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The last French veteran of World War I, Lazare Ponticelli, an Italian immigrant who lied about his age to join the French Foreign Legion and fight in the trenches, dies at 110.

President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the death on Wednesday, paying tribute to the last "poilu", as French WWI veterans were known. "Today, I express the nation's deep emotion and infinite sadness," he said. Mr Ponticelli, originally Italian, had lied about his age in order to join the French Foreign Legion in August 1914, aged 16, Mr Sarkozy said. There are a handful of surviving WWI veterans from other countries, including British pilot Henry Allingham and Austro-Hungarian artillery man Franz Kunstler. France's oldest surviving WWI veteran, Louis de Cazenave, died in January, also aged 110. The last of Germany's veterans from the war died also died in January. Day of remembrance

Famous Person - Death

March 2008

['(BBC News)']

Tens of thousands of people evacuate ahead of Typhoon Hagupit which is expected to strike the Philippines.

Tens of thousands of people have sought shelter as the powerful Typhoon Hagupit heads towards the Philippines. Hagupit, known locally as Ruby, has gusts of up to 230km/h (143mph) and is due to hit land on Saturday evening. It is on course for the Eastern and Northern Samar provinces and the city of Tacloban, where thousands were killed by Typhoon Haiyan a year ago. Local residents, many of them still living in temporary shelters, are moving away from coastal areas. President Benigno Aquino, who met disaster agency chiefs on Friday afternoon, has ordered food supplies to be sent to affected areas, as well as military troops and police officers to be deployed to prevent looting in the aftermath. Local media reported Mr Aquino as saying there was "no indication" for now that Hagupit would be as strong as Haiyan. Haiyan - known as Yolanda in the Philippines - was the most powerful typhoon ever recorded over land. It tore through the central Philippines in November 2013, leaving more than 7,000 dead or missing. The latest update from Philippine weather authorities said that Hagupit, which means "smash" in Filipino, was weakening slightly, though it still has powerful gusts. It could bring storm surges up to one storey high, as well as heavy rain and the risk of landslides, officials have warned. Schools and government offices are closed in some areas and there were long queues at shops and petrol stations as people stocked up on supplies. In Tacloban, many people have taken shelter in the sports stadium. "It's deja vu, but not the same as last year with Haiyan," local resident Mariano Tan Jr told the BBC. "We're already prepared... we've stored basic commodities - water, rice, beans, fuel. We're also prepared in case of a power cut. "We intend to stay," he added. "We survived last year, we will do it again tomorrow. We will still stand our ground because no calamities can break us apart." About 19,000 people from coastal villages are in 26 evacuation centres, Tacloban's disaster office spokesman Ilderando Bernadas told Reuters. He said that number was expected to double as the authorities began forcing people to evacuate. Tacloban's Deputy Mayor Jerry Yaokasin told the BBC's Newsday: "We haven't yet fully recovered from last year's super-typhoon Haiyan and here we go again. "It's like we're seeing a movie, it's like the Groundhog Day. "And it's stirring up a lot of emotions in our hearts and bringing back so many painful memories of what happened during super typhoon Haiyan." The Philippine weather authorities said that as of 16:00 local time on Friday (08:00 GMT) Hagupit was 370km (230 miles) east of Eastern Samar and moving at 13km/h, a relatively slow speed. It has weakened slightly, but still remains powerful, with sustained winds of 195km/h and gusts of up to 230km/h. Up to 35 provinces and municipalities are likely to be affected. The US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center had classified Hagupit as a super typhoon but downgraded it on Friday morning. It remains the strongest storm to hit the Philippines this year. Meteorologists had said there was a chance Hagupit could veer north towards Japan and miss the Philippines altogether, but this scenario is increasingly seen as unlikely. The Philippines gives its own names to typhoons once they move into Philippine waters, rather than using the international storm-naming system. Philippines marks Haiyan anniversary Typhoon Haiyan: Images of then and now Super Typhoon Haiyan: Satellite images Still mourning and trying to survive in Tacloban Philippines country profile Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) One Covid vaccine dose cuts hospital risk by 75% But the number of Delta variant cases recorded in the UK has risen by 79% in a week, figures show.

Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard

December 2014

['(Ruby)', '(BBC)']

Director of the Holy See Press Office, Father Federico Lombardi, announces that Pope Francis will hold a consistory for the creation of new cardinals Feb. 14–15, 2015. Fr. Lombardi spoke during a briefing with media at the end of the Council of Cardinals that met in the Vatican Dec. 9 – 11.

Pope Francis will hold a consistory for the creation of new cardinals Feb. 14-15, 2015, the Holy See press officer announced Thursday, adding that the consistory will follow meetings on the reform of the Roman Curia. “I have had papal authorization to say that there will be an extraordinary consistory Feb. 14-15, and he will likely create new cardinals during that consistory,” Fr. Federico Lombardi said at a Dec. 11 press conference. Fr. Lombardi spoke during a briefing with media at the end of the Council of Cardinals that met in the Vatican Dec. 9 – 11. During the briefing, Fr. Lombardi provided the schedule of the next round of meetings: on Feb. 6-8 there will be a plenary assembly of the Commission for the Protection of Minors, presided by Cardinal Sean O’Malley; on Feb. 9-11, the seventh meeting of the Council of Cardinals will take place; on Feb. 12-13 the Pope will convoke an ordinary consistory that should be intended to share views and opinions about the ongoing process of curial reform; and finally, on Feb. 14-15 there will be an extraordinary consistory during which the Pope will likely create new cardinals. According to Universi Dominici Gregis, St. John Paul II's apostolic constitution governing conclaves, the maximum number of cardinal electors must not exceed 120, and the age limit to take part to a conclave is set at 80. When Pope Francis will hold the consistory, there will be 110 voting cardinals; in June, three cardinals will turn 80, and so there will be 107 voting cardinals; and by November, there will be 105 voting cardinals. In the course of the next year, Pope Francis will thus have the option of creating 15 voting cardinals. In his first consistory, held Feb. 22, Pope Francis created 16 voting cardinals, and three non-voting. At Catholic News Agency, our team is committed to reporting the truth with courage, integrity, and fidelity to our faith.

Famous Person - Give a speech

December 2014

['(Catholic News Agency)']

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigns amid pressure from the public and the military, having ruled the country since 1999.

Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has resigned after weeks of massive street protests. Mr Bouteflika, who has been in power for 20 years, had already dropped plans to seek a fifth term as opposition to his rule grew. The powerful Algerian army had called for the 82-year-old to be declared incapable of carrying out his duties. Protesters have vowed to continue piling on pressure until the entire government is ousted. The BBC's Mohamed Arezki Himeur in Algiers says there were huge celebrations in the city, with people shouting, waving the national flag and honking their car horns all night. He says the protesters do not only want Mr Bouteflika to go, but the whole system, in particular the government which was only appointed last weekend. "This is just a little victory - the biggest is still to come," one protester said. Mr Bouteflika, who has been ill since he suffered a stroke six years ago, has avoided public events ever since. However, he made a rare appearance on state TV to relinquish power hours after military chief Lt Gen Ahmed Gaed Salah called on him to leave office immediately. One man, Selmaoui Seddik, told Reuters: "God willing, we will have a 100% democratic transition, this is very important. We need to remove the whole previous regime and that is the hardest thing." However, one protest leader, Mustapha Bouchachi, said before the announcement that any decision by Mr Bouteflika to quit would still change nothing and that the protests would continue. News of the resignation came in a statement carried on state news agency APS. "The president of the republic, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has officially notified the president of the constitutional council of his decision to end his mandate as president of the republic," it said. State TV then reported that this would be with immediate effect. According to the constitution, the Senate speaker should take over as interim head of state until fresh elections are held. Pressure had been building since February, when the first demonstrations were sparked by Mr Bouteflika's announcement that he would be standing for a fifth term. Tens of thousands protested across the country on 1 March. Mr Bouteflika's promise not to serve out a fifth term if re-elected, along with a change of prime minister, failed to quell the discontent. Leaders of the protests also rejected Mr Bouteflika's offer this week that he would go by the end of his current term - 28 April - as not quick enough. It seems the powerful military agreed. Its chief, Lt Gen Ahmed Gaed Salah, said earlier on Tuesday: "There is no more room to waste time." The demonstrations have also called for the whole political system, in which the military plays a significant role, to be overhauled. Many of the protesters are young and say they want a new system of government. There were accusations that Mr Bouteflika was being used as a front by "le pouvoir" - a group of businessmen, politicians and military officials - to retain their power. Elections originally scheduled for 18 April were postponed and the governing National Liberation Front (FLN) vowed to organise a national conference on reforms. The FLN has ruled Algeria since the country won independence from France in 1962 after seven years of conflict. Mr Bouteflika, who came to power in 1999, strengthened his grip after a bloody civil war against Islamist insurgents which left 150,000 dead. The chairman of the upper house of parliament, Abdelkader Bensalah, is expected to become caretaker president for three months until elections. Mr Bensalah has been in post since 2002 and has represented Mr Bouteflika at official visits and events. He also shares a similar background with the president, growing up in neighbouring Morocco before returning to fight in the liberation war. He is a veteran of Algeria's war of independence who served as foreign minister for more than a decade before becoming president in 1999. His primary task was to rebuild the country, and its economy - but first, he needed to end Algeria's brutal civil war sparked by the military's refusal to recognise the election victory of the Islamic Salvation Front in the early 1990s. Despite guaranteeing stability in the oil-rich nation, his government has been accused of widespread corruption and state repression. The man who once said he would not accept being "three-quarters a president" spent his last years in a wheelchair after a stroke in 2013, rarely appearing in public, and fuelling fierce debate over who was really in charge, the BBC's North Africa correspondent, Rana Jawad, says. Revolutionaries praise him for welcoming Che Guevara to Algeria, and giving a young Nelson Mandela his first military training.

Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal

April 2019

['(BBC)']

Rescue efforts conclude for the Chilean miners trapped in the 2010 Copiapó mining accident, with the last miner being rescued at 9:56PM local time. , , (AFP, AP via Sydney Morning Herald),

The last of the 33 miners trapped deep underground in northern Chile for more than two months has been rescued. Luis Urzua, the shift supervisor who was credited with helping the men survive the first 17 days before rescue teams made contact, was greeted by his family and President Sebastian Pinera. The six rescuers sent down to assist the miners have all been winched up. The rescued miners have been taken to hospital. All have severe dental infections, and some have eye problems. One man has been diagnosed with pneumonia, although his condition is not thought to be serious. Health Minister Jaime Manalich stressed that all appeared to be in far better condition than expected. The men had been trapped underground since 5 August, when a rockfall caused a tunnel to collapse. "They were experiencing a kind of rebirth," President Pinera said in a televised address after Mr Urzua's ascent. "When the last miner exited the depths of the mine, I was moved as every Chilean was." The rescue operation began shortly after 2315 on Tuesday (0215 GMT on Wednesday) with a technical expert, Manuel Gonzalez, being lowered down the 624m (2,047ft) shaft. Mr Gonzalez was supposed to return to the surface and report on the condition of the rescue shaft, before handing over to a paramedic. However, a live video feed from the refuge where the miners were gathered showed Mr Avalos getting into the "Phoenix" capsule. He was chosen to lead the way because he was one of the fittest of the miners. Mr Avalos reached the surface at 0010 (0310 GMT) and was greeted by his family, rescuers, President Pinera and the first lady, Cecilia Morel. Bystanders cheered and clapped, and then started chanting "Chile". President Pinera, his wife and Mining Minister Laurence Golborne were also waiting at the head of the shaft at 2155 (0055 GMT on Thursday), when the rescue capsule carrying Mr Urzua emerged to jubilant cheers, songs and applause. The 54-year-old then embraced the president and said: "We have done what the entire world was waiting for. The 70 days that we fought so hard were not in vain." "We had strength, we had spirit, we wanted to fight, we wanted to fight for our families, and that was the greatest thing." Mr Pinera replied: "I congratulate you because you did your duty, leaving last like a ship's captain." "You are not the same, and the country is not the same after this. You were an inspiration. Go hug your wife and your daughter." He then led the crowd in singing the Chilean national anthem. Below ground, the six rescue workers held up a banner saying "Mission completed". They will now be winched to the surface. Those freed earlier were: Following their reunions with relatives, the miners were flown by helicopter to hospital in the nearby city of Copiapo. Outside the hospital, barriers have been set up to cope with the crowds of onlookers and journalists. During their journey to the surface, the miners wore a "bio-harness" designed for astronauts, which monitors their heart rate, breathing, temperature and oxygen consumption. They were also given sunglasses to protect their eyes from the glare of the desert after more than two months underground. Earlier, President Pinera told the BBC that it had been a day Chileans would never forget. "To see the miners coming from the bowel of the mountain to the surface and hug their wives, their daughters with so much emotion and joy has been something. It has proven the value of faith, the value of commitment, the value of teamwork." Mr Pinera said he hoped people would now associate Chile with the mission to get the miners out, rather than its years of military rule. He also vowed to change safety standards to protect miners.

Mine Collapses

October 2010

['(Bloomberg)', '(Reuters)', '(BBC)']

Two political parties with federal representation in Australia merge as the Australian Conservatives absorbs the Family First Party.

TONY Abbott has weighed in on Cory Bernardi’s recent expansion of his fledgling political party, after it merged with Family First. Senator Cory Bernardi’s fledgling Australian Conservatives party will absorb Family First, it has been reported. TONY Abbott has weighed in on Cory Bernardi’s recent expansion of his fledgling political party, after it merged with Family First. Mr abbott told 2GB today that the last thing the Coalition needed was more “fringe parties on the right”. He said he wanted to see a “united” party. “The last thing we really need is more fringe parties on the right,” he said. “We need a strong and united Liberal party. “I want the Liberal party to be worth voting for.” His comments come after Mr Bernardi has been expanding his fledgling political party of one by merging with Family First. Sky News reported that Australian Conservatives, which Mr Bernardi launched after quitting the government’s ranks earlier this year, will absorb Family First. The claim emerged on commentator Paul Murray’s show Paul Murray Live, which he described as a “political earthquake”. Members of Family First in South Australia’s parliament will become Australian Conservative members, he reported. They are Dennis Hood and Robert Brokenshire, who were elected to the state’s upper house in 2006 and 2008 respectively. Family First will merge with Senator Cory Bernardi’s party Australian Conservatives, it has been reported. However Lucy Gichuhi, who scored a Senate seat in place of Bob Day, will not move. Instead, she will arrive in Canberra as an independent, Sky News reported. Peta Credlin, who was chief of staff to former prime minister Tony Abbott, said the merge was “absolutely expected”. It would give Mr Bernardi “the infrastructure he’ll need to be able to grow his brand”, Ms Credlin said. A membership base and financial benefits will also boost the Australian Conservatives in the lead up to the next state and federal elections. South Australia is due to go to the polls in less than a year. Mr Bernardi has flagged his intention to run a number of candidates in the state’s Upper House. New Senator Lucy Gichuhi will not be part of the new merged parties, Sky reports, and will head to Canberra as an independent. The Australian newspaper reports that a statement will be made on Wednesday announcing the political union. Family First’s executives voted to dissolve the party and amalgamate with Australian Conservatives on Saturday, it reported. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, who was a guest on Paul Murray Live when the news broke, said it was “inevitable”. “When Bob Day exited the party, it was the case where the writing was on the wall,” Mr Dutton said. “From the governments perspective, we will continue to work with minor parties and independents. We will work with them hopefully in a bid to get the budget back in balance.”

Organization Merge

April 2017

['(News.com.au)']

Two hundred Myanmar Army troops surround Pauktawbyin monastery in Rakhine State, demanding that they be allowed entry to search for Arakan Army insurgents possibly hiding in an IDP camp within the monastery. The head monk initially refused, saying that they would only allow inspections by people in civilian clothes, but later permitted their entry.

Myanmar government soldiers on Monday surrounded a Buddhist monastery in Rakhine state, demanding entry to search for members of ethnic armies they say are hiding among the thousands of displaced civilians sheltering there, sources say.The soldiers, identified by insignia on their uniforms carrying the number 22, arrived at about 9:00 a.m. outside the Pauktawbyin monastery in Ponnagyun township, resident monk Ashin Thabarwa Nadi told RFA’s Myanmar Service.“They asked for permission to inspect the IDP [internally displaced persons] camp inside the monastery, but I replied that only persons wearing civilian clothing would be allowed to come in to inspect,” the monk, who leads the monastery, said.Already frightened by recent fighting in Rakhine, civilians living at the monastery would likely panic at the sight of armed soldiers entering the monastery grounds, Ashin Thabarwa Nadi said.“These refugees ran away from their homes after government soldiers came into their villages, so the sight of uniformed soldiers among them will cause them to panic,” the monk said, adding that the approximately 200 troops requesting entry are now waiting outside the gate for reinforcements to arrive.Ashin Thabarwa Nadi’s phone was later switched off, and attempts to contact him again at about 5:00 p.m. local time for updates on the situation at the camp were unsuccessful.Waiting to enterAlso speaking to RFA, military spokesperson Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun confirmed that government troops had asked to be allowed to search the monastery compound and are waiting for permission to enter. “These inspections are required,” Zaw Min Tun said. “Now, they are still waiting to go inside.”“I can tell you that the military hasn’t forced an entry, though,” he said.Frightened by the presence of government soldiers stationed in their villages or mobilizing nearby, more than 3,000 refugees have now taken shelter in Pauktawbyin camp, with the majority of them women, children, and the elderly coming from nine villages in the township, including Yahat Taung, Gan Gar, Poe Shwe Pyin, Kyat Sar Thalae, and Kha Naung Gyi, Zaw Min Tun said.Since December 2018, more than 50 civilians have been killed, with over 100 injured and more than 40,000 displaced, because of clashes between government forces and the ethnic Arakan Army, which is fighting in several Rakhine townships for greater autonomy in the state.Reported by Thet Su Aung for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Armed Conflict

June 2019

['(RFA)']

Fifteen Asia–Pacific nations sign the world's largest free–trade agreement in Vietnam. It replaces the Trans–Pacific Partnership, from which the administration of Donald Trump withdrew the United States in early 2017.

Ten ASEAN nations, plus five other Asia-Pacific countries, have signed the world's biggest trade deal in terms of GDP. The pact is expected to drive economic growth in a region hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Fifteen nations in the Asia-Pacific region have entered into the world's largest free-trade agreement, which they hope will accelerate the recovery of their economies, ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, was signed on Sunday on the sidelines of the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), held via videoconference due to the pandemic. Read more: Joe Biden is hardly the free trader Asia is hoping for The virtual summit was hosted by Vietnam which held the rotating chair position in the run-up to the event. Send Facebook Twitter reddit EMail Facebook Messenger Web Whatsapp Web Telegram linkedin Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3lJcc The RCEP deal, signed eight years after negotiations first began, covers 2.2 billion people and a third of the world's economy. It had previously been expected that the deal would be signed in early 2020. The pact lowers tariffs, opens up the service sector and sets common trade rules within the bloc. The agreement covers trade, services, investment, e-commerce, telecommunications and copyright. However, environmental protection and labor rights are not part of the deal. Read more: What is China's world order for the 21st century? The China-backed agreement is seen as an alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a now-defunct Washington trade initiative. It includes the 10 member states of ASEAN; Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei — along with Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang welcomed the "landmark achievement" A notable absentee was India, which withdrew from the RCEP negotiations last year citing concerns over opening up its agricultural and manufacturing sectors to more foreign competition. ASEAN leaders have said they still intend to expand trade with India and that the door remains open for New Delhi to rejoin the bloc. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Saturday reaffirmed his government's support for "broadening a free and fair economic zone, including a possibility of India's future return to the deal, and hope to gain support from the other countries." Read more: APEC summit: Free trade in Asia in the age of protectionism The trade deal allows China — by far the biggest economy and the most populous country in the region — to cast itself as the "champion of globalization and multilateral cooperation," Gareth Leather, senior Asian economist for Capital Economics, said in a report. Countries around the world are facing an economic slowdown in the aftermath of the pandemic-induced lockdowns. Indonesia recently slid into its first recession in more than two decades, while the Philippines saw its economy contract by 11.5% in the latest quarter. The RCEP deal does not include environmental protection and labor rights or commit countries to open services and other vulnerable areas of their economies. It does, however, set rules for trade that will facilitate investment and other business within the region, said Jeffrey Wilson, research director at the Perth USAsia Center. "RCEP, therefore, is a much-needed platform for the Indo-Pacific's post-COVID recovery," Wilson wrote in a report for the Asia Society. The Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, celebrated the signing of the deal in a speech given at the summit, saying: "The signing of the RCEP is not only a landmark achievement of East Asian regional cooperation but also a victory of multilateralism and free trade." Read more: The real winners of the US-China trade dispute Vietnam, which had been chairing ASEAN at the time of the summit, handed over its responsibilities to Brunei during the closing ceremony. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc expressed his satisfaction with the deal, saying: "I am very pleased that, after eight years of negotiations full of difficulties, today we end negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and officially sign it during the 37th ASEAN Summit." Australia hopes the trade deal will improve its relations with China, its biggest trading partner. Ties with Beijing became frayed earlier this year after Canberra called for an international inquiry into the source of the coronavirus, which first erupted in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. Vietnam strengthened its role as a middle power in the region through its guiding of the deal The row escalated to a trade dispute which hit a dozen Australian industries and threatened exports to China of agricultural products, timber, and resources worth billions of dollars. "The ball is very much in China's court to come to the table for that dialogue," said Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham. "It is crucial that partners like China, as they enter into new agreements like this, deliver not only on the detail of such agreements but act true to the spirit of them," Birmingham told The Age newspaper. adi,ab/sms (AP, AFP, Reuters) With the 14th Asia-Pacific Conference of German business underway in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, DW's Manuela Kasper-Claridge spoke to Hubert Lienhard, chairman of the Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business.   Southeast Asian leaders have gathered in Bangkok for a three-day summit expected to be dominated by trade. ASEAN members are trying to finalize a China-backed plan to create the world's biggest free trade area.

Sign Agreement

November 2020

['(DW)', '(Financial Times)']

The Knesset approves a new boycott law which would allow Israeli courts to impose heavy sanctions on Israeli individuals or organizations whom would initiate or promote a boycott against Israeli companies and entities.

The Israeli parliament tonight passed a law in effect banning citizens from calling for academic, consumer or cultural boycotts of Israel in a move denounced by its opponents as anti-democratic. The "'Law for Prevention of Damage to the State of Israel through Boycott" won a majority of 47 to 38, despite strong opposition and an attempt to filibuster the six-hour debate. Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu did not take part in the vote although the bill had the backing of the cabinet. Under the terms of the new law, an individual or organisation proposing a boycott may be sued for compensation by any individual or institution claiming that it could be damaged by such a call. Evidence of actual damage will not be required. The law aims to protect individuals and institutions in Israel and the Palestinian territory it has occupied, illegally under international law, since 1967. It in effect bans consumer boycotts of goods produced in West Bank settlements, or of cultural or academic institutions in settlements. It also prevents the government doing business with companies that comply with boycotts. Israeli civil rights groups immediately issued a letter of protest over the law. Hassan Jabareen of Adalah, a legal centre for Israeli-Arab citizens, said: "Defining boycott as a civil wrong suggests that all Israelis have a legal responsibility to promote the economic advancement of the settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. This means that Israeli organisations opposing the settlements as a matter of principle are in a trap: any settler can now constantly harass them, challenging them to publicly declare their position on the boycott of settlements and threatening them with heavy compensation costs if they support it." As debate on the bill opened in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament's legal adviser presented an opinion that parts of the proposed law were "borderline illegal". "The broad definition of a boycott on the state of Israel is a violation of the core tenet of freedom of political expression and elements in the proposed bill are borderline illegal," Eyal Yinon said. Among the bill's opponents were dozens of Israeli intellectuals, including the celebrated author Amos Oz, who issued a letter describing the proposed law as the "worst of the anti-democratic bills in the Knesset. The bill will turn law-abiding citizens into criminals". According to the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, the bill constituted "a direct violation of freedom of expression". Following the vote, executive director Hagai El-Ad said: "The boycott law will lead to unprecedented harm to freedom of expression in Israel and will bring justified criticism against Israel from abroad. We will all have to pay the price for this atrocious law." Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator, said the bill would punish those who "refuse to recognise the illegal situation associated with Israel's settlement enterprise in occupied Palestinian territory". The bill's sponsor, Ze'ev Elkin of the rightwing Likud party, said Israel had been dealing for years with boycotts by Arab states but the domestic boycott movement was a "travesty". The law was not intended to silence people but to "protect the citizens of Israel", he said. "If the state of Israel does not protect itself, we will have no moral right to ask our allies for protection from such boycotts." Before the vote, Elkin told the pro-settlement news website Arutz Sheva: "I hope the [legislators] will understand that this is a battle between Zionism and the new left." The law follows moves to boycott a cultural centre and a university in the huge West Bank settlement of Ariel, and the contractual agreement of some Israeli companies not to use material originating in settlements in work on the new Palestinian city of Rawabi. Campaigners also claim that consumer boycotts against produce and goods originating in settlements are growing both in Israel and abroad. There has been a raft of proposals over recent years denounced by opponents as anti-democratic, including the withdrawal of financing for Israeli films deemed to be critical of government policies and attempts to restrict the international funding of campaigning groups. The Israeli left and rights groups claim the proposals represent a growing intolerance of dissent in Israel, encouraged by rightwing parties which claim political activity against government policy is part of a campaign of "de-legitimisation" of the Jewish state. Civil rights groups said they would challenge the new law in the courts, putting a spotlight on Israel's 44-year occupation. A national campaign was due to be launched by activists .

Government Policy Changes

July 2011

['(The Guardian)']

17 Nigerian police officers are arrested in connection with the deaths of Boko Haram members in 2009.

A "significant number" of Nigerian police officers have been arrested over the alleged extra-judicial killing of members of the Boko Haram sect in 2009. Police officials told the BBC more arrests would follow. News agency AP reported that 17 officers were held. Al-Jazeera TV last month showed footage of alleged police killings. Boko Haram attacked a police station in the northern city of Maiduguri, leading to days of clashes and hundreds of deaths - mostly sect members. Police spokesman Yemi Ajyai said the al-Jazeera broadcast had led to the arrests and those detained had been taken to Abuja for questioning. The footage apparently shows police officers telling a group of young men to lie face down and then shooting them at close range. The AFP news agency quoted a police source as saying the the arrests were carried out on the orders of the acting President Goodluck Jonathan. The BBC's Jimeh Saleh in Abuja says the police are often accused of extra-judicial killings but they always deny it and arrests are rare. Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf died in custody after being alive when the army handed him to the police, army officers said. A few hours later, journalists were shown his bullet-ridden body. The police said he had been fatally wounded while trying to evade capture. What are these?

Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse

March 2010

['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(Radio Netherlands Worldwide)']

Hurricane Patricia becomes the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere with winds of 200 mph .

Follow NBC News Hurricane Patricia became the strongest storm ever measured on the planet early Friday, with experts warning it could trigger 40-foot waves along southwestern Mexico and "life-threatening" flash flooding. More than 7 million residents — and an estimated tens of thousands of U.S. citizens visiting or living there — were told to prepare for the "worst-case scenario" as the ferocious storm was expected to race ashore on Mexico's Pacific coast between 6 to 10 p.m. ET Friday. At 5 p.m. ET, Patricia was about 60 miles west of Manzanillo, and about 110 miles south-southeast of Cabo Corrientes. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Patricia was expected to make landfall "in the next several hours." A hurricane warning was in place for San Blas to Punta San Telmo. The tourist magnets of Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo were directly in the Category 5 storm's projected path, and Puerto Vallarta's airport was closed Friday out of precaution as some stranded vacationers described their inability to fly out of a "nightmare." By 5 p.m. winds had weakened slightly to 190 mph, the Hurricane Center said. Winds of 200 mph were measured earlier, and the Hurricane Center labeled Patricia as the "strongest hurricane on record" in the Atlantic and eastern North Pacific Basins. Mexico has not formally requested help from the U.S., but State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters Friday that America "stands up to offer any assistance that we can in the aftermath of what at least appears to be a pretty epic event in terms of the intensity and size of the storm." Category 5 EPAC hurricane #Patricia was just sampled by #NOAA43 (@NOAA P3). This is the eye radar img 10/23/2015 pic.twitter.com/QRhZLEUigx NBC News meteorologist Bill Karins warned that Patricia would be "the most devastating storm to ever hit Mexico" with "catastrophic damage" likely between the posh resort of Puerto Vallarta and the bustling port city of Manzanillo. While typhoons Nancy and Violet had stronger estimated winds, Patricia was the strongest storm ever actually observed, Karins added. Patricia already has "put on quite a show" in how rapidly and unexpectedly it has strengthened, he said. Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated the Philippines in 2013, made landfall with 190 mph winds. While Patricia weakened slightly to 190 mph winds since the afternoon, "Patricia is expected to remain an extremely dangerous category 5 hurricane through landfall," the NHC said. “Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion.” Hurricane warnings stretched from San Blas to Punta San Telmo, an area that includes Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo. CONAGUA, the Mexican national water commission, predicted waves about 40 feet at landfall. The National Hurricane Center said the hurricane was expected to produce deadly rip currents and "life-threatening flash floods and mudslides." It added: "Some fluctuations in intensity are possible today, but Patricia is expected to remain an extremely dangerous Category 5 hurricane through landfall." #SanPatricio & #BarraDeNavidad will experience equivalent EF5 tornado & 20 foot tsunami at same time. #Patricia pic.twitter.com/qMyWOeNTTO Up to 20 inches of rain was predicted for the Mexican states of Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan and Guerrero through Saturday, the NHC said. The Mexican government declared a state of emergency. The U.S. Consulate General in Guadalajara urged Americans in the hurricane warning area to "make preparations immediately to protect life and property." Historic #Patricia God help these people in its path. pic.twitter.com/hLgDM3Xsz1 Rogelio Estreda, a representative for the Grand Fiesta Americana Resort in Puerto Vallarta, told NBC News that the site would be evacuated at 7 a.m. local time (8 a.m. ET). "We are expecting something bad, but maybe nothing will happen," Estreda said. "It can change at any time." Patricia would be only the second Category 5 hurricane to hit the entire Pacific coast since full record-keeping began in 1949. An unnamed storm struck in late October 1959 near Manzanillo, killing an estimated 1,800 people — 800 of them from mudslides alone. Karins added that 10 inches of rain were already predicted for Texas over the next three days, warning that "what's left of Patricia will make flooding in south Texas even worse" on Sunday. 12H 23/1800Z 18.8N 105.4W 180 KT 205 MPH! What that says is in 12 hours when this is coming ashore it will be at 205 MPH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Laura Diane Rebholz, who co-owns a modeling agency in Scottsdale, Arizona, told NBC News early Friday that she felt it was "safer to ride the storm out" at the Puerto Vallarta hotel where she's vacationing. "It's almost as if it's literally 'the calm before the storm,'" she said. "It's very much business as usual around the resort with staff seemingly unfazed by the hurricane." But Australian newlywed Natalie Griffin said Friday that she and her husband were trying to catch an early flight out of Puerto Vallarta after five days of vacationing. At the hotel on Thursday, she said, guests were told that they could be evacuated by bus to Guadalajara, Jalisco's capital city located further inland. Griffin said she decided to take her chances at the airport early Friday, but flights out were looking grim. "We were all excited as we thought we were about to board, and now they have said the airport is closed but they want to get special permission to fly this plane out," she told NBC News. "Everyone wants to know if we are flying or not so we can make plans to leave the area." More extreme preparations in Puerto Vallarta. #Patricia #protectthosestogies pic.twitter.com/xUKHjIC3wZ Among those hunkering down include Atlanta-born Ian Hayden Parker, who founded the Vallarta Daily News in Puerto Vallarta, which has established 18 hurricane shelters. "We live in a resort town, but outside of the tourist zone, there is still a lot of poverty and people without computers, Internet or phones," said Parker, who hopes to continue to inform locals about the storm's impact. After residents were urged to begin storm preparations Thursday, Parker said, "many people followed our advice and are now just playing the wait and see game." For some tourists, the impending hurricane created an unexpected upheaval in their plans — and forced them to pack up quickly and head for safer ground. Jason Sapp and Teri Batterfield were set to get married Friday night on the beach outside of the Hyatt Ziva in Puerto Vallarta. Instead, they and about 25 other guests were on a bus heading to Guadalajara — a ride they were told would take 10 hours because of all the traffic from people evacuating the coastal area. Daughter Jessica Sapp, of the San Diego area, told NBC News that it's been a "nightmare" for the couple and the other guests who flew in on Thursday for the wedding. The Hyatt, she added, has been shut down. "They were putting boards on the windows and everybody had to evacuate," she said. "They had a little bit of food for us, but everything is shutting down." Fiona Bronte, 24, said she first checked into the Vidanta resort in Puerto Vallarta on Saturday with her grandparents and parents. Guests at her hotel were awaiting anxiously Friday afternoon to be redirected to a shelter — but their patience was fraying. "Everyone is starting to get worried and trying to stock up on food and water," the San Francisco woman said, adding, "People are remaining calm at the moment, but nerves are starting to run high."

Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard

October 2015

['(320 km/h)', '(NBC)']

Five members of the NATO-led coalition die and five others are injured in a non-combat helicopter crash in Kabul. The Associated Press reported the chopper collided with a monitoring balloon on landing. Nationalities weren't identified by NATO's Resolute Support; the British said two were Royal Air Force personnel.

Five people, including two RAF personnel, have been killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. The Puma Mk2 helicopter crashed as it was landing at Nato's training and support mission HQ, in Kabul. Nato has not released the nationalities of the other victims or the five left injured. A Ministry of Defence spokesman said the crash was "an accident and not the result of insurgent activity". Defence Secretary Michael Fallon expressed his "deepest sympathies". The MoD said the families of the British victims had asked for a period of grace before their names were released. The accident comes after a convoy of UK military vehicles was attacked in Kabul, the Afghan capital, on Sunday morning, injuring seven people. There were no UK casualties, the MoD said. The MoD said an improvised explosive device caused an explosion, while officials in Kabul said it was a suicide bombing. The Taliban said it carried out the attack in retaliation for air strikes in Kunduz that killed civilians and doctors. The two RAF personnel killed in the helicopter crash were from 230 and 33 squadrons, both of which are based at RAF Benson, in Oxfordshire, the MoD spokesman said. He added: "The incident is currently under investigation but we can confirm that it was an accident and not the result of insurgent activity." Mr Fallon said it was a "stark reminder that our brave service personnel continue to work night and day in a hostile and challenging environment. "This is a very sad time for the men and women of RAF Benson and UK personnel in Afghanistan. "Although the UK's combat mission has ended, the dedication and professionalism of our men and women is essential as we continue to support the government of Afghanistan as they seek to build a peaceful and prosperous future for their country." BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale said the BBC understood that the RAF Puma that crashed in Kabul had been transferring Nato military personnel. "Helicopter movements of military personnel are more frequent following attacks - such as the one that took place on a British military convoy earlier on Sunday. "The cause of the crash is still being investigated but an observation balloon became untethered and landed in the resolute support base in Kabul." An Afghan eyewitness said the helicopter appeared to strike the balloon as it landed at the base. The helicopter "hit the cable of the security balloon over the base," he said. "It seemed like the cable was turned around the helicopter rotor." An observation balloon is used as an aerial platform for gathering information and spotting aircraft. British combat troops pulled out of Afghanistan a year ago after a conflict that had lasted 13 years and in which 454 UK troops lost their lives. Nato's resolute support mission, which was launched after its combat mission ended, consists of more than 13,000 troops from 42 countries, including nearly 500 UK troops.

Air crash

October 2015

['(BBC)', '(CNN)', '(USA Today)']

Russian police arrest prominent opposition leaders at a rally against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Russian police arrested prominent opposition leaders at a rally against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Blogger and activist Alexei Navalny said on Twitter he had been detained at the rally in Lubyanka Square, which was banned by the authorities. Fellow opposition leaders Ilya Yashin, Ksenia Sobchak and Left Front head Sergei Udaltsov were also arrested. Police eventually broke up the rally, one of several nationwide that marked a year of protests against Mr Putin. Mr Navalny later tweeted that he and the other opposition leaders had been released without charge. In all, 40 people were arrested, police said. Reports said police cleared the square by moving protesters towards a nearby metro station. Mr Navalny, who has been one of the most vocal anti-Putin campaigners, tweeted: "This is the traditional and not very original tweet from the police detention van. "It's raving mad. They snatched me out from the crowd." There was a large police presence for the rally, which took place in freezing temperatures outside the headquarters of the Federal Security Service, which is the main successor agency of the Soviet KGB. Police arrested Mr Yashin, a leading figure in the Solidarity movement and TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak as they made their way to the rally. Mr Yashin confirmed their arrest on Twitter, with a heavy dose of irony. "Came with Ksenia Sobchak for a stroll on the Lubyanka Square. The police decided we were too cold and put us into a detention van," he wrote. Reuters reported that Mr Udaltsov raised a fist in the air as police grabbed him under the arms and hauled him away into a waiting van. The BBC's Steven Rosenberg in Moscow said the protesters had gone to place flowers on a small monument in the square to victims of Soviet repression. They laid flowers not only to honour victims of the past but as a warning that repression is returning, he says. Opposition "Freedom March" rallies also took place in other Russian cities on Saturday, Interfax news agency reported. In St Petersburg, more than 25 people were arrested in a protest that had been allowed by city officials, Interfax said. Other large rallies were reported in Tomsk and Yekaterinburg. Earlier this week, Mr Putin used his annual state-of-the nation address to suggest that some opposition politicians were being paid by outside, foreign interests. Legal action against opposition figures has increased markedly since Mr Putin was re-elected to a third term in March. On Friday, Mr Navalny was charged with fraud and money laundering - the second criminal case against him. A tough new law has passed on public order offences and tight curbs have been placed on non-governmental organisations. Last winter saw the biggest anti-government demonstrations in Moscow since the fall of the Soviet Union, with protesters accusing Mr Putin's allies of rigging the parliamentary elections in 2011.

Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest

December 2012

['(BBC)']

Thailand legislative election, April 2006: Thaksin Shinawatra resigns as Prime Minister of Thailand despite his ruling Thai Rak Thai party winning an overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives.

Speaking on national TV, he said he would remain a caretaker prime minister until a new premier was chosen. Monday saw Mr Thaksin claim 57% of the vote in Sunday's snap election, which he called in a bid to end the crisis. His opponents, who accuse him of abuse of power and corruption, had threatened fresh street protests unless he quit. Mr Thaksin's televised news conference came after he met the country's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej. This is our victory. If we had not helped each other [in the protests], today would not have happened Chamlong SrimuangProtest leader He said he was "sorry" he would not be accepting the post of prime minister when the post-election parliament convened. But he said he would remain a caretaker prime minister "until the selection process for the next prime minister is complete". He apologised to the 16 million people who voted from him on Sunday, but said he had made the decision out of respect for the king, who marks his 60th anniversary on the throne this year. "I decided that the unity of the country is the most important thing for Thailand," he said. By-elections Protest leaders - who earlier on Tuesday said they would call off fresh demonstrations if Mr Thaksin resigned - welcomed the announcement. "This is our victory. If we had not helped each other [in the protests], today would not have happened," Chamlong Srimuang, Mr Thaksin's one-time political mentor, said. THAKSIN'S POLITICAL CRISIS 23 January: Thaksin sells 49.6% family stake in telecoms company Shin Corp 4 February: 50,000 attend rally in Bangkok demanding Thaksin's resignation; similar rallies continue in the capital 24 February: Thaksin dissolves parliament and calls snap election 27 February: Three main opposition parties say they will boycott the polls 2 April: Thais vote for new government amid opposition boycott 3 April: Thaksin says his Thai Rak Thai party has won more than 50% of vote 4 April: Thaksin says he will step down Profile: Thaksin Sinawatra But while on the surface the prime minister's announcement looks like a victory for the protesters, the crisis may be far from over, the BBC's Jill McGivering says. Mr Thaksin's party will still dominate any new parliament, and he will have a large say in who succeeds him, with some fearing the new prime minister could be a Thaksin protege, giving him a sort of leadership by proxy. It is not yet known when parliament will convene as by-elections in 38 constituencies must be held after candidates failed to get the 20% of votes needed to claim victory. On Monday, election officials said they would carry out the by-elections within 30 days so parliament could convene with all seats filled, as required under the constitution. Protest vote Mr Thaksin's announcement was unexpected, as it came a day after he claimed an election victory, saying his Thai Rak Thai party had won 57% of the vote. But he acknowledged that his share of the vote had dropped, from 19 million in last year's election to 16 million. Mr Thaksin faced opposition both in parliament and on the streets He proposed setting up an independent committee to investigate a way out of the crisis - adding that he would step down if it asked him to - but it was rejected by his opponents. Before the election, Mr Thaksin said he would step down if he failed to get more than half of the votes. Opposition parties boycotted the poll, and there were signs of a large protest vote, particularly in Bangkok and in the south of the country. Mr Thaksin has been under increasing pressure following his family's decision in January to sell its shares in one of Thailand's biggest telecom groups, Shin Corp, which netted them and others $1.9bn. The move angered many urban Thais - already discontented over his perceived brash, authoritarian style of leadership - who took to the streets in protest, complaining that the prime minister's family had avoided paying tax and passed control of an important national asset to Singaporean investors.

Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal

April 2006

['(BBC)']

Mexican Drug War: The Mexican Navy confirms that Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, the top leader of the criminal organization Los Zetas, was killed in a shootout yesterday. The body is stolen by armed gunmen.

MEXICO CITY It seemed such a triumphant moment in the drug war: the leader of the Zetas, one of the country’s biggest and most ruthless gangs, killed by the celebrated Mexican Marines in a fierce battle with guns and grenades. Then armed men snatched his body, right under the government’s nose. The twin developments the killing of Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, one of the most wanted men in Mexico and the United States, followed by the theft of his corpse before authorities had even publicly identified it left Mexican officials struggling on Tuesday to explain how a major blow against the nation’s criminal organizations could suddenly turn into an illustration of their persistent strength.

Armed Conflict

October 2012

['(New York Times)']

The Chad Army claims to have killed 200 militants and lost nine soldiers in fighting in northern Nigeria.

Chad's army says it has killed more than 200 militant Islamists and lost nine men during a battle to recapture a key town in north-eastern Nigeria. Boko Haram militants killed about 30 people after fleeing from the battle to Cameroon, a resident said. It was the most intense battle known to involve Chadian troops since they entered the conflict in Nigeria. Chad and Nigeria are also bombing the vast Sambisa forest, where the militants have bases. Boko Haram fighters were suspected to have taken to the forest more than 200 schoolgirls it abducted in April from the north-eastern Nigerian town of Chibok. It is not clear whether any of the girls are still there. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has since said that the girls have been married off. Chad sent troops to Cameroon last month to join the offensive against Boko Haram, following widespread criticism of the Nigerian army's failure to curb the insurgency. About 2,000 Chadian troops backed by armoured vehicles crossed into Nigeria on Tuesday to battle Boko Haram for control of Gamboru, a small town on the border with Cameroon. Chad's army said it had recaptured the town, although the sound of automatic gunfire was still heard on Wednesday in Gamboru, AFP news agency reports. Retreating Boko Haram fighters have raided Fotokol, a town on the Cameroonian side of the border, a resident said. She told the BBC Hausa service that she had seen about 30 bodies, all with gunshot wounds, in a mosque in the town. The six-year insurgency has claimed thousands of lives and displaced some 1.5 million people. Nigeria's military is under increasing pressure to regain territory ahead of the 14 February presidential election, amid concerns that the insurgency will prevent many people in the north-east from voting.

Armed Conflict

February 2015

['(BBC)']

Azerbaijani First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, who is widely considered to be in line to succeed her husband, is named vice president.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has appointed his wife as the country's first vice president, just months after the position was created through a constitutional referendum. (more) A brief statement from the presidency said First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva had been appointed First Vice-President at the order of Ilham Aliyev. The announcement was made on Tuesday morning during a meeting of the country's Security Council. "Mr. President, I express my deep gratitude to you for this high confidence in me," Mehriban Aliyeva was quoted as saying by the Azerbaijan Press Agency. "I believe that I will be able to justify this confidence shown by you, Mr. President, and all the people that believe in me." Mehriban Aliyeva added: "Over the past years, your ideas of statehood, patriotism, your courageous protection of Azerbaijan’s national interests, and your unity with the people of Azerbaijan, were an example for me and those who work with me, and guided our activities." The appointment comes just months after voters approved dozens of constitutional amendments, including one that created the position of First Vice-President along with several other vice presidents. The first vice-president can be appointed or dismissed by the president. Under the constitutional amendment, the first vice-president will become (acting) president if the president is incapacitated. Those duties previously devolved to the prime minister, who is now second in line after the first vice president. First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, who is often described as glamorous and a prominent socialite, has long been rumored to be a likely successor for her husband. She is also the head of the influential Heydar Aliyev Foundation, which was named after her father-in-law and former president. "The move throws Azerbaijan back to medieval, feudal times. Family rule has no place in the 21st century," opposition leader Isa Gambar of the Musavat party told the AFP news agency, responding to Tuesday's appointment. The referendum in September also approved a number of other amendments, including one that extends the presidential term from five to seven years. President Ilham Aliyev has ruled the oil-rich Caspian nation since October 2003, when he took over from his father.

Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration

February 2017

['(BNO News)']

Czech President Václav Klaus signs the Lisbon Treaty after it was upheld by the Constitutional Court, thus fulfilling the final step in its ratification.

The president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, has signed the EU's Lisbon Treaty, the final step in the charter's ratification. The treaty was drawn up to streamline decision-making in the EU, and is a watered-down version of a draft EU constitution rejected four years ago. Among its measures, it creates a European Council president and alters the way member states vote. The treaty could now come into force as early as December. The Lisbon Treaty's supporters say it will allow the EU to operate more efficiently and give it greater influence in world affairs. Critics say it will cede too many national powers to Brussels. Speaking in Washington ahead of an EU-US summit, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso welcomed the removal of the "last hurdle" to the treaty's passage. "I think that the transformational potential that is there, the new external profile for the European Union, will be felt immediately," he said. In the UK, William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary for the opposition Conservatives, said it would no longer be possible to hold a referendum on the treaty if his party won a general election next year. The party had previously argued that the treaty should be put to a popular vote. Court 'bias' British Prime Minister Gordon Brown welcomed the ratification, and said it marked the end of years of debate. "Today is a day when Europe looks forward," he said. It will create a European diplomatic service and two powerful new jobs - EU leaders are expected to choose a permanent president of the EU Council and a foreign policy chief within days. After intense speculation about former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, the front-runner to become the first EU Council president is the low-key Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband tipped as favourite for the second top job. The Czech Republic was the last of the EU's 27 member states to ratify the treaty. Mr Klaus signed it shortly after the Czech constitutional court rejected a complaint against it, ruling that it was in line with the Czech constitution. Announcing in Prague that he had signed the treaty, the Czech leader accused the court of bias and said the Czech Republic would "cease to be a sovereign state". The Eurosceptic Mr Klaus had recently said he would no longer attempt to block the treaty, after receiving the promise of an opt-out from the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights. Mr Klaus said the opt-out was needed to avoid property claims from ethnic Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia after World War II. The Lisbon Treaty replaced an earlier draft constitution that was rejected in referendums in France and the Netherlands in 2005. The treaty was initially rejected in a referendum in Ireland, before being endorsed in a second Irish referendum last month. It would create two major new posts: a new European Council president who would serve a term of two-and-a-half years, and a new foreign policy chief whose role would combine those of the existing foreign affairs representative and external affairs commissioner. In addition, the treaty will alter voting procedures, with national vetoes to become the exception rather than the rule in most policy areas. For the first time, it will also offer a way out to any member states that decide to leave the EU.

Sign Agreement

November 2009

['(euronews)', '(BBC)']

Six members of President Trump's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS resign stating the administration doesn't have a strategy to address the epidemic, doesn't seek input from experts on HIV policy, supports legislation that would halt or reverse important gains made in the fight against this disease and would harm people living with HIV.

Five of my colleagues and I resigned this week from the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). As advocates for people living with HIV, we have dedicated our lives to combating this disease and no longer feel we can do so effectively within the confines of an advisory body to a president who simply does not care. The Trump Administration has no strategy to address the on-going HIV/AIDS epidemic, seeks zero input from experts to formulate HIV policy, and—most concerning—pushes legislation that will harm people living with HIV and halt or reverse important gains made in the fight against this disease. Created in 1995, PACHA provides advice, information, and recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services regarding programs, policies, and research to promote effective treatment, prevention, and an eventual cure for HIV. Members, appointed by the President, currently include public health officials, researchers, health care providers, faith leaders, HIV advocates, and people living with HIV. PACHA also monitors and provides recommendations to effectively implement the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, which was created by the White House Office of National AIDS Policy in 2010 and revised in 2015. The decision to resign from government service is not one that any of us take lightly. However, we cannot ignore the many signs that the Trump Administration does not take the on-going epidemic or the needs of people living with HIV seriously. While many members of the public are unaware of the significant impact that HIV/AIDS continues to have in many communities— or that only 40 percent of people living with HIV in the United States are able to access the life-saving medications that have been available for more than 20 years—it is not acceptable for the U.S. President to be unaware of these realities, to set up a government that deprioritizes fighting the epidemic and its causes, or to implement policies and support legislation that will reverse the gains made in recent years. Signs of President Trump's lack of understanding and concern regarding this important public health issue were apparent when he was a candidate. While Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders both met with HIV advocates during the primaries, candidate Trump refused. Whatever the politics of that decision, Mr. Trump missed an opportunity to learn—from the experts—about the contours of today's epidemic and the most pressing issues currently affecting people living with HIV. In keeping with candidate Trump's lack of regard for this community, President Trump took down the Office of National AIDS Policy website the day he took office and there has been no replacement for this website 132 days into his administration. More important, President Trump has not appointed anyone to lead the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, a post that held a seat on the Domestic Policy Council under President Obama. This means no one is tasked with regularly bringing salient issues regarding this ongoing public health crisis to the attention of the President and his closest advisers. By comparison, President Obama appointed a director to this office just 36 days into his administration. Within 18 months, that new director and his staff crafted the first comprehensive U.S. HIV/AIDS strategy. By contrast, President Trump appears to have no plan at all. We believe he should embrace the important work accomplished by the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. Public health is not a partisan issue, and this important document could easily be ratified by the Trump Administration. If the President is not going to engage on the subject of HIV/AIDS, he should at least continue policies that support people living with and at higher risk for HIV and have begun to curtail the epidemic. While these actions and others are gravely worrisome to us as HIV advocates, the final straw for us—more like a two-by-four than a straw—is President Trump's handling of health care reform. It is indisputable that the Affordable Care Act has benefitted people living with HIV and supported efforts to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Gains in the percentage of people with HIV who know their status, the percentage engaged in care, the percentage receiving successful treatment, and a decrease in new cases of HIV were seen in Massachusetts under Romneycare. We are beginning to see similar effects on a national level under Obamacare. People living with HIV know how broken the pre-ACA system was. Those without employer-based insurance were priced out of the market because of pre-existing condition exclusions. And "high risk pools" simply segregated people living with HIV and other health conditions into expensive plans with inferior coverage and underfunded subsidies—subsidies advocates had to fight for tooth-and-nail in every budgetary session. Because more than 40 percent of people with HIV receive care through Medicaid, proposed cuts to that program would be extremely harmful. Prior to Medicaid expansion under ACA, a person had to be both very low income and disabled to be eligible for Medicaid. For people living with HIV, that usually meant an AIDS diagnosis—making the disease more difficult and expensive to bring under control—before becoming eligible. Between reinstating that paradox by defunding Medicaid expansion, imposing per-person caps on benefits, and/or block granting the program, the changes to Medicaid contemplated by the American Health Care Act would be particularly devastating for people living with HIV. And we know who the biggest losers will be if states are given the option of eliminating essential health benefits or allowing insurers to charge people with HIV substantially more than others. It will be people—many of them people of color—across the South and in rural and underserved areas across the country, the regions and communities now at the epicenter of the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic. It will be young gay and bisexual men; it will be women of color; it will be transgender women; it will be low-income people. It will be people who become newly infected in an uncontrolled epidemic, new cases that could be prevented by appropriate care for those already living with the disease. While we are in agreement that the ACA needs to be strengthened to lower premiums, improve competition, and increase access to care, it makes no sense to dismiss gains made under the ACA just to score political points. Experts with real facts, grounded in science, must be in the room when healthcare policy decisions are made. Those decisions affect real people and real lives. If we do not ensure that U.S. leadership at the executive and legislative levels are informed by experience and expertise, real people will be hurt and some will even die. Because we do not believe the Trump Administration is listening to—or cares—about the communities we serve as members of PACHA, we have decided it is time to step down. We will be more effective from the outside, advocating for change and protesting policies that will hurt the health of the communities we serve and the country as a whole if this administration continues down the current path. We hope the members of Congress who have the power to affect healthcare reform will engage with us and other advocates in a way that the Trump Administration apparently will not. Scott A. Schoettes is Counsel and HIV Project Director at Lambda Legal . He resigned from the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS on June 13, along with Lucy Bradley-Springer, Gina Brown, Ulysses W. Burley III, Michelle Ogle, and Grissel Granados.

Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal

June 2017

['(NBC News)', '(The Independent)', '(Newsweek)']

President of Nepal Bidya Devi Bhandari and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli dissolve the incumbent House of Representatives, the lower house of the Parliament.

The prime minister dissolved the lower house of Parliament, throwing into doubt the political fortunes of the Himalayan country, which has long swung between Beijing and New Delhi. By Bhadra Sharma KATHMANDU, Nepal — Nepal’s top leader dissolved Parliament on Sunday amid infighting among members of the governing party, throwing into doubt the political future of a strategically important Himalayan country where China and India have long jockeyed for influence. The prime minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, called for the dissolution of the lower house of Parliament despite protests from his own Nepal Communist Party and opposition groups, including the largest, Nepali Congress. Nepal is now set to hold elections starting in late April, more than a year earlier than the expected vote in November 2022.

Organization Closed

December 2020

['(The New York Times)']

Today, thousands of demonstrators gathered in more than 20 states in support of Silva and Rousseff. (Reuters²)

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Thousands of Brazilians in 17 states and the nation’s capital took to the streets in defense of beleaguered President Dilma Rousseff on Thursday, many carrying banners that said “there will not be a coup”, local television showed. Rousseff could lose power as soon as May if the lower house of Congress approves her impeachment. She has pledged to fight the charges brought by the opposition of irregularities in the government budget designed to favor her reelection in 2014.

Protest_Online Condemnation

March 2016

['(AP via ABC news)']

An international consortium signs a deal formally launching ITER, a project to develop an experimental nuclear fusion reactor.

The multi-billion-euro project known as Iter - or "the way" in Latin - will aim to produce energy from nuclear reactions like those that fuel the Sun. If successful, it could provide energy that is clean and almost limitless. The project, which will be based in France, follows years of talks between South Korea, Russia, China, the EU, the US, India and Japan. If all goes well, officials will build a demonstration power plant before rolling out the technology to the world. Iter says electricity could be available on the grid within 30 years. "Fusion could become the dominant source of electricity on Earth in a century or so - we have to work to try to get it," Jerome Pamela of Iter told the BBC. "Not doing so would be irresponsible because the outcome could be huge, great for humanity," he said, adding that it was nonetheless a "very, very demanding challenge" to essentially imitate the work of the Sun on Earth. In a fusion reaction, energy is released when light atomic nuclei - the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium - are fused together to form heavier atomic nuclei. To use controlled fusion reactions on Earth as an energy source, it is necessary to heat a gas to temperatures exceeding 100 million Celsius - many times hotter than the centre of the Sun. Isn't the money that's being spent on fusion better spent on proven technologies rather than chasing a dream? Roger Higman, Friends of the Earth The technical requirements to do this, which scientists have spent decades developing, are immense; but the rewards, if Iter can be made to work successfully, are extremely attractive. One of the attractions of fusion is the tiny amount of fuel needed. The release of energy from a fusion reaction is said to be 10 million times greater than from a typical chemical reaction, such as burning a fossil fuel. The project is based in Cadarache, about 60km (40 miles) from Marseille in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region. It currently hosts Tore-Supra, one of the existing European centres for fusion research. Fusion is the nuclear process that operates at the core of the Sun Project estimated to cost 10bn euros and will run for 35 years It will produce the first sustained fusion reactions Final stage before full prototype of commercial reactor is built Work to clear a wooded area for the Iter buildings will begin in the spring. Ancillary and power facilities and a visitors' centre will go up in 2008. The reactor itself will start to take shape in 2009. The French site was chosen after a long period of bartering between the Iter parties; and the EU, as the host bloc, is shouldering 50% of the five-billion-euro construction costs. The deal signed by ministers on Tuesday puts those negotiations into effect, establishing the international organisation that will implement the Iter fusion energy project. The signature took place at a ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris, hosted by the president of France, Jacques Chirac, and by the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso. After the signature ceremony, the first meeting of the Interim Iter Council will take place. The green lobby is opposed to the Iter project. It believes the benefits have been oversold and the difficulties and waste production issues underplayed. Roger Higman, policy coordinator for Friends of the Earth, told BBC News: "We face a very real energy crisis over the next 50 years which is to do with climate change; that we have to stop using coal, oil and gas. "The question we would ask is: isn't the money that's being spent on fusion better spent on proven technologies rather than chasing a dream that even its proponents say will take a hundred years before it's going to providing any of our energy answers?" The proposed Iter reactor is shaped like a doughnut - a Russian-conceived design referred to as a tokomak Deuterium and tritium - isotopes of hydrogen - are fed into the reactor and heated to 100 million Celsius A powerful magnetic field holds the hot plasma, or gas, away from the walls and squeezes to initiate fusion Iter hopes to do this in bursts of 500 seconds; a commercial reactor would have to run for prolonged periods In a commercial reactor, energetic neutrons are absorbed in a surrounding 'blanket' to drive a steam-turbine system

Sign Agreement

November 2006

['(BBC News)']

Indonesian search and rescue agencies continue to search for survivors after a boat sinks off the coast of Bali, with 11 people confirmed dead and 14 missing.

JAKARTA (AFP) - Eleven people were killed and 14 people were missing after a traditional boat sank off Indonesia's Bali island, a search and rescue agency official said on Wednesday. 'We are still searching for 14 missing people from the boat, which sank late Tuesday. Eleven people have been found alive,' Bali search and rescue agency head I Ketut Parwa told AFP. He said the boat, which was carrying 36 passengers and crew members, left Nusa Lembongan island and was bound for Nusa Penida island, both south-east of Bali. The Indonesian archipelago of more than 17,000 islands has a poor safety record, and fatal accidents are common.

Shipwreck

September 2011

['(Straits Times)']

Tropical storm Arlene, the first of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season, forms in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico.

The season’s first named storm, Tropical Storm Arlene, has spun up in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. It currently has 40-mph sustained winds. The storm should come ashore along the Mexico coast sometime Thursday, likely south of Tampico, so it shouldn’t have time to strengthen into a hurricane. The official forecast calls for the storm to reach wind speeds up to 60 mph before landfall. Of course intensity forecasts are challenging to make. Named storms form, on average, about once every two years in the Atlantic during the month of June. Last year, of course, Hurricane Alex formed in June and struck Mexico in a similar location. It’s very rare to get such a powerful hurricane in June. Forecasters believe that after Arlene comes ashore the tropics should be quiet for a week or two.

Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard

June 2011

['(Houston Chronicle)']

At least nine Shia pilgrims have been killed and several injured after police opened fire on a religious procession by the Islamic Movement in Nigeria in the city of Kano, Nigeria.

At least eight Nigerian Shia Muslims and one police officer have been killed in clashes with police at a religious procession in Kano city, police say. Many marchers and five police officers were also injured, Police Commissioner Rabiu Yusuf said. The group behind the procession, the Iran-backed Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), has a history of tension with the security forces. Last December troops killed 349 of its members during a crackdown. Africa Live: Updates on this and other stories Investigating clashes between Nigeria's Shia and the army The cause of the latest violence, which took place on the outskirts of Kano, is disputed. Police officials said Shia procession participants attacked police with weapons including machetes and bows and arrows and seized a police rifle, which was later recovered. Witnesses say the police fired live ammunition and tear gas into a crowd of hundreds of Shia members in an attempt to stop the march. The sect says many of its members were killed but this has not been independently verified. The Islamic movement was marking this year's "Arbaeen" - an annual religious event during which its members trek for many miles from various towns to Zaria - their spiritual headquarters. The IMN has abandoned the seven-day procession and told followers to return home, the organisation told the BBC. The IMN is Nigeria's biggest Shia organisation and has its headquarters in Zaria. It has been outlawed in Kaduna state for carrying out unlawful processions. Its followers have been involved in a series of clashes with the security forces as well as attacks by Sunni militants. In October, 10 IMN members were reported to have been killed in northern Katsina state following clashes with security forces during a religious celebration. In August, a judicial review said Nigerian troops should be prosecuted for the killings in Zaria last December. IMN leader Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky was shot and then detained during the crackdown and remains in custody. And last year's Shia procession from Kano to Zaria saw more than 20 people killed in an attack by a suicide bomber from the Boko Haram Sunni Islamist militant group. Security forces were ordered to stay away from last year's procession following deadly clashes in previous years.

Protest_Online Condemnation

November 2016

['(BBC News)', '(Al–Jazeera)']

Five people are killed in a military plane crash in Sudan.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A Sudanese military plane crashed in the central city of El-Obeid on Saturday, killing five people, the army said. A military statement blamed a technical failure in the Antonov plane, which had been trying to land in El-Obeid. Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Editing by Susan Thomas Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. More From Reuters All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Exclusive: Fed’s Neel Kashkari opposes rate hikes at least through 2023 as the central bank becomes more hawkish

Air crash

April 2016

['(Reuters)']

In Lebanon, the Parliament grants amnesty to the imprisoned Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. Geagea was arrested since 1994.

Beirut , Lebanon- Lebanon's Parliament has unanimously approved Samir Geagea's amnesty bill on Monday July 18. The Lebanese Forces militia leader who is currently serving a life sentence, is expected to be taken straight from jail to Beirut airport this weekend for a trip with his wife to a European capital, probably London, for extensive medical tests. Geagea is the only Lebanese warlord to be punished for crimes during the long civil war which ended in 1990. A campaign to get him released has gathered strength since the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri and the withdrawal of Syrian forces. He led the Lebanese Forces militia during the civil war which formed an alliance with Israel. During the recent elections the Lebanese forces formed an alliance with Hariri and Jumblatt. His wife Streada won a parliamentary seat in the northern region. Background information on Samir Geagea: Samir Geagea (born October 25, 1952) is the imprisoned leader of the Lebanese Forces (LF) militia. Geagea is currently serving several life sentences for crimes allegedly committed during the Lebanese Civil War of 1975-1990. He remains the only civil war-era leader to have stood trial for crimes committed during the war. Geagea was born in Ain el-Rummanah in Beirut in 1952 to parents from the Maronite town of Bsharri in the mountains of Northern Lebanon. While studying medicine at the American University of Beirut, he became an active member of the right-wing Phalangist Party, which became the main Christian fighting force upon the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. He steadily rose through the ranks and led several daring operations at the request of Bashir Gemayel, then commander of the Phalangist militia. In 1983, he led the unsuccessful defence of the Shouf Region in Central Lebanon against an onslaught by various Leftist militias that were supported by the Syrian Army. Geagea was appointed head of LF's northern Front in the early 1980s, where he commanded around 1,500 battle-hardened henchmen, drawn mainly from his native town of Bsharri and other towns and villages in Northern Lebanon. This loyal following would later ensure his ascension. In 1986, Geagea became head of the Lebanese Forces militia (a Phalangist-dominated coalition) after staging a coup against Elie Hobeika, who was widely accused of treachery in the Lebanese Christian sector for agreeing to a Syrian-sponsored accord. Geagea transformed the LF into a formidable fighting force and nurtured links with Iraq, which developed into a major source of weaponry and support due to its animosity towards Syria. He also developed a highly organised civil infrastructure in area's under LF contol. Geagea initially supported General Michel Aoun's drive to free Lebanon of all foreign forces in 1989. However, he later began to question Aoun's motives in pursuing such a destructive and unpromising war against the much larger Syrian Army and its leftist allies. When Aoun began taking active steps to undermine and dissolve the LF, Geagea resisted violently. This resulted in a devastating war in 1990 between the LF and Lebanese Army units loyal to Aoun. Aoun's surrender on 13 October 1990 was considered to mark the end of the civil war. Geagea was subsequently offered ministerial portfolios in the new Lebanese government several times. However, he declined on the grounds of opposition to Syrian interference in the internal affairs of Lebanon. In 1994, Geagea was arrested on charges of attempting to undermine government authority by "maintaining a militia in the guise of a political party," of instigating acts of violence, and of committing assassinations during the Lebanese Civil War. Prior to his arrest, he was contacted by several sympathetic politicians and warned about the forthcoming proceedings and offered safe passage out of Lebanon. Geagea refused to leave and was subsequently arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment on several different counts. Many members of the LF were allegedly subjected to horrific torture techniques in the process of being interrogated, resulting in the death of at least one LF official under interrogation. The evidence used by the Lebanese authorities to convict Geagea was widely viewed as unreliable, circumstantial, and inconsistent. Human rights groups including Amnesty International decried the judicial process leading to his conviction as seriously flawed and politically motivated. He remains incarcerated in solitary confinement in a small cell three floors underground in the Lebanese Ministry of Defense, with his access to the outside world severely restricted. Pro-Geagea rally Since his incarceration, support for Geagea among Lebanese Christians has remained high, and by some accounts has even increased despite constant harassment by the Lebanese authorities. The Lebanese Forces today constitutes the fastest growing movement among Lebanese Christian students and professionals and has scored some significant victories in elections to municipal and university bodies. Despite widespread calls for his release by notable politicians and clerics, the Lebanese Government has stubbornly refused to grant Geagea a pardon. Geagea is said to have rejected an offer of a presidential pardon that would have restricted his ability to participate in political activity. Speaking to a delegation from the Lebanese Parliament's Human Rights Committee, which visited him in prison in November 2004, Geagea said, "I would prefer to remain in prison for another 20 years than bargain my beliefs for freedom." Calls for his release have intensified since the Cedar Revolution and the subsequent withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon in 2005. Several public figures have openly conceded that Geagea's arrest, trial, and incarceration were engineered by the Syrian-backed political order in response to his movement's hostile stance towards the Syrian presence in Lebanon.

Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence

July 2005

['(AlJazeera)', '(Ya Libnan)', '(Newsday)']

The current Bishop of Durham Justin Welby is officially named as the next Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the Anglican Church. He will succeed the present incumbent, Rowan Williams, who is set to retire in December.

The next Archbishop of Canterbury has set out his support for the ordination of women bishops, as his appointment was officially confirmed. The Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Justin Welby, 56, said his appointment was "astonishing and exciting". On the issue of same-sex marriage he said he had to examine his own thinking "carefully and prayerfully". He will take on the Church of England's most senior post at a ceremony at Canterbury Cathedral on 21 March 2013. Bishop Welby will become the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury, replacing Rowan Williams who retires in December after 10 years in the role. At a press conference at Lambeth Palace on Friday, Bishop Welby said it was a time for "optimism and for faith" in the Church. His appointment comes as the Church of England faces controversial issues, including a vote in 10 days' time on ordaining women bishops. "I will be voting in favour and join my voice to many others in urging the synod to go forward with this change," he said. He also said the Church faced deep differences on the issue of same-sex marriage. "It is absolutely right for the state to define the rights and status of people cohabiting in different forms of relationships, including civil partnerships," he said. "We must have no truck with any form of homophobia in any part of the Church. The Church of England is part of the worldwide Church, and has responsibilities that come from those links. What the Church does here deeply affects the already greatly suffering churches in places... like Nigeria." He added: "I am always averse to the language of exclusion, when what we are called to is to love in the same way as Jesus Christ loves us. Above all in the Church we need to create safe spaces for these issues to be discussed in honesty and in love." He also said he was optimistic about the future of the Church. "The Church will certainly get things wrong, I certainly will get things wrong. We will also get much right and do so already." The Most Reverend Rowan Williams said he was delighted by the appointment. "I have had the privilege of working closely with him on various occasions and have always been enriched and encouraged by the experience," he said. "He has an extraordinary range of skills and is a person of grace, patience, wisdom and humour. He will bring to this office both a rich pastoral experience and a keen sense of international priorities, for Church and world." Prime Minister David Cameron, who confirmed Bishop Welby's appointment via Twitter, said he "wished him success in his new role". Speaking during a visit to Carlisle, Mr Cameron added that the new archbishop had been the "overwhelming choice" of the panel set up by the prime minister to find a replacement for Dr Williams. "I think having someone who had a life outside the Church in business, who understands difficult, complicated issues, will bring a great breath of fresh air to the Church of England," he said. Bishop Welby, who has had six children with wife Caroline, was educated at Eton and Cambridge University, and then spent 11 years in the oil industry before studying theology at Durham. He was ordained in 1992. He became Rector of Southam in 1995 and was later appointed canon residentiary of Coventry Cathedral. He left the area in 2007 when he was appointed Dean of Liverpool. He took up the post of Bishop of Durham in November 2011 and worked as Dr Williams' special envoy to Africa, attempting to build unity between Christian and Muslim communities in Nigeria. Bishop Welby is regarded by observers as being on the evangelical wing of the Church, closely adhering to traditional interpretations of the Bible with a strong emphasis on making the Church outward-looking. Even within the evangelical community, however, there are significant differences of outlook on questions of doctrine.

Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration

November 2012

['(BBC)']

A bomb blast occurs in Istanbul's Taksim Square, injuring at least fifteen people. , ,

A suicide bomb blast in the centre of Istanbul has injured 32 people, including 15 policemen. Police say the bomber tried to board a police bus in Taksim Square. Seventeen civilians were also hurt. No group has said it carried out the attack, but a two-month-old ceasefire by Kurdish rebels was due to expire later on Sunday, says the BBC's Jonathan Head in Istanbul. Police identified other bombs nearby and have been working to disable them. A large explosion was heard throughout central Istanbul just after 0900 GMT. The explosion took place right next to the independence monument on Taksim Square, which is always crowded with people, our correspondent says. There are usually squads of riot police posted at this part of the square, as it is often the site of demonstrations. A police spokesman has said he believes they were the target of the explosion, which he said may have been caused by a suicide bomber. Television pictures from Taksim Square showed body parts lying on the ground. Ceasefire end Eyewitness Aris Virkas told the BBC that he was walking through Taksim Square when he heard the blast. "I turned around and saw policemen with blood on their face and someone lying on the ground," he said. "People, including police, were running around in panic. "There was a big bus with maybe 20 police officers: they ran out of the bus, trying to find out what's going on. "After a couple of minutes, they started asking people to step back." Our correspondent says suspicion is likely to fall on Kurdish separatist factions, or groups linked to al-Qaeda. "Those who threaten Turkey's peace, security and development will not be tolerated," said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday. Mr Erdogan was in Mardin in south-eastern Turkey where most of the Kurdish minority live. The Kurdish separatist PKK party has carried out bomb attacks in Istanbul in the past, as have extreme left-wing and Islamist groups. The PKK went on ceasefire two months ago but that is due to run out on Sunday night. However, PKK leaders have said recently that they will no longer target civilians. Our correspondent says al-Qaeda-linked groups are small but active in Turkey, and police make frequent arrests. More than 100 suspected al-Qaeda militants have been arrested so far this year. A group with ties to al-Qaeda carried out the bombing of the British consulate in Istanbul in 2003 in which 28 people died. In pictures: Istanbul bomb attack Turkey country profile Police targeted by Istanbul bomb

Armed Conflict

October 2010

['(Reuters via Yahoo! News)', '(BBC)', '(Reuters)']

Henry Puna becomes the new Secretary–General of the Pacific Islands Forum replacing Meg Taylor.

The former Cook Islands Prime Minister, Henry Puna is the new Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum after a marathon online meeting. Puna was voted in over Micronesia's candidate Marshall Islands Ambassador to the US, Gerald Zackios by nine to eight. Former Cook Islands Prime Minister, Henry Puna, was elected Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum in 2021. The outgoing secretary-general, Papua New Guinea's Dame Meg-Taylor had been in the role for over six years. Regional divisions over who should replace her emerged last year. Micronesian states threatened to leave the Forum if the role wasn't given to their candidate, saying that it was Micronesia's turn, citing a pledge to rotate the post by sub-region. But Polynesian and Melanesian countries backed their own candidates. The appointment has already drawn expressions of frustration from Micronesia, with Palau's president Surangel Whipps Junior describing the Forum as an organisation in which the South Pacific countries side with the bigger countries (Australia and New Zealand) to dominate decision-making. "Clearly there is no need really for Micronesians to be part of them (PIF), they don't really consider us part of them," Whipps Jr lamented. He said other Forum members didn't want to honour the pledge, denying that they knew anything about it. Other contenders were Tongan economist Amelia Kinahoi Siamomua, Fiji's former foreign minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, and Jimmie Rodgers of Solomon Islands, formerly the director general of the Pacific Community. With leaders unable to reach consensus in last night's Special Leaders Retreat, the appointment process went to a vote. It resulted in three eliminations and a final vote after midnight. In a press conference today, the chair of the Pacific Islands Forum downplayed differences in the membership over the appointment Kausea Natano, who is also Tuvalu prime minister, said everything has been resolved, the region's leaders remain united despite their differences. "All the leaders were very strong in their support for the new secretary-general," Natano said, adding that there was no discussion about Micronesian members leaving gther Forum. "Some of the presidents of the Micronesian groups were in the final part of the meeting and they were very strong in their support for the solidarity of the region." The prime minister of Tuvalu, Kausea Natano. Photo: Supplied / Government of Tuvalu New Zealand's prime minister Jacinda Ardern was one of the only national leaders of the 18 Forum members states or territories not to attend the online meeting. The country's foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta logged on instead. In a statement, Forum leaders commended Dame Meg's "stellar leadership and guidance to the Pacific Islands Forum on regional issues over the past 6 years and wished her well in her future endeavours". Also on the agenda of the Special Leaders Retreat, conducted via video-conferencing, was the Covid-19 pandemic, including the distribution of vaccines to the region.

Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration

February 2021

['(RNZ)']

Salah Abdeslam, the alleged suspect and primary perpetrator of the November 2015 Paris attacks is shot and arrested by Belgian authorities in a Brussels raid.

French national, 26, has been on the run since November’s attacks in French capital that left 130 dead A suspect in the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, has been shot and arrested in a police raid in the Molenbeek area of Brussels after a four-month international manhunt. “We got him,” the Belgian secretary of state for asylum and migration tweeted. Police said the 26-year-old was wounded in the leg and that a second person was arrested during the operation, which took place as EU leaders met on the other side of the city to discuss Europe’s migration crisis. The French president, François Hollande, and the Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel, left the summit to discuss the operation. There were several exchanges of gunfire in Molenbeek – the scene of past investigations into the Paris attacks – and police officers were seen surrounding an apartment block there. Television footage showed black-clad security forces wearing balaclavas guarding a street. Reporters at the scene described white smoke rising from a rooftop and a helicopter hovering overhead. About three hours after the raid began, two more explosions were heard in the area and Belgian media reported that a third man was arrested. The police operation was launched just as Belgian prosecutors confirmed that Abdeslam’s fingerprints had been found at a flat that was raided in the Forest area of Brussels on Tuesday. Two suspects fled that raid. A Belgian federal prosecutor, Eric van der Sypt, said it had not been established how old the fingerprints were, or how long Abdeslam had spent in the flat. When French and Belgian police arrived to search the flat on Tuesday, they were fired at from behind the door with automatic weapons. A police sniper shot one of the gunmen through a window: Mohamed Belkaïd, a 35-year-old Algerian living illegally in Belgium and known to police over a theft case in 2014. “Next to his body was a Kalashnikov, a book on Salafism and an Islamic State flag,” according to Thierry Werts, of the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office. The Belgian prosecutor’s office said Belkaïd was “more than likely” one of the key logistics operatives behind the Paris attacks who had been sought by police under the false name of Samir Bouzid. Le Monde reported that investigators believe a man using the name Samir Bouzid had received the last text message sent by three of the Paris attackers before they staged a bloody gun attack on a rock gig at the Bataclan concert hall. The message said: “We’ve left, we’re on the way.” Abdeslam, a 26-year-old French national who grew up in Brussels, fled Paris for Belgium by car hours after the 13 November attacks that killed 130 people. Police believe he also played a key role in the logistics of the Paris attacks and escorted the three suicide bombers who blew themselves up at the Stade de France as part of the coordinated assault. Investigators are considering whether he planned to carry out his own suicide attack in the 18th arrondissement of the French capital, and perhaps backed out. His brother blew himself up and died at a Paris bar on Boulevard Voltaire during the attacks. Abdeslam had called friends to collect him in Paris hours after the attacks. While they were driving him back to Belgium, the car was briefly stopped at the border and Abdeslam’s ID was checked, but he was allowed through and has been on the run ever since. He reportedly stayed holed up in a flat in the Schaerbeek district in north Brussels for three weeks after the attacks. In January, Belgian authorities said they had found two flats and a house used by Abdeslam and other suspects in the run-up to the attacks. A fingerprint belonging to Abdeslam was found in one flat along with traces of explosives, possible suicide belts and a drawing of a person wearing a large belt. Authorities also found DNA traces of Bilal Hadfi, another of the attackers who blew himself up with a bomb vest near the French national stadium during the attacks.

Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest

March 2016

['(The Guardian)']

Malik Ishaq, leader of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, is killed during a shootout in which supporters of the group ambushed a prisoner convoy. The shootout killed 13 of the attackers, injured six police officers, and also killed two of Ishaq's sons.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan The leader of a banned Sunni extremist group that is believed to have killed hundreds of Pakistani Shiites in a series of bombings died in a shootout Wednesday after supporters tried to free him from police custody, the Pakistani authorities said. Thirteen supporters of Malik Ishaq, the leader of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, were also killed in the clash early Wednesday morning in Punjab Province, said Shuja Khanzada, Punjab’s home minister. Mr. Khanzada said armed supporters attacked a police convoy that was transporting Mr. Ishaq, his sons and three of his aides, all of whom had been arrested Saturday on suspicion of involvement in sectarian killings.

Armed Conflict

July 2015

['(New York Times)']

At least 26 people are killed after a bus crashes in the Daman District in the Kandahar Province of Afghanistan.

Twenty-six people died on Monday and another 22 were injured when a packed bus flew off a highway in southern Afghanistan, a traffic official said. The bus hit a speed bump at high speed, flew into the air, and then rolled repeatedly, said Kandahar traffic director Colonel Mohammadullah Khan. The bus was on its way from Kandahar province to Kabul early Monday when the accident happened in the Daman district outside Kandahar city, he said. "In this unfortunate accident 26 passengers were killed and another 22 are injured," Khan told AFP. The provincial official said the driver had apparently not seen the speed bump. The highway is part of the national ringroad linking Kabul to Afghanistan's main cities. President Hamid Karzai said he was "deeply saddened by the heavy casualties" in the crash and sent his condolences to the bereaved families. The Kandahar-Kabul leg is considered the most dangerous in the country, not only because of the high volume of traffic and erratic driving, but because the Taliban regularly stop and search vehicles. Road construction is a major project throughout Afghanistan but nine years after the Taliban regime collapsed, the country is yet to complete a national road network or rail system.

Road Crash

July 2010

['(AP via Sydney Morning Herald)', '(samaylive)']

Emergency services are dealing with major flooding in the Aberdeenshire town of Stonehaven in Scotland.

Emergency services have been dealing with major flooding in the Aberdeenshire town of Stonehaven. About 100 homes were searched by the fire service after the River Carron burst its banks and about 40 were evacuated. Residents said the worst of the flooding occurred overnight into Sunday and water levels were waist-high. Environment protection agency Sepa has put 31 flood warnings in place, mainly in Perthshire, Angus and Aberdeenshire. Some routes in central and east Fife were closed. The A90 was hit in several areas, and flooding also closed the A85 at Comrie, and the A92 at Ardestie. Rail services have been disrupted because of a landslip near Cairnrobin level crossing, between Montrose and Aberdeen. A replacement bus service is now operating between Dundee and Aberdeen. A Network Rail spokesman said there was up to 3ft (1m) of water on some parts of the tracks, and it was unlikely that the route between Dundee and Aberdeen would reopen on Sunday. Serco NorthLink Ferries warned that, because of high winds, sailings between the Northern Isles and Aberdeen - which have not run since Thursday - would not resume until Sunday night. The sailing from Aberdeen to Lerwick is now scheduled to leave between 20:00 and 24:00, but there will be no stop at Kirkwall. In Brechin, residents in the River Street area were placed on alert as the waters of the River South Esk rose, threatening a repeat of the flooding experienced in the town in October. Tayside Police later released an update, saying water levels had receded, but added that they would remain in the area to answer any concerns from locals. A rest centre, which had been set up in the town's High School for residents who wanted to leave their homes, was closed on Sunday evening because it was no longer needed. In Stonehaven, a rendezvous point for members of the public was set up at Market Square and a rest centre established at Mackie Academy, although all evacuated residents later secured temporary accommodation with family or friends. David Fleming, a member of Stonehaven's community council, said the area had been hit by persistent heavy rain for a few days, and it had got much worse overnight into Sunday. He told BBC Scotland: "Some of the water from the fields above the town just came right down the main road and into the High Street and flooded to a depth of about waist height or more. "A significant part of the town has still got water in it and in the part that hasn't, there's a whole lot of mud and debris on the street." The BBC's Steven Duff said the High Street was still badly flooded on Sunday afternoon, with water reaching car bonnets and raw sewage on the street, along with other debris. Jill Paterson, who lives on the town's High Street, told BBC Scotland: "I woke up about 04:45, there was a few car alarms going off in the street. "When I looked out the window, you could see the water right down the middle of the street. It was just this kind of brown, gungy water." "When I went to the bathroom, which is at the back of the house, the brown water was coming up through my bath and through the toilet. My heart was thumping in my chest." Police said there were no reports of any injuries and it is understood water levels were now falling and the weather was improving. Environment Minister Paul Wheelhouse chaired another meeting of the Scottish government's resilience group. Afterwards, he said: "Tomorrow I will visit Stonehaven to see the extent of the flooding, meet residents who have been affected and thank local people for their efforts. "Across the country, in locations affected by flooding such as Arbroath, Brechin, Stonehaven, and in the Northern Isles which have been affected by severe winds, determined work has been happening at local level to support members of the public at what has been a testing time." To access more information, from your mobile, visit the BBC Weather and BBC Travel News sites.

Floods

December 2012

['(BBC)']

Senator Tim Johnson announces that he will return to the United States Senate on September 5 after recovering from brain surgery since last December.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sen. Tim Johnson, a Democrat who has been recovering from brain surgery since December, plans to return to his Senate office on September 5, his office said on Wednesday. Johnson will be in his home state of South Dakota for the next few days before returning to Washington and he “plans to be in his Senate office and on the Senate floor on Wednesday, September 5th,” according to his office. The two-term Democrat underwent emergency surgery on December 13 to stop bleeding from a malformation of blood vessels in his brain. He remained in the hospital and then in a rehabilitation center for several months after the operation. Johnson’s speech and ability to walk are still impaired. With Democrats controlling the Senate with a narrow 51-49 margin, Johnson’s sudden illness that left him in critical condition in December raised questions about what would happen if he could no longer serve, giving South Dakota’s Republican governor the chance to appoint a fellow Republican to fill out Johnson’s term. That could have tipped Senate control to the Republicans. Johnson’s second six-year term ends next year and the 60-year-old senator has not formally declared whether he will seek another term.

Famous Person - Recovered

August 2007

['(Reuters)']

Boko Haram declares an Islamic state in areas of Nigeria under its control.

Militant group Boko Haram has said it has set up an Islamic state in the towns and villages it has seized in north-eastern Nigeria. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau was speaking in a video released to congratulate his fighters for seizing the town of Gwoza earlier this month. It is not clear if Mr Shekau has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, which controls parts of Iraq and Syria. Nigeria's army has rejected the claim as "empty". Thousands of people have been killed, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria, since 2009 when Boko Haram began its insurgency. Gwoza, which had 265,000 residents in the last census, is the biggest town under Boko Haram control. It has raised its flags over the palace of the Emir of Gwoza, the town's traditional ruler, residents say. "Thanks be to Allah who gave victory to our brethren in Gwoza and made it part of the Islamic state," Mr Shekau said in the 52-minute video. It controls several areas, mostly in Borno state where the group was launched, but also in neighbouring Yobe state. The video also shows about 20 men in civilian clothes apparently being shot dead. Nigeria's military spokesman Chris Olukolade responded with a statement dismissing the declaration. "The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Nigerian state is still intact," he said. Profile: Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau In his previous video, released in July, Mr Shekau congratulated the Islamic State (IS) for its advances in Iraq and Syria but did not say whether they were allies - there is no evidence that the two groups have been working together. IS has seized much of northern Iraq in recent months, leading the US to launch air strikes. Last week, the militants sparked global outrage by beheading US journalist James Foley. The rise of Islamic State Analysis: Nature of IS threat Gwoza is not far from Chibok, where Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in April. Nigeria's police say it is still looking for 35 police officers who went missing after Boko Haram attacked a police academy in Liman Kara, near Gwoza last week. Residents say the militants seized the college but it is unclear who now controls it.

Organization Established

August 2014

['(BBC)']

Nissan announces that it will buy 34% of fellow Japanese car manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors for 237.4 billion yen ($2.2 billion).

Nissan Motor will purchase a 34 per cent stake in Mitsubishi Motors, as Japan’s second-largest automaker comes to the aid of its minicar partner rocked by a fuel-economy testing scandal. Mitsubishi Motors will sell about 237.4 billion yen ($2.2 billion) in shares to Nissan, according to a statement. The purchase is poised to vault Nissan past Mitsubishi group companies to become the single-largest shareholder of one of Japan’s smallest carmakers. Mitsubishi Motors has admitted to manipulating fuel economy data of four minicar models, two of which are supplied to Nissan, and improperly testing other Japan models since 1991. The scandal has exposed the extent of Nissan’s dependence on its joint venture partner for Japan sales. After suspending deliveries of the affected models for the last two weeks of April, Nissan reported a 51 per cent plunge in its monthly minicar sales. “There is a logic to Mitsubishi Motors needing a partner since they clearly don’t have the engineering resources to be a player in a world where technology is moving so quickly,” said Maryann Keller, an independent auto analyst in Stamford, Connecticut. “They’ve always been an also-ran in major markets like the US. But they actually have a decent business in Southeast Asia, so they have some attractive assets.” The Tokyo Stock Exchange suspended trading of Mitsubishi Motors shares following reports of a potential sale. Mitsubishi Motors will probably issue new shares to sell to Nissan in a private placement, the Nikkei newspaper said. Mitsubishi Motors shares have fallen 43 per cent since April 19, closing Wednesday in Tokyo at 495 yen. Its US shares jumped 16 percent to $5.14 on Wednesday. Nissan’s shares fell 1.4 per cent to 988.3 yen as of 2.55pm in Tokyo trading. Nissan investors may have to wait to see further terms of the deal to discern the risk of potential scandal costs, said Joe Phillippi, principal of AutoTrends Consulting. “There has to be an extraordinary number of provisos in there to handle any and all potential liability” related to the fuel-economy scandal, Phillippi said of Nissan’s offer. “I think they probably baked a lot of that into the bid price.” Mitsubishi Motors said Wednesday that nine more models including a sport utility vehicle may not have been properly tested as its scandal spreads beyond the initial batch of minicars. After first revealing it had overstated the fuel economy of its minicars by as much as 10 per cent, Mitsubishi Motors’ minicar deliveries declined 45 per cent in April and its total sales in Japan fell 15 per cent. Nissan wasn’t involved in setting the fuel-economy targets for the minicars in question, Mitsubishi Motors President Tetsuro Aikawa told reporters during a briefing Wednesday. Mitsubishi Motors had raised the fuel-economy targets five times for the minicar models to 29.2 kilometers/liter from 26.4 km/l in a bid to outperform the competition. .

Organization Merge

May 2016

['(The Independent)']

Armed gunmen take 32 children and two teachers hostage in the centre of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. The gunmen later surrendered and released the hostages.

The 32 children and two teachers were taken hostage by their day care centre owner, Jun Ducat, who said he wanted better conditions for the children. He and at least one other reported hostage-taker gave themselves up. As some of the children were carried off the bus, a ripple of applause broke out among the crowd around the bus. The siege unfolded outside Manila City Hall. As the day progressed hundreds of onlookers joined worried parents at the police cordon. The children had been heading out on a field trip in the morning when the hostage-takers took over the bus and drove it to the city hall. Police were warned, via cardboard messages in the bus window, that an Uzi assault rifle, a revolver and two grenades, as well as food and water for two days, were on board. 'Political reality' During the siege, Mr Ducat justified his actions in interviews with the local media. Using a mobile phone from the bus, he said he had no intention of harming the children. In pictures: Hostage crisis He insisted his aim was to demand better housing and education for the 145 children at his centre in Manila's poor Tondo district. "I am so sorry I took these children in a violent action to call the attention of the Filipino people to open their minds to the political reality," he said. At one point, a local senator, Ramon Revilla, who was reported to have known Mr Ducat, boarded the bus to try to persuade him to surrender. One boy suffering from a fever was allowed to go free. Although the bus was parked in the open on a hot day, the children - all aged around five years old - did not appear to be suffering any discomfort. They waved when the bus curtains were pulled back, and ice cream was seen being delivered to the bus by a policeman. 'Passionate individual' Mr Ducat agreed to release the children at 1900 (1100GMT), and in return the police agreed to his request that candles be lit and the press be allowed to cover the event. Although some parents were described as being nearly hysterical with concern as the siege went on, there were a number who were reluctant to damn Mr Ducat. The children waved to onlookers during the siege "I know him as a very good man. I know he will not harm my six-year-old daughter," one father, Jojo Abuyan, told Reuters news agency. "In our own eyes, he's a real hero. He has been helping a lot of people in our community without expecting anything in return," Tondo resident Susan Ferol said. Manila's Mayor Lito Atienza described Mr Ducat as a "very, very passionate individual who has his own kind of thinking on the solutions to our problems." But former Manila police chief Senator Alfredo Lim said he had a history of seeking attention. Mr Ducat is reported to have taken two priests hostage using fake grenades in 1989, in a row over a building contract. No charges were filed.

Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release

March 2007

['(BBC)', '(AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)']

Authorities in the United States and United Kingdom fine The Royal Bank of Scotland more than $612 million for its role in manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate or Libor.

ROYAL Bank of Scotland will pay fines totalling $US612 million to US and British regulators to settle allegations of Libor interest rate rigging. STATE-RESCUED Royal Bank of Scotland says it will pay fines totalling $US612 million ($A596 million) to US and British regulators to settle allegations of Libor interest rate rigging. RBS, which is 81-per cent owned by the British government, said it has agreed to pay the equivalent of 391 million to regulators, becoming the third bank to admit its part in the Libor affair after Barclays and UBS. The investigations uncovered "wrongdoing" by 21 employees, predominantly in relation to the setting of the bank's yen and Swiss franc Libor submissions between October 2006 to November 2010, the bank said. RBS added it had been fined $US325 million by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, $US150 million by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and $US137 million by Britain's Financial Services Authority. The bank has also entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the DoJ, in relation to one count of wire fraud relating to Swiss franc Libor and one count for an antitrust violation relating to yen Libor. RBS Securities Japan Limited has agreed to enter a plea of guilty to one count of wire fraud relating to Yen Libor, it added in the statement. Japan's Financial Services Agency said the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission has been investigating the local arm since mid-November for involvement in LIBOR manipulation. British finance minister George Osborne condemned the "totally unacceptable" behaviour at the bailed-out bank and insisted the taxpayer would not pick up the bill. "Those responsible will face the full force of the law," Osborne told reporters. The Edinburgh-based lender, which was rescued with taxpayers' cash at the height of the global financial crisis, said that it would recoup about STG300 million ($A458.02 million) from its staff bonus pool and by clawing back previous pay awards. John Hourican, chief executive of the bank's Markets and International Banking division, will leave RBS and forfeit his 2012 bonus and long-term incentive shares. "This is a sad day for RBS, but also an important one in continuing to put right the mistakes of the past," Royal Bank of Scotland chairman Philip Hampton said in the statement. "That is why those responsible have left the organisation or been subject to disciplinary action." RBS said its derivative traders sought to influence the bank's yen and Swiss franc Libor setters over the four-year period. "Two RBS traders based in London colluded with other banks and brokers in making and receiving requests for higher and lower" rates, it said. The total fines slapped on RBS are more than those handed last year to Barclays for attempted Libor rate-rigging, but less than the amount paid by UBS for similar offences. Libor, or London Interbank Offered Rate, is a flagship instrument used all over the world, affecting what banks, businesses and individuals pay to borrow money. Euribor is the eurozone equivalent. Libor is calculated daily, using estimates from banks of their own interbank rates, and affects the pricing of more than $US300-trillion of contracts across the world, according to British regulator, the Financial Services Authority. Originally published asRoyal Bank of Scotland fined $A596m

Organization Fine

February 2013

['(AAP via News Limited)']

Police in Burma break up a three–month–long protest against the expansion of a copper mine run by the military and a Chinese company.

Security forces used a water cannon and other weapons to end the three-month protest, injuring 10 monks, two critically. Riot police fired water cannons and tear gas to break up a three-month protest against a vast copper mining project run by Myanmar’s powerful military and its partner, a subsidiary of a Chinese arms manufacturer. “They shot some sort of canisters that caused a fire at the camp. We just don’t know what sort of weapon it was,” Shin Oattama, a Buddhist monk who had helped the villagers, told Reuters by telephone. “We are now seekeing refuge at a nearby village. There’s no ambulance, no doctor to take care of the injured.” Oattama said that security forces began to use water cannon and other weapons at about 3:00am [2030 GMT], wounding 10 monks, two of them critically. Witnesses said truckloads of police arrived at camps near the mine in the Sagaing region in Myanmar’s northwest, where thousands have demonstrated against a $1bn expansion of the project, which they say has caused the unlawful confiscation of more than 7,800 acres (3,160 hectares) of land. Myo Thant, a member of the 88 Generation Students Group who has been monitoring the situation in Monywa, said: “Police used tear gas canisters. Gun shots were not heard… nobody knows for sure how the fire started.” Right to protest? After decades of oppression, the Monywa mine has become a test of Myanmar’s commitment to reform as protesters probe new-found freedoms, including a relaxation of laws on protests that took effect in July.\ “This is an example of the skin-deep nature of Burma’s reforms,” said Mark Farmaner of the London-based advocacy group Burma Campaign UK. “The new right-to-protest law was hailed as a major reform but it is clear there is still no right to protest in Burma.” Authorities warned the protesters late on Tuesday to clear the site by midnight that day so that a parliamentary commission could carry out an investigation. State television said all project work had been halted since November 18 because of the protests. The mine, Myanmar’s biggest, is run by a unit of China North Industries Corp, a leading Chinese weapons manufacturer, under a deal signed in June 2010 after Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines Ltd pulled out in 2007. It is backed by the military-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (UMEHL). UMEHL operated with impunity under the military regime that ruled Myanmar for almost half a century until 2011. The mine protest also illustrates growing resentment towards Chinese companies that have expanded in recent years across the country. The Global Times, an influential tabloid published by China’s Communist Party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, said in an editorial published on Thursday it would be a “lose-lose situation for China and Myanmar if the project is halted”. “Only third parties, including some Western forces, will be glad to see this result,” it said, blaming “some Westerners” and non-government organisations for instigating the protests. “We must not give up on the project. Even if it is eventually stopped, Chinese companies should receive compensation according to the contract and international practice,” it said. Protest reforms Protests were suppressed quickly under a military junta in place until last year, but have become more common as president Thein Sein opens up the country, also known as Burma, and pushes through reforms. Land disputes are a growing problem in Myanmar. Protests stretching back at least three months have involved thousands of locals and supporters. They told Reuters in September that four of 26 villages at the project site had already been displaced, along with monasteries and schools. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate and a member of parliament, was going ahead with a scheduled visit to the site on Thursday, her National League for Democracy (NLD) party said. She intended to speak to the protesters about their grievances. NLD official Ohn Kyaing told Reuters by telephone she had flown to the central city of Mandalay and was going on to Monywa by road.

Protest_Online Condemnation

November 2012

['(Al Jazeera)']

The Tennessee Titans are fined $350,000 for violating the NFL's COVID-19 protocols.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The NFL has fined the Tennessee Titans $350,000 for violating protocols leading to the league’s first COVID-19 outbreak during the season, a person familiar with the discipline told The Associated Press. The Titans had 24 people, including 13 players, test positive for COVID-19 between Sept. 24 and Oct. 11. The outbreak led the NFL to postpone two Tennessee games and the rescheduling of a game against Pittsburgh from Oct. 4 to Sunday and the second against Buffalo from Oct. 11 to Oct. 13. The NFL and its players association sent officials, including infectious disease experts, to Nashville, where they reviewed video and interviewed players, coaches and other personnel. But the NFL found the Titans failed to wear masks at all times and were “insufficiently clear” to players about not meeting or working out once the facility closed. That kept the loss of draft picks or a forfeit out of the possible punishments. That led to the fine, according to the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because neither the NFL nor the Titans have commented on league discipline connected with the outbreak.

Organization Fine

October 2020

['(Associated Press via WJRT-TV)']

Chinese Olympic Swimmer Sun Yang is banned from swimming for eight years after being found guilty of doping by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Sun Yang was on Friday night found guilty by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in a bombshell verdict and handed the maximum eight year ban. A vial of the 28-year-old’s own blood sample was smashed with a hammer during the testing session, but Sun was acquitted by swimming’s ruling body FINA of anti-doping violations, agreeing that testers had failed to produce adequate identification during their visit. Are you an AFL or NRL fan? Compete for $2 million in prize money in Australia’s best tipping competition. Everyone can play, anyone can win > The ruling outraged the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) which took the matter to CAS, demanding a ban of between two and eight years for missing the out-of-competition test. The Swiss-based CAS upheld the appeal by WADA against FINA and Sun, one of China’s most recognisable athletes who had already served a doping ban in 2014. The eight year ban effectively ends the triple Olympic gold medallist’s professional career in the pool. Horton was the highest profile star to speak out against Sun Yang’s ongoing participation in international swimming meets, but the Aussie star was not in a celebratory mood when first asked about his bitter rival’s stunning suspension. Mack Horton’s silent protest was heard around the world. Speaking as he arrived at an Adelaide pool for training on Saturday morning Horton said his crusade against doping in professional sport “goes on”. “I think regardless of the outcome it was always going to be a statement to the world and my stance has always been about clean sport never about nations or individuals,” Horton told Channel 7. When asked if he is feeling a sense of relief or vindication, Horton replied: “It goes on. “I’m just a guy still chasing the dream... we’ve got a job to do this morning and we’ll just keep going.” His response followed the decision from the CAS to announce Sun Yang’s eight-year “period of ineligibility” has begun immediately. The CAS website repeatedly crashed at the time the decision was to be announced, before the news struck that Sun was to receive the maximum ban. Sun has the right to appeal the ruling at the Swiss federal court. SUN YANG AND CHINESE SWIM ASSOCIATION RESPOND In what isn’t a surprise, Sun Yang has said he will be appealing the ruling handed down by the CAS and will fight to clear his name. “This is unfair. I firmly believe in my innocence,” Sun told Xinhua News Agency. “I will definitely appeal to let more people know the truth.” The governing body for swimming in China, The Chinese Swimming Association (CSA) has issued an apology over the ruling handed down to their own superstar. “We are deeply sorry (the decision),” the CSA said in a statement. “The CSA has always held a zero-tolerance stance on doping and attached much importance to athletes’ anti-doping education.” FINA, which is also under attack in the wake of the ruling for not coming down harder on Sun itself, released a statement noting the judgment. “Notwithstanding any further legal action ... FINA will implement CAS’s decision,” it said. Sun Yang guilty. FULL CAS STATEMENT ON BAN The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has upheld the appeal filed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against the Chinese swimmer Sun Yang and the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA). As a consequence, Sun Yang (the Athlete) is sanctioned with an eight-year period of ineligibility, starting on the date of the CAS award. Following a conflictual anti-doping test at the residence of Sun Yang in September 2018 which resulted in the testing not being completed, the matter was initially referred to the FINA Doping Panel (FINA DP) which found that the International Standard for Testing and Investigations (ISTI), the protocol adopted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for the conduct of doping controls, had not been properly followed. Therefore, the FINA DP invalidated the sample collection. As a consequence, the FINA DP determined that the athlete had not committed an anti-doping rule violation. WADA filed an appeal at CAS against that decision, asserting that Sun Yang had voluntarily refused to submit to sample collection and requesting that a period of ineligibility between a minimum 2 years and maximum 8 years be imposed on him. The arbitration on appeal was referred to a panel of CAS arbitrators, composed of Judge Franco Frattini (Italy), President, Mr Romano F. Subiotto QC (Belgium/UK) and Prof. Philippe Sands QC (UK), which held a hearing on 15 November 2019. Further to the parties’ request, the hearing was conducted in public. The CAS Panel unanimously determined, to its comfortable satisfaction, that the Athlete violated Article 2.5 FINA DC (Tampering with any part of Doping Control). In particular, the Panel found that the personnel in charge of the doping control complied with all applicable requirements as set out in the ISTI. More specifically, the Athlete failed to establish that he had a compelling justification to destroy his sample collection containers and forego the doping control when, in his opinion, the collection protocol was not in compliance with the ISTI. As the Panel noted, it is one thing, having provided a blood sample, to question the accreditation of the testing personnel while keeping the intact samples in the possession of the testing authorities; it is quite another thing, after lengthy exchanges and warnings as to the consequences, to act in such a way that results in destroying the sample containers, thereby eliminating any chance of testing the sample at a later stage. Considering that, in June 2014, the Athlete was found guilty of a first anti-doping rule violation (ADRV), the Panel concluded that, in accordance with Article 10.7.1 FINA DC, an eight-year period of ineligibility, starting on the date of the CAS award, has to be imposed on the Athlete for this second ADRV. Considering 1) that FINA refrained from seeking the imposition of a provisional suspension on the Athlete when charging him with an anti-doping rule violation, 2) that doping tests performed on the Athlete shortly before and after the aborted doping control in September 2018 were negative, and 3) that in the absence of any evidence that the Athlete may have engaged in doping activity since 4 September 2018, including on the occasion of the FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea in July 2019, the results achieved by the Athlete in the period prior to the CAS award being issued should not be disqualified. The Arbitral Award will be published on the CAS website in a few days, unless the parties agree that it should remain confidential. Sun Yang hit with maximum ban. SUN YANG’S PAST Sun, a three-time Olympic freestyle champion, has become one of the most infamous athletes in the world in the eyes of Australians after twice drawing the ire of doping officials and clashing with local favourite Mack Horton. Sun, who won the 400m and 1500m freestyle in London and the 200m in Rio, first served a doping suspension in 2014 after testing positive to a drug he said he was using to treat heart palpitations and was unaware had recently been added to the banned list. Australian swimmer Mack Horton spoke out against Sun at the Rio Olympics and his protest appeared to be validated when his rival was accused of refusing to provide blood and urine samples when drug testers visited his home in China in September in 2018. Sun Yang at the 2019 world championships. (Photo by Manan VATSYAYANA / AFP) After being cleared by FINA, Sun was able to compete in the World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, in July, where he won two golds but became a focus of protests from rivals, including Horton who infamously refused to step on the podium after finishing second to Sun in the 400m freestyle.

Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence

February 2020

['(News AU)']

Turkish F-16 fighter jets shoot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 aircraft that had allegedly infringed its airspace near the Syrian border. Russia's Ministry of Defence denies the Su-24 entered Turkish airspace and initially said it was shot down by ground fire over Syria's Latakia Governorate. A video emerged of one pilot killed as local rebel Turkmen fighters shot at him while he was parachuting and a video of his body, while the fate of the other pilot is unknown but is presumed dead. A combat search and rescue mission by Russian forces failed to reach them. It is the first time a NATO member has shot down a Russian plane since the 1950s.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Su-24 was hit by air-to-air missiles fired by Turkish F-16s while it was flying over Syrian territory. But Turkish military officials said the plane was engaged after being warned that it was violating Turkish airspace. Mr Putin described the incident as a "stab in the back" committed by "accomplices of terrorists". The crew ejected before the jet crashed in Latakia province, but Syrian rebels said at least one was dead. It is the first time a Russian aircraft has crashed in Syria since Moscow launched air strikes against opponents of President Bashar al-Assad in late September. The Nato military alliance, to which Turkey belongs, said it was following the situation "closely" and was in contact with the Turkish authorities. There will be an "informational meeting" of ambassadors in Brussels at 16:00 GMT. At a meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan in Sochi, Russia's president confirmed that the Su-24 had been shot down over Syrian territory, 1km (0.6 miles) from the Turkish border, by an air-to-air missile from a Turkish F-16 jet. It crashed in Syrian territory 4km (2.5 miles) from the border, he added. "This goes beyond the normal struggle against terrorism. This was a stab in the back by the accomplices of terrorists," Mr Putin stated, an apparent reference to Turkey's support for Syrian rebel groups. "Our pilots and our plane did not in any way threaten Turkey. It is quite clear," he added. "They were carrying out an operation against [Islamic State militants] in the mountains of northern Latakia, where militants who originate from Russian territory are concentrated. So they were carrying the key task of preventative attacks against those who could return to Russia at any time." This is exactly the kind of incident that many have feared since Russia launched its air operations in Syria. The dangers of operating near to the Turkish border have been all too apparent. Turkish planes have already shot down at least one Syrian air force jet and possibly a helicopter as well. Russia insists that its warplane did not violate Turkish air space. So, was the Russian pilot's navigation wrong? Questions will also be asked about the readiness of the Turks to open fire. It suggests that the much discussed arrangements to avoid incidents between warplanes over Syria are inadequate. The Turkish authorities will no doubt claim that such arrangements do not cover the approaches to their own airspace where tried and tested procedures should apply. There are conflicting reports as to whether it was ground fire or Turkish jets that brought down the Russian plane. Air operations in the crowded skies over Syria just got a good deal more complicated. The only mitigating factor is that initial reports suggest that two parachutes were seen so the Russian crew at least got out of their stricken aircraft. Expect diplomatic fireworks. However, the Turkish military said two F-16s on patrol had fired on an unidentified aircraft at 09:24 (07:24 GMT) after warning it 10 times over five minutes about violating Turkish airspace over the town of Yayladagi, in Hatay province. It noted that the F-16s had intervened "in accordance with the rules of engagement", which were changed after Syria shot down a Turkish plane in 2012. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the jet had crashed in the mountainous Jabal Turkmen area of Latakia, where air strikes and fighting between rebels and Syrian government forces had been reported earlier on Tuesday. The Syrian Observatory also reported that a Russian military helicopter had been forced to make an emergency landing after being hit by rebel fire near the crash site. A spokesman for a rebel group operating in the area, the 10th Brigade of the Coast, told the Associated Press that the jet's crew had tried to parachute into government-held territory, but that they came under fire from members of the group. One of them was dead when he landed on the ground, he added. The fate of the second was not immediately known. A video was posted online showing gunmen standing around a man in a flight suit who was immobile on the ground, either badly wounded or dead. Russian aircraft have flown hundreds of sorties over northern Syria since September. Moscow says they have targeted only "terrorists", but activists say its strikes have mainly hit Western-backed rebel groups. Turkey, a vehement opponent of Syria's president, has warned against violations of its airspace by Russian and Syrian aircraft. Last month, Ankara said Turkish F-16s had intercepted a Russian jet that crossed its border and two Turkish jets had been harassed by an unidentified Mig-29. The Turkish foreign ministry also summoned the Russian ambassador last week to warn him that there would be "serious consequences" if the Russian air force did not immediately stop bombing "civilian Turkmen villages" in the Bayir Bucak area, near Tuesday's crash site. In a separate development on Tuesday, three Russian journalists were lightly wounded on Monday while driving in a convoy towards the Syrian government army frontline near Dagmashliya, in north-western Syria. Their vehicles came under fire, apparently from TOW anti-tank missiles. Russian media named them as Tass correspondent Alexander Yelistratov, Russia Today Arabic Service TV correspondent Sargon Khadaya and RT English correspondent Roman Kosarev.

Armed Conflict

November 2015

['(Irish Independent)', '(BBC)', '(The Telegraph)']

An arrest warrant is issued for Premier League footballer Steven Pienaar after he failed to appear in court to answer speeding charges.

Everton footballer Steven Pienaar has been bailed after answering an arrest warrant issued when he failed to turn up in court on speeding charges. The allegations, in Essex, against Pienaar, 30, were proven in his absence after he failed to attend Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on Monday. He was caught speeding twice, 11 days apart, on Lambourne Road, Chigwell. A judge ordered Pienaar be given unconditional bail for sentencing in Chelmsford next month. The player's lawyer said his client had "responded immediately" to news of the warrant and made a "pre-arranged visit" to a police station in Cheshire. Gwynn Lewis said Pienaar was "totally unaware" of the court date, after he moved to Merseyside in February. He said the correspondence from the court had been sent to his old address in Essex. Pienaar, whose address was given in court as Theydon Road, Epping, was charged with failing to disclose who was driving his Aston Martin DBS, which was captured exceeding the limit, on two separate days in October last year. The South Africa international joined his former club Everton, on loan from Tottenham, in January.

Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse

April 2012

['(BBC)']

Spanish maritime rescue services look for 22 would–be immigrants missing after their boat capsized south of Spain.

MOTRIL, SPAIN (BNO NEWS) -- Spanish maritime rescue services are looking for 22 would-be immigrants after their boat capsized off the southern coast of the country, the Spanish news agency EFE reported Friday. There were 51 people originally from North Africa aboard the small boat when it nearly sank. The rescue operation began after receiving several calls from Morocco, warning of the departure of the vessel to the Spanish coast. The missing include 19 men, one woman and two babies, while 29 have been rescued. The migrants rescued were transferred to the port of Motril in the southern province of Granada, where they were treated by the Spanish Red Cross. Air and sea patrols continued looking for the immigrants, even in areas where sea currents and winds could have dragged the bodies. However, it was deemed unlikely that any of the missing immigrants had survived in the cold water. The seawater in the area is about sixteen or seventeen degrees, a temperature at which a person can survive an average of ten hours. Although the number of migrants arriving in Spain has dropped considerably due to the country's economic crisis, many are still trying to enter Spain, the gateway to Europe. This incident is one of the most serious events during the past three years and brings to 24 the number of people killed so far in 2011.

Shipwreck

May 2011

['(BNO)']

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims that barrel bomb airstrikes by the Syrian government on the city of Aleppo kill at least 76 people.

Seventy-six people, including 28 children, were killed on Sunday when Syrian army helicopters dropped "barrel bombs" on the northern city of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday. Barrel bombs are explosive-filled cylinders or oil barrels, often rolled out of the back of helicopters with little attempt at striking a particular target but capable of causing widespread casualties and significant damage. The Britain-based Observatory said that rebel groups in Aleppo issued a statement asking civilians in government-held parts of the city to move away from state security buildings, which they said would be targeted in retaliation for the bombings. Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces, battling rebels in a two-and-a-half year conflict that has killed more than 100,000 people, frequently deploy air power and artillery against rebel-held districts across the country. They have been unable to recapture eastern and central parts of Aleppo, which rebels stormed in the summer of 2012, but they have driven rebel fighters back from towns to the southeast of the city in recent weeks. The conflict has grown sectarian, with majority Sunni rebels battling Assad's own Alawite sect and Shi'ite militia. The Observatory - which has a network of opposition, pro-government and medical sources - also said on Monday that rebels in northern Aleppo province were threatening to strike two Shi'ite villages they have surrounded with missiles if barrel bombs were used again by the army.

Armed Conflict

December 2013

['(Haaretz)']

Two Greenpeace activists are given suspended sentences in Japan for stealing whale meat.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Two Greenpeace activists were given suspended jail sentences in Japan Monday for stealing whale meat they said was going to be consumed illegally. Japan, one of only three whale-hunting nations, has come under fire from environmentalists and foreign countries for its scientific whaling program, introduced in response to a commercial whaling ban under a 1986 moratorium. A court in Japan’s Aomori city handed down a one-year jail term, suspended for three years, to Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki. Prosecutors, who could not immediately be reached for comment, had demanded 18 months in prison. “This is an unfair decision on an act that revealed wrongdoing in a national business funded by tax,” Greenpeace Japan said on its website. Sato and Suzuki took a box of whale meat from a shipping depot in northern Japan in 2008, which they said a crew member on a Japanese whaling research ship was sending home illegally. The environmental group used the meat to complain to prosecutors that the members of the whaling crew had shipped whale meat for personal consumption, rather than selling it through official channels to pay back tax subsidies for the whaling program. Prosecutors investigated and dropped the case brought by Greenpeace, saying they could not find any evidence of wrongdoing. Sato and Suzuki are planning to appeal against Monday’s conviction, Greenpeace said. Talks on replacing the moratorium with a controlled cull broke down at an international meeting on whaling in June, while Australia filed a complaint against Japan this year at the Hague world court to stop scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean.

Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence

September 2010

['(The Japan Times)', '(Reuters)', '(AP)']

A ceasefire deal, brokered by Egypt, is accepted by Israel but rejected by Hamas.

Netanyahu: Hamas leaves no choice but to expand op; Israeli civilian killed; security cabinet meets to discuss escalation. ; Lieberman: IDF must end operation with control of entire Gaza Strip; Netanyahu fires right-wing Deputy Defense Min. Israel's security cabinet convened at 9 P.M. on Tuesday, 12 hours after accepting an Egyptian cease-fire proposal. Several Hamas officials rejected the proposal, but sources said that Hamas was holding talks with Egypt on the matter and an official statement by the Hamas political leadership is expected later Tuesday. Hamas fire intensified over the course of the day, with rockets launched toward south, central and north Israel. A civilian was killed after being hit with shrapnel near the Erez Crossing, on the Gaza border. Since the operation began, Israel has launched more than 1,300 air strikes in Gaza which killed 202 Palestinians and wounded more than 1,100 people. Gaza hospitals are reporting a dire shortage of medicine and equipment, particularly for trauma injuries. More than 900 rockets and mortars have landed within Israel. Only a fraction landed in urban regions. The Iron Dome, which is only meant to intercept rockets that are headed for such areas, has an 87 percent success rate and has shot down 180 rockets over the course of the operation. For Wednesday's live updates, click here. Latest updates: 11:57 P.M. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is to travel to Cairo on Wednesday to meet with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi. Abbas' office said that the meeting is to focus on the implementation of the Egyptian cease-fire proposal. The Palestinian leader is to travel to Turkey on July 18 to meet with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoan, also to discuss a truce between Israel and Gaza. (Jack Khoury) 11:49 P.M. Palestinian political officials slam Egypt's efforts to negotiate a cease-fire with Israel, claiming that the mediators' proposal ignored Hamas entirely. "The Egyptians coordinated the initiative with Abbas and ignored Gaza," a senior PLO tells Haaretz. "Hamas leaders felt humiliated by the fact that the proposal was released without them being consulted about its contents ahead of time." Spokespeople for Hamas and the Islamic Jihad blasted the Egyptian initiative as capitulation. Nevertheless, the groups signaled that they are studying the proposal. Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk tweeted that an official decision has yet to be made. (Jack Khoury) 11:30 P.M. The IDF is using recorded telephone messages to warn more than 100,000 residents of two Gaza City neighborhoods, Zeitoun in the south and Shuja'iyya in the east, to evacuate their homes. (Amos Harel and Gili Cohen) 11:20 P.M. The Iron Dome intercepts three rockets over Kiryat Gat. (Gili Cohen) 11:15 P.M. The Israeli who was killed in a mortar shell explosion near the Erez Crossing was traveling south to give out candy to soldiers stationed near the Gaza border. The man, 37, was pronounced dead by paramedics on the scene. He is survived by his wife and three children. His name is being held because his brother, who is abroad, has yet to be informed of his death. (Chaim Levinson) 10:55 P.M. Rocket alerts sound in Ashkelon, Ashdod regions. (Haaretz) 10:27 P.M. Rocket alerts sound in Gaza-bordering regions. (Haaretz) 10:16 P.M. Stone-throwers target light train in Jerusalem; none injured, train lightly damaged (Nir Hasson) 9:45 P.M. Improvement in condition of 11-year-old girl wounded by shrapnel in Lakiya (Shirley Seidler) 9:43 P.M. Security cabinet meets to discuss Israel's response to the collapse of Egypt's cease-fire initiative. (Barak Ravid) 9:17 P.M. Rocket alerts sound in Jerusalem Hills, Judean Hills, Jordan Valley, Jericho region, and Ashkelon region (Haaretz) 8:57 P.M. Rocket alerts sound in Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Gaza bordering regions (Haaretz) 8:40 P.M. Netanyahu fires Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon (Haaretz) 8 P.M. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday evening that despite Israel's decision to accept the Egyptian cease-fire proposal, Hamas rejected it and continued fire. Hamas will pay the price for its actions.Anyone who tries to harm Israel, will be harmed, he said, adding that Israel would have preferred to solve this diplomatically, but Hamas has left no choice. "This morning I convened the cabinet ministers and we decided that Israel would accept the cease-fire. I said that if Islamic Jihad and Hamas continue to fire on Israeli cities, I would instruct the IDF to act forcefully against them, and that is how we operated this afternoon. The air force bombed several targets across the Gaza Strip, and these strikes will continue. Hamas will pay the price for its decision to continue this campaign." "Israel will harm anyone who tries to strike the citizen of Israel," he said. "When there is no cease-fire, out response is fire. The political front, the home front and the operational front are working together simultaneously It would have been preferable to solve this diplomatically, and that is what we tried to do, but Hamas has left us no chance but to expand the operation against it. This is how we will operate until we reach our goal, the restoration of quiet through a significant blow to terror." 7:55 P.M. Two rockets land in open areas near Dimona, and another hits in Kiryat Malakhi (Gili Cohen) 7:48 P.M. Rocket explodes inside community near Gaza border, causing damage and fire (Shirly Seidler) 7:40 P.M. Israeli civilian succumbs to critical wounds from shrapnel. Barzilai Medical Center pronounces the 37-year-old man's death on arrival. (Haaretz) 7:32 P.M. Rocket alerts sound in Gaza-border regions. (Haaretz) 7:11 P.M. Civilian critically wounded by mortar shell shrapnel at Erez Crossing. (Haaretz) 7:03 P.M. Rocket lands on roof of residential building in Ashkelon, fails to break through. Rocket alerts sound in Dimona, Yeruham, and Mitzpeh Ramon (Yaniv Kubovich and Gili Cohen) 7:01 P.M. Two rockets intercepted over Tel Aviv metropolitan area. (Gili Cohen) 6:59 P.M. Sirens sound in northern Negev, Be'er Sheva and Ashkelon (Haaretz) 6:54 P.M. Rocket alerts sound in Tel Aviv metropolitan area, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and the coastal plain regions (Haaretz) 6:33 P.M. Islamic Jihad informs Egyptians it refuses their cease-fire proposal. (Amira Hass) 6:27 P.M. Two rockets explode in Be'er Sheva area, another is intercepted over Netivot. (Shirly Seidler and Gili Cohen) 6:21 P.M. Israel's security cabinet to meet at 9 P.M. tonight in Tel Aviv. (Barak Ravid) 6:20 P.M. Rocket alerts sound in Be'er Sheva, Northern Negev (Haaretz) 6:09 P.M. Rocket alerts sound across Gaza-bordering regions (Haaretz) 5:55 P.M. Rocket alerts sound in Netivot and in Eshkol and Sdot Negev regional councils (Haaretz) 5:50 P.M. Iron Dome intercepts five rockets over Ashkelon; IDF strikes rocket launching site in northern Gaza, identifies hit (Gili Cohen) 5:40 P.M. According to the IDF, since the resumption of strikes on the Gaza Strip, the Israel Air Force has attacked some 30 targets across the Strip. Among the targets were twenty underground launchers, tunnels, an ammunition depot, and the house of an Islamic Jihad official. The IDF says the strikes were carried out in response to the barrages of rockets fired at Israeli territory. (Gili Cohen) 5:07 P.M. Meretz head Zahava Galon calls on Netanyahu to fire Foreign Minister Lieberman due to the statements he made earlier in the afternoon (see below) regarding a take-over of the Gaza Strip. Galon said Lieberman's statement, which "counters the security cabinet's decision is a violation of the legislative principle of shared governmental responsibility." "Lieberman, the serial pyromaniac, is trying to reignite the fire of war and crush any chance of exhausting the possibility of a cease-fire," said Galon, who added that even worse than that, is the fact that the foreign minister, of all people, is sabotaging the diplomatic efforts aimed at reaching a calm, and making Israel look like a warmonger. (Jonathan Lis) 5:00 P.M. 14 rockets fired at Eshkol Regional Council in last 40 minutes (Haaretz) 4:20 P.M. Rocket alerts sounds across Ashkelon region. (Haaretz) 4:15 P.M. Operation Protective Edge must end with the IDF "controlling all of the Gaza Strip," says Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, urging a stop to the "never-ending hesitation and asking of questions." "Israel must go all the way," he added, speaking at a press conference. "A cease-fire is a tacit agreement that Hamas continue to build up its power." "All the diplomatic formulations are, in this case, hurtful A full takeover of the Gaza Strip is Israel's only course forward," said Lieberman, calling any cease-fire "nothing but a preparation for the next round" of fighting. "It is clear that Hamas will use any cease-fire to make more rockets and smuggle in more explosives." The global pressures pushing for an Israeli return to its '67 borders are misguided, says Lieberman, and display the world's callous lack of concern for Israelis' security. The Foreign Minister cites Hamas' Gaza Strip rocket-fire as evidence that Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip in 2005 was a mistake. "We have to tell the world - you pressured us into [the disengagement], this is what your believes led to, and just because of that, you need to give us the backing now to go all the way." (Haaretz) 3:55 P.M. Siren sounds in Ashkelon area. 3:49 P.M. Rocket alerts sound in areas bordering southern Gaza Strip. (Haaretz) 3:25 P.M. The GOC Southern Command believes that despite the fact that previous operations also saw continued rocket fire after the cease-fire agreement kicked in, this time the fire is not tapering off and indicates that Hamas wishes to present an additional military achievement. Maj. Gen. Sami Turgeman says that "in light of the continuing Hamas fire, we are now acting against it with force. Hamas initiated this campaign, and brought upon itself considerable damage. We chose not to put our full capabilities into action, and we have additional plans, and if we will need to, we will act expediently to conclude this operation." (Gili Cohen) 3:21 P.M. Reports in Gaza indicate most of the Israeli strikes were launched in open areas in the Khan Yunis and the Bureij refugee camps. The IDF says that between 9 A.M. and 3 P.M. local time, more than 50 rockets and mortar shells were fired toward Israel. (Jack Khoury and Gili Cohen) 3:19 P.M. Israel Air Force is attacking "terror sites" throughout the Gaza Strip. (Gili Cohen) 3:14 P.M. Three mortar shells explode in open fields in the Eshkol Regional Council. (Shirly Seidler) 3:00 P.M. Rocket sirens sound in Sdot Negev and Sha'ar HaNegev regional councils (Haaretz) 2:58 P.M. A senior Israeli official said Netanyahu ordered the IDF to strike targets in Gaza. "After Hamas and Islamic Jihad refused Egypt's proposal for a cease-fire and fired dozens of rockets at Israel, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon ordered the army to carry out forceful strikes against terror targets in Gaza," he said. (Barak Ravid) 2:48 P.M. Khaled al-Batash, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad in Gaza: We received the Egyptian proposal yesterday in the evening and are studying it. Our response will come together with the Hamas. (Jack Khoury) 2:20 P.M.Kerry called on Hamas to stop the rocket fire at Israel and to accept the cease-fire. "I condemn Hamas for shooting rockets at the time Israel and Egypt are working in good faith to get a cease-fire," he said during a press conference in Vienna. Kerry said that he is prepared to fly back to the region if the cease-fire doesn't work, but stressed that Egypt needs time and space to make it work. "I call on all parties to observe the cease-fire," he said. (Barak Ravid) 1:51 P.M. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni: "Israel is giving Hamas an opportunity to also accept the Egyptian proposal, to stop firing and to stop a painful Israeli response that it will suffer if it continues to fire rockets. If Hamas doesn't take up the proposal, Israel will continue to use force against it and a lot of it." (Barak Ravid) 1:49 P.M.Former U.K. prime minister and Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair told ITV News that there will be "no trust on either side between Hamas and Israel. That is not going to happen in the immediate term and possibly ever," the station website reported. He also said the question is whether the international community "can create a circumstance to allow lasting peace," especially with Egyptian involvement. 1:44 P.M. Hamas' military wing takes responsibility for rockets fired at Ashkelon, Rehovot and Eshkol Regional Council earlier today. (Jack Khoury) 1:40 P.M. In response to a request by Ashdod mayor, the IDF began deploying portable bomb shelters around the city. (Shirly Seidler) 1:31 P.M.Sirens sound in Rishon Letzion and Rehovot in central Israel. 1:09 P.M. Kerry: The Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire and negotiations provides an opportunity to end the violence and restore calm. We welcome the Israeli cabinet's decision to accept it. We urge all other parties to accept the proposal. (Barak Ravid) 1:08 P.M. Israeli soldier sustains a light injury from shrapnel off a rocket explosion in Sderot. Iron Dome intercepts two rockets fired toward Rehovot and Ashkelon. Two additional rockets exploded in the Ashkelon area. As a result of these explosions a fire broke out. Two firefighting teams are working to put it out.

Armed Conflict

July 2014

['(The Guardian)', '(Haaretz)']

Cameroon closes most of its northern markets on the Nigerian border.

Cameroon has closed most of its northern markets on the border with Nigeria after a series of bomb attacks Monday left at least 35 people dead and 70 wounded in the town of Bodo. The country's government spokesperson, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, said it was the 30th attack by suspected Boko Haram fighters on Cameroon since the start of the new year. Businessman Inoussa Yegie says shock and consternation has gripped the town of Bodo, where Monday's attack took place. He says it will take time for them to recover, in spite of the heavy deployment of troops. The 33-year-old says the decision by the government to close all border markets in their locality may backfire, especially now that Boko Haram fighters are recruiting young people to steal and seize money and goods from farmers and traders. Yegie says traders are becoming poorer because all their shops have been sealed. He says youths who use commercial motorcycles to transport goods and people from the market to supply towns in Nigeria no longer have jobs, and they may now be tempted to join Boko Haram fighters who promise them better lives. Bombers disguised as traders Midjiyawa Bakari, the governor of the far north region of Cameroon, says the decision to close markets on Cameroon's northern border with Nigeria until further notice was taken for security reasons because the four female suicide bombers who attacked Bodo were disguised as traders and hid explosives in bags of vegetables they pretended to sell. "The decision has been taken to close some markets in the border but people have been persisting to sell and to buy things. They should know that Boko Haram is looking for where people are gathering to do these attacks," he said. After Monday's attack, Cameroon soldiers launched raids on the Nigerian town of Achigashia, from where they believe the suicide bombers came. Cameroon's spokesperson Issa Tchiroma Bakary says 17 insurgents were killed in the operation. He says Cameroon has counted at least 30 attacks on its territory this year. "Faced with such harassment both un-grounded and unjustified, our defense and security forces have always retaliated leading the enemy to incur several setbacks that has considerably weakened the group and reduced it to mere acts of cowardice, especially suicide bombings, which have become its modus operandi," he said. Solidarity in fight against Boko Haram In Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, groups of people have been visiting and sympathizing with Bodo's elite. Ngufor Jacob, leader of Cameroon's university students association, says that by visiting with people from Bodo, his group shows solidarity with Cameroon and Nigerian forces fighting Boko Haram terrorism. "I came out to show solidarity with my brothers and sisters in the north who are suffering from the onslaughts of Boko Haram insurgents. I came out to show to the military that we are one, we are together. We may not have guns to join them in the north but they should know that we have them at heart. We are praying for them, we are supporting them," he said. Cameroon believes the militants have resorted to attacking mosques, markets, churches and palaces of traditional rulers because the terrorist group's firepower has been drastically reduced following attacks on their strongholds within the past two months by Cameroon and Nigerian troops. Boko Haram's six-year insurgency has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced close to 2.3 million, according to Amnesty International and the United Nations.

Organization Closed

January 2016

['(The News)', '(Voice of America)']

The United States Senate, in a 52 to 47 vote, confirms physician and U.S. Representative Tom Price to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The Senate has confirmed Rep. Tom Price to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The 52-47 vote came just a day after the Senate confirmed Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, as President Trump’s attorney general. Price, 62, is a Georgia Republican who spent his career as an orthopedic surgeon before entering Congress in 2005. In the last Congress, Price succeeded Paul Ryan -- after he became speaker -- as the chairman of the House Budget Committee, where he laid out budget proposals that called for an Obamacare repeal. During one of his two confirmation hearings last month, Price told lawmakers President Obama’s healthcare law would be replaced piece-by-piece. “No one is interested in pulling the rug out from anybody,” he said about potential losses of health insurance once a repeal is implemented. “We believe that it’s absolutely imperative that individuals that have health coverage be able to keep health coverage and move, hopefully, to greater choices and opportunities for them to gain the kind of coverage that they want for themselves and for their families.” As he went through the confirmation process, Price faced accusations of insider trading after it was revealed that he bought shares in a medical device company last year and then introduced legislation in the House to help the company less than a week later. It was also previously reported that Price traded more than $300,000 in healthcare stocks over the last four years while advocating or sponsoring bills that could have affected the stocks of those companies. Price, however, denied that he engaged in any insider trading or had any conflicts of interest, saying his investment portfolio was managed by a broker and he had no knowledge about the stocks that were bought in his name. “The fact of the matter is that I have had no conversations with my broker about any political activity at all other than her congratulating me on my election,” Price said at one of his confirmation hearings. Late last month, Democrats began a temporary boycott of Price and Mr. Trump’s nominee for treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin. CBS News’ Reena Flores contributed to this report.

Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration

February 2017

['(CBS News)']

Israel's pledge to ease its blockade on Gaza has little effect on factories.

The chilled Tropika that Salama al-Kishawi proudly serves guests in his office tastes, unusually for a processed juice, of real oranges – especially refreshing on a 35C midsummer day in Gaza. But the flagship product of the Gaza Juice Factory has a significance that goes way beyond its taste. The factory employs 65 workers and is one of very few industries to function despite the siege of Gaza imposed by Israel after Hamas seized full control of the territory three years ago this month. How long it continues to function may well depend on just how the deal easing the Israeli blockade announced last Sunday works in practice. The future of Tropika has become a litmus test for Gaza's real economy. In diplomatic terms, the deal negotiated between Israel and international envoy Tony Blair was a breakthrough. Israel is still refusing – apart from internationally supervised exceptions – to allow in anything, including cement badly needed for rebuilding bombed out homes, which it deems Hamas could use for military purposes. But the announcement signified a real change of policy: in theory at least, all other goods will, for the first time in three years, be allowed to enter. But nearly a week after the announcement, the people of Gaza, while content about the prospect of an increase in consumer goods from Israel, are demanding that the much more fundamental promise in the agreement, to allow the expansion of "economic activity", will also be honoured. "If consumer items are allowed to come through the crossings, but at the same time we don't allow materials and the means of production to enter, that will have a negative effect," said Amr Hamad, Gaza director of the Palestinian Federation of Industries. The Gaza Juice Factory, which is in the eastern suburb of Shajaia, in full view of the Israeli border, is a perfect illustration of the problem. Its neatly tended gardens and the bustle of forklift trucks loading the newly bundled bottles on to vans for shipment to local supermarkets testify that this is –unusually for Gaza – a going concern. Their are tracks left by the Israeli tanks that smashed through the green metal perimeter fence during the military offensive of 2008-9, and the remains of what company boss Ayed abu Ramadan thinks must have been an Apache missile have been hung on the front wall as a memento to everything the factory has been through. Its history is inextricably woven with that of the territory's turbulent and blood-splashed politics over the last 15 years. An imposing plaque reminds visitors that it was opened by Yasser Arafat just two days after his triumphant return to Gaza from exile in Tunis in July 1994. The factory became a success, exporting to Egypt, the US, Europe, and Israel itself for more than a decade. In 2006, however, the exports ground to a halt. Hamas had won the elections, the land crossings were mostly closed. By then Gaza's famous citrus groves had been almost destroyed by the Israeli military during its frequent incursions since the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000. "Here in Gaza we have always had the best oranges in the world," said Mr Kishawi. "Now most of it has gone." Yet the 87p bottles of Tropika on the shelves of Gaza stores today are a testament to the company's remarkable adaptability. Its managers diversified into Tropika, but also strawberry and tomato juice, along with ketchup, jam, and a popular range of candied fruits. From being a 100 per cent exporter, the company now caters 100 per cent for the home market. And although it would have greatly preferred to buy its raw materials much more cheaply from Israel, it was obliged by the closure to bring in bottles, packaging, flavouring and colouring additives through the tunnels from Egypt, paying what Mr Ramadan delicately calls the high "subway tolls" demanded by the tunnelers to pay their own costs – including levies to the Hamas de facto government. Scarcity of fruit was the first problem. "Last year I needed 9,000 tonnes of citrus to meet demand," said Mr Kishawi, "but I was only able to find 1,000 tonnes." Oranges from Israel were half of what they cost in Gaza but only eating – as opposed to juicing – oranges were allowed in by the Israeli authorities. To underline the Alice in Wonderland economics of Gaza it was also possible to import from Egypt, through the tunnels, identical concentrate to that which it used to export to Egypt. "In June 2007 I was selling concentrate at $1,350 (£900) a ton but now it costs me $4,000 a ton to bring in," explained Mr Kishawi. "Where is the competition in that?" As if this wasn't enough, eighteen months later the factory suffered devastating damage from Israeli ground and air assaults during the 2008-9 offensive, which hit hundreds of industrial sites. The damage prompted Amr Hamad of the Federation of Industries to remark: "What [Israel] were not able to reach by the blockade, they have reached with their bulldozers." The main tube in the juice factory's key evaporator, wrecked by a missile, was quickly repaired, but the huge, 2,000-tonne capacity freezer, along with its contents, was destroyed. Then, toward the end of last year, the firm hit another obstacle. It thought it had done a deal with Israeli suppliers to supply 500 tonnes of badly-needed grapefruit. "But then, when they realised that it was going to a juice factory and not the supermarkets, they stopped the grapefruits coming in," said Mr Kishawi. Two weeks ago, in the wake of the international outcry that followed the crisis over the pro-Palestinian flotillas, came the first stage of the easing of the embargo and, perversely, with it a fresh threat to Tropika. The company was happy to hear the blockade was being eased – anticipating that it would now be able to import from Israel much cheaper raw materials. Instead, it found that it was facing new competition. For the first time in three years, Israel has permitted the entry of processed fruit juice – at the competitive price of five shekels (86p) a bottle. In a final irony (though its bosses are not sure how long this will last), the company, which is effectively owned by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and has a board of directors appointed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, is now depending on a lifeline from the Hamas de facto government. It has issued a protectionist warning to traders not to order processed juice from Israel. The company has already preemptively reduced Tropika's own price, from six to five shekels a bottle, and would have no problem competing with the Israeli product if it was also to import the much cheaper raw materials available in Israel. "If we have a truly open market we can compete with anybody, including Israel," says Mr Kishawi. Underlining the present imbalance, however, the company's chief buyer, Haitham Kannan, says: "Israel can produce a bottle of juice for around 25 cents – which is what the plastic bottle alone costs us." As his boss, Mr Ramadan, puts it: "This is like tying someone's hands up and telling him to get into the boxing ring. After everything we have been through – closure, war, shortages, it would be crazy if we lost the business now." Yet the Gaza Juice Factory is still – for now – operating. More typical is the fate of the Aziz Jeans factory on the edge of the Jabalya, eerily silent now, four years after it was alive with the din of 100 employees stitching teenage fashion jeans for the Aziz family's appreciative Israeli business partner. Able neither to import the fabric or, even more importantly, export the finished jeans, the firm, like many hundreds of others, came to an abrupt halt almost immediately the blockade began. Its highly skilled workforce dispersed – "a lot", according to Aziz Aziz, on to the Hamas payroll. The last time The Independent was here, Mr Aziz had generated a modest income by assembling electric plugs – but the competition of ready-made plugs smuggled though the tunnels made this a hopeless task. Mr Aziz says that if the big Karni cargo crossing terminal – through which he and his brothers used to import denim and export the finished garments – was re-opened, he would bring his sewing machines back out of storage and be ready to start the factory rolling in a week. Mr Aziz is no friend of Hamas, and would like a change of government in Gaza. But he adds that by maintaining the blockade – including on exports – over the past three years, "Israel has to know that it is not besieging Hamas; it is besieging the people of Gaza". That view is now the consensus in the international Quartet. Israel is still resisting, on security grounds, the reopening of Karni, relying instead on an expansion of the much more limited Kerem Shalom crossing's capacity. Most experts are convinced that Karni will have to be reopened if any semblance of Gaza's previously productive manufacturing capacity can be restored. Nevertheless, the promised expansion of Kerem Shalom would be a modest start if it happens – provided Israel is also ready to allow exports to resume. Israel itself is facing conflicting pressures; the fourth anniversary yesterday of the incarceration of abducted sergeant Gilad Shalit, still being denied even Red Cross visits – on the one hand, and the prospect of more pro-Palestinian flotillas on the other. But without a jolt for Gaza's collapsed economy, Israel risks being seen as using Gaza as a captive market for its consumer goods while doing little or nothing to get people back to work. Sari Bashi, director of the Israeli human rights agency, Gisha, said this week she was "mildly encouraged" by the explicit mention of "economic activity" in this week's government statement, but warned that this would not happen "unless Karni is opened and exports are allowed". She added: "Israel has to abandon its policy of economic warfare and accept that it has failed." How the blockade is changing life in Gaza The number of trucks bringing goods from Israel into the Gaza Strip each day has not yet increased, according to Palestinian coordinators, but the range of goods – including books and children's toys, long banned – has. At Hazem Hasuna's supermaket in Gaza City's western Rimal district, Egyptian razors, smuggled in through tunnels, were summarily replaced on Thursday by Gillette Fusion razors legally imported from Israel. But the comprehensive range of smuggled goods has made some Gazans cynical about the new imports. "Nothing has really changed," said Mr Hasuna, 38, "People haven't been missing ketchup and mayonnaise [two of the newly permitted products]. The only real change will be if they start bringing in cement for reconstruction and what the factories need to give people work." One of his customers, Rasha Farhat, 33, was asked by her Saudi-based relatives, who came to visit after the opening of the Rafah crossing this month, what she needed. "I told them 'nothing'." She added that, thanks to the tunnels, "we have never had as many products as we have now". Up to a point. Although still active, the tunnels have shown a sharp drop in activity in the past two weeks as wholesalers wait to assess the new blacklist of security sensitive goods Israel has promised to substitute over the next week for its heavily restrictive "permitted" list as part of the new "liberalising" imports regime. Acknowledging that Gazans have become used to "tunnel products" over the past three years, a prominent Gaza economist, who preferred not to be named, said: "Of course Israel is capable of saying one thing and then acting differently. We will have to wait to see what are the consequences of the new policy." But confessing that he had just filled his own car with Israeli diesel in preference to Egyptian, he added: "Palestinians have been receiving Israeli goods for 40 years. They regard products from Israel as extremely high quality compared with their Egyptian equivalents."

Government Policy Changes

June 2010

['(The Independent)']

Japan's Sakurajima volcano erupts prompting the Japan Meteorological Agency to issue a warning not to approach it. The volcano, located in the southern Kagoshima Prefecture, is situated 50km from the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant.

Residents in the area were evacuated in August last year after an alert for the volcano was raised to its second highest level. When Sakurajima erupted in 1914, it was Japan’s most powerful of the 20th century. The lava flows filled the strait separating the island from the mainland, turning the area into a peninsula. The Sendai nuclear plant which is located some 50 kms from the volcano, was the first to be restarted after 2011’s Fukushima disaster following the implementation of new safety rules. It’s built to withstand a tsunami of 15 meters, well below 2011’s peak tsunami height of 40 meters. Tremors have been felt in the area since December 2015 with warnings in place. The government’s nuclear agency had previously dismissed volcanic risks over Sendai’s lifetime as “negligible.” Memories of the Fukushima nuclear disaster caused by a powerful quake in March 2011 are still fresh in Japan. It was the second after Chernobyl to measure Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The tragedy caused the complete shutdown of the Japanese nuclear facilities in 2011, despite 30 percent of electricity previously coming from nuclear power.

Volcano Eruption

February 2016

['(RT)']

Military clashes kill 57 people in Sudan.

(CNN) -- Fifty-seven "militiamen," including several high-ranking officers loyal to militia leader Gabriel Tang, were killed when Tang's forces attacked the Sudan People's Liberation Army in Southern Sudan, officials said Sunday. Tang's forces launched the attack at Kaldak on Saturday, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) said in a statement issued on behalf of Gen. Malaak Ayuen of the South Sudan Army. The SPLA is the military wing of the movement that governs Southern Sudan. The SPLA killed 57 of Tang's forces, including three major generals and a number of brigadier generals, according to the statement. In addition, one major general and other brigadier generals were captured, the statement said. Tang himself "narrowly escaped" the fighting, according to the statement. Officials said it was unclear why Tang's forces attacked the troops, but the SPLA said it believes he has been in contact with other rebel groups in the region.

Armed Conflict

April 2011

['(CNN)', '(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)']

The Jill Stein-initiated recounts begin in Wisconsin.

The first candidate-driven statewide recount of a presidential election in 16 years was set to begin Thursday in Wisconsin, a state that Donald Trump won by less than a percentage point over Hillary Clinton after polls long predicted a Clinton victory. The recount requested by Green Party candidate Jill Stein carries none of the drama of the Florida presidential recount of 2000, when the outcome of the election between Al Gore and George W. Bush hung in the balance. Almost no one expects Stein’s push for recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to result in a Clinton victory over Trump. “This is certainly not Bush v. Gore,” said Wisconsin’s chief elections administrator Mike Haas. But still, county election officials across Wisconsin were hiring temporary workers, expanding hours and dusting off recount manuals to prepare for the work of retabulating nearly 3 million ballots. Most counties will manually recount the ballots, although Stein lost a court challenge this week to force hand recounts everywhere. The state’s largest county, Milwaukee, was recounting the ballots by feeding them through the same machines that counted them on election night. In Dane County, where Clinton won 71% of the vote, the ballots will be counted by hand. Clinton lost to Trump by about 22,000 votes in Wisconsin.   Wisconsin election officials have less than two weeks to complete the recount. Dec. 13 is the federal deadline to certify the vote to avoid having the fate of Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes decided by Congress. Even if that were to happen, the votes would almost certainly go to Trump, since Republicans control both chambers of Congress. Stein has argued, without evidence, that irregularities in the votes in all three states suggest that there could have been tampering with the vote, perhaps through a well-coordinated, highly complex cyberattack. Her critics, including the Wisconsin Republican Party, contend that she’s a little-known candidate who is merely trying to raise her profile while raising millions of dollars. Stein had raised nearly $7 million, about twice as much as her longshot presidential campaign, to pay for the recounts. The Wisconsin recount was estimated to cost about $3.9 million, while Stein paid $973,250 for the one in Michigan. Stein filed a lawsuit Monday in Pennsylvania to force a recount there.

Government Job change - Election

December 2016

['(Fortune)']

Protests against unemployment grow more violent as Tunisian security forces crack down on the residents in Sidi Bou Zid Governorate and a teenager is killed when police open fire.

Al Jazeera reported that the clashes persisted overnight between security and the residents of Al-Reqab and Al-Maknassy as riots hit the ninth day. A campaign of night raids by security forces in a number of neighbourhoods is the backdrop to continued riots. Clashes erupted 17 December in the town of Sidi Bou Zid after a man committed suicide in a protest over unemployment. Five days later, on 22 December, another young man climbed up an electricity pylon and electrocuted himself, saying he was fed up with being unemployed. As of time of writing, the riots have spread to other areas, including the capital city Tunis, in which hundreds of Tunisian citizens demonstrated against high unemployment and to show solidarity with the citizens of Sidi Bou Zid. Protesters, around 500 people, included syndicate members, human rights activists, students and bloggers and raised slogans like "No to tyranny," "Freedom and national dignity," and others related to high prices and employment problems. Security forces brutally attacked protesters to disperse from outside the Tunisian General Labour Union's HQ. Several organizations, opposition parties, and activists have formed a coalition in solidarity with the residents of Sidi Bou Zid. Scenes of riots are new in Tunisia, which has been run for 23 years by Western-aligned President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Protest_Online Condemnation

December 2010

['(Al Jazeera)', '(Ahram Online)']

The Iranian government declares three days of national mourning following the death of the former president and one of the key figures in the Islamic Republic.

By Associated Press Published: 07:03 BST, 9 January 2017 | Updated: 07:04 BST, 9 January 2017 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Mourners are paying respect to former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as Iran observes three days of mourning following his death. President Hassan Rouhani and his administration on Monday appeared at a mosque in northern Tehran, where Rafsanjani's body was brought. Residents in the Iranian capital also expressed their grief at the loss of Rafsanjani, who suffered a heart attack on Sunday and died at the age of 82. CAPTION CORRECTS THE LOCATION OF THE CHILDREN - Hassan Khomeini, center, grandson of Iran's late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, mourns over the coffin of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, as Rafsanjani's son Mahdi, second left, comforts his sister Fatemeh, at the Jamaran mosque in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017. Rafsanjani died Sunday after a decades-long career in the ruling elite, where his moderate views were not always welcome but his cunning guided him through revolution, war and the country's turbulent politics. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Maziar Rezaei, a real estate agent, told The Associated Press: "I don't know who is going to fill his place. He kept Iran safe from hard-liners for so long." Zahra Qorbani, a tailor, says she is worried about her children's future. She described the late leader as a "man who always tried to fix Iran's relations with neighbors and the world." Hassan Khomeini, center, grandson of Iran's late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, mourns over the coffin of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani at the Jamaran mosque in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017. Rafsanjani died Sunday after a decades-long career in the ruling elite, where his moderate views were not always welcome but his cunning guided him through revolution, war and the country's turbulent politics. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Family members, relatives, and officials mourn while surrounding the coffin of Iran's former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, top left, at the Jamaran mosque in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017. Rafsanjani died Sunday after a decades-long career in the ruling elite, where his moderate views were not always welcome but his cunning guided him through revolution, war and the country's turbulent politics. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) FILE -- In this May 11, 2013 file photo, former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, waves to journalists, as he registers his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election, with his daughter Fatemeh, second right, at the interior ministry, in Tehran, Iran. Iranian state media said Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017 that Rafsanjani has died at age 82 after having been hospitalized because of a heart condition. Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989 to 1997, was a leading politician who often played kingmaker in the country's turbulent politics. He supported President Hassan Rouhani. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File) FILE -- In this Aug. 4, 2013 file photo, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani., right, and former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, wave, as they arrive for Rouhani's swearing-in ceremony at the parliament, in Tehran, Iran. Iranian state media said Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017 that Rafsanjani has died at age 82 after having been hospitalized because of a heart condition. Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989 to 1997, was a leading politician who often played kingmaker in the country's turbulent politics. He supported President Rouhani. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File) Fatemeh Hashemi, daughter of Iran's former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, places her head on the shoulder of her brother Mahdi while they mourn over the coffin of their father, at the Jamaran mosque in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017. Rafsanjani died Sunday after a decades-long career in the ruling elite, where his moderate views were not always welcome but his cunning guided him through revolution, war and the country's turbulent politics. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Famous Person - Death

January 2017

['(The Daily Mail)']

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes Sichuan in southwest China, killing at least thirteen people and injuring more than 175. ,

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake has killed at least 19 people and injured 247 in China's south-western province of Sichuan. Six tourists are thought to be among the dead, with up to 45,000 people evacuated from the area. A separate 6.6-magnitude tremor struck the remote area of XinJiang, injuring 32 people. More than 87,000 people were killed in an earthquake in Sichuan province in 2008. The quake struck at about 21:20 (13:20 GMT) on Tuesday about 300km (180 miles) north of the provincial capital Chengdu, and was 10km deep. China's Earthquake Administration (CEA) said more than 1,000 aftershocks had been detected, with the most powerful reaching 4.8 magnitude on Wednesday. Photos showed damage to buildings including a hotel in Jiuzhaigou, home to one of China's most famous nature reserves and a Unesco World Heritage site. Many tourists visiting the area remained outside overnight while waiting for evacuation on Wednesday. A restaurant owner in the town said this quake felt stronger than the 7.9 tremor in 2008, though there is no suggestion that the death toll could reach anywhere near the levels caused by that disaster. Tang Sesheng told the AFP news agency that many people were taking refuge in the main square. "People didn't dare grab anything like money or clothes - we just all ran outside right away," she said. President Xi Jinping called for "all-out efforts to rapidly organise relief work and rescue the injured people", state news agency Xinhua reports, and fire officers and soldiers have been deployed from nearby areas. Shaking was felt in Chengdu and in Xian, some 700km (430 miles) away. Gwendolyn Pang of the Red Cross Society of China said it would take time to learn the extent of the damage and number of casualties. "Communications lines and electricity are disrupted and people are no doubt shocked and scared," she said. China's National Commission for Disaster Reduction, quoted by AFP, said as many as 100 people might have been killed and 130,000 homes damaged. Emergency response operations have been activated by transport agencies and local airports to aid evacuations and allow rescue vehicles into the area. Southern China quake kills hundreds

Earthquakes

August 2017

['(BBC)', '(Reuters)']

Two hundred thousand people flee the Sri Lankan capital Colombo as floods caused by several days of heavy rain worsen.

Desperate Sri Lankans clambered onto rubber dinghies and makeshift rafts Friday to escape monster floods in the capital Colombo as officials said half a million people had fled their homes across the island. The heaviest rains in a quarter of a century have pounded Sri Lanka since last weekend, triggering huge landslides that have buried some victims in up to 50 feet (15 metres) of mud. More than 60 people known to have died so far amid fears that number could spike with many more reported missing. President Maithripala Sirisena urged people to provide shelter and donate cash or food as offers of assistance came in from overseas. "We have already got some assistance from our friends in the international community," he said in a televised address. "Now I want to ask private individuals, companies and non-governmental organisations to help in anyway you can to help the victims." The national Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said 21 of Sri Lanka's 25 districts had been affected. Around 300,000 people had been moved to safe shelters while a further 200,000 were staying with friends or family. "Our information is that about half a million people have been driven out of their homes," Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake told reporters. - Air lift app - "The (state-owned) Insurance Corporation alone received claims against flooded cars and home appliances amounting to 1.1 billion rupees ($7.5 million). The actual loss is much, much more." Diluka Ishani, who was being looked after at a school where the military provided meals and bedding, described how her family managed to escape the floods but had lost virtually everytng. "We started moving to higher ground as the water level went up and then we found we had no other place to go to," the mother-of-two told AFP in Colombo's Kolonnawa suburb. Her family had first fled to higher ground near their home but became marooned and had to be plucked to safety on a small navy boat. "The navy saved our lives, but we lost all our belongings. The house is ruined as the water went above our roof." Private taxi hailing company PickMe added an "air lift" button to their app so that marooned users can give their coordinates to the airforce. It was not clear how many had used the free airforce lift. India said it was sending two naval ships and an aircraft loaded with emergency supplies, including medicine, tents and mobile toilets. Sri Lanka's cricket team, who are on tour in England, announced a donation of one million rupees (around $7,000) for victims and wore black armbands during the first Test at Headingley. The meteorological department says the rains have been caused by a depression in the Bay of Bengal, ahead of the arrival of the southwest monsoon. After escaping the worst of the flooding in the earlier part of the week, large swathes of Colombo had to be evacuated overnight in an operation led by the military, involving boats and helicopters. The DMC said around 200,000 people had been moved from the low-lying capital which has a population of about 650,000. The worst-hit areas were in Colombo's northeastern suburbs along the Kelani river, which began bursting its banks on Thursday evening. Residents in the Kolonnawa district built jury-rigged rafts using plastic barrels to ferry marooned residents to high ground while the navy used rubber dinghies to rescue others. Three people have been killed in flood-related incidents in Colombo but the national toll now stands at 64 dead and 29 injured. The district of Kegalle, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of Colombo, has been worst-hit, with the toll from two separate landslides rising to 34. A local police officer said 144 people, including 37 children, had been reported missing since Tuesday's landslides. "We can't definitely say if all these missing people were actually in their homes at the time of the disaster," said the officer, who asked not to be named. The officer said there was no realistic hope of finding any survivors in landslides that buried two villages in up to 50 feet (15 metres) of mud. "This is turning into a recovery operation." Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas said Thursday

Floods

May 2016

['(AFP via Yahoo)']

American producer Russell Simmons announces his resignation from his companies after a sexual assault allegation was made by screenwriter Jenny Lumet against him.

The hip-hop mogul and Def Jam founder has said ‘I don’t want to be a distraction’ after he was accused by screenwriter Jenny Lumet of sexual intimidation Last modified on Wed 11 Jul 2018 09.25 BST Russell Simmons, the mogul who founded iconic hip-hop label Def Jam as well as a host of other companies, has stepped down from them after a fresh sexual assault allegation was made against him. The screenwriter Jenny Lumet, whose credits include Rachel Getting Married and The Mummy, and whose father is acclaimed director Sidney Lumet, accused Simmons in a column for Variety. She recalls that “circa 1991”, after Simmons offered her a ride back to her house, he then locked the car doors and had his driver take them to his apartment, where he allegedly coerced her into sex. Simmons has responded to the article with a statement, saying: “While her memory of that evening is very different from mine, it is now clear to me that her feelings of fear and intimidation are real. While I have never been violent, I have been thoughtless and insensitive in some of my relationships over many decades and I sincerely apologise.” He added that he would step aside from his numerous companies, grouped as Rush Communications – which include clothing, health and media brands, some carrying the “Def” name; Simmons sold Def Jam itself to Universal in 1998. “I don’t want to be a distraction so I am removing myself from the businesses that I founded,” he said. “I will step aside and commit myself to continuing my personal growth, spiritual learning and above all to listening.” Simmons was accused of sexual assault earlier this month by model Keri Claussen Khalighi, in an incident also in 1991, and involving disgraced Hollywood director Brett Ratner. Simmons denied the assault, saying that “everything that occurred between Keri and me occurred with her full consent and participation”.

Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal

November 2017

['(The Guardian)']

Citizens of Guinea-Bissau head to the polls in the second round of the country's latest presidential election.

BISSAU (Reuters) - Guinea-Bissau began counting ballots on Sunday after a calm day of voting in a run-off presidential election between two former prime ministers who both promise to bring stability to the turbulent West African nation. African observers said voting went smoothly in the election to succeed incumbent President Jose Mario Vaz, though one of the candidates accused authorities of stuffing ballot boxes, without providing evidence. Poll workers began tallying votes in the capital Bissau soon after 1700 GMT. The electoral commission is expected to announce the provisional result on Wednesday. The ruling PAIGC party’s Domingos Simoes Pereira, 56, is seen as the front-runner after winning the first round on Nov. 24 with 40% of the vote. His opponent, Umaro Cissoko Embalo, 47, is a brigadier general who came second with 28%, and political analysts say the result could be close. Both candidates say that if elected they will work to overcome a long-running political impasse and modernize the country of 1.6 million people, which has suffered nine coups or attempted coups since independence from Portugal in 1974. Vaz’s five-year term was marred by regular high-level sackings, a barely functioning parliament, accusations of government corruption and weeks of turmoil in the run-up to the first-round ballot. He was eliminated with just 12% of the vote. “I voted to restore peace and tranquillity in Guinea-Bissau,” said Caminho Injai, 65, a cleaning lady in Bissau, echoing a sentiment expressed by many voters on Sunday. Embalo’s candidacy has won support from the main contenders who failed to reach the run-off, including Vaz. Embalo questioned the first-round result, saying the final tally between him and Pereira was much closer than official figures had shown. After voting in the town of Gabu on Sunday, he accused the interior ministry of stuffing ballot boxes, but did not provide any evidence to support his claim. “We are going to fight any attempt at fraud,” said Embalo, who wore a red-and-white keffiyeh around his head. “I will emerge the winner of the presidential election.” Muniro Conte, the prime minister’s communications director, said Embalo’s allegations were “totally false”. Pereira, who emerged from his polling place in Bissau smiling broadly and posed for photographs with poll workers, said the vote was “free and transparent”. “The people of Guinea-Bissau are confident, so I stay confident,” he said. Rafael Branco, the head of the African Union observation mission, said voting was going smoothly and that turnout in the morning hours appeared to be slightly higher than in the first round. “My team has visited eight polling stations and citizens are exercising their civil right without obstruction or incident,” he said. Guinea-Bissau’s next president will inherit major challenges including widespread poverty and an unstable political system in which the majority party appoints the government but the president has the power to dismiss it. There have been seven prime ministers since Vaz took over in 2014 and political instability has hurt the economy, which depends heavily on volatile prices for cashew nuts, the main income source for over two-thirds of households. Traffickers also exploit Guinea-Bissau’s unpoliced waters and maze of forested islands as trans-shipment points for cocaine en route from South America to Europe. Even so, Vaz is the first Guinea-Bissau president to have completed a full term and won praise for conceding defeat after the first round.

Government Job change - Election

December 2019

['(Reuters)']

Lindsay Sandiford loses her appeal against the death penalty in Indonesia for a charge of drug smuggling.

Briton Lindsay Sandiford has lost her appeal against her death sentence in Bali for drug trafficking, a Bali High Court spokesman has said. The court on the Indonesian island upheld the sentence handed down to the 56-year-old in January. Sandiford, of Gloucestershire, says she was coerced into smuggling 4.8kg (10.6lb) of cocaine. She was arrested after a flight from Thailand in May 2012 and accused of being at the centre of a drugs ring. Following her conviction earlier this year, the prosecution recommended 15 years imprisonment but a panel of judges later sentenced Sandiford to death by firing squad. The appeal judges ruled the original decision was "accurate and correct," the court spokesman said, adding that Sandiford would be informed of the decision as soon as possible. The high court, sitting in the island's capital Denpasar, gave her 14 days to appeal to the Supreme Court starting from the day she is informed of the verdict. If the Supreme Court rejects her appeal, she can seek a judicial review of the decision from the same court. After that, only the country's president can grant her a reprieve. The BBC's Karishma Vaswani - in the Indonesian capital Jakarta - said the appeal decision had come back quite quickly, given the way the country's legal system worked. She said it would be a long process for Sandiford, with many death row drug smugglers languishing in jails for up to 10 years. "Indonesia has very strict drug laws and the maximum penalty for drug trafficking is death by firing squad but it is very rare that it actually is delivered," our correspondent said. There are currently 71 prisoners convicted of drug charges on death row in Indonesia and 41 of them are foreigners, she added. Last month, the authorities in Indonesia carried out their first execution for more than four years. Adami Wilson, a Malawi national convicted of drugs smuggling, was executed by firing squad north of Jakarta. The British embassy in the Indonesian capital issued a statement: "We are disappointed to hear Lindsay Sandiford's appeal has been refused by the High Court in Bali. The UK strongly opposes the death penalty and has repeatedly made representations to the Indonesian government on this matter. "We will continue to provide consular assistance to her at this difficult time." At the end of January, Sandiford lost a legal bid in the UK to get the British government to fund a lawyer for her appeal in Bali. It had been said she was urgently in need of funding to pay for an "an adequate lawyer" because her family had exhausted all their available resources. But the Foreign Office's policy of not providing legal representation to British nationals overseas was backed by judges. Her case has been taken up by the British human rights charity, Reprieve, which said Sandiford was "targeted by drug traffickers who exploited her vulnerability and made threats against her children". Sandiford is originally from Redcar in Teesside but her last UK address was in Gloucestershire. She was arrested after a flight from Bangkok and was accused of being part of a drugs ring involving three other Britons. One of the Britons, Julian Ponder, 43, from Brighton, was jailed for six years in January after being cleared of smuggling but convicted of possessing 23g of cocaine. The two other Britons were also cleared of trafficking; one received a sentence of four years for possession and the other a one-year term for failing to report a crime.

Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence

April 2013

['(BBC)']

Bahrain's Court of Appeal rules that the former leader of the now outlawed Al-Wefaq party, Sheikh Ali Salman, will receive a life sentence over his conviction for 2011 spying for Qatar.

Bahrain's opposition leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, has been handed a life sentence after the Court of Appeal found him guilty of spying for Qatar. The ruling comes just months after the Bahraini High Court of First Tier acquitted Salman of the charge of "colluding" with the rival state. Bahrain cut ties with Qatar in 2017. Human rights group Amnesty has described the decision as a "travesty of justice" amid Bahrain's "continued crackdown on dissent". "This verdict... demonstrates the Bahraini authorities' relentless and unlawful efforts to silence any form of dissent," Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director Heba Morayef said. "Sheikh Ali Salman is a prisoner of conscience who is being held solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression." Ali Salman, who led the now outlawed Al-Wefaq movement, was accused of plotting with Qatar to stoke anti-government unrest in 2011, along with fellow opposition leaders Hassan Sultan and Ali al-Aswad. They have also received life sentences. Bahrain's public prosecutor said the three men were jailed for "acts of hostility" against Bahrain and "communicating with Qatari officials... to overthrow constitutional order", according to news agency AFP. But the accusations, which date back seven years, only came to light last year - after Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt cut links with Qatar. The allies accused the emirate of supporting terrorist groups and of being too close to Iran - allegations the emirate has vigorously denied. At the time, Wefaq said the allegations were an attempt by the Bahraini government to smear it and prolong the imprisonment of its leader, who has been in custody since 2015. Demonstrators - mainly led by the majority Shia community - took to the streets in February 2011, demanding more democracy as part of pro-democracy uprisings across the Arab world. But the royal Al Khalifa family, who hold most of the political and military posts, managed to suppress the protests with the help of neighbouring countries, most importantly Saudi Arabia. The unrest left at least 30 civilians and five policemen dead. Ever since, the Sunni-ruled Bahrain has been wracked by unrest. In response, Bahrain - a key ally of the United States and the UK, which both have naval bases in the country - has outlawed opposition groups, while hundreds of government critics have been jailed.

Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence

November 2018

['(BBC)']

In auto racing, the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix is held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló with Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

Last updated on 10 May 201510 May 2015.From the section Formula 1 Nico Rosberg took a dominant win in the Spanish Grand Prix as Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton fought back from a slow start to take second. Hamilton was initially stuck behind Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel but switched to a different strategy to get ahead. The German was third ahead of Williams' Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen. The result means Rosberg has reduced Hamilton's advantage in the championship to 20 points, while Vettel is 31 points adrift in third place. It was Mercedes' most dominant grand prix since the first race in Australia. Ferrari had come to this weekend with a major upgrade package, with revisions to almost every aerodynamic surface of the car, but Mercedes were perhaps further ahead than they had been all season. Rosberg converted his pole position into a lead at the first corner and simply cruised into the distance as Vettel held up Hamilton behind him. Mercedes urged Hamilton to try to pass the Ferrari, but he told the team it was impossible to get close enough to overtake on the pit straight even with the help of the DRS overtaking aid. Mercedes decided their best option was to give Hamilton some clear track, and told him that they would switch to a three-stop strategy and try to pass Vettel at the end of the race. But Hamilton did not need to overtake the Ferrari on track. Stopping on lap 32 to fit the slower 'hard' tyre, Hamilton immediately set the fastest lap of the race and proceeded to take huge chunks out of Vettel's advantage. Twenty seconds behind when he rejoined, Hamilton had cut Vettel's lead in half by the time the Ferrari driver made his second and final stop eight laps later. Vettel rejoined 13.5 seconds behind Hamilton, who continued to pull away until he was 23 seconds in front by the time of his final stop on lap 51, which was comfortably enough to allow him to rejoin in front of the Ferrari. Now 17 seconds behind Rosberg, Hamilton fancied his chances of catching his team-mate for the win, but was told by his engineer Peter Bonnington that he had too much to do and to "consolidate" second place. Hamilton pressed Bonnington, saying: "Is it impossible?" He was told: "Yes, it's impossible. He'll respond if we pick up the pace." "Perfect weekend," said Rosberg. "The car has been awesome - all weekend." Hamilton said: "I got a bad start, had lots of wheelspin but it was a good race. Nico did a fantastic job and I was just grateful I could get back up to second. This was a difficult weekend for me and I'll take this." Behind Vettel in the race, Bottas took fourth, fighting off a stern challenge from Ferrari's Raikkonen in the closing laps. Ferrari inverted Raikkonen's tyre strategy, putting him on the 'hard' tyre for his middle stint rather than taking the conventional route of leaving it for the end of the race. That meant Raikkonen had a grip advantage over Bottas, who was on the 'hard' tyre in the final stint, but he was unable to make it pay. The second Williams of Felipe Massa was sixth, from the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo and Lotus's Romain Grosjean. Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz passed Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat for ninth place at the first corner of the last lap. The stewards investigated the incident because Sainz went off track through Turn Two as he completed the move - gaining an advantage by leaving the track is forbidden - but they decided to take no further action. Three laps earlier, Sainz cleanly passed team-mate Max Verstappen for 10th place. The two Toro Rossos had started fifth and sixth and had always suspected it would be tough to beat Raikkonen, Massa and the Red Bulls, all of which had qualified behind them. Sainz took advantage of being on the 'medium' tyres in the final stint while Verstappen was on the 'hard'. The Dutchman ran wide in the final twisty section of the track on lap 62 and Sainz was able to draft past on the straight. Jenson Button finished 16th after a troubled race for McLaren. Team-mate Fernando Alonso ran 12th in the first stint, climbed as high as seventh at one point thanks to a late first pit stop, but retired from 14th place with brake failure.

Sports Competition

May 2015

['(BBC)']

Vietnam frees Nguyen Tien Trung and Vi Duc Hoi.

Vietnam has released two high-profile political activists amid ongoing free trade talks with the United States. Democracy activists Nguyen Tien Trung and Vi Duc Hoi were freed from prison over the weekend. Earlier in April, prominent activist Cu Huy Ha Vu was also released from jail. He has since flown to the US, which had campaigned for his release. Vietnam is in negotiations with the US over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a major free trade deal. Members of the US Congress said that greater US-Vietnam co-operation should be tied to Vietnam improving its human rights record. Vietnam, a one-party Communist state, has one of south-east Asia's fastest-growing economies. However, the government suppresses political dissent and religious freedom, and private media is banned. Blogger Nguyen Tien Trung had served nearly five years of his seven-year jail term for subversion. He now faces three years of house arrest. Former Communist Party official Vi Duc Hoi, who campaigned for democracy, served four and a half years of his five-year term for anti-government propaganda. He now faces five years of house arrest. Vi Duc Hoi told US-funded broadcaster Radio Free Asia: "It was due to international pressure that the government of Vietnam had to release me." Meanwhile, legal activist Cu Huy Ha Vu was released this month after spending three years in prison. Mr Vu, the son of a celebrated poet who was also a leading revolutionary and confidant of the former president Ho Chi Minh, was sentenced to seven years in jail for spreading anti-government propaganda. He had called for democratic reforms in Vietnam and tried to sue the Vietnamese prime minister twice over a mining project he said would harm the environment. Speaking after the releases of Nguyen Tien Trung and Vi Duc Hoi, Human Rights Watch Asia director Phil Robertson said: "There are still hundreds more political prisoners languishing in Vietnam's prisons, so there is a very long way to go before we can say that Vietnam is making any sort of appreciable progress on human rights."

Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release

April 2014

['(BBC)']

Fourteen people are killed after bombs planted by Islamic State militants explode near civilian homes in Bir al-Abd, Egypt. The bombs were placed when militants attacked several villages in the town in July, forcing people to flee their homes, who then returned a month later when soldiers secured the area.

EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) More than a dozen civilians, including women and children, were killed in Egypt’s restive northern Sinai Peninsula over the past two weeks from explosive devices laid down in their homes by militants, security and medical officials said Sunday. Islamic State militants in July attacked several villages in the town of Bir al-Abd, forcing people to flee their homes. The military then secured the villages in August and allowed residents to return to their homes a few weeks later, the officials said. The militants, however, had laid booby traps in several houses that killed at least 14 people, including six from the same family late on Saturday, officials said. The causalities included women and children. At least ten others have been wounded since Oct. 12 and were taken to the town’s hospital for treatment, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Armed Conflict

October 2020

['(Associated Press)']

At least 12 Palestinians, including 3 civilians, are killed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza in response to numerous mortar and rocket attacks.

Twelve Palestinians, including three civilians, have been killed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza, doctors say. The Israeli strikes come hours after Islamist group Hamas said it had brokered a deal for Gaza's militant groups to stop firing on Israel. However, Israel pounded Gaza with fresh air strikes on Friday and Palestinian militants fired mortars into Israel. On Thursday, a Hamas anti-tank missile hit an Israeli school bus, seriously wounding a teenager. Since then, Israel has launched more than 20 raids on the Gaza Strip, killing 14 Gazans - many of them civilians, at least five Hamas militants and one policeman. About 45 people have been wounded. Meanwhile, an Israeli police spokesman said at least 15 rockets have been fired into Israel during Friday, causing damage but no injuries. This follows more than 50 mortar rounds fired at Israel on Thursday, one of which hit a house. Hamas's military wing said it carried out some of the strikes, accusing Israel of breaking the ceasefire declaration with its dawn raids. A small PLO faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, also said it fired at Israel on Friday. Last night, Hamas - which governs the Gaza Strip - met other militant factions and agreed to enforce a ceasefire if Israel also stopped firing. However neither side seems to have stopped for long, says the BBC's Jon Donnison in Gaza City. It is not clear whether the fresh violence signals an end to the truce, or whether the firing of rockets was carried out by a Palestinian splinter group that had not signed up to the ceasefire. Israel says it is responding to the school bus attack on Thursday near the Nahal Oz kibbutz. A 16-year-old boy suffered a serious head wound. Militants from the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, hit the bus with an anti-tank shell. They said it was in response to the killing of Hamas leaders last week. The bus attack was condemned by the US, EU and UN, which said it was particularly concerned by reports that the Gaza militants had used an advanced anti-tank weapon to target civilians. On Friday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the bus attack and expressed concern over civilian casualties in Israel's strikes. He called for "de-escalation and calm to prevent any further bloodshed". Several of those killed in Gaza were civilians, including a Palestinian mother and her 21-year-old daughter, as well as a 55-year-old man in the southern city of Khan Younis, Palestinian medics say. A 50-year-old civilian who had been sitting outside his home died when he was hit by tank fire on Thursday, an official in Gaza said. The Israeli military issued a statement confirming that "uninvolved citizens may have been harmed" in one operation. But it blamed Hamas for their deaths, adding that the group "chooses to operate from within civilian populations and uses uninvolved people as human shields". Four others among the dead were identified as leaders of the Qassam Brigades and two of Friday's victims had been members of the group, Hamas said. Doctors and Hamas officials also confirmed that a militant commander and two bodyguards had been killed in an air strike early on Saturday. Last month saw some of the worst violence since Israel launched a major offensive in Gaza in December 2008. In one week in March, at least 10 Palestinians - including several civilians and children - were killed by Israeli attacks. In the same period, militants in Gaza fired more than 80 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel. Israel says it holds Hamas responsible for all attacks coming out of Palestinian territory, even if it is other militant groups carrying them out. UN calls for end of arms sales to Myanmar In a rare move, the UN condemns the overthrowing of Aung San Suu Kyi and calls for an arms embargo. The ethnic armies training Myanmar's protesters. VideoThe ethnic armies training Myanmar's protesters

Armed Conflict

April 2011

['(BBC)']

A train derails near the Dutch town of Dalfsen with reports of at least one death and several injured. ,

A TRAIN has derailed in the Netherlands after colliding with a crane, killing the driver and injuring seven passengers. A COMMUTER train has derailed after slamming into a crane that was crossing the tracks in the eastern Netherlands, killing the train's driver and injuring seven passengers. POLICE say they've detained the driver of the crane for questioning as part of their investigation into the cause of the crash.

Train collisions

February 2016

['(BBC)', '(AAP via News Limited)']

Supertyphoon Vongfong becomes the most intense storm of the year as it heads for Japan.

An enormous storm in the Western Pacific rapidly strengthened overnight into the year's most powerful super typhoon. Super Typhoon Vongfong reached sustained winds of 155 mph (250 km/h) this morning (Oct. 7), with gusts of up to 190 mph (306 km/h), according to the U.S Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Satellite estimates from the Japan Meteorological Agency suggest the massive storm's central pressure dropped to 905 millibars, making it the most intense storm of any kind this year, according to The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang blog. (The average sea level pressure is 1,013 millibars. Typically, storms with a big pressure gradient, or difference in pressure, have stronger winds.) [Super Storms: 8 Terrible Typhoons] Vongfong is the fifth super typhoon to threaten the Pacific this year. There were also five super typhoons in 2012 and five in 2013, including the deadly Super Typhoon Haiyan, which was one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded. Late July through October is peak typhoon season in the Western Pacific. Super Typhoon Vongfong is currently a Category 4 tropical cyclone but could grow into an even more powerful Category 5 storm by Wednesday as it lumbers over warm water, which will fuel its powerful spin. In the Western Pacific, tropical storms become super typhoons when their winds top 150 mph (241 km/h). Super typhoons are equivalent to Category 4 or 5 hurricanes. Vongfong is expected to sharply turn and head north by Thursday, weakening before it nears Japan, according to current forecasts. The storm is following a similar track to Typhoon Phanfone, which lashed central and eastern Japan with fierce winds and torrential rain last week.

Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard

October 2014

['(Live Science)']

More bodies are found under debris in Sulawesi, Indonesia, after a magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck the island two days ago, bringing the death toll to 78.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - At least 78 people have been killed after an earthquake struck Indonesia’s West Sulawesi province on Friday, the Search and Rescue agency (Basarnas) said on Sunday, the latest in a string of disasters to hit the Southeast Asian country. In a statement, Basarnas confirmed 78 had died, 67 of whom were from the district of Mamuju and the rest from the district of Majene in West Sulawesi. More than 740 people were injured and over 27,800 left their homes after the 6.2 magnitude quake, the country’s disaster mitigation agency separately (BNPB) said in a situation report. Some sought refuge in the mountains, while others went to cramped evacuation centres, witnesses said. Police and military officers have been deployed to crack down on looting in several parts of the region, BNPB spokesman Raditya Jati said. An emergency response status, intended to help rescue efforts, has also been put in place for two weeks, Raditya said. Dwikorita Karnawati, the head of Indonesia’s meteorological, climatology and geophysical agency (BMKG), has said that another quake in the region could potentially trigger a tsunami. Straddling the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia is regularly hit by earthquakes. In 2018, a devastating 7.5-magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami struck the city of Palu, in Sulawesi, killing thousands. Just two weeks into the new year, the world’s fourth-most populous country is battling several disasters. Floods in South Kalimantan and North Sulawesi have respectively killed at least 15 and five this month, while landslides in West Java province have killed at least 32, authorities said. On Jan. 9, a Sriwijaya Air jet crashed into the Java Sea with 62 onboard. East Java’s Semeru mountain erupted late on Saturday, but there have been no reports of casualties or evacuations. Dwikorita said extreme weather and other “multi-dangers” of hydrometeorology are forecast in the coming weeks. Reporting by Stanley Widianto; Editing by Himani Sarkar Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Earthquakes

January 2021

['(Reuters)']

A Spain car rally race crash leaves six dead after a car veers off a straight section into spectators.

Six people, including a pregnant woman, have been killed after a car veered off the road during a car rally in north-western Spain. Police said that 16 people had been injured, some critically, after the accident at the A Coruna car rally. Television footage showed the car crashing off the road into spectators in a cloud of dust. Police said that the car had been going too fast. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy expressed his condolences on Twitter. He said the rally had been "tinged with mourning". "My heartfelt condolences for those killed. I wish the injured a full and speedy recovery," he added. The accident happened at around 20:00 (18:00 GMT) on Saturday evening near the town of Carral in the province of Galicia. Local media reported that the drivers were not among the injured. The rally has been suspended. More than 140 people had been participating in the rally, El Pais newspaper reports. The authorities in the region of Galicia are now investigating.

Road Crash

September 2015

['(BBC)']

Cuba and the European Union sign an accord in Brussels to normalize relations, formally ending the Common Position which was adopted by the Council of the European Union in 1996.

The European Union and Cuba on Monday signed a deal to normalise ties that had been blocked for decades by human rights concerns under revolutionary icon Fidel Castro. Cuba was the only Latin American country not to have a "dialogue and cooperation" deal with the 28-nation EU covering issues such as trade, human rights and migration. But EU ministers last week dropped a policy in place since 1996 which stated that Cuba first had to improve its human rights record before getting closer links with the bloc. Monday's accord was signed by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini and representatives from the EU member states at a Brussels ceremony capping years of difficult negotiations. Mogherini offered condolences on Castro's death, telling reporters it was "only natural that we are closer to Cuba as it undergoes profound change." She said she was also "very encouraged" by dialogue with Havana on human rights and the accord would help foster Cuba's social and political modernisation. Castro died last month after more than 50 years at the helm of a self-styled Socialist paradise reviled by the West, with Cuba gradually opening up to the world, including bitter foe Washington. In 2003, the EU imposed sanctions on Cuba and suspended cooperation over a crackdown on journalists and activists and it took until 2008 to get talks going again. Rodriguez Parrilla said "we have had a few differences on the way but the removal of the (1996 EU) common position re-establishes normal relations based on mutual respect." Asked what impact Donald Trump's election might have on US policy, he noted angrily that despite easing tensions, Washington had kept its economic embargo against Cuba. "EU-Cuba relations do not go via Washington," he added. Mogherini said she saw no reason for concern although Trump's shock election victory has stoked doubts in Europe about Washington's global stance and its crucial security guarantee. "Developments in Washington will not affect in any way relations between the EU and Cuba," she said, stressing Brussels had and would continue to raise concerns about the impact of the US economic blockade on other countries. She also highlighted Europe's wider ties with the region as a whole. "We are talking about a transatlantic link not only with the United States, but also with Cuba and Latin America." On the campaign trail, Trump had threatened to end the thaw in US ties backed by President Barack Obama unless Havana made concessions on human rights and opened up its still largely state-run economy to private business. "Economic links with Europe will continue to be a priority for Cuba as we build a socialist economy," Rodriguez Parrilla said at the signing ceremony. He recalled a speech in 2003 in which Castro hailed the historical importance of the EU as a counterweight to the United States which imposed the trade embargo and other sanctions on Cuba after it sided with Moscow in the Cold War.

Sign Agreement

December 2016

['(AFP via Yahoo!)']

In Egypt, opposition party al–Wafd announces that it will endorse its leader Numan Gumaa as a candidate in presidential election next September

One of Egypt's largest legal opposition parties, al-Wafd, says it will field a candidate against President Hosni Mubarak in the September poll. Egypt's official news agency MENA reported that Doctor Numan Gumaa, head of al-Wafd (Delegation Party), would run for president on 7 September. The party had criticised changes to Egypt's constitution to allow for contested elections, charging, like most of the opposition, that registration conditions for candidates were too strict to mount a serious challenge to Mubarak. But the leadership of the centre-right party made a U-turn on its election boycott pledge and approved by 30 votes to 10 the principle of running in the elections. A majority agreed to nominate Gumaa, who has until 4 August to register his candidacy with the electoral commission. The constitutional change was approved in a 25 May referendum although the country's judges have charged that the official results of the vote were rigged. Until now, Egyptians had been able to only say yes or no to a single candidate appointed by parliament, which is dominated by Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP). Mubarak, 77, is widely expected to win a fifth six-year mandate. His main challenger will be Ayman Nur, who heads the al-Ghad party and is currently being tried on what he says are trumped up charges of forgery. The party's decision to field a candidate will weaken the boycott decision taken by the main opposition parties including al-Tajamua al-Yasari (the Left-Wing Alliance), al-Nasiri (National) and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Government Job change - Election

August 2005

['(Delegation Party)', '(Al–Jazeera)']

The cruise ship Bulgaria sinks in the Volga River near Bolgar, Russia. At least 110 of the 196 on board go down with the ship and drown, while 80 were rescued alive.

About 110 people, many of them children, are feared dead after an old tourist boat sank in central Russia. Around 80 were rescued on the River Volga in Tatarstan, about 750km (450 miles) east of Moscow. Thirteen deaths are confirmed, but reports say divers have seen numerous bodies inside the sunken vessel. The double-decker Bulgaria was carrying 196 passengers and crew when it was caught in a storm on Sunday while sailing to the regional capital, Kazan. The bad weather, mechanical failure on the 55-year-old vessel and overcrowding have all been cited as possible reasons why the boat sank. The Bulgaria, leased by a local tourism company, was on a two-day cruise when it got into difficulty at about 1400 on Sunday (1000 GMT), sinking within minutes at one of the widest points of the river. Nearly 50 Russian divers were scouring the murky river on Monday and Russian media reports suggested they had seen many bodies inside the sunken ship. Igor Panshin, head of the Emergencies Ministry's Volga Regional Centre, was shown commenting on NTV: "[The divers] were tapping on the hull in hope of getting possible replies. Unfortunately, none came. "They have now shone light into the holds and the restaurants, and they see that there are [dead bodies of] people inside." There was little hope of finding more survivors. Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered a search of nearby islands in case any survivors had managed to swim ashore. The Russian authorities have launched a criminal investigation, amid suspicions that negligence contributed to the tragedy. Russian media report that the boat was overcrowded and that one of its two engines was not working. Investigators quoted by Itar-Tass news agency said that even before the boat had set sail from Bolgary to Kazan on Sunday one of its two engines had malfunctioned and the vessel had been listing. The 80m (260ft) boat sank several kilometres from the shore near the village of Sukeyevo, about 80km south of Kazan. One survivor described it as "a bad ship, a very old ship", which had already been listing to starboard when it set sail. "She went under in three minutes," said the survivor, Nikolai Chernov. "There were no announcements or anything, she just listed to starboard and capsized and sank. That was it." About 80 people survived the accident, most of them rescued by another pleasure boat that was passing nearby. However, one survivor revealed that before they were finally rescued other ships had refused to come to their aid. Weeping survivors draped in blankets were shown on state TV, while relatives gathered at a port in Kazan waiting for news of their loved ones. "My son-in-law telephoned to say that he held out his hand to his wife but she could not grab on," one man told Rossiya 24 state television. "He could not pull her out." Around 30 children had gathered in a play area on deck just before the boat went down, said one survivor, who feared all may have drowned. The Volga, Europe's largest river, is popular with cruise boats at this time of the year, says our correspondent.

Shipwreck

July 2011

['(BBC Europe)']

Fuad Masum is elected as the 7th President of Iraq. ,

BAGHDAD — A veteran Kurdish politician was elected president of Iraq on Thursday, as political leaders moved a step closer to forming a new government that will face the momentous task of repairing the deep divisions that are tearing the country apart. Fouad Massoum received 211 of 269 votes in the Iraqi parliament after Kurds presented him as their candidate. Under an informal power-sharing agreement, the role of president goes to a Kurd, the job of speaker of parliament to a Sunni, and the position of prime minister to a Shiite. Massoum’s election starts the clock ticking on the thornier issue of choosing a prime minister, as pressure mounts on the incumbent, Nouri al-Maliki, to step aside. Lawmakers now have 15 days to name a prime minister, according to the constitution. The United States and other countries are urging Iraqis to move rapidly to form a new government after advances by the Sunni extremist group that calls itself the Islamic State. It has taken over large swaths of Iraq in an offensive that began last month. While that battle has slowed into a stalemate, the Islamic State has ramped up a bombing campaign in Baghdad. Two car bombs blew up in the busy commercial district of Karrada on Thursday evening, killing at least 15 people, according to Al Sumaria television. The Associated Press put the death toll at 21. The bombs went off near a Shiite congregation hall, residents said. Earlier in the day, more than 50 prisoners were killed after an attack by the Islamic State in Taji, 15 miles northwest of Baghdad, Iraqi security officials said. One security official at Taji, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said the prisoners had been “caught in the crossfire” as Islamic State militants attempted a jailbreak. However, human rights groups have accused Iraqi security forces and Shiite militias of executing Sunni prisoners to prevent them from escaping. Massoum, whose name also is spelled Massum, served as the first prime minister of Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region in 1992. He replaces his ally, Jalal Talabani, who has been president of Iraq since 2005 but had largely been absent from politics for the last year and a half as he recovered from a stroke. Both are founding members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The party, which traditionally puts forward the candidate for president, had been deeply divided over whom to chose, postponing a parliamentary vote scheduled for Wednesday until party members decided on a nominee. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. world middle_east Thank You! You are now subscribed to Please enter a valid email address You might also like... See all newsletters SuperFan Badge SuperFan badge holders consistently post smart, timely comments about Washington area sports and teams. More about badges | Request a badge Culture Connoisseur Badge Culture Connoisseurs consistently offer thought-provoking, timely comments on the arts, lifestyle and entertainment. More about badges | Request a badge Fact Checker Badge Fact Checkers contribute questions, information and facts to The Fact Checker. More about badges | Request a badge Washingtologist Badge Washingtologists consistently post thought-provoking, timely comments on events, communities, and trends in the Washington area. More about badges | Request a badge Post Writer Badge This commenter is a Washington Post editor, reporter or producer. Post Forum Badge Post Forum members consistently offer thought-provoking, timely comments on politics, national and international affairs. More about badges | Request a badge Weather Watcher Badge Weather Watchers consistently offer thought-provoking, timely comments on climates and forecasts. More about badges | Request a badge World Watcher Badge World Watchers consistently offer thought-provoking, timely comments on international affairs. More about badges | Request a badge Post Contributor Badge This commenter is a Washington Post contributor. Post contributors aren’t staff, but may write articles or columns. In some cases, contributors are sources or experts quoted in a story. More about badges | Request a badge Post Recommended Washington Post reporters or editors recommend this comment or reader post. You must be logged in to report a comment. You must be logged in to recommend a comment. Comments our editors find particularly useful or relevant are displayed in Top Comments, as are comments by users with these badges: . Replies to those posts appear here, as well as posts by staff writers. All comments are posted in the All Comments tab. To pause and restart automatic updates, click "Live" or "Paused". If paused, you'll be notified of the number of additional comments that have come in.

Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration

July 2014

['(The Washington Post)', '(BBC News)']

U.S. President George W. Bush preapproves an emergency declaration for Texas if Hurricane Dean hits the state.

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush on Saturday approved a pre-landfall emergency declaration for Texas to provide federal help if the state is hit by Hurricane Dean, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. The emergency declaration, which was requested by the governor of Texas, allows the federal government to move in emergency personnel, equipment and supplies now in the event the state is struck by the storm, he said. The Bush administration was sharply criticized for a slow federal government response to Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Gulf Coast, including New Orleans, in August 2005. “What’s a result of Katrina is the federal government’s pro-active stance to go to the states and say you have this option, come to us now and request it,” Johndroe said. “What has been put in place since Katrina for the best practices was the federal government going out early to the states and saying if you’re not thinking about this already, think about it now, call us, get the paperwork going,” he said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is working with Texas to address “special needs populations” such as the elderly or people with special medical needs or transportation difficulties along the south Texas border, which is currently projected to be in the storm’s path, Johndroe said. Bush, who is vacationing at his Crawford ranch, was briefed twice on Saturday about Hurricane Dean, which is threatening to become a Category 5 storm and is taking aim at Jamaica and Mexico. The U.S. ambassador to Jamaica is working with Jamaican authorities to provide U.S. support that may be needed, such as relief supplies like water containers, medicine and generators, Johndroe said. U.S. emergency authorities are also reaching out to their counterparts in Mexico to assess if they will need assistance, he said.

Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard

August 2007

['(Reuters)']

Heavy rains continue to lash Thanjavur and Thanjavur district, inundating urban areas and hundreds of acres of farmland. Many residential areas in Thanjavur have been marooned by rising water.

  The rains lashing Thanjavur district over the past few days have brought in more trouble than the residents in urban and rural areas could have bargained for. It rained on Tuesday too inundating residential areas that were hitherto safe. Farmers are a terrified lot with no sign of let-up in the downpour. Sri Palaivananathar Temple at Thirupalathurai near Papanasam was marooned by rainwater with the prakaram and Sri Ambal Sannathi in knee deep water. The overflowing temple tank is forcing excess water to drain on to the highway. Hundreds of acres where samba and thalady paddy have been raised are inundated. Fields in the Tiruvaiyaru taluk have been submerged for quite some time provoking the farmers to think of the impending losses. Intermittent rain has been targeting Budalur taluk and flooding the Tirukkattupalli-Budalur highway. The PWD authorities at Grand Anicut were discharging around 9,000 cusecs of water into the Coleroon. With the Cauvery carrying about 10,000 cusecs at Upper Anicut, it is expected that the authorities would divert that into the Coleroon. Meanwhile, Tamaraiselvan (50), AIADMK worker at Peravoorani, was electrocuted when he tried to switch on the light. He was rushed to the Thanjavur Medical College Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival. A differently abled person Kaliyamurthy (65) of Gudiyalam near Kumbakonam was swept away in the flash floods and his body was recovered from underneath a culvert of a channel. Walls of some houses in Kumbakonam, Veppathoor and other areas collapsed unable to bear the brunt of the rain. Many residential areas in Thanjavur were marooned making it difficult for the residents to venture out since morning. Suburbs on the eastern side of the city where many new localities sprung up in the recent years are inundated heavily increasing the agony of the public and residents had to wade through ankle-deep water to reach their houses. Many low lying areas are sporting sheets of water even as the rain continued to batter the city. “We have remained marooned since Sunday when a torrential rain drenched our city. We could not go out to procure rations and other essentials. Only today officials and elected representatives came to our rescue,” says T. Kavita holding her one-year-old baby girl Akshaya. Collector N. Subbaiyan along with a team of officials rushed to Kalvirayanpettai in Thanjavur district and plugged a breach in the Konavari near the Kallaperumbu tank.

Floods

December 2015

['(The Hindu)']

India's Bharatiya Janata Party win elections in the state of Gujarat.

It marks a big victory for controversial right-wing Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who is credited with pursuing successful economic policies. The governing Congress party admitted defeat in the communally-divided state. Correspondents say the victory will boost the BJP as it challenges Congress in the run-up to a general election due in the next 18 months. The BJP won 117 out of 182 seats in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly, with Congress winning 59 and six seats going to the smaller parties, results from the Electoral Commission of India showed. It is the fourth consecutive BJP election victory in Gujarat. Gandhi setback The Congress party acknowledged its defeat in Gujarat, but reminded voters of religious riots in 2002. Mr Modi has been accused of failing to protect Muslims in the riots, which claimed the lives of 1,000 people. "I do not grudge him the victory," Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the Times of India. However, he added that the win did not remove the "blot" of the religious riots of 2002. The Congress party campaigned hard to defeat him, with major rallies by its top leaders including Sonia Gandhi and her son, Rahul, the latest member of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty in Indian politics. But their defeat means that it is back to the drawing board and a major setback ahead of the more important national poll

Government Job change - Election

December 2007

['(BBC News)']

At least 24 people are killed and two are critically injured after a bus carrying tribesmen plunges off a cliff near Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea.

A bus crash in Papua New Guinea has left at least 24 people dead, local media report. The bus was said to have fallen off a cliff in Papua New Guinea's Western Highlands, and plunged over 50m into a river bed. 17 men, six women and a five-year-old girl are thought to be among the dead. The group was said to be travelling from Baiyer district to Mount Hagen to pick up the coffin of a villager who had died. A local police commander described the crash as the country's "worst road accident involving a public motor vehicle", The National newspaper reported. A local ward councillor, Kuri Rani, told The National newspaper that the victims were from Baiyer's Epika tribe. "It's a big loss to the rest of my tribesmen," he said. "We were all travelling into town to pick up a casket and didn't know such a thing would happen."

Road Crash

April 2013

['(BBC)']

The ancestor, Ikaria wariootia, of all animals with a bilateral body plan is discovered as a fossil in rocks of South Australia.

Ikaria wariootia is half the size of a grain of rice and an early example of a bilateral organism Last modified on Mon 23 Mar 2020 19.42 GMT It might not show much of a family resemblance but fossil hunters say a newly discovered creature, that looks like a teardrop-shaped jellybean and is about half the size of a grain of rice, is an early relative of humans and a vast array of other animals. The team discovered the fossils in rocks in the outback of South Australia that are thought to be at least 555m years old. The researchers say the diminutive creatures are one of the earliest examples of a bilateral organism – animals with features including a front and a back, a plane of symmetry that results in a left and a right side, and often a gut that opens at each end. Humans, pigs, spiders and butterflies are all bilaterians, but creatures such as jellyfish are not. Dr Scott Evans, of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and a co-author of the research, said: “The major finding of the paper is that this is possibly the oldest bilaterian yet recognised in the fossil record. ​Because humans are bilaterians, we can say that this was a very early relative and possibly one of the first on the diverse bilaterian tree of life.” Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Scott and colleagues in the US and Australia report how they made their discovery in sandstone at sites including fossil-rich Nilpena. They say careful analysis ruled out the possibility that the fossils were actually formed by the action of currents or from microbial mats. The animal has been named Ikaria wariootia in reference to an Indigenous term for Wilpena Pound, a nearby landmark, and the Warioota Creek that is close to the sites of the find. The team not only found burrows, but more than 100 fossils of the tiny creatures themselves – essentially impressions of the animal in the rock – an unusual discovery since Ikaria wariootia, like many other animals of the time, were soft-bodied. That, the researchers say, is important: bilateral organisms are thought to have evolved during the Ediacaran period that stretched from 571m to 539m years ago, however previous evidence for such creatures has largely relied on traces such as the burrows they made. While the creatures were tiny – between 2mm and 7mm in length – their form reveals vital clues. “One major difference with a grain of rice is that Ikaria had a large and small end,” said Evans. “This may seem trivial but that means it had a distinct front and back end, which is the kind of organisation that leads to the variety of things with heads and tails that are around today.” The team say analysis of the burrows suggests Ikaria wariootia would have moved through the sediment of its shallow marine environment rather like an earthworm, by contracting groups of muscles. Furthermore, it would most probably have had a mouth and anus connected by a gut and fed on dead animals and other organic matter – conclusions drawn from the current finds together with evidence from similar burrows discovered several years previously within the fossils of other animals. “We also can see from the burrows that it targeted food and oxygen, which tells us that it had the ability to sense things in its environment,” said Evans, adding that this offered new insights into our oldest bilaterian ancestors. Prof Simon Conway Morris from the University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the work, described the findings as exciting. He said: “Although the tiny fossils are near the limits of resolution they both tantalisingly suggest a creature very close to the earliest known ancestor of all advanced animals and, even more intriguingly, a likely association with small traces made as the animal forged through the sediment in search of food.”

New archeological discoveries

March 2020

['(Geology Page)', '(The Guardian)']

Following talks in Belfast, the Democratic Unionist Party agrees to a "confidence and supply" deal to support a Conservative Party minority-government.

Downing Street and the Democratic Unionist Party say they are still in discussions over a possible deal to secure support for a minority Conservative government. On Saturday, Downing Street announced a deal had been agreed in principle - but both sides then issued statements saying talks were ongoing. The Tories need the support of the DUP's 10 MPs for a Commons majority. No 10 described it as a "confidence and supply" deal rather than a coalition. Prime Minister Theresa May is under pressure after Thursday's general election left her without a majority. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told the Sunday Mirror he could still be prime minister. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, meanwhile, dismissed reports of a Tory party leadership bid as "tripe". The agreement being discussed between the DUP and the Tories, who fell eight seats short of a majority in Thursday's election, is not a full coalition, but an agreement which sees the smaller party support the larger one in key votes such as on the Budget. Downing Street and the DUP issued separate statements overnight, emphasising that the deal between them had not yet been finalised. The tone of both was in contrast to Saturday evening's message from No 10, which said a deal had been agreed in principle. In a DUP statement released at midnight, the party said: "The DUP held discussions with representatives of the Conservative Party in line with Arlene Foster's commitment to explore how we might bring stability to the nation at this time of great challenge. "The talks so far have been positive." The DUP also retweeted a Sky News journalist's tweet claiming Downing Street's first statement had been issued in error. Within an hour, Downing Street said the details would be put forward by both parties "as and when" they were finalised. It added: "We will welcome any such deal being agreed, as it will provide the stability and certainty the whole country requires as we embark on Brexit and beyond." No explanation has been given for the change by Downing Street. In response to the earlier Downing Street statement, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron called on Mrs May to make public immediately the details of the deal "stitched up behind closed doors". Sinn Féin's leader in Northern Ireland Michelle O'Neill said the DUP had "betrayed the interests of the people" and the new arrangement would "end in tears". Mr Corbyn said the government did not have any credibility to go forward and the Labour Party would do what it could to stop it, including by voting down the Queen's Speech. The DUP are pro-union in UK terms, pro-Brexit and socially conservative. The party's 2017 manifesto outlined calls for increases in the personal tax allowance, continued rises in the national living wage, renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent and revisiting terrorism laws - all similar to Conservative policy. But they differ in areas including abolishing air passenger duty, cutting VAT for tourism businesses and maintaining a triple lock on pensions. Tory chief whip Gavin Williamson met DUP chiefs in Belfast on Saturday. Newsnight political editor Nick Watt said the DUP and Conservatives had been "looking at the full range of possibilities" during Mr Williamson's visit. The parties had discussed everything from just an informal undertaking to a full coalition agreement. He added: "I am told that what the DUP are looking at is securing benefits. So keep the pension triple lock and preserve universal benefits such as the winter fuel allowance for pensioners. "That would allow the DUP to say 'we are not just acting in the interests of Northern Ireland, we are true unionists, we are acting in the interest of the whole of the United Kingdom'." Meanwhile, the Mail on Sunday reported a "close ally" of Mr Johnson as saying it was "go-go-go" to get him to take over the party from Mrs May. But Mr Johnson tweeted: "Mail on Sunday tripe - I am backing Theresa May. Let's get on with the job." This deal would see the DUP promise to back the government in votes of no confidence and supply - or Budget - issues. In return, the government would support or fund some of the DUP's policies. These deals tend to be loose and a long way short of a formal coalition. Minority governments like this are not uncommon. John Major survived without a majority in the dying days of his Tory administration in the mid-1990s. Labour's Harold Wilson and James Callaghan governed with minorities for much of the 1970s. But these governments can be quite constrained in what they can do, passing as little legislation as possible to avoid defeat. They can also be unstable and short lived, if the deal between the parties breaks down and fresh elections have to be called.

Sign Agreement

June 2017

['(DUP)', '(BBC)']

Russia knocks out Spain from the World Cup after winning a penalty shootout.

Russia sensationally knocked Spain out of the World Cup after coming out on top of a knee-knocking penalty shootout. Missed penalties from Koke and Iago Aspas ensured Russia progressed to the last eight for the first time in its history, sparking joyous celebrations at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium. For all its possession and territory, the former world champion was far from convincing against a disciplined Russian side. Arten Dzyuba's penalty before the break negated Sergey Ignashevich's 12th-minute own goal and from there on in the Russians refused to cave, forcing the match into a penalty shootout after it had ended 1-1 following 120 minutes of play. The lowest-ranked team coming into this tournament and considered by some as the worst side in the country's history, the Russians surprised many by not only reaching the last 16 but doing so comfortably, steamrolling Saudi Arabia and Egypt and scoring eight goals in three games. Striker Dzyuba had described Sunday's last-16 encounter as a "match of a lifetime" and spoke of how the players needed to "die on the pitch" to have a chance of overcoming the 2010 World Champions. Buoyed by a partisan crowed, the home team gave it their all and there were tired Russian bodies aplenty after a stubborn defensive display took the tie to extra time and penalties. In the end, it was another astonishing result in a competition which has seen Germany, Argentina and also Portugal depart already and increases the likelihood of a first-time winner lifting the trophy. At times, it seemed as if the Russians were going to be killed by a hundred passes as La Rojo displayed a mastery of the ball for which the two-time European champion is renowned. By the end of the match the Spaniards had completed over a 1000 passes. But despite being blessed with a wealth of talent Spain has also failed to overwhelm opponents in this tournament, drawing with Portugal and Morocco in the group stage. The Spaniards went ahead in the 12th minute when Ignashevich backheeled the ball into his own net while attempting to rugby tackle Sergio Ramos to the ground as Marco Aesnsio guided a freekick towards the far post. Falling behind so early seemed to signal the beginning of the end for a Russian team playing five men in defense, but despite being starved of possession the Russians hit back before the break. Gerard Pique, beaten in the air by Dzyuba, stuck his arm up as the Russian headed towards the goal and the referee needed little time in awarding a penalty for handball. Dzyuba converted from the spot and it proved to be a costly mistake from the Barcelona defender as the rest of the match turned into defense versus attack with Russia's defenders, ultimately, coming out on top.

Sports Competition

July 2018

['(The Denver Channel)']

Warren Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is sentenced to five years to life in jail for complicity in rape.

A Utah court said the state board of pardons would ultimately determine how much time Warren Jeffs would serve. The 51-year-old was jailed for at least five years on two counts, with the sentences to be served consecutively. The self-proclaimed prophet was found guilty in September of encouraging the girl to have sex against her will. He spent 15 months on the run before his arrest in August 2006. Jeffs was the head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). The sect split from the Mormon Church after it renounced polygamy. He went into hiding after being charged in Arizona with being an accomplice to incest and sexual misconduct for allegedly arranging marriages between minors and older men. Warren Jeffs was on the FBI's most wanted while on the run At the time of his arrest he was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. A jury convicted Jeffs of orchestrating the girl's marriage to her 19-year-old cousin in 2001 and encouraging her to have sex by telling her she would go to hell if she did not. Allen Steed, who has not been charged with any offence, testified that his wife had initiated their first sexual encounter. Under Utah law a 14-year-old can consent to sex, but not if they are enticed by someone at least three years older. Church under pressure Jeffs, who is reputed to have 70 wives, took over the leadership of the FLDS church after his father, Rulon, died in 2002. An estimated 40,000 people in the US still believe in polygamy The 10,000-strong sect dominates the towns of Colorado City, in Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, less than a mile away. A compound in Eldorado, Texas, is also home to a growing community. Members believe a man must marry at least three wives in order to ascend to heaven. Women are taught that their path to heaven depends on being subservient to their husband. Polygamy is illegal in the US, but the authorities have reportedly been reluctant to confront the FLDS for fear of sparking a tragedy similar to the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian sect in Waco, Texas, which led to the deaths of about 80 members. However, observers say the church is coming under increasing pressure from authorities in Utah and Arizona.

Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence

November 2007

['(BBC)']

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte signs the Anti–Terrorism Act into law, repealing the Human Security Act signed in 2007.

Human rights groups say the new law will give the police and military forces more powers to stifle dissent. By Jason Gutierrez MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte signed a contentious antiterrorism bill Friday aimed at combating Islamic militancy in the south, a measure that critics warned could lead to more widespread human rights abuses. Muslims living in the southern Philippines have spoken out against the legislation to broaden powers of arrest and detention. On Friday, a regional government in the southern island of Mindanao that includes former separatist rebels urged Mr. Duterte’s government not to go through with the measure. The new law allows for terrorism suspects to be detained without a warrant, prolongs the amount of time that they can be detained without being charged in court, and removes a requirement that the police present suspects before a judge to assess whether they have been subjected to physical or mental torture. Rights groups and activists say the new law is designed to give Mr. Duterte’s police and military forces more powers to stifle dissent against his populist rule amid his war on drugs, which has killed thousands of people. Mr. Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, said the new law was necessary to crack down on terrorism. “Terrorism, as we often said, strikes anytime and anywhere,” Mr. Roque said. “It is a crime against the people and humanity. Thus, the fight against terrorism requires a comprehensive approach.” He stressed that terrorist acts in the Philippines had long “caused unimaginable grief and horror,” and added that the president and his legal team had carefully reviewed the legislation before he signed it into law. The law was signed days after the police and military forces killed four people believed to be Filipino militants linked to the Islamic State during a raid in Manila. The militants were suspected of working as financial conduits for the local branch of the Islamic State, according to the military. Officials said they were working with Mundi Sawadjaan, one of the accused plotters behind the January 2019 bombing of a Catholic cathedral on the southern island of Jolo that killed 23 people. The attack was carried out by an Indonesian couple wearing suicide vests. They were believed to have been directed by Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, the leader of the Islamic State in the Philippines and Mundi Sawadjaan’s relative. On Friday, Edre Olalia, of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, said the group would challenge the “draconian law.” “This without a doubt is the most unpopular and perilous piece of legislation that could ever be pushed by a government that is fixated with the potion of power,” said Mr. Olalia, whose group represents activist and indigent groups. Human Rights Watch said the new law gave security forces the power to arrest activists, journalists and social media users by simply saying that they are suspected of terrorist activities. “The law threatens to significantly worsen the human rights situation in the Philippines, which has nose-dived since the catastrophic war on drugs began four years ago,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for the group. He said the law gave the green light for the “systematic targeting” of Mr. Duterte’s critics, as well as Filipinos who speak out against the his government. Human Rights Watch expressed particular concern with provisions that permit warrantless arrests and allow people to be kept for weeks in solitary detention, elements that Mr. Robertson said could facilitate torture. Earlier this week, Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, released a report that attributed thousands of “systematic” killings that were done with “near-total impunity” to Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs. “The campaign against illegal drugs is being carried out without due regard for the rule of law, due process, and the human rights of people who may be using or selling drugs,” she said. Ms. Bachelet cited “an unwillingness by the state to hold to account perpetrators of extrajudicial killings,” and had urged Mr. Duterte not to sign the antiterrorism bill, which she said blurred distinctions between what is criticism of the government and what is terrorism.

Government Policy Changes

July 2020

['(The New York Times)', '(Al Jazeera)']

A 4-year-old boy is killed in a mortar attack on a southern Israeli village near the Gaza border; Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu vows that military operations will "intensify" because of his death. The IDF claims the mortar was fired from a school used as a shelter by Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said military operations will "intensify" after an Israeli boy was killed by fire from Gaza. The four-year-old died in a mortar attack on a southern Israeli village near the Gaza border. Meanwhile Israeli air strikes have continued, killing at least four people on Friday, Palestinian officials say. More than 2,090 Palestinians - mostly civilians - and 67 Israelis have been killed in recent weeks. Most of the dead on the Israeli side have been soldiers. A Thai national in the country was also killed by rocket fire early on in the six-week-old conflict. Mr Netanyahu's spokesman, Ofir Gendelman, quoted him on Twitter as saying Hamas would "pay a heavy price" for the boy's death. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet security service would "intensify" operations against Hamas until the goal of Israel's Operation Protective Edge campaign was achieved, he added. On Thursday, an Israeli air strike killed three senior Hamas leaders. Israeli officials say more than 80 rockets were fired from Gaza on Friday. One strike hit a synagogue in the coastal town of Ashdod, damaging the building and lightly wounding three civilians. Israeli says it carried out about 30 air strikes on Friday. In one evening raid, a house was destroyed in Gaza City, wounding more than 40 people - some seriously. Hostilities between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza resumed on Tuesday, scuppering efforts in the Egyptian capital Cairo to achieve a long-term ceasefire deal. Hamas has insisted on a lifting of the economic blockade of Gaza as part of any longer-term deal. Israel has vowed to pursue its campaign until "full security" is achieved through the disarmament of Hamas and other groups in Gaza. Also on Friday, Hamas sources in Gaza said 18 people accused of collaborating with Israel had been executed. Hamas sources said Friday's executions had been carried out by what it called the Resistance, which may suggest the involvement of other armed Palestinian factions. Hamas officials told Reuters news agency that the first 11 executions were carried out at an abandoned police station. Witnesses said another seven people were shot dead by men in Hamas uniforms outside the al-Umari mosque in central Gaza. After the first 11 executions, Hamas warned that "the same punishment will be imposed soon on others". It added that "the current circumstances forced us to take such decisions", suggesting a link between the executions and the killing of the three senior Hamas leaders.

Armed Conflict

August 2014

['(BBC)', '(Times of Israel)']

Asylum seekers at the Scherger Immigration Detention Centre near Weipa in the Australian state of Queensland start harming themselves in protest.

A male refugee has cut his own throat and another his arm during a protest at a remote Queensland immigration detention centre. The two protesters are among some 60 to 80 men who have been on a hunger strike since Thursday at the Scherger Immigration Detention Centre near Weipa, on the Cape York Peninsula. Asylum Seeker Resource Centre spokesman Pamela Curr said on Saturday some of the detainees had been at Scherger for up to 20 months and were protesting out of frustration over the slow processing of their asylum claims. "There are 80 men now who have been sitting outside medical for over 48 hours now," Ms Curr told AAP. "Two men are unconscious and two men have cut themselves, one on his arm and one on his throat. "One man has climbed a tree and was going to jump and his friends managed to bring him down." Ms Curr said all the detainees arrived in Australia by boat and had been interviewed at least once about their claims for asylum. A spokeswoman for the department confirmed two men had engaged in "minor" self harm overnight and were refusing medical assistance. "Their injuries are minor and they are being closely monitored by medical staff," the spokesman said. "At this stage they are refusing the medical care available to them." The spokeswoman said 484 men were detained at the immigration centre and described the protest as peaceful. "There's about 60 people involved in the protest but the numbers are fluid," the spokesman said.

Protest_Online Condemnation

July 2011

['(AAP via Sydney Morning Herald)']

Same–sex marriage in California comes into effect following a court ruling on May 15, 2008.

SAN FRANCISCO, June 16 (Reuters) - California begins marrying gay and lesbian couples on Monday afternoon in a step likely to challenge other states where laws define marriage as only between a man and a woman. A state Supreme Court decision last month overturning a ban on gay marriage has already produced one major change: marriage licenses will no longer list bride and groom but rather Party A and Party B. The landmark ruling goes into effect at the close of business on Monday, when San Francisco and West Hollywood, both known for a major gay population, will marry one couple each. Dozens of other couples will marry in a handful of smaller county offices open to all in the evening. California is the second state to marry same-sex couples after Massachusetts, but it is the first ready to grant licenses to couples from any state. Gay marriage is rejected by 45 states, but New York will honor California unions. “If marriages performed outside of New York are going to be recognized, I’m sure it won’t be too long before New Yorkers will be able to be married in their own state. So already it is having an impact that crosses the impact to the Atlantic Coast,” said Star Trek’s Mr. Sulu -- actor George Takei -- who is marrying longtime partner Brad Altman. “We are boldly going where no one has gone before,” he said, jokingly echoing the opening of the TV series. Many states and countries allow domestic partnerships though a relative few recognize gay marriage, including Massachusetts, Belgium, Canada, Spain and the Netherlands. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, whose 2004 decision to marry gay and lesbian couples helped unleash the court battle ended last month, on Monday will marry Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, an octogenarian pair who have been together more than 50 years and were the first married at City Hall four years ago. Around the most populous U.S. state, with more than 36 million people, a few marriage offices will start ceremonies after 5 p.m. (8 p.m. EDT/0000 GMT) and work into the evening. Hundreds of volunteers have been deputized to marry couples in tents and on courthouse lawns. Opponents aim to fight back in November when Californians will vote whether to change the state constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman. Los Angeles’ seven Catholic bishops on Monday said marriage “has a unique place in God’s creation, joining a man and a woman.” Outside of the county clerk’s office in Oakland, California, across the bay from San Francisco, a lone protester stood next to a camper covered in anti-gay marriage placards and criticized the state Supreme Court. “I’d be of a mind to tar and feather them,” said Ronald Brock, 69. Acceptance of homosexual marriage has grown in the United States and abroad, although less than a third of Americans responding to a recent CBS poll say they should be legal. Over a third oppose gay marriage. It was an issue in the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign but University of Southern California law professor David Cruz said gay marriage had not been a major topic this election year. He predicted that the practicalities of married gay couples moving from California to other states would spark change. “People’s attitudes are already changing, and what will change public opinion in favor of same-sex marriages further is knowing same-sex couples and seeing them live their lives like other married couples,” he said. (Additional reporting by Amanda Beck in Oakland and Syantani Chatterjee in Los Angeles) (Editing by Mary Milliken and Doina Chiacu) Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Government Policy Changes

June 2008

['(Reuters)']

Mauritania extradites a man to Mali convicted for kidnapping three Spanish aid workers believed to be held by the Al–Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb.

NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Mauritania has extradited to Mali a man convicted for his role in kidnapping three Spanish aid workers, two of whom still believed held by al Qaeda’s North African wing. The extradition of Omar Sid-Ahmed Ould Hamma, alias Omar Sahraoui, to his home country took place on Monday, according to a statement issued by Mauritania’s Communications Ministry. But a Malian official close to the case said the man was sent back on August 11. Officials declined to comment on whether the extradition was linked to any effort to free the remaining two hostages, Albert Vilalta and Roque Pascual. “We can’t confirm that he will be exchanged for the Spanish hostages, even if we believe there is a link between the two,” the Malian source said on condition of anonymity. Ould Hamma was sentenced to 12 years’ hard labor for the kidnapping last year, one of a string of attacks that has raised the profile of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which numbers a few hundred fighters. Vilalta and Pascual are thought to be still held in an unknown location in the vast Sahara desert shared by Mauritania, Mali, Algeria and Niger. Ould Hamma first admitted involvement but later denied it. AQIM is a wing of al Qaeda in North Africa responsible for a string of kidnappings. Mali has long been seen as a weak spot in regional efforts to fight the Islamists and was criticized by neighbors for a prisoner swap it agreed to earlier this year. AQIM emerged in 2007 from the Salafist movement in Algeria which waged a campaign of suicide bombings and ambushes against military and international targets in the 1990s. The group has since shifted a large part of its activities south to the Sahara desert -- using the politically volatile and sparsely populated area as a safe haven for its hostage and drugs smuggling operations. AQIM said in late July it killed a French hostage as revenge for a raid by French-backed Mauritanian troops on a base in Mali -- the second killing of a hostage claimed by the group in the Sahara.

Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence

August 2010

['(Reuters)', '(Voice of America)']

Syrian Republican Guard major general Issam Zahreddine, known for leading battles against the rebels in Homs and Aleppo, is killed by a landmine in Deir ez-Zor, according to Syrian media.

Brigadier general of the Republican Guard and the commander of operations in Deir al-Zor, Issam Zahreddine, was killed in a mine explosion in the Hawija-Sakr area inside the city of Deir al-Zor, according to Syrian media. Zahreddine played a role in the progress made by the Syrian army forces in the city of Deir al-Zor, and the surrounding areas, which reached strategic fields in the city. Zahreddine led army operations against the armed opposition in Homs and Aleppo, before moving to the eastern region to fight ISIS. Brigadier general of the Republican Guard and the commander of operations in Deir al-Zor, Issam Zahreddine, was killed in a mine explosion in the Hawija-Sakr area inside the city of Deir al-Zor, according to Syrian media. Zahreddine played a role in the progress made by the Syrian army forces in the city of Deir al-Zor, and the surrounding areas, which reached strategic fields in the city. Zahreddine led army operations against the armed opposition in Homs and Aleppo, before moving to the eastern region to fight ISIS.

Famous Person - Death

October 2017

['(Al Arabiya)']

Hong Kong's Occupy Central protest leaders call for supporters to hold a major rally after the Government of Hong Kong calls off planned talks.

Thousands of people are demonstrating in Hong Kong's financial district after protest leaders called for a show of strength. It comes after the territory's deputy leader called off talks with student leaders scheduled for Friday. Carrie Lam said the students' refusal to end their protest had made "constructive dialogue" impossible. The protesters, demanding full democratic elections in 2017, paralysed parts of Hong Kong in recent weeks. Throughout the week only a few hundred protesters, mostly students, remained on the streets around the financial and government district of Admiralty and in Mong Kok north of the harbour. But after the talks were cancelled, leaders of the student movement called on supporters to return to the streets. "Come to occupy the road outside the public headquarters, come bring your tents to show our persistence on long term occupy action," said Joshua Wong, the 17-year-old founder of the Scholarism movement. The BBC's Juliana Liu in Hong Kong says the activists are hoping a new show of strength will be enough to sustain the movement. "We are now planning on further action for escalating [the campaign] if the government keeps denying the meeting," said Alex Chow, secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS). Once again the protest was entirely peaceful and good-natured, with speeches, applause and a bit of singing. But this was a rally on a Friday night in response to a call for a show of strength - oughtn't it to be ginormous, rather than just big? Some estimates put the number at 10,000 or more but that's still a long way short of the scale of the protests at their peak. Hardly resounding proof of city-wide support for the pro-democracy fight and disruption it's causing. But, if nothing else, neither is it small enough in scale to give the Hong Kong government what it so badly wants. This is not yet a movement that has run out of steam. The stalemate continues. The protesters want to be able to directly elect Hong Kong's leader, the chief executive, in the 2017 election. China has said that, under Hong Kong law, voters will be able to vote freely but from a list approved by a nominating committee. Ms Lam has accused the students of "undermining trust" in the proposed talks by repeatedly calling people out to protest. "The dialogue cannot be deployed as an excuse to incite more people to join the protest," she said. "The illegal occupation activists must stop." In a separate development on Friday, Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou used his National Day speech to urge Beijing to move towards democracy, voicing support for Hong Kong's protesters. Mr Ma said that as China became more prosperous, its people would want more democracy and the rule of law. "Such a desire has never been a monopoly of the West, but it is the right of all humankind," he said. Taiwan - which Beijing views as a breakaway province but which has been governed separately since 1949 - has been watching developments in Hong Kong closely. Q&A: Hong Kong's democracy controversy

Protest_Online Condemnation

October 2014

['(BBC)']

The Assembly of North Macedonia votes 108–12 to dissolve itself after the country failed to start accession talks with the European Union, and sets the parliamentary election date for April 12.

SKOPJE (Reuters) - North Macedonia’s parliament dissolved itself on Sunday and set April 12 for an early election, eight months ahead of the end of the current term, in what is seen as a major test for the pro-EU policies of former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev’s Social Democrats. The move, endorsed by 108 deputies in the 120-seat parliament, follows Zaev’s resignation last month that came after the European Union failed to give his country a date to start talks on joining the bloc. Zaev’s cabinet was replaced by an interim government led by Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski which was tasked to ensure conditions for a free and fair vote. “I have signed the decision (to set the date) for early elections on April 12,” Talat Xhaferi, the parliamentary speaker, told deputies. French President Emmanuel Macron in October refused to let North Macedonia start EU entry talks, despite concerns over increased Chinese and Russian meddling in the Balkans. Skopje had expected to be granted a date to start accession talks after settling a dispute with neighboring Greece by changing the country’s name to North Macedonia from Macedonia. Macron also led a group of EU leaders who ruled out opening talks with Albania. Serbia and Montenegro also aspire to join the European Union but the enlargement process has also largely stalled amid concerns in the West about immigration and the strains of Brexit. Bosnia and Kosovo, the other two EU hopefuls from the Balkans, are lagging far behind. Earlier this month, EU’s enlargement commissioner, Oliver Varhelyi, proposed giving EU members the power to delay or reverse the process of admitting new nations or to force them to restart entry talks in some policy areas. North Macedonia is expected to become the 30th member of NATO early this year, once its accession has been ratified by all the member states of the U.S.-led alliance.

Government Job change - Election

February 2020

['(Reuters)']

President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari accepts that "non–state actors" exist in the country and vows to root out terrorism there.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan’s president promised on Saturday to rid the country of terrorism and his prime minister said the military would not take action first in any face-off with India. Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, speaks during a ceremony on her first death anniversary in Naudero near Larkana, December 27, 2008. REUTERS/Nadeem Soomro Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbors have deteriorated after India blamed Islamist militants based in Pakistan for the last month’s attacks on Mumbai that killed 179 people. In a sign of mounting tension, Pakistan has canceled army leave and shifted some troops from its western border with Afghanistan to the eastern border with India. Pakistan has condemned the Mumbai attacks and has denied any state role, blaming “non-state actors.” President Asif Ali Zardari, speaking at ceremony to mark the first anniversary of the assassination of his wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, said dialogue was the best way forward. “Yes, we have none state actors...yes, they are forcing an agenda on us. But please don’t fall victim because you will be the victim, we will be the victim, the region will be the victim,” Zardari said. The South Asian neighbors both tested nuclear weapons in 1998. They have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947 and came to the brink of a fourth after gunmen attacked the Indian parliament in December 2001. Although many analysts say war is unlikely, international unease is growing and the United States has urged both sides not to raise tension further. China and Iran have also tried to calm things down. Earlier, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said Pakistan did not want war but was ready for one, although it would not be the first to act in any face-off with India. Related Coverage “Our armed forces are...fully prepared but at the same time I assure you, once again, that we will not act. We will only react,” Gilani told Muslim diplomats in Islamabad. The movement of Pakistani troops off the Afghan border is likely to cause alarm in the United States which does not want to see its ally distracted from the battle against al Qaeda and Taliban militants. “WAR HYSTERIA” Zardari, in comments he said were directed at both the United States and India, vowed to change Pakistan, which India has described as an epicenter of terrorism. “We ourselves have accepted that we have a cancer...Yes, we will cure it. We will solve this problem,” he said. India, the United States and Britain have blamed the Mumbai attack on Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, set up by Pakistani agencies in the late 1980s to fight Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region. Pakistan has offered to cooperate with India and promised to try any Pakistani found involved in the attacks but it says India has yet to provide evidence. Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Pakistan was creating “war hysteria” and was trying to deflect the issue rather than tackle it, the Press Trust of India reported. “The issue is not the defense of Pakistan, the issue is not war, the issue is the terrorist attack on Mumbai,” the news agency quoted Mukherjee as saying. The foreign ministry in New Delhi warned Indian citizens it would be unsafe to travel to, or be in, Pakistan. A bus service between the Indian capital and the Pakistani city of Lahore was running on Saturday despite the warning. Pakistan media reported that several Indian nationals had been held in recent days after a bombing in the Lahore. Additional reporting by Paul Tait in New Delhi; Editing by Robert Birsel 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. Exclusive: Fed’s Neel Kashkari opposes rate hikes at least through 2023 as the central bank becomes more hawkish

Famous Person - Give a speech

December 2008

['(Reuters)']

Unlike the first round of the Haitian parliamentary elections when balloting was cancelled in 22 constituencies, voting appeared orderly, and largely peaceful, with a large turnout in Sunday's presidential and parliamentary second round elections. Electoral officials said there might be partial results in 10 days but final results would not be ready until late November. Haitians faced lengthy ballots featuring 54 presidential hopefuls and significant numbers of legislative and municipal candidates. An expected runoff between the top two presidential candidates is scheduled for December 27.

Jude Celestine of the LAPEH political party, considered the frontrunner in a huge field of 54 Haitian presidential candidates, votes in Port-au-Prince on October 25, 2015 PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct 26 – Haiti celebrated peaceful elections with robust turnout as the poorest country in the Americas seeks to shed chronic political instability and get back on its feet. Though voting unfolded in a climate of uncertainty, there was a large turnout without major incidents as Haitians cast their ballots to choose a new president, lawmakers and local officials. Provisional Electoral Council President Pierre-Louis Opont praised the “exploit” of a peaceful election. “We would like to thank the voters who stayed calm and hopefully were able to choose the country’s new leaders for the next few years,” he said. In Port-au-Prince, people stood in long lines outside polling stations, a sight unseen in Haiti in more than a decade. This marked a major change compared to the last voting day, when two people were killed in sporadic violence in August. Authorities took precautions as a result, with police deploying some 10,000 officers, backed by 5,000 from the UN peacekeeping force MINUSTAH in a bid to keep matters under control. “On August 9, I had left home to go vote, but I saw people pushing each other around, people causing mayhem and throwing things. So I turned around because I didn’t want to have bottles thrown at me,” said Franzty Jeudi. “Today, it’s going really well. I came to vote with my parents and we are at ease,” said the smiling 26-year-old. Despite delays caused by logistical challenges, voters waited calmly under sunny skies to cast their ballots. Some expressed hope that the polls — the only one of several recent elections in Haiti to take place on schedule — could bring change. Results, however, are not expected before early November. At the large Canape-Vert market, in the heart of the capital, Electoral Council workers checked voters’ identification cards. “The police had a good strategy. I’m satisfied. They corrected a lot of things since August,” said Willy Saint-Fort after casting his vote in one of the four ballot boxes placed set up in a stall where fruits and vegetables are usually sold. “Enough with provisional governments and violence,” added Saint-Fort, 43. – ‘Great success’ – At a small public school near the Champ de Mars, housing the presidential palace, voters expressed the same confidence. “This election took place without any irregularities,” said Frantz Philemon. “We expressed our wishes as citizens for difference in our country. It was a great success. By midday, 73 arrests had been made, with those taken into custody in possession of multiple voting cards or fake proxy papers, according to police. “The police are in control of the situation,” police spokesman Frantz Lerebours told AFP. “There were several attempts to disrupt voting but the officers immediately stopped those attempts.” The elections come nearly five years after President Michel Martelly came to power in a country that has failed to find democratic stability since the end of the 30-year Duvalier dictatorship in 1986. The pop singer and political novice assumed office in 2011, the year after a catastrophic earthquake killed more than 200,000, flattened most buildings in the capital and left hundreds of thousands living on the streets. Five years on, more than 85,000 people still live in makeshift camps, according to Amnesty International. And a nagging conflict between the executive branch and the opposition since Martelly came to power delayed the staging of legislative polls for years. – Dozens of contenders – Fifty-four candidates are running for Haiti’s highest office and a chance to lift the destitute nation out of its systemic poverty. But that abundance of hopefuls is not a sign of democratic health. Most are unknown to the general public, and only a handful have released policy platforms. “The debates were shallow. The candidates only spoke in generalities. None of them showed that they are in a position to manage the situation well,” said Haitian economist Kesner Pharel. One of the few candidates to emerge from the crowded field is Jude Celestin, of the LAPEH party, who was eliminated from the second round in the controversial 2010 vote following an OAS recount and is considered the frontrunner this time. “We are headed straight for a victory at the first round,” Celestin told AFP as he voted at the school in Petionville Sunday morning, urging supporters to keep turning out, and to do so peacefully. But there is also a groundswell of support in some areas for Maryse Narcisse, a physician and longtime activist of the Fanmi Lavalas party. Narcisse has the powerful and very public backing of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide — and for some Haitians, that is enough. Aristide, a divisive figure who returned from exile in 2011, is revered among the many poor in the capital. Whoever takes over from Martelly on February 7 will face huge challenges and a humanitarian emergency. Six million of Haiti’s 10 million people live in extreme poverty, getting by on less than $2.50 a day.

Government Job change - Election

October 2015

['(Miami Herald)', '(AP via Washington Post)', '(AFP via Capital Broadcasting Network)']

Patriarch Filaret, former honorary Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, founder and current Patriarch of once again the second non-canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kiev Patriarchate, was confirmed to be a positive case of COVID-19. He becomes the first independent and non-canonical autocephalous leader or patriarch in the Eastern Orthodox faith to contract the disease. Months earlier, he had stated that the pandemic was God's punishment for same-sex marriage, which is currently not legally-recognized in Ukraine. Activists say homophobia is still widespread in the national culture.

A church leader who blamed the emergence of coronavirus on same-sex marriage has now contracted the disease. Patriarch Filaret, 91, is in hospital in a stable condition after he was diagnosed with Covid 19 during routine testing. The Ukrainian website 112.international has reported that he has also developed pneumonia. Confirming his diagnosis on Friday, a statement posted on Facebook said: ‘We inform that during planned testing, His Holiness Patriarch Filaret of Kyiv and All Rus-Ukraine tested positive for Covid 19. Now His Holiness Bishop is undergoing treatment at a hospital.’ As the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv, Filaret is one of the country’s most prominent religious figures and has 15 million followers.  He was heavily criticised by LGBT groups for his comments about coronavirus back in March.  In a TV interview he said that the outbreak was ‘God’s punishment for the sins of men, the sinfulness of humanity. First of all, I mean same-sex marriage.’ At the time, Maria Guryeva, a spokeswoman for Amnesty International Ukraine, said: ‘Such statements … are very harmful because they could lead to increased attacks, aggression, discrimination and acceptance of violence against certain groups.’ Kiev-based group Insight said it was taking legal action against him because his comments risked fuelling hatred and discrimination.  A spokeswoman for the group told the Reuters press agency they wanted an apology for disseminating false information from both the Patriarch and the TV channel that aired the interview. Several other religious figures around the world have blamed the virus on LGBT people since it first emerged in China late last year.  Prominent figures in the US and a rabbi in Israel have claimed coronavirus is ‘divine intervention’ in response to LGBT rights.  The World Health Organisation has condemned this spread of misinformation, warning it fuels stigmatisation and discrimination. Representatives of Filaret have previously defended his remarks, saying they were ‘consistent with Ukrainian laws’ and that he’s ‘entitled to express his views.’ Same-sex marriage is not legally recognised in Ukraine and activists say homophobia is still widespread. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. For more stories like this, check our news page.

Famous Person - Sick

September 2020

['(Metro)', '(NBC news)']

Palestinian militants fire a barrage of rockets from Gaza into southern Israel, in a crossborder escalation following an earlier attack in which four Israeli soldiers are injured, two seriously, when an antitank missile fired from the Gaza Strip hits an Israeli army jeep patrolling some 200 meters inside the Israeli border with Gaza; Israel carries out counterstrikes, killing five Palestinians and wounding 30.

Southern Israel came under a barrage of rocket fire from Gaza Saturday night, in a cross-border escalation following an earlier terrorist attack that injured four soldiers.Israel carried out counter-strikes, killing five Palestinians and wounding 30. More than 30 rockets eight of them long-range were fired into Israel. There were no immediate reports of injuries in the rocket fire, although a woman in Ashdod broke her leg running to a safe area as a rocket alarm sounded. A car took a direct hit in a town in the Sha’ar Hanegev region adjacent to the Gaza Strip. Schools were ordered closed Sunday in the town of Gan Yavne. Commercial traffic through the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel into Gaza was also canceled. Rockets fell in the Hof Ashkelon and Eshkol regions, with at least one rocket reported to have landed near a kibbutz.One rocket hit a power line in a town in the Eshkol region, causing local power outages. Alarms also sounded in the Ashdod and Ashkelon areas. The Iron Dome missile defense system shot down three rockets heading toward residential areas in Ashdod and Ashkelon.

Armed Conflict

November 2012

['(The Times of Israel)']

Imprisoned former Congolese warlord Germain Katanga is ordered by the International Criminal Court to pay reparations to some of his victims in the first such ruling by the court.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has for the first time ordered a war criminal to pay reparations to victims of his atrocities. Germain Katanga, an ex-militia leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo, should pay $1m (£800,000) to villagers targeted in 2003, judges ruled. But as he was insolvent, the ICC Trust Fund for Victims should consider making the payment, the judges added. Katanga followed proceedings via video link from jail in DR Congo. The ICC sentenced him to 12 years in 2014 for aiding and abetting war crimes. He was behind the 2003 massacre of hundreds of villagers in north-eastern DR Congo. In total, the court ordered reparations of more than $3.7m. "The chamber has assessed the scope of the prejudice to 297 victims as $3,752,620. The chamber sets the amount to be contributed by Mr Katanga towards the reparations as $1m," said presiding judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut. A "symbolic" sum of $250 (£200) should be given to each of the 297 victims and a further $1m in "collective reparations", the judge said. Lawyers for the victims set out a detailed list of losses, including the destruction of houses, furniture, and the killing of livestock. They also said survivors had suffered psychological harm because of the loss of loved ones. "The order provides for two types of reparations: individual reparations, awarded to individuals to repair the harm they have suffered; and collective reparations, consisting of long-term projects covering a whole community but still focusing on individual victims to the extent possible," an ICC statement said.

Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence

March 2017

['(BBC)']

Typhoon Fanapi hits Taiwan with at least three people killed and dozens of people injured. The Peoples Republic of China steps up its emergency response in preparation for an impact on Monday. ,

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Typhoon Fanapi punished Taiwan with 125 mph winds Sunday, downing trees and power lines, and killing at least three people and injuring dozens, officials said. The storm cleared the island about 6 p.m. and was head toward mainland China. The China Meteorological Administration raised the storm alert to the second-highest level and warned coastal areas between Guangdong and Fujian provinces that Fanapi would make landfall Monday morning. China's Xinhua news agency said shipping lanes between China and Taiwan were closed by the government. Police said a woman was killed when she fell into a river while doing last-minute harvesting ahead of the storm. Two students drowned in a flooded canal when a girl slipped and fell and two friends jumped in after her, CNN said. The Taipei Times reported Fanapi had crippled transportation nationwide and blew down power lines as it made landfall at 8:40 a.m. Sunday. Severe flooding was reported in southern Taiwan where several inches of rain had fallen, the newspaper said. The Times said TV footage from Hualien showed lines of fallen trees, several houses with their roofs ripped off, an overturned truck and several parked cars crushed by fallen trees in Taipei City. The Central Emergency Operation Center had reported two people missing and 75 people slightly injured by the storm. Electrical power was cut off to about 314,000 households nationwide. Power had been restored to 140,000 of those households by noon, and was expected to be restored to the rest by the end of the day, Taiwan Power Co. said.

Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard

September 2010

['(Inday)', '(Bloomberg)', '(UPI)']

England international footballer Adam Johnson is sentenced to six years in prison for child grooming and child sexual activity.

Footballer Adam Johnson has been jailed for six years for grooming and sexual activity with a girl aged 15. Sentencing the ex-Sunderland player, Judge Jonathan Rose told him he had abused a position of trust and caused his victim "severe psychological harm". The judge told Johnson, 28, he had engaged in sexual activity with her knowing she was under 16. It can now be reported police found extreme pornography involving animals on Johnson's laptop. The matter is not being taken any further, Bradford Crown Court heard. The sexual activity with the girl happened in the footballer's Range Rover in January 2015 after he had groomed her using social media apps. Johnson jailed: Updates Judge Rose told the footballer, who played 12 times for England, there had been "an abuse of trust - you are trusted by young fans to behave properly". He said: "She had only just turned 15 when you began grooming her, because, as you were to admit, you found her sexually attractive." The judge told Johnson the offences happened "at a time when you were engaged in frequent sexual intercourse with multiple partners". At the start of his trial last month, Johnson had admitted grooming the girl and one charge of sexual activity, relating to kissing her. He was found guilty of sexual touching and cleared of one charge relating to another sexual act. Judge Rose said Johnson had had "every opportunity" to enter guilty pleas to the charges he finally admitted. He ordered the footballer to pay £50,000 of the prosecution's £67,132 costs. During the three-week trial the jury heard the former winger met the girl after agreeing to sign football shirts for her. How apps helped to convict Adam Johnson He admitted kissing the teenager but told the jury an encounter in his Range Rover "went no further". The girl told the court he had "put his hands down her pants" and she performed a sex act on him. The jury cleared Johnson over the sex act claim but convicted him by a 10-2 majority on the sexual touching charge. Restrictions have now been lifted that prevented it being reported that, when Johnson was arrested, police found medicines in a safe indicating he may have been suffering from sexually transmitted infections. In a victim impact statement read to court, the girl said she had been forced to endure thousands of malicious and slanderous remarks on social media and had been approached by a stranger asking about her relationship with the footballer. She felt at risk going out and her schoolwork had suffered "massively", the court was told. "I have entered many dark places over this 12-month period," she said. "Ultimately, it was like I was being taunted as if to say he could do what he wants and get away with it." In another statement to the court, her mother said there "had been no winners" and defended the decision to report the matter to police in order to "protect other vulnerable children". She stressed the family had never sought financial gain. Why Johnson's chances of playing again are "very remote" Earlier, Dr Philip Hopley, a consultant psychiatrist giving evidence for the defence, told the court: "This is a man who, at the age of 28, is socially and psychologically immature." The doctor said he found no evidence in Johnson of an attraction to pre-pubescent children or "sexual perversion". Speaking after Johnson was sentenced, Det Insp Aelfwynn Sampson, of Durham Police, said: "Fame, celebrity and a position of power does not give you the right to break the law in pursuit of whatever you desire. "This girl should have been safe but she was used by the public figure she looked up to most." Jon Brown, from children's charity the NSPCC, questioned whether the Football Association's "really comprehensive high quality rules and regulations and policies" for child protection were followed throughout the game's hierarchy. "We are concerned about the extent to which they're actually being embedded and implemented at club level," he said. "We're concerned that may not be the case right across the country." Outside the court, Gerry Wareham from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Adam Johnson exploited a young star-struck fan, actively grooming her over a number of months in single-minded pursuit of his own sexual gratification." Earlier, the court was told the player had lodged an appeal against his conviction for sexual activity with the girl. Johnson began his career at Middlesbrough before moving to Manchester City and then on to Sunderland in 2012. Johnson unlikely to play again

Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence

March 2016

['(BBC)']

Warsaw residents prepare to flee floodwaters as the Vistula river overflows.

An aerial view shows the flooded areas near the village of Swiniary, in Central Poland , on Monday. Photo: AP.   As northern Poland prepared on Tuesday for the arrival of a flood wave that has so far claimed the lives of 16 people, the government pledged assistance to victims to help them repair or rebuild their homes. The flood wave, which formed in southern Poland along the Vistula River after days of heavy rain, has travelled along the river up north and reached the province of Pomerania, located on the Baltic coast. The death toll for the flooding reached 16 on Tuesday after a 13—year—old girl drowned in the Vistula River in Pulawy, eastern Poland. A man working on a flood barrier nearby tried to rescue the girl, but the current was too strong and carried her away. Firefighters later recovered her body. Firefighters and police worked through the night into Tuesday in the town of Tczew, in the north of the country, putting up flood barriers. Some 11 people were evacuated from the nearby town of Gniew, at their own request, as the flood risk increased. Prime Minister Donald Tusk pledged 2 billion zloty (586.8 million dollars) on Tuesday to aid flood victims in a long—term effort that would allow them to fix or rebuild homes, he said. The payments would be up to 6,000 zloty per family, Mr. Tusk said, adding that many had already claimed the aid. “We do not want to save money, and we will not try to save money when it comes to aid to flood victims,” Mr. Tusk said. Aid would come from budget reserves and could be given without amending this year’s budget, he added. Rescue efforts were continuing in central Poland. The village of Dobrzykow continued efforts to strengthen a barrier of sand bags. Some 25 communities would be threatened if the barriers broke. The nearby towns of Slubice and Gabin were continuing to evacuate some 4,000 people left underwater when a barrier broke there on Monday. Another 400 were evacuated on Monday night from a neighbourhood in Plock, central Poland, due to the increasing threat of flooding. Russia is to deliver 14 tons of aid to the flood—stricken regions on Tuesday, including water pumps, boats and mobile power plants, Russian state agency RIA Novosti reported. It is the first time Poland has asked the Kremlin for help since the two countries signed an aid agreement in 1993, Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said. Pope Benedict XVI sent 50,000 euros (61,000 dollars) to help the victims of the nationwide flooding, the Polish Press Agency reported. Water levels were falling in Warsaw, where they dropped to 7.18 metres on Tuesday morning after peaking late Saturday at 7.7 metres. Rescue workers added more sandbags to a barrier at a river port in the city that came under threat on Sunday.

Floods

May 2010

['(The Guardian)', '(The Hindu)']

Luxury automaker Daimler, owner of the Mercedes–Benz brand, is fined €870 million by prosecutors in Stuttgart, Germany for its role in the diesel emissions scandal.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Daimler DAIGn.DE will pay a fine of 870 million euros ($957 million) for breaking diesel emissions regulations, German prosecutors said on Tuesday. The maker of Mercedes-Benz cars said it would not appeal against the penalty and that it was keeping its earnings forecast unchanged. The fine ends some of the legal uncertainty surrounding the Stuttgart-based company. Prosecutors and regulators around the world have been investigating carmakers since Volkswagen’s admission in 2015 that it cheated U.S. diesel pollution tests, which led to revelations of rule breaches by a number of manufacturers. Separately on Tuesday, German prosecutors indicted top managers at Volkswagen VOWG_p.DE, saying they delayed telling investors about the company's wrongdoing. Stuttgart prosecutors said the fine on Daimler had no impact on ongoing proceedings into alleged manipulation by some individuals of engine software used in some Daimler diesel cars. The prosecutors’ office said Daimler had negligently violated its supervisory duties starting in 2008. As a result, certain diesel vehicles were certified despite exceeding emissions thresholds in some cases, it added. “It is in the company’s best interest to end the administrative offence proceeding in a timely and comprehensive manner and thereby conclude this matter,” Daimler said, confirming it would not appeal. Shares in the company were down 0.7% at 1330 GMT. In May 2017, German prosecutors searched Daimler offices as part of a fraud inquiry related to possible manipulation of exhaust gas after-treatment in diesel cars. Daimler also faces regulatory scrutiny by U.S. authorities. In February 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asked Mercedes-Benz to explain emissions levels in some of its diesel cars. In June this year, Daimler cut its 2019 earnings outlook after lifting provisions for issues related to its diesel vehicles by hundreds of millions of euros. Reporting by Thomas Seythal; Editing by Madeline Chambers and Mark Potter Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Organization Fine

September 2019

['(Reuters)']

Two days of clashes in Indian-administrated Jammu and Kashmir leaves eight militants and nine civilians dead, while over 100 protesters are injured during anti-India demonstrations.

Authorities beefed up security in Indian Kashmir on Monday after 17 people were killed in gun battles and attacks over the weekend, including a university professor-turned suspected militant, and more than 100 were injured in protests. But the situation remained tense as at least a dozen anti-India protesters were injured in fresh street clashes on Monday in south Kashmir’s Shopian district. A day earlier, five civilians and five suspected militants, including the professor, Mohammad Rafi Bhat, and a top Hizbul Mujahideen separatist, Saddam Padder, were killed during a counter-insurgency operation, officials said. Local media described Padder as a top recruiter for the militant organization. Meanwhile, clashes in the disputed Himalayan region left more than 100 anti-India protesters injured on Sunday, a day after three Lashkar-e-Toiba militants and a civilian were killed during a gunfight with security forces in Srinagar. Also on Saturday suspected militants shot and killed three civilians in north Kashmir’s Bandipora and Sopore towns. The victims were suspected of working as informers for security forces, a police official told BenarNews on condition of anonymity. Internet service remained suspended across the region for a second day on Monday, leading authorities to order schools closed and to postpone university examinations indefinitely even as police played down the protests. “Barring a few minor incidents of stone throwing Monday morning, the situation is under control in south Kashmir,” Amit Kumar, deputy inspector general of police, told BenarNews. “There will be further improvement in the situation in coming days. Security has been strengthened especially in sensitive areas of south Kashmir, including Shopian district, to maintain order. Police expect youths not to resort to violence and help maintain peace,” he added. Separatists extended their shutdown call for Tuesday against what they described as extra-judicial killings at the hands of Indian security forces in the region, which has seen about 70,000 killed during an insurgency over the last three decades. Both India and arch rival Pakistan have contending territorial claims on Kashmir and have fought wars over it. On Monday, Mehbooba Mufti, the chief minister of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, urged parents to protect their children. “I am shocked by yesterday’s killings. I appeal to Kashmiri people and also to the rest of the country to save our children from losing their lives to violence,” Mufti told reporters in Srinagar. “God brought us into this world to live a good life and not throw away our lives to violence. Unfortunately stones and guns are in the hands of poor children. I appeal government of India too to play its role in saving lives of Kashmiri youths,” she said. Professor contacted family Two days after he went missing from Kashmir University where he taught sociology for about 18 months, Bhat, 30, was declared dead along with four other suspected militants following a gunbattle in Shopian on Sunday. Family members said they did not know the professor who completed his doctorate in November 2017 had joined militants, and were shocked to get a phone call on Sunday morning. “I may have hurt you, please forgive me. I am sorry I cannot see you ever as I am fighting a gun-battle and may meet Almighty God soon,” Bhat’s brother, Imtiyaz Ahmad Bhat, quoted him as having said minutes before he died in the gun battle. “He talked briefly to our father and to other family members including his wife by phone from the gun fight site seeking forgiveness before putting the phone down never to receive our calls again. Sometime later police asked us to go to the gunfight site to convince him to surrender but before we could have reached there, all five militants had attained martyrdom,” he told BenarNews. On Friday, Bhat who was married three years ago, delivered what turned out to be his last lecture at the university. “He was a great teacher and human being. He would give his best to the students and advise them to work hard and excel in studies,” Masood Ahmad, a student at department of sociology told BenarNews. Police are trying to determine what led to Bhat’s radicalization. “Our initial investigations suggest his two cousins were killed in the past and this may have motivated him to join the militants to avenge the killings,” S.P. Vaid, Indian Kashmir’s police chief, told BenarNews.

Protest_Online Condemnation

May 2018

['(Benar News)']