocked two ends of the street to his house to prevent possible gathering of his supporters”.
Iranian police fanned out across Tehran’s main squares overnight after the names of the candidates were announced, according to videos posted on social media.
Ahmadinejad, an adversary of the West during his time on power, surprised Iran’s clerical establishment by registering as a candidate, defying Iran’s top authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s warning not to enter the race.
His re-election in 2009 ignited an eight-month firestorm of street protests. His pro-reform rivals said the vote was rigged.
Supporters of the six successful candidates had started campaigning on social media last week. Iran blocks access to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube but millions of Iranians use virtual private networks (VPNs) to access those sites.
Iran’s top leaders regard the election in part as a show of defiance against renewed U.S. pressure under President Donald Trump, and have called for a high turnout to strengthen the clerical establishment’s legitimacy.
“The election is a very difficult and important test for all of us ... a high turnout will show to the world that the establishment enjoys the strong backing and support of its people,” Tehran Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Mohammadali Movahedi-Kermani told worshippers, state TV reported.
Rouhani won a landslide victory in 2013 on a platform of ending Iran’s diplomatic isolation and reviving the country’s crippling sanction-hit economy.
On April 4, the U.S. Senate has delayed a bill to slap new sanctions on Iran due to concerns about the election.
On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson accused Iran of “alarming ongoing provocations” to destabilize countries in the Middle East.
“A comprehensive Iran policy requires we address all of the threats posed by Iran and it is clear there are many,” he said.
Rouhani engineered Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that secured removal of most of international sanctions against Tehran. But hardliners say he has failed to boost the economy despite lifting of sanctions last year.
Analysts say the biggest challenge to Rouhani - himself endorsed by moderates and prominent conservatives, including parliament speaker Ali Larijani - is influential mid-ranking cleric Ebrahim Raisi, who is close to Khamenei.
The four other candidates are Iran’s first Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, former conservative culture minister Mostafa Mirsalim, former pro-reform vice president Mostafa Hashemitaba and Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf.
| Government Job change - Election | April 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Former UK spy Fraser Cameron is reportedly placed under investigation by Belgian authorities for allegedly selling sensitive information to Chinese spies posing as journalists. | A British businessman, formerly of MI6, is under investigation for allegedly selling information to undercover spies from China, a Whitehall official says.
Fraser Cameron, who runs the EU-Asia Centre think tank, is suspected of passing sensitive information about the EU to two spies allegedly posing as Brussels-based journalists.
He is alleged to have exchanged the information for thousands of Euros.
But Mr Cameron told The Times the allegations were "ridiculous".
The businessman, who worked for Britain's Secret Intelligence Service from 1976 to 1991, says he has no access to any "secret or confidential information".
Mr Cameron, who has also worked for the Foreign Office and European Commission, told Politico that the allegations "are without foundation", saying he has "a wide range of Chinese contacts as part of my duties with the EU-Asia Centre and some of them may have a double function".
A senior Whitehall official, who asked not to be named, told the BBC the investigation had been a long-running joint inquiry between British and Belgian intelligence and claimed that a breakthrough had come in recent months.
He said this was a great example of how closely British intelligence worked with its European partners. The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner says there have been growing fears about the extent of covert Chinese intelligence-gathering in Europe, including over sensitive negotiations between the EU and Britain over Brexit.
Belgium's state security service is quoted by the Financial Times as saying Mr Cameron's alleged actions posed "a clear threat towards the European institutions" based in the Belgian capital. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | September 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Thirteen soldiers in Burundi have been arrested for allegedly plotting a coup to overthrow President Pierre Nkurunziza. | Thirteen soldiers in Burundi have been arrested for plotting a coup to overthrow President Pierre Nkurunziza, the army chief of staff has said.
Major Gen Godefroid Niyombare said the 12 soldiers and one officer had been caught in a meeting near Lake Tanganyika earlier on Friday. Correspondents say there are fears this may affect elections due in June. They will be the second polls to be held in country since the end of the deadly 12-year, ethnic-based civil war. Major Gen Niyombare said those arrested were from both the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups. Investigations were ongoing and more arrests should be expected, he added. In 2007, former President Domitien Ndayizeye was acquitted of charges of plotting a coup. A former rebel leader himself, President Nkurunziza was elected five years ago under a deal to end the years of conflict between the Tutsi army and Hutu rebels. Some 300,000 people are believed to have died during the war. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | January 2010 | ['(BBC News)', '(Afrique en ligne)'] |
Fuel tanker drivers belonging to the Unite union in the United Kingdom vote overwhelmingly to take strike action in a dispute over terms and conditions. | Fuel tanker drivers have voted in favour of taking strike action in a row over terms and conditions and safety, the Unite union has said.
The government is holding a meeting with fuel delivery companies and supermarkets to plan tactics for coping with any resulting strike.
Army drivers are being trained to deliver fuel to petrol stations in case of a walkout by tanker drivers.
Unite said there had been "unrelenting attacks" on drivers' conditions.
In an interview with the BBC's Hardtalk programme, the general secretary of Unite, Len McCluskey, refused to rule out the possibility that any strike would be held over Easter.
About 2,000 drivers at seven distribution depots took part in the ballot in what was the first national industrial action campaign for more than 10 years.
Unite said five of the seven depots backed strike action, while two did not. Of those five, the vote in favour was 69%. Turnouts across the five averaged 77.7%.
A statement from Unite said: "Tanker drivers work in an increasingly fragmented and pressurised industry, where corners are being cut on safety and training in a bid to squeeze profits and win contracts.
"Drivers face growing job insecurity as a result of the contract 'merry-go-round' and a 'beat the clock' culture has flourished, with drivers forced to meet ever shorter delivery deadlines. "
It added that pensions were also inferior to those previously offered and some workers had switched pensions six times.
The CBI employers' group said that disruption on the roads was in nobody's interest.
"Drivers have voted for a strike, but each employer and Unite should now get back around the table to discuss the issues raised. Going ahead with strike action would have a real impact on people across the country," said John Cridland, CBI director general.
One of the companies involved, Hoyer, said its safety standards were very high.
A Hoyer spokesman said: "Hoyer has one of the highest health, safety and training standards in the petroleum distribution sector."
The firm said that pay and conditions for Hoyer drivers were among "the best in the industry", adding that the company's drivers earned on average £45,000 a year.
Hoyer said Unite had walked away from discussions designed to settle the dispute.
The UK has 7,900 petrol stations. Widespread protests against fuel prices in 2000 caused disruption across the UK.
Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said the government had "learnt the lessons" of the past and stood "ready to act" in case of a walkout.
Unite said the government should be putting pressure on oil companies.
Mr McCluskey said: "For over a year we've been desperately trying to bring about some stability in the sector and urging government ministers to persuade contractors and oil companies to engage in meaningful discussions with us."
Ministers say the training of army drivers will begin next week as part of contingency plans being drawn up to avoid major disruption to fuel supplies.
Mr Maude said: "We are calling on the trade union Unite and the employers involved to work together to reach an agreement that will avert industrial action," he said.
"Widespread strike action affecting fuel supply at our supermarkets, garages and airports could cause disruption across the country.
"The general public should not and must not suffer from this dispute, and strike action is manifestly not the answer."
| Strike | March 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Citizens of Mauritius cast their vote in the country's latest parliamentary election. Militant Socialist Movement, led by incumbent Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth wins a huge majority securing the re-election. | PORT LOUIS (Reuters) - Mauritius’ ruling Militant Socialist Movement (MSM) has won more than half of the seats in parliament, securing incumbent Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth a five-year term, the final election results showed on Friday.
Thursday’s vote was dominated by calls for fairer distribution of wealth on the prosperous Indian Ocean island of 1.3 million people, which touts itself as a bridge between Africa and Asia and has a flourishing financial sector.
MSM won 38 of the 62 seats up for grabs while its rivals, the Labour Party and the Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM), garnered 13 and 9 seats respectively, the election commission said.
Two seats on the island of Rodrigues were won by the Organisation of the People of Rodrigues (OPR) party.
Jugnauth, 57, became prime minister in 2017 when his father stepped down from the post, and has already introduced a minimum wage to try and improve wealth distribution.
“I have obtained a clear mandate to continue to work toward progress and development in this country,” he told his supporters after the count in his constituency.
The three parties campaigned on further strengthening the welfare state and improving equality in one of Africa’s most stable and wealthy nations.
“I will ask everybody to respect the results without bitterness. Let’s put Mauritius first” said Paul Bérenger, the leader of the MMM, during a speech in his constituency.
Some 723,660 voters, 76.84 percent of those eligible, turned out for the ballot, officials said.
The turnout was 2% higher than the last election.
Mauritius expects its economy, which is dependent on tourism and financial services, to expand by 4.1% next year, up from a forecast 3.8% this year. Analysts expect economic diversification to proceed regardless of who wins the election.
The challenger parties, arguing that the Jugnauth family’s rule has been marked by nepotism and corruption, had appealed to voters to choose change.
Foreign direct investment in Mauritius totaled 10.68 billion rupees ($295 million) in the first six months of 2019 against 8.84 billion the same period a year earlier, according to official figures.
Reporting by Jean Paul Arouff; Editing by Duncan Miriri and Hugh Lawson
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays.
| Government Job change - Election | November 2019 | ['(Foreign Brief)', '(The New York Times)', '(Reuters)'] |
The United States House of Representatives votes 230–199 to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her assignments on the Education and Labor and Budget committees. | The US House of Representatives has voted to expel a Republican congresswoman from two committees over incendiary remarks she made before being elected last November. Marjorie Taylor Greene had promoted baseless QAnon conspiracy theories and endorsed violence against Democrats. Before the vote, she said she regretted her views, which included claims that school shootings and 9/11 were staged.
Eleven Republicans joined the Democrats to pass the motion by 230-199. It means the representative - who was elected in November, representing a district in the southern state of Georgia - cannot take up her place on the education and budget committees. This would limit her ability to shape policy as most legislation goes through a committee before reaching the House floor. Committee positions can determine the influence of individual lawmakers in their party.
It is highly unusual for one party to intervene in another party's House committee assignments. On Friday, Mrs Greene said that she woke up "laughing" at the situation.
"I woke up early this morning literally laughing thinking about what a bunch of morons the Democrats (+11) are for giving some one like me free time," she tweeted, referencing the 11 Republicans who also voted to remove her.
At a news conference in Washington hours later, Mrs Greene said that Democrats had "stripped my district of their voice" by removing her from the committees.
She described the Democratic-run government as "tyrannically controlled" and denounced the upcoming Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump - over his role in the 6 January riot - as a "circus". The lawmaker also criticised the media for "addicting people to hate". According to The Hill, a political news outlet, Mrs Greene received a standing ovation at a closed-doors meeting with members of her party on Wednesday after she apologised for her past remarks, and on Thursday before the vote, she expressed regret for her past comments.
On the floor of the House, she said her controversial remarks had been made before she ran for office last year. "These were words of the past. These things do not represent me," she said. Mrs Greene said she had been "upset about things" happening in the US and did not trust the government when she came upon conspiracy theories online in 2018. The 46-year-old also sought to pin blame on the media, saying they were "just as guilty as QAnon for promoting lies". But she did not address a series of past inflammatory remarks:
Asked by a reporter on Friday whether or not she was "sorry" for some of these additional remarks, Mrs Greene said she was "sorry for saying all those things that are wrong and offensive". She added that she was "not sorry" for speaking to Mr Hogg about gun rights, saying that "he was an adult when I spoke to him". After an afternoon of procedural manoeuvres and debate, a majority of the House of Representatives took the unprecedented step of voting to strip one of its members of her committee assignments because of what it deemed dangerous and toxic speech she made before she was elected.
Republicans warned that sanctioning Marjorie Taylor Greene set a dangerous precedent, where the majority party in the chamber could tell the minority how to allocate its committee seats. Democrats countered that the real precedent would be if a member of the chamber made threats against her future colleagues - and the House did nothing. Because the Republicans refused to punish one of their own, the majority said they had to step in.
The House has sanctioned the conspiracy-minded Mrs Greene, but it may have started a new cycle of political retribution.
Ahead of the vote, Mrs Pelosi said she was "profoundly concerned" by Republicans accepting "an extreme conspiracy theorist".
Chuy Garcia, of Illinois, said Mrs Greene's floor speech had come across as "premeditated".
"I did not hear remorse and I didn't hear an apology," Mr Garcia said. "It's all about spin and I think she'll probably try to raise a lot of money from it. I think it's disgraceful."
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said before the vote: "I have never encountered a situation like the one before us now, where a member has made such vile and hurtful statements, engaged in the harassment of colleagues and expressed support for political violence."
Jimmy Gomez, of California, vowed to press ahead with a resolution to expel Mrs Greene from Congress altogether. Under section five of the US Constitution, a house can expel a member with a two-thirds majority, meaning that there would have to be significant support from Republicans in the narrowly divided House of Representatives. Analysis by Alistair Coleman, BBC Monitoring
Marjorie Taylor Greene has said that she stopped believing in the QAnon conspiracy in 2018
However, she continued to allude to ideas pushed by QAnon believers.
In a 2019 video she claimed that then-Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg was being played by a body double.
The idea stemmed from the macabre conspiracy theory that Ginsburg's death - which actually did occur, later, in September 2020 - was somehow being covered up. Odd as it sounds, in feverish QAnon groups where the rumour was born, whispers about imposters and political "body doubles" are fairly common.
In December 2020, she insisted in a now-deleted social media post that the QAnon community was "exposing truth".
And somewhat prophetically, in a February 2019 video post she called for people to flood the US Capitol building to demonstrate against Democrats. The month before, she "liked" a post saying that it would be quicker to remove House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "with a bullet to the head".
She refused to address these issues when questioned Friday. Mrs Greene may have left overt support for QAnon behind, but it appears she's still paying attention to what's being said in conspiracy-minded groups.
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy vowed retribution whenever his party next controls the lower chamber of Congress.
Accusing Democrats of a double standard, he referred to the 2019 anti-Semitism furore when Minnesota lawmaker Ilhan Omar implied US politicians only supported Israel because of lobby money, and Mrs Pelosi appeared with her that same month on a magazine cover.
On Wednesday, Mr McCarthy condemned Mrs Greene's past remarks, but refused to punish her.
Jim Jordan of Ohio told the floor: "So who's next? Who will the cancel culture attack next?"
He assailed Democrats for stoking unsubstantiated claims that Mr Trump secretly plotted with Russia to win the 2016 election.
"I've heard several times today from the Democrats: conspiracy theory. The Democrats peddled the biggest conspiracy theory of all time - the Russia hoax!" | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | February 2021 | ['(R-GA)', '(BBC)'] |
Hugo Chávez, the President of Venezuela, announces that he has cancer again. Preparing to travel to Havana, Cuba, for further cancer surgery, he named Vice President Nicolás Maduro to carry out his legacy if he is unable to remain in office. | ORURO, Bolivia — President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela announced Saturday in Caracas that he would have to undergo another operation for cancer, and he designated his vice president, Nicolás Maduro, as his successor if he should prove unable to continue to lead the country.
Mr. Chávez, appearing somber and contemplative, made the announcement in a televised address from the presidential palace. Mr. Maduro sat to his left, and several other cabinet members were also present.
It was the first time that Mr. Chávez had said publicly whom he wanted as his successor. Mr. Chávez said that he would fly to Havana on Sunday for the operation. The announcement came just weeks after he was elected to a new six-year term, beginning in early January.
He said Saturday that tests immediately after his re-election found no cancer. But he said he later experienced swelling and pain. He went to Cuba on Nov. 27 for what the government said was hyperbaric treatment meant to aid in healing.
Exhaustive tests at the time found “some malignant cells,” Mr. Chávez said.
“With the favor of God, as on the previous occasions, we will be victorious,” he added.
But he acknowledged the possibility that he may not be able to continue as president or begin his new term. If he is unable to do so, the Constitution says that new elections would have to be called within 30 days.
In that case, he said, “my strong opinion, as clear as the full moon, irrevocable, absolute, total” is that “you should elect Nicolás Maduro” as the new president.
“I ask it from my heart,” he added.
Mr. Chávez said that he was in a significant amount of pain and that his doctors had urged him to have the operation no later than Friday, but he had insisted on postponing it so that he could return briefly from Cuba, where he had been undergoing medical treatment. He flew back to Caracas on Friday.
Mr. Chávez first received a cancer diagnosis in June 2011. He had surgery and chemotherapy, but in February he said the cancer had returned. He then had another operation, followed by radiation treatment.
He has refused to say what kind of cancer he has, or exactly where in his body it had appeared.
Mr. Maduro is a former bus driver and legislator who has served for years as Venezuela’s foreign minister. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | December 2012 | ['(AP via Huffington Post)', '(The New York Times)', '(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
Protests calling for Assange's release occur across Spain. | Protests have taken place across Spain calling for the release of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who is facing extradition from the UK to Sweden for alleged sexual offences. Hundreds of people gathered outside the British embassy in Madrid calling for him to be freed.
Wikileaks is publishing insights from hundreds of thousands of sensitive US diplomatic and military documents.
The demonstrators believe Mr Assange's detention is politically motivated.
The whistle-blowing website has angered and embarrassed governments around the world through its publication in recent weeks of classified US diplomatic cables.
Mr Assange was detained in London on Tuesday after Sweden secured an international warrant for his arrest. Prosecutors in Sweden say they want to question him in connection with the sexual offence allegations. He was refused bail by a British court and has said he will fight extradition.
There have also been calls from some in the US for his arrest and prosecution on charges related directly to Wikileaks' activity.
While supporters online have mounted cyber-protests against Mr Assange's detention, Saturday's protests were some of the first street demonstrations in support of Wikileaks.
Wearing face masks associated with the "Anonymous" group of hackers - which launched cyber attacks after Mr Assange's arrest in the UK - the crowd in Madrid shouted for his freedom, outside the vast glass tower that houses the British embassy
Many of the demonstrators were angry at some of the revelations in the cables, says the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Madrid.
These include the suggestion Spain came under pressure to stop a criminal investigation into the killing of Jose Couso, a Spanish cameraman who died when American soldiers fired a tank round into his hotel in Baghdad. The Free Wikileaks website, which organised the demonstrations, said protests were also planned for other Spanish cities, including Barcelona, Valencia and Seville. It called for the full restoration of Wikileaks' website, which was denied hosting services by Amazon after the first of the leaked cables were published two weeks ago. The protest organisers also demanded that Visa and MasterCard restore credit card services because, it said, no one had proven Mr Assange's guilt.
Our correspondent says the issue of freedom of speech is sensitive for Spaniards, who only emerged from four decades of authoritarian rule in the 1970s.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | December 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The New Zealand Herald)', '[permanent dead link]'] |
64 people are killed in anti-government marches. , , | At least 49 people have been killed in clashes in Egypt as the country marks the anniversary of the 2011 uprising which overthrew President Hosni Mubarak, the health ministry says.
Rival demonstrations of supporters and opponents of the military-backed government took place in Cairo.
But police broke up anti-government protests, and arrests were reported in Cairo and Alexandria.
Hundreds have died since July when the army deposed President Mohammed Morsi.
Extra security measures were in place for Saturday.
Flags and banners
Egyptian Interior Minister Muhammad Ibrahim had urged Egyptians not to be afraid to go to events marking the anniversary of the uprising.
Thousands of supporters of the military and the government gathered in high-profile locations including Tahrir Square - the focal point of the 18-day 2011 popular revolt.
Participants waved Egyptian flags and banners showing army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whom many urged to run for president.
Meanwhile on Saturday, an army helicopter crashed in the restive Sinai peninsula, with an unconfirmed report that its crew of five soldiers was dead.
A large car bomb exploded near a police building in Suez, at the southern entrance of the Suez canal, with reports that nine people were injured.
At least 18 people died in violence on Friday.
The BBC's Yolande Knell, in Cairo, says that three years on from an uprising that raised hopes of political reform in the Arab world's most populated country, rival demonstrations are showing the deep divisions. There is an extreme anti-Islamist emphasis at pro-government rallies, with chants for "the execution of the Brotherhood" and fury at anyone believed to be critical of the post-coup leadership, reports said.
At anti-government protests, police chase protesters into side streets, firing live rounds as well as tear gas and birdshot.
One of those killed was a member of the April 6 movement, which led protests against Mubarak before and during the 2011 uprising and also opposed Mr Morsi, the group said.
Scores of arrests have been reported in Cairo and Egypt's second city, Alexandria - not just of Islamist supporters of deposed President Morsi, but secular opponents of the military government who have also been protesting.
"The only thing allowed is Sisi revolutionaries," one of the activists, blogger Wael Khalil, told the Associated Press news agency.
"This was supposed to be a day to mark the revolution... I don't get it. Do they think that there will be a working democracy this way?"
Al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste - detained by Egyptian authorities for nearly a month - has written a letter from solitary confinement, describing Egypt's prisons as "overflowing with anyone who opposes or challenges the government". The Anti-Coup Alliance, led by Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, called in a statement for 18 days of protests beginning on Saturday, mirroring the 18 days of protests that three years ago led to Mr Mubarak stepping down.
The Brotherhood has regularly held protests since the overthrow of Mr Morsi. Hundreds of its supporters have been killed, and thousands detained.
It has been declared a "terrorist organisation" and accused by the interim government of being behind a string of violent attacks in recent months, which the Brotherhood denies.
In a defiant statement on Saturday, the Brotherhood vowed not to leave the streets "until it fully regains its rights and breaks the coup and puts the killers on trial", reported the Associated Press news agency.
| Armed Conflict | January 2014 | ['(Al-Ahram)', '(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
The Prosecutor General of Russia Yury Chaika says that France today extradited Alexei Viktorovich Kuznetsov, a former Finance Minister of the Moscow Region who is accused of fraud and embezzlement amounting to 14 billion Russian rubles (US$200 million). | MOSCOW, January 3. /TASS/. Former Moscow Region Finance Minister Alexei Kuznetsov accused of fraud and embezzlement to the tune of 14 bln rubles ($ 201.3 mln) has been extradited from France to Russia, the press service of the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office informed TASS.
"The French competent authorities have complied with the request of the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office concerning the extradition of former Moscow Region Finance Minister Alexei Kuznetsov for criminal prosecution under Part 4 of Section 159, Part 4 of Section 160 and Part 3 of Section 174.1 of Russia’s Criminal Code. Kuznetsov is accused of committing fraud (ten crimes), embezzlement (three crimes) and legalizing property acquired as a result of committing crimes (nine crimes)," the Prosecutor-General’s Office said.
According to investigators, Kuznetsov and his accomplices inflicted damage on the Moscow Region government, housing and utility enterprises and the Mosobltransinvest company to the tune of over 14 bln rubles.
On January 3, Kuznetsov accompanied by officers of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service and the Russian Interpol Bureau was extradited to Russia. "This became possible due the fact that the senior officials of the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office place special emphasis on international cooperation and are actively involved in it. Permanent cooperation with our French counterparts makes it possible for us to overcome the existing barriers caused by differences in our legal systems," the Prosecutor-General’s Office noted. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2019 | ['[ru]', '(TASS)'] |
Rodolfo Torre Cantu, a leading candidate in a Mexican, state election is assassinated near Ciudad Victoria. | Mexico City, Mexico (CNN) -- A gubernatorial candidate in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, was killed by gunfire Monday morning near Ciudad Victoria, a top government official reported.
The candidate, identified as Rodolfo Torre Cantu, belonged to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, known by its Spanish acronym PRI.
"This is an absolutely reproachable act that fills all of Mexican society with indignation," Interior Secretary Fernando Gomez Mont said Monday afternoon in a brief televised statement. "All of Mexico should condemn this cowardly act."
Three other people, including Torre's campaign manager, also were killed in the ambush, Gomez Mont said.
A Tamaulipas state lawmaker, Enrique Blackmore, was among those killed. Another four were wounded and transported to the Doctor Norberto Trevino General Hospital in Tamaulipas, where they were under heavy guard, the government-run Notimex news agency said.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon said that the federal government would give its unconditional support to the investigation of Monday's killing. "This is an aggression not just against a citizen, but against all of society," Calderon said. Torre's killing was an attack on the democratic institutions of Mexico, he said. Calderon said that the fight against drug cartels must continue, and that organized crime cannot be allowed to interfere with elections. Mexico holds elections Sunday for 12 governorships and state and municipal offices. Torre was considered a front-runner in his race.
Election officials in Tamaulipas were to meet Monday to discuss whether Sunday's elections would be postponed because of the killing.
In a statement, Torre's political party expressed its condolences for those killed.
The assassination will "inevitably contribute to the disturbance of this (election) process that we see as the adequate path to reach robust democracy, as opposed to those who have preferred violence," PRI leader Beatriz Paredes said. "Nothing will intimidate us," the statement added. Torre was the second Mexican politician killed this month.
Gunmen shot and killed Guadalupe Mayor Jesus Manuel Lara Rodriguez on June 19 as his wife and child watched. | Famous Person - Death | June 2010 | ['(Times Live South Africa)', '(CNN)'] |
The Soyuz–MS spacecraft Sarmat, carrying Hazza Al Mansouri, the first United Arab Emirates astronaut, and Expedition 61 crew members Jessica Meir and Oleg Skripochka, is launched to the International Space Station. It was the final flight of the Soyuz–FG launch vehicle – all future Soyuz MS spacecraft launches will be conducted with the Soyuz–2. | Updated on: September 25, 2019 / 7:19 PM
/ CBS News
A Soyuz rocket carrying a Russian commander, a NASA co-pilot and a United Arab Emirates guest cosmonaut blasted off from Kazakhstan on Wednesday, chased down the International Space Station and glided in for a picture-perfect docking, kicking off an unprecedented end-of-year schedule that includes up to a dozen spacewalks.
With Soyuz MS-15/61S commander Oleg Skripochka at the controls, flanked on the left by flight engineer Jessica Meir and on the right by Hazza Ali Almansoori, the Soyuz-FG rocket roared to life and climbed away at 9:57:43 a.m. ET (6:57 p.m. local time), the moment Earth's rotation carried the pad into the plane of the station's orbit.
The launching came one day after the Japanese space agency launched an unpiloted HTV cargo ship toward the station carrying a set of replacement batteries for the lab's solar power system and equipment to help repair a $2 billion cosmic ray detector.
After a problem-free climb to space, Skripochka and Meir monitored a four-orbit rendezvous with the space station, moving in for docking at the aft port of the Russian Zvezda module at 3:42 p.m.
Hatches were opened 2 ½ hours later, after extensive leak checks, and the Soyuz crew was welcomed aboard by Expedition 60 commander Alexey Ovchinin, fellow cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Christina Koch and Drew Morgan.
"Coming in through the hatch and seeing all these familiar faces ... it feels like home already," Meir said in a traditional post-docking video chat with family and friends waiting at the Baikonur Cosmodrome where the flight began. "It's going to be an amazing six months."
And a very busy few weeks right off the bat. The first major item on the expanded crew's agenda is arrival of the HTV cargo ship Saturday morning. Five spacewalks are planned in November to replace 12 aging batteries with six more powerful lithium-ion power packs carried up in the HTV's cargo bay.
Another half dozen EVAs are planned over the next two months to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, an unprecedented sequence that will come amid ongoing cargo delivery missions, a full slate of on-board research, a Russian spacewalk and possible visits by commercial crew ships being built by Boeing and SpaceX.
Meir, who holds a private pilot's license and a doctorate in marine biology, served as Skripochka's co-pilot in the Soyuz's cramped cockpit, trained to take over in an emergency and fly the spacecraft if needed. She's also received spacewalk training and hopes to venture outside the station at some point during her stay.
Skripochka is making his third trip to the station and is expected to participate in a Russian spacewalk in November. He is a veteran of three previous EVAs.
"He's a great guy," Meir said. "He's an experienced cosmonaut, so he brings a lot of knowledge and experience to the table for us. It's my first spaceflight and Hazza Ali Almansoori — the very first astronaut from the United Arab Emirates — is also brand new, he's only been training as an astronaut for a year. So we often look to Oleg for advice."
Almansoori is the 10th "Spaceflight Participant" to visit the lab complex and the first since Cirque du Soleil's Guy Laliberte in 2009.
"This mission is a great milestone, for me personally and for my country, the United Arab Emirates, and for the whole Arab region in general," Almansoori said in a preflight briefing. "I'm looking forward to joining the crew on the station and to work with them on a daily basis and to conduct experiments. I'm looking forward to coming back with knowledge and experience to share with everyone."
A jet fighter pilot, Almansoori is sponsored by the UAE government. But as with earlier "space tourists," he will enjoy a relatively short stay in orbit — eight days — before returning to Earth on October 3 with Ovchinin and Hague, who are wrapping up a 202-day mission.
Ovchinin, Hague and Koch took off aboard the Soyuz MS-12/58S spacecraft on March 14. Koch's stay aboard the station has been extended to February and she will join Skvortsov and Parmitano for the ride home aboard their Soyuz MS-13/59S spacecraft after nearly a year — 328 days — in space.
Koch will set a new record for longest single flight by a female astronaut December 28, moving past Peggy Whitson's mark of 289 days.
Almansoori will take Koch's seat aboard the MS-12/58S ferry ship coming down Octotber 3. Morgan, who launched with Skvortsov and Parmitano on July 20, will join Skripochka and Meir when they return to Earth next April. His flight will span 255 days.
The Soyuz launching Wednesday, along with Japan's launch of an HTV cargo ship Tuesday (U.S. time), kicks off one of the most challenging station schedules ever attempted with up to 11 U.S. spacewalks planned between now and the end of the year and a Russian EVA in November.
Along with the HTV-8 arrival Saturday, the crew expects to welcome three more cargo ships and, possibly, Boeing's CST-100 Starliner crew ferry ship if NASA clears it for launch before the end of the year on a long-awaited unpiloted test flight.
Boeing and SpaceX are both building commercial crew ferry ships to end NASA's sole reliance on the Soyuz. But the program has suffered a series of funding shortfalls and technical problems, and it's not yet clear when either company will be clear to launch astronaut crews on initial test flights.
It's a critical issue for NASA because the Russians only plan to launch two Soyuz spacecraft next year, one in March and the other in October. In the absence of an American ferry ship, the station crew will drop from six to three next April when Skripochka, Meir and Morgan return to Earth.
SpaceX's first piloted test flight, known as Demo-2, is on hold following an explosion during a ground test in April that destroyed an earlier vehicle. The Demo-2 mission, whenever it eventually flies, will carry two NASA astronauts to the station for an eight-day mission.
Boeing's first piloted test flight, a mission known as CFT, will last a full six months, and that is the flight NASA is counting on to keep the station fully staffed until one or both companies begin operational crew rotation flights.
"A lot of the commercial crew dates have been a little bit in flux lately," Meir said. "But it does look like we should be seeing the (unpiloted) Boeing flight, I think that will happen during our mission, and I've been receiving training on the ground to help make sure that that mission is successful.
"We do also, of course, hope we see some of the first commercial crew astronauts during our mission. That would be excellent. ... The key is being flexible and being able to adapt. That's something our training really allows us to do. We'll be ready for any scenario."
The upcoming spacewalks pose the most significant near-term challenge with five needed to install the batteries brought up aboard the HTV-8 spacecraft and up to a half dozen needed to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a high-priority particle physics experiment mounted on the station's power truss.
The AMS instrument was not designed to be repaired by spacewalking astronauts and NASA planners say the EVAs needed to fix a failing pump and carry out other upgrades represent the most complex spacewalks since repairs of the Hubble Space Telescope. The AMS EVAs will be carried out by Parmitano and Morgan.
The battery installation work is not as technically complex, but it poses additional challenges, requiring spacewalkers to work near the limit of the robot arm's reach on the far left end of the station's solar power truss. NASA has not yet named the astronauts who will carry out the battery work, but Meir, Koch and Morgan have all been trained.
"I'm really looking forward to the potential to do a spacewalk, since that's really what I've always envisioned myself doing, really, my whole life," Meir said.
The station's power truss stretches the length of a football field and features eight huge solar wings, four on each end arranged in pairs. The arrays rotate like slow-motion paddle wheels as the station flies through its orbit to maximize the amount of sunlight reaching the solar cells.
When the station is in sunlight, power is fed directly to the lab's myriad electrical systems. At the same time, they re-charge four sets of massive batteries housed at the base of each set of arrays. When the station moves into orbital darkness, the batteries seamlessly kick in to keep the station powered.
The station's eight electrical power channels originally were supported by 48 nickel-hydrogen — NiH2 — batteries, six per channel. Twenty-four batteries, in two sets of 12, were mounted at the bases of the solar array wings on the starboard, or right, side of the station's main truss with two sets of 12 on the port, or left, side.
But the original batteries have lost strength over the years and NASA is in the process of replacing all four sets with 24 smaller, more efficient lithium-ion — Li-Ion — batteries. The replacement units pack twice the punch, so only six are needed per set.
The HTV-6 cargo ship delivered the first set of replacements in December 2016. They were installed on the starboard 4, or S4, solar array segment during two spacewalks in January 2017. NASA installed a second set, delivered by the HTV-7 cargo ship, last September on the port 4, or P4 arrays.
The third set, launched Tuesday, will be installed on the far left end, or port 6, segment of the power truss.
Assuming the work goes smoothly, NASA managers hope to begin the AMS repair work in early to mid November. Five to six spacewalks may be necessary.
The $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a project led by Nobel laureate Samuel Ting, was designed to detect high energy cosmic rays and measure any antimatter that might be present to learn more about dark matter, dark energy and by extension, the evolution of the cosmos. The instrument was carried up on the next-to-last shuttle mission and installed in May 2011
"It's a pretty incredible piece of machinery, it's actually measuring high energy radiation, cosmic rays coming from different stars, it is looking for evidence of antimatter and dark matter to begin to answer more questions about the origin of our universe," Meir said.
"Unfortunately, one of the pumps that's vital to the thermal control system of that instrument is broken. Well, it's not broken yet, but it is degrading. And so we're going to do a series of spacewalks during the mission in order to fix that pump. ... It wasn't designed to be fixed (in space)."
That makes the work "kind of like the Hubble Space Telescope scenario where you didn't actually design tools for it or interfaces for it," Meir said. "So it's a very complex and challenging spacewalk, and we're very excited to conduct that during our mission."
First published on September 25, 2019 / 9:02 AM
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Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News. He covered 129 space shuttle missions, every interplanetary flight since Voyager 2's flyby of Neptune and scores of commercial and military launches. Based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Harwood is a devoted amateur astronomer and co-author of "Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia." | New achievements in aerospace | September 2019 | ['(Spaceflight Now)', '(CBS News)'] |
Colombia makes a formal diplomatic protest to Venezuela over the latter's alleged violation of Colombian airspace by a military helicopter. | Colombia has made a formal diplomatic protest to Venezuela after what it says was a violation of its airspace by a Venezuelan military helicopter.
Colombia's foreign ministry said the helicopter had spent 20 minutes above the city of Arauca, near the border, where a big military base is situated. The defence minister said his forces had shown restraint in not responding. The two neighbours have been involved in a row over Colombia's decision to grant the US access to military bases. The Colombian foreign ministry issued a statement calling the alleged incursion "unacceptable". Colombian Defence Minister Gabriel Silva also condemned it and praised his forces for not responding. The BBC's Jeremy McDermott in Colombia says relations between Colombia and Venezuela are at a historic low. 'Prepare for war'
Last year, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez broke off diplomatic relations after Colombia decided to sign a pact with Washington, allowing the US military access to several Colombian bases. He also blocked a wide variety of Colombian imports, with bilateral trade suffering a 70% drop. Mr Chavez also moved troops to the border, blew up two bridges linking the two nations and, in November, urged his armed forces to "prepare for war" with Colombia. He says Colombia's deal with the US is a threat to Venezuela. | Protest_Online Condemnation | January 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(RIA Novosti)', '(Colombia Reports)'] |
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summons the Dutch ambassador in Moscow after surveillance equipment was discovered in the vehicle of a Russian military attaché in The Hague. |
A general view shows the headquarters of the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow, Russia, June 13, 2014. /VCG
Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday it had summoned the Dutch ambassador in Moscow to protest after it said surveillance equipment was found in the car of a Russian military attache in the Netherlands.
"Russian Foreign Ministry lodged a resolute protest to the Dutch ambassador over the surveillance equipment found in the car of the Russian military attache in The Hague," the ministry said in a statement.
"These unfriendly actions further complicate the already difficult relations between the two countries," the statement said. Moscow called for immediate measures to prevent similar incidents in the future, according to the ministry.
The ministry called on the Netherlands to take measures to stop such incidents, stressing that "such unfriendly actions complicate already difficult bilateral relations."
According to Dutch public television, Prime Minister Mark Rutte declined to comment. In recent years, espionage cases have multiplied between Russia and Western governments, with relations at their lowest since the Ukrainian crisis and Moscow's annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | August 2020 | ['(CGTN)'] |
Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase agree to a US$75 billion plan designed to heal the credit markets. | Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase are said to have agreed on the structure of a $75bn (£36bn) scheme that will buy debt of weakening value.
It is hoped that the fund will prevent a mass dumping of investments soured by the US home loans crisis, which has led to downgrades of packages of debt.
None of the banks were immediately available for comment.
News of the agreement was reported by the New York Times and the Bloomberg news agency.
It had been thought that the scheme had stalled after Citigroup warned earlier this month it faced losses linked to bad US home loan debt of between $8bn and $11bn.
On the day the agreement was said to have been reached last Friday, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase both confessed that they too had been hit by the weakening credit market and warned that they faced losses as a result.
Terms
Under the terms of the plan designed to help prop up flagging securities linked to deteriorating US mortgage debt, Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase will each put in about $5bn into the pot.
This will contribute to a planned $75bn fund that will act as a purchaser of last resort for assets that have severely fallen out of favour with investors.
The banks will now canvas industry colleagues to raise the required cash.
If successful, the superfund could be in operation by December.
Scepticism
But many analysts are sceptical about the potential benefits of such a backup vehicle.
They say it would not be able to provide adequate support to the troubled sector specialising in debt packages, which in total is worth hundreds of billions of pounds.
In addition, it is widely believed that the mortgage and credit card-related debt held in these securities will never recover their former appeal and therefore the fund will just delay the pain from losses that are inevitable.
One of its few virtues, they say, is that it will hopefully prevent the wide-scale dumping of distressed securities and pave the way for an orderly wind-down which would allow investors to reclaim some of their original investments.
Credit crisis
The credit crunch was triggered by record defaults among risky mortgage borrowers in the US, known as sub-prime.
It turned out that much of that debt had been repackaged and sold to banks around the world.
The value of those debt packages was called into question, leaving banks reluctant to lend money to each other, because there was such uncertainty about who had the most exposure to such debt products.
It was hoped that the setting up of a fund to create a market for these debt products could prevent panic selling. | Government Policy Changes | November 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Refugee camps in Darfur are hit by hepatitis E, a deadly virus. | Nairobi Relief agencies in the troubled Sudanese state of West Darfur have set
up a working group to monitor and coordinate activities to stem the spread
of Hepatitis E, as cases of the disease continue to be reported, the United
Nations said.
The UN, in a update issued on Thursday, said more cases had been
reported in the areas of Mournei, Kerenek and Foro Buranga. The three towns
host large concentrations of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have
fled their homes as a result of attacks by militia, and fighting between
Sudanese government forces and rebels.
The deadly viral infection was first reported on 22 May. Some 27 people
had died across Darfur region by 15 August, the World Health Organisation
(WHO) said. Over 1,000 had been affected. Most of the those infected were
female and suffered from jaundice, fever, abdominal pain, vomiting and some
were in coma.
Apart from strengthening surveillance, mass chlorination of water, an
aggressive hygiene campaign, construction of pit latrines and provision of
safe drinking water especially to pregnant women had been undertaken, WHO
said.
Hepatitis is a waterborne disease usually transmitted through water that
is contaminated with feaces. It kills five percent of those infected, and is
especially dangerous to pregnant women. According to WHO, refugees and IDPs
living in overcrowded camps are at the highest risk of infection.
WHO said it was conducting additional field investigations aimed at
enhancing control measures and gaining a better understanding of how the
virus was transmitted in the IDP and refugee camps.
Last week, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) warned that unless immediate
action was taken to avert the spread of the disease in Darfur, it could
spread quickly among the hundreds of thousands of IDPs living in camps with
poor sanitation.
It said while Hepatitis E usually had a fatality rate of 1 to 4 percent,
the virus was several times more lethal when it infected pregnant
women.
"This strain of the disease can be fatal for up to 20 percent of
pregnant women, and is particularly dangerous for those in their third
trimesters," Henia Dakkak, a doctor working for UNFPA said in a
statement.
In one camp where the virus had been detected in West Darfur, UNFPA
said, six of the eight people who died were pregnant women. "But this
outbreak highlights the urgency of greater international support for all
sectors, from food to water and sanitation to health care," UNFPA's
Executive Director, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, said.
Meanwhile, WHO said the incidence of malaria in Darfur was on the
increase. Between 3 July and 6 August, some 104,859 cases were reported in
the IDP camps. While 80 percent of the Sudanese people already lived in
malaria endemic areas, the IDPs, especially those in camps near areas that
had been flooded by recent heavy rains areas, faced a greater risk. | Disease Outbreaks | August 2004 | ['(AllAfrica.com)'] |
A projectile fired from Yemen into the city of Najran kills a Saudi Arabian citizen. | Saudi citizen killed in Yemen border shelling
A Saudi citizen was killed in shelling fired across the border from Yemen into the southwest of Saudi Arabia on Sunday, the official PA news agency reported. A shell fell on a house around dawn in Najran province, civil defense department spokesman Ali bin Omair al-Shahran was quoted as saying. SPA did not say who carried out the shelling, but Houthi militias and forces loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh have carried out similar attacks since war erupted in Yemen four months ago. A Saudi-led Arab alliance launched a military campaign on March 26 to end Houthi control over much of Yemen and to return President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi from exile. A Saudi citizen was killed in shelling fired across the border from Yemen into the southwest of Saudi Arabia on Sunday, the official PA news agency reported. A shell fell on a house around dawn in Najran province, civil defense department spokesman Ali bin Omair al-Shahran was quoted as saying. SPA did not say who carried out the shelling, but Houthi militias and forces loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh have carried out similar attacks since war erupted in Yemen four months ago. A Saudi-led Arab alliance launched a military campaign on March 26 to end Houthi control over much of Yemen and to return President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi from exile. | Armed Conflict | August 2015 | ['(Al-Arabiya)'] |
The Dutch Court of Appeal increases the sentence of a man who twice attempted to travel to Syria from 31 months partially suspended to 40 months. The man was previously convicted of preparing terrorist crimes and trying to participate in a terrorist organisation. | A Dutch terror suspect who twice failed to enter Syria has been given a higher jail sentence on appeal, reports RTL Nieuws.
The 24-year-old man from The Hague, known as Martijn N., has been sentenced to 40 months’ imprisonment for preparing terrorist crimes and trying to participate in a terrorist organisation.
He had earlier been sentenced to 31 months in jail, some of which was suspended, but the public prosecution service protested that this was too light a sentence.
The court of appeal agreed, saying there was a danger that he would recommence terrorist activities and recommending a longer punishment than the 36 months the prosecutor had demanded.
The man had apparently not shown that he wanted to take part in Dutch society in a constructive way, according to press reports of the case in The Hague. He was also unprepared to follow conditions to mitigate the sentence.
Son of a Dutch father and Tanzanian mother, he reportedly became more extreme in his Islamic beliefs from the age of 18, and tried to enter Syria from Turkey in 2014 and 2016 – even though by this time he was registered as a terror suspect and had seen his passport withdrawn.
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Many thanks to everyone who has donated to DutchNews.nl in recent days!
We could not provide this service without you. If you have not yet made a contribution, you can do so here. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | April 2018 | ['(Dutch\xa0News)'] |
Voters in Mexico elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador as their new President in a landslide victory. Additionally, 128 senators and 500 deputies were also chosen. |
MEXICO CITY — Mexicans on Sunday appear likely to elect a left-wing populist president who has campaigned on standing up to President Donald Trump, potentially ushering in a more confrontational era of U.S.-Mexico relations on everything from immigration policy to trade. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a former mayor of Mexico City who styles himself as a champion for rural Mexico, has enjoyed a double-digit lead over the other top candidates from the country’s major parties for months.
His vows to eradicate violence and official corruption — long unaddressed by outgoing Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s ruling PRI party — have played a major role in lifting him to the head of the pack. But his pledge to defend Mexicans from Trump, coupled with his nationalistic rhetoric, has also bolstered his standing with Mexican voters. López Obrador traveled through the U.S. after Trump was elected to advocate for Mexican immigrants living in the states and even published a book called "Oye, Trump" ("Listen Up, Trump") that condemns Trump’s plans to build a border wall and “his attempts to persecute migrant workers.”
Mexico “will never be the piñata of any foreign government,” López Obrador, 64, told more than 90,000 supporters at a rally here to close out his campaign on Wednesday.
The election of López Obrador — like Trump, known for his impulsive and nationalistic tendencies — could further strain U.S-Mexico relations. The candidate, nicknamed AMLO, says illegal migration to the U.S. should be addressed with economic development programs, not a border wall. And while he supports continued talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, he’s also been a critic of free trade in the past, arguing that Mexico needs to be more self-sufficient. “AMLO won’t hold back the way Peña Nieto has,” said Mark Feierstein, former senior director for western hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council. “Peña Nieto has been very passive toward Trump and toward the United States.”
López Obrador, a two-time failed presidential candidate, is now running as the candidate for the left-wing National Regeneration Movement (Morena), a party he founded in 2014. He frames himself as a political outsider even though he has been a politician for decades. His popularity stems from widespread distrust of the ruling parties, including Peña Nieto’s PRI, which held power from 1929 to 2000 and regained the presidency in 2012. Less than 20 percent of Mexicans support Peña Nieto’s administration, according to Mexican consulting firm GEA-ISA.
López Obrador’s opponents — PRI’s José Antonio Meade and Ricardo Anaya, who’s running under an unlikely coalition of right-left parties — have also said they will demand respect from Trump. Being critical of Trump is seen as an easy way to unite Mexicans, who widely dislike the U.S. president. More than 80 percent of Mexicans have a negative opinion of Trump, according to a June poll by Mexican consulting firm Consulta Mitofsky.
Peña Nieto’s failure to stand up to Trump’s insults against Mexico and its people further hurt his popularity, particularly after he welcomed then-candidate Trump to Mexico in 2016. In 2017, Peña Nieto faced widespread criticism for sitting silently next to the American president on the sidelines of the G-20 meetings in Germany while Trump repeated that Mexico would pay for a border wall. In April, Peña Nieto finally gave a defiant address, telling Trump to respect Mexico because challenges in the U.S.-Mexico relationship “never justify a threatening attitude or lack of respect between the countries.” The speech was widely praised, even by López Obrador, but many argued that it came too late. Against that backdrop, López Obrador’s fiery rhetoric is resonating with voters. López Obrador “answers to his domestic constituencies, especially as many feel that Peña Nieto has been like Trump’s doormat,” said Ana Quintana, senior analyst on Latin America and the Western Hemisphere at the Heritage Foundation. By BRENT D. GRIFFITHS and EMILY GOLDBERG
Despite the tough talk, López Obrador says he wants to work with Trump. He’s proposed a large-scale project that will strengthen cooperation between North America and Central American countries. The effort, López Obrador has said, would lead to more jobs and higher salaries — two points that would drive down illegal migration and cross-border violence. He also wants to hammer out a NAFTA agreement that will lead to higher wages for Mexicans, something that Trump supports.
The change in administrations could spark a new era of cooperation, Marcos Fastlicht, one of López Obrador’s top advisers, told POLITICO. “A door opens for opportunity with Andrés Manuel,” said Fastlicht, a Mexican businessman who has been friends with López Obrador for about 20 years. “He’s willing to speak with [Trump], willing to sit and negotiate, but part of this requires we wait and see.” Roberta Jacobson, who retired in May from her post as U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said López Obrado told her it was his priority for Mexico to have a good relationship with the U.S. during her meetings with him. “Whether he can do that, whether any Mexican president can do that, is unclear to me,” she said.
Jorge Castañeda, a former Mexican foreign minister who served during the presidency of conservative Vicente Fox, put it another way.
“López Obrador will try and be prudent, more tolerant,” said Castañeda, who is currently campaign coordinator for Anaya. “But Trump is Trump.” | Government Job change - Election | July 2018 | ['(Politico)', '(BBC)'] |
The first round of the first election in Uzbekistan after Islam Karimov's death takes place. | TASHKENT -- Votes are being tallied after Uzbekistan's first parliamentary elections since President Shavkat Mirziyoev came to power nearly three years ago.
Mirziyoev has promised reforms since taking over leadership of a country that boasts Central Asia's second-largest economy but has also been among the region's most authoritarian following independence from the Soviet Union.
The Central Election Commission said preliminary results from the December 22 vote would be announced at 2 p.m. local time (0900 GMT) on December 23.
The commission said turnout appeared to have been around 70 percent. The elections were being held under the slogan "New Uzbekistan, New Elections."
But analysts said during the campaign that the country's 20 million eligible voters again faced a limited choice, and significant curbs on freedom of assembly and other rights that could make political races truly competitive. Uzbek Central Election Commission Chairman Mirzo-Ulugbek Abdusalomonov, speaking on election day, appeared to acknowledge the limited role of any true opposition parties so far in the country.
"We hope that our political system will be further developing and the political parties will also be developing," Abdusalomonov told RFE/RL after a midday press conference. "There should be new parties. We expect that alongside the currently existing parties, opposition parties will be established. This is the main thing, because there will be no development without an opposition."
The five political parties running in the parliamentary elections are all represented in the current body, long viewed as a rubber-stamp institution.
The Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (LDPU) currently holds 52 seats, the most in the 150-seat Oliy Majlis, the lower house of parliament. Next is Milli Tiklanish (National Revival party) with 36.
But Mirziyoev has urged lawmakers to take a greater role in policymaking, and preelection debate was said to have been more robust than in years past.
Polls opened early on December 22 in the capital to sunshine despite a light snowfall the evening before.
And although two Uzbek TV channels had round-the-clock election coverage, there was little sign on the streets of Tashkent that the day was anything but a mild first winter's Sunday.
A toy store employee seemed surprised that it was election day but told RFE/RL with a slight grin that he would be voting later. A couple waiting for a bus outside a Russian Orthodox Church said they had other things to do. During the day, there were reports of violations at some polling stations, including attempts by voters to cast multiple ballots.
RFE/RL's Uzbek Service posted a video that appeared to show an attempt to stuff at least 20 ballots into a box at a Ferghana Province polling station.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had warned that many features of past, deeply flawed votes remained in place.
Its election observers were expected to present their conclusions on December 23.
The legal process for registering new parties remains "burdensome and open to arbitrary application," the OSCE warned in an interim report released on December 13. It said the election campaign did not meet international standards. "Very few campaign posters are visible,” it said.
“So far, very little evidence of outdoor campaign activities has been observed," the report said.
At a voting station in Tashkent, Hojiakbar Adulazizov told RFE/RL that if voters were uninformed it was their own fault.
"I believe we live in the 21st century. Everyone has a gadget where they can find any information any minute. It's up to that person, whether he wants to get some kind of information or not," Adulazizov said.
While some media restrictions appear to have been eased under Mirziyoev, Freedom House ranked Uzbekistan "not free" in its Freedom On The Net 2018 assessment and said the Internet environment there remained "repressive." The group cited obstacles to access for many Uzbeks, limits on content, and violations of users' rights. But it noted "a slight opening," along with signs of a newfound willingness to "promote citizen engagement using online tools."
Uzbek Abdumanap Rustavletov said on election day that he was voting to put a new generation in power.
"The future is with the young ones," he said. Voting station No. 220 was relatively quiet by midafternoon on December 22, with two or three people at a time filing in to cast ballots until a group of about 40 men showed up.
A local election official, Murtazin Ravil, told RFE/RL that the group consisted of construction workers who were from outside the city but were temporarily working in Tashkent. He said they had been brought here to give them a chance to vote. The party with some of the boldest promises is Milli Tiklanish, which opposes Uzbekistan's potential entry into a trade bloc led by ally Russia and wants to replace Prime Minister Abdula Aripov with its own candidate.
But Milli Tiklanish backs Mirziyoev's reform agenda, just like all the other four parties. Uzbekistan's political evolution "will need time," the party's chairman Alisher Kadyrov told AFP. "Our problems did not appear yesterday but over a number of years."
Narimon Umarov, the leader of the Adolat (Justice) Social Democratic Party, echoed that sentiment in comments to RFE/RL.
"Our political parties also need to have some real work experience. Freedom of speech is a very difficult thing. It's something that takes real responsibility. We understand that responsibility. We, as a political party, in this election process, got real experience," Umarov said.
Umarov also dismissed criticism that all five parties running in the election support Mirziyoev.
"The president is the leader of the country. The elected president. Therefore, we respect him, we recognize him. On this common process for development, we work together on today's reforms," Umarov said. Though no genuine opposition parties are registered to compete, there was a new party running in these elections: the Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan (OEH), which was registered in January.
However, the new party has already stirred controversy, with reports of some “members” being forced to join. It has also backed plans to build a nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan, prompting some commentators to say it is the only “green” party in the world to support atomic energy. Mirziyoev released more than 50 high-profile political prisoners since coming to power, but there are still unknown numbers locked away. And despite legislation outlawing it, there are continued reports of torture in Uzbekistan's prisons.
U.K.-based The Economist awarded its annual "Country of the Year" prize for the greatest improvement to Uzbekistan, saying "no other country traveled as far."
Glenn Kates is the former managing editor for digital at Current Time, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. He now reports for RFE/RL as a freelancer. | Government Job change - Election | December 2019 | ['(Radio Free Europe)'] |
Iraq Occupation and resistance: The United States formally hands over legal custody of Saddam Hussein to the new Iraqi government. The trial of Saddam Hussein is expected to take place in January. | The former president was "visibly nervous" when he was read his rights, said Salem Chalabi, head of the special tribunal in charge of the trial.
Saddam Hussein will appear in court with 11 other senior members of his former regime on Thursday, where they will hear the charges against them.
Charges are expected to include war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Lost weight
The BBC's Caroline Hawley in Baghdad says it was a small step on what will be a long and complicated legal path, but on Wednesday the first move was made to bring Saddam Hussein to justice. POSSIBLE CHARGES
Invasion of Kuwait
Suppression of Kurd and Shia uprisings
Iran-Iraq War
Gas attack on Kurds
Likely charges for Saddam
Q&A: Putting Saddam on trial
Saddam 'very nervous'
The man who brutalised his country for decades said "good morning" as he entered the room at a secret location to be informed of his rights, she reports. Salam Chalabi, director of the Iraqi Special Tribunal, explained to Saddam Hussein what would happen.
"He was nervous, very nervous, because he did not know what was happening," Mr Chalabi told US ABC television. He said Saddam Hussein no longer had the bushy beard he was seen with in a video after his capture in December last year, and was slimmer.
"We first saw Saddam Hussein and he had lost weight. He was not the towering figure that one used to see on TV before.
Mr Chalabi said that after the proceedings, which lasted a few minutes, the former dictator was ordered "to leave the room".
HAVE YOUR SAY
Turning over Saddam to the Iraqis will definitely give the people a sense of power Rosa J Felix, LA, USA Send us your comments
Former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz was among the 11 other defendants who appeared before the judge.
Mr Chalabi also said another of the defendants, Ali Hasan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his role in poison gas attacks, appeared nervous.
"He looked very scared. He was shaking," Mr Chalabi said.
A spokesman for UK Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed the planned openness for the trials of the leaders of the former regime.
"We have made clear our opposition to the death penalty but Iraq does now have a sovereign government and we must respect that the sovereign Iraqi government is taking charge of governing the country," he said.
US hand forced Saddam Hussein, who was captured by US forces near his home town of Tikrit in December, is unlikely to face a full trial for several months.
The transfer is a symbol of Allawi's new authority
"These people... will face justice before the special
Iraqi court created in January to try members of the former regime for crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes," said interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
The BBC's John Simpson in Baghdad says the interim prime minister has forced the Americans' hand by insisting on the transfer of Saddam Hussein.
Washington had reacted frostily to the idea when it was first suggested earlier this month, he says, but could not refuse without doing serious damage to Mr Allawi's authority.
The International Red Cross said the US would have been breaching the Geneva Convention if it had continued to hold him after the new government had taken over.
'Court of vengeance'
Saddam Hussein is expected to face war crimes charges over the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and subsequent suppression of Shia and Kurdish uprisings, the use of chemical weapons against the Kurds in 1988 and the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
TOP DETAINEES
Tariq Aziz - Deputy PM
Taha Yassin Ramadan - Vice-President
Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tal - Defence Minister Ali Hasan al-Majid - "Chemical Ali"
Watban Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti - Saddam Hussein's half-brother - intelligence minister
Top Iraqi detainees: Full list
If convicted, he could face the death penalty. A member of Saddam Hussein's legal team, Giovanni di Stephano, told the BBC they would prepare his defence once the charges against him were made clear. The lawyer demanded access to his client and an independent medical assessment to see if he was fit to stand trial.
Another lawyer acting for the former president, Emmanuel Ludot, said that Saddam Hussein would refuse to recognise the legality of the court. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | June 2004 | ['(BBC)'] |
A train kills 16 migrant workers who were sleeping on the tracks in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India. According to initial inquiries, the engineer tried to stop the freight train when he saw the workers. | An Indian train killed 16 migrant workers who had fallen asleep on the track on Friday while they were heading back to their home village after losing their jobs in a coronavirus lockdown, police said.
Tens of thousands of people have been walking home from India’s big cities after being laid off because of the lockdown to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus since late March.
The driver tried to stop the freight train when he saw the workers on the tracks near Aurangabad town in the western state of Maharashtra, the railway ministry said, adding it had ordered an inquiry.
Sixteen people were killed and two injured, the state government said in a statement. Small bundles of food, footwear and other belongings were scattered on the tracks after the accident.
“I have just heard the sad news about labourers coming under the train, rescue work is underway,” Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said on Twitter.
Under the lockdown, all public transport has been suspended so migrant workers heading home often have to walk long distances to get there.
The government has extended the lockdown until May 17.
Police said the labourers worked for a steel company and had begun walking towards their village in the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh hundreds of kilometres away, hoping to get a lift from a passing truck.
One of the survivors, Virender Singh, said they had set off on the journey home after waiting for weeks for their contractor to bail them out with a bit of cash.
“Our families in the village were asking us to come back,” he said.
They started walking along railway tracks on Thursday evening and were exhausted after covering nearly 40 km (25 miles) and so stopped, Singh said.
“It seems they were sleeping on the tracks,” C.H. Rakesh, chief public relation officer, south central railway told Reuters.
India’s eight-week long lockdown, one of the world’s most stringent, has helped contain the coronavirus, officials say, but it has hit the poor hard.
Criticism has mounted about how Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has arranged planes to bring back Indians from overseas, while leaving labourers stranded in big cities with little food or cash.
Modi said on Twitter he was anguished by the loss of lives in the train accident and all possible assistance was being provided.
“Shocked by the deaths of migrant workers hit by train. We should be ashamed of how we treat our nation-builders,” said Rahul Gandhi, leader of the main opposition Congress party.
Over the past week, some state governments facing public pressure organised trains and buses to bring back migrant labourers.
But many are trudging great distances in the blistering heat through fields and forests to get home.
Following the accident, the Maharashtra state government asked the railways to operate a few trains to take stranded migrant workers home, its chief minister, Uddhav Thackeray, said.
| Train collisions | May 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
An Iraqi court has issued arrest warrants for two correspondents with a London–based pan–Arab newspaper Asharq al–Awsat over a false news report accusing Iranian pilgrims of sexually harassing Iraqi women. | Baghdad // A Baghdad court has issued arrest warrants for two correspondents with a Saudi newspaper over a false news report accusing Iranian pilgrims of sexually harassing Iraqi women.
A senior source in Iraq’s judiciary said the warrants, based on the penal code’s article 372 on religious hate crimes, were issued against the Asharq Al Awsat daily’s two Baghdad-based Iraqi journalists.
The article, published on Sunday in the London-based pan-Arab newspaper, caused an uproar in Iraq, where the prime minister and several other prominent figures issued public condemnations.
One of the two correspondents, Hamza Mustafa, denied any responsibility for the article and said he was resigning in protest.
Another journalist working for the newspaper in Baghdad, Maad Fayyad, said he had nothing to do with the controversial article.
The pair’s whereabouts on Wednesday were unclear.
Ziad Ajili, from the Baghdad-based Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, condemned the warrants as an “incitement to murder”.
The article was published as Arbaeen, a Shiite pilgrimage that commemorates the 680 AD death of Imam Hussein and is one of the world’s largest religious events, was peaking in the Iraqi shrine city of Karbala.
It quoted a purported World Health Organisation spokesman as saying that after last year’s pilgrimage more than 169 Iraqi women became pregnant out of wedlock. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | November 2016 | ['(The Huffington Post)', '(The Independent)', '(The National)'] |
Wendy Demchick–Alloy, a Montgomery County court judge in Norristown, sentences former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane to serve 10 to 23 months in county jail for leaking confidential grand jury information and then lying about it to investigators. Specifically, she was convicted on August 15 on charges of perjury, false swearing, obstruction of justice, official oppression, and conspiracy. | NORRISTOWN, Pa. (Reuters) - Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane was sentenced on Monday to serve 10 to 23 months in county jail for leaking confidential grand jury information and then lying about it to investigators.
Local DA reacts to sentencing of Pennsylvania's former attorney general
00:51
Kane, 50, the first woman and first Democrat ever elected Pennsylvania attorney general, was convicted in August on charges of perjury, false swearing, obstruction of justice, official oppression and conspiracy. She resigned two days after the jury in Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas handed down its verdict.
In addition, Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy sentenced Kane to eight years of probation.
“A lesser sentence will depreciate the seriousness of the crimes of this defendant,” she said.
Kane, who intends to appeal her conviction, had faced a maximum sentence of 24 years in state prison.
Her lawyer, Marc Steinberg, was not available to comment after the hearing.
Kane was accused of giving information from a grand jury proceeding in 2013 to a Philadelphia Daily News reporter to retaliate against a former state prosecutor, Frank Fina. She believed he had told the Philadelphia Inquirer about her decision to drop prosecution of a case Fina had developed against six black Democratic legislators in Philadelphia.
Grand juries play an important role in the U.S. criminal justice system by deciding if a prosecutor has enough evidence to bring charges against a suspect. Secret deliberations encourage witnesses to speak without fear of retaliation and to protect the reputation of suspects when the jury decides against recommending charges.
Witnesses for the prosecution said the Kane investigation had brought havoc to the attorney general’s office.
“Today is another sad day for the Commonwealth and its citizens,” Bruce Beemer, who replaced Kane, said in a statement after the sentencing.
“The Office of Attorney General is moving forward with steps to restore the public’s confidence in the work that we do and the way that we do it,” he said without specifying his office’s plans.
Kane is the second Pennsylvania attorney general in the past quarter-century to be convicted of crimes committed in office. In 1995, Attorney General Ernie Preate pleaded guilty to mail fraud and served a prison sentence.
More than 25 friends and members of Kane’s family attended the hearing to show support. Several, including Kane’s son Christopher, 15, testified as character witnesses on her behalf.
Frank DeAndrea, a former police chief of Hazleton, told the judge that sending Kane to prison could amount to a death sentence if drug lords she helped convict retaliate.
Demchick-Alloy said Kane had assumed that risk when she decided to commit crimes.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | October 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Environmental activists of the Extinction Rebellion movement in England gather around several printing presses used by the Rupert Murdoch-owned publishing company News Corp in the towns of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, and Knowsley, Merseyside, criticising the coverage of global warming by News Corp-owned newspapers. At least 34 protesters are arrested, while the protests lead to delays in the dissemination of the newspapers. | Distribution of several British newspapers was disrupted on Saturday after climate change activists blockaded printworks used by Rupert Murdoch's News UK, publisher of The Times and The Sun, drawing condemnation from Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Extinction Rebellion said nearly 80 people had blocked roads leading to two printworks, at Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, north east of London, and at Knowsley, near Liverpool. Hertfordshire police said they made 42 arrests and Merseyside police made 30.
Two protesters attached to bamboo and two sitting on the roof of a van block the road, outside Broxbourne newsprinters.
The Murdoch-owned Newsprinters works also print the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times. Campaigners said they had taken the action to highlight what they regard as the newspapers' failure to accurately report on climate change.
But the action was condemned by Johnson. "A free press is vital in holding the government and other powerful institutions to account on issues critical for the future of our country, including the fight against climate change," he said on Twitter.
"It is completely unacceptable to seek to limit the public’s access to news in this way," he tweeted.
A Newsprinters spokeswoman said the disruption meant printing had to be transferred to other sites.
Extinction Rebellion protestors pretend to be dead outside Buckingham Palace on Saturday. The protest movement has organised a week of demonstrations across the UK.
"We apologise sincerely to any readers of The Sun, The Times, the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times who may be unable to buy their usual newspaper this morning due to late deliveries," the spokeswoman said.
"This attack on all of the free press impacted many workers going about their jobs ... This is a matter for the Police and the Home Office," she added.
The Sun pointed out that Saturday's edition carried a piece from veteran naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough.
The blockade was part of more than a week of protests by Extinction Rebellion, which says an emergency response and mass move away from polluting industries and behaviours is needed to avert a looming climate cataclysm.
On Saturday it also protested in central London, including holding a "die-in" in front of Buckingham Palace, where demonstrators lay under white sheets to represent corpses. | Protest_Online Condemnation | September 2020 | ['(DW)', '(Reuters via The Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
Incumbent Ohio Congresswoman Jean Schmidt is defeated in the Republican primary in the 2nd district by Brad Wenstrup. | In the first upset of 2012, Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) lost a primary to Army Reserves Major Brad Wenstrup, a political newbie. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Wenstrup won 49 percent to 43 percent.
Schmidt has represented Ohio’s Cincinnatti-area 2nd district since 2005, when she won a special election against Democratic Iraq War veteran Paul Hackett. She faced a tough primary in 2006 from former Rep. Bob McEwan but has not had a serious challenge from within her party since. “I’m honored that the voters heard our message of change,” Wenstrup said in a statement. “Change that includes strong, ethical leadership. Change that also includes reforming government, cutting spending and unleashing small business owners so they can create jobs.” He challenged Schmidt from the right, targeting her votes for raising the debt ceiling.
Wenstrup had help from the Campaign for Primary Accountability, a new Texas-based super PAC targeting incumbents on both sides of the aisle. The group also backed Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D) against Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D) in Ohio’s 9th district.
“Voters were the victors,” said PAC co-chairmen Leo Linbeck III and Eric O’Keefe in a statement. “In the 2nd and 9th Districts of Ohio, the Campaign for Primary Accountability achieved its goal of greater participation and competition in Congressional primaries.”
Wenstrup’s first political campaign was in 2009, when he unsuccessfully challenged Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory. The Democratic mayor liked his rival enough to appoint him to the city’s Board of Health. Former Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy also lost her primary to former Ohio House minority leader Joyce Beatty in the Democratic primary for Ohio’s new 3rd district. | Government Job change - Election | March 2012 | ['(Washington Post)'] |
Myanmar opposition leader and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi says she would be "above the president" if her National League for Democracy party gets the expected win in the Sunday, November 8, 2015, election. The 2008 constitution, drafted by the military without NLD participation, bars her from becoming President. | The generals who orchestrated Burma’s political transition designed a constitution with a singular purpose: preventing the nation’s democratic icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, from ever becoming President. But three days before landmark nationwide elections, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate made clear that such constitutional trivialities would not stop her should her National League for Democracy (NLD) prevail, as expected, in the Nov. 8 polls. “I will run the government,” Suu Kyi said at a press conference outside her lakeside villa in Burma’s commercial capital, Rangoon. “And we will have a President who will work in accordance with the policies of the NLD.” What will her position be? “Above the President,” Suu Kyi responded. “I have already made plans.”
The military brass that ruled Myanmar, as the country is officially known, has thwarted Suu Kyi before. In 1990, the NLD triumphed in polls, but the junta ignored the result. Suu Kyi spent most of the intervening two decades under house arrest, until her release in late 2010. But isolation only heightened her appeal. Wherever Suu Kyi has gone on the campaign trail over the past couple months, thousands of fans have worshipped at the feet of “the Lady,” as she is fondly known.
There have been many attempts to tarnish Suu Kyi’s halo. On Burma’s lively social media, forces aligned with the military’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party have, without evidence, accused her foreign advisers of being spies intent on destroying national unity. Even Western observers, who have placed Suu Kyi on a pedestal alongside the likes of Nelson Mandela, have lamented a lack of democratic debate within the NLD itself.
At home, extremist Buddhist monks have whispered that Suu Kyi is being swayed by Islamic forces, even though the NLD has not fielded any Muslim candidates. (Muslims officially make up around 5% of Burma’s population.) At the same time, foreign human-rights advocates have been disillusioned by Suu Kyi’s refusal to specifically condemn the persecution of some 1 million Rohingya Muslims in the nation’s far west.
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On Thursday, Suu Kyi fielded questions on the plight of the Rohingya, who have been forced into squalid camps and robbed of their right to vote in these elections. “I think it is very important that we should not exaggerate the problems in this country,” she said. “There’s a Burmese saying: You have to make big problems small and small problems disappear. It’s not a question of exaggerating small problems into big ones and big ones to the extent that they are totally unmanageable. I’m not saying this is a small problem. I would promise everyone who is living in this country proper protection in accordance with the law.”
Like her answer on the Rohingya, her campaigning, at times, has been short on specifics. When queried on NLD economic or social policies, Suu Kyi has often instructed people to “read the election manifesto.” On Nov. 5, she refused to discuss the way in which she will implement her primary goal of national reconciliation. “No, I’m not going to enlarge on it,” she said, “because there are people who don’t want national reconciliation, and I don’t want them to start making counter plans.”
Yet Burma’s democratic heroine remains just that. Her adoring fans could well carry the NLD to victory on Sunday. In Rangoon, housewives crammed into open-air trucks and waved red flags emblazoned with the NLD’s fighting peacock. Young Burmese have flocked from overseas to pledge allegiance to their Lady. Soe Moe Thu returned from business-management studies in Malaysia and is now running for parliament as an NLD lower-house candidate in the Irrawaddy river delta region. “If you look at the NLD, it emerged from the will of the people,” he says. “The NLD stands for the people, and [Suu Kyi] has all the qualities of a good leader.”
At least one-third of Burma’s citizens are ethnic minorities, some of whom have spent decades battling a regime dominated by the Bamar majority. Still, even representatives from ethnic political parties contesting the Nov. 8 polls recognize that she is the only force that can oppose a military determined to retain key levers of power. “There is no one else besides Aung San Suu Kyi,” says Sai Nyunt Lwin, general secretary of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, which represents the populous Shan ethnic group. “We have to put our hopes in her.”
And as Suu Kyi herself made clear on Thursday, for all the criticism of the NLD, it is competing against a military-linked government that turned one of Asia’s most promising young nations into an economic basket case. For nearly five decades, the military brutalized the populace, turning Burma into a byword for tropical tyranny. “When I’m asked whether we will be able to run a good government,” Suu Kyi said, “I always [say], it can’t be worse than what we’ve had already.” | Government Job change - Election | November 2015 | ['(NLD)', '(Reuters)', '(Time)'] |
Rafael Nadal of Spain wins the men's singles titles at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships. , | World number one Rafael Nadal blew away 12th seed Tomas Berdych in straight sets to regain the Wimbledon crown and claim his eighth Grand Slam title.
Nadal was too strong for the Czech as he won 6-3 7-5 6-4 in two hours 13 minutes on a blustery Centre Court. Having been unable to defend his title last year due to injury, Nadal has now won 14 straight matches at Wimbledon. And he adds a second title at the All England Club to five French Opens and one victory at the Australian Open. "It's more than a dream for me," Nadal told BBC Sport. "After a difficult year for me, missing the tournament last year, this year I came back and to have this trophy in my hands is more than a dream."
Wimbledon win more than a dream - Nadal
After winning at Roland Garros for the fifth time last month, without dropping a set, Nadal has proved beyond doubt that he is currently the world's best player and, at 24, he has plenty of time to close on Roger Federer's record 16 Grand Slam titles. Berdych had beaten six-time champion and world number two Federer in the quarter-finals, and third seed Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals, but in his first Grand Slam final the Czech came up against a simply unstoppable force. Nerves and the testing conditions did not help the 12th seed, but nothing was going to stop Nadal reclaiming the title he first won in five dramatic sets against Federer two years ago. Nadal had been in blistering form in his semi-final win over Andy Murray on Friday and had won seven of his 10 matches against Berdych, making him a heavy favourite going into Sunday's final. And after the opening six games passed without incident, the 2008 champion pounced on his first chance in game seven. Errors on the forehand and backhand side saw Berdych fall 0-30 down and the Spaniard came up with a stunning forehand pass down the line to reach 0-40, converting his second break point with a winning return. Berdych appeared rattled and was struggling to keep pace, his first-serve percentage slipping to 50%, and a rampant Nadal was able to tee off on the return as he broke again to seal the first set in 34 minutes.
There was hope, finally, for the Czech at the start of the second when Nadal played a loose game and offered up three break points, but a stinging forehand, a heavy second serve and a Berdych error ensured the world number one remained in charge. Both men were making unforced errors as the blustery conditions knocked them out of any rhythm and, with little sign of a Berdych comeback, the atmosphere was unusually flat as the second set progressed. Neither man got close to another break point until game 11 but, after looking comfortable on serve, the nerves took hold of Berdych as a tie-break loomed. Two successive forehand errors from 0-30 handed Nadal a two-set lead without the Spaniard having to raise his game as he would have expected, and Berdych was now faced with an almost impossible task. Something had to change for the Czech and he attempted to increase the pressure on Nadal by attacking the net early in the third. However, Berdych now needed to seize every opportunity that came his way and when a backhand found the net on break point in game three, Nadal was let off the hook once again.
The world number one had not needed to hit the heights of his semi-final win over Murray but a huge forehand winner into the corner helped him to 4-3 and reminded everyone that the Spaniard still had several gears in reserve if required. Once again, Nadal made his move as the set - and potentially the match - neared its conclusion, with a couple of vicious forehands getting him to within two points of victory at 5-4. Berdych blazed a forehand over the baseline at deuce to give Nadal championship point and the man from Majorca took it in typical style with a flashing cross-court forehand winner, before collapsing in triumph and adding a celebratory forward roll on the hallowed turf. "I want to say thank you to the crowd because I was playing the local player on Friday, and the respect on the court was amazing, and that doesn't happen on every court in the world so thank you very much," added Nadal. And Berdych admitted: "It's been a great two weeks for me, but he was really strong, he's showing in the last few months he's really the champion." The matador Nadal tames Berdych (UK only) | Sports Competition | July 2010 | ['(AFP)', '(BBC)'] |
Sadyr Japarov is sworn in as President of Kyrgyzstan. | Sadyr Japarov pledged to create “a dictatorship of law, where justice and prosperity prevail” as he was sworn in as Kyrgyzstan’s sixth president on January 28.
As Japarov formally assumes control over a country he has in effect been running since late October, in the wake of a revolt that toppled his predecessor, Sooronbai Jeenbekov, he will now focus on pushing through reforms to consolidate his authority further. “We are facing the beginning of a new stage of history,” he said.
During his swearing-in ceremony, Japarov played up his nationalist-patriotic credentials, waving the national flag and joining the crowd in singing the national anthem. Among the guests of honor were Jeenbekov, who now becomes the first Kyrgyz president to be overthrown without being forced to go into exile, the head of the security services and old Japarov ally, Kamchybek Tashiyev, and Talant Mamytov, who has been keeping the president’s seat warm in an interim capacity for the past few weeks.
Japarov, who had been serving a prison sentence on kidnapping charges at the time of the unrest of October 5, has his work cut out. He begins his time in power at the helm of an economy flattened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even once the epidemiological crisis has blown through, it is difficult to see what options Kyrgyzstan possesses to achieve the prosperity Japarov is promising.
Public sentiment appears largely behind Japarov for now, but even the inauguration was not untroubled by controversy. In the weeks ahead of the ceremony, it was announced that 10 million som ($118,000) were being earmarked for the event – a barely affordable expense for an unscheduled inauguration. On January 22, Japarov sought to defuse the irritation by saying that he would forego pomp and a motorcade.
Despite casting himself as a man of the people, Japarov has taken a liking to motorcades, which require temporarily blocking entire sections of the capital, Bishkek, to accommodate, much to the rage of motorists. Sure enough, despite Japarov’s pledges, the motorcade did take place all the same on inauguration day. And the 2,500 policemen deployed to provide protection likewise undermined claims that the new president is nearly universally beloved. Japarov won the election with 79 percent of the vote, which would be very impressive, if but for the fact that only 39 percent of eligible voters cast their ballot.
The more consequential vote that took place on that day, however, was the one to approve returning Kyrgyzstan to a strong presidential system. The specific look of the new constitution is a work in progress nearing completion. Another plebiscite will be needed this year to confirm its standing. Although some will certainly object, their protests are unlikely to be heeded. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | January 2021 | ['(Eurasianet)'] |
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)'] |
Protesters storm the Kiev City Council buildings. | A huge rally has been taking place in the Ukrainian capital to oppose a government decision not to sign a deal on closer EU ties, despite a ban.
Casualties were reported on the fringes of the rally after clashes near the office of the president.
Police used tear gas and stun grenades to repel a group advancing on police lines and throwing large stones. Elsewhere in the city centre, protesters stormed the city council building and occupied it. Vast crowds rallied on Kiev's Independence Square, defying a ban imposed a day earlier. Estimates of the numbers ranged from around 100,000 to more than 350,000. The mainstream opposition and its leaders said they had nothing to do with those engaged in violence near the presidential headquarters, and that it was the work of "provocateurs".
Protesters are demanding the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych's government and new elections. President Yanukovych says Russian pressure was behind his decision not to sign the deal.
The leader of the opposition Fatherland party, Arseny Yatsenyuk, told a news conference that the plan for Monday was to start a picket outside the Ukrainian government building. He said a no-confidence motion had been submitted to parliament. A group of people tried to approach President Yanukovych's headquarters, some of them commandeering a bulldozer to break through police lines.
Police used tear gas and stun grenades to force back the crowd, who responded by throwing bricks or paving stones. The Associated Press news agency said that dozens of people were taken away by ambulance with what appeared to be head injuries. At least three journalists were reported to have been injured.
A police spokeswoman said about 100 police were injured in the clashes near the presidential headquarters. A message posted on the Interior Ministry's Facebook page accused some 300 members of the radical Brotherhood organisation of involvement in the trouble.
About a kilometre away, at the city council building, protesters broke windows to get inside the premises.
Members of the nationalist Svoboda party occupied the building and held meetings, Reuters news agency reported.
The protesters chanted "Kiev is ours" and hung a Ukrainian flag in the window.
The protests started more than a week ago after President Yanukovych suspended preparations for signing an EU association agreement that would have opened borders to goods and set the stage for an easing of travel restrictions.
Mr Yanukovych argued that Ukraine could not afford to sacrifice trade with Russia, which opposed the deal.
The Ukrainian president has said he is "deeply outraged" by events at opposition protests in Kiev.
He was speaking after police violently dispersed an opposition camp on Saturday. Several Western countries condemned the police intervention.
Jailed opposition leader and ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko earlier urged Ukrainians "not to leave the authorities' actions unanswered".
She has been on hunger strike since Monday over the failure to sign the EU agreement.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | December 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick rules that President Donald Trump's executive order withholding federal funds from sanctuary cities is unconstitutional. | California has launched a war on President Trump's attempt to clamp down on “sanctuary cities.” And it just got a major weapon to fight with: On Tuesday, afederal judge in San Franciscoagreed with two California municipalities that Trump's attempt to cut them off from federal funding for not complying with deportation requests is unconstitutional.
U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick agreed with the counties of San Francisco and Santa Clara, both of which sued the Trump administration for trying to prevent them from getting more than $1 billion in federal grants, that those grants can't legally be withheld.
The court action is likely to continue. But this is an unqualified early victory for California and sanctuary cities across the nation that have said they'll refuse to comply with some of the Trump administration's deportation requests. This includes some of the nation's largest cities, including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
The president doesn't have much leverage to force these cities and states to hand over its illegal immigrants. Attempting to withhold money and hoping the cities caved was pretty much it. And a federal court just ruled that method unconstitutional.
Constitutional scholars like Ilya Somin at George Mason University have long argued that the Trump administration would lose a legal battle like this.You can't cut off funding for sanctuary cities willy-nilly, he says,because the Supreme Court has ruled you can't slap conditions on federal grants without explicitly telling states about the conditions.
In his ruling, Orrick of theNorthern California District Court court agreed: “The Constitution vests the spending powers in Congress, not the President, so the order cannot constitutionally place new conditions on federal funds.”
It would take an act of Congress to go back and insert a clause declaring these unrelated law enforcement, health-care and poverty grants deliverable only if jurisdictions hand over their illegal immigrants for deportation when the government asks for them. (Congress getting involved in all this is impossible to imagine, but it'smuch,much, much slower than Trump just issuing an executive order to strip these cities of funding.)
The court ruling couldn't come at a better time for California, which is in the middle of flipping a giant middle finger to Trump.
California state lawmakers are steaming through a bill that would make the state the first sanctuary state for illegal immigrants. It's quite possibly the highest-profile act of defiance to Trump's nascent presidency, and Trump may not be able to stop them.
The legislation would prevent local and state law enforcement agencies from helping the federal government deport undocumented immigrants. The state Senate passed it earlier this month, and the state Assembly is expected to pass it next month, though Gov. Jerry Brown (D) hasn't said whether he'll sign it.
And the California legislature has a private law firm headed by former U.S. attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. on hold should the legal battle stretch to the state.
“In its repeated attacks on States, the Administration appears to forget that our system is one of 'dual sovereignty between the States and the Federal Government,'" read a letter from the Covington & Burling law firm sent to Attorney General Jeff Sessions on April 6. “Under that framework, the California Legislature, like all State legislatures, is not subject to federal direction or commandeering.”
The legal fight is probably far from over, because the Trump administration could appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals. This could even go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which tilts slightly in Trump's ideological favor.
(It's worth noting that the Trump administration is also fighting a legal battle on another high-profile executive order limiting travel from sixpredominately Muslim countries.)
We are in the early throes of a war between Trump and liberal cities and states. And California can declare a victory in the first big battle. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2017 | ['(The Washington Post)'] |
Georgian forces shell Tskhinvali in South Ossetia. | Separatists in Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region say at least two people were killed when Georgian forces started shelling the region overnight.
Eleven others were wounded in the bombardment, officials said. Shooting broke out after the shelling. South Ossetia's breakaway government ordered a full mobilisation in response, a spokesman said. Georgian authorities blamed the separatist forces, saying they had attacked a Georgian checkpoint. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe expressed "profound concern" at the violence. Russia's foreign minister did the same, adding that Georgia should "sign a legally binding document guaranteeing non-aggression". South Ossetia is one of two Georgian regions controlled by separatists with close links to Russia. The other is Abkhazia, where tensions have soared recently, with both sides accusing the other of a military build-up. South Ossetian officials say Georgia shelled the region's main city, Tskhinvali, and nearby villages overnight - breaching a ceasefire agreed by the two sides. "A general mobilisation has been ordered," spokeswoman Irina Gagloyeva told AFP news agency, saying heavy weaponry would be deployed if necessary. She said two people had been killed in the shelling, revising an earlier figure of three.
Counter-claims
Georgian authorities say they were forced to return fire after separatist militiamen attacked Georgian-controlled territory in the region. On Thursday they accused the separatists of staging a roadside bomb attack on the Georgian government's representative in South Ossetia, while the separatists accused the Georgians of killing a local police chief. Georgia, which is seeking to restore its authority in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, accuses Russia of aiming to absorb the regions. Moscow has kept a peacekeeping force in both provinces under an agreement made following the wars of the 1990s, when they broke away from Tbilisi. There are around 2,000 Russians posted in Abkhazia, and about 1,000 in South Ossetia. Tensions between Russia and Georgia have flared up recently, despite Russia lifting economic sanctions against Georgia earlier this month. | Armed Conflict | July 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
The victim of yesterday's attack in London is confirmed to have been a serving British soldier, and named as Drummer Lee Rigby of the 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. | The soldier killed in an attack in London has been named as Drummer Lee Rigby of the 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
Drummer Rigby, 25, from Manchester, leaves behind a two-year-old son.
Two suspects shot by police after Wednesday's attack in Woolwich remain under arrest. A further two people have been arrested on conspiracy to murder.
The suspects, one of whom is said to be Islamist protester Michael Adebolajo, were known to security services.
Scotland Yard said the latest arrests were of a man and woman, both aged 29.
Drummer Rigby's family issued a statement on Thursday, saying: "Lee was lovely. He would do anything for anybody, he always looked after his sisters and always protected them. He took a 'big brother' role with everyone. "All he wanted to do from when he was a little boy, was be in the Army. "He wanted to live life and enjoy himself. His family meant everything to him. He was a loving son, husband, father, brother, and uncle, and a friend to many."
A post-mortem examination was being carried out on Thursday.
The Ministry of Defence also paid tribute to Drummer Rigby.
"An extremely popular and witty soldier, Drummer Rigby was a larger than life personality within the Corps of Drums and was well known, liked and respected across the Second Fusiliers.
"He was a passionate and life-long Manchester United fan."
Drummer Rigby, from Middleton, Greater Manchester, joined the Army in 2006. He was described as a "loving father to his son Jack" and someone who would be "sorely missed by all who knew him".
In other developments:
Drummer Rigby had taken up a post with the Regimental Recruiting Team in London in 2011.
"An experienced and talented side drummer and machine gunner, he was a true warrior and served with distinction in Afghanistan, Germany and Cyprus," said his commanding officer Lt Col Jim Taylor. "His ability, talent and personality made him a natural choice to work in the recruiting group."
Capt Alan Williamson said: "Drummer Rigby or 'Riggers' as he was known within the platoon was a cheeky and humorous man, always there with a joke to brighten the mood."
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said: "This was a senseless murder of a soldier who has served the Army faithfully in a variety of roles including operational tours in Afghanistan.
"Our thoughts today are with his family and loved ones who are trying to come to terms with this terrible loss."
Mr Hammond was asked if the attack showed how vulnerable soldiers were, whether they were in uniform or not.
He replied: "I think it reminds us how vulnerable we all are, but it also reminds us, by the response of the public, that we are not going to be cowed by this kind of terrorist action."
Chief of Defence Staff General Sir David Richards said: "It's always a tragedy, it's particularly poignant that it happened on the streets of this capital city of ours. "We're absolutely determined not to be intimidated into not doing the right thing - whether it's here in this country or in Afghanistan or wherever we seek to serve the nation."
The BBC has uncovered its own footage of one of him taking part in an Islamist demonstration in April 2007 against the arrest of a man from Luton. Security at Woolwich Barracks and others in London has been increased, and Gen Richards said: "I'm confident that base security is as tight as it's ever been, and necessarily so. "It's a very difficult balancing act. We are very proud of the uniform we wear, we have huge support around the country, this is a completely isolated incident."
Shortly after the killing, a man, thought to be 28-year-old Mr Adebolajo, was filmed by a passer-by, saying he carried out the attack because British soldiers killed Muslims every day.
Sources said reports the men had featured in "several investigations" in recent years - but were not deemed to be planning an attack - "were not inaccurate".
According to BBC sources, Mr Adebolajo, a Briton of Nigerian descent, comes from a devout Christian family but took up Islam after leaving college in 2001.
The BBC has uncovered its own footage of one of him taking part in an Islamist demonstration in April 2007 against the arrest of a man from Luton. Mr Adebolajo can be seen standing in a crowd of men outside Paddington Green police station, holding a placard reading "Crusade Against Muslims". He is standing next to Anjem Choudary, who was the leader of al-Muhajiroun, a now-banned organisation. Mr Choudary said Mr Adebolajo was previously associated with the group, but went his own way in around 2010. The Independent Police Complaints Commission sent 12 investigators to look at the scene.
They reviewed CCTV footage from a local authority camera, and said two officers fired shots and one officer discharged a Taser. One of the shot men received first aid from the firearms officers. "At this stage we are not pursuing any criminal or misconduct offences," said Commissioner Derrick Campbell.
| Armed Conflict | May 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
Tribal clashes in western Libya lead to 105 people dead and some 500 injured. | Recent tribal clashes in western Libya left 105 people dead and some 500 injured, the government has said.
Government spokesman Nasser al-Manaa said there had been no fighting in the mountainous area since Monday, following the deployment of the army.
The area includes the towns of Zintan, Mizdah and Shegayga, some 150km (90 miles) south of the capital Tripoli.
The week-long clashes were seen as a test for Libya's new government, which has struggled to assert its authority. The fighting was mainly between fighters from Zintan, backed by another tribe known as the Guntrara from Mizdah, and armed members of the Mashashya tribe based in Shegayga, the BBC's Rana Jawad in Tripoli says. Tensions date from the Gaddafi-era, when one tribe was given land expropriated from another, our correspondent says.
The latest clashes were triggered by the death of a man from Zintan after he was stopped at a checkpoint, which Zintan militias have blamed on the Mashashya tribe.
The ruling National Transitional Council (NTC), which took power last year, has been trying to maintain stability in a country awash with weapons left over from the conflict last year.
The violence comes just weeks before the country is due to hold elections for a national assembly, the first free poll in decades.
| Armed Conflict | June 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Puerto Rican Governor Alejandro García Padilla announces he declared a state of emergency at the Commonwealth's Government Development Bank yesterday, which allows withdrawals only to fund necessary costs for health, public safety, and education services. Without this measure and debt restructuring, the United States territory would be forced to default as it faces nearly $2.5 billion in bond payments from May through July. | SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Gov. Alejandro García Padilla announced Saturday that he has declared a state of emergency at the Government Development Bank, a moved aimed at ensuring that Puerto Ricans continue to receive essential government services.
The governor said he issued an executive order Friday to halt the erosion of the bank’s dwindling liquidity by allowing withdrawals only to fund necessary costs for health, public safety and education services. The order does not call for a moratorium on the bank’s principal or interest payments. García said the government bank, known as GDB, is in talks with creditors regarding a payment of nearly $423 million, due in May.
The order is the first taken under the Puerto Rico Emergency Moratorium and Financial Rehabilitation Act enacted this past week, which gives the governor emergency powers to deal with the fiscal crisis, including the ability to declare a moratorium on all bond payments.
“The GDB’s financial condition has continued to deteriorate and, absent the measures ordered in this executive order, there is an imminent risk of a drastic decrease in GDB’s liquidity in the immediate term. This, in turn, would jeopardize the provision of essential services by the commonwealth,” the order states.
It notes that the government and creditors are in discussions to address the government’s immediate liquidity challenges and to ensure that its debt service is sustainable over the long-term.
Because restructuring could take time, the order says, “the commonwealth has a duty to take any and all actions reasonable and necessary to protect the health, safety and welfare of its residents by ensuring the continuation of essential services.” Without debt restructuring, Puerto Rico will be forced to default as it faces nearly $2.5 billion in bond payments from May through July, government officials have said.
The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee this week will consider legislation that will provide bankruptcy powers to Puerto Rico while subjecting it to the authority of a federal oversight board. The U.S. Supreme Court is also reviewing federal court rulings that said a local bankruptcy law enacted by the commonwealth is unconstitutional.
García announced in June that Puerto Rico’s nearly $70 billion debt was not payable. Since then, a deal has been struck with creditors to restructure much of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s nearly $9 billion debt.
On Thursday, the utility filed a petition before the island’s energy regulator for a new securitization charge, which would pay for the restructured debt following a planned bond exchange. | Government Policy Changes | April 2016 | ['(AP via The Washington Post)'] |
The Supreme Court of Pakistan dismisses the last remaining petition to challenge the dereliction of President Pervez Musharraf. | Gen Musharraf's opponents had argued that his election was illegal because he was still head of the army.
The move clears the way for the general to resign as army chief, as promised, and be sworn in as a civilian leader.
He has vowed to "do his utmost" to end emergency rule before elections in January, UK leader Gordon Brown says.
President Musharraf is widely believed to have declared the 3 November state of emergency in order to purge the Supreme Court that he suspected was about to rule against his re-election, says the BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad.
Final challenge
"Dismissed," Chief Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar said in court after hearing the last petition on Thursday, reports Reuters news agency.
Gen Musharraf's top legal adviser, Sharifuddin Pirzada, told Reuters there was now no legal obstacle to his re-election.
"Now the court has to give us this in writing," he said.
Mr Chaudhry was removed as the chief justice The verdict was expected to go in Gen Musharraf's favour since he has appointed new judges to the bench who are considered more loyal.
President Musharraf has still not lifted emergency rule, despite pressure from his Western allies.
He says the parliamentary and provincial elections, due to be held in January, can take place under the emergency decree. Pakistan has asked the Commonwealth, whose leaders are meeting in Uganda, to delay its decision on whether the country should be suspended. The decision was provisionally expected on Thursday.
This ruling does not have any legal value. It has been delivered by a forum which does not have constitutional cover Ahmed-The Lawyer, Pakistan Send us your comments
Speaking shortly before leaving for Uganda, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he had spoken to President Musharraf on Wednesday night.
"He has assured me that he will do his utmost to lift the state of emergency in time for free and fair elections to be held and to give up his military role and responsibilities as soon as possible," Mr Brown told reporters.
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, leader of Pakistan's main opposition party, is yet to decide whether to boycott what she says will be a "flawed election".
On Thursday, her Pakistan People's Party said it would allow its candidates to file nomination papers while it continued talks with other opposition parties. But a statement said the party reserved the right to review its decision at a later date, leaving the option of a boycott open.
Other opposition leaders like Imran Khan have already said they will not take part in the elections.
Meanwhile, the party of exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif says he will meet Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on Friday to discuss his plans to return to Pakistan. A party spokesman, Ahsan Iqbal, said Mr Sharif travelled to Riyadh on Thursday on a plane sent by the king. The development comes a day after President Musharraf returned from talks in Saudi Arabia with King Abdullah.
Mr Sharif tried to return from exile in September, but was deported shortly after he landed in Islamabad. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | November 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
In tennis, Novak Djokovic defeats Roger Federer in the men's singles in four sets to claim his third title. , | Last updated on 12 July 201512 July 2015.From the section Tennis
Defending champion Novak Djokovic saw off seven-time champion Roger Federer in four sets to win his third Wimbledon and ninth Grand Slam title.
The Serb, 28, won 7-6 (7-1) 6-7 (10-12) 6-4 6-3 to overtake the likes of Jimmy Connors, Andre Agassi and Ivan Lendl in the all-time list of major winners.
Federer, 33, had hoped to become the first man to win Wimbledon eight times.
The Swiss won a thrilling second set tie-break but Djokovic came through to win in two hours and 56 minutes.
"I have to say it's a big challenge playing against Roger," he said. "A lot of players of my generation have looked up to him and followed his lead.
"He makes you push your limits, work hard and win every single point."
Federer said: "I had my chances in the first set. I got lucky to win the second, had chances in the third.
"But he was better on the bigger points. He was rock solid, I didn't play badly myself. That's how it goes."
Djokovic adds a third victory at the All England Club to one US Open and five Australian Open titles, and the Serb has now won 48 matches and lost just three in 2015.
The world number one's most recent defeat came against Stan Wawrinka in last month's French Open final, but five weeks later he has gone some way to making up for missing out on the one major title to still elude him.
Federer had given his supporters real hope that he could overturn last year's final defeat by Djokovic after his stunning serving performance in the semi-final win over Andy Murray.
It was Djokovic who came up with the big serves when it mattered, however, saving six of seven break points, two of them on set points in the opening set.
After Federer failed to consolidate an early break his first serve deserted him in the tie-break and Djokovic took advantage, moving into a 6-1 lead before the Swiss double-faulted to hand it over.
The Serb won 14 of 15 points and then fended off two more break points in game five with his forehand as Federer continued to play catch-up.
When Djokovic worked his way to a set point for a two-set lead, he appeared to be closing in on victory, but the top seed sent a forehand long and a breathtaking half hour of tennis followed.
Three gripping games of cut and thrust heralded another tie-break, and the 15,000 spectators on Centre Court could barely contain themselves as Djokovic saw a 6-3 lead slip away after a stunning Federer backhand.
Djokovic became increasingly animated as the set points came and went, a seventh when he missed a regulation rally ball, and the crowd erupted when Federer converted his second at the net.
Amid the cheering in the stands, the top seed smacked his racquet angrily into his foot and shook his head in disbelief as he returned to his chair.
It was apparently enough to clear his head and, far from suffering a crisis in confidence, the defending champion would dominate the remainder of the match.
He pushed hard for a break at the start of the third, missing two break points in game one before Federer netted under pressure in game three.
A rain delay might have disrupted the Serb's rhythm but the shower passed within 15 minutes, with no need for the roof to be brought over, and Djokovic saw out the set comfortably on the resumption.
Now constantly threatening the Federer serve, a sharp return to the 17-time Grand Slam champion's feet gave Djokovic the crucial breakthrough for 3-2 in the fourth.
There were tense moments for the champion when he had to recover from 0-30 at 4-3, seemingly angered by someone in the crowd, and he roared in their direction after holding serve.
The altercation merely fired up Djokovic even more and he won six straight points on his way to match point, before firing a forehand into the corner and flinging his arms in the air in celebration.
Djokovic then repeated his tradition of previous victories by eating some of the famous Centre Court's grass, while coach Boris Becker and his team celebrated in the stands.
"It tasted very, very good this year," said Djokovic. "I don't know what the grounds people have done but they've done a good job. It's a little tradition." | Sports Competition | July 2015 | ['(BBC)', '(BBC)'] |
Preliminary results from the general election in Peru shows Ollanta Humala leading, but certain to face a runoff election in late May or early June. Alan García is narrowly leading Lourdes Flores for second place and a spot in the runoff. | With more than 80% of the vote counted, Mr Humala is six points ahead of former centre-left president Alan Garcia. But Mr Garcia is less than one point ahead of conservative candidate Lourdes Flores in the race for second place. Results may not be known for days and the run-off is expected in May or June. A 50% share of the vote is needed for an outright victory. Analysts say the good performance of two left-leaning candidates seems to confirm a recent left-wing trend in elections in Latin America
'Sun or rain'
As counting continued, Mr Humala was in the lead with 30.84% of the vote.
Mr Garcia was on 24.62% and Ms Flores had 23.71%. Election officials said they would complete counting by Friday.
PERU ELECTION
20 candidates
Second round if no-one gets 50%
Voters electing president, two vice-presidents and 120 lawmakers
Voting compulsory for 16.5m registered voters
Mr Humala said he did not care who he faced in the second round, which must take place within 30 days of the first round results being announced.
"It's irrelevant," he told Brazil's O Globo newspaper. "It's like you asking me if I'd prefer if it rained or was sunny."
Mr Humala - who in 2000 led a rebellion against Alberto Fujimori's government - was until recently a political unknown.
His promises to increase taxes on foreign companies and revise a free trade agreement with the US have appealed to Peru's poor majority which has seen little of the benefits of the country's economic growth. However, his increasing popularity has reportedly led some foreign firms to put investment plans on hold.
Previous rivals
The business sector is widely said to favour Ms Flores, a former congresswoman who is hoping her chances will be boosted by Michelle Bachelet's recent win in Chile. Mr Garcia's 1985-1990 administration was marked by hyperinflation and rebel violence but he remains popular among many Peruvians and focused much of his campaign on attracting young voters.
He has said he has now learnt his lessons, and is keen to distance himself from what he calls the demagoguery of Mr Humala. In the 2001 election, Mr Garcia edged Ms Flores out of the run-off beating her to a second place. He then lost to Alejandro Toledo.
Peruvians were also electing two vice-presidents and 120 members of Congress. Early results suggest no party will have a clear majority in Congress. | Government Job change - Election | April 2006 | ['(Bloomberg)', '(BBC)'] |
The President of France Nicolas Sarkozy travels to Libya following the release of the medical workers sentenced to death in the HIV trial in Libya. | TRIPOLI, Libya (Reuters) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy met Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Wednesday on a trip to deepen relations after helping to resolve a diplomatic standoff that hurt the oil exporter's ties with the West.
Libyan officials said the two countries would sign an accord on cooperation on a military-industrial partnership and another to activate what they called a previous agreement on cooperation on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
Sarkozy, who met Gaddafi in a tent in the compound of his Tripoli residence, has said he wants to help Libya return to the "concert of nations" after it freed six foreign medics convicted of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV.
The medics -- five Bulgarians and a Palestinian -- left Libya on Tuesday on a French plane accompanied by Sarkozy's wife, clearing the way for a visit by the president.
"I am happy to be in your country to talk about the future," Sarkozy wrote in a book at Gaddafi's residence. He is seeking to further French business interests in Libya and boost diplomatic ties before flying on to Senegal and Gabon.
"There will be the signing of an agreement on cooperation on a military-industrial partnership," Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam told reporters shortly before Sarkozy and Gaddafi met.
Libya ended decades of international isolation in 2003 when it agreed to halt a weapons program prohibited by the United Nations and pay compensation for the bombing of a U.S. airliner over Scotland in 1988 in which 270 people were killed.
The following year it signed a similar deal over the 1989 bombing of a French UTA plane over the West African country of Niger that killed 170 people.
France convicted six Libyans in absentia for the UTA attack.
French-Libyan relations, which had been warm in the 1970s, hit a low during the UTA dispute and French officials spoke of a new era after the compensation deal.
French oil firms had benefited from the absence of U.S. competitors in Libya.
But U.S. oil firms, barred since 1986 due to economic sanctions, have now resumed their activities and Libya has held three oil licensing rounds to draw foreign investment and boost oil exports.
Most of the permits were awarded to U.S., Japanese and Russian firms.
Sarkozy will be keen to maintain France's influence in Libya as other Western powers beat a path to Tripoli and Washington gradually steps up its diplomatic presence in the country.
U.S. President George W. Bush's administration nominated its first ambassador to Libya in 35 years when it became clear the medics' case was on the way to being resolved.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair helped smooth the way for a resolution of the standoff over the medics during a visit to Libya in May, his second since the end of sanctions. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | July 2007 | ['(Reuters via CNN)'] |
President Pervez Musharraf appoints Muhammad Mian Soomro, Chairman of the Senate, as interim Prime Minister. | Mohammedmian Soomro is set to be formally sworn in on Friday, after the end of the five-year parliament term. The announcement came as key opposition leaders Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif considered forming an alliance. In the first reported deaths since the state of emergency was imposed, three people died in protests in Karachi.
Gen Musharraf
Mr Soomro, a member of Gen Musharraf's ruling Pakistan Muslim League Q party, will take over as prime minister from Shaukat Aziz, who is leaving office after three years.
Mr Musharraf confirmed the appointment at a dinner on Thursday, at which he wore a black suit instead of his military uniform, reported AFP news agency.
"We are introducing a new culture of smooth transition which is as it should be in civilised societies. The assemblies are completing their five-year term in a better way than before," Mr Musharraf was quoted as saying.
The appointment came as the Supreme Court heard a challenge to emergency rule imposed earlier this month. The court is also due to rule on whether Gen Musharraf's re-election as president last month was legal.
Correspondents say he is expected to win both cases after changing the make-up of the court when he declared the emergency on 3 November, sacking several judges who had shown judicial independence. Alliance talks
Meanwhile, opposition leaders Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif said they had begun talks on forming an alliance.
Ms Bhutto says a power-sharing deal with Gen Musharraf is unlikely
Ms Bhutto, who is under house arrest in Lahore, reportedly told Dawn TV she had conclusively ruled out the possibility of sharing power with Gen Musharraf, whom she accuses of taking Pakistan back towards military dictatorship. "Too much water has gone under the bridge," she said.
"We have said very clearly that we cannot keep doors open when commitments are broken."
Mr Sharif said he had welcomed the contact from Ms Bhutto, but cautioned that a clear agenda would have to be agreed before an alliance could be formed, in an interview with Associated Press.
He said he had proposed an opposition boycott of elections in their phone conversation, and that she had said she would respond within a day or two.
"Under these circumstances, I'm for a complete boycott of the elections," he reportedly said. "How can you go into elections where your hands are tied up; leaders are all arrested and parties cannot meet; where there is a subservient judiciary and a hand-picked election commission?"
Separately, Pakistan's attorney general has said that he expects President Musharraf to resign as head of the army before 1 December. Gen Musharraf has promised to step down once the Supreme Court validates his new term as president. A decision is expected in the next few days.
Meanwhile, the international television channels BBC and CNN have returned to Pakistani screens, and two of the four main national news channels are back on air. The move to reinstate the services comes a day before an expected visit by US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte. The United States has strongly criticised Pakistan's clampdown on the media and on opposition activists. What are these? | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | November 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
A bomb in Mosul, Iraq, kills and injures seven policemen. | by Mohammed Ebraheem May 1, 2018, 4:39 pm Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) Seven Iraqi policemen were killed and injured Tuesday as a bomb blast targeted their police vehicle in Mosul city, a security official was quoted as saying.
“An explosive charge was remotely detonated, while a police patrol was inside a train station, west of Mosul, killing two policemen and injuring five others,” Captain Zayed Omar told BasNews website.
“Security forces immediately rushed to the blast site and carried the bodies of the two officers to the forensic medicine department, while the wounded were moved to a nearby hospital for treatment,” added Omar.
Earlier in the day, a SWAT officer was killed while another was injured after two bombs went off sequentially while a police vehicle was passing by al-Mokhisa village on the outskirts of Abu Saida district in Diyala.”
According to the latest casualty figures recorded by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), a total of 104 Iraqi civilians and policemen were killed and another 177 injured in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq in March.
In its monthly statement released earlier this month, the UN agency said the number of civilians killed, excluding police, was 84, while 164 others were injured.
Baghdad was the worst affected Governorate, with 124 civilian casualties (33 killed, 91 injured), followed by Salahuddin with 12 killed and 26 injured, and Anbar with 11 killed and 22 injured.
Though most of the daily bombings go without a claim of responsibility, the Islamic State group is expected to be behind many.
| Armed Conflict | May 2018 | ['(Iraqi News)'] |
Voters head to the polls to select the National Assembly and a new president with former vice-president Lenín Moreno facing off against former bank president Guillermo Lasso, and six other opposition candidates. There will be an April 2 runoff unless the leader receives 40 percent of the votes and is at least 10 percentage points ahead of the others. In addition, there's a tax haven referendum. | QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador’s leftist government candidate Lenin Moreno looked set for victory on Monday in a presidential election, but slow results meant it may take days to know if he will face a runoff with former banker Guillermo Lasso.
In a nail-biter vote with eight candidates at the weekend, Moreno was close to the threshold needed to avoid a second round on April 2 and continue a decade-long period of leftist rule, just as South America is moving to the right.
While Ecuadoreans are angry over an economic downturn and corruption scandals, the opposition split its votes among candidates and the ruling Country Alliance remains popular with many poor voters thanks to social welfare programs.
As results trickled in from Ecuador’s Andes, jungle, and Pacific coast, Moreno, a disabled former vice president, was just short of the 40 percent of votes and a 10 percentage-point difference over his nearest rival to win outright.
He had 39.11 percent of valid votes versus 28.34 percent for Lasso, with 89.5 percent of votes counted, the official preliminary election count showed on Monday afternoon.
The electoral council said clarity would not arrive for three more days due to votes trickling in from isolated areas and Ecuadoreans abroad, bureaucratic delays and “inconsistencies” in some ballots.
“This doesn’t smell right. How can they take three days to count 12 percent?” said Lasso, 61, who already celebrated reaching the second round in his humid hometown of Guayaquil under a stream of confetti on Sunday night.
“We’re not going to allow fraud ... If they toy with the results, we’ll take to the streets,” he added.
Moreno shot down the opposition’s stance.
Related Coverage
“You can’t be a sore loser,” he told a news conference on Monday evening, against a backdrop of the Ecuadorean flag and the name “Lenin” emblazoned in large letters.
“It’s striking to me that there is a politician out there calling for violence,” Moreno added, emphasizing the need to wait for final results.
A couple of hundred opposition supporters have already congregated in front of the electoral council headquarters in Quito to demand a speedier and more transparent count.
“We don’t trust the electoral council, it’s obviously pro-Country Alliance,” said Maribel Cevallos, a 34-year-old psychologist. “We’re here watching that they don’t cheat us.”
Protesters waving yellow, blue and red Ecuadorean flags chanted slogans including “We’re not Cuba or Venezuela, out with Correa!”
Outgoing President Rafael Correa was one of the key figures in Latin America’s leftist axis that includes Caracas and Havana. He brought stability to the politically turbulent OPEC country but has aggravated many with his confrontational style.
Correa said votes from pro-government rural provinces and Ecuadoreans abroad, many of whom left after a deep financial crisis under a center-right government, would propel Moreno, 63, past the crucial 40 percent mark.
The next president faces strong pressure to create jobs and crack down on graft, amid corruption scandals at state-run oil company Petroecuador and Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht [ODBES.UL].
Lasso has campaigned on a platform to revive the economy, which is dependent on exports of oil, flowers and shrimp, by slashing taxes, fostering foreign investment and creating a million jobs in four years.
He has also vowed to remove Wikileaks founder Julian Assange from the Ecuadorean embassy in London and denounce Venezuela’s Socialist government.
But Lasso has also alienated some voters who deem him a stuffy elitist linked to the 1999 financial crisis when hundreds of thousands lost their savings.
Moreno, who lost the use of his legs two decades ago after being shot during a robbery, has a more conciliatory style than the pugnacious Correa and has promised benefits for the disabled, single mothers and the elderly.
“In the last few years there have been radical changes in the country, like the end of extreme poverty,” said Moreno supporter Ramiro Flores, a 60-year-old civil engineer in the mountainous capital Quito.
Critics say Moreno is ill-equipped to overhaul an ailing economy hit by low oil prices, steep debts, and a stronger U.S. dollar that has hurt exports.
His running mate, Jorge Glas, who as strategic sectors minister oversaw the oil and infrastructure industries, has also been accused by a fugitive oil minister of corruption in the Petroecuador case. Glas has denied wrongdoing.
Moreno has said Assange can stay in the London embassy, but warned in a Monday interview with Latin American broadcaster Telesur he would ask him “not to intervene in the politics of countries that are friends of Ecuador.”
The new president takes office on May 24 for a four-year term. | Government Job change - Election | February 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
After ten consecutive draws, a record for the 132-year-old championship, Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana are tied 5 points each in the best-of-12-games match. | Here’s Bryan’s report off today’s game, which you can replay below. Be sure to join us on Saturday for minute-by-minute coverage of Game 11. 23 Nov 2018
20:43
“I think at some point I had a big advantage but I couldn’t see how to play it,” Caruana says. “I think maybe (24. g3) was a mistake, but it’s also hard to say. Maybe I had chances after that as well, but it’s always very complicated because he’s attacking me and I always have to deal with a mating attack. So it’s not like I’m only playing for two results. If I make a mistake I could get mated.”
23 Nov 2018
20:33
“I felt that it was very close to mate. The problem is if I don’t mate I’m losing,” Carlsen says. “So I was trying to find some middle ground and my time was running out. I don’t know. I was just so nervous, I couldn’t make it happen. It ended up just being nothing.”
The champion is asked about Caruana’s opening novelty (12. b4), the first move to deviate from their eighth game. “It was a new move,” Carlsen says. I thought I’d checked everything there after from previous games but apparently not. But I was not so unhappy to see it since I felt I that would just get a complicated game. And then at some point I was very happy with my position and I probably overestimated it and then I decided to just go crazy a little bit. I don’t know.”
He adds: “I was playing for a win and then immediately after (44. ... Kd4), I saw (45. Rb5) and I realized I was going to have to grovel for a draw. Fortunately, I managed to do that, but I think he could have put a stronger test to me.”
Updated
at 8.50pm GMT
23 Nov 2018
20:24
A quick rush of moves as Carlsen cowers back to the center (46. Ra4+ Ke5 47. Rab4 Ke6). Caruana offers a pawn exchange and Carlsen accepts (48. c4 dxc4 49. Rxc4). A few more moves followed by a rook exchange (49. Rxc4 Rdxb6 50. Rxe4+ Kf7 51. Rf5+ Rf6 52. Rxf6+ Kxf6 53. Kxf3 Kf7 54. Kg3) and the players agree to a draw after five hours and 19 minutes! Updated
at 8.37pm GMT
23 Nov 2018
20:20
Carlsen answers with 45. Rd6 but it takes him more than 15 minutes to find it. Caruana has more than twice as much time to work with the next time control not until after move 60. 23 Nov 2018
20:14
Carlsen moves his king after nearly 14 minutes and Caruana quickly responds with 45. Rb5. He’s looking very positive and confident with nearly twice as much time as Carlsen (who’s already below a quarter hour) and a suddenly optimistic position. 23 Nov 2018
20:06
Caruana elevates the urgency with 45. Rb5 after a 10-minute think. If Carlsen had taken the challenger by surprise with 44. ... Kd4, then Caruana came close to returning the favor right here. Not least because the American is suddenly pressing! The champion will need to sacrifice a pawn and be incredibly accurate in defense to hold a draw. 23 Nov 2018
19:54
Carlsen plays 44. ... Kd4 after nearly 14 minutes. He’s clearly grinding for the win. The grandmaster Susan Polgar notes he may have exposed his d-pawn in the process. Carlsen throws Caruana a wobbler with 44...Kd4!What do you want Your Majesty? My pawns? My rooks? My soul? 44...Kd4 is definitely a live grenade - but it could blow up on either side! #CarlsenCaruana
Updated
at 7.55pm GMT
23 Nov 2018
19:47
“It’s going to be very hard to win with black,” grandmaster Judit Polgar says. Carlsen has been on the clock for more than 12 minutes now and he’s under a half hour. He grinding his gears trying to find a winning chance from the position, but all options appear drawish. 23 Nov 2018
19:34
Carlsen moves up the h-rank with 43. ... h6 and Caruana meets him (44. h5). Says Susan Polgar: “I do not expect Carlsen to just give up, not try, and take a draw. He will try to squeeze this. But I also expect Caruana to put up a fierce defense all the way!”
23 Nov 2018
19:23
The engines have had it dead even for the last 20 moves. Nothing in the last back-and-forth (41. ... Rc6 42. Ra6 Ke5 43. Kg3) changes that, but Russian grandmaster Peter Svidler offers a warning: “My hands would be very shaky with white in this position. It’s very, very scary.”
23 Nov 2018
19:11
The players are seated again and Caruana opens what feels like the second act with 41. g4. The position does look (dare we say) drawish, but black does have winning chances. And if there’s a chance to slam the door on this match then you can believe the champion, whether the Carlsen of three years ago or today’s iteration, will go for it. The accuracy rate, even in punch-ups like this one, is borderline machine high. Hard to say what it will take to win a game here. A tragic oversight, or shattering nerves? Armageddon? #CarlsenCaruana2018
Updated
at 7.12pm GMT
23 Nov 2018
19:05
The players scramble toward the time control (38. ... Rc8 39. Ra3 Kf7) as the game enters the fifth hour. Now Caruana needs to make one more move. He’s down to 30 seconds ... 20 seconds ... 10 seconds. And he finally plays 40. Kh2 with eight seconds remaining! Another 50 minutes of time and he immediately springs from his chair to the refreshment area. Carlsen plays 40. ... Ke6 and joins him. We’ve got an empty playing hall for the moment. 23 Nov 2018
18:58
Caruana spends about four minutes before playing 36. Re1. A queen exchange quickly ensues (36. ... Qxe3 37. Rxe3) followed by 37 ... d5 38. h4. Both players under two minutes! 23 Nov 2018
18:49
Carlsen on the clock after 34. Rb2 Rb7 35. Rd1. The champion is under two minutes. One and a half minutes ... and he plays 35. ... Qe2 with 1min 11sec on the clock. He’s back to 1min 41sec after the increment. 35 Rd1 Qe2 Caruana is still fine but he has to remain patient and accurate. ♟️ pic.twitter.com/5QT54a1BZH
Updated
at 6.53pm GMT
23 Nov 2018
18:47
Carlsen under four minutes after 33. Qe3 Qc4. Caruana with a little more than eight minutes. Time pressure mounting. Here’s what we’re looking at. 23 Nov 2018
18:43
Bishops exchanged after 31. Qe1 Bxb6 32. axb6 Rab8. Russia grandmaster Alexander Grischuk doesn’t spare the rod with Carlsen’s 30. ... Bd8, calling it “the worst move of the match”. Adds co-commentator Peter Svidler: “It’s time for black to find a clear draw”. 23 Nov 2018
18:37
Caruana and Carlsen are both under 10 minutes after 30. Rb5 Bd8. They will both have to make one move per minute including the increment to reach the time control after move 40 (when they are both given an additional 50 minutes under Fide’s match regulations). Updated
at 6.39pm GMT
23 Nov 2018
18:32
A quick flurry of moves including equal trades of pawns and bishops: 27. Bf1 Bxf1 28. Qxf1 Qxd5 29. Rxb4 Qe6. Carlsen with the clear upper hand thanks to advantages in position and time. “Magnus may not be winning,” British IM Thomas Rendle says, “but every serious chessplayer would pick Black here.”
23 Nov 2018
18:21
Caruana digs in (26. Rg1), Carlsen pushes forward (26. ... f3). And as the American ponders his move, he’s officially fallen behind Carlsen on the clock. Here’s what we’re looking at. 23 Nov 2018
18:14
Caruana plays 25. | Sports Competition | November 2018 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
An antiques dealer is imprisoned for handling a copy of the First Folio by poet and playwright William Shakespeare, though cleared of actually stealing it, in the UK. | An antiques dealer has been jailed for eight years for handling a stolen copy of Shakespeare's first folio.
Raymond Scott, 53, from County Durham was cleared of stealing the treasure, but found guilty of handling stolen goods at a trial in June.
The 1623 work was taken from a display cabinet at Durham University in 1998.
Judge Richard Lowden called the folio "quintessentially English treasure" and said damage to it was "cultural vandalisation".
The case related to one of the surviving copies of the 17th Century compendium of Shakespeare's plays.
It was handed in by Scott to the world-renowned Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC a decade later.
The Newcastle Crown Court trial was told Scott kept the badly-damaged volume, estimated to be worth about £1m, at his house for a decade before taking it to the Folger library where staff called police.
It was alleged Scott hoped to sell the treasure at auction and share the money with friends in Cuba.
Passing sentence, Judge Richard Lowden said: "You are to some extent a fantasist and have to some degree a personality disorder and you have been an alcoholic.
"It is clear that from the (psychiatric) report you are not suffering from any mental disorder."
Judge Lowden said that Scott had either deliberately damaged the book himself or was party to its damage.
He added: "It would be regarded by many as priceless but to you it was definitely at a very big price and you went to very great lengths for that price.
"Your motivation was for financial gain.
"You wanted to fund an extremely ludicrous playboy lifestyle in order to impress a woman you met in Cuba.
"Your Cuban friends were brought in to provide support for your elaborate scheme."
During the trial, the jury heard experts from the US quickly suspected the book was stolen and called in the British Embassy, Durham Police and the FBI.
They discovered the artefact was an incredibly rare example of the folio, regarded as one of the most important works of literature ever printed.
Scott was given a six-year prison term for handling stolen goods and two years' imprisonment - to run consecutively - for removing stolen property from Britain.
The court heard that he had 25 previous convictions dating back to 1977, mainly for dishonesty.
He was unemployed, living off benefits, and until recently had been living with his elderly mother.
Scott, of Manor Grange, Wingate, was arrested in June 2008.
He declined to give any evidence in his defence during his three-week trial.
The folio has now been returned to Durham University.
Vice-chancellor Chris Higgins said it would initially be put on display in its present condition so people could see the damage done to it following its theft.
"The main book is intact but the title leaf, which showed ownership by Durham's Cosin's Library from Shakespeare's day, was torn out and the binding was cut off with a knife," he said. "This was blatant cultural vandalism akin to taking a knife to Constable's The Hay Wain.
"Over the next year, it will be conserved with great care by Durham University following advice from some of the country's expert conservators."
Man cleared of folio theft
'Unconscionable damage' to folio
High life of Shakespeare accused
Accused 'owned' second relic book
Expert 'suspected' Bard accused
Man 'planned to sell' Bard folio
Man 'mutilated' stolen Bard folio
HM Courts Service
Setback for EU in legal fight with AstraZeneca
But the drug-maker faces hefty fines if it fails to supply doses of Covid-19 vaccine over the summer. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Four men go on trial in Nukualofa charged with a mother's manslaughter in the MV Princess Ashika ferry disaster. | The manslaughter trial of four men charged with causing the death of a Tongan mother in the Princess Ashika ferry disaster has begun in the Tongan capital, Nuku'alofa.
One of the four on trial is the shipping company's managing director, New Zealander John Jonesse.
The others are the ferry's captain and first mate, and a Tongan civil servant.
The Princess Ashika ferry sank on 5 August last year, causing the deaths of 74 people.
The four men are charged with the manslaughter of 21-year old Vae Fetu't Taufa, and with sending and taking an unseaworthy ship to sea.
Mr Jonesse, the former chief executive of Shipping Corporation of Polynesia, who advised Tonga authorities to buy the vessel, was also charged with using a forged document.
A Royal Commission inquiry into the sinking was told that the unseaworthy vessel's purchase was "alarming".
Its final report said the Shipping Corporation of Polynesia had recommended the ferry's purchase "without any proper due diligence, surveys, inspections, valuations, documentation or proper inquiry having been completed".
The disaster should not have happened, it said.
"The tragedy is that they were all easily preventable and the deaths were completely senseless," the inquiry said.
"It was scandalous that such a maritime disaster could ever have been allowed to occur. It was a result of systemic and individual failures."
The charges carry possible sentences of up to 25 years. Tonga'n police said there may be more arrests as further evidence is gathered.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
A chain reaction of exploding trucks triggered by a blast during the delivery of acetylene gas at a chemical plant in Zhangjiakou, China, kills 23 people and injures at least 22 others. | BEIJING (Reuters) - A series of blasts during the delivery of a flammable gas at a chemical manufacturer in China on Wednesday killed 23 people and injured at least 22, the latest casualties in a series of industrial accidents that has angered the public.
A video of the blast scene broadcast by state media showed billowing black smoke and flames, while photographs showed rows of burnt-out cars and trucks.
An explosion during a delivery of acetylene set off a chain reaction among trucks parked along a road, leaving 50 vehicles damaged, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing the city’s fire fighting department.
The local government announced the casualty toll in a social media posting.
The acetylene was being delivered to the Haipoer New Energy Technology Company in Zhangjiakou city, in the northern province of Hebei, Xinhua reported.
Reuters was unable to contact Haipoer for comment.
All fires at the blast site had been extinguished, state media reported.
Production at the nearby Hebei Shenghua Chemical Industry Co was operating normally, Xinhua reported. A woman who answered the plant’s telephone had earlier told Reuters that production had been suspended.
Zhangjiakou, about 156 km (96 miles) northwest of Beijing, is set to host the 2022 Winter Olympics along with the capital.
Public anger over safety standards has grown in China after three decades of swift economic growth has been marred by accidents ranging from mining disasters to factory fires.
In August 2015, 165 people were killed in a chemical warehouse explosion in the port city of Tianjin. The government found that the disaster was causes by improperly or illegally stored hazardous materials.
China has vowed to improve industrial standards, but environmentalists say they fear oversight weaknesses persist, including an opaque production process for hazardous chemicals.
Reporting by Ryan Woo, Dominque Patton, Christian Shepherd and Meng Meng; Editing by Michael Perry, Robert Birsel
| Gas explosion | November 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The death toll from a dam collapse in Laos that caused heavy floods rises to 26, while more than 130 remain missing. | The Laotian prime minister said on Wednesday (Jul 25) 131 people are still missing two days after a dam collapse swamped several villages in the country's south, killing at least 26 people.
In a rare televised press conference by the leader of the secretive communist country, Thongloun Sisoulith gave the most specific figure so far for the number unaccounted for.
Earlier official reports spoke of hundreds missing in Attapeu province.
"One hundred and thirty one people have been reported missing," he said, adding all of them were Lao nationals.
Survivors have questioned why they got little warning of the deluge, which inundated several villages across a vast area with several meters of flood water.
Two South Korean contractors said they had reported damage a day before parts of the Xe-Namnoy dam gave way Monday and unleashed a wall of water.
Thai consular official Chana Miencharoen, at the scene of the relief effort told AFP that by late afternoon Wednesday 26 bodies had been recovered.
"Seventeen others are injured and in hospital," he said, adding roof-level floodwater was hampering rescue efforts in a remote area of the poor and landlocked Southeast Asian country.
Information trickled slowly out of Laos as the publicity-shy country tried to get to grips with the disaster.
The Vientiane Times reported that 3,000 were in need of rescue as of Wednesday afternoon, taking shelter in trees and on rooftops.
Footage on Laos television showed people huddled on roofs awaiting rescue as muddy water swirled menacingly just below them, with the army and local volunteers leading the rescue effort.
Questions began to emerge over the collapse, with some of the displaced saying they were warned to leave their homes only hours before disaster struck.
"It happened quickly, we had little time to prepare ourselves," Joo Hinla, 68, from one of the worst-hit villages of Ban Hin Lath, told AFP from a warehouse crammed with over 700 displaced people in a neighbouring province.
"All of the houses in my village are under water. Four of my family are missing, we don't know about their fate yet."
Hundreds of other displaced people, including women, children and the elderly, sat on the floor nearby surrounded by plastic bags crammed with meagre belongings.
THE DAMMING OF LAOS
Laos, poor but blessed with abundant natural resources, aims to become the "Battery of Asia" allowing dozens of foreign-funded dam projects across its network of rivers.
But fears over the environmental impact of the projects, which export most of their electricity to neighbouring Thailand and China, go virtually unvoiced inside the tightly controlled country.
Villagers across the country have been moved, some several times, to make way for dams whose benefits are mainly enjoyed outside of the country, campaigners say.
Once complete, around 90 percent of the electricity generated by the Xe-Namnoy dam was destined for Thailand.
The remote flooded area is only accessible by helicopter and flat-bottomed boats, with roads badly damaged or completely washed away.
South Korea was sending a relief team to the area, President Moon Jae-in's spokesman said Wednesday in Seoul.
"Our government must actively take part in on-site relief efforts without delay as our companies were involved in the construction of the dam," Moon was quoted as saying.
QUESTIONS OVER WARNING
Two South Korean companies involved in the $1.2 billion project said damage was reported a day before the dam collapsed following heavy monsoon rain.
SK Engineering & Construction said it discovered that the upper part of the structure had washed away at around 9:00 pm on Sunday.
"We immediately alerted the authorities and began evacuating villagers downstream," it said in a statement.
Repair work was hampered by rain which had damaged roads, it said. Early on Monday water was discharged from the Xe-Namnoy dam - one of the two main dams in the project - to try to relieve pressure on the auxiliary structure.
The government was warned about further damage to the dam at around noon, prompting an official evacuation order for villagers downstream, and the structure collapsed a few hours later, it said.
Dam operator Korea Western Power Co. said one of the auxiliary dams - "Saddle D" - broke under heavy rain.
But according to a timeline the firm provided in a report to a South Korean lawmaker and obtained by AFP, it said "11 centimetres of subsidence was found at the centre of the dam" as early as Friday.
Emergency repair equipment could not be used as the subsidence worsened.
"It remains unclear what caused the dam to subside in some places and develop cracks," a Korea Western Power spokesman told AFP. | Floods | July 2018 | ['(Channel NewsAsia)'] |
The United Nations-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon sentences a Hezbollah operative to five concurrent life terms in absentia for his role in the 2005 assassination of Rafic Hariri. | Salim Ayache was given five life sentences in absentia to be served concurrently over the 2005 assassination.
The United Nations-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Friday sentenced Hezbollah operative Salim Ayache to five concurrent life sentences in absentia for the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others.
The Hezbollah operative had a “central”, “leading role” as part of the assassination team that was “integral to the assassination”, the court said.
Hariri’s 2005 assassination in a massive car bomb blast rocked Lebanon, leading to huge protests and international pressure that resulted in the eventual withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country, 30 years after they entered during Lebanon’s civil war.
Hariri had been working to reduce Syria’s influence in Lebanese politics at the time of his killing on Valentine’s Day.
Hezbollah was Syria’s closest ally in Lebanon.
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Ayache was convicted for the “conspiracy of committing a terrorist act”, “committing a terrorist act by means of an explosive device” and the “intentional homicide” of Hariri with premeditation by using explosive materials.
In addition, he was also charged with the intentional homicide of 21 people and the attempted intentional homicide of 226 people.
Ayache has never been apprehended and is thought to be under the protection of Hezbollah, whose leader Hasan Nasrallah has described him and three other Hezbollah members who stood trial for the crime – but were not found guilty – as “honourable men of the resistance”.
The STL issued a warrant for Ayache’s arrest in 2011.
“Those who are shielding him from justice should surrender him to the special tribunal,” Trial Chamber Judge David Re said in his closing remarks.
The STL called on Lebanon to establish a fund to compensate survivors and the families of victims of the assassination.
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, Rafik’s son, had not commented on the verdict hours after it was announced.
Saad Hariri has participated in three coalition governments with Hezbollah in the past and is currently seeking to form his fourth government, which is set to include ministers selected by the party.
Nadim Houri, the director of the Arab Reform Initiative, told Al Jazeera that the verdict issued more than 15 years after the crime took place had “become a non-event” due to the length of the process and the absence of any of the accused at the trial.
Adding to the subdued atmosphere, Friday’s verdict was read out to an empty trial chamber, with representatives of the victims and the prosecution and defence teams joining via video-link due to the difficulty of travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Justice in absentia never feels like real justice because the victims don’t get their day to confront the perpetrators – and in this case, it seems no one is particularly interested in finding them,” Houri said.
This means the five life sentences “will likely remain ink on paper – very expensive ink on paper”, he said.
The STL is a hybrid Lebanese-international court with its headquarters on the outskirts of The Hague in the Netherlands.
The trial has cost nearly $1bn since it began in 2009. Lebanon paid 49 percent of the cost, the rest was paid by other nations.
If Ayache was ever arrested and handed over to authorities, the trial would have to be recommenced from the beginning.
The STL’s verdict was announced the day after Lebanon’s outgoing Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers were charged with criminal negligence over the August 4 Beirut port explosion that killed about 200 people and destroyed large parts of the city.
The explosion, caused by nearly 3,000 tonnes of explosive material left at the port for seven years, has been viewed as an indictment of Lebanon’s corrupt political class, many of whom have been in power for decades.
The officials charged on Thursday have denied any responsibility and have indicated they would not comply with the investigation.
“This shows that the fundamental issue in Lebanon today is still ending impunity. Lebanon has tried the international route and that felt a bit hollow, and now you have the national route for the blast,” Houri said.
“Hopefully this will be more successful.”
Hezbollah member found guilty of massive bomb blast in Lebanon’s capital Beirut 15 years ago.
More than 15 years after Hariri was killed along with 21 others in a suicide bomb blast, verdict finally comes out.
Special Tribunal for Lebanon finds Hezbollah member guilty of assassinating ex-PM Rafik Hariri in 2005 bomb blast.
Ruling in politicised trial on the killing of former PM Rafik Hariri and 21 others will pile pressure on Hezbollah.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2020 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
In Greece, Evangelos Venizelos of the Pasok party makes a third effort to create a coalition government, amid increasing political and economic turmoil in the country. | The leader of Greece's Socialist Party, Evangelos Venizelos, says he has made progress in efforts to form a coalition after inconclusive elections on Sunday.
Mr Venizelos, the third political leader to try, called his talks with a small left-wing party a "good omen".
The head of that group said he was ready to join a coalition that kept Greece in the euro while rejecting the terms of an international bailout.
The election saw a huge backlash against pro-bailout mainstream parties.
Under agreements with the EU and the IMF, Athens is due to approve fresh budget cuts worth 14.5bn euros (£11.6bn; $18.8bn) next month, in return for financial help worth a total of 240bn euros.
Mr Venizelos was given the mandate to start new coalition talks after failed bids by leaders of the centre-right New Democracy and radical left Syriza bloc.
On Thursday he met the leader of the Democratic Left party, Fotis Kouvelis, who said he was willing to participate in a broad-based government that would keep the country in the euro but disengage it from the bailout.
"I propose the formation of an ecumenical government that will respect the people's mandate," Mr Kouvelis said afterwards.
Mr Venizelos spoke of sharing common views with Mr Kouvelis, calling his proposals "responsible and concrete". He added that the meeting had been "a good omen". The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says Mr Venizelos' Pasok party is deeply unpopular - seen as the architects of austerity, and tainted with allegations of corruption.
It dominated Greek politics for most of the past four decades, but saw its support slashed on Sunday - coming third with just 41 seats, a quarter of its pre-bailout support. If this attempt to form a government fails, fresh elections - and weeks of fresh instability across the eurozone - seem inevitable, our correspondent adds.
The latest coalition bid follows in the wake of a failed attempt by Alexis Tsipras, the leader of Greece's far-left Syriza bloc.
Mr Tsipras said he had failed to reach agreement with mainstream parties because of his insistence on rejecting austerity measures demanded by the EU and IMF.
Previous Greek governments agreed to make deep cuts to pensions and pay, raise taxes and slash thousands of public sector jobs in return for the bailouts.
Both Germany and the EU have made clear they expect Athens to honour its commitments.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Wednesday: "Germany would like to keep Greece in the eurozone, but Greece's fate is now in its own hands."
| Organization Established | May 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Koppu strengthens to a typhoon ahead of threatening lives and properties in the Philippines island of Luzon over the weekend. | . Typhoon Koppu will put lives and property across Luzon Island of the Philippines in danger this weekend and early next week.
Koppu developed into a typhoon early Friday morning local time and is currently churning between Guam and the Philippines. Disruptive wind shear has prevented Koppu from taking advantage of the warm waters of the Pacific and strengthening significantly. That should change by this weekend as Koppu approaches Luzon.
"Rapid intensification is likely to occur right before Koppu reaches Luzon," stated AccuWeather Meteorologist Adam Douty. "Koppu could become a significant typhoon, possibly the equivalent to a Category 3 or 4 hurricane."
Koppu will not only strengthen as it approaches the Philippines but will also slow down significantly. The combination of a powerful and slow-moving typhoon could spell a disastrous situation for residents and communities in its path, which will be northern Luzon Island in Koppu's case.
From this weekend into early next week, Koppu will crawl toward or into northern Luzon Island before eventually turning to the north. Koppu is expected to make landfall, but how quickly it turns north will determine the duration of life-threatening conditions for northern Luzon.
While damaging winds are a concern, the greatest threat will be life-threatening flooding from days of torrential rainfall.
"A total of 300 to 600 mm (12 to 24 inches) of rain is expected to be widespread," stated Douty. There will even be localized amounts upwards or in excess of 900 mm (36 inches). Such rain is sure to trigger severe and life-threatening flooding and mudslides.
"The most significant rain will fall in the mountainous terrain of northern Luzon," added Douty.
Residents in Baguio, Bangui, Aparri, Tuguegarao and Pagudpud are among those across northern Luzon who are being urged to prepare for the impending severe flood danger. Heed all evacuation orders and begin making plans to seek shelter away from areas prone to flooding and mudslides.
Streams and rivers will quickly turn into raging waterways and flood neighboring homes and land, roads and bridges can get cut off and low-lying communities could get turned into lakes.
While dangerous flooding is the primary concern, Koppu will also bring a threat of damaging winds, coastal flooding and extremely rough seas to northern Luzon.
"Wind damage will be greatest along the northeast coast of Luzon with wind in excess of 160 kph (100 mph) possible," Douty continued. The damaging wind threat will become more expansive and severe across northern Luzon the farther Koppu tracks inland. The potential for winds to knock down trees will only increase as the rain persists and further saturates the soil.
RELATED:Philippines Weather CenterAccuweather West Pacific Typhoon CenterJapan Weather Center
Based on current indications, Koppu will stay far enough to the north for Manila to escape most of the impacts, however heavy rain may push into the city and surrounding areas on Sunday night into Monday. During this time there will be a heightened risk for flash flooding.
Impacts from Koppu will not be limited to the Philippines. Taiwan, Japan and far eastern China remain on alert for potential hazards next week.
"By Tuesday, we should see Koppu slowly begin to pull to the north and impacts in Taiwan should gradually increase," stated Douty.
How long Koppu tracks over Luzon and stalls before turning to the north will determine whether far eastern China or Japan's southern Ryukyu Islands join Taiwan in facing hazardous weather next week.
The faster that Koppu shifts northward, the more likely it is that the storm will cross near or east of Taiwan and then be pulled northeast with some impacts possible for Japan.
The longer Koppu sits over Luzon, the more time high pressure will have to build north of the cyclone producing more of a easterly component to the steering flow which would then likely lead to the cyclone tracking somewhere between Hong Kong and Taiwan during the second half of next week.
This scenario would bring the greatest threats to western Taiwan and the east coast of China. While Koppu would likely be a much weaker storm than when it impacts the Philippines, locally damaging winds and flooding rainfall will still be a serious risk.
"If Koppu instead continues to the north past Taiwan and into the East China Sea, it will encounter increased wind shear and should significantly weaken," Douty said. "Because of this, if there are impacts to Japan, we do not think they will be significant."
AccuWeather meteorologists will continue to provide updates on the expected track and more precise details of its potential impacts to lives and property in the upcoming days.
Behind Koppu is Champi, which strengthened into a tropical storm in the western Pacific Basin on Wednesday.
WATCH: Flash Flood Washes Across Utah Desert Road
Douty expects this system to cross the Northern Mariana Islands on Friday and will either be at or approaching typhoon status.
"Saipan is probably the largest island that will be impacted by this system as it will pass to the north of Guam," he said.
Latest indications point toward this system then curving to the north, then northeast away from Japan next week.
Content contributed by AccuWeather Meteorologist Eric Leister.
Rescue efforts are underway in Southern California, as heavy rains triggered flash flooding and mudslides, leaving motorists stranded and major roadways shut down in Los Angeles County.
Progressively colder air will lead to the first snowflakes and snowfall of the season, as well as the first freeze in parts of the Great Lakes, Northeast and neighboring Canada this weekend.
Typhoon Koppu will put lives and property across Luzon Island of the Philippines in danger this weekend and early next week.
A cooldown with clouds, showers and thunderstorms is in store for Southern California and much of the Southwest following recent heat and sunshine.
Since the first indication that a powerful El Nino was set to develop, there has been significant speculation about what impacts it would have within the United States.
A dominant storm track featuring storms moving west to east across Europe will result in a stark contrast between cold air building across Scandinavia and milder air masses entrenched near the Mediterranean.
Daylight in the Northern Hemisphere is increasing at its highest rate during March and April. Later in May and June, daylight is increasing at a much slower pace. Denver, CO (1984) | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | October 2015 | ['(AccuWeather)'] |
The interim Government of Bangladesh arrests former Prime Minister of Bangladesh Khaleda Zia and her son on corruption charges. | Ms Zia was refused bail in a Dhaka court and jailed to await trial, her lawyer said. She faces charges of extortion and corruption.
Her lawyer said he suspected her arrest was politically motivated.
Hours earlier, new corruption charges were made against another former Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, who is already accused of extortion and murder.
Bangladesh has been under emergency rule since January, when the interim government cancelled elections. It has banned most political activity.
The interim government has arrested 150 politicians in what it says is a crackdown on corruption.
But one of her lawyers, Abdul Wadud Khandakerm, said Ms Zia's arrest was aimed at forcing her out of politics.
"She told the court that the case was fabricated, motivated, conspiratorial and fictitious," he said, adding that Ms Zia would return stronger than before.
Tight security
Ms Zia and her younger son, Arafat Rahman Coco, were led to court amid tight security after being arrested at her home at 0730 (0130 GMT).
Hundreds of police surrounded the court and thousands of Zia supporters gathered outside.
KHALEDA ZIA KEY FACTS
Born 1945
Marries national hero General Ziaur Rahman in 1960, who was assassinated in 1981
1991-1996: Country's first female prime minister
Prime minister again from 2001 to 2006
September, 2007: Arrested and charged with corruption
Bangladesh stuck in limbo
Q&A: Bangladesh crisis
Profile: Khaleda Zia
Security forces had surrounded the home since midnight (1800 GMT Sunday).
Ms Zia - leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party - is facing charges of corruption and abuse of power for allegedly using her influence to determine the operators of two state container depots in 2003, during her second term as prime minister.
Mr Coco is accused of pushing his mother to approve the deal. He is still being questioned by police and will remain in custody for seven days, lawyer Rafiqul Islam Miah said.
Eleven others are also named in the case, brought by Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission.
Ms Zia - who stepped down as prime minister in October 2006 - is also facing criminal charges connected with earlier tax evasion allegations.
Bitter rival
On Sunday, the anti-corruption commission filed charges against Ms Zia's bitter rival Sheikh Hasina, the head of the Awami League, accusing her of taking illegal payments from a private electricity firm totalling $435,000 (£215,000).
Sheikh Hasina was arrested in July
The commission said Sheikh Hasina had taken the money when she was in power between 1996 and 2000.
Sheikh Hasina denies all charges against her. She has been in custody since July.
Six other people, including former senior officials, have also been charged.
This is the first charge brought against Sheikh Hasina by a government body, so is seen to carry more weight than the others, says the BBC's Mark Dummett in Dhaka. Sheikh Hasina is being held in a house in the parliament complex. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | September 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the total number of people killed and missing in Syria's war is now 465,000. | BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said on Monday there are so far about 465,000 people killed and missing in Syria’s civil war.
The war began six years ago on Wednesday with protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s government. It has since dragged in global and regional powers, allowed Islamic State to grab huge tracts of territory and caused the biggest refugee crisis since the second world war.
The Observatory said it had documented the deaths of more than 321,000 people since the start of the war and more than 145,000 others had been reported as missing.
Among those killed are more than 96,000 civilians, said the Observatory, which has used a network of contacts across the country to maintain a count of casualties since near the start of the conflict.
It said government forces and their allies had killed more than 83,500 civilians, including more than 27,500 in air strikes and 14,600 under torture in prison.
Rebel shelling had killed more than 7,000 civilians, the Observatory said.
The Islamic State jihadist group has killed more than 3,700 civilians, air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition have killed 920 civilians and Turkey, which is backing rebels in northern Syria, has killed more than 500 civilians, it added.
Syria’s government and Russia both deny targeting civilians or using torture or extrajudicial killings. Most rebel groups and Turkey also deny targeting civilians. The U.S.-led coalition says it tries hard to avoid civilian casualties and always investigates reports that it has done so.
Reporting By Angus McDowall; Editing by Julia Glover | Armed Conflict | March 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The United States says it has evidence that Russia is firing artillery across the border into Ukraine to target Ukrainian military positions in the conflict against pro-Russian separatists. | WASHINGTON, July 24 (Reuters) - The United States said on Thursday that Russia was firing artillery across the border into Ukraine to target Ukrainian military positions in the conflict against pro-Russian separatists.
"We have new evidence that the Russians intend to deliver heavier and more powerful multiple rocket launchers to the separatist forces in Ukraine, and have evidence that Russia is firing artillery from within Russia to attack Ukrainian military positions," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
Harf, speaking at a regular media briefing, cited intelligence reports, but said she could give no more information of what the reports were based on.
Russia has in the past denied it is directly involved with the rebellion in its western neighbor, but the United States and its European allies accuse Moscow of arming and encouraging the uprising and have imposed sanctions on Moscow in response.
Ukraine's Security Council said on Wednesday preliminary information indicated that missiles which brought down two government fighter jets over eastern Ukraine were fired from Russia.
Russia's Defense Ministry on Thursday dismissed this, saying it was "an attempt to mislead the public," Interfax news agency reported, citing a defense ministry official.
| Armed Conflict | July 2014 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Boko Haram militants raze the entire town of Baga in north-east Nigeria. Bodies lay strewn on Baga's streets with as many as 2,000 people having been killed. Boko Haram now controls 70% of Borno State, which is the worst-affected by the insurgency. | Bodies lay strewn on the streets of a key north-eastern Nigerian town following an assault by militant Islamists, officials have told the BBC. The Boko Haram group attacked Baga town on Wednesday, after over-running a military base there on Saturday, they said. Almost the entire town had been torched and the militants were now raiding nearby areas, they added. Boko Haram launched a military campaign in 2009 to create an Islamic state. It has taken control of many towns and villages in north-eastern Nigeria in the last year.
The conflict has displaced at least 1.5 million people, while more than 2,000 were killed last year. Nigerian lawmaker Maina Maaji Lawan said Boko Haram controlled 70% of Borno state, which is worst-affected by the insurgency. Musa Alhaji Bukar, a senior government official in the area, said that fleeing residents told him that Baga, which had a population of about 10,000, was now "virtually non-existent". "It has been burnt down," he told the BBC Hausa service. Those who fled reported that they had been unable to bury the dead, and corpses littered the town's streets, he said.
Boko Haram was now in control of Baga and 16 neighbouring towns after the military retreated, Mr Bukar said.
While he raised fears that some 2,000 had been killed in the raids, other reports put the number in the hundreds. Mr Lawan, the senator for northern Borno, called on government troops to stop "dilly-dallying" and to fight back to protect residents.
"The indiscriminate killings went on and on and on," he told BBC Focus on Africa. Boko Haram's offensive continued on Thursday, with its fighters setting up checkpoints and killing people who were hiding in the bush, the senator said.
Fleeing residents spoke of the stench of rotting corpses on the streets and surrounding bushes, he said.
Who are Boko Haram?
Profile: Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau
Why Nigeria has not defeated Boko Haram
Some 10,0000 people had fled to Chad since Saturday to escape the violence, raising fears of a humanitarian crisis, Mr Lawan said. A large number reportedly drowned as they crossed Lake Chad. Others are fleeing to Maiduguri, the capital of Borno, in buses provided by the government, the senator said. BBC Nigeria correspondent Will Ross says the crisis in north-eastern Nigeria is clearly deepening.
While President Goodluck Jonathan, who is seeking re-election next month, has condemned the attack on a French satirical magazine in Paris as dastardly, he has not commented on the violence at home, our reporter says.
Government troops abandoned the military base in Baga on Saturday. It hosts the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF), made up of troops from Nigeria, Chad and Niger, although only Nigerian soldiers were there at the time of the attack.
Set up in 1998 to fight trans-border crime in the Lake Chad region, the force more recently promised to take on Boko Haram.
Mr Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Borno and two neighbouring states in 2013, vowing to defeat the militants. However, Boko Haram has stepped up attacks since then and there are fears that many people in the north-east will not be able to vote in the general election because of the conflict. Africa Today podcasts | Armed Conflict | January 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
The United States Senate and the Trump administration reaches a $2 trillion stimulus package deal following talks with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The bill passes, and is expected to go to the United States House of Representatives. | The Senate passed a historic $2 trillion coronavirus relief package Wednesday night, as it tries to stem the destruction the pandemic has brought to American lives and wallets.
The chamber approved the mammoth bill — the largest economic rescue package in U.S. history — in a unanimous 96-0 vote after days of furious negotiations, partisan sniping and raised tempers on the Senate floor. The bill now heads to the House, which will push to pass it by voice vote Friday morning because most representatives are out of Washington.
“This is a proud moment for the United States Senate and for the country and we’re going to win this battle in the very near future,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters after the vote.
The 880-page legislation includes one-time direct payments to individuals, stronger unemployment insurance, loans and grants to businesses and more health-care resources for hospitals, states and municipalities. It includes requirements that insurance providers cover preventive services for COVID-19.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expects her chamber will approve the measure in a “strong, bipartisan vote” on Friday, she told reporters Thursday.
The Senate rushed to pass the sweeping aid bill as data are expected to show a historic spike in unemployment claims after businesses across the country shuttered in an attempt to slow the outbreak’s spread. Some hospitals have started to buckle under a flood of patients, asking for critical supplies such as masks and ventilators.
As of Thursday morning, U.S. coronavirus cases numbered more than 69,000, while deaths have now topped 1,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The chamber approved the plan to combat the outbreak as the crisis started to thin its ranks. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., did not vote after testing positive for COVID-19, and neither did GOP Sens. Mitt Romney and Mike Lee of Utah, both in isolation after contact with their colleague. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the second-ranking Republican, also missed the vote after feeling ill.
While the Senate took precautions Wednesday such as keeping votes open longer to reduce crowding, senators still huddled in groups and chatted.
Speaking before the chamber passed the bill, McConnell said the Senate would not return until April 20. However, he said lawmakers would be “nimble” as the evolving crisis could force further action to boost the American economy or health-care system.
“If circumstances require the Senate to return for a vote sooner than April the 20th we will provide at least 24 hours of notice,” he said.
Before passing the bill, the Senate rejected an amendment proposed by Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., to cap unemployment insurance at a recipient’s previous wages. The bill adds $600 per week to the benefits a recipient would normally get for up to four months. Sasse’s amendment failed in a 48-48 vote.
The senator and three of his GOP colleagues threatened to delay passage of the legislation if they could not get a vote on an amendment. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., then suggested he could hold up the bill’s approval if they did not back down from their opposition.
While the snag caused fears the bill would not pass, hitting U.S. stock indexes just before markets closed Wednesday, it ultimately did not stop the Senate from approving the proposal.
The last delay to the bill Wednesday night came as lawmakers added language requiring the Treasury Department to post on its website information about which companies get loans, according to NBC News
In a letter to colleagues Wednesday night, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the chamber will convene at 9 a.m. ET Friday to consider the legislation. The Maryland Democrat said that “in order to protect the safety” of representatives and staff and “prevent the further spread of COVID-19,” he and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., expect the House will take a voice vote.
“Members who want to come to the House Floor to debate this bill will be able to do so. In addition, we are working to ensure that those who are unable to return to Washington may express their views on this legislation remotely,” he wrote.
House approval would send the package to President Donald Trump, who has expressed support for the agreement negotiated by his Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senate Republicans and Democrats.
During a White House coronavirus briefing Wednesday, Trump said he would sign the legislation “immediately” after Congress passes it.
Lawmakers already approved two pieces of legislation to respond to the crisis: $8.3 billion in emergency medical funding and $100 billion to expand paid leave and unemployment insurance — both of which were dwarfed by the scope of the third package.
As the pandemic rips through the country, senators signaled they may need to provide more relief. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, whose home state of New York has been ravaged by the outbreak more than any other part of the country, told reporters the “odds are high” Congress will need to pass more measures. | Government Policy Changes | March 2020 | ['(The Washington Post)', '(CNBC)'] |
In Guatemala, gunmen assassinate public prosecutor Erick Galvez in Chiquimula department. | Details are sketchy, but early reports quote police sources as saying Erick Galvez was killed by unidentified attackers in Chiquimula province.
He handled the country's most serious crimes such as homicide and drug trafficking, AP news agency reports.
Monday's shooting is the second such attack in a month against a top law enforcement official in Guatemala.
Efe news agency quotes government sources as saying Mr Galvez was gunned down as he left a courthouse in the city.
He had taken part in a case that resulted in a 30-year murder sentence just hours before the shooting, the Associated Press reports. Police sources speculated that the case could have been the motivation for the attack, the agency says. The Guatemalan authorities have condemned the killing. | Armed Conflict | May 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
Rioting and looting takes place in Altona, Hamburg, particularly in the Elbchaussee area, as police clash with anti-capitalist protestors in the city for a second day. At least 160 police officers are injured and 70 protesters arrested. | Teargas and water cannon deployed outside Elbphilharmonie concert hall while inside world leaders listen to Ode to Joy
First published on Fri 7 Jul 2017 15.23 BST
A day of violent clashes between police and protesters culminated on Friday evening with the bizarre spectacle of the heads of the world’s 20 leading economies listening to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy at the top of a shiny high-rise building while police used water cannon, teargas and speed boats to keep at bay an angry crowd of thousands.
Germany’s second-largest city had been eager to showcase its recently opened Elbphilharmonie concert hall to the rest of the world, but it may come to rue its ivory-tower symbolism after a week of chaotic scenes on the edges of the conference hall.
Rising tensions between protesters and police had escalated with clashes in Hamburg’s historic harbour area on Thursday night, and escalated further when masked anti-capitalist protesters torched cars and smashed shop windows in the Altona district on Friday morning.
Masked protesters in black clothes used flares to set fire to at least 20 cars and pelted rocks at the windows of banks and smaller shops as they made their way through Altona and along the Elbchaussee road along the river at about 7.30 am on Friday morning.
Many shops and cafes in the area, including a local Ikea, boarded up their windows in anticipation of further rioting.
Melania Trump, the wife of the US president, Donald Trump, was reportedly stopped from attending an event in the G20’s supporting programme by the protests. “Police have not given us security clearance to leave the guest house,” Trump’s spokesperson told the German press agency dpa.
A planned visit for leaders’ partners to a climate research centre was scrapped and replaced with a presentation by climate scientists at a luxury hotel. “Thinking of those hurt in Hamburg protests. Hope everyone stay safe!” the US president’s wife tweeted later. Police forces around Germany dispatched reinforcements to help 15,000 police already deployed to the northern port city for the summit as the violence escalated.
Later on Friday afternoon Hamburg authorities spoke of 160 injured police officers and 70 arrested protesters. Organisers of Thursday’s “Welcome to Hell” march said 14 participants had ended up in hospital, three of whom were seriously injured and one claimed to be in a critical condition.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who hosts the summit, condemned the violence. “I have every understanding for peaceful demonstrations, but violent demonstrations put human lives in danger,” she said. High-tech water cannon were employed in the city throughout the day. Hamburg police at one point issued a statement via Twitter in which they clarified that reports of the employment of nuclear weapons in the city were taken from a satirical news website.
As G20 leaders and delegates gathered at the Elbphilharmonie after Trump’s two-and-a-half hour meeting with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, protesters began to gather near the venue.
Police again deployed water cannon to disperse a crowd of protesters who had broken into a sealed-off riverside metro station.
Around 15 boats with climate activists tried to reach the concert venue via the harbour basin and 22 Greenpeace activists jumped into the water to swim to the bottom of the building, designed by Herzog and de Meuron. All of them were stopped by police.
Sven Jahn, a police spokesman, said that a group of about 60 masked protesters attacked three police vehicles with molotov cocktails, and that a flare fired at a police helicopter only narrowly missed its target.
Police and protesters accuse each other of having escalated the situation in the city, with police saying they had to use force after a hardcore bloc of activists had attacked them with bottles and sticks. Andreas Beuth, a lawyer and protest co-organiser, accused authorities of deliberate provocation with heavy-handed tactics. “The escalation was clearly started by the police,” said Beuth at a press conference inside the stadium of local football club FC St Pauli on Friday morning.
Christoph Kleine, one of the organisers of Saturday’s G20 Not Welcome march, said police had “risked the loss of human life” by aiming water cannon at people standing on bridges and rooftops.
A number of journalists working for leftwing German newspapers reported on Friday that their press accreditation had been withdrawn without explanation. WTF. The German police just seized my official #G20 press accreditation.
The owner of a burnt-out Saab on the Elbchaussee said she had just got her children to get ready for school when about 30 masked protesters started throwing bottles and molotov cocktails on the street outside, shortly before 8am.
“The car’s insured, but it has a nostalgic value,” said Ariane Striemeier-Gellsen. “If it had survived another year it would have been vintage.” She said it had taken the fire service 45 minutes to arrive on the scene.
Waltraud Waidelich, a resident of the Schanzenviertel district, said she had deliberately parked her car in the more upmarket Altona district on Thursday night, only to find her vehicle surrounded by burnt-out cars this morning.
She said she felt some of the violent protests were undermining more constructive protests and alternative conferences taking place in Hamburg at the weekend. Waidelich said: “At the alternative summit, I saw a lot of highly competent people looking constructively at ways in which we can transform the economy along more social and ecological lines.”
Some degree of protest and disagreement was normal, she said. “We have to remind politicians visiting our city that they have to work harder,” she said. “But I prefer creative forms of protests, and I am not sure what torching normal people’s cars is meant to achieve. There were a lot of young men on the streets who were mainly out to play cops and robbers with the police. Violence is not my way.” | Riot | July 2017 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The Mayor of Liverpool, England, Joe Anderson is arrested along with four others for conspiracy to commit bribery and witness intimidation. He is subsequently suspended from the Labour Party. | Liverpool's mayor Joe Anderson has been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit bribery and witness intimidation.
He and four others were held as part of an investigation into the awarding of building contracts in the city.
It is understood the Labour Party has suspended Mr Anderson pending the outcome of the case. The year-long police probe, Operation Aloft, has focussed on a number of property developers.
Liverpool City Council said it was co-operating with Merseyside Police.
A police statement said those arrested include two men, 33 and 62, both from Liverpool, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit bribery and witness intimidation. A 46-year-old man from Ainsdale has also been arrested on suspicion of the same offence. The other two arrested men are a 72-year-old man from Liverpool and a 25-year old from Ormskirk, who have been arrested on suspicion of witness intimidation.
Developer Elliot Lawless was arrested in January 2019 and denied any wrongdoing. Elliot Lawless is currently released under investigation and was not one of the five arrested earlier on Friday. Councillor Richard Kemp, leader of the opposition Lib Dem group on Liverpool City Council, said Mr Anderson "should follow the precedence set by leaders of the council and other senior figures in such cases."
"He should step away from the council and step away from his mayoralty while this goes through due legal process," he said.
Mr Anderson joined the Merchant Navy after leaving school aged 16.
He later studied for a degree in social work at Liverpool John Moores University and went on to become a social worker for Sefton Council in 1992.
The father-of-four was Liverpool's first elected mayor in 2012 having served on the city council since 1998.
His national profile been raised by his role in driving forward mass coronavirus testing in the city.
Mr Anderson, whose brother Bill died recently of Covid-19, was praised for his response to the virus by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | December 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Japanese National Diet member Tsukasa Akimoto of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is arrested for allegedly receiving up to ¥3 million in bribes from a Chinese company interested in setting up a casino in the country. | TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese authorities arrested ruling party lawmaker Tsukasa Akimoto on Wednesday on suspicion of accepting bribes from a company interested in setting up a casino in Japan, Tokyo prosecutors said.
Hours later prosecutors searched the office of a second lawmaker from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party as part of the same investigation, Kyodo news and other Japanese media said, in what appeared to be a widening probe.
The high-profile arrest of a member of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s LDP could harden public opposition to casinos, which have been consistently unpopular despite the government’s push to have them running by the early 2020s.
A senior vice minister in the Cabinet Office until October last year, Akimoto oversaw government policy on casinos. He is suspected of receiving 3 million yen ($27,500) in cash and a family holiday worth the equivalent of $6,500 from three suspects despite knowing that their company wanted help with a casino bid, prosecutors said.
The three suspects were also arrested on suspicion of bribery, prosecutors said. No one was available for comment at Akimoto’s office, which was raided by prosecutors last week. The lawmaker has repeatedly denied doing anything illegal.
“I have absolutely not taken part in any wrongdoing,” Akimoto wrote on his official Twitter account earlier on Wednesday, after media reported he was likely to be questioned. “I will continue to emphasize this point.”
Hours later, prosecutors searched the office of lawmaker Takaki Shirasuka in Chiba, east of the capital, in connection with the probe into Akimoto, Kyodo and public broadcaster NHK said.
Prosecutors did not respond to a request for comment. Officials at Shirasuka’s offices in Tokyo and Chiba could not immediately be reached.
Related Coverage
Prosecutors did not name the company whose three employees allegedly tried to influence Akimoto, but public broadcaster NHK and other local media identified it as Shenzhen, China-based 500.Com Ltd, an online sports lottery service provider.
Investor relations representatives for 500.Com did not respond to two requests for comment. The phone number and email for its media relations representative listed on its website did not work. No one was immediately available for comment at the company’s main number or customer service departments.
Representatives of four opposition parties said they would submit a bill to abolish Japan’s casino law in the next session of parliament, public broadcaster NHK said. Lawmakers only finished legalizing casinos last year after a series of controversial bills and years of debate.
The government sees casinos anchoring ambitious “integrated resorts” that include shopping outlets and hotels and are aimed at bolstering tourism, tax revenue and local economies.
Japan, which has a shrinking population and economy, is desperate to maintain growth in tourism, particularly after the Tokyo Olympics end next year.
Some analysts have said the casino market could be worth around $20 billion a year or more, thanks to an affluent population and the proximity to Asia’s wealthy gamblers. But critics have cited risks of increased gambling addiction and more organized crime.
Akimoto’s arrest could add to the negative images the Japanese public holds of casinos, said Hidenori Suezawa, an analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities.
“It may be a blow to some local governments’ ongoing campaign to attract casinos,” he said.
Gambling has traditionally had a seedy image in Japan, with none of the glamor associated with spots like Las Vegas.
“This shakes the foundation of the government’s integrated-resort policy,” Kazuhiro Haraguchi, parliamentary affairs chief for the opposition Democratic Party For the People, told Kyodo.
“If a deputy minister in the Cabinet Office with authority (over the casino issue) used his position to get money, it would be outrageous.”
An opinion poll in October by Jiji news found 57.9% opposition to integrated resorts versus 26.6% support.
($1 = 109.3600 yen)
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | December 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Indian security forces launch an offensive against the United Liberation Front of Assam. | Nearly 2,000 soldiers and armed policemen have moved into the park that borders the neighbouring state of Arunachal Pradesh. An Indian army spokesman says it is targeting rebels of the United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa).
Ulfa has been fighting for a separate Assamese homeland for two decades.
'Intelligence reports'
The soldiers began moving into the Dibru-Saikhowa national park around midnight. The spokesman, Lt-Col Narendra Singh, said security forces had established operational bases inside the forest and the rebels would be attacked soon. But he said the troops and policemen were yet to trace the guerrillas, although a deserted rebel base had been found with some weapons, ammunition and explosives. Col Singh said the massive operation had been launched on the basis of intelligence reports that an Ulfa mobile battalion had set up a base inside the park.
From there the rebels would carry out hit-and-run raids and bombings in Assam's northern districts where much of the state's tea estates, oil and gas fields are located. "This Ulfa battalion is the most dangerous, they specialise in sabotage," said a recently retired army officer, Lt-Gen Gaganjit Singh. Chances of Ulfa opening a peace dialogue with Delhi faded after the rebel leaders made it clear they would only talk if India agreed to discuss Assam's sovereignty. The Indian government has rejected the demand, saying the rebels must talk without conditions as other separatist groups in the country have done. | Armed Conflict | April 2005 | ['(BBC)'] |
The European Space Agency successfully launches the German Aerospace Center-operated EDRS-C laser communication satellite on an Ariane 5 from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. | It will use optical beams to pull pictures and data from other spacecraft and then speed that information to the ground.
EDRS-C, as it is known, was sent into orbit on Tuesday by an Ariane-5 rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana.
It joins the first node in the network, EDRS-A, which was put up in 2016.
That spacecraft was positioned over Central Africa to service Europe.
The new satellite will sit slightly to the east, where it will provide additional capacity.
The European Data Relay System is a joint venture between the European Space Agency and aerospace giant Airbus.
It is used predominantly by the European Union's Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 Earth observation spacecraft. These platforms take images of the planet's surface.
Ordinarily, such satellites would have to wait until they pass over a radio receiving dish on the ground before downloading their pictures, which could mean a delay of over an hour as they circle the globe.
But the Sentinels were equipped to connect with the EDRS satellites' 1.8-gigabit laser links.
The relay platforms orbit much higher in the sky - some 36,000km in altitude - and always have visibility of a radio antenna on the ground.
The capability has particular relevance in the realm of natural disasters, such as major floods or big earthquakes. Information about the scale of these emergencies can be put in the hands of first responders much faster than would normally be the case.
"We have demonstrated that it's possible to get a Sentinel image on the ground and ready to use after just 15 minutes of it being acquired," Magali Vaissiere, the director of telecoms at Esa, told BBC News. "The launch of EDRS-C brings additional capacity to the network, obviously, but it also provides redundancy, a back-up, which you need in an operational system."
Between a third and a half of all image data from Sentinels 1 and 2 is now routed through EDRS, and usage is certain to expand with the second node now in orbit. There are plans to use the relay system to regularly pull data to the ground from the European Columbus science laboratory on the space station. Future Earth observation satellites are also actively being planned with EDRS in mind, including the EU's next batch of Sentinels and Airbus's Pléiades Neo satellites which will take Earth images at 30cm resolution. Airbus says airborne reconnaissance could make use of the laser links, too.
A third node, EDRS-D, should be launched over the Asia-Pacific region before 2025. Esa wants to see optical technology play a much bigger role in space communications.
Telecoms satellites that rely solely on radio frequency transmissions are being left behind by the performance of terrestrial fibre networks. In time, this is going to put significant constraints on applications that include TV broadcasting and the services carrying the messages of connected devices (the so-called Internet of Things). It is why the space agency will propose to Europe's research ministers in November that they fund the R&D necessary to break the "bottleneck in the sky".
Esa's High Throughput Optical Network (HyDRON) project envisages laser links, not just between satellites but between spacecraft and the ground. This brings certain challenges, including the issue of how to manage light transmissions through a turbulent - and often cloudy - atmosphere. However, if the technologies can be mastered they should permit terabit-per-second connections. "We have shown with EDRS that we have some leadership in Europe in these technologies, and one of the strategic lines we have defined for [the ministerial meeting] will be dedicated to optical uses so that we strengthen that leadership," the Esa telecoms director said.
The 3-tonne EDRS-C satellite also hosts a Ka-band radio frequency payload for the London-based Avanti telecommunications company. Avanti calls the payload Hylas-3 and will be using it to deliver broadband and other data services to markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
| New achievements in aerospace | August 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
Eric Rudolph is sentenced to three more life terms without possibility of parole for the Centennial Olympic Park bombing of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. |
The man responsible for a bombing at the 1996 Olympics in the southern U.S. city of Atlanta, was sentenced to life in prison Monday for that attack and several others. More than a dozen bombing victims were allowed to confront Eric Rudolph as he appeared in federal court.
Rudolph was given four life sentences for the 1997 bombings of an abortion clinic and a gay nightclub, and an explosion at a late-night rock concert during the 1996 Summer Olympics that killed one person and injured 111 others. Before he was sentenced by a federal judge to a maximum security prison with no possibility of parole, Rudolph apologized, but only for the Olympic bombing, saying he would do anything to "take that night back." Fallon Stubbs, who was 14-years-old when her mother was killed in that explosion, said Rudolph seemed humble but not sincere. "He is apologetic for the way that it happened, that someone did die in Atlanta in Centennial Olympic Park. But he's not apologetic for the other victims that he caused their injuries and their lives. So, just for that one incident, for you being apologetic for one part and not the other, is not enough," he said.
Rudolph, who eluded authorities for five years by hiding in the southern foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, said he set off the bombs because he opposed abortion, and wanted to embarrass the government. Last month, he was also given a life sentence in the southern state of Alabama for the 1998 bombing of a women's health clinic. A police officer was killed and a nurse was maimed in that instance. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2005 | ['(BBC)', '(VOA)'] |
The death toll from Typhoon Ketsana across Southeast Asia rises to 300. | (CNN) -- Ketsana, downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical depression, set its sights on a fourth nation Wednesday -- barreling toward Laos after leaving a trail of destruction and death across southeast Asia.
A man tries to get into his flooded house in Hoi An in the central Vietnamese province of Quang Nam.
By Wednesday morning, the death toll from the storm's rage had topped 325: at least 246 in the Philippines, 74 in Vietnam and nine in Cambodia.
With heavy rains still lashing Vietnam, some major roads were closed and rivers and flood waters were rising. But the airport in the coastal city of Danang, which had been closed for three days, reopened Wednesday.
Workers used chainsaws to clear toppled trees from roads so rescue crews could rush relief supplies to the worst-hit areas. Families waded through knee-deep water to salvage precious belongings from flooded houses.
In Danang, an ill elderly woman was brought to safety on a make-shift raft made of banana tree trunks and leaves. She said eight other family members remained on the rooftop where they had found refuge.
In addition to the 74 deaths, the Vietnamese government said 179 people were injured.
The numbers, the government said, are expected to rise because officials have not been able to reach some isolated areas.
Vietnam has not asked for aid but some international relief agencies were providing help, which the government accepted.
In neighboring Cambodia, the storm knocked down 92 houses in Kampong Thom province, about 80 miles (130 km) north of the capital Phnom Penh.
Along with the usual rice and blankets, the Cambodian Red Cross planned to donate $120 to each of the affected families so they can afford a traditional funeral for their loved ones.
The nine deaths reported in Cambodia were all in Kampong Thom, with 40 others injured there, the Red Cross said.
The worst-hit country, the Philippines, began the slow process of clearing up mud and debris Wednesday.
Even as they did so, Filipinos kept their eyes peeled on another storm looming in the Pacific Ocean.
In the city of Pasig -- part of metropolitan Manila -- enterprising residents used inflatable mattresses as makeshift boats to ferry people through flooded streets.
The government, which some people said did not act quickly enough, opened up part of the presidential palace for aid distribution.
Ketsana left at least 246 people dead as it passed over the Philippines. Another 38 people were still missing, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said.
The storm affected nearly 2 million people and forced the evacuation of 567,000. At one point, 80 percent of the capital Manila was under water after experiencing the heaviest rainfall in 40 years.
As the death toll rose, so did the collective grief.
"I did not know what happened," said Gingerly Comprendio. "We were on top of a roof. We got separated. The next day when I came back to our house, I saw my eldest already dead and my aunt saw my other child buried in the mud."
Ray Lee, a prominent judge, single-handedly saved 32 people using his jet ski.
"There were cries for help, so I returned to other houses or roofs and retrieved all the people there," he said.
To help avoid a humanitarian catastrophe, several nations have rallied to the Philippines' side.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the United Nations was considering an emergency appeal for aid as several U.N. agencies pledged support. The World Food Program said it will provide rations to 180,000 people.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2009 | ['(Associated Press)', '(CNN)'] |
Devastating fire in Manila, Philippines leaves about 8,000 people homeless and nine injured in a Makati City squatter community. | Informal settlers rummage through the still-smoldering debris following a fire that razed close to a thousand shanties Tuesday April 19, 2011 at Makati city, the country's financial district, east of Manila, Philippines. A fireman was treated for slight burn in the two-hour blaze that rendered close to 10,000 people homeless, according to Makati City Mayor Jejomar "Junjun" Binay Jr. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
An informal settler trains his garden hose at his still-smoldering home following a fire that razed close to a thousand shanties Tuesday April 19, 2011 at Makati city, the country's financial district, east of Manila, Philippines. A fireman was treated for slight burn in the two-hour fire that rendered close to 10,000 people homeless, according to Makati City Mayor Jejomar "Junjun" Binay Jr. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine authorities are blaming a defective electrical outlet for a massive fire that razed a squatters' colony in Manila's financial district and left about 8,000 people homeless.
Fire chief Ricardo Perdigon in Makati city says a tenant plugged in a cellphone charger and ran outside after sparks triggered a fire that spread quickly to other homes Tuesday in the congested community near the city's main highway.
Perdigon said Wednesday that nine people suffered light burns and bruises in the inferno, which gutted the impoverished neighborhood and left 1,600 families, or about 8,000 people, homeless.
The Makati social welfare office says those left homeless have been sheltered in a nearby seminary and a community hall. | Fire | April 2011 | ['(Inquirer)', '(Mindanao Examiner)', '(AP via Greenfield Daily Reporter)'] |
Farid Babayev, a Russian politician with the Yabloko party, is shot and seriously wounded in Makhachkala, Dagestan. | Farid Babayev, who leads the electoral list of the liberal Yabloko party in the southern Dagestan region, was shot outside his home in Makhachkala.
The motive of the attack late on Wednesday was unclear, police say.
Yabloko is not expected to clear the 7%-threshold to win seats in the 2 December elections, opinion polls say.
The pro-Kremlin United Russia party led by President Vladimir Putin is expected to emerge as the biggest force in the new parliament - the Duma.
Russia's opposition parties have accused the authorities of harassment ahead of the polls - charges denied by the Kremlin. Dagestan has recently seen a spate of violent attacks which Moscow blames on Islamic militants and criminal groups. | Famous Person - Sick | November 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
A drone strike kills four suspected Al-Qaeda militants in northern Yemen. | SANAA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - A drone attack killed four men suspected of belonging to al Qaeda in northern Yemen on Saturday, tribal sources said, as a U.S. campaign against the militants goes on amid a wider civil war in the country.
Two missiles hit the men's car, killing all of them, tribesmen in the province of al-Jawf said by telephone. The four men were not immediately identified.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has taken advantage of a war pitting Houthi militiamen against forces loyal to exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to grab territory and operate more openly.
The group has carried out attacks against the Yemeni state for years of bomb, plotted to blow up U.S.-bound airliners and claimed responsibility for January's attack in Paris on a French magazine that killed 12 people.
The United States has kept up a drone campaign against the militants, although it evacuated the last of its military and intelligence personnel from Yemen in March. Its attacks have killed some of AQAP's top leaders, including its chief, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, in June.
The United States has acknowledged using drones but declines to comment on specific attacks.
Meanwhile, war between the Iran-allied Houthis and Yemeni fighters backed by a Saudi-led military coalition continues across the country. The alliance kept up a week of bombing on the capital, Sanaa, on Saturday, pummelling military bases and rocket depots.
Yemen's warring factions will meet for peace talks in neighbouring Oman next week, the United Nations and Yemeni officials said. The talks are the second major negotiations effort aimed at ending the war, which that has killed over 4,500 people and spread hunger and disease in one of the Arab world's poorest countries.
(Reporting By Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Noah Browning) | Armed Conflict | September 2015 | ['(Reuters via Trust)'] |
Riot police in Belarus use water cannons and stun grenades to break up mass protests against disputed President Alexander Lukashenko. | Belarusian riot police have used water cannon and stun grenades to break up the latest mass protests against President Alexander Lukashenko.
Protests have swept the eastern European country since Mr Lukashenko claimed victory in an August election widely viewed as rigged.
Dozens of protesters were detained during the latest rallies on Sunday.
In the capital Minsk, police blasted protesters with coloured water to mark them out for arrest.
Critics of Mr Lukashenko said Sunday saw police use some of the most brutal tactics against protesters since the immediate aftermath of August's disputed presidential election.
Many opposition activists have been beaten up by police and thousands have been arrested during months of unrest. They are demanding the release of all political prisoners and a free and fair re-run of the election.
The EU, the UK and the US have refused to recognise Mr Lukashenko's new term. Mr Lukashenko denies fixing the poll and has received support from Russia, his country's closest ally.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya emerged as the main opposition leader after standing against Mr Lukashenko in August's election, arguing she would have won had it not been rigged.
Ms Tikhanovskaya was forced to go into exile in Lithuania after receiving threats following the disputed vote. She has repeatedly appealed to the international community to put pressure on Mr Lukashenko so that a democratic transition can be launched by negotiation.
Opposition hopes of a peaceful resolution were raised on Saturday after Mr Lukashenko held an unexpected meeting with political opponents in the jail where they are currently detained.
State media reported that the president called the meeting to discuss constitutional reform with his imprisoned opponents.
In now-familiar scenes, thousands of pro-opposition protesters gathered in Minsk and other major cities for the ninth successive Sunday of demonstrations against Mr Lukashenko.
Wearing coats and carrying umbrellas on a rainy afternoon, protesters called for the resignation of 66-year-old Mr Lukashenko, Belarus's leader since 1994.
Footage shows the security forces, dressed in black and armed with batons, rounding up peaceful protestors congregating in Minsk city centre and taking them to waiting vehicles.
Police used stun grenades and water cannon against demonstrators in Minsk, a spokeswoman for Belarus's interior ministry told AFP news agency.
They sprayed plain and coloured water at demonstrators, covering them in what appeared to be orange dye.
Some defiant protesters remained unmoved, using their umbrellas to shield themselves from the blast.
A local news website described police using tear gas on crowds and said police were herding people into courtyards. In videos posted online, police can be seen beating protesters with batons and snatching their white-and-red flags - a symbol of nationalist opposition to Mr Lukashenko.
Some protesters fought back and pelted police with bottles and other objects.
The Viasna rights group, which monitors detentions at political protests, said at least 140 people had been detained in Minsk and other cities.
Journalists covering the demonstrations were among those detained, including those from Russia's Tass agency and the state Belarusian news agency BELTA.
Jonah Fisher, BBC Ukraine correspondent
Sunday's demonstrations in Belarus's capital Minsk now follow a familiar course. Tens of thousands of people march through the streets demanding President Lukashenko step down. Then, he responds by sending his security forces to arrest as many of them as possible.
What makes this weekend different, however, is that on Saturday President Lukashenko held a long meeting with a group of political prisoners in jail.
It's the first indication - after more than two months of protests - that he just might be willing to negotiate with the opposition.
The president's press office said participants had agreed to keep the four-and-a-half-hour conversation "secret".
However, a photo posted by the press service shows Mr Lukashenko sitting at a table with 11 political figures, all of whom look pale and unsmiling.
Among them is Viktor Babaryko, a banker who was initially seen as Mr Lukashenko's strongest rival in the election, but was barred from running and jailed in July.
Liliya Vlasova, a lawyer and member of the opposition's Coordination Council, is also in the photo, as is Vitali Shkliarov, a Belarusian-American strategist who worked on US Senator Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign.
A short video clip shared by the press service also shows Mr Lukashenko saying to the group: "I am trying to convince not only your supporters but the whole of society that we need to look at things more broadly."
Apparently referring to the ongoing protests, he added: "You can't rewrite the constitution on the streets."
Opposition figures suggested meeting was a sign of Mr Lukashenko's weakness, perhaps signalling a newfound eagerness to compromise with the protest movement.
But in a social media post, Ms Tikhanovskaya said "you can't have dialogue in a prison cell". | Protest_Online Condemnation | October 2020 | ['(BBC)'] |
Reported Japanese child abuse reaches its highest level since records were first taken a decade ago. | Cases of alleged child abuse in Japan have risen to their highest level since records began 10 years ago. Police figures indicate 187 children were the suspected victims of physical and sexual abuse in the first half of this year. Eighteen children died. The report also found that cases of child pornography in the same period had risen by about 60% to 599 cases.
Analysts say the higher figures partly reflect an official clampdown on the sexual exploitation of children.
''It is likely that the actual number of cases is increasing, although it may be that hidden cases came to light in the wake of heightened attention,'' the National Police Agency said in its report.
The agency said that 199 people had been arrested in connection with the alleged abuse - nearly all were guardians of the children.
Several high-profile cases of child abuse in Japan have drawn widespread attention to the growing problem. A woman was arrested last month after she allegedly left her two children, aged three and one, to starve to death in her apartment.
Neighbours said they heard the children crying hysterically, but no action was taken.
In another disturbing case, a 34-year-old woman was arrested last month for allegedly strangling her daughter to death.
She also reportedly told police she used to trap the five-year-old inside a running washing machine.
Correspondents say such cases are in stark contrast to the stereotype of traditional Japanese culture that values family ties.
National Police Agency
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How the Delta variant took hold in the UK. VideoHow the Delta variant took hold in the UK | Break historical records | August 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Age)'] |
Four are injured in a coach crash in the French Alps. | The Gendarmerie Nationale in Grenoble said the coach, carrying about 45 Britons, slid off an icy road.
A spokesman said it happened when the tourist party was travelling from La Grave, in the Isere region of south-east France, to Grenoble airport.
'Very lucky'
It is thought the vehicle hit rocks after skidding near the town of Mizoen.
The group of pupils, parents and teachers from Kingsland Grange Preparatory School in Shrewsbury were returning home from a skiing holiday. There were 22 pupils plus 19 adults including parents, on the annual skiing trip.
The children, aged between 9 and 13, all escaped with nothing more than minor bumps and bruises, but the leader was seriously injured when he was thrown through the front windscreen.
They were travelling with SkiPlan, a Brighton-based tour operator which specialises in skiing.
Patricia Couchman, the company's director, said in addition to the man who was seriously injured, "two other adults were treated in hospital for suspected injuries but have been cleared by the hospital". | Road Crash | January 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Tunisian lawmakers, dissatisfied with the lack of progress on a financial reforms package, vote to dismiss Prime Minister Habib Essid from office. | TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian lawmakers voted on Saturday to dismiss Prime Minister Habib Essid from office during a no-confidence ballot in parliament, clearing the way for a new government that must push through delayed economic reforms.
Essid, a technocrat in office less than two years, had been under fire for a lack of progress on a financial reforms package to create growth and jobs. President Beji Caid Essebsi also called for a new unity government to speed up reforms.
Out of the 191 lawmakers present for the vote, 118 voted to sack Essid. Only three supported him and others abstained.
A new premier will likely be named after negotiations within the ruling coalition of four major parties. That may include a change in cabinet with a new prime minister.
Essid had earlier this year clashed with President Beji Caid Essebsi, who had called for a new unity government to overcome political divisions in the ruling coalition and respond more quickly to economic and security challenges.
Since its 2011 revolution to oust Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has emerged as a democracy praised as a model for the region. But militant attacks have tested the government and political infighting has slowed economic progress.
Essebsi has said the country needs a more dynamic government ready to take audacious decisions to bring about the liberalization and cost-cutting required for an overhaul of the North African state’s economy.
Three Islamist militant attacks last year - including gun attacks on foreign visitors at a museum and a beach resort - have badly damaged the tourism industry, which makes up around 8 percent of the economy and is a major source of jobs.
| Government Policy Changes | July 2016 | ['(118–3)', '(Reuters)'] |
New York Times reporter Judith Miller is jailed for refusing to divulge her source in an investigation around the leak of a CIA operative's name. | Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Judith Miller of The New York Times should be jailed for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury investigating the disclosure of the identity of a covert C.I.A. operative, the special prosecutor in the case said in court papers filed yesterday.
Last week, Time magazine provided Mr. Cooper's notes and other documents to the special prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, after the United States Supreme Court refused to hear appeals filed by the magazine and the two reporters. In yesterday's filing, Mr. Fitzgerald said he had reviewed the documents and determined that Mr. Cooper's testimony "remains necessary."
The reporters filed papers on Friday asking that they be sentenced to home confinement if incarceration is required. In case the presiding judge denied that request, Ms. Miller asked to be sent to a federal prison camp in Danbury, Conn., and Mr. Cooper to one in Cumberland, Md.
Mr. Fitzgerald opposed those requests yesterday, saying the local jail in the District of Columbia "or some other nearby federal facility" would be more appropriate.
Judge Thomas F. Hogan of Federal District Court in Washington will hold a hearing today to consider the question.
Mr. Fitzgerald, who had been restrained in his public filings, was harshly critical of the position taken by Ms. Miller and of statements supporting her by The Times. His response to Mr. Cooper was barely 4 pages; to Ms. Miller, 21 pages.
In October, Judge Hogan held the reporters in civil contempt, sentencing them to up to 18 months in jail. He suspended the sentences while the reporters appealed, and he said last week that the maximum time they faced was 120 days, as the term of the grand jury will expire in October.
Civil contempt is meant to be coercive rather than punitive. In yesterday's filing, though, Mr. Fitzgerald suggested that criminal prosecution was also a possibility.
"The court should advise Miller that if she persists in defying the court's order that she will be committing a crime," Mr. Fitzgerald wrote. "Miller and The New York Times appear to have confused Miller's ability to commit contempt with a legal right to do so."
He added: "Much of what appears to motivate Miller to commit contempt is the misguided reinforcement from others (specifically including her publisher) that placing herself above the law can be condoned." The publisher of The Times, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., has repeatedly said the newspaper supports Ms. Miller.
Mr. Fitzgerald quoted at length from news accounts about Time's decision to demonstrate that journalists and others are not of one mind about the obligation of news organizations and reporters to obey final court orders concerning their confidential sources. He also quoted from opinion columns, essays and a Los Angeles Times editorial suggesting that reporters should not take absolutist positions.
Catherine J. Mathis, a spokeswoman for The Times, said, "We intend to respond to the special counsel's views in court tomorrow." Dawn Bridges, a spokeswoman for Time Inc., a division of Time Warner, declined to comment on behalf of the magazine and Mr. Cooper.
As the case reached a critical phase, new details emerged about underlying events from two years ago.
The syndicated columnist Robert Novak disclosed the identity of the operative, referring to her by her maiden name, Valerie Plame, in a July 2003 article. A few days earlier, Newsweek reported this week, Mr. Cooper had talked by telephone with Karl Rove, the senior White House political adviser.
Mr. Cooper and two other reporters published an article three days after Mr. Novak discussing Ms. Plame's identity. The article cited as its sources "some government officials" and did not mention Mr. Rove. Ms. Miller has not written on the subject.
Robert D. Luskin, Mr. Rove's lawyer, confirmed that the conversation with Mr. Cooper took place. Mr. Luskin declined to discuss the subject of the conversation, but said Mr. Rove did not disclose Ms. Plame's identity. White House officials have long said Mr. Rove was not a source for Mr. Novak's column.
In his filing yesterday, Mr. Fitzgerald urged Judge Hogan to reject the reporters' requests for home confinement. "Forced vacation at a comfortable home is not a compelling form of coercion," he wrote.
"Certainly one who can handle the desert in wartime," he added, referring to Ms. Miller's coverage of the war in Iraq, "is far better equipped than the average person jailed in a federal facility." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | July 2005 | ['(CNN)', '(New York Times)'] |
Malaysia reports its first pregnant woman infected with the Zika virus. | 27-year-old lives in state next to Singapore, where 275 cases have been recorded, as Malaysia fears full-blown outbreak
Last modified on Thu 15 Oct 2020 14.27 BST
Malaysia has reported its first case of a pregnant woman with Zika, who lives in a state bordering Singapore where authorities have already recorded 275 cases.
The 27-year-old woman in the southern state of Johor is the third person with Zika in Malaysia, where fears of a full-blown outbreak emanating from Singapore are mounting.
Infected pregnant women can give birth to babies with microcephaly, a deformation marked by abnormally small brains and heads.
The woman is expecting her first child and is three to four months pregnant, Malaysias health minister, S Subramaniam, said in a statement on the ministrys Facebook page.
Last week, Malaysia reported its first case of Zika in a woman believed to have caught the virus in Singapore. On Saturday, it reported its first suspected locally transmitted case, a man in the eastern state of Sabah.
The man, who had no recent history of overseas travel, was already in fragile health and subsequently died of heart-related complications. Subramaniam said it was not clear how the pregnant woman had contracted Zika, but she had visited Singapore six months ago and her husband regularly made trips to the city state.
Subramaniam said authorities had inspected a wide area around her home and other places she had recently visited, and they were being fogged with mosquito-killing chemicals.
Zika, which is spread mainly by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, has been detected in 67 countries and territories, including Brazil.
Malaysia has struggled in recent years to control the spread of dengue fever, which is also transmitted by mosquitoes.
It has stepped up screening of travellers from abroad, particularly Singapore, and is fogging with insecticides. Members of the public have been urged to eliminate mosquito breeding sites such as stagnant water.
Zika has been spiralling in Singapore since the beginning of September, with health officials updating the number of cases to 275 on Tuesday, including two pregnant women. Authorities have said the virus is likely to spread further. | Disease Outbreaks | September 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
A woman who previously accused late United States financier Jeffrey Epstein of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager says she was "trafficked" to Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom and was abused by him at a house in London. She calls him "an abuser" and "a participant". Prince Andrew denies the allegations. | An American woman who says she had sex with Prince Andrew as a 17-year-old has told NBC News that she was "trafficked" to the prince.
Virginia Giuffre, formerly Roberts, described him to the US TV network as "an abuser" and "a participant". She has previously said she was abused in the bathroom of a London house, where she was pictured with the prince.
The Duke of York has denied having "any form of sexual contact or relationship" with Ms Giuffre.
It was part of a statement issued by Buckingham Palace, on behalf of the prince, which added that the claims were "false and without any foundation".
Ms Giuffre is one of several women who claim they were abused by financier Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in prison last month while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.
She claims Epstein directed her to have sex with a number of powerful men, including Prince Andrew.
In August, the prince said in two statements that he was "appalled" by reports of Epstein's crimes, but never saw any of the behaviour that led to his conviction in the "limited time" they spent together. Now 35, Ms Giuffre is one of six women interviewed by the US TV network's Dateline programme about alleged abuse by Epstein.
She said she was recruited by Ghislaine Maxwell, a friend of Epstein, one summer when she was working as a locker room attendant at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida resort owned by President Donald Trump.
Ms Maxwell, who is the daughter of disgraced British newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Ms Giuffre told Dateline: "The first time in London, I was so young. Ghislaine woke me up in the morning and said, 'You're gonna meet a prince today.'
"I didn't know at that point that I was going to be trafficked to that prince."
She said she was taken to "Club Tramp" where Prince Andrew gave her alcohol, possibly vodka, in the VIP section.
The prince asked her to dance and the three of them - Prince Andrew, Ms Maxwell and the 17-year-old Ms Giuffre - returned to Ms Maxwell's house.
Ms Giuffre said that Ms Maxwell told her: "He's coming back to the house and I want you to do for him what you do for Epstein."
She said the abuse began in the bathroom and moved to the bedroom.
"He wasn't rude or anything about it, he said 'thank you' and some kind of soft sentiments like that and left," Ms Guiffre said.
"I just couldn't believe it, that even royalty were involved."
Ms Giuffre has previously said that she was abused three times by the Duke of York, with one incident allegedly occurring at Epstein's New York mansion and another at his estate in the Caribbean.
Speaking about Prince Andrew, she said: "He denies that it ever happened and he's going to keep denying it ever happened, but he knows the truth and I know the truth."
She rejected suggestions that she was motivated by the possibility of compensation, saying that the statute of limitations prevented her making a legal claim.
The Duke of York said he first met Epstein, a wealthy hedge fund manager, in 1999. Ms Maxwell, described by Epstein as his best friend, was photographed several times at social events with the prince.
Epstein and Ms Maxwell were also pictured together on a pheasant shoot on the Queen's estate in Norfolk.
In 2010, after Epstein had been convicted of sex offences relating to procuring a minor under 18, Prince Andrew was photographed again with the financier in New York's Central Park. Footage shows him inside Epstein's mansion at about the same time.
NBC also spoke to a British woman who says she was abused by Epstein, Anouska de Georgiou.
She told the network that the abuse had conditioned her to be "silenced, isolated, secretive and shameful" but coming together with other alleged victims had created a "very special bond" between them.
"Jeffrey thought that we were disposable and he threw us all away. Look who's still standing," she said.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
More than a dozen wildfires around Mendocino, Napa, Sonoma, and Yuba counties in California, kill at least ten people, destroy at least 1500 homes and businesses, and force 20 thousand people to evacuate. The Governor of California, Jerry Brown, declares a state of emergency. , , | Follow NBC News LOS ANGELES — Fierce wildfires whipping up nightmare conditions in Northern California have killed at least 15 people, destroyed more than 1,500 structures and turned wineries into charred wastelands.
The death toll continued to climb Tuesday as fire crews battled at least 17 large fires, while more than 20,000 people in the paths of the fast-moving infernos fled their homes, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, said. In all, more than 115,000 acres have burned since the weekend, officials added.
Firefighters were counting on cooler weather and weakening winds to help in their fight.
With increased resources headed to the region, "hopefully we'll start seeing some turnaround throughout the course of today and into tomorrow," Scott McLean, deputy chief of Cal Fire, said Tuesday on "TODAY."
Gov. Jerry Brown declared an emergency in the affected counties, which include Napa and Sonoma, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed to the state's request for federal funds to help the fires, the Department of Homeland Security said.
In Sonoma County, officials said they had received about 200 phone calls to its missing persons hotline, although they believe some could be duplicates. About 45 of the missing had been located as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Sonoma County spokeswoman Maggie Fleming.
Resident Marian Williams of Kenwood, in Sonoma County, told NBC Bay Area that she joined a caravan of neighbors driving through the flames before dawn as one of the fires reached the area's vineyards.
"It was an inferno like you've never seen before," Williams told the station.
The 17 wildfires — which also engulfed a hotel and a trailer park in the city of Santa Rosa and sent smoke spewing as far south as San Francisco — have collectively become among the deadliest in California's history.
Photos: Massive Wildfires Consume Homes Across Northern California
At least nine people were killed in Sonoma County in fire-related incidents — and "that number's going to change," warned Sheriff Rob Giordano of Sonoma County.
Cal Fire confirmed that three people had been killed in Mendocino County and two people in Napa County. They were identified by NBC Bay Area as 100-year-old Charlie Rippey, a World War II veteran, and his 98-year-old wife, Sara.
Their son, Chuck Rippey, told the station that their caregiver contacted him as the fire closed in and said his parents were still inside the Silverado Golf Course home they had lived in for the past 40 years.
"The caregiver called and said there's fire everywhere," Chuck Rippey said. "I said get these guys out on the street, and before she knew it, the roof was caving in very fast."
More images from near the #Silverado Golf Course. Just devastating. pic.twitter.com/0JFWbk9xqO
Another fire-related death was confirmed in Yuba Country.
Mark Ghilarducci, director of the state Office of Emergency Services, agreed Monday that other deaths were likely across the region. Since the fires were moving so rapidly, he added, authorities were "still trying to get our hands around" the full extent of the damage and casualties.
Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott said that many other people had been injured and that an undetermined number were missing.
Firefighters were also contending with strong winds fueling the flames, although the roaring gusts that reached between 35 to 50 mph were expected to weaken to about 20 mph by Tuesday afternoon.
All of California faces a renewed threat from dangerous weather conditions Wednesday that could spark wildfires, including the return of strong, offshore winds and lower humidity.
Pacific Gas & Electric said more than 94,000 customers were without power as of Tuesday morning, most of them in the North Bay Division and Sonoma area. Gas service was shut off to 30,000 customers, it said. The California Highway Patrol said it had rescued 44 people by helicopter.
All of the new fires started after 10 p.m. PT (1 a.m. ET) on Sunday, Pimlott said.
McClean said investigators were still trying to determine the origin of the blazes and called it a "meticulous process."
Californians are pushing their way through a phenomenon called the Santa Ana winds — powerful systems that start inland and almost always blast hot, extremely dry air across Northern California and the southern California coast.
The hot, dry blasts are sometimes called los diablos, or "the devil winds," and they often create critical fire conditions.
"Every spark is going to ignite a fire," Pimlott said. "The planets literally aligned to have this explosive state."
At least 1,500 homes and commercial structures were destroyed in the region in just 12 hours, authorities said.
Cal Fire Deputy Chief Bret Gouvea, commander of the unified response team, described a simultaneous eruption of "large fires that were all wind driven, with winds up to 50 miles per hour, in seven counties."
"Sometimes we get away with these wind events, and other times we get caught," he said.
Capt. Craig Schwartz, acting chief of the Santa Rosa police, said evacuation efforts were continuing. "Officers were going in and reporting that they were having a hard time getting out," he said.
Brown said Monday night that authorities anticipate more destruction, both to homes and public infrastructure. The governor added that officials would continue to do preliminary damage assessments as soon as conditions permit access.
Santa Rosa Fire Chief Tony Gossner said that the flames in Sonoma County "came in very, very hard," and that they "drained our resources very quickly."
But Northern California wasn't the only part of the state inundated by infernos.
The Canyon Fire 2 wildfire was scorching rugged terrain in Anaheim Hills in Orange County, about 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles. More than 7,500 acres were burned by early Tuesday, fire officials said, and at least 24 structures were destroyed with another 5,000 threatened.
Photos: Orange Skies Shroud Disneyland as Wildfires Loom
The officials warned that the thousands of homeowners in evacuation zones won't be allowed to return until the fire was solidly contained, but strong onshore winds could hamper the fight. Evacuation shelters were set up Monday and Tuesday in nearby communities, including the city of Anaheim, where Disneyland is.
The wildfire — the biggest in the county in nearly a decade — cast an eerie orange glow in the sky above the theme park, which remained open.
"The hillside was on fire," Anaheim Hills resident John Teague told NBC Los Angeles. "I've never seen anything like this."
Alex Johnson is a reporter and editor for NBC News based in Los Angeles.
Richie Duchon is an NBC News digital editor in the Los Angeles bureau.
Andrew Blankstein is an investigative reporter for NBC News. He covers the Western United States, specializing in crime, courts and homeland security. | Fire | October 2017 | ['(AP)', '(The Washington Post)', '(NBC)'] |
Australia announces that it will repatriate the bodies of up to 25 soldiers killed in the early stages of the Vietnam War. | Jennings says she has a binge-eating disorder that has led to significant weight gain in the last two years.
While working her job at Starbucks, the daughter of Miami Gardens’ police chief was allegedly threatened with a gun over an order mix-up the gunman was given his bagel without cream cheese, police say.
This mom shared an all-natural bath formula to help calm down restless babies!
June 19 -Gemini - Your intellectual powers are peaking, though that happens kind of a lot with you! In any case, you should look around for any lingering problems that you can clear up with a few bright ideas. See more | Armed Conflict | May 2015 | ['(AP via Yahoo! News)'] |
Tens of thousands of protesters in Bangkok demand the resignation of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand. , , | BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- An estimated 50,000 to 60,000 people rallied Sunday in Bangkok to call for the resignation of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, with many vowing to remain on the streets until he does.
Sunday's pre-planned protests moved briefly from the initial site, in front of Bangkok's Grand Palace, to the Government House, site of Thaksin's office. Although some demonstrators went home, others pledged to return to a field in front of the palace overnight. Protesters are hoping to gather the same number for Monday's rallies. Sunday's numbers are based on police estimates.
Thaksin has been accused of corruption and abuse of power, particularly because of the sale of his family's telecommunications firm in Singapore for $1.9 billion -- none of which was paid in taxes. The billionaire has been accused of undermining the Thai constitution's system of checks and balances and bending government policy to benefit his family's business.
"This guy does not believe in democracy," said Sondhi Limthongkul, opposition leader. "This guy believes in amassing wealth."
Thaksin, meanwhile, was not in the capital city Sunday, but campaigning in the countryside, traditionally his stronghold.
Last week, he extended an olive branch to opposition parties, offering to meet with Democrat party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva. But Abhisit rejected the offer, saying he has nothing to say to the prime minister.
On Friday, more than 100,000 people gathered in front of the Grand Palace for a rally supporting Thaksin -- many of them bused in from the countryside.
At that rally, Thaksin promised to step down if he gets less than 50 percent of the vote in snap parliamentary elections he has called for in April. He also criticized opposition parties who have said they would boycott that election.
"The opposition chose not to run because they know they are losing," Thaksin told the crowd.
If held in the near future, the ballot would come three years early.
With strong support in upcountry areas, Thaksin was re-elected to a second term last year when his Thai Rak Thai party won 377 of the 500 seats in the House of Representatives. His main defense against critics is that he enjoys a mandate endorsed by 19 million voters.
-- CNN Bangkok Producer Narunart Prapanya and Senior International Correspondent Mike Chinoy contributed to this story | Protest_Online Condemnation | March 2006 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)', '[permanent dead link]', '(CNN)'] |
The United Nations General Assembly officially appoints former Portuguese Prime Minister António Guterres its next Secretary–General. , | He will become the world's top diplomat on 1 January when Ban Ki-moon's second five-year term ends.
Mr Guterres, 67, who led the UN refugee agency UNHCR for 10 years, was chosen from among 13 candidates last week.
He told the BBC that ending the civil war in Syria would be his biggest challenge.
"I believe it is the international community's first priority is to be able to end this conflict and use this momentum created by it to try to address all the other conflicts that are interlinked," he told the BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet.
He said the world was facing a dangerous time and he wanted to see people across the globe working together to achieve a safer future.
"I hope people will understand that it's better to put aside different opinions, different interests and to understand that there is a common, vital interest to put an end to these conflicts, because that is absolutely central if you want to live in a world where a minimum of securities are established, where people can live a normal life," he said.
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Mr Guterres, who trained as an engineer, entered politics in 1976 in Portugal's first democratic election after the "Carnation Revolution" that ended five decades of dictatorship.
As head of the UNHCR refugee agency from 2005 to 2015, he led the agency through some of the world's worst refugee crises, including those in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
During that time, he repeatedly appealed to Western states to do more to help refugees fleeing the conflicts. Mr Guterres' nomination came despite a concerted effort to appoint the UN's first female secretary general. Of the 13 candidates, seven were women, among them Unesco director-general Irina Bokova from Bulgaria, and Helen Clark, 66, a former prime minister of New Zealand and current head of the UN development programme.
Mr Guterres told the general assembly: "The dramatic problems of today's complex world can only inspire a humble approach. One in which the secretary general alone neither has all the answers, nor seeks to impose his views.
"One in which the secretary general makes his good offices available, working as a convenor, a mediator, a bridge-builder and an honest broker to help find the solutions that benefit everyone involved."
Mr Ban told the assembly that his successor was well-known in diplomatic circles as a man of compassion.
"He is perhaps best known where it counts most - on the frontlines of armed conflict and humanitarian suffering," Mr Ban said. "His political instincts are those of the United Nations - co-operation for the common good and shared responsibility for people and the planet."
The Security Council - with five of its members wielding vetos - is the most powerful body in the UN.
While not as powerful, the secretary-general serves as the organisation's top diplomat and chief "administrative officer". It has been described as the most impossible job in the world, says the BBC's diplomatic correspondent James Landale. The secretary-general has to run an unwieldy bureaucracy and manage the competing demands of the world's big powers, he adds.
A key requisite of the role is to step in both publicly and privately to prevent international disputes from escalating. The post lasts for five years and is limited to a maximum of two terms.
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A Palestinian sniper kills a Bedouin laborer who was repairing the Israeli fence surrounding Gaza; following this, the Israeli Military attacked targets in Gaza with airstrikes and ground forces, killing at least one Palestinian threeyearold child and wounding several others. | JERUSALEM An Israeli laborer who was repairing the security fence along the border with Gaza was fatally shot on Tuesday by a Palestinian sniper, according to the Israeli military, and Israel immediately responded with airstrikes and tank and infantry fire against targets it associated with militant groups in the Palestinian coastal territory.
A Palestinian girl, Hala Abu Sbeikha, 3, was killed and at least four of her relatives were wounded when a shell landed in front of their home in the Maghazi refugee camp in the central part of Gaza, local hospital officials said.
The deaths were the latest in a growing wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence that is accompanying the difficult, American-brokered peace talks now underway. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel had warned that the killing of the laborer would not go unanswered and that Israel would “respond with force.” He spoke during a visit earlier Tuesday to Sderot, the Israeli town about a mile from the Gaza border that has been subjected to Palestinian rocket fire for years.
Israel’s defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, said, “If there is no quiet in Israel, there will be no quiet in Gaza.”
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the killing of the Israeli laborer, but anticipating Israeli retaliation, Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, evacuated its security facilities. Islam Shahwan, the spokesman for the Hamas government’s Interior Ministry, praised the killing, calling it a “heroic operation.”
Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas official, condemned the Israeli strikes as aggression against the Palestinian people.
In November 2012, Israel began a military offensive against the militant groups in Gaza that led to eight days of intense cross-border fighting, which ended with an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire.
Among the targets of Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Tuesday were a weapon-manufacturing facility and a concealed rocket launcher, the military said in a statement. Israeli analysts said that a strong response from Hamas could lead to further escalation but that given Hamas’s current weakness, there was also a chance that calm would quickly be restored.
The recent increase in violence, involving both the West Bank and the Israel-Gaza frontier, has prompted talk of the possibility of a third Palestinian uprising, especially if the peace talks, scheduled to continue until late April, end in failure.
Israel is negotiating with the West Bank-based mainstream Palestinian leadership led by President Mahmoud Abbas, who wants to establish an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Hamas, which rejects Israel’s right to exist, opposes the peace talks.
The Israeli killed on Tuesday, Salah Abu Latif, 22, was a civilian contractor working for the Israeli Defense Ministry. A Bedouin from the southern Israeli town of Rahat, he was the first Israeli fatality in the vicinity of Gaza since the November 2012 fighting.
He died a day after an Israeli police officer was stabbed and wounded at a West Bank junction. On Sunday, a bomb exploded on a bus in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv, minutes after passengers spotted the bomb and exited the bus, preventing casualties. The police said they were working on the assumption that the bomb had been an attempted terrorist attack by suspected Palestinian militants.
In addition, three Israeli soldiers and a retired colonel have been killed in recent months by Palestinians from the West Bank.
More than 20 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces this year, many of them during arrest raids carried out by Israel in West Bank refugee camps where Israeli forces have encountered increasing resistance. On Friday, Israeli forces fatally shot a Palestinian man who approached the border fence separating Gaza from Israel. The Israeli military said there had been disturbances along the fence.
Mr. Yaalon, the Israeli defense minister, said the Palestinian attackers had been “influenced by the atmosphere of incitement and hatred against Israel that dominates the Palestinian Authority.”
Israeli and Palestinian analysts said the violence so far appeared to be a series of unrelated events and did not yet point to a new, systematic Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
Yoram Schweitzer, an Israeli expert at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv and a former intelligence official, said several elements contributed to an atmosphere that provided a backdrop for Palestinian attacks, including the killings of Palestinians by the Israeli military, continued Israeli settlement activity and a popular sense that nothing would come of the negotiations.
Some of the attacks seemed to be the spontaneous acts of individuals while others may have been more organized, Mr. Schweitzer said. The failure of the negotiations could stir further violence, he speculated, as could efforts to derail the talks by groups that oppose them.
Ghassan Khatib, a Palestinian political analyst and a former spokesman for the Palestinian government based in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said the rise in violence reflected growing Palestinian frustration both with what he called Israeli aggression and the stagnant internal Palestinian political situation.
“Many people thought there would be an improvement in the Palestinian economy with the resumption of the peace process,” he said, “but nothing materialized.”
Mr. Khatib added that the dynamic between Israel and Gaza was different. He said attacks emanating from Hamas-run Gaza were generally more orchestrated, adding that Hamas had largely honored the cease-fire, and that it was premature to draw conclusions from the cross-border killings on Tuesday. | Armed Conflict | December 2013 | ['(The New York Times)', '(The Times of Israel)'] |