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Six Rwandans file a lawsuit in France that accuses French soldiers of complicity in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. | The Paris army tribunal - the only court that can try French troops for crimes committed abroad - will decide whether to take up the complaint.
The suit was filed against unnamed defendants by lawyers of the six, who survived the 1994 massacres.
Some 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus, died during the Rwandan genocide.
According to the plaintiffs - five men and one woman - French troops allowed Rwandan troops and Hutu extremists to enter camps where Tutsis had sought refuge.
UN-mandated French troops had been deployed to south-western Rwanda to create safe havens for minority Tutsis.
"From our point of view, these facts can be seen as complicity genocide as there was an actual participation by French troops in operations against a specific ethnic group," said lawyer Antoine Comte.
Mr Comte said witnesses had reported seeing French troops putting Tutsis in helicopters and throwing them out. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | February 2005 | ['(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
A motorcycle bomb kills at least eight and injures at least seven at a market in Shindand, Afghanistan. | A motorcycle bomb explosion killed eight civilians and wounded seven others in Afghanistan’s western Herat province.
The explosion took place Monday afternoon in a local market in Shindand district close to a gas station, the Herat governor’s spokesperson Jelani Farhad told VOA.
“Women and children are among the victims,” Farhad added.
The death toll may increase, local health officials told VOA.
No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing but Taliban insurgents have a strong presence in the restive Shindand district. | Armed Conflict | April 2018 | ['(Voice of America)'] |
In North American basketball, the Dallas Mavericks beat the Miami Heat 86–83 to tie the 2011 NBA Finals at 2 games all. | Coughing and wheezing, his temperature spiking to 101, worn out from hardly sleeping the night before, Dirk Nowitzki went through three miserable quarters in Game 4 of the NBA finals.
Yet the fourth quarter was his time to shine. Again.
And now the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat are starting over in the NBA finals, this best-of-seven series reduced to a best-of-three.
The latest news from around North Texas.
Nowitzki fought through a sinus infection and everything else that ailed him and his team to power a 21-9 run over the final 10:12, lifting the Mavericks to a memorable 86-83 victory Tuesday night.
In the final period, Nowitzki scored 10 of his 21 points -- including a driving right-handed layup that spun in off the backboard with 14.4 seconds left -- and grabbed five of his 11 rebounds as Dallas pulled off its second stunning finish this series.
"Just battle it out," Nowitzki said, sniffing throughout his postgame interview with his warm-up jacket zipped all the way up, still in his uniform instead of changing into street clothes like the NBA prefers. "This is the finals. You have to go out there and compete and try your best for your team. So that's what I did."
The Mavs avoided going down 3-1, a deficit no team has ever overcome in the finals, and guaranteed the series will return to Miami for a Game 6 on Sunday night.
Game 5 is Thursday night in Dallas, and Nowitzki vowed to be ready.
"There's no long term," Nowitzki said. "I'll be all right on Thursday. ... Hopefully I'll get some sleep tonight, take some meds and be ready to go on Thursday."
Nowitzki wasn't as dominant as Michael Jordan when he scored 38 points despite a 103-degree fever in Game 5 of the 1997 finals -- but it was that kind of performance down the stretch. With everyone knowing he wasn't at full strength, the Mavs still ran their offense through him in the fourth quarter, and he delivered, making 2 of 6 shots and all six of his free throws.
If the Mavericks wind up winning their first championship, what Nowitzki's done this series will go down among the greatest. Remember, in Game 2, he bounced back from a torn tendon in the tip of his left middle finger to score the final nine points in Dallas' 22-5 rally, including two left-handed layups among his final three baskets.
"The average person, you know, has sick days and battling 100-something [fever] -- it's just tough to get out of bed," Dallas center Tyson Chandler said. "This guy is playing against the best athletes in the world."
What Nowitzki did grows in stature when compared to how meek a healthy LeBron James played.
James made only 3 of 11 shots -- a tip-in during the first quarter, then a 15-foot jumper and a breakaway dunk in the third quarter. Not only did he fail to score in the fourth, he took only one shot while playing all 12 minutes.
He finished with eight points, ending a double-figure scoring streak of 433 consecutive games, regular season and postseason. It was his fewest points ever in the playoffs.
"I've got to do a better job of being more assertive offensively," said James, who nonetheless contributed nine rebounds and seven assists. "I'm confident in my ability. It's just about going out there and knocking them down."
Dwyane Wade led Miami with 32 points, but missed a free throw with 30.1 seconds left and fumbled an inbounds pass with 6.7 seconds left. He knocked the ball back to Mike Miller for a potential tying 3-pointer, but it wasn't even close to hitting the rim. Fans jumped to their feet and began roaring as soon as they could tell the ball was off-target.
Dallas players savored it, too, except for Nowitzki, who walked off looking somewhat sullen, obviously ready for a hot shower and a warm bed.
His illness hit Monday night. After struggling to get any rest, he showed up for shootaround but hardly did anything.
His condition was kept a secret, and he helped keep it that way by hitting his first three shots. Then he missed 10 of 11 and it was obvious something was wrong. The biggest giveaway: he also missed a free throw for the first time since Game 4 of the conference finals.
The Heat didn't know, and didn't care.
"There is not an illness report before the game or anything," Miami's Chris Bosh said. "I've never been out there and somebody pointed and said, 'He's got a fever!"'
Mavs coach Rick Carlisle tried resting Nowitzki as much as he could. During timeouts, he stayed in his chair as long as possible, trying to conserve every ounce of energy.
"You've got a guy that's 7 foot, there's a different kind of toll it takes on your body when you're sick," Carlisle said. "Everyone could tell looking at him that he labored."
This series is now more fascinating than ever. It just went from two games decided by two points, the first time that happened in the finals since 1998, to being settled by three points.
Coming into this game, the Heat felt they should have been up 3-0. The Mavs felt they should have been up 2-1. This game was all about figuring out whether Miami was going to run away with the championship, as many have expected since "The Decision" last summer or if the plucky veterans from Dallas really had what it took to be champs for the first time.
Now it's 2-2. Both teams are 1-1 at home, and all those stats about who wins under various circumstances seem pretty moot.
The folks in the NBA office and at ABC are loving it the most. Ratings already have been setting records and they're sure to be up again, with interest for Game 5 higher than ever.
"This series is a jump ball," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "These guys live for these type of moments. It's about execution and disposition in the fourth quarter, being able to close out. We have a golden opportunity in the next game."
Miami seemed to have taken control when it went ahead 74-65, its biggest lead of the night. Then Dallas went to a zone and the Heat struggled.
They scored a series-low 14 points in the fourth quarter, committing six turnovers and making only 5 of 15 shots. They actually made their first two, so they missed 10 of their final 13.
Jason Terry -- who kick-started Dallas' Game 2 comeback with six straight points, but was 0 for 7 in the fourth quarter of the other two games -- got the Mavs going with consecutive baskets. He capped the winning rally with two free throws with 6.7 seconds left that forced Miami to need a 3-pointer to force overtime.
"These are two teams trying to figure out a way to make plays down the stretch," James said. "We've seen in this series a seven- or eight-point lead is nothing. You just got to continue to execute offensively, continue to grind defensively, and put yourself in the best possible chance to win late."
Carlisle shook up Dallas' lineup, starting J.J. Barea instead of DeShawn Stevenson, and made Brian Cardinal the primary backup for Nowitzki, instead of Peja Stojakovic. Like his late move to the zone, these changes worked out quite nicely. He also made an adjustment after Miami grabbed nine offensive rebounds in the first quarter; the Heat got just six more.
Stevenson scored 11 points, his first time in double-digits since Feb. 2. Cardinal drew a charge on James early and provided seven solid minutes, giving Nowitzki much-needed rest.
Terry scored 17, Shawn Marion 16 and Chandler had 13 points and 16 rebounds.
Backup center Brendan Haywood returned to the lineup after missing Game 3 with a hip injury, but lasted only 3:05. Chandler could tell he was hurting and jumped off the bench to go back in.
"I told Coach, 'You have to get me back out there, I will play 48 [minutes] if I need to,"' Chandler said.
NOTES: Bosh scored 24 points. Other than Miami's three superstars, none of the Heat scored more than six. ... Of the last 26 times the finals have been tied at 2, the Game 5 winner has won it all 19 times. Last year was among the exceptions, with the Celtics winning Game 5 and the Lakers taking the last two. ... The 2006 finals between these teams also was tied 2-2, but Miami overcame an 0-2 deficit to win four straight. ... This was Wade's fifth 30-point game of the playoffs. | Sports Competition | June 2011 | ['(Dallas Fort Worth NBC)'] |
Cambodia detains a Thai man on charges of spying for Thailand. | The spy row blew up as Thaksin played a relaxed round of golf with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, underscoring Bangkok's powerlessness to make Phnom Penh extradite the billionaire and get him to serve a jail term for graft.
Siwarak Chothipong, 31, who works for the Cambodia Air Traffic Service, was arrested and charged Thursday with supplying the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh with details of Thaksin's flight schedule, said Cambodian police officials.
"We sent him to the court yesterday and he was charged with releasing information related to the national security of Cambodia," national police spokesman Kirt Chantharith said.
"He tried to search for information related to the special flight of Thaksin in order to send it out of the country," he said, adding that police were investigating whether more people were involved.
Cambodian deputy national police chief Sok Phal said the spy allegations had prompted Phnom Penh to expel the Thai embassy's first secretary Thursday. Thailand reciprocated hours later. "He (the first secretary) ordered the man to copy the schedule of Thaksin's return flight, and that's why he was expelled," Sok Phal told AFP.
Thailand rejected the "malicious" Cambodian accusations. "It's not true. It is a malicious and false claim," Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya told reporters before boarding a flight with Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to a regional summit in Singapore. "Thaksin feels he must destroy Thailand and collaborate with Hun Sen." The countries had already recalled their ambassadors last week, after Thaksin, who was ousted in a bloodless coup in 2006, was appointed economic adviser to Cambodia.
Thaksin arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday to take up the role and Hun Sen on Wednesday rejected Bangkok's formal extradition request for Thaksin, outraging the Thai government.
Thaksin met a group of supporters before playing golf with Hun Sen in the tourist hub of Siem Reap on Friday. Hun Sen and Cambodian officials laughed and applauded Thaksin's shot as he teed off first at the luxury Angkor Golf Resort.
He was due later to meet around 50 MPs from Thailand's main pro-Thaksin party, Puea Thai, who had crossed the border Friday, Puea Thai lawmaker Pongpan Sunthornrachai said.
Telecommunications mogul Thaksin has pledged to help impoverished Cambodia but also hit out at the Thai government during a lecture in the capital Phnom Penh on Thursday, accusing Thai rulers of "false patriotism".
Cambodian officials have indicated he would leave the country Friday or Saturday and was not intending to live there. Thailand has put all talks and cooperation programmes with Cambodia on hold, torn up an oil and gas exploration deal signed during Thaksin's time in power and placed under review two road-building projects worth 42 million dollars.
Tensions were already high between the two countries following a series of deadly military clashes over disputed territory near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple on their shared border.
The row threatens to mar a weekend summit of regional leaders with US President Barack Obama, which both Abhisit and Hun Sen are due to attend.
Twice-elected Thaksin fled Thailand in August 2008, a month before a court sentenced him to two years in jail in a conflict of interest case. He had returned to Thailand just months earlier for the first time since the coup.
But he has retained enormous influence in Thai politics by stirring up protests against the current government, and analysts said that in Hun Sen he had found a new way to push for a return to power. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | November 2009 | ['(Bangkok Post)', '[permanent dead link]', '(Times Live South Africa)', '(Sina)'] |
A tsunami warning is also issued for Russia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the United States. , | The timing of when the initial wave may hit ranges from 7:15 a.m. at Charleston to 7:24 a.m. at Seaside. Scientists are still working on models to forecast the size of the wave, but early predictions indicated it could be up to 3 feet.
A tsunami advisory is in effect for the coast of Washington. That is a step below a warning and means spot damage is possible in harbors and estuaries along beaches.
A tsunami warning also is in effect for California north of Point Conception to the Washington border. An advisory is in effect south of Point Conception.
"Stay away from the beach," said Bill Steele, a University of Washington seismologist with the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. "Be smart about it. The water has a lot of power. Pay attention to your local emergency managers."
:
All coastal residents in the warning area who are near the beach or in low-lying regions should move immediately inland to higher ground and away from all harbors and inlets including those sheltered directly from the sea. Those feeling the earth shake, seeing unusual wave action, or the water level rising or receding may have only a few minutes before the tsunami arrival and should move immediately. Homes and small buildings are not designed to withstand tsunami impacts. Do not stay in these structures.
A tsunami advisory means that a tsunami capable of producing strong currents or waves dangerous to persons in or very near the water is expected. Currents may be hazardous to swimmers, boats, and coastal structures and may continue for several hours after the initial wave arrival.
The wave is expected after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake off northeastern Japan.
The last major tsunami to strike Oregon and Northern California was March 27, 1964. It killed four children camped on Beverly Beach north of Newport and 11 people in Crescent City, Calif. It was triggered by a magnitude 9.2 earthquake off Alaska and caused damage in Seaside, Newport and other coastal communities.
| Tsunamis | March 2011 | ['(Market Watch)', '(Oregon Live)'] |
Italy awaits the outcome of a trial which could imprison Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi's senior adviser, Marcello Dell'Utri, for 11 years. | Italy was yesterday tensely awaiting the outcome of a trial which could send Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's right-hand man to jail for 11 years.
Marcello Dell'Utri, a 68-year-old politician from Palermo in Sicily, has been a close friend of Mr Berlusconi since university days, and was the co-founder with him of the media magnate's first political party, Forza Italia. But in a case that was launched by prosecutors 16 years ago, soon after the end of Mr Berlusconi's brief first spell in government, he is accused of having for many years been the media magnate's go-between with the Sicilian Mafia, ensuring his boss's new party received vital support from the mob on the island.
Mr Dell'Utri is appealing the nine-year jail sentence given him at the first trial. But during the appeal the Palermo prosecutors demanded an extra two years' jail, citing what they claimed was further evidence of his guilt.
The encounters of Mr Berlusconi and Mr Dell'Utri with high-ranking Mafia gangsters, and Mr Berlusconi's decision to employ one of them, Vittorio Mangano, as a stable boy at his villa north of Milan, are well documented. What is disputed is what the meetings over the years signify. The defence claims there is no proof they mean anything. The prosecution maintains there is convincing evidence of criminal collusion. Mr Berlusconi has described Mangano as a "hero" for his refusal to give investigators any information about their relationship. The mafioso died in 2000.
Adding to Mr Dell'Utri's woes are recent claims by a new Mafia super-grass, Gaspare Spatuzza, that the Sicilian lawyer-turned-politician was involved in negotiations with the Mafia which culminated in the mob's decision to blow up Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, two investigating magistrates who had done more than any before them to break the Mafia. The magistrates were killed in 1992.
Summing up last week, the prosecution made no bones about the trial's importance. "You must take a historic decision," Nino Gatto told the three-man bench, "not only from a judicial point of view but for our country" which could either clarify who is responsible "for having bathed our country in blood", or could "destroy" that possibility. "Power is on trial here," he went on, "power that has tried to distort [the trial] and evade being put on trial."
But Mr Dell'Utri's lawyer disagreed. "Here you don't have to write history but apply the law," Sandro Sammarco retorted tartly. Mr Dell'Utri, who in another Mafia-related case was sentenced to two years' jail for tax fraud, said in an interview published yesterday that the case was built "on fanatical theories, on non-existent theories, on nothing".
While Mr Berlusconi would surely shrug off another guilty verdict as further malicious work by the so-called "red togas" he has long identified as his mortal enemies, the condemnation of his closest colleague would do further damage to his international reputation. Which is why, according to the gossip in Palermo's huge and oppressive Tribunale building, a lot of trouble has been taken to obtain a bench of judges who could be relied on to see that his friend walks away a free man.
So rancorous have these rumours grown that the judges read out a highly unusual statement in court last week. "We are indifferent," they declared, "to media pressure and answer only to the law and our consciences": which gave Sicilian cynics even further grounds for betting that after this 16-year case, which, Mr Dell'Utri says, "has destroyed my life", he would emerge exonerated.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | June 2010 | ['(The Independent)'] |
At least 52 Tamil civilians are killed in recent combat. | More than 50 civilians were killed in fighting yesterday between Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan army that saw cluster bombs dropped on the last functioning hospital in the north of the country, aid agencies said.
The United Nations said 52 civilians were killed and 80 wounded both inside and outside a "safe zone" the government had promised not to attack.
Gordon Weiss, a spokesman for the UN, said the region's only remaining hospital in Puthukkudiyiruppu was evacuated early this morning after 16 hours of shelling that included a cluster bomb attack.
A dozen patients were killed in the shelling, which both sides deny came from them, although reports suggest air strikes were used against the hospital. Only the Sri Lankan army has such capability. Almost all the remaining wards have been evacuated.
A quarter of a million civilians may be trapped in the combat zone, according to the UN. The Tamil Tigers, or LTTE, have been fighting for a separate state for the Tamil minority since 1983 but the army claims they have been reduced to just 600 "armed combatants".
The attacks happened on the day the country marked its 61st anniversary of independence with a show of military strength in the capital, Colombo. In an address to the nation, the president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, said the army had been able to "nearly destroy terror".
"Our heroic forces today have given us an opportunity to celebrate independence in a country nearly free from terrorism," he said in a speech from a heavily guarded promenade, before watching a military parade.
The Tamil Tigers, who had for three years built a mini-state covering 15,000 square kilometres, are cornered in a small area of the country's north-east.
There can be no independent verification of the military's claims as journalists are not allowed to travel to the war zone nor allowed free access to "liberated areas". The government sponsors tours with limited access for certain news organisations.
Foreign governments called for a temporary ceasefire to allow casualties out and aid into the war zone. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and her British counterpart, David Miliband, said "both sides need to allow civilians and wounded to leave the conflict area and to grant access for humanitarian agencies".
The joint US-British announcement yesterday came after a quartet of Sri Lanka's prominent foreign backers the US, Japan, EU, and Norway called on the rebels to negotiate terms of surrender to avoid further killing.
The quartet, which sponsored the now defunct Oslo-led peace process, has considerable sway on the island. Five years ago the group raised $4.5bn as a peace incentive. It said yesterday: "There remains probably only a short period of time before the LTTE loses control of all areas in the north. The LTTE and the government should recognise that further loss of life of civilians and combatants will serve no cause."
Journalists in Colombo, speaking on condition of anonymity, doubted whether the LTTE had been defeated. "Unless [LTTE leader Velupillai] Prabhakaran's body turns up and the top leadership give up, we don't see it. The LTTE are a guerrilla outfit, they melt away and will come back with terrorism. It's not over. It's probably just begun." | Armed Conflict | February 2009 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
A rescue operation is underway in Bangladesh as a ferry carrying 100 passengers capsizes in the Padma River after colliding with a trawler. The death toll has reached 41. , , , | The search continues for survivors after a ferry sank on a river in Bangladesh, with 41 confirmed deaths including 11 children.
An overcrowded ferry has sunk in a Bangladesh river leaving at least 41 people including 11 children dead as rescuers searched for missing passengers, officials say.
The ferry collided with a cargo vessel on Sunday and sank within minutes on the Padma river, the second deadly boat accident in a fortnight in the country, which has a history of ferry tragedies.
"Divers have recovered 41 bodies. The dead included 11 children and seven women," local police chief Rakibuz Zaman said, updating an earlier toll.
Officials said they did not know the exact number of people missing, but said search and rescue efforts would continue through the night, with the aid of floodlights from other ferries on the river.
Rescuers were unloading bodies from small boats some 70 kilometres from the capital Dhaka at the Paturia ferry terminal in the country's northwest, where grieving relatives have gathered to identify them.
"We found one body but five are still missing. We were returning home after the opening of a temple," Hindu holy man Kumud Ranjan Goswami said of his colleagues.
Survivors said the MV Mostofa was overcrowded with about 70-150 passengers crammed into the upper and lower decks, leaving them scrambling to find their loved ones when the tragedy struck.
"I was holding my mother's hand when the cargo boat hit our ferry from behind," an 18-year-old who gave his name as Al Amin said at the terminal.
"Within two minutes the ferry was sunk. Before I realised I was washed away to the middle of the river.
"I swam and a ferry rescued me. But I don't know what happened to my mom."
Police chief Zaman said some 50 people "swam ashore or were rescued by other vessels".
Bangladeshi ferries do not normally keep passenger lists, making it difficult to establish how many are missing after an accident.
An official said a salvage vessel was on its way to raise the sunken ferry, adding that the master of the cargo ship and two other crew had been arrested. | Shipwreck | February 2015 | ['(AP)', '(Reuters)', '(CNN)', '(AAP via SBS)'] |
The Vatican City State announces that Pope Francis will name a Pontifical Delegate to head the Sovereign Military Order of Malta after Prince and Grand Master Matthew Festing's unexpected forced resignation in a spat over condoms. | VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis will name his own man to run the Knights of Malta temporarily after the head of the ancient chivalric and charity institution resigned in the climax of a bitter dispute over sovereignty with the Vatican.
The pope asked Grand Master Matthew Festing, 67, to step down at a meeting on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Rome-based Catholic institution said. Grand masters usually rule for life.
Festing and the Vatican had been locked in a dispute since the Knights’ Grand Chancellor Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager was sacked in December in the chivalric equivalent of a boardroom showdown - ostensibly for allowing the use of condoms in a medical project for the poor.
The two-month battle of wills reflected broader opposition inside the Roman Catholic Church to Francis’s efforts to modernize the Holy See and gently unravel the legacy of his conservative predecessors.
The Vatican, which is a sovereign state, said the pope would name a “pontifical delegate” to run the group, which also enjoys sovereign status and is recognized by about 100 countries.
Vatican sources said this was a temporary solution until the Knights were in a position to elect their own leader again.
The move was similar to one in 1983 when the Pope John Paul II named a delegate to temporarily run the Jesuit order, which he feared was becoming too leftist. More recently, the Vatican named a delegate to run the conservative Legionaries of Christ, which has hit by a sexual abuse scandal.
The Knights’ top governing body, the Sovereign Council, was convened for Saturday to take stock of the crisis.
When the dispute broke out, von Boeselager appealed to the pope, who appointed a commission to investigate. Festing, a Briton, refused to cooperate, saying that violated the order’s sovereignty.
Some insiders said the push against von Boeselager was an excuse by Festing and arch-conservative American Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, the order’s patron, to increase their power.
Burke, who was demoted from a top Vatican job in 2014, is one of four cardinals who have made a rare public challenge to Francis, accusing him of sowing confusion on moral issues.
The all-male top leaders of the Knights of Malta are not clerics but take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to the pope. The institution has 13,500 members, 25,000 employees and 80,000 volunteers worldwide.
The order was formed in the 11th century to provide protection and medical care for pilgrims to the Holy Land.
When Festing fired von Boeselager, he accused the German of hiding the fact that he allowed the use of condoms when he ran Malteser International, the order’s humanitarian aid agency.
The church does not allow condoms as a means of birth control and says abstinence and monogamy in heterosexual marriage is the best way to stop the spread of AIDS.
Von Boeselager said he closed two projects in the developing world when he discovered condoms were being distributed but kept a third running for a while because closing it would have abruptly ended all basic medical services to poor people.
Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Tom Heneghan
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | January 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
American hurdler Kendra Harrison sets a new world record in the women's 100 meters hurdles with a time of 12.20 seconds in the London Anniversary Games at the Olympic Stadium. | By Tom Bassam For Mailonline Published: 21:56 BST, 22 July 2016 | Updated: 00:01 BST, 23 July 2016 35
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Kendra Harrison got over the disappointment of missing out on the USA team for the 2016 Rio Olympics by breaking Yordanka Donkova's 28-year-old 100m hurdles world record.
The 23-year-old American dipped under the Bulgarian's time of 12.21, set at Stara Zagora in 1988, clocking 12.20 seconds at the London Anniversary Games.
She collapsed into floods of tears after realising her achievement at the Olympic Stadium.
Kendra Harrison broke the 100m hurdles world record at London Anniversary Games with a time of 12.20
The 23-year-old American dipped under the Bulgarian Yordanka Donkova's 28-year-old time of 12.21
Harrison collapsed to her knees on the track in floods of tears after realising her achievement
On a night where Usain Bolt ran his first 200m of the season, Harrison stole centre stage as she issued the perfect riposte to not being selected for their Rio team.
After posing by the clock with her new world best time, Harrison said: 'I wanted to come out here with a vengeance to show these even though I won't be going to the Olympics I had to give it all I had.
'That 12.40 (in the heats earlier on Friday) got my confidence back. I knew I had it in me, I ran as hard as I could today,'
Harrison, who set a United States record of 12.24 in May, added: 'To hear people call me a world record holder, it sounds remarkable.
The United States record holder streaked away from her rivals in a near-flawless display of hurdling
Harrison destroyed a top-quality field, including British star Jessica Ennis-Hill, at the Olympic Stadium
The American said post-race that she was fired up by her failure to make the team for the Olympics in Rio
'Initially I saw 12.5 and I was just happy to come out here and win. I was so happy when it came up and I was feeling really blessed.
'It shows that even if you don't go out there and make the team, you have to keep going and be strong. I just ran my best and look what happened.'
Harrison had just destroyed a top-quality field, including British heptathlon star Jessica Ennis-Hill, to show why she should be at this summer's games in Rio.
At the US trials Brianna Rollins won the 100m hurdles final in 12.34 seconds, the second-fastest time in 2016, as American record holder Harrison could only finish sixth to miss out on selection. Kristi Castlin and Nia Ali will join Rollins in Rio.
On a night where Usain Bolt ran his first 200m of the season, Harrison stole centre stage with her performance
The American broke Donkova's record by 0.01 seconds but will not compete at the Olympic Games in Rio
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The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. | Sports Competition | July 2016 | ['(Daily Mail)'] |
The United Nations says 173 people have been killed during post–election violence in the Ivory Coast. | Post-election violence has claimed 173 lives in Ivory Coast, the UN says, as international pressure mounts for Laurent Gbagbo to quit the presidency.
The US says it is exploring ways to strengthen the UN presence in Ivory Coast, where Mr Gbagbo's forces are in a tense stand-off with supporters of his rival, Alassane Ouattara.
Liberian mercenaries are helping Mr Gbagbo's troops, the UN has confirmed.
The UN's rights council ordered an official inquiry into the violence.
After a special meeting in Geneva, the council issued a statement condemning violations including "abductions, enforced or involuntary disappearances, arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, acts of sexual violence, denial of right to peaceful assembly, the loss of lives and the acts of destruction of property". The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the commission's unanimous stand will increase pressure on Mr Gbagbo to step down and for the UN to remain in Ivory Coast.
The UN and world powers have recognised Mr Ouattara as the new president.
Mr Ouattara's supporters have called on the International Criminal Court to prosecute any crimes committed by Mr Gbagbo's associates.
Mr Ouattara and his supporters are holed up in the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, protected by 800 UN peacekeepers.
A US government specialist on Africa told the BBC's World Today programme that various options for defusing the crisis were being considered, and "we're really trying to avoid violence if at all possible".
Senior US official William Fitzgerald said the fact that African countries had called for the special UN human rights meeting was "pretty telling about how unified the Africans are and the pressure that this will continue to put on President Gbagbo - or former President Gbagbo, I should say".
Mr Gbagbo says the vote on 28 November, meant to unify a country split by war in 2002, was rigged in rebel areas that backed Mr Ouattara.
The country's Independent Electoral Commission ruled that Mr Ouattara had won, a decision later certified by the UN. The country's Constitutional Council said Mr Gbagbo had been elected, citing vote-rigging in some areas. France, the former colonial power, says its 15,000 nationals should leave the country as a "precaution".
The UN has a 9,000-strong peacekeeping force in Ivory Coast, called Unoci, and its mandate has been extended for another six months.
The West African regional grouping Ecowas will hold a special summit in Nigeria's capital Abuja on Friday to consider how to remove Mr Gbagbo from power, Mr Fitzgerald said.
Ecowas sent Nigerian-led forces to help bring peace to Liberia and Sierra Leone in the 1990s.
The Ivorian election, delayed for five years, was supposed to reunite the world's largest cocoa producer, which was split between the government-controlled south and rebel-controlled north in the 2002 conflict.
Former rebel commander Guillaume Soro has been appointed prime minister by Mr Ouattara.
Mr Soro called for the international community to use force to oust Mr Gbagbo.
"The Ivorians cannot engage in talks with a dictator," he said.
UN Operation in Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast Electoral Commission
Ecowas
African Union
| Riot | December 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
North Korea announces that Ri Yong–ho, a senior military figure and a member of the central presidium of the Workers' Party of Korea, is relieved of all duties due to illness. | SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Kim Jong Un's top military official — a key mentor to North Korea's new young leader — has been removed from all posts because of illness, state media said Monday.
The decision to relieve Ri Yong Ho of his duties was made at a Workers' Party meeting Sunday, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency. It was not immediately clear who would take Ri's place, and the North Korean media dispatch did not elaborate on Ri's condition or future.
Ri was vice marshal of the Korean People's Army and the military's General Staff chief, as well as a top figure in the Workers' Party.
He has been at Kim Jong Un's side since the young man emerged as father Kim Jong Il's successor in 2010, often standing between father and son at major events. That role appeared to deepen after Kim Jong Il's death in December, helping Kim to solidify support among the military.
Kim Jong Il's "military first" policy made the army North Korea's most powerful institution. Ri wielded power from his position at the intersection of three crucial institutions: the Korean People's Army, the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers' Party and the Standing Committee of the party's influential Political Bureau.
Ri also oversaw an influential Kim Jong Un support group comprising officers in their 50s and 60s whom commanders consider rising stars, according to Ken Gause, a North Korea specialist at CNA, a U.S.-based research organization.
Animosity on the Korean Peninsula has deepened since a North Korean rocket launch in April that the U.N. called a cover for a banned long-range missile test. North Korea says it was a satellite launch.
North Korea has repeatedly threatened harm to South Korea's president and his supporters in recent months, angry over perceived insults to its leadership and recent U.S.-South Korean military drills that Pyongyang says are a prelude to an invasion.
It wasn’t the Emancipation Proclamation, but rather “General Order No. 3”
Alun Cairns, the ex-Secretary of State for Wales, will earn nearly £360 an hour to provide advice to a Singaporean firm that owns over 120 jobcentres.
.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | July 2012 | ['(AP via Yahoo! News)'] |
Elections in the Solomon Islands: The announcement of the new Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, Snyder Rini, causes riots in Honiara. Australia and New Zealand promise to send more troops to keep order. | in Honiara, the Solomon Islands capital, Wednesday, April 19, 2006 after a night of rioting in the aftermath of the election of Snyder Rini as prime minister in April 5 parliamentary electionsAustralia is sending reinforcements to the troubled Solomon Islands as violent disturbances continue following the appointment of a new prime minister. Seventeen Australian peacekeepers were injured in the lawlessness and looting that has left parts of the capital Honiara in ruins. Canberra organized a multi-national force that went into the Solomon Islands in July 2003 after years of ethnic fighting. More than 170 Australian soldiers and police officers are being sent to quell the disturbances in Honiara. This rapid reaction force is expected to touch down in the capital of the Solomon Islands late Wednesday.
They will find a city scarred by mob violence. As many as one thousand people rampaged through the streets, targeting shops in the Chinatown district.
Police were pelted with stones and several peacekeepers from Australia and New Zealand were injured in the riots. Many of their vehicles were also torched.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard believes the spark for the unrest was the appointment of Snyder Rini as the Solomon Islands' prime minister.
"The situation is still quite unsettled," he said. "It does appear to be a reaction to the election outcome. Australia has made a very strong, long-term commitment to the future of the Solomon Islands."
On Tuesday, Mr. Rini was chosen to head a new government after national elections earlier this month. His opponents have accused him of corruption and of being under the control of ethnic Chinese businessmen who hold much of the wealth in the Solomon Islands.
Mr. Rini denies the allegations. He was trapped inside the parliament building for most of Tuesday as the violence continued outside.
The lawlessness in Honiara has taken the authorities by surprise. The security situation across the archipelago had improved since Australia led an international rescue mission to the country almost three years ago.
Its involvement ended an ethnic conflict over land rights and jobs between warring factions from two of the main provinces. Australia was worried that lawless Pacific island states in its backyard could become havens for terrorists, drug dealers and international criminal gangs.
The foreign forces, however, have been unable to soothe the political tensions that have for many years divided this troubled South Pacific nation of a half-a-million people. | Riot | April 2006 | ['(Radio NZ)', '(VOA)'] |
The McClatchy company, one of the largest and most respected American news publishers, announces that hedge fund Chatham Asset Management won its bankruptcy sale in a court–supervised auction. Chatham, which owns the National Enquirer, has been an investor in the company since 2009. Court confirmation, likely at a hearing on July 24, is required. McClatchy has been burdened by heavy debt from its large pension obligations and the acquisition of newspaper chain Knight Ridder. | The family-owned publisher of The Sacramento Bee and The Miami Herald announced the winner of its bankruptcy sale: Chatham Asset Management, the owner of The National Enquirer.
After years of declines in revenue and print circulation, the McClatchy Company, one of the largest and most respected news publishers in the country, announced on Sunday that it expected to be bought by Chatham Asset Management, a New Jersey hedge fund, at the conclusion of a bankruptcy auction.
The announcement, which signals an end to 163 years of family ownership, underlines the growing influence of the finance industry on American newspapers. And it means that a news company known for winning top journalism prizes is likely to become the property of a firm that owns The National Enquirer and other supermarket tabloids.
McClatchy, the publisher of The Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, The Charlotte Observer and its flagship publication, The Sacramento Bee, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February. Chatham, an investor in the company since 2009, is its largest creditor. In recent months it put together the bid that has been declared the winner in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court auction supervised by Judge Michael E. Wiles, a McClatchy spokeswoman said on Sunday.
Chatham, which manages about $4 billion in assets on behalf of its clients, is expected to become the majority owner in the third quarter of the year, McClatchy said, and the publicly traded newspaper company will go private. It will not be split up, McClatchy said, its 30 news outlets remaining intact.
In a statement, a Chatham spokesman said the company was “pleased with the outcome of the auction,” adding, “Chatham is committed to preserving newsroom jobs and independent journalism that serve and inform local communities during this important time.”
McClatchy did not disclose terms. In April, the company said it had received a Chatham-led bid worth more than $300 million. That offer included the debt assumed by the hedge fund and its partners. Another McClatchy creditor, the New York hedge fund Brigade Capital Management, was named in a public filing as a partner of Chatham in the April bid.
The court and regulators must approve the deal. A bankruptcy court hearing on the matter is scheduled for July 24.
Hedge funds and private equity firms have had a growing presence in the news industry, to the chagrin of press advocates who argue that financial firms do not make civic-minded stewards of a business built largely on holding the powerful to account.
“I’m always for local ownership whenever possible, and local support,” said Sree Sreenivasan, professor of digital innovation at Stony Brook University’s School of Journalism, sounding a note of caution regarding finance-industry ownership.
John Longo, a professor at Rutgers Business School, said such ownership did not necessarily mean a disregard for journalism.
“Hedge funds are certainly profit-oriented,” Mr. Longo said. “If the business is not profitable, they’ll do what they need to to right-size it.”
He added: “If they look at the assets they are buying, part of their core purpose is to serve their community. If they don’t do a good job serving their community, the profits won’t follow.”
McClatchy’s troubles can be traced to 2006, when it bought its much larger rival, Knight Ridder, then the second-largest newspaper chain in the United States, for $4.5 billion, plus the assumption of $2 billion in debt.
From shortly after the merger to the end of 2018, McClatchy’s work force was cut from more than 15,000 full-time employees to around 3,300, according to public filings. Chatham took a financial interest in McClatchy not long after its financial troubles began.
The McClatchy chairman, Kevin S. McClatchy, the great-great-grandson of its founder, has said the company’s inability to meet its pension obligations tipped it into bankruptcy. The $1.4 billion pension plan, created 75 years ago, was intended to provide money to more than 24,000 current and future retirees.
In a statement, Craig Forman, the McClatchy chief executive, said Chatham would allow the company to continue providing strong news coverage.
“Local journalism has never been more vital,” Mr. Forman said, “and we remain steadfast in our commitment to delivering on our mission and continuing to serve our communities.”
Marian Needham, the executive vice president of the NewsGuild, the union that represents employees at some McClatchy newspapers, said in a statement that McClatchy needed to adopt existing collective bargaining agreements.
“We are deeply concerned that this venerable newspaper chain — which has won 54 Pulitzer Prizes — will now transfer to the ownership of a hedge fund more known for its drive to maximize profits than for its commitment to producing quality journalism,” said Ms. Needham, who is a member of the committee of unsecured creditors in McClatchy’s bankruptcy case.
Hedge funds and private equity firms entered newsrooms during the Great Recession, when readers were migrating toward digital sources of news and local newspapers were losing value. Google and Facebook came to dominate the online ad market, hampering publishers’ attempts to generate the necessary revenue from digital advertising. From 2004 to 2019, roughly half of all newspaper jobs in the United States were eliminated, according to a University of North Carolina study.
But many dailies remained sources of reliable cash flow, making them attractive investments for owners focused on maximizing returns.
Chatham is not a newcomer to the news industry. In addition to being a principal owner of American Media Inc., the parent company of The Enquirer and other tabloids, it is a major investor in Postmedia, the publisher of Canadian newspapers including The National Post, The Montreal Gazette and The Ottawa Citizen.
Chatham is led by Anthony Melchiorre, a Chicago-area native who once worked at Morgan Stanley, where he led the junk bond division. He set up his hedge fund in Chatham, N.J., in 2002.
Chatham has tried to unload The Enquirer. In 2018, American Media announced the sale of the tabloid to the family that founded the Hudson News chain of newspaper and magazine shops. That deal still has not closed.
The sale was proposed after American Media signed a nonprosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in which it affirmed that it had made a payment to influence the 2016 election. That money was part of a deal the company had struck with Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who said she had an affair with Donald J. Trump. American Media acquired her story for $150,000 and never published it, a practice known as catch-and-kill.
In recent months, Postmedia closed approximately 15 community publications and laid off 120 employees in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, The Toronto Star reported.
Chatham was the favorite in the McClatchy auction, but the New York hedge fund Alden Global Capital expressed strong interest last week, when a lawyer representing the firm said at a bankruptcy hearing that Alden was prepared to “top” any other bid. Alden controls roughly 200 outlets through its newspaper chain, MediaNews Group. With a strategy that led to deep layoffs at The Denver Post and other publications, it has made money in an ailing business while angering journalists and press advocates who accuse the firm of diminishing local news publications and doing a disservice to the communities they cover.
In the fall, Alden took a 32 percent stake in Tribune Publishing, the owner of The Chicago Tribune and several other major papers. Earlier this month, Alden secured a third seat out of seven on the Tribune Publishing board as it seemed to inch closer to taking control of that company. The finance industry is also a key component of the largest American newspaper chain, Gannett, which publishes USA Today, The Arizona Republic and 250 other dailies. The new, supersize version of Gannett resulted from a merger last year between Gannett and the parent of GateHouse Media. The deal was partly financed by one private equity fund, Apollo Global Management, and Gannett is now controlled by another private equity fund, Fortress Investment Group, which is owned by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank.
Journalists employed by McClatchy, as well as the mayors in Lexington, Ky.; Sacramento; and Miami — three cities served by McClatchy papers — pushed for local, civic-minded ownership of the chain.
“Even with the cuts it has endured over the past 15 years, The Bee remains the most significant source of original reporting and enterprise in our community,” Sacramento’s mayor, Darrell Steinberg, wrote in a May letter to the bankruptcy court. “It needs to be bolstered and rebuilt, not milked for whatever profit it can still produce.” | Organization Merge | July 2020 | ['(Reuters)', '(The New York Times)'] |
The internationally-acclaimed environmental campaigner Marina Silva replaces Eduardo Campos, who died in a plane crash on August 13, as the presidential candidate of the Brazilian Socialist Party, with polls suggesting she could surpass Aecio Neves in the first round and current president Dilma Rousseff in the second. | The Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) has formally named the internationally-acclaimed environmental campaigner Marina Silva as its new presidential candidate. Ms Silva replaces the late Eduardo Campos, who was killed in a plane crash last week.
She was Mr Campos's running mate and served as environment minister.
She is seen as a leading challenger to President Dilma Rousseff, who's seeking re-election in the 5 October poll.
"I will give the best I have in me," said Ms Silva, 56, after the announcement, which was widely expected. PSB President Roberto Amaral told a news conference she had been chosen unanimously.
Congressman Beto Albuquerque was named the party's new vice presidential candidate.
Ms Silva will test President Rousseff's status as favourite to win October's election and make this a much more interesting process than it looked like being barely a week ago, the BBC's Wyre Davies in Rio de Janeiro says.
In the last presidential election, standing as the Green candidate, Ms Silva polled a credible 20% of the vote and is already a recognisable and much-admired figure across this continent-sized nation, our correspondent adds.
The first test of public opinion after Mr Campos's death suggested she could surpass the main opposition PSDB candidate Aecio Neves in the first round and beat current President Dilma Rousseff in the second, although both outcomes were within the poll's margin of error.
But analysts caution that, with the strong emotional reaction to last week's events, a bounce in the polls was inevitable and the picture could change substantially.
A devout evangelical Christian who overcame poverty, Marina Silva only learnt to read and write when she was 16.
Correspondents say she appeals mostly to young voters who are unhappy with the Brazilian political establishment.
On Sunday, more than 100,000 people in Brazil paid their last respects to the late presidential candidate, Eduardo Campos, a former governor and rising political star.
They attended a funeral Mass and filled the streets of the city of Recife to follow the passage of his coffin.
Mr Campos's jet crashed on 13 August in bad weather in the port city Santos, near Sao Paulo, killing six other people.
Investigators are still trying to establish the exact causes of the accident.
| Government Job change - Election | August 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
A consortium led by China's Anbang Insurance Group announces it will walk away from its $14 billion takeover bid for Starwood Hotels. This restores Marriott International as the highest bidder ($13.6 billion). | A consortium led by China's Anbang Insurance Group will walk away from its proposed takeover of Starwood Hotels worth almost $14 billion, the group said in a statement Thursday.
Starwood shares fell about 4 percent in after-hours trading, and Marriott, which had competed against the consortium for Starwood, also saw its shares drop about 4 percent in after-hours action. In its official statement, the consortium cited "market considerations" as the reason it walked away from the table.
"We were attracted to the opportunity presented by Starwood because of its high-quality, leading global hotel brands, which met many of our acquisition criteria, including the ability to generate consistent, long-term returns over time," the consortium said. "However, due to various market considerations, the consortium has determined not to proceed further. We thank the Starwood board, management team and its advisors for their efforts and support throughout this process." Anbang had fired the latest shot in the bidding war, offering $14 billion for Starwood against Marriott's $13.6 billion proposal. Just two days ago, David Loeb, a senior research analyst at Robert W. Baird, told CNBC he did not think Marriott would sweeten its offer, and Starwood shareholders likely preferred Anbang's all-cash deal.
Starwood did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that Anbang had never followed through with its March 26 proposal to Starwood to make its offer binding. The company did not provide a reason to Starwood for walking away, Reuters reported.
In a statement Monday, Starwood said that its board had determined that the Anbang-led offer was "reasonably likely" to lead to a "superior proposal" to the proposed Marriott deal. Starwood said at the time that the Anbang proposal was nonbinding, but that the company and the consortium were "working to finalize the other terms of a binding proposal from the consortium, including definitive documentation."
The consortium also included J.C. Flowers & Co. and Primavera Capital.
Before Anbang made a play for Starwood earlier this month, most had expected the U.S.-based hotel firm to make good on its pending agreement with Marriott. When it was announced last year, the merger between the two companies was worth $12.2 billion.
Anbang has mounted an aggressive expansion into the U.S. hospitality industry, agreeing to buy Strategic Hotels & Resorts from Blackstone for $6.5 billion this month and concluding a deal last year to acquire New York's Waldorf Astoria for $1.95 billion.
American hotels, especially Starwood, are an appealing asset for Anbang because they can offer long-term cash flow and have strong brand recognition, people familiar with the company's strategy told CNBC earlier this month.
Some have criticized Anbang for being willing to pay too high a price for assets — especially those in the U.S. The explanation for this behavior may come in part in comments Anbang Chairman Wu Xiaohui made during a 2015 Harvard recruiting event.
"We must win the first battle and every battle thereafter as we are representing Chinese enterprises going global," Wu said, according to a transcript of the event.
But beyond the prestige of owning so-called "trophy" assets in the U.S., many have theorized that Anbang's offer was part of a larger trend of capital flight from China.
China's economy has slowed over the last few years, and some have even contended that its period of impressive growth may be over.
"Money increasingly wants to diversify out of China," Victor Shih, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, who specializes in China's finances, told CNBC recently. "These are domestic investors who had invested in China because that's where they got the highest return, but that's been driving the capital flight." | Organization Merge | March 2016 | ['(CNBC)', '(Bloomberg)'] |
The Philippine economy falls into recession for the first time in 29 years after the economy shrank by 16.5% in the April to June quarter from the same period last year, which is the biggest slump in the government's quarterly GDP data dating back to 1981. | : The Philippine economy plunged by much more than expected in the second quarter, falling into recession for the first time in 29 years, as economic activity was hammered by one of the world's longest and strictest coronavirus lockdowns.
The Southeast Asian nation's economy shrank by 16.5 per cent in the April to June quarter from the same period last year - the biggest slump in the government's quarterly GDP data dating back to 1981, the Philippine Statistics Authority said on Thursday (Aug 6).
Gross domestic product fell by much more than the 9 per cent contraction forecast in a Reuters poll and was worse than a revised slump of 0.7 per cent in the first quarter. Seasonally adjusted GDP fell 15.2 per cent in the second quarter from the first three months of the year.
The economic hit from the pandemic could worsen with the government reimposing tighter quarantine controls in the capital Manila and nearby provinces for two weeks from Tuesday amid resurging coronavirus cases.
"The Philippine economy crash-landed into recession with the 2Q GDP meltdown showcasing the destructive impact of lockdowns on the consumption-dependent economy," said ING senior economist Nicholas Antonio Mapa.
"With record-high unemployment expected to climb in the coming months, we do not expect a quick turnaround in consumption behaviour, all the more with COVID-19 cases still on the rise."
The Philippines main share index showed little reaction to the data.
Some businesses have been ordered shut and movement restricted again in Manila and nearby provinces, which accounts for a quarter of the country's population and most of its economic activity.
The Philippines recorded 119,460 confirmed COVID-19 infections as of Thursday, topping Indonesia for the most cases in East Asia.
With inflation expected to remain subdued throughout the year, the central bank has room for further policy easing if needed, analysts say.
It has slashed the benchmark interest rate by a total of 175 basis points this year to a record-low of 2.25 per cent. | Financial Crisis | August 2020 | ['(CNA)'] |
Tens of thousands of protesters march through London, Glasgow and Belfast in a series of demonstrations against UK government austerity measures. (RTÉ) | Tens of thousands of people have marched in protest at the government's austerity measures. Labour leader Ed Miliband, among dozens of speakers who addressed crowds at the biggest march in London, received a mixed reaction. Other rallies took place in Glasgow and Belfast.
The government says austerity measures are vital to cutting the deficit.
Away from the rally, the Met Police said it had responded to anti-social behaviour in the Oxford Street area.
Organiser Trades Union Congress (TUC), which said workers and campaigners from across the UK were involved with the demonstration, estimated that more than 150,000 people took part while the Met Police has not released an estimate.
That compares with the more than 250,000 people who took part in a London anti-cuts march and rally in March 2011.
Mr Miliband, speaking at a rally in Hyde Park at the end of the march, said his party was there for "all the young people in this country who want work, but can't find it in Britain today".
He was booed when he suggested there would still be spending cuts under Labour - Union leaders recently criticised Labour for supporting a public sector pay freeze.
"I have said whoever was in government now there would be some cuts, but this government has shown that cutting too far and too fast, self-defeating austerity is not the answer, it is not the answer to Britain's problems," he said.
But there were cheers when he referenced the incident in which Chancellor George Osborne had to pay for an upgrade after he sat in a first class train carriage with a standard class ticket.
He was also cheered when he spoke about Andrew Mitchell's resignation after the chief whip admitted swearing at police officers during a Downing Street confrontation, but denied calling them "plebs".
"Andrew Mitchell may have resigned, but the culture of two nations runs right across this government," Mr Miliband said.
"They cut taxes for millionaires and they raise taxes for ordinary families."
But Conservative Business Minister Michael Fallon said later that Mr Miliband's speech showed Labour could not be trusted with public finances.
Mr Fallon said: "By turning up at a rally that opposes every single spending cut that's necessary to deal with our debts, Ed Miliband has shown that he's still in favour of more spending, more borrowing and even greater debt.
"That's what got us into this mess in the first place."
The marchers - brought to London in more than 250 coaches - had assembled along Victoria Embankment on the north bank of the Thames from 1100 BST and set off at about noon. Banners on display included those reading "Cameron has butchered Britain", "no cuts" and "plebs on parade".
In a separate development, the Met Police said it had responded to a number of incidents of anti-social behaviour in the Oxford Street shopping area and that some arrests had been made.
At the March 2011 demonstration, there were clashes between police and protesters in Trafalgar Square - hours after a peaceful march to Hyde Park. A total of 201 arrests were made that day.
Elsewhere around the UK: Earlier this month, Mr Cameron warned more "painful decisions" would be necessary to repair the UK economy, adding that he would not waver from austerity measures.
And on Saturday, around the time of the start of the London march, he posted a message on Twitter stating: "Today Ed Miliband is headlining a rally calling for an end to every single spending cut needed to clear the deficit #labourisntlearning."
However, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "The evidence is mounting that austerity is failing.
"More than 2.5 million people are out of work, a further three million are not working enough hours to make ends meet, and wages have been falling every month for the last three years." He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the "huge squeeze on wages and living standards" had led to a "massive hit on confidence and on demand in the economy". "That's why some of our biggest companies that are sitting on big cash reserves aren't investing that and getting our economy moving again."
However, he said he did not think a general strike by unions was likely, adding: "Some of my colleagues may talk about that. I don't hear too many people calling for a general strike."
Calls for a mass walk-out over spending cuts have grown in recent months, with the TUC Congress voting in September to look into the practicalities of organising one.
A government spokesman said: "It is disappointing that some unions insist on pushing for irresponsible and futile strike action which benefits no-one. As we have said time and again, pension talks will not be reopened and nothing further will be achieved through strike action."
Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps said of Ed Miliband: "You can't be serious about clearing the deficit when you attend a march that calls for an end to austerity."
| Protest_Online Condemnation | October 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(CNN)'] |
Indian actor Rajesh Khanna dies at 69 in Mumbai after a prolonged illness. | The first superstar of Bollywood Rajesh Khanna has passed away into the ages. He was 69.The yesteryear actor had been ailing for some time now, and had been discharged from hospital on Tuesday afternoon. This was his third hospitalisation since he was diagnosed with a kidney problem. Sources said that the actor was not responding to medicines, and had been put on IV and had been gasping for breath since morning. He had been put on life support. His daughter Twinkle Khanna, who is pregnant, son-in-law Akshay Kumar and estranged wife Dimple were with him during his last hours. He passed away at his bungalow, Aashirwad at Carter Road, Mumbai. | Famous Person - Death | July 2012 | ['(The Times of India)', '(rediff.com)', '(BBC)'] |
A court in the city of Lago Agrio, on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadorean people, orders United States oil company Chevron to pay more than $8 billion in environmental damages for dumping wastewater in the Amazon River twenty years ago. | A court in Ecuador has fined US oil giant Chevron $8.6bn (£5.3bn) for polluting a large part of the country's Amazon region.
The oil firm Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001, was accused of dumping billions of gallons of toxic materials into unlined pits and Amazon rivers.
Campaigners say crops were damaged and farm animals killed, and that local cancer rates increased.
Condemning the ruling as fraudulent, Chevron said it would appeal.
The company will also have to pay a 10% legally mandated reparations fee, bringing the total penalty to $9.5bn (£5.9bn).
Pablo Fajardo, lawyer for the plaintiffs, described the court ruling as "a triumph of justice over Chevron's crime and economic power".
"This is an important step but we're going to appeal this sentence because we think that the damages awarded are not enough considering the environmental damage caused by Chevron here in Ecuador," he told the BBC.
A Chevron statement said the firm would appeal, and called the ruling "illegitimate and unenforceable".
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadoreans, in a case which dragged on for nearly two decades.
The plaintiffs said the company's activities had destroyed large areas of rainforest and also led to an increased risk of cancer among the local population.
The trial began in 2003 after almost a decade of legal battles in the US. At that time, a US appeals court ruled that the case should be heard in Ecuador.
Environmentalists hope the case will set a precedent, forcing companies operating in developing countries to comply with the same anti-pollution standards as in the industrialised world. Ecuadorean Indian groups said Texaco - which merged with Chevron in 2001 - dumped more than 18 billion gallons (68 billion litres) of toxic materials into the unlined pits and rivers between 1972 and 1992.
Protesters said the company had destroyed their livelihood. Crops were damaged, farm animals killed and cancer increased among the local population, they said. Chevron has long contended that the court-appointed expert in the case was unduly influenced by the plaintiffs.
Its statement described the ruling as "the product of fraud (and) contrary to the legitimate scientific evidence".
| Organization Fine | February 2011 | ['(Reuters)', '(Bloomberg)', '(BBC)'] |
At least 46 members of India's security forces are killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up as a convoy of military vehicles drove on a highway in Jammu and Kashmir. | India has said it will ensure the "complete isolation" of Pakistan after a suicide bomber killed 46 paramilitary police in Indian-administered Kashmir.
It claims to have "incontrovertible evidence" of its neighbour's involvement but has not provided it.
Pakistan denies any role in the attack by militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad, which is based on its soil.
Thursday's bombing of the convoy was the deadliest attack on Indian forces in the region for decades.
Federal Minister Arun Jaitley said India would take "all possible diplomatic steps" to cut Pakistan off from the international community.
But a Pakistani minister has asked India to reveal their evidence, and offered to help them investigate the attack.
There has been an insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir since the late 1980s but violence has risen in recent years.
In the wake of the attack, authorities have imposed a curfew in parts of Hindu-majority Jammu city after an angry mob vandalised cars in a largely Muslim neighbourhood. Both India and Pakistan claim all of Muslim-majority Kashmir but only control parts of it.
India says that Pakistan has long given safe haven to Jaish-e-Mohammad militants and accused it of having a "direct hand" in Thursday's attack.
It has called for global sanctions against the group and for its leader, Masood Azhar, to be listed as a terrorist by the UN security council.
India has tried to do this several times in the past but was repeatedly blocked by China, an ally of Pakistan.
Mr Jaitley set out India's determination to hold Pakistan to account when speaking to reporters after attending a security meeting early on Friday.
He also confirmed that India would revoke Most Favoured Nation status from Pakistan, a special trading privilege granted in 1996.
Pakistan said it was gravely concerned by the bombing but firmly rejected allegations that it was responsible. The country's Information Minister, Fawad Chaudry, asked India to show its evidence, and offered to help the investigation into the attack. "This needs evidence," he told broadcaster CNN-News18. "This needs an investigation."
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a speech that those behind the attack would pay a "heavy price", leading many analysts to expect further action from Delhi. But they say that the government's military options appear limited due to heavy snow across the region.
After a 2016 attack on an Indian army base that killed 19 soldiers, Delhi said it carried out a campaign of "surgical strikes" in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, across the de facto border. But a BBC investigation found little evidence militants had been hit. The bomber used a vehicle packed with explosives to ram a convoy of 78 buses carrying Indian security forces on the heavily guarded Srinagar-Jammu highway about 20km (12 miles) from the capital, Srinagar. The bomber is reported to be Adil Dar, a high school dropout who left home in March 2018. He is believed to be between the ages of 19 and 21. Soon after the attack, Jaish-e-Mohammad released a video in which a young man identified as Dar spoke about what he described as atrocities against Kashmiri Muslims. He said he had joined the group in 2018 and was eventually "assigned" the task of carrying out the attack in Pulwama. He also said that by the time the video was releasedhe would be in jannat (heaven). Dar is one of many young Kashmiri men who have been radicalised in recent years. On Thursday, main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said that the number of Kashmiri men joining militancy had risen from 88 in 2016 to 191 in 2018. India has been accused of using brutal tactics to put down protests in Kashmir - with thousands of people sustaining eye injuries from pellet guns used by security forces. | Armed Conflict | February 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
The People's Republic of China cuts communication mechanism with Taiwan after the new government refuses to acknowledge the One China policy. | BEIJING (Reuters) - The Chinese government said on Saturday it had stopped a communication mechanism with Taiwan because of the refusal of the self-ruled island’s new government to recognize the “one China” principle, in the latest show of tension between the two.
China, which regards Taiwan as wayward province, is deeply suspicious of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who took office last month, as they suspect she will push for formal independence.
Tsai, who heads the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, says she wants to maintain the status quo with China and is committed to ensuring peace.
But China has insisted she recognize something called the “1992 consensus” reached between China’s Communists and Taiwan’s then-ruling Nationalists, under which both agreed there is only one China, with each having their own interpretation of what that means.
In a brief statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said that since May 20, when Tsai took office, Taiwan has not affirmed this consensus.
“Because the Taiwan side has not acknowledged the 1992 consensus, this joint political basis for showing the one China principle, the cross Taiwan Strait contact and communication mechanism has already stopped,” spokesman An Fengshan said.
The announcement came as Taiwan expressed anger at Cambodia’s deportation of 25 Taiwanese nationals wanted on fraud charges to China on Friday, ignoring attempts by Taiwanese officials to have them returned to the island.
Taipei has accused Beijing of kidnapping when other countries such as Kenya and Malaysia have deported Taiwanese to China, also in fraud cases.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said on Friday it had expressed its concerns to the Taiwan Affairs Office about the Cambodia case using the communication system.
In a statement on Saturday, the council said both sides of the Taiwan Strait had a responsibility to maintain peace and stability.
“The government will continue to keep open the door to communication and dialogue,” it said.
The regular communication mechanism had been ushered in following a rapid improvement of ties under the rule of Taiwan’s then-president Ma Ying-jeou, who took office in 2008 and signed a series of landmark trade and tourism deals with China.
Tsai is currently on her first trip overseas as president, visiting diplomatic allies Panama and Paraguay, with transit stops both ways in the United States.
Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan after a civil war with the Communists in 1949, which has never formally ended. China has also never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.
| Government Policy Changes | June 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A collision between a bus and a truck in Dschang, West, Cameroon, kills 53 people and leaves 29 others injured with severe burns. | Fifty-three people died Wednesday when a bus collided with a fuel-laden van in Cameroon, causing a blaze that engulfed both vehicles, the local governor said.
“The dead have all been burned beyond identification,” said Awa Fonka Augustine, the governor of West Region.
Twenty-nine people suffered severe burns, including two young children and a four-month-old baby, according to a list of the injured the local hospital sent to AFP.
The 70-seat bus collided head-on with the van at around 3.30am at a location called the Cliff of Dschang, in central-western Cameroon, the governor said.
The stretch of road is notorious for accidents, with hairpin bends and ravines.
The governor said fog may have been a cause of the accident, and an initial investigation found that the van had a “brake problem”.
In a later statement, he said the van had been carrying “adulterated fuel”, which is prohibited.
Transport Minister Jean Ernest Ngalle Bibehe said the “unfortunate incident which occurred during the night highlights the problem of night trips favoured by some inter-city passenger transport companies — and the need for their supervision.”
“An investigation has been opened which will establish who was responsible and take the appropriate measures,” he said in a statement.
Manfred Missimikin of road accident prevention NGO Securoute said “a succession of negligence” was to blame for the tragedy.
“The van carrying fuel was not authorised to do so,” he told AFP.
“Furthermore, when the violence of the impact seen in images of the accident is analysed, it is evident that the van was speeding.”
He also denounced the “lightness of police” presence as there were no checkpoints set up at the dangerous cliff section of the road.
At least 37 people, including 10 women and four children, were killed in central Cameroon on December 27 when their bus smashed into a truck and tumbled down a ravine. | Road Crash | January 2021 | ['(AFP via Manila Bulletin)'] |
In association football, Sydney FC defeats the Melbourne Victory 4-2 in the A-League Grand Final after a penalty shootout. | Sydney FC have defeated Melbourne Victory 4-2 in a penalty shootout in Sunday's A-League grand final to win the championship and claim the domestic double.
With scores locked at 1-1 after extra-time at Allianz Stadium, the Sky Blues prevailed to claim the club's third championship.
In a tense shootout, Sydney's Alex Wilkinson sprayed his shot wide before Melbourne's Carl Valeri crashed his effort off the crossbar and Marcos Rojas had his effort saved by Danny Vukovic.
It was left to Johnny Warren Medal winner Milos Ninkovic to slot home the match-winning spot kick.
Melbourne's Besart Berisha and Sydney's Rhyan Grant scored the goals during the first 90 minutes of a bruising battle - in which 11 yellow cards were issued among 59 fouls.
Berisha gave Victory the lead in the 20th minute with a sublime goal that stunned Sydney's parochial 41,546-strong crowd.
The polarising frontman took possession about 25 metres from goal and toyed with Wilkinson as he ran at the Sydney defender.
After jinking this way, then that, Berisha coolly converted during an opening half punctuated by an all-in melee. Tempers boiled over in the 34th minute when Sydney's Milos Ninkovic was taken down by a Leigh Broxham tackle.
Ninkovic's instant remonstration escalated into a push and shove involving all players: three of them - Ninkovic, teammate Filip Holosko and Melbourne's James Troisi - were booked in the aftermath.
After trailing at half-time, Sydney were rewarded for a period of sustained pressure after substitute David Carney swung onto his right foot and fired a powerful shot.
Victory goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas got a glove on the shot and his teammate Berisha a slight nod as the ball sailed along the goal line, before Grant steamed in for a 69th minute tap-in.
With the scores tied, the decider went to extra-time and Melbourne playmaker Troisi came centimetres from a winner - his crisp volley in the 107th minute struck the inside of the left-hand post.
Just three minutes later, Sky Blues stalwart Carney was brought down and tumbled into the box amid cries for a penalty, but the foul occurred centimetres outside the box.
Carney then butchered a gilt-edged chance when in time and space in the box before the penalty shootout.
#ALeagueGF please someone just score....anyone...
Victory fans watching the match live at Melbourne's Etihad Stadium were upset by the loss.
"Yeah I'm a bit disappointed, but I'm still very proud," said fan Inhyeok Park. "So proud of the travellers."
He had been to every home game this season, but only managed one away game.
Does he regret missing out on this nailbiter? "Definitely."
Earlier, two flares were ignited in Sydney FC's support area.
A cloud of smoke billowed from The Cove before kick-off inside the stadium.
According to reports, at least one flare was lit by Melbourne Victory fans outside on their way to the showpiece. | Sports Competition | May 2017 | ['(The Canberra Times)'] |
A presidential election takes place in Nigeria. | Tens of millions of Nigerians have taken part in Africa's biggest presidential election, amid hopes of the most credible poll in two decades.
Votes are already being counted in parts of the country, with official results expected on Monday.
Voting is reported to have generally gone smoothly, despite some reports of fraud and incidents of violence. President Goodluck Jonathan's main challenger is Muhammadu Buhari, an ex-military leader popular in the north.
Some violence has been reported, with a woman said to have been killed in the central city of Jos and two bomb explosions in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri.
Dozens of people were killed in the run-up to the vote.
The polls closed at 1700 (1600 GMT), but anyone already in the queue by then was still being permitted to vote. According to the law, counting should start immediately at the polling stations after everyone has voted.
Mr Jonathan has staked his reputation on the conduct of the election, repeatedly promising it will be free and fair.
He cast his ballot in his home state of Bayelsa in the oil-rich Niger Delta. After voting, he said the election was a "new dawn in Nigeria's political evolution".
"If the ballot paper means nothing then there is no democracy… Nigeria is now experiencing true democracy where we the politicians have to go to the people," he said.
He said he was confident of victory, but that he would leave office if he lost, adding that he hoped there would not be a run-off because elections cost a "colossal sum of money".
Other challengers for the presidency include former anti-corruption chief Nuhu Ribadu and Kano state governor Ibrahim Shekarau, though both are seen as rank outsiders.
In Daura, home to Gen Buhari, crowds waited for hours despite the intense heat to cast their votes.
"There's a desperate attempt by the ruling party to rig this election in a more sophisticated way," Gen Buhari told the BBC.
"This time around - the level of awareness and commitment by the masses is what has given me some relief."
Gen Buhari added that he had more faith in the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) this time round, adding that "probably 60% of the election will be credible". Africa's largest oil producer has long been plagued by corruption and has a history of vote fraud and violence.
Reports from Jos say a woman was killed in an argument between voters and election officials. In other unrest
Voters expressed hope that the election would be fairer than previous votes.
Williams Beacher, a voter in Kano, said he had confidence in the new election chiefs.
"In previous elections, before we finish casting our vote, the national result had already been announced," he said.
Allegations of ballot-stuffing plagued the 2007 election, which brought Mr Jonathan to power as the vice-president.
He took over as president in 2010 when the incumbent died, becoming the first leader from the oil-producing Niger Delta region.
Mr Jonathan's People's Democratic Party lost seats in a parliamentary election last week.
But he remains favourite in opinion polls, and his chances have been boosted after Mr Buhari and Mr Ribadu failed to agree a formal alliance to run against him.
The relatively successful conduct of the parliamentary election has increased confidence in the ability of the electoral commission, Inec, to ensure a fair presidential vote.
With 74 million registered voters, Nigeria has the biggest electorate on the continent. To win at the first round, a candidate not only needs the majority of votes cast, but at least 25% of the vote in two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states. Goodluck Jonathan, of the PDP, reached that threshold in 31 states; runner-up Muhammadu Buhari of the CPC only did so in 16 states.
Nigeria's 160 million people are divided between numerous ethno-linguistic groups and also along religious lines. Broadly, the Hausa-Fulani people based in the north are mostly Muslims. The Yorubas of the south-west are divided between Muslims and Christians, while the Igbos of the south-east and neighbouring groups are mostly Christian or animist. The Middle Belt is home to hundreds of groups with different beliefs, and around Jos there are frequent clashes between Hausa-speaking Muslims and Christian members of the Berom community.
Despite its vast resources, Nigeria ranks among the most unequal countries in the world, according to the UN. The poverty in the north is in stark contrast to the more developed southern states. While in the oil-rich south-east, the residents of Delta and Akwa Ibom complain that all the wealth they generate flows up the pipeline to Abuja and Lagos.
Southern residents tend to have better access to healthcare, as reflected by the greater uptake of vaccines for polio, tuberculosis, tetanus and diphtheria. Some northern groups have in the past boycotted immunisation programmes, saying they are a Western plot to make Muslim women infertile. This led to a recurrence of polio, but the vaccinations have now resumed.
Female literacy is seen as the key to raising living standards for the next generation. For example, a newborn child is far likelier to survive if its mother is well-educated. In Nigeria we see a stark contrast between the mainly Muslim north and the Christian and animist south. In some northern states less than 5% of women can read and write, whereas in some Igbo areas more than 90% are literate.
Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer and among the biggest in the world but most of its people subsist on less than $2 a day. The oil is produced in the south-east and some militant groups there want to keep a greater share of the wealth which comes from under their feet. Attacks by militants on oil installations led to a sharp fall in Nigeria's output during the last decade. But in 2010, a government amnesty led thousands of fighters to lay down their weapons. | Government Job change - Election | April 2011 | ['(iAfrica)', '(BBC)'] |
An explosion at a Russian Military highexplosive production and storage facility in the city of Dzerzhinsk injures 79 people. | A factory explosion in the Russian city of Dzerzhinsk has injured 79 people and damaged 180 homes nearby.
City officials say that the factory was used to produce and store high-explosive bombs for the military.
They add that the processing facility at the JSC Kristall Research Institute plant has been completely destroyed by the blast.
A factory official says five people were inside at the time, but they were safely evacuated.
Most of the people who were hurt were cut by flying glass from the explosion, which also caused a shockwave that smashed windows in homes and other factories in the city.
Dzerzhinsk city officials have declared an emergency in the surrounding areas, while the Investigative Committee of Russia says it has launched a criminal investigation into potential safety violations at the plant.
A local health ministry statement says: "According to the latest information, 79 people asked for medical help after the explosion at Kristall: 38 factory workers and 41 residents of the city. There are no children among the injured."
It adds that 15 people were hospitalised, but no one had died.
Earlier, a local health official said that most victims were suffering from "shrapnel wounds of mild and moderate severity". Meanwhile residents have posted photos on social media showing a huge mushroom cloud billowing out over the blast area.
Дзержинск pic.twitter.com/QMhDvYhYAW
Officials said it was a "technical explosion" in one of the workshops, which caused a fire of around 100 sq m.
Last August three people died in another factory blast in Dzerzhinsk, in central Russia, which is believed to be one of the world's most polluted cities. | Armed Conflict | June 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
Argentina reports its first case. | BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina Health Minister Gines Gonzalez Garcia on Tuesday confirmed the South American countrys first case of the fast-spreading new coronavirus.
The patient, a 43-year-old man, arrived in Argentina on March 1 after a two-week trip that included northern Italy, another health ministry official said. Northern Italy is grappling with one of the worlds worst outbreaks of the respiratory illness outside of China.
Health Access Secretary Carla Vizzotti said Argentina is still in the containment stage in dealing with the virus. Containment means that we will work on the early detection of possible cases, confirming or ruling them out.
The first confirmed case of the coronavirus in South America was reported in Brazil on Feb. 26.
The illness, called COVID-19, first emerged in central China late last year. It has now spread to nearly 80 countries including Mexico, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic, with the worst outbreaks outside of China in South Korea, Iran and Italy.
| Disease Outbreaks | March 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
An airstrike kills five doctors in a hospital in the southern outskirts of Libya's capital Tripoli. | An air strike has killed five doctors in a hospital in the southern outskirts of Libya's capital Tripoli, an official from the UN-backed government says.
A warplane belonging to Khalifa Hafta, the rogue general who commands the Libyan National Army, carried out the attack, the health ministry spokesman added.
The LNA has not commented.
Libya has been roiled in conflict since the fall of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Fighting between the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, and Mr Haftar's LNA, has claimed 1,100 lives since April, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The fighting has remained deadlocked on the outskirts of the capital, with both sides resorting to air strikes, news agency AFP reports. Saturday's bombing also wounded seven people, including some rescuers, Lamine al-Hashem, the spokesman from the health ministry, said. "It was a direct hit against the field hospital which was packed with medical teams," Mr Hashemi added.
The attack was the third to target a hospital in the capital's south, AFP reports.
African migrants who use Libya as a key crossing point to Europe have also been caught up in the fighting.
The GNA blamed the LNA for last month's air strike on a detention centre that killed at least 50 migrants. However, the LNA said it had attacked a pro-government camp near the centre and pro-government forces had fired shells in response, hitting the migrant centre by accident.
The UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said the attack could constitute a war crime.
Only Libya's myriad armed militias really hold sway - nominally backing two centres of political power in the east and west with parallel institutions.
This is under the leadership of Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj, an engineer by profession. He arrived in Tripoli in March 2016, four months after a UN-brokered deal to form a unity government, to set up his administration. Over the last three years he has worked to gain the support of the various militias and politicians, but he has little real power over the whole country or the forces ostensibly under his control.
When those who held power in Tripoli refused to give it up in 2014, the newly elected MPs moved to the port of Tobruk, 1,000km (620 miles) away, along with the old government. In 2015 some of these MPs backed the UN deal for a unity government, but the parliament has since refused to recognise it and has been blocking efforts to organise fresh elections because it wants rogue General Khalifa Haftar, who leads a powerful force called the Libyan National Army (LNA), to be guaranteed a senior role in any new set-up.
| Armed Conflict | July 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashal meet for talks in Syria. | Turkey's foreign minister met with Hamas' leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal during a visit to Syria Monday, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry confirmed Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al Hariri during his Damascus visit, spokesman Selim Yenel said. Turkish media reported he also held talks with former Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi and radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Yenel said he did not have details about the discussion between Davutoglu and Meshaal.
Turkey, once Israel's only Muslim ally in the Middle East, was condemned by the Israeli government when it hosted Meshaal on an official visit in 2006. Hamas had just swept parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories. Davutoglu, then a key foreign policy adviser to the Turkish prime minister, was seen as the architect of the Hamas visit.
Yigal Palmor, spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said the meeting would not make change Hamas' actions.
"So one wonders what is the point of talking to an organization that refuses and rejects the idea of solving problems through dialog," he said.
Israel and the United States both formally label Hamas a terrorist organization.
Turkish-Israeli relations have sharply deteriorated over the last two years, since Israel mounted a military offensive on Hamas-ruled Gaza. Relations hit rock bottom after Israeli commandos raided a Turkish aid flotilla steaming toward Gaza in May, leaving eight Turks and one Turkish-American citizen dead. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | July 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(CNN)', '(The Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
Mount Agung in Bali erupts for the first time in 50 years, leading to thousands of people fleeing their homes. | A volcano on the Indonesian island of Bali has erupted for the first time in more than 50 years, the country's national disaster agency says.
More than 140,000 people had fled their homes in recent months before Mount Agung began belching smoke 700m (2,300ft) above its summit on Tuesday.
Nearly 1,600 people died when Mount Agung last erupted in 1963.
So far, there have been no changes to flights in the region despite the eruption.
A spokesperson for the national disaster agency said Mount Agung was undergoing phreatic eruptions, which happen when water beneath the ground or on the surface is heated by magma.
Phreatic eruptions also took place during the catastrophic eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia in 1883, which killed 40,000 people.
Villagers near the mount were first told to leave in August when it started rumbling but were later allowed to return home. Since then the mount has been rumbling intermittently.
Many of those who returned home have now been ordered to leave and stay overnight in village halls and temples a safe distance from the volcano.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.
According to official estimates, the holiday island of Bali lost at least $110m (£83m) in tourism and productivity while locals were moved to shelters.
However, the island's airport remains open with no changes to flights, and tourist areas are safe according to Indonesia's disaster agency.
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| Volcano Eruption | November 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
29 paramilitary troops are convicted of mutiny and imprisoned for up to seven years at a Bangladeshi tribunal. | Updated: Apr 8, 2010 02:52
DHAKA: A special tribunal in Bangladesh on Wednesday convicted 29 paramilitary troops of mutinying last year against their army commanders and sentenced them to up to seven years in jail.
The minimum punishment handed out was four months in prison, legal officials said.
Those convicted were among soldiers who killed more than 70 people, including 57 army officers, during the two-day revolt at the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) headquarters in Dhaka in February 2009.
The sentences issued in northern Panchagarh district were the first by the tribunal, which sits at various locations and is headed by BDR chief Maj. Gen. Mainul Islam.
Around 3,500 soldiers or border guards have been accused of involvement in the mutiny. Many face punishment on charges of participating in the revolt and for the killings and the concealment of bodies.
The mutiny, less than two months after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took office for the second time, threatened the stability of her government and raised fears of military intervention.
Instead of calling in the army to quell the mutiny, Hasina chose a negotiated settlement and may have spared the south Asian nation worse carnage, officials and analysts said.
Her political rivals, including former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, said summoning the military would have crushed the revolt more quickly and saved lives.
The dead included the then-BDR chief Maj. Gen. Shakil Ahmed, his wife and a number of civilians. The rebels buried most of the bodies in mass graves and tossed some into sewers.
The revolt undermined attempts to restore democracy after two years of emergency rule by an army-backed interim authority.
The mutiny started during an annual meeting at the BDR HQ in Dhaka's Peelkhana area over disputes on troops' pay and objections to being commanded by officers drawn from the army.
It quickly spread to a dozen other districts, including Panchagarh, but the rebels dropped their weapons and returned to the barracks within two days.
Home ministry officials said trials of mutineers would proceed for a few more months and added that preparations were underway to rebuild and rename the BRD.
Bangladesh has a history of long periods of military rule and of turmoil under shortlived civilian governments.
Analysts say the army still remains a threat to democracy in this impoverished country of over 150 million people and often takes direct or indirect control over administration while politicians squabble.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | April 2010 | ['(Arab News)'] |
A US federal judge orders PricewaterhouseCoopers to pay US$625.3 million compensation to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The judge rules PwC negligently caused losses to F.D.I.C. by failing to uncover fraud during audits of Colonial BancGroup. Colonial, one the nation's 25 largest banks, and Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, the 12th-largest mortgage broker in the US, both collapsed in August 2009 as a result of fraud between the two. F.D.I.C. was the receiver for Colonial. | (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday said PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP must pay $625.3 million in damages to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp for failing to uncover fraud that led to one of the largest bank failures of the global financial crisis.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein found it more likely than not that PwC’s negligence was the proximate cause of FDIC damages from the August 2009 demise of Montgomery, Alabama’s Colonial BancGroup Inc, once among the 25 largest U.S. banks.
Rothstein said PwC failed to uncover a multi-year fraud between Colonial, its former client, and Ocala, Florida-based Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, once the nation’s 12th largest mortgage lender and a major Colonial customer.
The FDIC sued in its role as receiver for Colonial Bank, which once had more than $25 billion of assets and 340 branches.
Taylor Bean also failed in August 2009. Its former chairman, Lee Farkas, is serving a 30-year prison term for his 2011 conviction on fraud and conspiracy charges.
Rothstein had found PwC liable for negligence in December, after a non-jury trial, and tried the damages issue in March, also without a jury.
PwC had argued that the FDIC could recover $306.7 million at most, and that no damages were justified because numerous Colonial employees had interfered with its audits.
“We intend to pursue an appeal of this matter at the earliest opportunity,” its outside lawyer Phil Beck said in a statement provided by PwC.
The FDIC said it does not discuss pending litigation. It previously settled with Colonial’s internal auditor, Crowe Horwath.
On Feb. 28, Taylor Bean’s former auditor Deloitte & Touche LLP [DLTE.UL] agreed to pay $149.5 million to settle U.S. government claims it also missed the fraud.
According to the FDIC, the fraud began in 2002 when Taylor Bean began overdrawing its accounts and Colonial, at Farkas’ urging, began manipulating those accounts to conceal it.
This allegedly included the sale by Taylor Bean to Colonial of mortgages that had already been sold to other investors, and Colonial receiving stakes in mortgages that had no collateral or were in default.
By the time the fraud was discovered, Colonial’s balance sheet included $1.47 billion of mortgage trades that were “fake or otherwise impaired,” Rothstein wrote.
The $625.3 million award covers PwC’s audits of Colonial from 2003 to 2005 and in 2008.
A trial for the 2006 and 2007 audits has not been scheduled because the FDIC did not waive its right to a jury trial.
The case is Federal Deposit Insurance Corp as receiver for Colonial Bank v PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Alabama, No. 12-00957. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has announced that he will submit his government's resignation because of a disagreement with Finance Minister Andrej Babiš. | Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has announced that he will submit his government's resignation later this week because of a disagreement with Finance Minister Andrej Babis. Mr Sobotka is unhappy about alleged unexplained business dealings of Mr Babis, a billionaire businessman.
The announcement comes less than six months before parliamentary elections. Mr Sobotka has said he will meet the president in the coming days to formally submit the resignations.
The BBC's Rob Cameron in Prague says that Czechs have have had more than three years of more or less stable coalition government under Mr Sobotka, a mild-mannered social democrat.
But that stability has now come to an end because of the bitter rivalry between him and Mr Babis.
Their dispute came to a head over claims Mr Babis had avoided paying taxes on bonds issued by his own company. Mr Sobotka argues that it is unacceptable for Mr Babis to remain as finance minister.
Mr Babis's centrist ANO party is far ahead of Mr Sobotka's centre-left CSSD in the opinion polls, our correspondent says, and this act of brinksmanship will be seen very much as pre-election manoeuvring. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | May 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Maritime Union of Australia commences industrial action at cargo terminals at Melbourne, Sydney and Fremantle, affecting half of Australia's maritime trade. | Stevedoring company Patrick says wharf workers' industrial action will log-jam about half of Australia's container trade, or 35,000 shipping containers.
The action will hit terminals in Melbourne, Sydney and Fremantle for seven days and Brisbane for six days from Wednesday.
Patrick director Paul Garaty says the action, in the form of bans and limitations, will impact 32 vessels and effectively see the terminals "grind to a halt".
"This will have a huge impact on Australian importers and exporters hurting everyone from small businesses awaiting deliveries to Australian farmers exporting their goods to market and the transport industry who are reliant on container trade to make a living."
The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has rejected Patrick's offer of a four per cent pay rise with an additional one per cent offered if "internationally recognised safety, productivity and efficiency targets" are met.
The MUA wants three annual six per cent pay rises and an increase to superannuation from nine to 13 per cent.
Patrick says the union's pay claim would add about $120 million to the company's costs over a three-year period without productivity offsets.
The MUA disputes that figure and says Patrick's refusal to consider safety and training improvements left it no choice but to proceed with the action.
"Negotiations for a new industrial agreement are now eight months old," MUA deputy national secretary Mick Doleman said.
"While progress has been made, the company's latest offer fails to address the union's legitimate concerns around safety and training.
"The limited work bans will not stop container terminals at Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle from operating.
"The company has been notified of the legally protected action, in line with the provisions of the Fair Work Act."
Mr Doleman said the union remained committed to good faith bargaining.
But Mr Garaty said the union's quick response to Patrick's latest offer raised doubts about that claim.
"The union issued this action less than 24 hours after the company put an offer to its representatives," he said. | Strike | May 2011 | ['(AAP via NineMSN)'] |
Nationwide strikes led by Communist and Socialist parties take place in Greece to protest the government's handing of the country's debt. Most of the country was brought to a standstill as factories, schools, airports and hospitals closed down or reduced capacity | Public sector workers in Greece have begun nationwide strikes protesting government measures to tackle the country's debt crisis which has shaken the euro zone and prompted Germany to work on a rescue package.
A stranded traveler at the Athens airport after strikes ground flights
Aviation workers joined striking civil servants in Greece, grounding flights and halting government services early on Wednesday. An estimated quarter of a million civil servants in Greece are on strike to protest severe austerity measures.
On Tuesday, Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou outlined plans to freeze public sector wages and raise taxes in order to reduce Greece's spiraling debt. The planned cuts include wage freezes and bonus cuts and could affect state schools, hospitals, tax offices and local government offices.
Papandreou urges restraint
The plans are part of the government's pledge to cut the budget deficit, which rose to 12.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) last year. Athens hopes to bring the deficit to below the EU's 3 percent ceiling by 2012.
But the cuts have angered unions.
"They (the government) had promised the rich would pay but instead they take the money from the poor," Ilias Iliopoulous, general secretary of the public sector union ADEDY, said. "This is the policy we are fighting, not the effort to get out of the crisis."
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has urged the unions to show restraint, saying the country could not afford strikes and blockades just as the government announced tax reforms and increased the retirement age.
"Our primary duty is to save the economy and to reduce debt while seeking just solutions that protect as much as possible those on lower incomes and the middle class," Papandreou said on Tuesday. Fear of crisis spreading
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was said to be working both on a bilateral basis and at the European level in order to hammer out an aid package to help Greece control its massive debt. According to a report in the Financial Times Deutschland, an unnamed German government official said Berlin has decided to "take a significant step" in helping Athens deal with the crisis so that other eurozone members can avoid negative consequences.
Schaeuble is expected to inform his party about the aid package on Wednesday
"We are thinking about what we should do if the crisis spills from Greece into other euro countries," said the official. "So it's more about finding firewalls, containing the problem, than principally about helping the Greeks." EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia echoed the fear of the crisis spreading beyond Greece. He also said it was important for EU leaders to match Greece's efforts to handle its debt.
"I would like the leaders of Europe to say to the Greek authorities that in exchange for the efforts you are making, you are going to get support from us," he told the European Parliament.
If the aid package is approved, it would be the first time one of the 16 countries sharing the common currency, the euro, is bailed out.
Greece's situation is likely to be the focus at an informal summit of EU leaders on Thursday, with European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet present.
mk/hf/AFP/dpa/ReutersEditor: Sonia Phalnikar Tax collectors and customs officers in Greece have left their posts, launching a wave of strikes against economic austerity measures. Civil servants, doctors and private sector workers are also poised to stage walkouts. (04.02.2010)
The European Union has approved a Greek government plan to bring its runaway budget deficit under control. However, Brussels will monitor the progress and is reserving the right to call for further measures. (03.02.2010)
The EU is increasingly worried about Greece's financial troubles affecting the stability of the euro currency. Next week, Brussels is to vet Athens' crisis plan put forward to solve the country's serious fiscal problems. (17.01.2010) | Strike | February 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Deutsche Welle)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Air Canada services face disruption as customer service agents affiliated with the Canadian Auto Workers start a strike. | There were few lineups, delays or cancellations at Pearson International in Toronto Tuesday morning as Air Canada faced its first major strike in nearly 13 years Ottawa said Tuesday it would take the drastic step to introduce back-to-work legislation for Air Canada’s sales and service agents less than a day after they walked off the job.
The country’s largest carrier had appeared to be managing its first major strike in 13 years with minimal disruptions, with roughly 1,700 managers and other non-unionized workers filling in for the striking workers at airports across the country.
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But Lisa Raitt, the federal Labour Minister, said she was concerned about the impact a protracted strike would have on the broader economy and the travelling public.She served notice Tuesday, just 15 hours after the strike began, that she would introduce back-to-work legislation in Parliament after the customary 48-hour waiting period had expired.
“The question mark has always been what would be the government’s response to a national strike with respect to Air Canada,” Ms. Raitt said. “We gave the response today.”
The last time Air Canada faced a similar strike was in 1998, when its pilots, who are not easily replaceable, walked off the job, wreaking havoc on the airline’s operations.
The decision to intervene in the strike this time was also a clear shot across the bow for Air Canada and its other unions, who must also renegotiate their own labour pacts this year.
Ken Lewenza, national president of the Canadian Auto Workers, which represents the 3,800 striking Air Canada employees, expressed frustration with Ottawa’s decision.
“This action by the government is a clear interference with the right to free collective bargaining,” he said in a statement. “This is a deplorable model for labour relations for this country; it sets a dangerous precedent when the government can get involved in the collective bargaining of workers employed by a privately-owned, for profit-company.”
It is not the first time the Harper government has been quick to step into the midst of a labour dispute.
In 2009, the federal government had drafted back-to-work legislation in a similar battle between Canadian National Railway Co. and its locomotive engineers just 11 hours after their strike began. Before the bill could be presented to the House, however, the parties reached a settlement.
“As history will show, in the history of airlines, in the history of rail and the cases of port matters, where it’s going to effect the economy, the government, regardless of the stripe of it, is going to act,” Ms. Raitt said.
But Anil Verma, a professor of industrial relations at the University of Toronto, disagreed that intervening at Air Canada so quickly was necessary.
Unlike the ports or the railways, there is ample competition in the airline industry both domestically, with WestJet Airlines Ltd. and Porter Airlines, and abroad with any number of international carriers, he said. “Air Canada does not fit the category at all,” he said.
Mr. Verma said he was surprised by the move, and felt that the Tories were trying to establish a new precedent with their recently-won majority.
“In the last 10 years or so, with governments of every stripe in Western countries, like Canada, the U.S., or the U.K., the approach has been to not intervene unless it’s absolutely necessary, to let collective bargaining play out, especially in the private sector,” Mr. Verma said. He gave the Vale-Inco strike as an example, which went on for more than a year in Sudbury, Ont.
“This could be the beginning of a new thing,” Mr. Verma said.
Ms. Raitt said Ottawa’s preferred route would be for Air Canada and the CAW to work out their own deal. But the back-to-work legislation would act as a motivator, she said.
“There’s a lot of variables that could happen. But our intention is to introduce it as soon as we can. The parties should be at the table trying to get a deal,” she said.
Air Canada’s negotiations with the CAW broke off shortly before midnight Monday over concessions the airline’s management was seeking from the employees over their pensions.
The union presented a counter pension proposal to the airline in the afternoon. But hadn’t heard back by press time, a union official said.
Peter Fitzpatrick, Air Canada spokesman, said he would not comment on the government’s decision to intervene.
“While negotiations of this nature are inherently challenging, we would prefer that a negotiated contract to the benefit of both parties be achieved through the normal bargaining process and we’re ready to go back to the table at any time,” he said in an email.
Meanwhile, Air Canada’s service at airports across the country showed little disruption from the strike. Despite a large and vocal demonstration from picketers, there were few lineups and delays at Pearson International airport in Toronto by mid-morning Tuesday, in part because many customers checked in online ahead of their flights.
The airline also implemented emergency measures typically reserved for weather events such as winter blizzards, including the cancellation and consolidation of several flights, giving Air Canada the flexibility to deal with any delays and disruptions rather than see them ripple across its network.
.
| Strike | June 2011 | ['(Financial Post)'] |
A train en route to Istanbul from Bulgaria derails in Tekirdağ Province, Turkey, killing 24 people and injuring 73. | Twenty-four people have been killed after a train derailed in north-western Turkey, Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdag says.
The train was en route to Istanbul from the town of Kapikule on the Bulgarian border, according to reports.
Six of the carriages derailed, with about 360 passengers on board, state-run TRT Haber TV channel said. The exact cause of the crash is unclear but authorities have blamed bad weather and a landslide for the accident.
CNN Turk, though, reported that a collapsed bridge was the cause of the accident. The train derailed in the province of Tekirdag. Local governor Mehmet Ceylan told the NTV channel that helicopters had already taken many of the injured away from the scene. Television footage shows rescuers heading to the crash site, and victims pulled from the carriages. Russian news sources meanwhile said that Russian tourists were among those injured in the derailment. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sent his condolences for those killed, his office said, after getting information about the crash from his ministers. 'Nine killed' in Turkey train crash
. | Road Crash | July 2018 | ['(Star Tribune)', '(BBC)'] |
Luxembourg's Viviane Reding, Finland's Olli Rehn, Italy's Antonio Tajani and Poland's Janusz Lewandowski step down as EU commissioners in order to take office as newly elected members of the European Parliament. | Four out of the seven commissioners who were elected to the European Parliament quit their jobs on Tuesday (1 July) in order to become MEPs.
Luxembourg's Viviane Reding, until now commissioner for justice and fundamental rights, took up her MEP seat, along with economics commissioner Olli Rehn from Finland, industry commissioner Antonio Tajani of Italy, and Poland's Janusz Lewandowski, previously in charge of the EU budget.
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Outgoing commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said their portfolios will be temporarily taken over by other commissioners, pending the hearings and appointment of their successors.
Siim Kalllas, Estonia's commissioner in charge of transport policies, is taking over the economics portfolio, while Austria's Johannes Hahn, responsible for regional policy, will also look after justice and fundamental rights.
Industrial policies are going to France's Michel Barnier, who is in charge of the single market and financial services, while development commissioner Andris Piebalgs of Latvia will oversee budget matters.
Three other commissioners who were elected to the EP have not given up their jobs, in the hope that their governments will send them again as commissioners in autumn: Slovakia's Maros Sefcovic (administration and inter-institutional relations), Croatia's Nevem Mimica (consumer protection) and Belgium's Karel De Gucht (trade).
As for the successors to the four commissioners who have just headed to the EP, Finland has nominated former Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen for the job, while Italy put forward Fernando Nelli Feroci, a career diplomat who was the country's permanent representative in Brussels until last year.
Poland nominated Jacek Dominik, a director within the European Investment Bank, and Luxembourg went with Martine Reicherts, a yoga teacher who works in the EU commission's publications department. Reicherts will step down once Jean-Claude Juncker, the former Prime Minister of Luxembourg, is elected EU commission president.
Barroso can put replacement commissioners in charge of portfolios different to their predecessors. The four new commissioners have to pass through parliamentary hearings and two are expected to stay on in the new commission, as governments can also send someone else when the Barroso commission finishes its term in October.
Meanwhile, the commissioners from Germany and France - Guenther Oettinger and Michel Barnier - two of the commissioners who earned normal salaries of €20,000 per month, will get a boost of €3,150 per month until October as they have been upgraded to vice-presidents of the commission. Oettinger is likely to stay on in the new commission, but it will be up to the new commission chief to decide whether to keep him as a vice-president.
Juncker, who is expected to be confirmed as the new commission president in a European Parliament vote on 16 July, will later that day meet with EU leaders in Brussels to discuss top posts within his team, notably the high representative for foreign and security policy, who is also vice-president of the commission.
A restructuring of the EU commission is also on the table, with France, Germany and Britain pushing for so-called cluster portfolios for big overarching topics in line with the priorities EU leaders would like to focus on: employment, migration, social protection, energy, and foreign affairs.
But smaller member states are wary of this restructuring and point to the EU treaty which says that all commissioners are equal.
Economics, trade, and energy portfolios are considered top dossiers, along with the foreign affairs portfolio.
Bulgaria's centre-right Kristalina Georgieva is one of the names floated for the foreign affairs post. An alternative candidate for the job is Slovakia's foreign minister Miroslav Lajcak, Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans, and Italian FM Federica Mogherini - all from the centre-left.
Spain and France, meanwhile, are eyeing the economics post or heading the Eurogroup, while Britain would like to get the trade portfolio for Andrew Lansley, the speaker of the House of Commons.
Poland, after seeing few chances to scoop the foreign policy post for Radek Sikorski, is after the energy dossier, something Germany is also eyeing.
Other countries are also maximising their chances by keeping their current commissioners: Romania is likely to send Dacian Ciolos - the current agriculture commissioner - for another term, while Austria is to keep Johannes Hahn, in charge of regional affairs.
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EU leaders have nominated Juncker to be the next European Commission chief, doling out a major diplomatic defeat for London.
Spain has not yet formally decided who will be the country's next EU commissioner but all eyes are on conservative MEP and former agriculture minister Miguel Arias Canete.
The EU commissioners that stood for election to the European Parliament returned to work after they were all elected on Sunday.
The prospect of the next EU commission being heavily male-dominated has prompted outgoing female commissioners to take action.
Former Finnish PM Katainen and three other interim commissioners-to-be were grilled by MEPs before taking up their posts for four months.
Catalan separatist MEPs Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí lost their parliamentary immunity - a result they have hailed as a "political victory" for bringing the conflict between Catalonia and Spain closer to the heart of Europe.
The Belgian and Bulgarian prosecutors who were appointed had also not been the experts' first choice. Belgian prosecutor Jean-Michel Verelst has challenged the council's decision at the European Court of Justice.
Portugal's prime minister António Costa will on Wednesday discuss with European Parliament president David Sassoli and MEPs and try to resolve the issue of who will chair the conference. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | July 2014 | ['(EU Observer)'] |
American actress Lori Loughlin is sentenced to two months in prison and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, is sentenced to five months in prison for their role in the college admissions scandal. | For fixing their daughters’ admission to USC with bribes and bogus athletic credentials, Lori Loughlin and J. Mossimo Giannulli, the best-known defendants in a college admissions scandal studded with marquee names, were sentenced Friday to two months and five months, respectively, in federal prison.
U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton ordered both Loughlin and Giannulli to report to prison by Nov. 19. Before handing down her sentence, Gorton told Loughlin she had “a fairy tale life”: a career as “an admired, successful, professional actor,” two healthy children, a longstanding marriage and “more money than you could possibly need.” “And yet you stand before me a convicted felon,” he said. “And for what? For the inexplicable desire to have even more?” Where she once thought she was helping her daughters “out of love,” Loughlin told the judge she had since come to understand she broke the law and was complicit in widening inequalities, both in the country’s educational system and society as a whole. “That realization weighs heavily on me,” she said, wiping tears from her face. Gorton said he found Loughlin’s mea culpa genuine, and after ordering her incarcerated for two months, he wished her good luck. “We can only hope you will spend the rest of your charmed life, as you’ve said you will, making amends to the system you have harmed,” he said. Gorton had sentenced Loughlin’s husband to prison earlier that day in a separate hearing; with the courts paralyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic, both Loughlin and Giannulli appeared before the judge by videoconference. Giannulli’s lawyer, Sean Berkowitz, described his client as “a good man who made terrible mistakes” and urged Gorton to consider the context of his crimes. “Moss’ top priority was, is and always will be his children,” he said. In a brief statement to the judge, Giannulli said he took responsibility for his conduct and regretted the harm it had caused to his daughters, his wife and the public. Noting he is more often tasked with imposing punishment on drug dealers and gun runners from troubled backgrounds, Gorton told Giannulli he found it hard to believe that a successful, savvy businessman whose upbringing was, in his own words, “fantastic” stood before him to be sentenced for a federal crime. “You were not stealing bread to feed your family,” the judge said. “You had no excuse for your crime, and that makes it all the more blameworthy.”
The couple’s lawyers asked Gorton to recommend to the federal Bureau of Prisons that Loughlin serve her sentence at a prison camp in Victorville and Giannulli at a prison camp in Lompoc. Loughlin must also pay a $150,000 fine and perform 100 hours of community service after she is released from custody. Giannulli was ordered to pay $250,000 and complete 250 hours of community service.
The spectacle of the celebrity couple — one famous for her roles on television sitcoms and Hallmark dramas, the other a well-known fashion designer — being sentenced to prison brought to a close a 17-month saga that both captivated and repulsed much of America. Loughlin was never the most prolific conspirator of the three dozen parents charged with working with William “Rick” Singer, a Newport Beach consultant who orchestrated a sprawling college admissions fraud; other parents paid Singer more money and used his scams to the benefit of more children. Yet from the day she surrendered to the FBI in March 2019, the actress commanded an outsize share of media scrutiny and public scorn. The tabloids, always citing unnamed insiders, offered weekly “insights” into Loughlin’s shifting views of her legal predicament — confident one week, panicked or disconsolate the next. The Giannulli family “has been the face of this crisis, of this scandal, in a way disproportionate to their role,” Berkowitz told the court. Their daughters have been “bullied” unlike any of their co-defendants’ children, he said, and Loughlin’s lawyer, William Trach, said the harassment reached such a pitch that their parents hired guards to protect them. Loughlin and Giannulli each pleaded guilty in May to a single count of fraud conspiracy, a reversal from 14 months of insisting they’d done nothing wrong. The couple had mounted an aggressive defense that included accusing federal prosecutors in Boston of “extraordinary” misconduct.
Although both Giannulli and Loughlin acknowledged conspiring with Singer, prosecutors said Giannulli was more involved in the scheme than his wife and deserved a longer prison sentence. Berkowitz said that Giannulli, who did not graduate from college and needed help guiding his children through the application process, sought out Singer in May 2015 at the recommendation of Mark Hauser, who chaired the board of their daughters’ private high school on Los Angeles’ Westside. Hauser, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, was charged Friday afternoon with one count of fraud conspiracy and accused of paying Singer $40,000 to fix his daughter’s ACT entrance exams. The Los Angeles private equity executive has agreed to plead guilty, according to federal authorities in Boston. Singer, a college counselor who catered to a wealthy clientele, “was not presented as a felon or a huckster or a fraud,” Berkowitz said. For about a year, he tutored the Giannullis’ daughters and offered genuine support and advice, the lawyer said, adding that the girls earned high marks and were admitted to several colleges through legitimate channels. In the government’s account — set out in four indictments and an FBI agent’s affidavit — Giannulli and Loughlin’s dealings with Singer turned criminal in April 2016. Giannulli emailed Singer to say he had “concerns” after sitting down that morning with his older daughter’s high school counselor. The designer wanted to come up with “a road map” to ensure she ended up somewhere other than Arizona State University.
Singer’s “road map” was this: misrepresenting their daughter as a promising coxswain — the member of a rowing team that guides the boat — and bribing an administrator at USC to vouch for the girl’s fabricated credentials. “Would probably help to get a picture with her on an [ergometer] in workout clothes like a real athlete,” Singer wrote to Giannulli. It was at this moment, Berkowitz told the court, that Giannulli “ignored alarm bells, he ignored red flags.” “Fantastic,” the designer wrote back. “Will get all.” He sent Singer a picture of his daughter posing on a rowing machine, copying her on the email, Justin D. O’Connell, an assistant U.S. attorney, wrote in a sentencing memo.
Even as Giannulli, Loughlin and Singer were pursuing their fraudulent scheme, USC fundraising officials were courting the couple, emails filed in court show. An employee in the school’s development office wrote to Giannulli and offered to “flag” his daughter’s application and set up “a 1:1 opportunity for her, customized tour of campus for the family, and/or classroom visit.”
“Thanks so much, I think we are squared away,” Giannulli wrote back. He forwarded the email thread to his wife that night, adding, “The nicest I’ve been at blowing off somebody.”
A month later, Donna Heinel, then USC’s third-ranking administrator in its athletics department, presented the Giannullis’ daughter to an admissions committee as a recruit for the rowing team, prosecutors allege.
Over decades of working as a college counselor, Singer had found a soft spot in the admissions process at USC, which was becoming one of the most prestigious — and selective — universities in California. Heinel was trusted with bringing lists of recruits compiled by USC coaches to a special committee that decided whether to admit them.
In the prosecution’s telling, Singer bribed Heinel to add the names of his clients’ children to these lists, essentially holding them to a far lower standard of admission than if they had applied through normal channels. Heinel, who was fired from USC after her arrest last March, has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to commit racketeering, fraud and bribery.
USC said in a statement on Thursday that an internal review found that “a small number of employees” in the school’s athletics department — separate from those indicted in Singer’s scheme — had falsely presented certain applicants to the committee as recruits, based on their families’ past donations or the prospect they could contribute in the future. “USC would not have admitted these applicants had it known they were being falsely presented as recruited student-athletes,” the statement said. USC did not identify the implicated employees but said they had all been disciplined or no longer worked for the school. The misrepresentations they made were separate altogether from the fraud Singer perpetrated, the university said. Once the Giannullis’ daughter was admitted as a rowing recruit, Singer told her father to write two checks, one sent to Heinel and payable to “USC Athletics” for $50,000, the other a $200,000 “donation” to Singer’s nonprofit, the Key Worldwide Foundation.
Giannulli sent the invoice from Singer’s foundation to his financial advisor, writing, “Good news my [older] daughter is in [U]SC . . . bad [news] is I had to work the system.”
Later that year, he sent Singer an email with the subject line “Trojan happiness.” “Both Lori and I are very appreciative of your efforts and end result!” he wrote.
Singer asked whether there was “a similar need” for their younger daughter. There was. They pulled off a near-identical scam: Giannulli sent Singer a picture of his daughter posing on an ergometer, Singer created a bogus athletic résumé, and Heinel presented the girl to the admissions committee as a recruited rower, prosecutors say.
She was admitted in 2017, and her father sent Heinel a $50,000 check payable to USC’s Galen Center and “donated” $200,000 to Singer’s foundation. “Can’t I write this off?” Giannulli asked his financial advisor.
USC Sports
How USC’s ‘side door’ allowed unqualified prospective students to gain admission
USC Sports
How USC’s ‘side door’ allowed unqualified prospective students to gain admission
A prominent Napa Valley vintner worked feverishly last fall to secure his daughter’s admission to USC as a water polo recruit. March 12, 2019
Loughlin and Giannulli cautioned their younger daughter about tipping off a counselor at her high school. Listing USC as her top choice school “might be a flag for the weasel to meddle,” Loughlin remarked, according to a sentencing memo filed by prosecutors. Giannulli called him a “nosy bastard.”
The counselor did, in fact, grow suspicious. Advised that the Giannullis’ daughter had been presented as an athlete, he told USC he doubted she was a competitive rower, given her busy schedule as a video blogger.
Giannulli confronted the counselor at his daughter’s school, insisting she was a bona fide coxswain and demanding to know “why I was trying to ruin or get in the way of their opportunities,” the counselor wrote in a memo that prosecutors filed in court.
That day, Heinel left Singer a voicemail. “I don’t want the — the parents getting angry and creating any type of disturbance at the school,” she said, according to a transcript filed in court. Parents couldn’t wander onto high school campuses, “yelling at counselors,” she told Singer. “That’ll shut everything — that’ll shut everything down.” | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | August 2020 | ['(Los Angeles Times)'] |
Warragamba Dam, Sydney's main dam, reaches its capacity, leading to the evacuation of residents in southwestern Sydney and flooding of major roads at Windsor and Richmond. | UPDATE: Major dam expected to spill over in hours as water-logged states face anxious race against the elements.
Cooma residents are preparing to evacuate as the river level rises and threatens to inundate homes. Picture: Gary RamageSource:The Australian
SYDNEY'S Warragamba Dam is at 99 per cent and expected to spill over within hours.
The last time the dam spilled for 14 years ago. Floodgates will open if water continues to rise.
"Once Warragamba Dam is 80mm above its full storage level, the first drum gate opens automatically," said Sydney Catchment Authority acting chief executive Sarah Dinning.
"If the water level rises to 230mm above full storage level, the four radial gates on either side of the drum gate also open.
"Water released through the gates flows down the spillway into a pond, 100 metres below the dam."
The news comes after a downpour that put the state on high alert, with three-quarters of NSW at risk of flood.
Tumut in southern NSW might again be the focus of flood concerns tomorrow as the wandering band of torrential rain which has soaked much of NSW shifts south.
"It could be a hot spot tomorrow - they are expecting a lot of rain again as the rain band drifts south," State Emergency Services spokesman Phil Campbell told thetelegraph.com.au this afternoon.
"The caravan park there has been evacuated twice in three days and they might be doing it again tomorrow."
Mr Campbell said the other areas being watched intently by the Bathurst and western Sydney's Hawkesbury-Nepean valleys.
"The rain band starting dumping on the central west but the town's really well protected by levees and it's a remote chance they'll get major flooding," he said.
"The river can get a half kay or one kay wide but it's not so much a threat to property - the bathurst showgrounds and ovals get covered but homes should be OK."
Severe warning
A severe weather warning remains in place for much of NSW.
The SES said about 800 residents in the city's far west are expected to be flooded today, with major roads and bridges at Windsor and North Richmond submerged.
A moderate flood watch was in place for the Nepean-Hawkesbury Valley, prompting SES incident controller for western Sydney Keith Fitzgerald to warn: "People should think seriously about keeping their children home from school and about changing their normal commuting."
Warragamba was late yesterday at 93 per cent capacity and expected to spill over for the first time in 14 years.
"We initially thought the dam would spill earlier but there was a slight reduction in rain in the catchment - we were expecting more than 140,000 megalitres to flow into the dam before 10pm but it now looks like that will be 130,000 megalitres," Sydney Catchment Authority spokeswoman Karen Smith said.
Regional areas hit hard
Emergency service workers yesterday doorknocked about 500 homes and businesses in Cooma, as heavy rain pounded the Monaro region. Nursing-home residents, some on stretchers, were among those evacuated.
Several hundred residents of Goulburn were also told to evacuate from Eastgrove, a suburb east of Goulburn as the swollen Mulwaree River continued to rise.
Some areas in Central Australia had had more than 100mm of rain in the past two days. Typically, the Alice Springs district receives about 286mm a year.
Rain continues to beat down on Victoria
Victoria's northeast is on flood alert as the state prepares for another downpour tomorrow.
The army has also been called in to help towns in Victoria's northeast brace for tomorrow's forecast deluge.
Another 100mm forecast for parts of north and eastern Victoria tomorrow is expected to threaten properties in Albury, Wodonga, Mt Buffalo and East Gippsland.
Up to four Unimog trucks based at Shepparton will assist in ferrying sandbags, food and water to towns such as Tallygaroopna and Katandra West.
It comes as Tallygaroopna residents attempt to relieve water through a nearby channel to prepare the town for further flooding.
Meanwhile, further east, the SES has shifted personnel to towns such as Wangarratta, Beechworth and Mitta Mitta to brace for heavy rainfalls today.Meanwhile, a group of schoolchildren trapped when heavy rain caused a landslide on Mt Buffalo in Victoria's alpine region have been removed safely from the mountain.The two adults and 28 senior students from Mansfield Secondary College spent the night at a mountain lodge after boulders, trees and soil blocked the only access road.Parks Victoria staff led them to safety early today.
Another 100mm forecast for parts of north and eastern Victoria tomorrow is expected to threaten properties in Albury, Wodonga, Mt Buffalo and East Gippsland.
The Victorian Emergency Service received more than 730 calls yesterday as fallen trees caused havoc on the roads, people appealed for sandbags and buildings were damaged.
Residents in Tallygaroopna and Congupna, north of Shepparton, were told to prepare for evacuation as a local waterway was starting to overflow.
Albury-Wodonga copped more than 90mm yesterday while Yarrawonga and Shepparton received up to 73mm. The biggest dump was in Mt Buffalo, which recorded 125mm.
Weather bureau forecaster Andrea Peace said today would be mostly fine in Victoria with scattered showers, but the state should brace itself for a wild weekend. "We will be hit again ... and it will spread across the state," she said.
"February and March are the driest months of the year and it's pretty unusual to see record breaking rainfall," Ms Peace said.
Canberra weather
In the ACT, a large dam near Canberra being built after a severe drought four years ago overflowed last night. The spectacular sight at Cotter Dam was captured on the Dam Cam. The old dam, built in 1912, is completely submerged for the first time in its history.
Rains eased over Canberra and the surrounding region overnight, with today's forecast predicting just a few millimetres more today before a return of heavier falls on the weekend.
Emergency services workers in the ACT are still working their way through more than 500 calls for help following wet weather that has caused flooding in some parts of the territory.
The ACT State Emergency Service says more than 100 outstanding requests for help - which are concentrated in the northern suburbs of Canberra - should be completed by tonight, ahead of more rain tomorrow.
In SA, a flood-damaged bridge has closed the Barrier Highway to Broken Hill in the north-east of the state for at least a week.
Detours in place will add hundreds of kilometres to road trips.
Originally published asHigh alert: Dam on bursting point as floods hit
| Floods | March 2012 | ['(News Limited)'] |
In association football, FC Barcelona becomes the first team to overturn a first-leg 4–0 deficit in the UEFA Champions League as they knocked out Paris Saint-Germain with a 6–1 victory in the second leg to reach the quarter-finals for the 10th successive season. | Last updated on 9 March 20179 March 2017.From the section European Footballcomments573
Barcelona made Champions League history by becoming the first team to overturn a first-leg 4-0 deficit as they knocked out Paris St-Germain to reach the quarter-finals for the 10th successive season.
The Spanish champions were 5-3 down on aggregate in the 88th minute, but scored three goals in the final seven minutes in one of the greatest European ties of all time. Neymar's free-kick and penalty followed by Sergi Roberto's 95th-minute winner sealed victory on an incredible night at the Nou Camp.
Barcelona had led 2-0 at the break courtesy of Luis Suarez's header after just three minutes and Layvin Kurzawa's own goal.
And they added another shortly after half-time when Neymar fell over Thomas Meunier in the box and Lionel Messi converted the penalty.
Edinson Cavani lashed home for PSG on 61 minutes and the quarter-finals looked beyond Barca, but they obviously had not read the script.
Neymar curled a sumptuous free-kick into the top corner before Suarez won a controversial penalty and gave it to the Brazilian to convert - which he did, leaving Barca with one goal to find in injury time.
And Neymar, who delivered a stunning performance, turned provider for substitute Roberto, who poked home his first goal of the season as the Nou Camp exploded.
BBC Sport's Spanish Football writer Andy West at the Nou Camp
Mayhem, utter mayhem.
All around me, people were hugging, jumping, screaming. Grown men were crying and strangers were leaping into each other's arms. Unlike so much of modern sport, there was nothing contrived or orchestrated about those celebrations, about that moment. This was deep, instinctive passion at its most authentic and unrefined. Just pure, wordless, thoughtless exhilaration. And it is surely for moments like this, which come along once every few years if you're lucky, that sport is so compelling.
From a personal point of view, being there was a privilege. Two decades of attending sporting events in a professional capacity have hardened me, to the extent that I thought nothing can move me.
I was wrong. Read more from Andy here
Does anything compare to Barca's achievement on Wednesday night?
Their exploits at the Nou Camp surpassed the previous best second-leg comeback in Champions League history, which was achieved by Deportivo La Coruna against reigning champions AC Milan in 2004.
Trailing 4-1 from the first leg of their quarter-final tie, Deportivo raced into a 3-0 lead in the return leg and, with 14 minutes remaining, clinched a 5-4 aggregate win when Fran volleyed in the Spanish side's fourth goal of the night.
A four-goal first-leg deficit has been overturned in other Uefa competitions by three other clubs: Real welcomed Borussia Monchengladbach for the second leg of a third-round Uefa Cup tie after the German side had won 5-1 at home, and the Spanish club secured a thrilling 4-0 victory to advance to the last eight.
Leixoes were crushed 6-2 at La Chaux-de-Fonds, but the Swiss side buckled 5-0 at the Estádio do Mar in the return leg.
QPR won the first leg 6-2 - which was played at Highbury as they couldn't use the plastic pitch at Loftus Road - but lost 4-0 in Belgrade and went out on away goals.
PSG stunned Luis Enrique's men in the first leg as they completely outplayed the Spanish champions - 16 shots on goal with 10 on target as they inflicted a 4-0 defeat.
Angel di Maria, Cavani and Julian Draxler were in superb form as manager Unai Emery masterminded his first victory over Barca in 23 attempts.
But their attacking threat from three weeks ago was replaced by a nervous and clumsy defence as PSG looked resigned to a night of toil from the off.
The defence were a shambles - Marco Verratti and Marquinhos let the ball bounce for the first goal, Marquinhos again failed to deal with the second, and Meunier got in the way of Neymar to concede a penalty for the third.
Pressed back to the edge of their penalty box, they were unable to assert any dominance in midfield and with Di Maria on the bench, still feeling the effects of an injury, there was no outlet for the passes.
Cavani, in prolific goalscoring form, gave his side a hope of holding on in the 62nd-minute, but will inevitably face criticism after missing vital chances to put the tie to bed.
Emery, who led Sevilla to three consecutive Europa League titles from 2014-2016, got his tactics very wrong in what was a disastrous result for PSG.
The domestic title is far from safe - they are three points behind Monaco in Ligue 1 and will need to recover quickly to keep up their challenge for a domestic double.
They have lost in the last eight in each of the past four years of the Champions League, but did not even make it that far this season thanks to Barcelona's brilliance.
Neymar was brilliant throughout.
He curled in a free-kick and scored a penalty when Barcelona looked dejected and out.
Then, with time slipping away and the clock on red, he clipped a superb ball into the box for Sergi Roberto to toe into the net and send his team into the quarter-finals.
Barcelona manager Luis Enrique:
"It is a difficult night to explain with words. It was a horror movie, not a drama, with a Camp Nou that I have seen very few times as a player or coach.
"What defines this victory is the faith that the players and fans had."
Paris St-Germain manager Unai Emery:
"The truth is we have let a huge opportunity get away and we are aware of that. In the last two minutes we lost everything we had recovered in the second-half. Barcelona are capable of this in their stadium. In the last few minutes they played all or nothing and they have beaten us."
Formation 3-1-4-2
Formation 4-5-1
Match ends, Barcelona 6, Paris Saint Germain 1.
Second Half ends, Barcelona 6, Paris Saint Germain 1.
Goal! Barcelona 6, Paris Saint Germain 1. Sergi Roberto (Barcelona) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the high centre of the goal. Assisted by Neymar with a through ball following a set piece situation.
Marc-André ter Stegen (Barcelona) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain).
Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Lionel Messi (Barcelona) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain).
Neymar (Barcelona) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Serge Aurier (Paris Saint Germain).
Substitution, Paris Saint Germain. Grzegorz Krychowiak replaces Thomas Meunier.
Attempt saved. Gerard Piqué (Barcelona) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Samuel Umtiti.
Goal! Barcelona 5, Paris Saint Germain 1. Neymar (Barcelona) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner.
Marquinhos (Paris Saint Germain) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Penalty Barcelona. Luis Suárez draws a foul in the penalty area.
Penalty conceded by Marquinhos (Paris Saint Germain) after a foul in the penalty area.
Goal! Barcelona 4, Paris Saint Germain 1. Neymar (Barcelona) from a free kick with a right footed shot to the top left corner.
Neymar (Barcelona) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Ángel Di María (Paris Saint Germain).
Attempt blocked. Neymar (Barcelona) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
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How to get into football - the most popular sport in the world, with clubs and facilities throughout the UK. | Sports Competition | March 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
A suicide attack on a police station in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, kills five police officers while seven attackers die. | Five police officers have been killed in a suicide attack on a police station in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, officials have told the BBC.
The Taliban said they carried out the attack, which also wounded six officers and seven civilians.
Eight suicide attackers armed with weapons attacked the police HQ of Nangarhar, officials say. At least three were killed by police.
It comes a day after US Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Afghanistan.
Mr Kerry told a press conference that Afghanistan and the US were "on the same page" regarding peace talks with the Taliban.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai had recently angered Washington by accusing the US and the Taliban of colluding to prolong the conflict.
Police confirmed that Tuesday's attack had come to an end. The assault began as one attacker detonated a vehicle packed with explosives. Another three managed to get inside the police headquarters and detonate their suicide vests, officials said.
The Taliban said that the attack targeted "foreigners and Israeli teachers" training Afghan police at the base in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, according to the AFP news agency. In December the Taliban attacked a joint US-Afghan airbase in Jalalabad, killing four Afghan soldiers and wounding Nato troops.
| Armed Conflict | March 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
A car mounts the pedestrian sidewalk near the Natural History Museum on Exhibition Road, and injures 11 people. London police believe the incident is not terror related. They arrested the driver but later released him. | A man arrested following a crash outside London's Natural History Museum has been released under investigation, police said.
The 47-year-old had been questioned on suspicion of dangerous driving.
Eleven people suffered non-life threatening injuries in the incident, involving a Black Toyota Prius, in South Kensington on Saturday. The Metropolitan Police said it was not "terrorist-related" and is appealing for witnesses.
London Ambulance Service said the people it treated - including the suspected driver - had mostly sustained head and leg injuries. Nine were taken to hospital. The Met said none of the injuries was believed to be life changing and the majority of those hurt had been discharged by Saturday night.
Saturday's incident at about 14:20 BST on Exhibition Road initially sparked panic in an area popular with families and tourists. Armed police were deployed and video footage quickly emerged showing a man, believed to be the driver, being restrained on the ground. However, the Met later said its inquiry was "entirely a road traffic investigation".
Det Con Darren Case, from the force's roads and transport team, said he appreciated "the concern and alarm this incident caused". "Enquiries have established that this incident is not terrorist related and I'd like to thank those who came to assist the injured," he said. As well as the Natural History Museum, the area is also home to the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Prime Minister Theresa May tweeted her thanks to first responders and members of the public, adding: "My thoughts are with the injured."
London Mayor Sadiq Khan also tweeted his thanks and hopes for a "swift recovery" for those injured. "For Londoners and visitors planning to visit our excellent museums and attractions in the area, please be assured they will be open as usual tomorrow."
The fiance of singer Pixie Lott, Oliver Cheshire, was one of those who held down the driver of the car involved in the incident. He later tweeted:
Thanks for messaging everybody. I’m ok ❤ Thank you to the men who helped me pin him down and the police for coming so quickly.
| Road Crash | October 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
More than 125,000 people are homeless and 16 killed following recent floods in Sri Lanka. | More than 125,000 people have been driven out of their homes and 16 killed following flash floods in the Sri Lankan capital and neighbouring areas, officials have said. The Disaster Management Centre said at least 50,000 residents of Colombo were affected by heavy rains on Thursday and Friday (local time). More than 1,000 homes have been completely destroyed, director Gamini Hettiarachchi said. He says 16 people were killed in flood-related incidents. Heavy showers also damaged the roof of the country's Parliament, while parts of the main Galle Road in Colombo were washed out, police said. Schools in Colombo were closed on Thursday and Friday as approach roads to the capital were submerged. Sri Lanka depends on monsoon rains for irrigation and power generation, but the seasonal downpours frequently cause loss of life and damage to property in low lying areas. The island's two main monsoon seasons run from May to September and December to February. - AFP | Floods | May 2007 | ['(AFP via ABC Online)'] |
Philippine senator and former coup plotter Antonio Trillanes warns that a coup d'etat may occur if Rodrigo Duterte wins the presidential elections. , | Anti-establishment Philippine politician Rodrigo Duterte's rollicking ride to presidential favouritism has triggered warnings of a coup should he win next week's election, with opponents warning he is a dictator in the making.
The Philippines has endured a tumultuous democracy since millions of people took to the streets to overthrow dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, with a succession of leaders having to quell military unrest and one president ousted in another uprising.
Mr Duterte is enjoying a double-digit lead over his rivals ahead of Monday's presidential election, but has created enemies with vows to embrace communist rebels and threats to abolish Congress or create a revolutionary government that could rewrite the constitution.
"The moment he tries to declare a revolutionary government, that is also going to be the day he will be removed from office," said Senator Antonio Trillanes, a former navy officer famous for leading failed military uprisings in 2003 and 2007.
"This guy has no respect for democratic institutions."
Senator Trillanes said some in the military were "strongly averse" to Mr Duterte's long-standing ties with communists, and that a coup was "very likely".
Communists in the Philippines are waging one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies, with tens of thousands killed since the rebellion began in 1969. Dozens of people still die each year, with the communists retaining support among the poor.
Mr Duterte has ruled the major southern city of Davao, which was one of the communist hotspots, as mayor for most of the past two decades, ending violence there by forging close ties with the rebels.
Mr Duterte has vowed to offer communist leaders posts in his government. He has also raised deep fears about the rule of law under his presidency, promising to kill tens of thousands of criminals and pardon himself for mass murder.
President Benigno Aquino, who is limited by the constitution to a single term of six years, has spoken out repeatedly in recent weeks about his concerns that Mr Duterte could turn into a dictator.
"Now that we are free, people who act like dictators are the ones in the lead," Mr Aquino said yesterday, as he warned the gains of democracy were in jeopardy.
Ashley Acedillo, another coup plotter-turned-lawmaker, also said a "military intervention" was likely under a Mr Duterte presidency.
"The armed forces will stand true to its constitutional duty to protect the people and the state," he said.
The ex-coup plotter's warnings are not bluster, according to Manila-based security analyst Rommel Banlaoi.
"We will face a Duterte government that is very unstable," Mr Banlaoi said.
| Famous Person - Give a speech | May 2016 | ['(ABC Online)', '(Philippine Daily Inquirer)'] |
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams is arrested by police for the murder of Jean McConville, a 37yearold widowed mother of ten, who was abducted from her home in 1972. | Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has been arrested by Northern Ireland police in connection with the 1972 murder of Jean McConville.
He presented himself to police on Wednesday evening and was arrested.
Speaking before his arrest, Mr Adams said he was "innocent of any part" in the murder.
Mrs McConville, a 37-year-old widow and mother-of-10, was abducted from her flat in the Divis area of west Belfast and shot by the IRA. Her body was recovered from a beach in County Louth in 2003.
Police said a 65-year-old man presented himself to Antrim police station on Wednesday evening and was arrested.
In a statement, Sinn Féin said: "Last month Gerry Adams said he was available to meet the PSNI about the Jean McConville case. That meeting is taking place this evening."
Mr Adams added: "I believe that the killing of Jean McConville and the secret burial of her body was wrong and a grievous injustice to her and her family. "Well publicised, malicious allegations have been made against me. I reject these.
"While I have never disassociated myself from the IRA and I never will, I am innocent of any part in the abduction, killing or burial of Mrs McConville." His party colleague Alex Maskey condemned the timing of the arrest, just over three weeks from the European and local government elections.
However, Mrs McConville's son Michael, who was 11 when his mother was murdered, welcomed the arrest.
"We're just happy to see everything moving as it is moving at the minute," Mr McConville said.
"Me and the rest of my brothers and sisters are just glad to see the PSNI doing their job. We didn't think it would ever take place [Mr Adams' arrest], but we are quite glad that it is taking place.
"All we're looking for is justice for our mother. Our mother, on the seventh of next month, would have been 80 years of age. "Although we didn't spend much time with our mother, we'd have like to have spent a lot of time with her. If the IRA hadn't have killed our mother, God knows, she still might have been alive today." Mrs McConville, one of Northern Ireland's Disappeared, was kidnapped in front of her children after being wrongly accused of being an informer.
Last month, Ivor Bell, 77, a leader in the Provisional IRA in the 1970s, was charged with aiding and abetting the murder.
There have also been a number of other arrests over the murder recently.
The case against Bell is based on an interview he allegedly gave to researchers at Boston College in the US. The Boston College tapes are a series of candid, confessional interviews with former loyalist and republican paramilitaries, designed to be an oral history of the Troubles.
The paramilitaries were told the tapes would only be made public after their deaths. However, after a series of court cases in the United States, some of the content has been handed over to the authorities.
The claim that Mrs McConville was an informer was dismissed after an official investigation by the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman.
She was held at one or more houses before being shot and buried in secret. The Disappeared are those who were abducted, murdered and secretly buried by republicans during the Troubles. The IRA admitted in 1999 that it murdered and buried at secret locations nine of the Disappeared. The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains was established in 1999 by a treaty between the British and Irish governments.
It lists 16 people as "disappeared". Despite extensive searches, the remains of seven of them have not been found.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | April 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Boston Bruins defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning 1–0 in the Eastern Conference of National Hockey League to progress to the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals against the Vancouver Canucks. | Boston Red Sox vs Toronto Blue Jays (Kids run the bases at Fenway), 09/07/2014, at Fenway Park ... Find Tickets
Final: Bruins 1, Lightning 0: The Bruins are going to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 1990. Nathan Horton's goal with 7:33 remaining in the third period is the only score of the game. They're celebrating on the ice here at TD Garden, just as they're celebrating on Canal Street and in Brighton, Charlestown, and South Boston.
0:44 Fast and furious now as Tampa tries to tie it. Lightning were trying to get Roloson off for about 30 seconds and couldn't make it happen. Faceoff at neutral ice means he's back in net for the moment. One last push.
4:54 A two-on-one for Marchand and Ryder comes up empty and Ryder's shot runs smack into the left pad of Dwyane Roloson. Good for the Bruins to keep attacking, rather than sit back and wait for the Lightning to try and equalize.
7:33 Nathan Horton breaks the tie and the Bruins lead, 1-0. Beautiful feed by David Krejci finding Horton cutting to the net. Horton just had to put a stick on it and loft it into the webbing. 10:37 Milan Lucic fires a shot on not directly off of the faceoff. If you can't draw it back, might as well put the puck on goal. Save by Roloson. 12:40 Still no score. Steven Stamkos keeps going to the bench to get cotton swabs stuffed up what's left of his nose. Unbelievable he's still in the building, nevermind playing this game.
13:51: The third period is underway, and it's more of the same intense hockey. Peverly and Marchand both stopped on the doorstep by Roloson.
Second intermission stats update: Ference and Horton lead the Bruins with five shots apiece. Seidenberg has played 18:21, Chara 16:25. For the Lightning, Eric Brewer has played 16:15, while Teddy Purcell leads with three shots. Bergeron is tops among Bruins forwards with 19 shifts. End of the second period, Bruins 0, Lightning 0: Two periods down. No goals. No penalties. And numerous good scoring opportunities, particularly for the Bruins, who have fired 29 shots on Lightning goalie Dwayne Roloson without anything to show for it. The Bruins could (should?) have at least 2-3 goals -- Roloson robbed Marchand twice late in the period. The Lightning have 17 shots, but they've had their chances, particularly off turnovers in the neutral zone, and Thomas has given up some juicy rebounds. Stamkos was on the doorstep late in the period, but Tomas Kaberle -- yes, Kaberle -- lifted Stamkos's stick just in time. 17:56: The Bruins are just peppering Roloson, but he's stopping everything with equal helpings of luck and skill. Twice a shot has ricocheted over his shoulder but hasn't found the net. He now has 28 saves.
17:19: Dominic Moore breaks in right to left across the slot and creates a good chance, but Thomas makes the save, then covers the puck in the scrum as Peverley and Blair Jones, among others, scramble for it. 15:46: Seguin stickhandles in on Roloson, but his bid sails wide. The kid has played well tonight.
14:50: Stamkos is wearing a full shield, and let's just say it's obvious in closeups that the shot was a direct hit on his nose. 14:24:Krejci nearly gets one with a spinning wrist-shot from inside the left faceoff circle. Looked like he surprised Roloson, but he still managed his 24th save. 13:37: The Bruins are still carrying play with nothing to show for it. Feels like a matter of time before they get one here. 11:55 Bruins continue the relentless rush at Roloson. Peverley and Bergeron both have had excellent close-range chances in the last couple of minutes.
11:27: Stamkos is back, just a few minutes after taking a puck traveling at, what, 90-something miles per hour off his shield. That's a hockey player for you.
9:47: Thomas makes perhaps his best save of the night, stoning Simon Gagne after a rebound bounced out to him in the high slot. 7:30: Roloson has been extraordinary. Eighteen saves so far. The Bruins' forwards have remained relentless, though, and Seguin has come close on at least two occasions to picking off a pass and breaking away. 5:04: Scary moment, and more evidence that wearing a face shield is a good idea. Stamkos takes a Boychuk rocket off the shield after it deflects of Martin St. Louis's stick. He falls to the ice, then immediately pops up and skates to the dressing room, his hand over his face. Surprisingly, Bergeron didn't not shadow him to the dressing room. 4:17: Bruins now doubling up the Lightning in shots, 18-9. Two ways to look at this, I suppose: They're out-playing them and it's a matter of time before they get one. Or, the Lightning have to be pleased that they've held their ground so far. 2:14: Thomas smothers a sneaky backhand attempt from behind the net by Teddy Purcell. Excellent awareness by the Bruins goalie. 1:54: Horton is back on the ice. Good news for the B's. 1:09: Bergeron's vision is incredible. He from the corner gloveside of Roloson, he digs out the puck and feeds Recchi at the far post. He couldn't pull in the pass cleanly, but it was a heck of a chance initiated by No. 37.
Second period, Bruins 0, Lightning 0: Horton was on the bench at the end of the period. He played 4:29 and six shifts, but none in the final 10 minutes. First intermission stats update: No penalties called so far. Bruins have 15 shots, Lightning nine. Eric Brewer leads Tampa Bay with 7:46 of ice time on 13 shifts. Nine Lightning players have attempted shots. For the Bruins, Chara and Seidenberg are carrying the load with 8:55 and 9:30 of ice time, respectively. Andrew Ference leads with three shots, while Peverley, Seguin, and Marchand each have two. Bergeron leads the forwards in PT at 6:41. End of first period, Bruins 0, Lightning 0: No one got on the scoreboard, but it was a spectacular first period. Rich Peverley stood out among the Bruins forwards and got rewarded with some extra shifts, while Patrice Bergeron was effective shadowing Steven Stamkos. Defensively, Zdeno Chara was everywhere. For the Lightning, Roloson stood out in net, most notably stoning Lucic with a little less than five minutes left in the period. He had 15 saves while Tim Thomas had nine. As far as Horton's injury is concerned, it appears something may have happened to his right knee on the hit. No official word on anything, though. 19:31: Horton took a hit earlier in the game from Blair Jones and struggled to get to his feet. Looked like he might have banged his head on the ice.
17:48: Nathan Horton has gone to the dressing room for the Bruins. And Peverley, as you've probably noticed since he's been everywhere, is taking some of Mark Recchi's shifts on the second line. 17:41: No penalties so far. Letting 'em play in Game 7. 15:12: Peverley sends Lucic in all alone, but he shoots it into Roloson's pads trying to go five-hole on the forehand. A golden opportunity gets away there.
13:34: Michael Ryder, who is playing with energy, feeds Seguin in the left slot, but Roloson kicks it away. One of the Bruins' best chances among their 10 shots on net so far. 12:48: Krejci chips the puck to Milan Lucic near the blue line, but he can't skate around the Lightning defenseman to turn it into an opportunity. 11:39: No scoring, but plenty of good chances so far, and the pace remains rapid. Rich Peverley has been everywhere. 8:07: Dennis Seidenberg wins a one-on-one battle with Vincent Lecavalier near the right faceoff circle. If you've wondered why he's leading the Bruins in ice time during the series, it's plays like that.
6:13: Tyler Seguin, skating with Bergeron and Chris Kelly, nearly has something after Kelly sends him in with a centering pass, but one Lightening defenseman is back and Seguin's shot trickles harmlessly at Roloson.
5:05: Shots are now 5-4 in the Bruins favor after Patrice Bergeron gets a couple of a close range chances before Dwayne Roloson covers the puck. 3:22: Lightning gets three shots on Thomas in a span of about 20 seconds, with Dana Tyrell getting the best look from near the right post. Thomas juggled the puck and fell to the ice as it bounced into the corner.
2:26, first period: Incredibly loud in the Garden, and not an empty seat to be found. Each team with one shot so far. Final moments of pregame: Derek Sanderson is the Bruins' legend chosen to fire up the crowd on the scoreboard tonight. The Turk. Outstanding choice. It's not like Espo is going to do it. If you didn't know this was a Game 7, you could probably surmise as much by the atmosphere at the Garden. Bruins highlights both recent and from the distant past are playing on the big screen. The "let's go Bruins" chants have broken out multiple times. "Lose Yourself" follows "In The Air Tonight" on the PA system. The puck drops in four minutes. Will the Bruins capture the moment, or let it slip? Follow along right here while we find out. Keep up with all the latest Boston sports news --from the court to the field to the rink with this daily newsletter | Sports Competition | May 2011 | ['(Boston Globe)'] |
The United Kingdom continues to face blizzard conditions with many schools closed, long queues on the M8 motorway in Scotland, and Edinburgh Airport closed. | Fresh snow has been falling across many parts of the UK, bringing disruption to some areas not previously affected. Hundreds of schools closed, driving conditions have been hazardous, and rail and air passengers were delayed. The Met Office has issued heavy snow warnings for Yorkshire and Humber, east Midlands, east and north-east England, London and south-east England. It also warned of further heavy snow in parts of Scotland and widespread ice on roads across the whole of Britain. In Scotland, heavy snow warnings have been issued for Grampian, Central, Tayside and Fife and south west Scotland, Lothian Borders.
BBC weather forecaster Nina Ridge said snow showers would persist into Tuesday night across north-east England and parts of north Midlands and Lincolnshire.
But a line of snow stretching across south-east England towards Dorset would drift southwards and ease, she added.
Temperatures are expected to tumble well below freezing into Wednesday, with the greatest risk of heavy snow in northern England.
The recent cold spell has hit schools, roads, and airports, and the worst-affected areas have been north-east Scotland and north-east England. As the snow moved southwards in sub-zero temperatures, disruption was widespread. It included:
Drivers have been stuck on the A2 near the M25 in Kent. Truck driver Nigel Waller, who was on his way to Bradford, told the BBC at 0100 GMT that traffic was slowly starting to move. "I'm doing 15 miles an hour which is the fastest I have driven in hours. I have been stuck since 1730," he said. "I haven't seen any gritters and it's getting slippery because it's freezing and there's slush. I saw a truck trying to overtake a broken down car - he went straight through the central reservation."
In south London, a surgeon struggling to get to St Helier Hospital in Sutton to operate on a critically ill patient was forced to flag down officers on a routine patrol and request a police car escort.
Motoring organisation the AA said it expected to attend 18,000 breakdowns by the end of Tuesday, bringing the total call-outs since last Thursday to 100,000. It said London's M25 (J2-J5) was among the worst-affected areas due to falling snow freezing on the carriageways.
The AA's Paul Leather said: "Today has been another busy day and there's more to come this evening as temperatures drop with ice causing big problems across the entire country.
"If you are driving on icy roads, try to minimise the use of brakes to reduce the risk of sliding - keep your speed down, stay in a higher gear to aid traction, anticipate hazards, and keep well apart from other vehicles."
The RAC said it attended about 2,000 breakdowns an hour on Tuesday morning, with some areas up to twice their normal levels for the time of year.
A spokesman said: "The sub-zero temperatures are putting a lot of pressure on car batteries. If possible the car should be kept in the garage.
"Additionally, when starting the car in the morning make sure everything is switched off - including fans, blowers and the radio - then put the key in the ignition and switch to the 'on' position for two to three seconds before starting the engine."
Almost a third of UK rail services had suffered delays by noon on Tuesday, according to the Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc).
But by early evening the situation had improved slightly, with around 73% of trains arriving on time, it added. A spokesman said: "Hundreds of workers from operators and Network Rail will work round the clock tonight in Arctic conditions to keep trains running and to make sure that passengers can get to their destination safely." | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | November 2010 | ['(Daily Mail)', '(BBC)', '(CNN)', '(Sky News)'] |
Kenya releases three men suspected of conspiracy to a suicide bombing in 2002 and links to al Qaeda. | Nairobi Chief Magistrate Aggrey Muchelule said prosecutors had failed to connect the men to the bombing.
Fifteen people, including three Israeli tourists, died in the attack on the Paradise Hotel. Charges against four other Kenyan suspects in the bombing were thrown out of court earlier this month.
Disputed evidence
The three suspects - Kubwa Mohammed Seif, Said Saggar Ahmed and Mohammed Khamis - were also accused of plotting a failed rocket attack on an Israeli airliner that took off from Mombasa airport on the same day. Many of the dead were local dancers welcoming tourists to the hotel
The attacks were widely blamed on al-Qaeda. No-one has been convicted in connection with the bombing so far, and no-one else is due to stand trial.
When the trial first opened in January last year, the prosecution described the three men as "sworn suicide bombers". Mr Seif's lawyer, Kirathe Wandugi, told the Associated Press news agency that his client was extremely happy with the magistrate's decision.
"Our clients have been exonerated and the course of justice has been met. It's been a very long trial. These people have suffered," Mr Wandugi said.
Critics have said the men should never have been charged in the first place and that the evidence presented was at best circumstantial. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | June 2005 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
Supporters of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood clash with police at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. One person is killed and two campus buildings are set on fire. | A student has been killed in Egypt as supporters of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood clashed with police and university buildings were set on fire.
State TV blamed protesters for the fire in two faculties at al-Azhar University.
Police said 101 people had been detained after the clashes.
The crackdown on the Brotherhood began when President Mohammed Morsi, who belongs to it, was deposed by the army in July.
The campus fires had been brought under control by Saturday afternoon, but exams at the business faculty reportedly had to be postponed.
The Brotherhood said police were "fabricating" the charges.
The Brotherhood, which had been banned since September from all activity, was declared a terrorist group on Wednesday following a suicide bombing of a police headquarters in the Nile Delta.
The government said the Brotherhood was behind the attack - a charge it strongly denied.
It is the latest measure taken against the group, which is being targeted by the military-backed interim government. Thousands of Brotherhood members, including its leadership, have been arrested and many put on trial.
Members were rounded up on Thursday after a bomb hit a bus in Cairo, injuring five people.
Three people died on Friday as police fought Brotherhood supporters in Cairo, southern Minya and the Nile Delta.
US Secretary of State John Kerry called his Egyptian counterpart to "express concern" about the recent waves of arrests and called for an "inclusive political process", state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Al-Azhar, one of the main centres of Sunni Muslim learning, has been the scene of repeated clashes between Islamist students and police in recent months.
Mr Morsi's government - the first to be democratically elected in Egypt - was toppled on 3 July following widespread anti-Brotherhood demonstrations.
The ousted president was arrested and faces several criminal charges relating to his time in office.
His trial opened in November but has been adjourned until 8 January.
Earlier this week, Egyptian police arrested Hisham Qandil, who became Egypt's youngest prime minister since 1954 in August 2012.
He was caught in a mountainous area with smugglers trying to flee to Sudan, officials said.
Mr Qandil was sentenced to a year in prison while in office for not carrying out a court ruling to renationalise a company that was privatised in 1996.
Although not a member of the Brotherhood or any other Islamist political organisation, he represented an alliance of pro-Morsi Islamist groups in meetings with European Union mediators, who tried to persuade the military-installed interim government to launch a fully inclusive transition process that included the Muslim Brotherhood.
The 85-year-old Islamist movement was banned by Egypt's military rulers in 1954, but registered an NGO called the Muslim Brotherhood Association in March this year in response to a court case bought by opponents who contested its legal status.
The Brotherhood also has a political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which was set up in 2011 as a "non-theocratic" group after the uprising that forced President Hosni Mubarak from power.
Following Mr Morsi's overthrow and the suspension of the Islamist-friendly 2012 constitution, the Cairo administrative court and the social solidarity ministry were tasked with reviewing the Brotherhood's legal status.
In September, a ruling by the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters banned the Brotherhood itself, the NGO, as well as "any institution derived from or belonging to the Brotherhood" or "receiving financial support from it".
| Armed Conflict | December 2013 | ['(BBC)'] |
In rugby union, Australia wins the 2015 Rugby Championship with a 27–19 win over the New Zealand All Blacks. | This time, it would be bright White, not a sea of black, that ruled the Bledisloe battleground.
Nic White was the hero in a tale of two halfbacks that has kept the Bledisloe Cup alive following the Wallabies' stirring 27-19 over the All Blacks at ANZ Stadium.
Replay
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With the Wallabies down to 14 men and on the back foot Adam Ashely Cooper scores a stunning try to put Australia in front against the All-Blacks.
The Brumbies number nine landed a pair of telling blows in the second half to give the Wallabies their first win over the All Blacks since 2011 and secure The Rugby Championship in front of 73,824 fans, who are buying into Australia's Cheika-lution with vigour.
On a night where starting halfback Nick Phipps endured an evening to forget, spraying passes all over the place before getting a yellow card after 54 minutes, White grabbed his opportunity with open arms when he arrived in the 65th minute.
Andy Friend says it's a shame Australian Rugby will lose Nic White to France.Credit:Mark Kolbe/Getty Images
He immediately landed a booming penalty goal before scoring the winning try as the Wallabies made it three in a row and keep their hopes of retaining that most elusive piece of silverware next weekend amid the daunting surrounds of Eden Park.
When debutant Nehe Milne-Skudder scored the second of his tries deep in the second half, it appeared the old masters, Richie McCaw and Dan Carter, would preside over yet another triumph in the trans-Tasman grudge match.
But a determined Wallaby outfit, re-energised and re-focused under Michael Cheika, would prove the masters of escape again. Just as they did against the Springboks a month ago, they would finish over the top and fire a timely shot in this World Cup year.
Wallaby coach Michael Cheika said he was proud of the effort but fully understood the task that lay ahead next weekend.
Tevita Kuridrani of the Wallabies celebrates victory.Credit:Getty Images
"It's probably the biggest challenge in world rugby, going to Eden Park. We've got to be level. We've got to try and improve every day because this is the path we have to go on if we are to be competitive consistently," Cheika said.
"It's nice to have on that but we want to test ourselves over more and more and more games."
Battle scars: David Pocock will get a break from rugby in 2017.Credit:Getty Images
It wasn't pretty by any stretch but none of them would care a lick. The line-out was a shambles at times, the handling was poor and there will be fresh questions over nine and 10, with the Wallabies looking a far better outfit when Matt Toomua took over at 10 and White at nine.
David Pocock was herculean at number eight and there were plenty of unsung heroes in the pack, with Michael Hooper, James Horwill and Scott Fardy all playing themselves to a standstill, while Sekope Kepu set the Wallabies in motion with his maiden Test try.
The bench again delivered and Cheika and his team will now stare down 13 years of history as they try to complete what has become the impossible in New Zealand, where the All Blacks are sure to rise after being stung by an uncharacteristically scrappy performance.
The Wallaby scrum was a rock and the selection of a pair of opensides had no impact, although Rob Simmons was badly missed in the line-out, which almost proved exceedingly costly on a number of occasions.
But Cheika will love the way his team knuckled down and toughed it out when they could have folded up as the All Blacks made their run late in the contest.
Pocock was on song from the start. He had a pair of pilfers after five minutes but it wasn't an ideal beginning, with Kepu being marched for 10 minutes by referee Wayne Barnes for offside play.
The damage was only 3-0 during the danger period and it took 22 minutes for the Wallabies to earn their first penalty. A dominant scrum would do the trick and Giteau, who had goal-kicking duties, would level scores, only to see Carter once again edge his side ahead.
Hooper's stop on Julian Savea right on halftime would be pivotal, as would be Aaron Smith's sin-binning at the start of the second for a high shot on Adam Ashley-Cooper, who was groggy but able to continue in the contest.
Milner-Skudder's try at the 56 minute mark made it 14-10 to the visitors but the Wallabies held their nerve, with Toomua's pin-point grubber setting up Ashley-Cooper in the corner.
A second to the young All Blacks winger made it 20-19 to the Wallabies with 10 minutes to play before White, spotting the gap, pounced to slice through and give the Wallabies a memorable victory.
It would be Richie McCaw's 141st Test cap, equalling the record of Ireland's Brian O'Driscoll. But on a rare night, he would leave a contest against the Wallabies with a loss against his name and facing a backs to the wall assignment on home soil. Sports reporter | Sports Competition | August 2015 | ['(WA Today)'] |
Kevin Rudd, the leader of the Australian Labor Party, announces changes to the party's industrial relations policy, including the right to a secret ballot before strike action. | Not all workers will regain unfair dismissal protection and there will be mandatory secret ballots before strikes, under massive changes to Labor's industrial relations policies announced today.
But both key policy areas have already come under attack from one of Australia's leading union bosses.
Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd used his first major speech to the National Press Club in Canberra to unveil his long-awaited plans for industrial relations, expected to be a major battleground at this year's federal election.
Mr Rudd vowed not to reintroduce the state-based industrial relations regime, insisting he would create a uniform, national system.
"Some in the labour movement have argued for the return to a predominantly state-based jurisdiction. I reject that view," he said.
"A federal Labor government will achieve nationally consistent laws for the private sector.
"This will be achieved by the state governments referring powers for their residual responsibilities for private sector industrial relations or through other forms of cooperation or harmonisation."
Mr Rudd said secret ballots before strikes would be mandatory under a Labor government - the first time the ALP has demanded such a requirement.
Labor also would ban strike pay, and would restore only limited unfair dismissal protection.
The policies are in response to the Howard government's Work Choices laws, which polls show are unpopular with voters.
Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union secretary Doug Cameron said he was concerned about the new policy, announced by Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd today, particularly in the areas of strike rights and unfair dismissal.
"We don't like to see lower capacity for workers to take industrial action," Mr Cameron said.
Labor also is changing its unfair dismissal policy, Mr Rudd told the National Press Club, to make it a balanced system for employers and employees.
Under Labor's new plan, an employee would only be able to make an unfair dismissal claim if they have worked at least one year in a business with less than 15 employees.
For businesses employing more than 15 people, employees will be exempt from unfair dismissal laws for six months.
"There's some disappointment that unfair dismissal rights are not available for everyone (under the policy)," Mr Cameron said.
He also raised concerns about how bargaining will work under a Labor government.
But, Mr Cameron said, these concerns paled when placed beside the government's controversial Work Choices laws. | Government Policy Changes | April 2007 | ['(AAP via Melbourne Age)'] |
Hilary Mantel wins the 2012 Man Booker Prize for her novel Bring Up the Bodies, becoming the first British author to win the award twice, and the first female to do so. | By Tim MastersEntertainment and arts correspondent, BBC News Hilary Mantel has won the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for her novel Bring up the Bodies, the sequel to Wolf Hall, which won the prize in 2009. Mantel is the first woman and the first living British author to win the prestigious literary prize twice.
"This double accolade is uniquely deserved," said Sir Peter Stothard, chairman of the judges. The book is about Thomas Cromwell, an adviser to King Henry VIII, and charts the bloody downfall of Anne Boleyn.
It is the second book in a trilogy. A third instalment, to be called The Mirror and the Light, will continue Cromwell's story until his execution in 1540.
Mantel was announced as the winner at London's Guildhall on Tuesday night. Mantel's win also makes her the first person in Man Booker history to win the prize for a direct sequel. She is only the third double winner of the award, after JM Coetzee and Peter Carey. Receiving her award, she joked: "You wait 20 years for a Booker Prize and two come along at once."
She added: "I know how privileged and lucky I am to be standing here tonight. I regard this as an act of faith and a vote of confidence."
As well as the £50,000 cheque she also receives £2,500 for being shortlisted, along with the other five novelists in the race. Sir Peter said that the judges had made their final decision on Tuesday after a "lengthy and forensic examination".
He said: "This is a very remarkable piece of English prose that transcends the work already written by a great English prose writer. "This is a bloody story about the death of Anne Boleyn, but Hilary Mantel is a writer who thinks through the blood. She uses her power of prose to create moral ambiguity and the real uncertainty of political life."
He added: "She has recast the most essential period of our modern English history; we have the greatest modern English prose writer reviving possibly one of the best known pieces of English history. "It is well-trodden territory with an inevitable outcome, and yet she is able to bring it to life as though for the first time."
Asked whether the book qualified as a thriller, Sir Peter referenced The Godfather: "You can see as much Don Corleone in this book as DH Lawrence." Mantel's latest work has been widely praised. The Telegraph noted its "descriptive immediacy", while Margaret Atwood wrote in the Guardian "literary invention does not fail her: she's as deft and verbally adroit as ever."
Jonathan Ruppin, web editor at Foyles bookshops, said: "Bring Up the Bodies has remained a strong seller since it was published in May, but this rare double Man Booker win confirms her output as essential reading. "Mantel has been writing superb fiction for much longer than she has been winning major awards, so many readers will soon discover that she is their new favourite author. There's every possibility she might pull off a unique treble when she completes the trilogy."
The impact on sales for a Man Booker winner is considerable - every winning book since 1996 has grossed more than £1m.
Yan Martel's Life of Pi, which won in 2002, made just under £10m. Last year's winner, Julian Barnes's The Sense of an Ending, has sold 300,000 copies so far.
According to the latest figures, Mantel's Bring up the Bodies has sold 108,342 copies, which is more than the other 11 Man Booker longlisted novels combined. Mantel was previously longlisted in 2005 for Beyond Black. She was a judge for the prize in 1990 when AS Byatt won with Possession. In Profile: Hilary Mantel
| Awards ceremony | October 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Russia's only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, catches fire while docked in Murmansk. | The Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia's only aircraft carrier, caught fire today during repairs in Murmansk. While officials of the shipyard said that no shipyard workers were injured, Russia's TASS news service reports that at least 12 people (likely Kuznetsov sailors) were injured, some critically. In addition, three people, possibly including the third-rank captain in charge of the ship's repairs, are unaccounted for.
The Kuznetsov has had a long string of bad luck, experiencing fires at sea, oil spills, and landing deck accidents—including a snapped arresting wire that caused a landing Sukhoi Su-33 fighter to roll off the end of the deck and into the ocean. Its boilers belched black smoke during the ship's transit to Syria in 2016, and it had to be towed back home after breaking down during its return in 2017. Then last year, as it was undergoing repairs in a floating drydock in Murmansk's Shipyard 82, the drydock sank and a crane on the drydock slammed into the Kuznetsov, leaving a gash in the ship's hull. It looked like completion of repairs might be put off indefinitely because repair of the drydock would take over a year, and the budget for repairs had been slashed.
The fire was caused when sparks from welding work near one of the ship's electrical distribution compartments set a cable on fire. The fire spread through the wiring throughout compartments of the lower deck of the ship, eventually involving 120 square meters (1,300 square feet) of the ship's spaces.
In total, 12 victims were delivered to hospitals, 10 of them were saved during the fire. One is assessed as serious, and one suffered a head injury. Most received poisoning from combustion products, according to a report from TASS.
Shipboard firefighting, even in port, is a grim and hellish undertaking. Lack of ventilation, darkness, and the toxic smoke released by burning electrical wiring, oil, paint, and equipment make fighting fires aboard a ship particularly difficult, requiring frequent relief of those fighting the fires due to the stress and limits on breathing apparatuses. Those who have served in any navy afloat can attest to how terrifying even the thought of a mass conflagration aboard a ship is, even when pier-side. | Fire | December 2019 | ['(Ars Technica)'] |
Thailand is preparing for the December 1, 2016, ascension of Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn to the throne, according to senior military sources. | Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn is to be confirmed as the new king of Thailand on 1 December, a senior source has told the BBC.
Once confirmed, he is expected to endorse a new, military-drafted constitution and to start appointing his own team of senior royal officials.
His father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch, died on 13 October, aged 88.
The government has declared a year-long official mourning period.
The widely revered king had served 70 years as head of state, and was seen as a stabilising figure, promoting economic development and social harmony in a country hit by cycles of political turmoil and multiple coups.
The BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok says there have been concerns expressed quietly over how well his son will perform the same role.
Following King Bhumibol's death, he had delayed taking the crown in order to join the people in mourning. The crown prince, who is 64, is much less well known to Thais than his father, and does not have his widespread popularity.
Our correspondent says the crown prince will start his reign under a military government that is likely to dictate Thailand's political arrangements for several more years.
He is also likely to start appointing his own advisers to senior positions in the palace hierarchy, ending the influence of a number of elderly but powerful men who had served King Bhumibol.
Strict lese-majeste laws protect the most senior members of Thailand's royal family from insult or threat. Public discussion of the succession can be punishable by lengthy jail terms.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha also said on Tuesday that restrictions on entertainment and television in place since the king's death would be lifted on 14 November.
He said: "In terms of entertainment - soap operas and movies - they can go ahead. We simply ask for co-operation. Some programmes need to lower their tone."
TV channels stopped normal broadcasting moments after the death was confirmed, and switched to broadcasts from the Grand Palace and archive footage of the royal family.
The PM said that people should still maintain decorum throughout the mourning period and refrain from wearing "inappropriate attire".
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | November 2016 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters)'] |
Iran suspends operations of al Jazeera and accuses it of inflaming protests of the Iranian Arab minority. 220 people have been arrested during the unrest. , , , , | Three people have died in ethnic clashes in Iran's south-west Khuzestan province over the past few days.
The riots are thought to have been sparked by alleged plans - which the government denies - to change the area's ethnic makeup.
Al-Jazeera described the action as "surprising and unjustified".
It said it would maintain its "editorial policy of airing the full range of opinions and covering current affairs in Iran objectively and fairly".
Government investigation
The television network - which is popular among Iranian Arabs - is reported to have been the first to broadcast news of the demonstrations. The government is launching an investigation into al-Jazeera's coverage of the rioting.
"If it is proved that al-Jazeera committed a crime, it will be prosecuted," Mohammad Khoshvaght of the culture and Islamic guidance ministry told state television.
Iranian MPs have criticised al-Jazeera, saying it portrayed the violence as a separatist unrest.
The Popular Democratic Front of Ahwazi Arabs in Iran, which is based in London, told al-Jazeera that it had called for peaceful demonstrations in Khuzestan to "to mark 80 years of Iranian occupation" but the government had opted to deploy military force.
Iran's Arabs, who are the majority in Khuzestan's capital Ahwaz, make up only 3% of the population of Iran. | Riot | April 2005 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(IRNA)', '(Middle East Online)', '(Reuters)', '(BBC)'] |
President of the United States Barack Obama signs a bipartisan deal approved by Congress to end the Government shutdown and the debt ceiling crisis. | President Obama signed a deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling on Thursday morning. [WATCH VIDEO]
Obama, who won a political victory with the congressional votes, hailed the deal, saying it would “begin to lift this cloud of uncertainty and unease from our businesses and the American people.” The legislation would fund the government through Jan. 15 and raise the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling until Feb. 7. Congress approved the debt hike one day ahead of the deadline for doing so set by the Treasury Department.
"Because of today’s efforts, we will continue to honor all of our commitments – a core American value – and preserve the full faith and credit of the United States," Treasury Secretary Jack LewJacob (Jack) Joseph LewThe Hill's Morning Report - Biden argues for legislative patience, urgent action amid crisis On The Money: Senate confirms Yellen as first female Treasury secretary | Biden says he's open to tighter income limits for stimulus checks | Administration will look to expedite getting Tubman on bill Sorry Mr. Jackson, Tubman on the is real MORE said in a statement Wednesday night.
The Treasury had said it would only have $30 billion on reserve after Oct. 17.
The new deadlines will set up new battles with congressional Republicans.
Obama refused to negotiate with Republicans over reopening the government and raising the debt ceiling, and he ended up making no concessions to the GOP.
Republicans had sought to end funding for ObamaCare or to delay it. They later backed off their demands but had still hoped to delay parts of Obama’s signature law. The president urged Congress to break the pattern of what he called “governing by crisis” in the eleventh hour. The new deal sets up a budget conference between the House and Senate in which Republicans are expected to press for entitlement and spending cuts, while Democrats press for tax hikes. That will put Obama right back into the budget battles that have been a hallmark of his presidency. On Wednesday night, the president expressed a willingness to reach across the aisle in those fights. "I've said it before. I'll say it again. I'm willing to work with anybody, I'm eager to work with anybody, Democrat or Republican," Obama said. "I've never believed Democrats have a monopoly on ideas."
The president added that "there's a lot of work ahead of us including our need to win back the trust of the American people that's been lost over the last few weeks." He also said he’d pursue other priorities, pledging to plow forward on agenda items including passing an immigration bill along with a farm bill. Before he left the briefing room on Wednesday evening, a reporter asked if another budget battle loomed at the start of 2014. Perhaps in a nod to best wishes rather than reality, Obama paused and thought about it for a moment, before heading to the exit, turning his head and replying, "No."
| Sign Agreement | October 2013 | ['(The Hill)'] |
The cases of people infected with the Zika virus in Singapore jumps to 240+. | The number of locally-transmitted Zika virus cases in Singapore jumped to 242 over the weekend, with most cases linked to the existing cluster in the city-states east, the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the National Environment Agency (NEA) said. Singapore added 91 new Zika cases since Friday, of which 83 cases were connected to the Aljunied Crescent, Sims Drive, Kallang Way and Paya Lebar Way areas. There might also be a potential new cluster of infections in the Joo Seng Road area, where two cases have been confirmed, the government agencies said. Another cluster of infections had also been confirmed in the Bedok North Avenue Three area, according to a Saturday statement.
Control of the Aedes mosquito population remained the primary solution to stem the spread of Zika, according to a joint MOH-NEA statement released on Sunday. The National Public Health Laboratory and A*Stars Bioinformatics Institute released research at the weekend that showed Singapores Zika infections were likely from an Asian strain of the virus that was already circulating in Southeast Asia, and not from a strain imported from South America. Several countries, including the U.S., the U.K. and Australia, have issued travel advisories warning pregnant women to avoid nonessential travel to the Asian city-state. Zika, which hit several South American countries hard, is mostly transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes but can also be spread through sexual transmission. There is currently no treatment or vaccine to prevent Zika infection, which causes symptoms including a mild fever, rash, red eyes, joint pain and a headache. While symptoms of the virus are generally mild, Zika poses a significant threat to pregnant women as it has been linked to a birth defect known as microcephaly in unborn fetuses. An August World Health Organization study also found that the Zika virus could be linked to the Guillain-Barre syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that affects the peripheral nervous system. | Disease Outbreaks | September 2016 | ['(CNBC)'] |
A southern minister in Sudan's national government, Luka Biong Deng, resigns over the incident. | A southern minister in Sudan's national government has resigned, saying "war crimes" had been committed in the disputed Abyei region.
Luka Biong Deng said he could no longer work with the party of President Omar al-Bashir in the unity government.
He is a senior official in the south's ruling party, which is set to lead South Sudan to independence in July.
The two sides fought for decades before agreeing to share power and hold a referendum on southern independence.
Analysts fear the the dispute could reignite the north-south conflict, in which some 1.5 million were killed.
Northern troops seized the territory at the weekend after southern forces had ambushed a convoy of its forces in the area, killing 22 people.
Some 20,000 people have now fled the town, which has been left deserted, aid workers say.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said she had received reports that northern forces had been shelling and bombing civilian areas.
On Monday the UN said the town had been set ablaze, while gunmen were looting property following the northern takeover.
Mr Biong Deng is originally from Abyei, which both sides claim.
Its status was left undecided in the 2005 peace deal and a referendum, due in January, on whether the area should be part of the north or south has been postponed indefinitely.
"We had hoped that we could form two viable states in good relationship with each other, but those in Khartoum do not seem interested in peace," Mr Biong Deng said in his resignation statement.
"But with war crimes being committed in Abyei at the hands of the [President Bashir's] National Congress Party, I could not in good faith continue to take part in such a government." His party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, has urged the northern troops to withdraw from the town.
The US envoy to Sudan, Princeton Lyman, has warned that the takeover could jeopardise possible debt relief worth billions of dollars.
He also said that Washington would find it difficult to remove Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism unless troops were withdrawn from Abyei.
Under these sanctions Sudanese companies are banned from using US currency - a major obstacle to international trade.
The US has previously suggested that a peaceful transition to independence for the south and a negotiated solution to the separate conflict in Darfur could normalise relations.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | May 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
A research team based at the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument in Utah announces that the many Teratophoneus fossils unearthed at the site provide proof that, contrary to popular belief, Tyrannosaurus dinosaurs hunted in packs rather than individually. | Tyrannosaurs probably hunted in packs, scientists announced Monday after analyzing fossils unearthed in Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, a conclusion challenging long-held assumptions that the iconic dinosaurs were solitary predators. The new findings could provide fresh support for the Biden administration as it considers expanding the boundaries of a protected area that then-President Donald Trump cut in half in 2017.
The surprising discovery in the monument’s “Rainbows and Unicorns Quarry” — so nicknamed because researchers have unearthed a bounty of key finds there — provides fresh evidence that tyrannosaurs were social predators. The research team evaluated physical and chemical elements to determine that a group of four or five Teratophoneus (pronounced Ter-at-oe-foh-nee-us) died together during a seasonal flooding event that washed their carcasses into a lake. The bones, which sat largely undisturbed for a lengthy period, were later shifted as a river churned its way through the area before eventually evaporating.
“A lot of researchers feel like these animals simply didn’t have the brain power to engage in such complex behavior,” paleontologist Alan Titus, who discovered the quarry site in 2014, told reporters in an online briefing. But this discovery, along with other recent findings, signals otherwise, he said. “This must be reflecting some sort of behavior and not just a freak event happening over and over again.”
The monument, which covers nearly 1 million acres of Bureau of Land Management terrain, provides a nearly complete snapshot of the late Cretaceous period from roughly 95 million to 74 million years ago. Shortly after this period, the impact of volcanic eruptions and an asteroid collision with Earth triggered climate change and a massive extinction event.
The bones at the heart of the latest discovery suggest a dinosaur family that ranged from roughly 4 to 22 years of age and was hunting together when all died. “There it is, a very sad day in southern Utah 76.4 million years ago,” said Titus, who works for the BLM Paria River District.
The researchers are still exploring why the tyrannosaurs would have hunted together but believe a collective effort helped them compete against large, plant-eating dinosaurs.
“This discovery should be the tipping point for reconsidering how these top carnivores behaved and hunted across the Northern Hemisphere during the Cretaceous,” said Joe Sertich, dinosaur curator at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and one of the project contributors.
How Interior has become a battlefield in Biden's environmental agenda
The quarry is the first tyrannosaur mass death site found in the southern United States. The researchers, who published their findings Monday in the scientific journal PeerJ, analyzed rare earth elements, stable isotopes and charcoal concentrations to show that the dinosaurs died together.
The location of the discovery lies in the Kaiparowits Unit of the current monument, which remains federally protected. Under Trump’s proclamation, however, two of the ancient rock layers that once were within its boundaries — the Tropic Shale and Straight Cliffs Formation — were almost entirely removed from protection.
David Polly, a paleontologist in Indiana University’s Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, said in an email that the new research underscores the importance of restoring Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monument, a site in Utah that is sacred to several tribes and that Trump cut by nearly 85 percent. “This study involves researchers at four different universities, including experts on dinosaurs, fossil plants, geochemistry, and geochronology, and it uses cutting-edge techniques to analyze everything from the fossils to the chemicals embedded in the ancient sediments in which they were entombed,” noted Polly, who challenged Trump’s monument changes on behalf of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
“Scientific coordination like this is the single most important benefit of monument status because it enhances the quality of the science and the engagement of the right experts,” he added.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who traveled to Utah this month to survey the two national monuments Trump reduced, spent just one hour in Grand Staircase-Escalante. But she did meet with Titus, who showed her fossils found there. “She was quite inquisitive,” Titus said.
The BLM has continued to protect such remnants of the past even as controversy swirled over the monument’s size. “They’re basically our heritage, our ancient heritage,” Titus said. “They’re part of the story of how North America came to be and how we came to be. And we take that very seriously.”
Haaland has not said whether the administration will expand or restore either of the monuments.
“How we manage public lands and national monuments is important, not just to the tribes and ranchers and elected leaders and others who I met with this week, but to the many generations to come,” she said at the conclusion of her trip.
| New archeological discoveries | April 2021 | ['(The Washington Post)'] |
Further clashes between protesters and police in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh leaves six people dead. | New Delhi, India – At least six people protesting against a new citizenship law have been killed in clashes in various parts of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, according to police.
Shrish Chand, spokesperson of Uttar Pradesh police, said two protesters were killed on Friday in Bijnor, with the rest of the deaths occurring in Meerut, Kanpur, Sambhal and Firozabad.
“Cause of death will be cleared after post-mortem,” Chand told Al Jazeera.
The news came as deadly protests against the recently passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) continue to rage across the country.
The controversial act is an amendment to a 1955 piece of legislation granting citizenship to “persecuted” minorities – Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians – from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan – but excludes Muslims.
India’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government says the legislation protects people fleeing religious persecution, but opponents criticise it as being anti-Muslim and violating the spirit of the country’s secular constitution.
The public anger over CAA continues to build across India, with thousands of people marching daily demanding the law be revoked.
On Thursday, at least three people were killed in the violence: Two people died from injuries sustained during a protest in the city of Mangalore, in the southern state of Karnataka, while another person died from firearm injuries during a protest in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh,
On Friday, demonstrations erupted across 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh, with thousands defying orders banning gatherings in India’s most populous state.
As the protests turned violent, police at various parts of the state charged demonstrators with batons and used tear gas to try and control the situation.
A curfew meanwhile was imposed in parts of central India’s Madhya Pradesh on Friday.
India’s capital, New Delhi, also witnessed massive demonstrations against the law. The protesters are also demanding an investigation into Sunday’s violence in the federally run Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI) university, where police barged into the campus, beat up students and allegedly vandalised university property.
Soon after the Friday afternoon prayers, thousands of protesters rallied from the historic Jama Masjid in Old Delhi to the nearby Delhi Gate carrying national flags and placards and shouting anti-CAA and anti-government slogans.
“We will fight this anti-Muslim law tooth and nail,” Anwar Siddiqui, 65, a protester told Al Jazeera. “We will rather die but will not back down this time. This government has to revoke its decision at any cost.”
Hundreds of police and Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel were deployed at Delhi Gate to stop the demonstrators from proceeding further, while several metro stations were shut down.
Initially peacefully, the protest turned violent with protesters setting a vehicle on fire and police using water cannon to disperse them
“CAA is anti-Muslim and it has to go,” said Feroz Khan, a protester. “Our protests will continue ’til the act is not struck down.”
“This is a revolt against the government, against its anti-Muslim act,” Faisal Ahmad, another protester told Al Jazeera.
“We are not against the citizenship to any illegal immigrants but we are against the exclusion of Muslims,” he said. “CAA plus BJP’s proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) targets only one community – and that is Muslims.”
The NRC is a Supreme Court-monitored bureaucratic citizenship exercise, which was recently held in Assam state, and which the BJP now plans to extend to the entire country.
Protesters say both moves are part of BJP’s agenda to marginalise the country’s 200 million Muslims.
Many opposition parties, students, civil society members and activists across India have opposed the CAA and criticised the government for bringing forward the legislation.
“The CAA is discriminatory and the proposed NRC will particularly hurt the poor and vulnerable,” Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the opposition Congress Party, said on Friday in a video statement.
“In a democracy, people have the right to raise their voice against wrong decisions and policies of the government and register their concerns. Equally, it is the duty of the government to listen to the citizens and address their concerns,” she added.
“The BJP government has shown utter disregard for people’s voices and chosen to use brute force to suppress dissent. This is unacceptable in a democracy.”
Amid the furore over the citizenship act that has spread across the country, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs said on Friday that no Indian citizen will be asked to prove citizenship by showing documents such as birth certificates of parents or grandparents dating back to a period before 1971.
“Citizenship of India may be proved by giving any document relating to date of birth or place of birth or both. Such a list is likely to include a lot of common documents to ensure that no Indian citizen is unduly harassed or put to inconvenience,” a ministry spokesperson said in a post on Twitter.
Amid protests in India, Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad questions ‘necessity’ of new citizenship law seen as anti-Muslim.
Indians defy curbs, internet blocks to protest as anger over a new ‘anti-Muslim’ law grows.
Police ban public gatherings and cut internet in parts of New Delhi and other cities amid deadly protests over new law.
Rallies held across the country despite prohibitory orders at some places as anger over ‘anti-Muslim’ law mounts.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | December 2019 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete sacks six ministers amid allegations of government corruption. | He has been under pressure to deal with the scandal following a report by a body overseeing public finances.
The inspector of the government's accounts noted the rampant misuse of funds in at least seven ministries.
The ministers who have been dropped from cabinet all hold high-profile portfolios: Finance, energy, tourism, trade, transport and health.
In November, the ruling CCM party promised to implement anti-corruption measures, but there have been heated calls from the opposition for heads to roll.
Announcing the cabinet reshuffle, President Kikwete said that accountability would be taken seriously and ministers' subordinates and even executives working for state-owned companies would also be held responsible over any embezzlement.
"It is not enough for a minister to take responsibility alone but the new approach is that even those who caused the mishap will be taken to task as well," Mr Kikwete told journalists at State House in Dar es Salaam.
The BBC's Hassan Mhelela in Dar es Salaam says the ministry of energy, which oversees the lucrative mining sector, and ministry of tourism - two of the major revenue generators for the government, were criticised most in the Controller and Auditor General's annual report.
There have been mixed reactions to the sackings, our reporter says.
Many are pleased that the government has acted at last but some feel there should be prosecutions too, he says.
Mr Kikwete was re-elected in 2010 for a final five-year term.
His government has struggled to tackle corruption which has adversely hampered economic growth in Tanzania where the rate of inflation rate stands at 19%.
Last year, donor countries cut funding pledges to Tanzania after expressing concern about corruption and the slow pace of reforms. Tanzania bribery claim denied
MPs rap BAE in corruption inquiry
Can elections help Tanzania tackle corruption?
Tanzania country profile
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | May 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
NBA All–Star Weekend takes place at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. | NBA All-Star Weekend kicked off on Friday night with the Celebrity Game and Rising Stars Challenge, but the real fun began with All-Star Saturday Night. The showcase featured three events: the Skills Challenge, 3-Point Contest and Dunk Contest.
The first event of the night was the Skills Challenge, and it ended in stunning fashion as Jayson Tatum threw in a half-court shot to beat Trae Young. Next, the 3-Point Contest took center stage. Steph Curry put on a show in the first round, but the Brooklyn Nets' Joe Harris went home with the trophy, beating Curry by two points in the championship round. Finally, the Slam Dunk Contest wrapped up the evening with Thunder guard Hamidou Diallo beating out Dennis Smith Jr., Miles Bridges and John Collins to be named the NBA's dunk king.
Below is a list of the winners, followed by the most impressive highlights from the evening.
The first event of NBA All-Star Saturday Night did not disappoint. Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics took down Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks to win the Skills Challenge in thrilling fashion. Falling behind after the layup portion, Tatum launched a half-court shot that banked in off the glass to steal the trophy away from Young.
Jayson Tatum from half-court for the #TacoBellSkills challenge WIN!#StateFarmSaturday on @NBAonTNT pic.twitter.com/3qbR2FTpMa
The greatest shooter in NBA history didn't disappoint in his opening round. Stephen Curry put on an absolute clinic, hitting 10 in a row at one point to finish with 27 points, a high for the first round. Curry actually made 19 straight between both rounds, hitting his first nine shots in the championship round but fell short in the end.
Steph is just UNREAL. ?#MtnDew3PT pic.twitter.com/uCGAtZey6Q
Steph knocked down nine consecutive buckets to start, but it wasn't enough to knock off Joe Harris. #MtnDew3PT pic.twitter.com/oOjRZxH7KT
It was his first time in the 3-point contest, but Nets wing Joe Harris didn't show any signs of being nervous. As the first competitor to shoot, Harris set the bar by notching a huge score of 25 in the first round by finishing with eight makes in a row, including all five on the money ball rack. In the end, he put up a number that Stephen Curry could not even beat to take home the title.
Joe Harris got HOT to finish with a first-round score of 25! ?#MtnDew3PT pic.twitter.com/w1UIRQ3Yka
Joe Harris drains nine straight and posts another perfect money ball rack to finish with a championship round score of 26! ???#MtnDew3PT pic.twitter.com/abh9qlo6Ix
In what will likely be his final NBA season, Dirk Nowitzki went out with a strong performance in his last 3-Point Contest. He shook off an embarrassing airball to finish with a respectable score of 17, much to the delight of the Charlotte crowd.
Dirk posts 17 PTS in the first round of the #MtnDew3PT Contest ☔#NBAAllStar #StateFarmSaturday #MtnDew3PT Contest on @SkySportsNBA pic.twitter.com/SDu6hzsOCG
The most memorable dunk of the night went to winner Hamidou Diallo, who brought Shaquille O'Neal onto the court, unveiled a Superman logo under his jersey, then dunked over the NBA legend while putting his elbow in the rim.
? SUPERMAN ALERT! ?Hamidou Diallo leaps over @SHAQ and finishes with the HONEY DIP DUNK for a 5⃣0⃣! ??#ATTSlamDunk #StateFarmSaturday @NBAonTNT pic.twitter.com/izASQbFDYC
North Carolina rapper J. Cole made an appearance on Saturday night, throwing a perfect lob to Dennis Smith Jr., who got his head rim-level on a nasty dunk.
.@JColeNC lobs and Dennis Smith Jr. GETS WAY UP for the 5⃣0⃣! ✈️ #ATTSlamDunk #StateFarmSaturday on @NBAonTNT pic.twitter.com/FdG9HhXtM9
Hornets rookie Miles Bridges paid tribute to one of the franchise's all-time greats, Larry Johnson, by donning his jersey while throwing down a 360 dunk off of an assist from All-Star Kemba Walker. It was a proud moment for the host Hornets, and Bridges earned a perfect score for the slam.
Kemba off the backboard for the MILES BRIDGES 360 SLAM.. and he receives a 5⃣0⃣!#ATTSlamDunk #StateFarmSaturday @NBAonTNT pic.twitter.com/Mdi2UmfqN3
CBS Sports will be with you the entire way with all the updates, highlights and analysis from All-Star Saturday Night. If you are unable to view the live application below, please click here.
Who wins the 2019 NBA All-Star Game? And what critical X-factor determines the spread winner? Visit SportsLine right now to see which side is a must-back Sunday, all from the SportsLine expert on a massive 29-13 NBA run.
To close out the weekend, we'll get the actual All-Star Game itself on Sunday night at the Spectrum Center. This is the second year of the new format, which features two rosters led by captains instead of the traditional East vs. West matchup. LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks are the two captains this season, and they recently completed their playground-style draft, which was televised this year. The first player selected for Team LeBron was Kevin Durant, while the first pick for Team Giannis was Steph Curry. For a full list of rosters, go here: | Sports Competition | February 2019 | ['(CBS Sports)'] |
A new law in Taiwan allows women to breastfeed in public and imposes fines on those trying to stop them. | TAIPEI - TAIWAN on Tuesday adopted a law allowing women to breastfeed in public with hefty fines for anyone who tries to stop them, after five mothers were forced to leave a museum for nursing their babies. Under the new rule, anyone attempting to prevent breastfeeding in public will face a fine of up to 30,000 Taiwan dollars (S$1,281), according to the Department of Health. A musem in Taipei sparked public outcry when it asked five women to leave after they were found openly nursing their babies. The fine will apply to government buildings, department stores, airports, train and metro stations which fail to set up nursing rooms, the department said in a statement. 'We urge the public to show more respect for nursing mothers, to support and create a friendly environment for breastfeeding,' the statement said. -- AFP | Government Policy Changes | November 2010 | ['(Straits Times)', '(AFP via Google News)'] |
In the wake of the 20102011 Ivorian crisis, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights states that mass graves containing 68 bodies have been found in the Ivorian city of Abidjan. , | (CNN) -- Forensic experts have unearthed about 68 bodies from another cluster of mass graves in war-torn Ivory Coast, a United Nations spokeswoman said Monday.
Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, said human rights investigators found a total of 10 mass graves in the Yopougon district, near the country's commercial capital of Abidjan, over the weekend.
According to U.N. investigations, the Yopougon killings appear to be related to an April 12 massacre in which supporters of former President Laurent Gbagbo staged an attack on supporters of Alassane Ouattara. Gbagbo's unwillingness to hand over power to Ouattara after last year's presidential election -- even after Ouattara was recognized internationally as the winner -- resulted in months of violence. In April, U.N. teams found more than 200 bodies buried in a mass grave in the western town of Duekoue.
More than 1,000 people have died following the contested 2010 presidential election that pitted Ouattara against Gbagbo.
Ouattara was sworn in Friday as president of Ivory Coast, ending the months-long political standoff.
Shamdasani said the Ivory Coast government has been cooperative in helping investigators search for clues, some of which may incriminate Outtara supporters as well as Gbagbo supporters.
"When we apply pressure, they do respond," she said.
An independent, international commission of inquiry is investigating alleged human rights violations committed by supporters of each presidential candidate, Shamdasani said.
"Some of these crimes may amount to crimes against humanity," Shamdasani said. "But for now, we can't say that with confidence." | Armed Conflict | May 2011 | ['(CNN)', '(UPI)'] |
The European Court of Human Rights rules that the United Kingdom breached provisions in the European Convention on Human Rights in relation to mass surveillance practices exposed by American whistleblower Edward Snowden. | STRASBOURG, France (AP) Europe’s human rights court handed a partial victory Thursday to civil rights groups that challenged the legality of mass surveillance and intelligence-sharing practices exposed by American whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled that some aspects of British surveillance regimes violated provisions in the European Convention on Human Rights that are meant to safeguard Europeans’ rights to privacy.
Specifically, the court said there wasn’t enough independent scrutiny of processes used by British intelligence services to sift through data and communications intercepted in bulk.
The ruling cited a “lack of oversight of the entire selection process” and “the absence of any real safeguards.”
The court’s seven judges also voted 6-1 that Britain’s regime for getting data from communications service providers also violated the human rights convention, including its provisions on privacy and on freedom of expression.
But the ruling wasn’t all bad for British spies. The court said it is “satisfied” that British intelligence services take their human rights convention obligations seriously “and are not abusing their powers.”
The court also gave a green light to procedures British security services use to get intelligence from foreign spy agencies, saying the intelligence-sharing regime doesn’t violate the convention’s privacy provisions.
The ruling is not final and could be appealed.
Civil liberties campaigners who brought the case hailed the judgment as a landmark victory against the mass surveillance that governments have defended as an important tool in fighting terrorism.
Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, said the ruling “vindicates Mr. Snowden’s courageous whistleblowing.”
“Under the guise of counterterrorism, the U.K. has adopted the most authoritarian surveillance regime of any Western state, corroding democracy itself and the rights of the British public,” Carlo said in a statement. “This judgment is a vital step towards protecting millions of law-abiding citizens from unjustified intrusion.”
Dan Carey, a lawyer for the complainants, said: “There needs to be much greater control over the search terms that the government is using to sift our communications.”
Caroline Wilson Palow, another of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, said the ruling “confirms that just because it is technically feasible to intercept all of our personal communications, it does not mean that it is lawful to do so.”
The British government said it would give “careful consideration” to the court’s findings.
It noted that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, which was the subject of the challenge, had been replaced by new legislation in 2016.
“This includes the introduction of a ‘double lock’ which requires warrants for the use of these powers to be authorised by a Secretary of State and approved by a judge,” the government said in a statement.
“An Investigatory Powers Commissioner has also been created to ensure robust independent oversight of how these powers are used.” | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2018 | ['(AP News)'] |
Australia wins the tournament, beating India by 85 runs, to win their fifth title. | Last updated on 8 March 20208 March 2020.From the section Women's Cricket
Australia demolished India by 85 runs to win their fifth Women's T20 World Cup title in front of 86,174 at Melbourne Cricket Ground.
It was a near-perfect evening for the hosts, who posted 184-4 after a brutal 75 from Alyssa Healy and opener Beth Mooney's unbeaten 78.
An overawed India slid to 18-3, with teenage star Shafali Verma falling to the third ball of the chase, and they were never in the game.
Megan Schutt again shone, taking 4-18 as India were bundled out for just 99 with five balls left.
Australia's performance will be remembered as one of the most emphatic in a final by any side.
The crowd fell short of breaking the record attendance at a women's sporting event - which stands at 90,185 - but it was an astonishing, atmospheric evening.
Australia were as ruthless as they have ever been to steamroller India, whose heads dropped in the first over of the match when Healy was dropped by Verma.
It means Australia's dominance of women's cricket continues - and India, once again, fell short at a global final.
Australia have not dominated this tournament in the way many expected, but they have grown in confidence and produced a devastating display when it mattered most.
They lost the first game to India, were 10-3 against Sri Lanka in their second match and were staring at a tournament exit at various points, but they were able to find ways to win.
Mooney has been superb at the top of the order, while captain Meg Lanning has always offered a sense of calm, both with the bat and in the field.
Australia embraced the raucous atmosphere at the 'G' and used it to their advantage, while India, nervous from the very start, crumbled.
It might not have been the competitive outing that was expected, but there is something special about watching a team as ruthless as Australia go about their cricket.
They will be heavy favourites to win back the 50-over World Cup title from England in 2021.
Mooney was the backbone for Australia, batting through the innings and registering her third half-century of the tournament, but it is Healy's performance that most will remember.
It was arguably the most merciless innings of the tournament, with Healy thrashing the first ball of the game for four to set the tone.
She gathered further momentum when she was dropped on nine off the fifth ball of the innings, Verma putting down a simple catch at cover.
Australia raced to 47-0 in the first five overs, Healy dominating the bowlers and reaching her half-century in fitting style, a furious drive down the ground for four.
The attack she launched on Shikha Pandey - one of India's best bowlers in the competition - was completely devastating.
The first length ball was hit over long-on, and the second was given the same treatment before Healy cleared her front leg and hoicked the third flat over cover for a third successive six.
Before this tournament, there were questions over Healy's form after a lean tri-series. She ended it walking off with a smile on her face, despite being caught at long-on, having played a key role in a complete demolition of India's bowlers.
This was the second time India have reached a global final but it was a more disappointing performance than against England at Lord's in 2017.
After Verma dropped Healy, Rajeshwari Gayakwad missed a chance to catch Mooney in her follow-through, and India's heads dropped.
India have a strong batting line-up but Verma was clearly distracted by her poor performance in the field, and she was distraught to nick the third ball of the innings behind.
Wickets fell frequently and with a certain inevitability - Jemimah Rodrigues was caught at mid-on, Smriti Mandhana chipped Sophie Molineux to cover, and captain Harmanpreet Kaur holed out in the deep.
India were never in this game, and it was almost a relief to see it end when Poonam Yadav slogged Schutt to deep mid-wicket.
Australia captain Meg Lanning: "I'm really proud of this group of players - we've had everything thrown at us, we've had our ups and downs and scraped through the tournament but it was our best performance on the biggest stage.
"After we lost that first game, there was a lot of expectation on us and a lot of tough times, but we stuck together and we had each other's backs throughout."
Australia opener Beth Mooney: "It's been an unbelievable tournament and the crowds have been amazing throughout. We've got an elite line-up and if it's not your day, somebody else steps up and does it.
"You can always be better and that's the mantra I and the team live by. I'm fortunate and grateful to have been given the opportunities I have by Cricket Australia."
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur: "The way we played in the group games was outstanding, I still have a lot of faith in our team, we need to focus on the areas - particularly the fielding as it was disappointing we dropped those catches. | Sports Competition | March 2020 | ['(BBC Sport)'] |
At least nine students are killed in protests in Ethiopia's Oromia Region. | At least nine students have died during days of protests in Ethiopia's Oromia state, the government has said.
However, a witness told the BBC that 47 were killed by the security forces.
She said the protests in Ambo, 125km (80 miles) west of Addis Ababa began last Friday over .
The government did not say how most of the deaths had been caused but the Ambo resident said she had seen the army firing live ammunition.
"I saw more than 20 bodies on the streets," she said.
"I am hiding in my house because I am scared."
The Ambo resident said that four students had been killed on Monday and another 43 in a huge security crackdown on Tuesday, after a huge demonstration including many non-students.
Since then, the town's streets have been deserted, she said, with banks and shops closed and no transport.
She said teaching had been suspended at Ambo University, where the protests began, and students prevented from leaving.
In a statement, the government said eight people had died during violent protests led by "anti-peace forces" in the towns of Ambo and Tokeekutayu, as well as Meda Welabu University, also in Oromia state.
It said one person had been killed "in a related development" when a hand grenade was thrown at students watching a football match.
The statement blamed the protests on "baseless rumours" being spread about the "integrated development master plan" for the capital.
BBC Ethiopia analyst Hewete Haileselassie says some ethnic Oromos feel the government is dominated by members of the Tigre and Amhara communities and they would be loath to see the size of "their" territory diminish with the expansion of Addis Ababa, which is claimed by both Oromos and Amharas.
But the drug-maker faces hefty fines if it fails to supply doses of Covid-19 vaccine over the summer. | Protest_Online Condemnation | May 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
Carson Yeung, president of England's Birmingham City F.C., is quizzed by police in Hong Kong over criminal investigations. | Birmingham City FC's president Carson Yeung is helping police in Hong Kong with criminal investigations, according to the club's website.
A statement put out by acting chairman Peter Pannu said Mr Yeung was assisting police in Hong Kong.
He said he believed the inquiries were nothing to do with the club's parent company or subsidiaries.
Birmingham International Holdings' lawyers had informed him of the situation, he said.
He said he had also been informed by the lawyers that Mr Yeung was assisting with inquiries that had nothing to do with BIHL in Hong Kong and therefore nothing to do with the operation of club.
"People are reminded that in recent years members of the previous board were placed on bail for a significant amount of time and nothing came of it," the statement said.
"I am only using this as an example to calm any fears."
The statement also said the law says a person is innocent until proven guilty and that until the club found out any more information there would be no further comment.
Yeung is Birmingham's largest single shareholder with a 29.9% stake.
Yeung puts deposit on Birmingham
Birmingham to get cash injection
Birmingham City
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Woman left 'devastated' after dying mother's wedding ring disappeared as she was treated at Walsall Manor Hospital
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Hundreds of Dudley care home staff unvaccinated, data shows
Information about BBC links to other news sites
One Covid vaccine dose cuts hospital risk by 75%
But the number of Delta variant cases recorded in the UK has risen by 79% in a week, figures show. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Investigate | June 2011 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Sudanese President Omar al–Bashir goes to Juba to meet with Southern Sudanese President of the Government Salva Kiir Mayardit ahead of Southern Sudan's independence referendum. | Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has reassured Southern Sudan he will help it even if it chooses to secede in a referendum on Sunday.
After arriving in the south's capital, Juba, Mr Bashir said that although he would be "sad" if Sudan split, "I am going to celebrate your decision, even if your decision is secession."
Mr Bashir then headed into talks with the south's leader, Salva Kiir.
The referendum is part of a 2005 deal that ended a two-decades-long war.
Mr Bashir and Mr Kiir were on opposing sides.
Officials say almost four million people have registered to vote, more than 95% of them in semi-autonomous Southern Sudan. Others have signed up in northern Sudan and eight countries abroad.
BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross, in Juba, says Mr Bashir's message on Tuesday will go a long way to reassure people that the north of Sudan is finally accepting that Africa's largest country is about to split in two. Mr Bashir said: "I personally will be sad if Sudan splits. But at the same time I will be happy if we have peace in Sudan between the two sides."
Saying that imposing unity did not work, he added: "Anything you need in terms of technical, logistical or professional support from Khartoum, you will find us ready to give it. The benefit we get from unity, we can also get it from two separate states."
Our correspondent says that for years Mr Bashir was seen as an enemy in the south but his message on Tuesday, a message of peace, may help to improve his tarnished image.
Mr Bashir, wearing a traditional southern robe over his suit, was met by about 500 people at the airport in Juba demonstrating in favour of secession, but in a festive atmosphere.
He and Mr Kiir then went into talks that were to focus on weighty issues such as border delineation, citizenship and division of oil wealth.
Sudan is the third-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa.
Southern Sudan has been marginalised by a succession of governments in Khartoum, from colonial times onwards.
The north and south are also divided by culture, religion, ethnicity and a history of conflict, correspondents say.
On Monday, a spokesman for the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC), Chan Reec Madut, said it was "100% prepared" for the vote.
Some training still needed to be carried out and there were still problems with access to polling stations in remote areas, he said. But he insisted that those would not affect the vote.
There had been concerns that Sudan's poor infrastructure and political instability might delay the referendum, risking an outbreak of violence.
For the vote to be considered valid, 60% of voters must take part. A spokesman for the US state department, PJ Crowley, said it was optimistic about Sunday's referendum, and that both sides appeared to agree that it should be an open and credible process.
Southern Sudan Referendum Commission
United Nations Missions in Sudan (UNMIS)
. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | January 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
First Vice President of Afghanistan Abdul Rashid Dostum survives an assassination attempt on his convoy while traveling to the Jowzjan Province in Afghanistan. The attack killed one bodyguard and injured two others. | MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghanistan’s vice president, Abdul Rashid Dostum, escaped unhurt from an attack that killed one of his bodyguards on Saturday, dodging death for the second time since returning from exile last year.
Attackers ambushed Dostum’s convoy on the way from Mazar-i-Sharif, a city in Balkh province, to Jawzjan province in northern Afghanistan, said Bashir Ahmad Tayenj, spokesman for Dostum’s Junbish Party. Two other bodyguards were wounded.
Dostum was aware of a planned attack but decided to travel anyway, the spokesman added.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt, which comes eight months after Dostum avoided injury in a suicide bombing at Kabul airport. In a tweet, the militant group’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said four guards were killed and six wounded in the attack.
Last summer’s bombing, which was claimed by Islamic State, took place as Dostum returned home from more than a year in exile in Turkey over allegations of torturing and abusing a political rival.
Dostum had left Afghanistan after heavy pressure from Western donors including the United States.
Less than a year since his return, the general remains a significant, if polarizing, political figure. His Junbish Party is supported mainly by his fellow ethnic Uzbeks.
Dostum has joined the election team of Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, one of several contenders in a presidential election scheduled for Sept. 28.
Additional reporting and writing by Rod Nickel; Editing by Helen Popper and Marie-Louise Gumuchian
| Armed Conflict | March 2019 | ['(Reuters)', '(The Jerusalem Post)'] |
The United Kingdom's oldest person, a Gateshead great–great grandmother, dies at the age of 111. She would have been 112 next month. | Eunice Bowman, who was born in 1898 and has seen six monarchs on the throne, died peacefully in her sleep at Hillside Grange Care Home in Gateshead. The 111-year-old, who was widowed twice, had six children, 17 grandchildren, 32 great grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren.
Guinness World Records confirmed she was the UK's oldest person. She put her long life down to never smoking.
Mrs Bowman worked in a fish and chip shop well into her 80s and said "a tipple of honey" helped keep her going.
She lived on Tyneside for most of her life and lived independently until two years ago, when she moved into the home where she died on Friday. Eunice was born in Lancashire on 23 August 1898, the second of 12 children. When she was interviewed by the BBC on her 111th birthday, she said: "I've had a very happy life."
In about 1905 the family moved to the north-east of England so her father Thomas could find work and they settled in Felling.
When World War I broke out she went to work for the Armstrong munitions factory in Newcastle and the money she earned was used to help her family.
In 1919 she married Robert Pearson and they had four children. He contracted tuberculosis in 1928 and died.
When World War II started two of Eunice's sons, Norman and Thomas, enlisted into the Army and one was sent to Africa and the other to France. Both returned after the war and went back to their jobs in the shipyards.
In 1941 Eunice married Frank Bowman and had two children - Sheila, who died as a child, and Ann, who was born in 1945. Frank died in 1950. | Famous Person - Death | July 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Miners in Chile rescued from the 2010 Copiapó mining accident return home after receiving hospital treatment. | COPIAPO, Chile (Reuters) - Chile’s rescued miners headed home as heroes on Friday after a 69-day ordeal deep underground during which they drank oil-contaminated water and set off explosives in a desperate bid to alert rescuers.
More Chile miners to leave hospital
01:53
The first three of the 33 men were cleared to leave a hospital late on Thursday, returning to neighbors’ cheers a day after their stunning rescue from the collapsed mine in Chile’s remote northern desert. At least 10 more were set for release on Friday, their doctors said.
The miners have became global media stars since their widely watched rescue and have been showered with job offers and gifts, including invitations to visit the Greek isles and Graceland and attend European football matches.
In the working class Copiapo neighborhood of Til-Til Bajo, near the hospital, neighbors of rescued miners Pedro Cortes and Carlos Bugueno hung streamers and orange, pink and yellow flags from lampposts in anticipation of their arrival.
“I’ve known the boys since they were babies,” said shopkeeper Luis Castillo, 52. “when I heard they were alive I cried uncontrollably.”
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has challenged the men to a friendly soccer match later this month after the first wave of festivities.
“This is really incredible. It hasn’t sunk in,” said 52-year-old Juan Illanes, still wearing the dark sunglasses he and his fellow miners were given to protect their eyes after being stuck since August 5 in a dark cavern.
Edison Pena, 34, a triathlete who ran 6 miles a day through the mine’s tunnels to cope with stress after the collapse, said he didn’t expect to see his home again.
“I didn’t think I’d make it back, so this reception really blows my mind,” he said, as waiting neighbors showered him with confetti. “We really had a bad time.”
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The men burned tires in the first days after the mine collapse, hoping the smoke would reach the surface and alert rescuers, and set off explosives in an effort to be heard.
When their reserves of bottled water dwindled to 10 liters, the men began drinking from metal drums of water tainted with motor oil.
Most of the men are surprisingly healthy considering they were stuck in a hot, dark tunnel for so long. One was being treated for pneumonia and others needed dental treatment, but none are suffering serious health problems.
Experts say the most lasting damage could be emotional and that recovery could be complicated by the public glare.
“In the mine, they were in their place,” said Alberto Iturra, psychologist for Chile’s workplace safety agency. “Now, everybody thinks they have a piece of them.”
Despite the trauma, some of the miners said they planned to remain in the profession.
Alex Vega, the 10th miner to be pulled out of the mine on Wednesday, said, “I want to go back ... I’m a miner at heart. It’s something in your blood,” Vega said.
The miners, who set a world record for survival underground, were hoisted to the surface in a metal capsule in a rescue operation that was watched by hundreds of millions of people worldwide and triggered celebrations across Chile.
A local singer-turned-businessman has given each of them $10,000 each, while Apple boss Steve Jobs has sent all of them an iPod. There also is the prospect of book and film deals.
When the mine caved in, the men were believed to have died in yet another of Latin America’s litany of mining accidents. But rescuers found them 2-1/2 weeks later with a bore hole the width of a grapefruit.
That tiny hole became an umbilical cord used to pass down hydration gels, water and food to keep them alive until a bigger shaft could be bored to bring them up.
In a complex but flawless operation under Chile’s Atacama desert, the miners were hauled out one by one through 2,050 feet of rock in a metal capsule little wider than a man’s shoulders and dubbed “Phoenix” after the mythical bird that rose from the ashes.
It took 24 hours to extract the miners and the six rescuers who had gone down the escape shaft to help get the men out.
A top government official said the rescue operation cost about $18 million and suggested the capsule -- painted red, blue and white, like the Chilean flag -- might also go on a world tour | Mine Collapses | October 2010 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Hamas states that it will agree to a ceasefire and halt their rocket fire at Israel if Israel stops attacking targets in the Gaza Strip. | Militant groups in Gaza say they will agree to a ceasefire if Israel stops attacks on the Palestinian territory.
The move was announced by the Hamas group that runs Gaza, following its talks with other militant groups.
In the past week at least 10 Palestinians, including several civilians and children, have been killed by Israeli attacks.
In the same period, militants in Gaza have fired more than 80 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel.
BBC Gaza correspondent Jon Donnison says the past week has seen some of the most serious violence in and around Gaza since the end of Operation Cast Lead - Israel's major offensive here more than two years ago.
But in a statement released after a meeting with all militant groups in Gaza, Hamas said the insurgents were "committed to calm as long as the occupation (Israel) commits to it". Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader, told Agence France-Presse that "everybody confirmed that they respect the national consensus by calming things with the Zionist enemy".
He added that the truce depended "on the nature of Israeli behaviour, and we insist on the need to respond immediately to each escalation by the occupiers".
Hamas had pledged to try to restore a ceasefire that ended on 16 March when an Israeli air strike killed two Hamas militants in Gaza.
Israel said it had suffered "bouts of terror and rocket attacks".
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would "act with great force and great determination to put a stop to it".
On Wednesday, a bomb left at a bus stop in Jerusalem killed one person and wounded many others. No group has said it carried out that attack. There has been no comment yet from Israel on the ceasefire offer.
Earlier, the commander of Israeli troops along the Gaza front, Maj Gen Tal Russo, said there was "anarchy" in Gaza.
"We are prepared for any possibility, the goal is we won't in the end permit a situation where it is impossible for civilians to live here."
Our correspondent says that in the past Hamas has not been able to rein in all militant groups in Gaza and its authority will be tested by this move.
Israel's military power is vastly superior to the Palestinian militants, he says, and if there were another major conflict, Gaza would again come off worse.
More than 1,300 Palestinians died in the war two years ago. Thirteen Israelis were killed.
| Armed Conflict | March 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(The Jerusalem Post)'] |
Two civilians and a Lithuanian soldier are killed as an Afghan protest over the Koran shooting outside the Chagcharan Airfield in the Ghor Province of Afghanistan turns violent. | (CNN) -- Two civilians and a Lithuanian soldier were killed when a protest outside a NATO base in western Afghanistan against the Quran desecration incident in Iraq turned violent on Thursday, a spokesman for the alliance's military in Kabul said.
Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond apologized to Iraqis after a soldier used the Quran for target practice.
Maj. Martin O'Donnell, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), told CNN the incident occurred at the Chaghcharan Airfield in Ghor province. One ISAF soldier, 10 Afghan National Police and seven civilians were also wounded, the ISAF said.
The civilians were killed or wounded when Afghan National Police fired on them after the protesters began throwing rocks and tents were set on fire, the ISAF said. O'Donnell said the tents were inside the airfield, but protesters did not enter the compound. There has been anger in Iraq and other places in the Muslim world after the desecration of the Quran by a United States soldier, who used the Muslim holy book for target practice. President Bush and the U.S. military have issued apologies for the act.
Other demonstrations protesting the Quran desecration were held in Afghanistan Thursday -- in Badakhshan and Kunduz provinces in the north and in Kabul, where Afghan lawmakers staged a walkout of parliament.
A Lithuanian National Defense Ministry spokeswoman told CNN the dead soldier was a 34-year-old male who was on security watch during the Quran protest when he was shot down. He was the first Lithuanian soldier to die in the Afghan conflict. It is not clear who shot him and the Lithuanian military is investigating. The official said Lithuanian troops were firing into the air and not firing back. "There were local policemen involved. They reacted very quickly to help our troops," spokeswoman Jovita Bazeviciute said. Lithuania has the ISAF command in the area, where there is a provincial reconstruction team. O'Donnell said troops from about six nations operated in the area.
"We condemn the violence," O'Donnell added, and said the situation there was now calm.
"While ISAF encourages the freedom of the people of Afghanistan to hold a peaceful demonstration under their democracy, violent demonstrations have no place in Afghanistan and they cause tragedies." | Armed Conflict | May 2008 | ['(CNN)'] |
Former Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd joins Julia Gillard's election campaign while recovering from gallbladder surgery by attacking the opposition leader Tony Abbott. | Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has entered the election campaign with a stinging attack on the opposition Liberal leader Tony Abbott.
In his first appearance since being ousted as leader, Mr Rudd said he would back Julia Gillard - the woman who deposed him in June.
The Labor party has suffered a slump in popularity in recent weeks.
Mr Rudd said he would not stand "idly by" and watch Mr Abbott "slide quietly into office" in the 21 August vote. Mr Abbott, leader of the Liberal Party, the main partner in the conservative-coalition opposition, is hoping to deny Labor a second three-year term.
He remains the underdog in opinion polls - but only by a small margin. He has attacked Labor's "great big new tax" on big mining firms and pledged to "stop the boats" bringing asylum-seekers to Australia. Prime Minister Julia Gillard came to power in June after senior Labor powerbrokers - concerned by weeks of poor poll ratings - told Mr Rudd he had lost their support.
Ms Gillard's challenge for the leadership came amid fears that Mr Rudd could not win a second election.
His sudden and unexpected ousting has created divisions in the party.
The initial surge in public support enjoyed by Ms Gillard has been dented by a series of government leaks to the media, which are suspected to have come from Mr Rudd or his supporters.
Ms Gillard is accused of going back on a secret deal when she challenged for Mr Rudd's leadership.
Other reports say she unsuccessfully argued in closed-door cabinet meetings against increasing pensions because old people did not vote for Labor.
Mr Rudd, who has denied responsibility for the leaks, told reporters at a news conference that the infighting was distracting voters.
"There is a real danger at present because of the rolling political controversy about myself, that Mr Abbott is simply able to slide quietly into the office of prime minister," said Mr Rudd.
He said he would not "stand idly by and watch Mr Abbott try to slide into office by default without any real scrutiny being applied".
He said: "Life's too short to carry around a great bucket-load of anger and resentment and bitterness and hatred."
Mr Rudd, who is recovering after having his gall bladder removed, said Ms Gillard had asked him to join her election campaign.
He said he would begin canvassing next week in his home state of Queensland and in New South Wales.
Ms Gillard said she welcomed her predecessor's support. She has offered Mr Rudd a senior position if Labor is re-elected. | Government Job change - Election | August 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Voters in the Indian state of Gujarat go to the polls for a state election. | Voting has ended in the second and final phase of polls in India's Gujarat state where Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi is seeking re-election.
There were long queues at many polling centres and election commission officials said an estimated 68-69% voters had cast their ballots.
The polls are seen as a referendum on the popularity of Mr Modi, who has ruled the state since October 2001.
Mr Modi has been tipped as a potential future prime minister.
Under his leadership, Gujarat has been turned into one of India's economic powerhouses.
Nearly 40 million people were eligible to vote in 182 assembly constituencies in the state.
Voting was held in 95 of these constituencies during the second phase of polls on Monday. Counting is set for Thursday.
Voting took place in central and north Gujarat, the Ahmedabad city area and in Kutch district.
Mr Modi was among the early voters in the state on Monday.
"It's a very peaceful election," he said after casting his vote in Ahmedabad. "It will be a historic [election] because it has been contested on the issue of good governance and development," he said.
"I thank all the voters. In this election, people of Gujarat will make a hat-trick by giving a third term to us. People of the state will once again vote BJP to power... the sentiments of people here is giving you a clear indication of that," Mr Modi said.
His Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has governed the state for 15 years, is facing a Congress party challenge in the election.
Mr Modi is also seen as India's most divisive politician.
He was chief minister of the state during the 2002 religious riots when more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.
He was accused of doing little to stop the riots and in subsequent years the US denied him visas.
In October the UK's high commissioner in India, James Bevan, met Mr Modi, ending a 10-year boycott of the controversial leader. | Government Job change - Election | December 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, catches fire, five months after it was bombed. | Emergency services tackle a fire at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad
A fire has hit the Marriott hotel in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, months after the building was devastated by a bomb attack.
Fire fighters reached the scene but flames were reported to have spread to three floors of the hotel.
Several people are said to have suffered minor injuries.
September's attack, which virtually destroyed the Marriott, killed more than 50 people and highlighted the militant threat facing Pakistan.
Rebuilding work at the Marriott - one of the most prestigious venues in Islamabad - was started quickly. The hotel had been re-opened to guests, although some refurbishment was still going on.
Early reports suggested the cause of the fire might be linked to this construction work; other reports said the fire might have started in a kitchen.
A BBC reporter in Islamabad said later that the blaze appeared to be under control although smoke was still coming out of the structure. | Armed Conflict | February 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Specialist prison guards and firefighters are sent into Ford Open Prison in West Sussex, United Kingdom, after 40 inmates started a riot. Part of the prison has been destroyed by fire. | Specialist prison guards in body armour have quelled a riot by around 40 inmates at an open jail in West Sussex.
A number of buildings were burned to the ground at Ford Prison, near Arundel, during the violence which broke out early on New Year's Day.
Michael Spurr, chief executive officer of the National Offender Management Service, said the disturbance was "successfully resolved" by 2200 GMT.
The Prison Service said 100 prisoners were being moved to other jails.
A spokesman said: "Those identified as being involved in the disturbance will be relocated back into closed conditions."
Mr Spurr said the disturbance had started at midnight on 1 January and it had been brought to an end by "specially trained prison staff".
"Although damage has been sustained to the prison, there has only been a minimal loss of accommodation," he said.
"These types of incidents in open prisons are rare and it is to the credit of all the staff involved that no staff or prisoners sustained significant injuries during the incident."
He said staffing levels at the time were "appropriate and usual" and a "high-level investigation" had been launched.
The Prison Officers' Association said the incident started after staff tried to breathalyse some prisoners.
Mark Freeman from POA said there had only been two prison officers and four support staff on duty when the riot began.
He said those responsible for the trouble had worn balaclavas to conceal their identities. Throughout the day, authorities struggled to regain control, and two fire engines and scores of prison officers in riot gear were sent to the site.
The situation worsened at lunchtime when three further accommodation blocks were burned to the ground.
The arson attacks claimed a total of six accommodation blocks, a gymnasium, a mail room, a snooker room and a pool room including 10 newly-installed pool tables.
Prisons Minister Crispin Blunt said the prisoners being transferred were being moved to other, closed prisons, either because they were involved in the disturbances or because of damage to their accommodation.
He confirmed there would be a formal inquiry, to be led by the regional custody manager for Wales, and said the issue of prisoners having access to alcohol would be looked at.
"This disturbance appeared to have started when the staff were doing absolutely what they should have done, which was, after seeing people drink alcohol, wishing to breathalyse them and that would have then had consequences for the prisoners concerned, such as taking them away from an open prison and it seems that that is what then set off this extremely unfortunate chain of events."
Mr Blunt warned those who were not directly involved but witnessed the events that they would be required to provide "full and frank" accounts of what they saw if they wanted to remain in an open prison.
"This is an extremely unusual event in an open prison because prisoners have a great deal to lose and they are, certainly as far as any influence I can bring to bear, going to lose it," the minister told BBC Radio 4's PM programme.
Mr Freeman told the BBC: "We believe alcohol has played a large part in this. "Over the past few nights prisoners have been reluctant to be breathalysed by staff. The staff have been chasing them round the blocks trying to breathalyse them, which is sort of reminiscent of the end scene from Benny Hill to me. "And the fact is that this is what kicked it off last night was breathalysing the inmates. They didn't want to be breathalysed and the riot kicked off in the early hours of this morning.
"It has been a concern for a long, long time - the amount of alcohol that prisoners are able to get here at Ford. I understand that over 40 bottles of alcohol have been found empty - a great problem."
He added that staff shortages and prisoners who had been wrongly categorised added to local difficulties. "It's very difficult when you have a very small staff, which they did last night.
"In our view they do not have enough staff. The general policy is that prisons in an open state have less staff but we feel they should have more because they have more access to illegal activities."
HMP Ford accepts category D offenders who have under two years left to serve on their sentences.
The Prison Service website says the institution - which can hold up to 557 inmates - does not house criminals who have been convicted of arson, some sexual offences, or "restraining" offences.
The facility is split into two sites divided by a main road. One of the sides is mainly residential, while the other generally consists of work spaces.
Concerns had been raised in the past about the way the prison was operated. Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "No-one wins from a prison disturbance.
"It endangers prisoners and staff, worries families and ends in a high cost the Prison Service can ill afford.
"Once control is fully re-established, a review is called for to determine how and why this happened. Events of this kind are very rare in open prisons, which serve an important purpose to rehabilitate people who have served ever lengthening sentences."
In 2009, the prison's own Independent Monitoring Board said people had been able to smuggle in drugs, alcohol and mobile phones. It called for upgraded CCTV for the site to be installed as a priority.
| Riot | January 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Flash floods in Nangarhar, Afghanistan, kill 16 people, injure four others and damage several houses. | Flash floods in Kooz Kunar district in the eastern province of Nangarhar on Friday night killed 16 people, according to local officials, who said 15 of the victims were children.
The flash floods happened in the Qalatak area following heavy rains last night, said Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for Nangarhar's governor, adding that four others were wounded in the incident.
One of the victims was a woman, Khogyani said, adding that a team has been sent to the area to help those affected.
The flash floods have damaged dozens of houses, he said.
More information will be reported as it becomes available.
At least four others were wounded in flash floods in Qalatak village in Kooz Kunar district.
Flash floods in Kooz Kunar district in the eastern province of Nangarhar on Friday night killed 16 people, according to local officials, who said 15 of the victims were children.
The flash floods happened in the Qalatak area following heavy rains last night, said Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for Nangarhar's governor, adding that four others were wounded in the incident.
One of the victims was a woman, Khogyani said, adding that a team has been sent to the area to help those affected.
The flash floods have damaged dozens of houses, he said.
More information will be reported as it becomes available.
| Floods | August 2020 | ['(TOLONews)'] |
A second suspect is arrested in connection with the murder of rapper XXXTentacion. | Follow NBC News A second suspect in the murder of rapper XXXTentacion was arrested, Florida authorities said Wednesday.
Michael Boatwright, 22, was the one of the two suspects who approached the rapper, whose real name was Jahseh Onfroy, and shot him when he was leaving the Riva Motorsports shop in Deerfield Beach, north of Miami on June 18, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said.
The suspect was first arrested on drug-related charges on July 5 and served with an arrest warrant on Tuesday for first-degree murder while being held at Broward Sheriff’s Office Main Jail, the sheriff's office said.
The first arrest in this investigation was made on June 21 when Florida police pulled over Dedrick Williams, 22, and charged him with first-degree murder without premeditation, a probation violation and with failing to have a valid driver's license.
Onfroy, 20, gained fame after his single, “Look at Me” — climbed to No. 34 on the Billboard Hot 100. A few months later, he reportedly secured a $6 million record deal with a Capitol Music Group subsidiary.
But the rapper’s brief rise was also checkered with controversy. In 2016, Onfroy was arrested numerous times including domestic abuse against his pregnant girlfriend. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | July 2018 | ['(NBC News)'] |
Two bomb attacks on the central Nigerian city of Jos have left at least 44 people dead. | Two bomb attacks on the central Nigerian city of Jos have left at least 44 people dead, the authorities say.
A restaurant and a mosque were targeted on Sunday night.
No group has said it carried out the attack, but militant group Boko Haram has attacked Jos before, even though it is not in north-east Nigeria where the Islamists normally operate.
The blasts are the latest in a series of deadly attacks in recent days which have seen more than 200 people killed.
The attacks came shortly after the Ramadan fast was broken, with both sites full of people.
Of the 44 dead, 23 were killed at the restaurant and 21 at the mosque, Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) says.
There are also 47 people being treated for injuries, but emergency officials are still gathering information, so the figures may rise.
The blast at the restaurant was caused by a bomb that had been planted, whereas the mosque was attacked by a suicide bomber and that explosion was preceded by gunfire, the BBC's Ishaq Khalid reports.
Eyewitness Akaria Ahammed said: "When they started shooting people, people started running helter-skelter for their lives. "Unfortunately those that stood up were shot."
Our correspondent says that many believe that the mosque's imam, who was preaching at the time, may have been the target.
Sheikh Muhammad Sani Yahya Jingir, who survived the attack, is known for preaching against Boko Haram and has written a book which criticises the group called Boko Halal (Western education is permitted - Boko Haram means Western education is forbidden). He has survived a previous assassination attempt at his home and is seen as one of the most influential clerics in Nigeria.
Speaking on Monday, Sheikh Jingir said the bombing was "not an attack on an individual, it is an attack on all of us".
Meanwhile the Nigerian military told the BBC it had freed more than 180 people who had been detained on suspicion of being Boko Haram members. The former suspects had been freed after being screened by the military to ensure their innocence, officials said.
Correspondents say Nigeria's treatment of Boko Haram suspects has been an extremely contentious issue. Amnesty International says that thousands have died in detention in the past four years - something the military denies.
However, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to investigate the rights group's claims.
It is not unusual for there to be a heightened risk of jihadist attacks during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. Boko Haram may be trying to deepen its ties with the jihadists fighting in Iraq and Syria who had called for "a month of disasters for the infidels". Many of the recent attacks have been by suicide bombers - often young women. Where the bombs are being made and where the bombers are being brainwashed is unclear but the Nigerian intelligence and security services need to do far more to stop the bloodshed. Once again the range of targets is alarming and on this latest bloody Sunday a church and a mosque were bombed within hours of each other. Will moving military HQ make a difference?
Why Boko Haram remains a threat
Who are Boko Haram?
Jos has seen several attacks blamed on Boko Haram, including an incident in February when at least 15 died and in December last year when more than 30 people died.
The city has in the past seen clashes between Muslim and Christian communities and some have suggested that Boko Haram is looking to exploit these fault-lines.
In another development on Monday a girl aged about 13 was reported to have been killed when explosives strapped to her body went off near a major mosque in the northern city of Kano.
Police told the AFP news agency that no-one else was killed in the blast apart from the teenager..
A week of attacks in Nigeria:
On Friday, Mr Buhari described the recent attacks as "inhuman and barbaric".
In power now for just over a month, the president was elected on the pledge to defeat Boko Haram.
He said they were "the last desperate acts of fleeing agents of terrorism".
Boko Haram took control of a large area of north-eastern Nigeria last year and declared a caliphate - a state governed in accordance with Islamic law. | Armed Conflict | July 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
The German Social Democrat Martin Schulz is reelected President of the European Parliament for another two and a half years. | German center-left politician Martin Schulz has been elected to head the European Parliament. The parliament is holding its first meeting since EU elections in May.
Social Democrat Martin Schulz, who also served as European Parliament president from 2012 until earlier this year, won the ballot with an absolute majority of 409 votes.
Shortly after the result was announced at the session in Strasbourg on Tuesday, the 58-year-old told the EU Parliament that a "long list of tasks" lay ahead.
"We stand, as ever, before huge challenges," he said, pointing to ongoing high employment in some EU nations, free trade talks with the United States and the fate of migrants trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean, along with crisis in Ukraine and Iraq.
"If we are serious about the European Union as a force for peace, then our economic power must be used politically so that those who want to trade with us accept the rule of law, and do not practice the might of the stronger," he said.
Schulz's election to the European Parliament presidential post was widely expected after he supported rival Jean-Claude Juncker for the post of European Commission president.
First meeting
The European Parliament opened its five-year term with almost one in three of its members, chosen in May elections, belonging to euroskeptic parties. During the ceremonial opening lawmakers from Britain's UK Independence Party, UKIP, turned their backs on the assembly while an orchestra performed the European anthem, the AP news agency reported. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | July 2014 | ['(Deutsche Welle)'] |
In a third trial, former Blackwater private military contractor Nicholas Slatten is convicted on one count of first-degree murder over the 2007 mass shooting. | Follow NBC News WASHINGTON — A former Blackwater Worldwide contractor accused of firing the first rounds in a mass shooting that killed more than a dozen unarmed civilians in a Baghdad traffic circle in 2007 was found guilty of one count of murder Wednesday.
Nicholas Slatten was found guilty of first-degree murder by a unanimous federal jury in the death of Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubia’y.
Slatten, 35, wearing a blue suit and blue tie, was smiling on and off throughout the short hearing, and shrugged to his attorneys when he heard the verdict. No sentencing date has been set.
Slatten was first charged in 2008 along with three other contractors for Blackwater, a private military company, but that case was thrown out.
When the case was brought back in late 2013, Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. The other three guards were convicted of charges including manslaughter and attempted manslaughter.
The four men were part of a Blackwater security team code-named Raven 23, who shot 31 innocent Iraqis in the traffic circle of Nisur Square in September 2007. The shooting happened after a car bomb exploded in downtown Baghdad.
Fourteen of the Iraqis, including women and children, died.
Prosecutors in the 2013 trial said Slatten was the person who “initiated the entire incident” when he fired the first shots “without justifications.”
But in 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals threw out Slatten’s murder conviction and said he deserved a new trial.
That second trial ended in September 2018 when a mistrial was declared after weeks of the jury being unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
Blackwater was founded by Erik Prince, who is the brother of Education Secretary Betsy Devos. Since the 2007 shooting, Prince sold the company, which reorganized and now exists as Academi.
. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2018 | ['(NBC News)'] |
An arrest warrant is issued in Texas for 3D–printed gun rights activist and Defense Distributed owner Cody Wilson in connection with the sexual assault of a child. Wilson was last known to be in Taiwan. | Cody Rutledge Wilson, the 30-year-old Texas man who’s been fighting with the U.S. government to publish instructions for 3D-printed guns on the internet, was charged today with the sexual assault of a child. Wilson allegedly met the girl on a website called SugarDaddyMeet.com.
Wilson allegedly paid the girl, whose name has been withheld in court documents, $500 for sex at a hotel in Austin, Texas. The exact age of the victim is not immediately clear, though the affidavit for the arrest warrant explains that she’s under the age of 17.
As local news station KVUE notes, Wilson allegedly used the name “Sanjuro” on SugarDaddyMeet.com and told the child victim that he was a “big deal,” according to court documents. The girl allegedly met Wilson at Bennu Coffee on 515 South Congress Ave. in Austin where he arrived in a black Ford SUV that matched a license plate registered under his firearms business, Defense Distributed. The police apparently have video of the meeting.
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Wilson allegedly took the girl to Archer Hotel in Austin where surveillance video reportedly also captured images of the two together. Wilson has not yet been booked into jail, according to the Austin Statesman, and it’s not even clear if he’s been arrested yet.
Cody Wilson made national headlines recently when he became the loudest voice defending 3D-printed guns. Defense Distributed sells 3D printers that can manufacture guns for $2,000. Federal courts have blocked Wilson from publishing the plans for guns, but he began emailing the plans to people who ordered them in August. Wilson just seemed happy to define how the issue was being talked about.
“It seems like I’ve crystallized the terms of the debate according to how I wanted it,” Wilson told the New York Times over the summer. “The argument that I’m making, although not always very well, is that what I’m doing is actually a pretty mainline American idea.”
Wilson was named one of “The 15 Most Dangerous People in the World” in 2012 by Wired, though at the time the publication was only referring to his association with guns.
[KVUE and Austin Statesman]
Update, 5:50pm: According to Ars Technica, Wilson is in Taipei, Taiwan and didn’t get on a return flight to the United States after getting a tip off that he’s wanted for these charges.
At the press conference, [the Austin Police Department] shared a few more details on the situation not previously included in the court documents. The alleged victim is 16 years old and lives in Central Texas. Regarding her entry on SugarDaddyMeet, Cmdr. Officer said authorities have no reason to believe that “anyone other than the victim” signed up for the site.
“The charge is sexual assault, and the statute says a victim under 17 is considered a child,” Cmdr. Officer said. “My detectives have interviewed and spoken with this victim, and in their opinion if someone mistakes their age, it’d be because she’s younger not older.”
Cmdr. Officer added that the allegations against Wilson would constitute a second degree felony, which is punishable by up to 20 years and a $10,000 fine.
The judge in the case set a bond at $150,000 despite the fact that Wilson still hasn’t been arrested. If he returns to the United States he’ll have to surrender his passport.
Update, September 20, 2018: U.S. Marshals have released a wanted poster for Wilson, who’s believed to still be on the run in Taiwan.
Wilson was staying at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Taipei on September 6th and checked out on the 7th, according to the UDN news site. Taiwanese authorities are now in contact with their U.S. counterparts but Wilson’s exact whereabouts are unknown.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | September 2018 | ['(ABC News)', '(Gizmodo)'] |
Police in Stuttgart, Germany, arrest at least 400 left–wing demonstrators after they attempted to stop a conference by the Alternative for Germany from being held. The protest grew violent when they began to throw stones and use fireworks against the police. | Riot police use pepper spray to disperse activists blocking entrance to Alternative für Deutschland conference in Stuttgart
Last modified on Wed 29 May 2019 16.01 BST
Hundreds of protesters have been arrested outside a conference of the far-right German political party Alternative für Deutschland in Stuttgart after attempting to block the entrance to the event.
Around 400 people were detained outside the venue where up to 2,000 AfD members are expected to pass an explicitly anti-Islam manifesto, according to Agence France-Presse. The party wants to ban the burqa and minarets in Germany.
Riot police reportedly fired pepper spray at several hundred leftwing protesters who had temporarily blocked a nearby highway and burned tyres on the road leading to the venue. Around 1,000 officers are said to have been deployed. Protesters chanted “refugees can stay, Nazis must go”, according to local media. Placards at the demonstration reportedly included one that read: “Your hate campaign pisses us off.” The protests delayed the start of the conference on Saturday.
“Police detained around 400 violent protesters who threw stones at officers and attacked them with fireworks,” said a police spokesman, Lambert Maute. “There were no injuries reported, only some minor incidents of eye irritation due to the pepper spray.” Police said most of the demonstrators wore black clothes and some had masks.
AfD made substantial gains in German regional elections last month, entering state parliaments for the first time in three regions. It won 24.4% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, in former east Germany. Following the results, the party’s deputy leader, Alexander Gauland, told supporters at a rally that his party would “chase the old parties to hell”.
AfD’s gains came on the back of its opposition to the German government’s refugee policy, The party advocates the reinstatement of border checks and has said Angela Merkel’s decision to accept more than 1 million refugees over the last year was “catastrophic”. Other party policies include a referendum on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the immediate suspension of sanctions on Russia.
In Austria this week the far-right Freedom party’s candidate won the first round of a presidential election, with 36% of the vote. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | April 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Two prominent Chinese human rights lawyers Jiang Tianyong and Liu Xiaoyuan are released. | A leading Chinese human rights lawyer seized by police as part of a crackdown on dissent has been released and allowed to return home.
Jiang Tianyong, a critic of the Chinese government, returned to his Beijing home on Tuesday after two months in custody, his wife told the BBC.
It is not clear if Mr Jiang will face charges or is under house arrest.
The US has raised his case, and urged China to end the "extralegal" abduction and detention of lawyers and activists.
Mr Jiang disappeared on 19 February as he was visiting his brother in a Beijing suburb.
"My husband is back - I'm very glad. But it's not convenient to talk," Mr Jiang's wife, Jin Bianling, told the BBC by telephone.
Since the middle of February human rights groups say several high-profile lawyers have disappeared. Some of those, including Teng Biao, Li Tiantian and Liu Shihui, are still unaccounted for - others have had their movements restricted.
The organisation Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) says dozens of activists have been taken into police custody or placed under house arrest.
They include Ai Weiwei, a prominent artist and vocal critic of China's governing Communist Party, who is being investigated for "economic crimes". His detention has drawn international condemnation.
China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei confirmed Mr Ai's detention earlier this month, saying: "China is a country ruled by law and will act according to law. We hope that the countries concerned will respect China's decision. "This has nothing to do with human rights or freedom of expression." CHRD says China's authorities may be using the pretext of clamping down on any possible contagion from the revolutions in the Arab world to round-up many activists. The group says police have cast a wide net taking in internet bloggers who have posted or relayed messages about the calls for a Middle East-style popular revolution in China. US urges end to China abductions
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | April 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(Angola Press)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Brazilian prosecutors file corruption charges against former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his wife, Marisa Letícia Lula da Silva. Federal judge Sérgio Moro will preside over his case. | CURITIBA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazilian prosecutors charged ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday with being the “boss” of a vast corruption scheme at state oil company Petrobras, in a major blow to the leftist hero’s hopes of a political comeback.
It was the first time that Lula, still Brazil's most popular politician despite corruption accusations against him and his Workers Party, was charged by federal prosecutors for involvement in the political kickbacks scheme at Petroleo Brasileiro PETR4.SA, as the company is officially known.
Public Prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol told a news conference that Lula will be charged with corruption and money laundering for leading a kickback scheme that caused an estimated 42 billion reais ($12.6 billion) in losses to Petrobras shareholders and tax payers.
“He was the conductor of this criminal orchestra,” Dallagnol said during a detailed presentation of the investigation. “The Petrobras graft scheme aimed at keeping the Workers Party in power by criminal means.”
Lula’s lawyers said prosecutors lacked evidence to back up their accusations which were part of political persecution to stop him running in the 2018 election.
“This Lula-centered farce was trumped up as an affront to the democratic state and intelligence of Brazilian citizens,” one of Lula’s lawyers, Cristiano Zanin, told reporters in Sao Paulo.
Dallagnol stopped short of saying investigators would seek an arrest order for Lula, who became a hero to many poor Brazilians during his 2003-2010 government.
The two-year-old Operation Carwash anti-corruption investigation, based in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba, has uncovered how political appointees named by Lula’s Workers Party and its allies handed overpriced contracts to engineering firms in return for illicit party funding and bribes.
The scandal helped topple the Workers Party from power last month by crushing the popularity of Lula’s chosen successor, Dilma Rousseff. She was impeached by Congress on unrelated charges of breaking budget rules, amid rising anger over her handling of Brazil’s worst recession since the 1930s.
Dallagnol said that Lula, because of his control of the machinery of the Workers Party and the Brazilian government, was the central figure in the scheme.
Prosecutors allege that the charismatic former union leader had personally received some 3.7 million reais ($1.11 million) in bribes, including a luxury apartment on the coast of Sao Paulo from one of the engineering and construction firms at the center of the bribery scandal, OAS.
Lula has denied ownership of the three-floor condo in Guarujá.
Lula’s case will go before crusading anti-corruption Judge Sergio Moro, who has jailed dozens of executives and others involved in the scheme.
Former first lady, Marisa Leticia Lula da Silva, has also been charged.
Lula has separately been indicted by a court in Brasilia for obstruction of justice in a case related to an attempt to persuade a defendant in the Petrobras scandal not to turn state’s witness.
Lula, 70, has not ruled out running again for president in 2018, but a criminal conviction would bar him from being a candidate for the next eight years.
His fall, as well as that of the leftist party he founded in 1980, has been dramatic.
A one-time shoeshine boy and union leader who led massive strikes against Brazil’s military dictatorship, contributing to its downfall, he was elected the nation’s first working class president in 2002 after three failed campaigns.
Wildly popular with Brazil’s poor, Lula’s social policies helped yank millions out of poverty and into the middle class, and he left office in 2010 with an 83-percent approval rating and an economy that grew at a blistering 7.5 percent.
But two years ago, as the Petrobras probe became public, prosecutors began to slowly put Lula in their crosshairs.
Many prosecutors and investigators say they cannot imagine such a powerful figure was unaware of the institutionalized corruption and political kickbacks taking place at Petrobras and other state-run companies.
Marcos Troyjo, a former Brazilian diplomat and co-director of Columbia University’s BRICLab in Rio de Janeiro, said he thinks Wednesday’s charges are the first of many Lula will be facing in the coming months.
“That means the Workers Party, which may have thought it would move comfortably into the opposition after Dilma’s impeachment, will confront extreme challenges,” said Troyjo. “It’s certainly the beginning of the end to Lula’s presidential aspirations for 2018.”
Recent polls have shown that despite the investigations targeting Lula and the Workers Party, he would be a favorite to win the next presidential election.
“But these charges are likely too big a blow to the political myth of Lula, to the candidate Lula and to the Workers Party as a whole for that to happen,” Troyjo said.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A severe 7.0 magnitude earthquake strikes Haiti. Tsunami watches issued across the Caribbean. | "All of a sudden everything was just falling apart ... there was no place to hide"
A massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake has struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti.
The extent of the devastation is still unclear but there are fears thousands of people may have died. Haiti's worst quake in two centuries hit south of the capital Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, wrecking the presidential palace, UN HQ and other buildings. A "large number" of UN personnel were reported missing by the organisation. Many people have spent the night outside amid fears of more aftershocks. The Red Cross says up to three million people have been affected. Describing the earthquake as a "catastrophe", Haiti's envoy to the US said the cost of the damage could run into billions. A number of nations, including the US, UK and Venezuela, are gearing up to send aid. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. The quake, which struck about 15km (10 miles) south-west of Port-au-Prince, was quickly followed by two strong aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 magnitude. The tremor hit at 1653 (2153 GMT) on Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said. Phone lines to the country failed shortly afterwards. There is still no official word on casualties and the extent of the devastation is only now becoming clearer with dawn breaking. China has already indicated in reports in state media that eight of its peacekeepers are buried and feared dead, with another 10 unaccounted for. The AFP news agency quoted the Jordanian army as saying three of its peacekeepers had been killed and 21 wounded. The Brazilian army said four of its peacekeepers were killed and a large number were missing. A French official told AFP about 200 people were missing in the collapsed Hotel Montana, which is popular with tourists. There have also been some reports of looting overnight. Rachmani Domersant, an operations manager with the Food for the Poor charity, told Reuters that overnight the capital was in total darkness. "You have thousands of people sitting in the streets with nowhere to go. There are people running, crying, screaming. "People are trying to dig victims out with flashlights. I think hundreds of casualties would be a serious understatement." Earlier, bodies white with dust could be seen piled on the back of a pick-up truck as vehicles tried to ferry the injured to hospital. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and has suffered a number of recent disasters, including four hurricanes and storms in 2008 that killed hundreds. 'Thoughts and prayers'
In a statement issued in New York, the UN said that its local HQ in Haiti had "sustained serious damage along with other UN installations" and "a large number" of personnel were missing. I saw a movie theatre, a supermarket, a cybercafe, an apartment building which collapsed. Now it's dark outside, there is no electricity, all the phone networks are down, so there's no way that people can get in touch with their family and friends.
There are aftershocks every 15 to 20 minutes. They last from three to five seconds. The first shock was really strong, people were falling in the streets and buildings collapsed.
I didn't see any emergency services, the people at the neighbourhood were trying to help each other.
The streets are narrow and there is lot of traffic and everyone is trying to reach family and friends. Traffic now is really difficult. People don't know where to go or where to start.
UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said it was unclear how many people were in the building. The head of the UN mission in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, was reported to have been inside and is unaccounted for. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he was believed to be dead. The UN's stabilisation mission plays a vital role in ensuring security in Haiti. Raymond Joseph, Haiti's ambassador to the US, said the presidential palace, the tax office, the ministry of commerce and the foreign ministry had all been damaged, but the airport was intact. He and Haiti's ambassador to Mexico, Robert Manuel, both said that President Rene Preval and his wife had survived the quake. The World Bank said its local offices were destroyed but most of the staff were accounted for, Reuters reported. US President Barack Obama said his "thoughts and prayers" were with the people of Haiti and that he expected "an aggressive, coordinated [aid] effort by the US government". Venezuela says it will send a 50-strong "humanitarian assistance team". The Red Cross is dispatching a relief team from Geneva and the UN's World Food Programme is flying in two planes with emergency food aid. The Inter-American Development Bank said it was immediately approving a $200,000 grant for emergency aid. The UK said it was mobilising help and was "ready to provide whatever humanitarian assistance may be required". Canada, Australia, France and a number of Latin American nations have also said they are mobilising their aid response. Pope Benedict XVI has called for a generous response to the "tragic situation" in Haiti. 'Shouting and screaming'
In the minutes after the quake, Henry Bahn, a visiting official from the US Department of Agriculture, said he had seen houses which had tumbled into a ravine. "Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken," said Mr Bahn, who described the sky as "just grey with dust". He said he had been walking to his hotel room when the ground began to shake. "I just held on and bounced across the wall," he said. "I just heard a tremendous amount of noise and shouting and screaming in the distance." Reports on the Twitter message site, which cannot yet be verified by the BBC, expressed the chaos in the wake of the quake. Tweets from troylivesay spoke of the worst damage being in the Carrefour district, where "many two and three storey buildings did not make it". In the immediate aftermath of the quake, a tsunami watch was put out for Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas, but this was later lifted. Have you been affected by the earthquake? | Earthquakes | January 2010 | ['(CTV)', '(USGS)', '(BBC)'] |
A vehicle collision in Iran's southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan Province kills at least 28 people, all Afghan nationals. | At least 28 Afghan nationals have been killed in a crash in Iran, according to the country's Ilna news agency.
Another 21 people were said to have been injured in the collision.
Two vans crashed into each other near the town of Khash, in the south-eastern Sistan and Baluchistan province, the Associated Press reported.
The area is commonly used by traffickers transporting migrants across the Afghan border - often in desperate, cramped conditions.
Iran is one of the deadliest countries in the world for road traffic accidents, according to the World Health Organization.
In May this year, eight people were killed when a bus carrying 44 people overturned on the Qom-Tehran highway - reportedly because the driver fell asleep at the wheel.
| Road Crash | November 2019 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, a prosecutor with Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency leading the prosecution of former President Pervez Musharraf over alleged involvement in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, is shot dead on the way to court in Islamabad. | A lawyer leading the effort to prosecute Pakistan's former military dictator, Pervez Musharraf, over the murder of Benazir Bhutto has been shot dead in Islamabad as he was driving to court.
Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, a state prosecutor for the Federal Investigation Agency, died in a hail of bullets on Friday when his car was attacked by unidentified gunmen riding on motorbikes as he was travelling through a busy street in the Pakistani capital, police said.
He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he died of his injuries.
Ali had been acting as a state prosecutor in one of the cases against Musharraf, the former coup leader who returned to Pakistan in March for what has been a disastrous bid to contest seats in the country's general elections.
Ali argued in court that Musharraf, who is under house arrest, should not be allowed bail in a case where he is accused of conspiring to murder Bhutto, the former two-time prime minister of Pakistan who was killed in a gun and suicide attack at an election rally in 2007.
Musharraf, it is claimed, failed to use his powers as president at the time to provide sufficient security for Bhutto.
Ali was due to appear at the anti-terrorism court in the nearby city of Rawalpindi on Friday in connection with the case.
The so-far-unexplained killing of a prosecutor involved in such a high profile case is likely to excite Pakistan's national penchant for conspiracy theories.
Although Musharraf appears to have little support from the public or the political establishment, some commentators believe the military has been alarmed by his arrest and imprisonment since returning to Pakistan after four years living abroad.
In addition to the cases against him, which included another charge of killing a separatist tribal leader whilst he was president, he has also been banned from running in any of the four constituencies he hoped to contest.
This week, a court in Peshawar gave him a lifelong ban on running for public office. | Famous Person - Death | May 2013 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Thousands of protesters march in front of the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, demanding the release of the activist. . | WARSAW (Reuters) - Several thousand people waving rainbow flags protested on Saturday in the centre of Warsaw to demand the release of an LGBT activist accused of hanging rainbow banners over statues and damaging an anti-abortion campaigner’s van.
Crowds chanted “Give us Margot back!” and “Rainbow does not insult you!” outside Warsaw’s Palace of Culture.
The peaceful gathering applauded activists hanging another rainbow flag on a statue in front of the Palace, while police officers filmed the performance and the protest leaders.
On Friday the police detained 48 people, who were trying to stop the authorities from jailing Margot, the activist accused of hanging flags on statues of Jesus and others and destroying a the van of an anti-abortionist.
“We are here to protest against the fact that these people were detained by the police,” Mateusz Wojtowicz, 24, a payroll specialist, told Reuters.
The police started releasing detained protesters on Saturday, but not Margot.
She is a member of the activist group “Stop Bzdurom”. The group have said they hung flags on statues last week as part of a fight for LGBT rights, an issue thrust into the heart of public debate in Poland during last month’s presidential election.
The commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe, a rights watchdog, called for the immediate release of the activist.
“Order to detain her for 2 months sends very chilling signal for freedom of speech and LGBT rights in Poland,” Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic tweeted.
The ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party says LGBT rights are part of what it calls an invasive foreign ideology that undermines Polish values and the traditional family.
Condemning Friday’s protest, Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said authorities had to act or face “even more violent” attacks by activists.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | August 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A car bomb explodes at Sassine Square in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, killing at least eight people and wounding up to 78 others. | A huge car bomb has killed at least eight people and injured 78 in central Beirut, Lebanese officials say.
The explosion occurred in a busy street in the predominantly Christian district of Ashrafiya.
The intended target may have been top intelligence official Wissam al-Hassan, officials say. Some reports say he was killed.
No group has said it carried out the bombing. Tensions in Lebanon have been rising over the conflict in Syria.
Mr Hassan was involved in the uncovering of a recent bomb plot that led to the arrest of a pro-Syrian Lebanese politician.
'Cowardly act'
Friday's attack was the deadliest in Beirut since 2008. It took place near Sassine Square, at a time when many parents were picking up children from school.
Hospitals across the city have reported large numbers of wounded, and called for people to donate blood.
The blast caused considerable damage, setting cars ablaze and destroying the facades of nearby buildings.
Ronnie Chatah, who lives 500m from the site of the blast, told the BBC: "The building shook and it echoed throughout the neighbourhood."
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the government was trying to identify the perpetrators and said they would be punished.
The attack occurred close to the headquarters of the Kataeb, better known as the Phalange, a Maronite Christian group.
The general secretariat of the Western-backed 14 March coalition of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri is also based in the area.
An MP from the alliance, Michel Pharaon, told al-Jazeera TV: "I think Ashrafiya is a target, and 14 March is a target. This region is symbolic because it is in the heart of the capital and it is a Christian neighbourhood."
Some 14 March politicians have specifically accused the Syrian government of being behind the bombing.
However Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi called it a "cowardly terrorist act".
| Armed Conflict | October 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
American entertainer Bill Cosby, in response to dozens of accusations of sexual assault and misconduct spanning decades, has filed in U.S. federal court in Massachusetts a defamation suit against seven accusers. | Demonstrating that he is still prepared to fight, Bill Cosby struck back on Monday against seven of the women who have accused him of sexual assault and defamation by, in turn, suing them for defamation and denying their allegations.
The filing, in federal court in Massachusetts, seemed to signal a new aggressiveness on the part of Mr. Cosby, who had kept a low profile for months as dozens of women came forward, accusing him of sexual misconduct and assault.
The papers, submitted in response to the defamation suit the seven women filed, accuse them of “malicious, opportunistic and false and defamatory accusations of sexual misconduct.”
Calling their behavior “outrageous and morally repugnant,” a lawyer for Mr. Cosby, Monique Pressley, said in a statement, “Mr. Cosby states plainly that he neither drugged nor sexually assaulted the defendants and that each defendant has maliciously and knowingly published multiple false statements and accusations from fall 2014 through the current day.”
Ten women have sued Mr. Cosby for defamation in four separate cases, asserting that they were branded liars when his representatives forcefully dismissed their allegations. The women could not sue him on grounds directly related to their accusations of sexual assault because the statute of limitations for such cases had expired.
Ms. Pressley did not respond immediately to the question of whether Mr. Cosby plans countersuits in the three other cases.
Recently, Mr. Cosby has been complaining in court papers of the damage accusations by many women have done to his reputation and business contracts. On Monday Boston University became the latest institution to revoke an honorary degree it had awarded him.
In his suit in Massachusetts, he demanded maximum compensation and punitive damages for the “campaign to assassinate Mr. Cosby’s reputation and character.”
Mr. Cosby denied on Monday that his own statements had been defamatory and once again tried to undermine the women’s claims against him, calling them in the statement from his lawyer “multi-decade old, false, uncorroborated, opportunistic allegations.”
Joseph Cammarata, a lawyer for the seven women — Tamara Green, Therese Serignese, Linda Traitz, Louisa Moritz, Barbara Bowman, Joan Tarshis and Angela Leslie — said: “If anyone is surprised by Cosby’s actions today, they shouldn’t be. He’s taken a page out of the defense attorney’s playbook in an effort to shift the focus of this legitimate inquiry.”
Gloria Allred, a lawyer who represents other women who have made allegations against Mr. Cosby, said he “appears to be going to war against women who have sued him in Massachusetts.”
“Such a tactic will not deter courageous women from fighting the battle against him,” she said.
Sara Brady, a public relations specialist in crisis management who is not involved in the case, said the strength of the response is a further attempt by Mr. Cosby’s legal team to discredit the women.
Because the women have a strong narrative, she said, “What else is he going to do? He doesn’t have anything to lose at this point other than more money.” | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2015 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
A 6.3-magnitude earthquake strikes the Indonesian island of Lombok, killing 14. | A 6.3-magnitude earthquake rocked the Indonesian island of Lombok on Sunday, sending people fleeing into the streets just two weeks after a quake which killed more than 460 people.
The quake was centred west-southwest of Belanting town in East Lombok, the US Geological Survey said, at a relatively shallow depth of 7km.
Residents said the earthquake was felt strongly in east Lombok.
“I was driving to deliver aid to evacuees when suddenly the electricity pole was swaying. I realised it was an earthquake.
“People started to scream and cry. They all ran to the street,” East Lombok resident Agus Salim said.
Two series of quakes 5.2 and 6.4 m have just rocked #Lombok a few mins ago. The quakes have caused big landslides in Belanting village, East Lombok. @IFRCAsiaPacific pic.twitter.com/78UKwDbXEw
The tremor was also felt in the island’s capital Mataram and on the neighbouring resort island of Bali.
It comes two weeks after a shallow 6.9-magnitude quake on 5 August levelled tens of thousands of homes, mosques and businesses across Lombok.
Indonesia, an archipelago of thousands of islands, sits on the so-called Pacific “ring of fire”, where tectonic plates collide and many of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur
In 2004, a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, in western Indonesia, killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia. | Earthquakes | August 2018 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
African Union leaders agree to establish a hybrid court to end the Darfur conflict in western Sudan. | October 29, 2009 (WASHINGTON) – The Sudanese government today formally expressed reservations on the proposal for a hybrid court in Darfur made by the African Union (AU) high level earlier this month. The Sudanese delegation headed by 2nd Vice president Ali Osman Taha addressed the Peace and Security Council (PSC) session in Abuja, Nigeria that focused mainly on the Darfur report compiled by a commission headed by former South African president Thabo Mbeki. “What is mentioned in the report on a new justice mechanism in the form of hybrid courts requires satisfying and accurate definition on the extent of conformity of the principle of establishing it with the constitution and the principle of independent judiciary, jurisdiction and determining its workings and specifics. This requires close cooperation between us and the mechanism that we recommend the AU to establish,” Taha said. “On the other hand we must remember that establishing these courts is important to us as Africans because it establishes a precedence to be used in the future in other cases in Africa,” he added. Taha also stressed that Sudan has established special courts and appointed a special prosecutor saying that the Sudanese law and competence of judiciary "provides the necessary framework to achieve justice". Mbeki’s report has stated that “the criminal justice response to Darfur is ineffective and confusing and has also failed to obtain the confidence of the people of Darfur”. The panel also countered an argument frequently made by Khartoum on its laws not allowing participation of non-Sudanese in the judiciary saying that there is no explicit verbiage to that effect but acknowledged that changes will still need to be made. “In order to facilitate the establishment of a Hybrid Court, the Government of Sudan should take immediate steps to introduce legislation to allow legally qualified non?nationals to serve on the judiciary of Sudan (c.f. section 23, National Judiciary Act, 1986). In this connection, the Panel notes that the Constitution of Sudan does not expressly prohibit non- Sudanese nationals from being appointed to the judiciary of Sudan, and would not therefore need to be amended”. The AU PSC adopted the report as a roadmap for solution in Darfur but it is not clear if their statement incorporated specific mechanisms or benchmarks for implementation particularly in light of Sudan’s objections. The summit set up another team of experts — including Mbeki, former president of Burundi Pierre Nkuruziza and ex-leader of Nigeria Abdul salami Abu-Bakr — to help in the implementation of the recommendations. The team has a one year mandate. The details of the PSC declaration have not been made available but Nigerian media reported that it underlined that “the search for justice should be pursued in a way that does not impede or jeopardize the promotion of peace, the PSC reiterated its strong condemnation of the gross violations of human rights in Darfur and the AU’s unflinching commitment to combating impunity, in line with the relevant provisions of the Constitutive Act”. The Nigerian president Umar Musa Yar’Adua, noted that the recommendation for a Hybrid Court, “was not a vote of no confidence” in the Sudanese criminal justice system
It was reported that the PSC communiqué noted the position of the AU in condemning impunity and the fact that many members of the AU were not opposed to the work of the ICC. It also reiterated that AU had never requested for a cancelling the ICC warrant but only a deferral. Speaking to reporters today Mbeki said that Sudan “accepted” the hybrid court but would need further discussions with the AU especially where it concerned the hybrid court. “They will look at what the Sudanese constitution allows with regards to that because this will be a precedence that has not been tried on the African continent before,” he said. “It is necessary to act urgently. There is recognition of the need to act, bearing in mind that there are deadlines of that kind like 2010," the former South African leader stressed. In an address to the leaders Mbeki said, “We believe the time to act is now.”
“Exceptional measures must be put in place to assure the people of Darfur that justice will be done, taking into account the objective reality that a number of them have little confidence in the independence and impartiality of their national criminal justice system,” he added. Bloomberg reported that the AU reiterated its call for suspending the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir under Article 16 of the Rome Statute “in the interest of peace, justice and reconciliation,”. The formation of the high level panel last February was driven mainly by the imminent issuance of the warrant. The AU has criticized the indictment on the grounds that it jeopardizes peace prospects and later decided to halt cooperation with the ICC in arresting Bashir even for its members who are signatory to the Rome Statute. Mbeki’s report did not call for a deferral of Bashir’s warrant and even appeared to make an implicit endorsement of the ICC prosecutions but cautioned that the Hague based tribunal cannot try all cases before it. “This prosecutorial policy inevitably leaves the overwhelming majority of individuals outside of the ICC system and still needing to answer for crimes they might have committed…. justice from the ICC, exclusively, would therefore leave impunity for the vast majority of offenders in Darfur, including virtually all direct perpetrators of the offences”. Darfur rebel groups were quick to condemn what they described as complicity of the AU with regards to the crisis in Sudan’s western region. “The actions of the AU since the crisis erupted are a blatant violation of its 2004 constitutive act requiring it to intervene in cases of massive human rights violations” the spokesperson of Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Ahmed Hussein told Sudan Tribune. “We have not seen any firm stance from the AU to confront the [Sudanese] government. All we see is a club in which dictators and war crimes perpetrators are afforded impunity and diplomatic shield as we have seen in the case of Bashir,” he added. The JEM official questioned the “seriousness” of the AU in “doing what is right” in the situations before it. “So now this [Mbeki] panel concluded that there were no prosecutions to those who committed the atrocities in Darfur. Taha goes on to repeat statements on the ability and willingness of its judiciary to do the trials themselves brushing aside what Mbeki have concluded. This is a broken record. Does the AU have any courage to confront Khartoum and force it to accept the report fully? I don’t think so,” he said. Hussein lashed out at AU commissioner Jean Ping saying that the latter is a “clear example of the workings of the AU”. “He goes out of his way to consistently defend Bashir perhaps more so than Sudanese officials. Does he not realize his responsibility as a representative to the African people and not the government [of Sudan]? We want to see Ping have similar candidness in pressing Khartoum to implement the AU report” he added. Abdel-Wahid Mohamed Al-Nur leader of Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) urged African leaders to intervene “to stop the genocide in Darfur”. “Daily we have cases of new displacements in Darfur, in the hundreds. We have never seen the AU take good positions on this. This is unacceptable. When will this body ever act in the interests of innocent civilians instead of protecting corrupt and merciless leaders? If this is the way they [AU] want to run things so be it,” Al-Nur said. The SLM chief also dismissed talks of hybrid courts to carry out the Darfur prosecutions. “The ICC is the only way to achieve justice. The report was right; there is no will to bring justice to our people. They [Khartoum] deny the crimes by day and night and so how will you expect them to agree to setting up new courts? This is totally unrealistic” Al-Nur said. In a surprising development the junior partner in Sudan’s Government of National Unity (GoNU) dismissed the hybrid court proposal as unrealistic. “The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement the SPLM does not buy the so-called AU African leaders report. Justice cannot be compromised this is to our conviction as SPLM and SPLM had a clear and plain stance on Darfur,” Yien Matthew Chol, the SPLM’s spokesman told Voice of America. “The African wise leaders did not by all means address the reality of Darfuri problem… therefore we see their attempt as compromising the issue rather than addressing the root causes of the problem and war in Darfur. As such it will be very difficult for the SPLM to buy such a strange…idea,” Chol said. The SPLM official questioned the effectiveness of the hybrid court and its modalities. "What is it that they are trying to do? What is the hybrid tribunal court? Can they guarantee justice in Sudan?" he asked. “Who in Sudan or any of these African countries will catch President Al-Bashir and take him to the court whether it is a local court or an international court? This is the question to be answered,” he said. The remarks will likely anger the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) which has sought domestic support from local political powers against the ICC. In the past the ex-Southern rebel group warned of the impact of the Bashir arrest warrant on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed with the NCP in 2005. The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) while welcoming the hybrid court proposal cautioned that it should not be a replacement to the ICC. “Sudan has been obstructing justice for crimes committed in Darfur for years,” said Richard Dicker, International Justice Program director at Human Rights Watch. “The proposed hybrid court and national law reforms should not delay the ICC cases for one minute. If and when a hybrid court gets up and running, there will be plenty of additional cases to fill its docket.”
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir and former Sudanese state minister for humanitarian affairs and governor of South Kordofan Ahmed Haroun and militia leader Ali Kushayb. (ST)
There is only one court and one court alone. Europeans should never hold Africans to account, we are not their servants anymore. Only Southerners who see Americans and Europeans are their masters favor the ICC.
| Organization Established | October 2009 | ['(BBC)', '(Le Mali en ligne)', '(Sudan Tribune)'] |
The APEC summit draws to a close with most leaders preparing to leave and the President of the United States George W. Bush having left. | The APEC summit in Sydney is drawing to a conclusion, with leaders working on their final statement.
Prime Minister John Howard began this second leaders' retreat today on a warm note.
"I'd like on your behalf to wish many happy returns of the day to the President of Indonesia," he said.
"It's lovely that you've been able to spend your birthday in Sydney, Bambang."
The talks, being held without the US President who flew home last night, are concentrating on trade and the future of the Doha round of negotiations.
Earlier Mr Howard and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued joint statements on climate change and energy security.
Late yesterday the APEC leaders signed the so-called Sydney Declaration on climate change, including aspirational targets for improved energy efficiency and forest expansion.
Mr Howard has thanked Mr Abe for his support.
"It reflects the very close similarity of views between our two countries on these matters," he said.
"I record my appreciation for the strong support given by the Prime Minister in preparation of the Sydney Declaration."
Most APEC leaders will be flying out of Sydney this afternoon.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | September 2007 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
The Israeli cabinet approves a bill requiring all non–Jews taking Israeli citizenship to swear loyalty to Israel as a "Jewish and democratic state". | Twenty-two voted in favor of the bill and eight opposed it, including all Labor ministers. Likud ministers Benny Begin, Dan Meridor, and Michael Eitan also voted against the bill.
Right-wing parties expressed their satisfaction with the approval. "The government decision that people who become citizens must declare their loyalty to the State of Israel as Jewish and democratic is an important message," said a spokesman for Yisrael Beiteinu.
National Union Knesset Member Michael Ben-Ari said following the vote, "Twenty years have passed since the assassination of Rabbi Kahane, and today Likud admits he was right. It's a refreshing change to see the Likud government, which persecuted the rabbi over his call to have Arabs sign a loyalty oath, admit today that what Kahane said 20 years ago was correct."
Labor Chairman Ehud Barak withdrew his non-conditional support for the amendment just moments before the government meeting on the matter, saying that he would only back it if a slight adjustment was made.
The Labor chairman explained that the addition "reflects Israel's open and liberal spirit" and "coincides with the basic values adopted by other countries in the world".
"This is not a minor change, but rather an essential one," Barak said. "Critics of the bill fear it embodies ulterior motives destined to be aimed against new citizens who are not Jewish, like Arabs, and that it will be used as a tool for the promotion of racism."
It was agreed that Barak's alteration would be transferred to a ministerial committee for approval and brought back for a vote in 2-3 weeks. Barak said that those who do not accept the values of the declaration "do not deserve to sit at the government table".
Earlier Justice Minister Yaakov Ne'eman, one of the ministers behind the bill, suggested that in order to avoid charges of racism the new oath would be taken by Jews as well as non-Jews. This suggestion is also to be debated by the committee.
The man who proposed the amendment, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, opened the Cabinet meeting Sunday by saying that "clearly this will not be the final word on loyalty and citizenship, but it's an important step".
Hadash Chairman MK Mohammad Barakeh inveighed against the bill. "This is not Lieberman, but rather the true Netanyahu. He has fired the opening shot of a mega-racist legislation," he said.
Barakeh also criticized Barak. "He is fully responsible for Israel's placement at the top of the list of the most racist regimes in the modern world. Siamese twins Barak and Netanyahu have fired another missile today at the negotiations," he added.
MK Ahmad Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al) accused the government of becoming a "stooge of Yisrael Beiteinu and its fascist policies".
"There is no other country in the world that forces its citizens to swear an oath to a sectarian ideology. Israel has proven it is not egalitarian but is rather democratic only towards Jews – and Jewish towards Arabs," he said. | Government Policy Changes | October 2010 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(Ynet News)'] |
The death toll rises to at least 32, as flooding continues to inundate North Carolina. | As flooding continues to inundate North Carolina, the death toll from Florence has risen to at least 32, with 25 deaths confirmed in North Carolina.
The state's governor, Roy Cooper, said on Monday that the "epic storm" was still an immediate danger as rivers reach major flood levels.
The coastal city of Wilmington became an island amid heavy floods following the storm.
Officials have warned evacuated residents to stay away. At a news conference on Monday, Gov Cooper said "catastrophic flooding and tornados are still claiming lives and property" across the state.
"For many parts of North Carolina the danger is still immediate," he said. "Some areas have not seen the worst flooding yet. This is a monumental disaster for our state."
An initial estimate from Moody's Analytics puts the cost of Florence between $17bn (£13bn) and $22bn, making the storm one of the 10 costliest hurricanes in US history, according to NPR.
Most of the monetary damage is due to property loss, and the company said these figures could rise as inland flooding continues.
In Wilmington, with its population of about 120,000, some 400 people have had to be rescued from flood waters, and most of the city remains without power. The governor said that 23 truckloads of supplies were able to make it into Wilmington this morning, though officials are uncertain whether the single road into the city will remain functional as rivers continue to flood.
The National Weather Service has warned of at least two further days of possible flash flooding in the area before conditions are forecast to improve.
"Do not come here," New Hanover County Commission Chairman Woody White said. "We want you home, but you can't come yet."
A city-wide curfew has been extended after five people were arrested on suspicion of looting from a store on Saturday.
The area is usually best known as a filming location for US dramas One Tree Hill and Dawson's Creek, and as the childhood home of US basketball legend Michael Jordan.
Florence has now weakened to a tropical depression with winds of 30mph (45km/h), according to the National Hurricane Centre.
Some parts of the Carolinas have seen up to 40in (100cm) of rain since Thursday.
On Monday, the National Weather Service announced that the Cape Fear River near Fayetteville, North Carolina, is expected to reach the major flood stage - levels over 60ft (18m) - by this evening.
There were several tornado warnings across North Carolina on Monday morning.
One twister touched down in Elm City, causing some damage to buildings and power lines, according to local media reports.
In Richmond, Virginia, one person died in a tornado on Monday afternoon as Florence began making its way north.
Officials in North Carolina say some 900 people have been rescued from floodwaters by the US Coast Guard and volunteers, and about 14,000 people are still in emergency shelters. US President Donald Trump - who may visit North Carolina in the coming days - has declared a disaster in several North Carolina counties, freeing up federal funding for recovery efforts.
FEMA, First Responders and Law Enforcement are working really hard on hurricane Florence. As the storm begins to finally recede, they will kick into an even higher gear. Very Professional!
Gov Cooper said he has been in touch with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who visited North Carolina on Monday. "We know that we're going to need significant federal resources, and they have promised them across the board," Gov Cooper said on Monday of Fema and DHS. Power companies are working to restore power to the nearly half a million homes and businesses in both states that are still without electricity. The storm has begun to move into Virginia and West Virginia, and is expected to turn toward New England on Tuesday. On Monday, police in Union County, North Carolina, recovered the body of a one-year-old boy who had been swept away by floodwaters.
The boy's mother had driven around a barricade in the road and ended up stalled in rushing water. As she tried to leave the car, she lost grip of the boy and he was carried off in the floods, the News & Observer reported.
An 88-year-old man was also found dead in Union County on Monday, next to a car that had been submerged in the floods.
Among the other fatalities were two men in their 70s who died in Lenoir County - one had been connecting extension cords and another was blown by high winds when checking on his dogs. Four road deaths in South Carolina have been blamed on the storm, and two people died from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a generator inside their home.
A guide to the world's deadliest storms
Hurricanes are violent storms that can bring devastation to coastal areas, threatening lives, homes and businesses.
Hurricanes develop from thunderstorms, fuelled by warm, moist air as they cross sub-tropical waters. Warm air rises into the storm.
Air swirls in to fill the low pressure in the storm, sucking air in and upwards, reinforcing the low pressure.
The storm rotates due to the spin of the earth and energy from the warm ocean increases wind speeds as it builds.
When winds reach 119km/h (74mph), it is known as a hurricane - in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific - or a typhoon in the Western Pacific.
"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. Well, we're about to get punched in the face." Florida Mayor Bob Buckhorn, ahead of Hurricane Irma (2017)
The central eye of calmer weather is surrounded by a wall of rainstorms.This eyewall has the fastest winds below it and violent currents of air rising through it.
A mound of water piles up below the eye which is unleashed as the storm reaches land. These storm surges can cause more damage from flooding than the winds.
"Urgent warning about the rapid rise of water on the SW FL coast with the passage of #Irma's eye. MOVE AWAY FROM THE WATER!"Tweet from the National Hurricane Center
The size of hurricanes is mainly measured by the Saffir-Simpson scale - other scales are used in Asia Pacific and Australia. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Thirtyseven Chinese nationals, arrested in Angola due to their alleged involvement in criminal acts, are extradited and due to be tried in China. | Angola has extradited 37 Chinese nationals, accused of extortion, kidnappings, armed robberies and running prostitution rings.
They allegedly targeted other Chinese, kidnapping businessmen for ransom and sometimes burying victims alive.
They lured women to Angola, promising well-paid jobs, but then forced them into prostitution, Chinese police said. Tens of thousands of Chinese live in Angola, and Chinese state-run firms have large interests in the country.
China's Ministry of Public Security said a special police team was sent to Angola in July to help investigate criminal gangs.
The ministry said the officers had helped their Angolan counterparts break up 12 gangs and free 14 victims, most of whom were thought to be women forced to work as prostitutes.
The 37 suspects arrived at Beijing airport in handcuffs with balaclavas covering their faces. They are due to be tried in China.
Mineral-rich Angola is China's biggest trading partner in Africa, with some $24.8bn (15.7bn) in 2010.
Commercial opportunities have attracted private businesses and state-run firms.
But according to Chinese media, crime had begun to seriously affect operations in the country.
China Police, a website run by the ministry, published an article documenting 14 kidnappings during 2011 in which five victims were killed.
The article said Chinese business owners had moved away from the capital Luanda, while others had hired private security guards and bought bullet-proof cars. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
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