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ExxonMobil says a raid by Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, a militant Nigerian group, has eliminated 45,000 barrels a day of production of natural gas liquids and condensates. | LAGOS, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil XOM.N said on Tuesday eight people were missing following a raid on a Nigerian offshore oil platform on Nov. 14 that knocked out 45,000 barrels per day of condensate production.
“Mobil Producing Nigeria...confirms that unknown armed persons boarded the Oso platform on November 14. At this time, eight people remain unaccounted for,” the company said in a statement.
“NGL (natural gas liquids) and condensate production of about 45,000 bpd on the facility have been shut in as a precautionary measure,” Exxon added.
Oso is one of Nigeria’s biggest condensate fields with about eight platforms whose total output averages about 75,000 bpd.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s main militant group, said on Tuesday it was responsible for the attack on Exxon’s oil facility. [ID:nLDE6AE188]
The group warned of further attacks in the heartland of Africa’s biggest oil and gas industry.
“In the coming weeks, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta will launch a major operation that will simultaneously affect oil facilities across the Niger Delta,” it said in a statement emailed to the media.
Previous campaigns by MEND fighters have knocked out a significant proportion of Nigeria’s oil production, currently averaging about 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd), and cost it as much as $1 billion a month in lost revenues.
Exxon said on Tuesday it had contacted the families of the personnel on the platform, while government and security agencies had been informed and appropriate measures were underway. | Riot | November 2010 | ['(Reuters)'] |
At least six people die and dozens injured as major storms, packed with tornadoes, move through the American South and Midwest. Three people died when a tornado hit northern Mississippi, one was killed in Arkansas and two more in Tennessee. Officials continue searching into the night for the missing. | (Reuters) - Southern U.S. states began digging out on Thursday after severe storms killed at least 11 people, and Mississippi declared a state of emergency in areas pounded by tornadoes.
Emotional Mississippi governor confirms tornado casualties
With about 100 million Americans expected to travel over the Christmas holiday, the National Weather Service forecast isolated severe thunderstorms from the mid-Atlantic region to the Gulf Coast and record warmth in New York.
The storm system packed high winds and triggered more than 20 tornadoes in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Michigan on Wednesday, authorities said.
A large tornado tore a 100-mile (160-km) path through northern Mississippi, demolishing or heavily damaging more than 100 homes and other buildings before plowing into western Tennessee, authorities said.
Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency in areas affected by the storm, saying 14 tornadoes had touched down in the state. Bryant said seven people were killed and one person was missing.
“Everybody is pulling together here in Mississippi today to help respond to this disaster,” Bryant said on CNN.
He said shelters had been set up and the full extent of the damage would not be known for several days. Mississippi authorities said some 40 people were injured and a 7-year-old boy was among those killed.
Three people died in Tennessee and an 18-year-old woman was killed in Arkansas when a tree crashed into her house, authorities said.
Thirteen counties in Tennessee suffered severe damage, with a post office destroyed and a state highway washed out.
Emergency crews in Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee were searching for several people reported missing. Scores were injured in the region.
A rare tornado touched down in Canton, Michigan, and about 15,000 homes in the state and neighboring Wisconsin were without electricity. The weather service issued a gale force wind warning for Lake Michigan, where waves could reach 15 feet (4.6 meters).
About 500 flights were delayed or canceled at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport as the area was hit by a thunderstorm.
Meanwhile, much of the northeast enjoyed balmy weather on Thursday, including New York, which surpassed its record for the warmest Christmas Eve reaching 71 degrees Fahrenheit (22 C).
Cold and snow were forecast on Christmas Day for the U.S. Northwest, including temperatures in the teens in Montana and snow likely in Washington, Oregon, northern California, and Nevada.
Of the 100 million Americans traveling over the holiday, 91 million will use cars, according to the American Automobile Association.
. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | December 2015 | ['(CNN)', '(AP via The Washington Post)', '(Weather.com)', '(Reuters)'] |
The wrongful death of Michael Jackson trial gets underway with jury selection. | Four years after Michael Jackson's death on the eve of his attempted career reboot, jury selection began on Tuesday (April 2) in the $40 billion wrongful death suit
filed by the late pop icon's family against concert promoter AEG Live.
While the Jacksons claim that the company behind Jackson's planned 50-date "This Is It" show in London should be held responsible for his death on June 25, 2009, AEG is expected to argue that Jackson was to blame for his passing at age 50.
Jackson family claims:
Jackson struggled for decades with an addiction to powerful prescription pain and sleeping medication. Lawyers for Jackson's mother, Katherine, and his three children are expected to blame AEG Live for hiring Dr. Conrad Murray, a cardiologist who is behind bars on involuntary manslaughter
charges after it was determined that he gave Jackson a lethal dose of the surgical anesthetic propofol, which resulted in his death.
It's possible that Katherine Jackson and eldest children Prince and Paris could testify in the trial, which may last several months. The $40 billion figure is the equivalent of what Jackson could have earned for the rest of his life from performing and recording. The suit went forward after a judge determined that lawyers for the estate had provided enough evidence that AEG Live was negligent in hiring Murray and should have known that the doctor would use dangerous combinations of prescription drugs to treat the singer's chronic insomnia.
One of the keys to the family's case is an e-mail sent by AEG Live Co-CEO Paul Gongaware 11 days before Jackson's death that provides evidence that "This Is It" show director Kenny Ortega expressed concerns to Murray about Jackson's health the previous day. "We want to remind (Murray) that it is AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary," read the e-mail. "We want to remind him what is expected of him."
Lawyers for the Jackson family will argue that the e-mail is proof that AEG Live traded on Murray's fear of losing his lucrative gig taking care of Jackson to pressure him to do whatever it took to get the singer ready for the concerts, regardless of Jackson's fragile condition.
In rejecting AEG Live's earlier attempt to have the suit thrown out, the judge in the case said she agree with the Jackson lawyers that AEG Live didn't do a sufficient enough background check on Murray, which would have revealed that he was deeply in debt.
"There is a triable issue of fact as to whether it was foreseeable that such a physician under strong financial pressure may compromise his Hippocratic Oath and do what was known by AEG Live's executives to be an unfortunate practice in the entertainment industry for financial gain," the judge wrote.
AEG Live's defense:
Lawyers for the global promotions giant are expected to argue that it was Jackson who hired Murray, not them. According to CNN they are likely to use as evidence Jackson's long history of erratic behavior, his 2005 acquittal on child molestation charges and claims that he doctor shopped to paint a picture of chronic drug use. The key to AEG's defense is expected to be the company's contention that Jackson personally hired Murray and paid his bills for nearly four years.
"I don't know how you can't look to Mr. Jackson's responsibility there," AEG lawyer Marvin Putnam told the network. "He was a grown man ... Mr. Jackson is a person who was known to doctor shop. He was known to be someone who would tell one doctor one thing and another doctor something else."
Though acquitted on the molestation charges, Putnam said the trial is relevant because it "resulted in an incredible increase in his drug intake."
Before jury selection began on Tuesday morning, the judge in the case was scheduled to hear arguments to allow TV cameras in the courtroom. Murray, who is serving a four year jail term, has said he might invoke his Fifth Amendment right to avoid answering questions in the wrongful death suit. But Putnam noted that in an interview with police two days after Jackson's death Murray said he was Jackson's employee, not AEG's, even though the promoter was expected to cut paychecks equaling $150,000 a month.
Murray started treating Jackson six days a Week in May 2009, but it wasn't until the night before the singer's death that he officially signed his service contract with AEG Live; Putnam said AEG Live's executives never signed the contract.
Putnam said he learned during the discovery process that Jackson was personally paying Murray during the last two months of his life, a claim that Jackson's lawyers declined to comment on. He also said that the so-called "smoking gun"
email from Gongaware was no such thing because a doctor's Hippocratic Oath would not allow him to do anything that might harm his patient. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | April 2013 | ['(MTV)'] |
The United States notifies the United Nations of its formal withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. | The Trump administration has formally notified the United Nations that it is withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement. The move comes as climate change drives more frequent and severe wildfires, hurricanes — such as Hurricane Florence in 2018 — and other hazards.
The Trump administration has formally notified the United Nations that it is withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement. The move comes as climate change drives more frequent and severe wildfires, hurricanes — such as Hurricane Florence in 2018 — and other hazards.
The Trump administration has formally notified the United Nations that the U.S. is withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement. The withdrawal will be complete this time next year, after a one-year waiting period has elapsed.
"We will continue to work with our global partners to enhance resilience to the impacts of climate change and prepare for and respond to natural disasters," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement Monday.
Nearly 200 countries signed on to the agreement in 2015 and made national pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Each country set its own goals, and many wealthy countries, including the U.S., also agreed to help poorer countries pay for the costs associated with climate change.
The U.S. is now the only country to pull out of the pact.
"The United States is not cooperating with the rest of the world on dealing with climate change," says Andrew Light, a former climate official in the State Department who helped develop the Paris Agreement.
The agreement was designed to be easier to join than to leave. The U.S. even helped spearhead language that would hold countries accountable for the promises they made, in part to help guard against regime changes and other global political turmoil.
Indeed, in the years since the pact was created, many key international players, including Brazil, China, Japan and India, have experienced economic or political upheaval, but none has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement as a result.
President Trump originally announced his intention to withdraw from the deal in the summer of 2017, shortly after he took office. At the time he said, "As of today, the United States will cease all implementation" of the agreement, including federal policies meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as U.S. contributions to the international climate fund for poorer nations.
"These agreements are just only as good as the commitments from each country," Light says.
The U.S. had pledged to reduce national greenhouse gas emissions by about a quarter by 2025, compared with 2005 levels. The country is not on track to achieve that goal.
In the intervening years, the Trump administration has systematically attempted to roll back federal limits on carbon emissions, including rules about how much pollution can be emitted by power plants, cars and trucks.
"The reality is, to really deliver on our climate goals, we do need strong federal action," says Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "The unfortunate reality is U.S. carbon emissions actually rose last year."
This isn't the first time the U.S. has reneged on an international climate agreement. The U.S. failed to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol despite being instrumental in its creation. In this case, the U.S. became a signatory to the agreement but almost immediately signaled that it didn't intend to pursue its responsibilities.
In both cases, the U.S. was instrumental in developing the international strategy.
"That's one of the ironies of all this," Light says. When the Paris Agreement was being negotiated, the U.S. delegation pushed for more transparency and accountability to make sure the countries that signed on would actually do what they promised.
"Even though we're the ones who have been pointing to these potential scenarios for problems with other countries, we seem to be the biggest problem," Light says.
"If we were a tiny country with small emissions, it wouldn't matter so much," he says. "But we're not. We're a big country with a lot of power and a lot of influence around the world. And so for us to be the exception on this issue is holding the world back."
A formal withdrawal is reversible, however, if a future administration chooses to rejoin the Paris Agreement and pick up where the U.S. left off with its emissions reduction promises. | Withdraw from an Organization | November 2019 | ['(NPR)'] |
Yahoo! names Autodesk chairwoman Carol Bartz as its CEO. | Ms Bartz, 60, is a well-respected industry figure who led business software maker Autodesk for 14 years before becoming its chairman in 2006. Her appointment follows a search for a replacement for the internet portal's co-founder Jerry Yang. His departure followed lengthy criticism of his stewardship of the company, which has coincided with its share price collapsing to about $12. He angered investors by turning down a $47.5bn takeover offer from Microsoft last May - worth $33 a share. Microsoft did however come back and offer to buy the search part of Yahoo, but a deal was never struck. Many observers expect that this deal will eventually go through, with a new chief executive at the Yahoo helm. 'Driven'
Before joining Autodesk, Ms Bartz spent nine years at Sun Microsystems, rising to become the second most senior executive behind the then-CEO, Scott McNealy. She has been named in Fortune magazine's list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and featured on Barron's list of the World's 30 Most Respected CEOs. And observers say that her track record suggest that she was likely to build on Yahoo's strengths. "She is able to see the essence of things because she doesn't spend a lot of time worrying about how people are going to feel," said Nilofer Merchant, a former Autodesk manager, now chief executive of technology consultant Rubicon. "She is driven by doing the best thing for the business." During Bartz's leadership, Autodesk's share price rose by an annual average of nearly 20% - something which analysts say will hearten Yahoo investors who have seen the value of shares slide dramatically. Scrutiny
In November last year, Mr Yang surprised the industry when he said that Microsoft should still buy Yahoo. "I don't think it's a bad idea at all, at the right price whatever that price is. We're willing to sell the company," he told the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. The declaration came hours after Google had pulled out of an internet advertising deal with Yahoo amid increasing scrutiny from the US Department of Justice. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | January 2009 | ['(BBC News)'] |
A car bomb targeting a van belonging to the Pakistan Air Force explodes in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing at least nine people and wounding up to 20 others. | A bomb has exploded on a busy road in Pakistan's north-western city of Peshawar, killing at least nine people and wounding at least 20 others.
A coach and at least two other vehicles, including a van belonging to the Pakistan Air Force, were destroyed, police said.
Officials said the van was the target of the attack.
Peshawar is near Pakistan's tribal belt - a stronghold of Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.
Hundreds have died in attacks in and around the city in recent years.
Wednesday's bomb was planted in parked car, and contained 30-40kg (66-88lb) of explosives as well as ball bearings and artillery shells, an official told the AFP news agency.
Another official said that the bomb was detonated by remote control.
No group has so far said it carried out the attack. Earlier this month a suicide bomber killed two people and injured 19 others when he drove his car into a vehicle from the US consulate in Peshawar. | Armed Conflict | September 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Dutch farmers stage a protest in The Hague against proposals to halve livestock numbers in a bid to cut nitrogen emissions. Motoring group ANWB claims tractors on highways caused a total of 1,136km of traffic jams during morning rush hour, with tractors on one highway swerving back and forth to prevent traffic passing. | Tractor-driving farmers taking to the streets to demand greater recognition caused the worst ever Dutch morning rush hour on Tuesday, according to motoring organisation ANWB.
There were 1,136km (700 miles) of jams at the morning peak, it said.
Farmers reacted angrily to claims that they were largely responsible for a nitrogen oxide emissions problem.
A report has called for inefficient cattle farms to be shut down and some speed limits lowered to cut pollution.
Farming groups believe they are being victimised while the aviation industry is escaping scrutiny. The tractors arrived early on Tuesday, some of them knocking down fences to get there. Three people were arrested, according to public broadcaster NOS. Thousands of farmers, many on their tractors, took part in the protest in a field in the centre of The Hague. Police said 2,200 farmers joined the protest. Hague mayor Pauline Krikke warned of an "unsafe situation" but no further trouble was reported and drone pictures showed dozens more tractors parked on Scheveningen beach while their owners joined the demonstration. | Protest_Online Condemnation | October 2019 | ['(700 miles)', '(BBC)'] |
A student is killed amid gunfire in El Tigre, raising the death toll in protests against Nicolás Maduro's government to at least 37 in the past month. | Students battled tear gas-throwing police officers in demonstrations across Venezuela's capital Thursday as a two-month-old protest movement that shows no signs of letting up claimed more lives.
"We are students, not terrorists!" a mass of students chanted as they marched in Caracas.
Soldiers bathed hundreds of protesters in tear gas at the Central University of Venezuela, with medics in gas masks attending to students with bloodied faces and limbs.
"Do you know how many dead there are?" Rafaela Requesens, a student leader, shouted at a wall of National Guard officers standing shoulder-to-shoulder and stopping protesters from advancing. "They are your victims."
Gunfire erupted at a student gathering in El Tigre, a city southeast of Caracas, leaving Juan Lopez, 33, dead and three others injured, according to the chief prosecutor's office. Preliminary reports indicate an assailant fired at Lopez toward the end of the meeting and then fled on a motorcycle. Lopez was the president of a university federation.
The student leader's death brought to at least 37 the number killed in Venezuela's ongoing political turmoil.
Earlier Thursday, authorities announced a 38-year-old police officer in the central state of Carabobo had died of his injuries after being shot during a Wednesday protest that had hundreds of thousands of people on the street nationwide. Wednesday's protest also left a 17-year-old student and musician dead.
More than 700 others have been wounded, no small matter in a country with crippling medical shortages. Opposition leaders said 30 were injured in Thursday's student demonstrations. Overall, more than 1,000 have been arrested.
West of Caracas in Valencia, there were reports of looting at several businesses and at least one factory, the thieves taking off with plastic crates filled with bottles and even a forklift.
Protesters are demanding immediate presidential elections. President Nicolas Maduro accuses the opposition of attempting a coup, and has responded with an initiative to rewrite the constitution.
Walking through an agricultural expo where he pet goats and sampled cheese Thursday, Maduro repeatedly reiterated his call for a special assembly tasked with defining Venezuela's future. He added that the yet-to-be-created constituent body would decide the South American nation's destiny "for the next 50 years."
International pressure on Maduro to hold elections is continuing to escalate amid his call for a constitution rewrite. A group of bipartisan U.S. legislators sent a letter to President Donald Trump Thursday urging him to apply new sanctions against individuals responsible for human rights violations and to push for the delivery of humanitarian relief.
Eight Latin American nations issued a statement decrying the excessive use of force by Venezuelan authorities against protesters, saying such actions only, "polarize Venezuelan society even more."
And Venezuelan classical music maestro Gustavo Dudamel spoke out against events in his country, calling on Maduro to listen to the protesters.
In an online essay titled "I Raise My Voice," he urged Maduro to reduce political tensions.
"We must stop ignoring the just cry of the people suffocated by an intolerable crisis," said Dudamel, who is serving as the Los Angeles Philharmonic's musical director.
Venezuelans and fellow classical music performers have blasted Dudamel in the past for being cozy with Maduro. | Protest_Online Condemnation | May 2017 | ['(ABC News)'] |
Shinzō Abe is elected Prime Minister of Japan as the Liberal Democratic Party win an absolute majority in the House of Representatives. | TOKYO -- The conservative party that dominated post-war Japan is back in power after a three-year absence, in a landslide election victory Sunday that will result in hawkish Shinzo Abe returning as prime minister.
Abe, 58, who served in the post once before, is likely to pursue a tougher stance toward China and prevent the nation from abandoning nuclear energy.
The conservative Liberal Democratic Party was projected by NHK Television to win 291 out of 480 seats in Japan’s lower house, while its ally, the New Komeito Party, had 30. That would give them the two-third majority needed to overrule the upper house, perhaps breaking deadlocks that have long stymied Japanese governments.
The Liberal Democrats held a near monopoly on power in Japan from 1955 to 2009, when they were beaten by the Democratic Party of Japan. This time around, the Democratic Party was projected to win only 56 seats. Prime Minister Yoshiko Noda resigned as head of the party Sunday night, hours after the polls closed, conceding the election results were a “disappointment.”
The remarkable comeback of the conservative establishment reflects the high level of national anxiety about economic stagnation and falling behind China.
“They’re more experienced and are a better fit at leading,” said Takashi Yamada, 38, an office worker in Tokyo, explaining why he voted for the Liberal Democrats. Last time around he opted for a third party opposing nuclear power.
The Liberal Democrats’ return could exacerbate tensions over contested islands that have become a lightning rod for nationalist outbursts in Asia. Abe supports revisions in Japan’s post-World War II constitution to loosen limits on the military and has promised a strong defense of Japanese sovereignty.
“A good Japan-China relationship is in the national interest for both countries. Both sides need to recognize that. I think there is a problem that China lacks that understanding,’’ Abe told Japanese television after the polls closed.
. | Government Job change - Election | December 2012 | ['(BBC)', '(Los Angeles Times)'] |
A U.S. service member is in custody in connection with the shooting deaths of two other service members and the injury of a third in Iraq. They were assigned to 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Georgia. | Read more about this story from CNN affiliate WFSB. Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- A U.S. soldier is in custody in connection with the shooting deaths of two fellow soldiers and the wounding of a third in Iraq, the U.S. military said Tuesday.
Spc. Neftaly Platero is in pretrial confinement, a U.S. military statement said.
Platero is suspected in the deaths of Spc. John Carrillo Jr., 20, of Stockton, California, and Pfc. Gebrah P. Noonan, 26, of Watertown, Connecticut, the military said.
Carrillo and Noonan died Friday of injuries sustained in a "non-combat" incident that occurred a day earlier, the U.S. Department of Defense said.
They were assigned to 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Georgia.
The incident remains under investigation. "Our condolences go out to the families of those service members whose lives were lost," Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan said in a statement. "We are saddened by this tragic incident."
Carrillo's mother, Desiree Carrillo, told CNN that her son was a good son and a good father to a 3-year-old and a 3-month-old.
"He was a very young father and he was in school, but he joined the military to provide more for his family," she said.
Desiree Carrillo said the military notified them of Spc. Carrillo's death on Friday after family members learned through the media their son may have been killed by another soldier. Dane Street, Noonan's former track coach, told WFSB that Noonan was loved by nearly everyone.
"His big hair matched his big personality," Street said. "He loved experiencing life, and it was great."
Several people posted rest-in-peace messages on what appears to be Noonan's Facebook page. The page of "Gebrah Noonan" also lists "Neftaly Platero" -- the same name as the suspect -- as a Facebook friend. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2010 | ['(CNN)'] |
James Murdoch resigns from News International to focus on running News Limited's television business with the News International phone hacking scandal as a factor in the decision. | The phone-hacking scandal has claimed its largest scalp with the resignation of the Murdoch empire's heir-apparent, James Murdoch, as executive chairman of News International.
The news comes as the Leveson inquiry into phone hacking was told that the phone of Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of News International, was hacked twice a week by colleagues at the now defunct News of the World while she was editing its sister newspaper, The Sun.
Standing down... James Murdoch is driven away from the offices of News International in London.Credit:AP
In a move that raises questions about the succession to US-based billionaire Rupert Murdoch, James is leaving the print-based British arm but will keep responsibility for international television interests as deputy chief operating officer for News Corp.
Some view James's exit as opening the way for either of his siblings Elisabeth or Lachlan to emerge as the successor to their 80-year-old father.
News Corp's Australian-listed shares, meanwhile, rose on the news of James Murdoch's shift. A-class shares gained as much as 7 cents, or 0.4 per cent, to $18.53, while its B-class shares were up as much as 9 cents, or 0.5 per cent, to $18.95.
Tough questions
James Murdoch has faced tough questions from British parliamentarians about how much he knew about the degree of phone-hacking at the News of the World. The day before his resignation was announced, he was lambasted by MP Chris Bryant, who accused him of being involved in a corporate cover-up of hacking at News International.
The hacking took place before Mr Murdoch was in the chair but he was in charge in 2009 and 2010 when the company repeatedly denied that hacking went beyond a single "rogue reporter". His five-year term also saw the closure of the News of the World after revelations it had hacked the voicemail of a murdered schoolgirl, as well as the decision to put The Times website behind a pay-wall.
There were more revelations this week at the Leveson inquiry into the media about the degree to which Ms Brooks knew of police evidence of widespread phone hacking in 2006. This led to further questions about how Mr Murdoch, to whom she reported, could have remained unknowing.
The Press Association reports that Scotland Yard detectives invited Ms Brooks to join their 2006 prosecution of a journalist and private detective working for the News of the World as a potential victim of illegal interception of voicemails after it was found her voicemail had been intercepted as often as twice a week.
She did not take up the offer, and in fact passed on information about the hacking investigation she gleaned from the police to the News of the World's lawyers.
Paul Connew, a former deputy editor of the News of the World, told the BBC he thought Mr Murdoch "had been moved out of the firing line" because he would face sharp criticism in the final report by a media select committee of MPs investigating hacking.
The trouble is that wittingly or unwittingly … he became caught up in that cover-up.
"He wasn't around when the original hacking era started. He wasn't around when the doomed and disastrous cover-up was launched. The trouble is that wittingly or unwittingly … he became caught up in that cover-up," Mr Connew said.
Mr Murdoch had acknowledged receiving an email from a senior executive that warned of evidence that hacking was more widespread but had denied opening the attachment with this information. Mr Connew said this either amounted to "complete incompetence or something more sinister".
Mr Connew said there were rumours on Wall Street that News Corp was considering bundling its News International titles into a separate company, detached from News Corp. News titles also include The Australian, the Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun in Australia.
US concerns
News Corp faced the prospect of a "devastating prosecution" under laws that forbid American companies from being involved in corruption of public officials overseas, he said. Several News International staff have been arrested over suspicions of payments to officials in Britain.
Rupert Murdoch would still control any such new company, Mr Connew said.
Steven Barnett, professor of communications at Westminster University, agreed that concerns about the American operation would probably have been paramount. "I think it is a deep-seated fear that there's still a possibility that there might be some sort of criminal investigation launched in America," he said.
"You could argue that James Murdoch has become a fall guy … the sacrificial lamb."
Mr Bryant repeated that he thought it inconceivable that Mr Murdoch "wasn't either willingly blind or fully conscious" of the scale of news-hacking. "That alone makes him unfit to be a director of a company in this country, let alone chairman of News International and chairman of [satellite broadcaster] BSkyB."
He said Britain should examine media ownership. "We as a country have to decide if one person should have 40 per cent of newspapers and the single biggest share of the biggest broadcaster by value, BSkyB."
Mr Bryant said the Murdochs had brought "important British titles" into disrepute, and that The Times was now losing money "hand over fist".
'Grateful'
News Corporation released a statement saying that Tom Mockridge, CEO of News International, would continue in his post and report to News Corp president Chase Carey.
Rupert Murdoch said in the statement, "We are all grateful for James's leadership at News International and across Europe and Asia, where he has made lasting contributions to the group's strategy in paid digital content and its efforts to improve and enhance governance programs."
James Murdoch, who recently moved to New York, said he deeply appreciated the dedication of talented colleagues at News International.
"With the successful launch of The Sun on Sunday and new business practices in place across all titles, News International is now in a strong position to build on its successes in the future."
James will remain deputy chief operating officer of News Corp with a focus on its international TV business.
"It makes sense to get James as far away from News International as possible, if he is to have any hope of re-establishing his position in the company," said Steve Hewlett, a London-based media analyst.
"The more revelations there are about phone hacking and all the rest of it, the sharper the focus on what he knows or didn't know will become. There's no suggestion he is involved in any of it; it's all about what he knew." | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | February 2012 | ['(The Telegraph)', '(Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
In the United States, the National Weather Service issues a blizzard warning for northeastern Colorado and western Kansas with an expected snowfall by midday of 12 inches in Denver, Colorado. Denver International Airport cancels 143 arriving and departing flighits. Several tornadoes occur overnight in northern Texas, western Kansas, and southern Nebraska. , | A blizzard walloped portions of the nation's midsection Tuesday while parts of the Plains and South contended with severe weather.
Heavy snow and high winds brought blizzard conditions to parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska and Kansas on Tuesday morning. More than a foot of snow was possible in the Denver area, where a section of I-25 was forced to close due to blowing snow and jack-knifed trucks.
The highest total from the snowstorm so far was two feet reported near Ouray, Colo., in the southwestern part of the state.
Snow cancels Denver flights; storms disrupt schedules in Texas
On Tuesday morning, 145 arrivals and departures were canceled for Denver International Airport, KUSA-TV reported. Delays were also reported as the storm was forecast to dump up to 16 inches of snow at the airport.
Deicing is underway at the airport as of just before noon MST, KUSA-TV reported. One hour delays are expected.
Snow is also falling in Wyoming and the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma. The snow is forecast to taper off Tuesday night, as the storm lifts northward into the Upper Midwest.
Further to the east and south, severe thunderstorms and heavy rain are battering the southern Plains and lower Mississippi Valley throughout the day on Tuesday.
Damage was reported in the Dallas area as a line of thunderstorms rolled through during the early morning hours, WFAA-TV reported.
A tornado watch has been posted for eastern Texas, western Louisiana and southern Arkansas.
In addition to the severe weather, drenching rain will soak much of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Missouri, where flash flooding is possible.
The system will move east Wednesday, bringing showers and thunderstorms to the Ohio Valley and southeastern U.S., finally reaching the Eastern Seaboard by early Thursday morning, the weather service said. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | November 2015 | ['(Reuters)', '(USA Today)'] |
A U.S. federal grand jury in Washington indicts former Major League Baseball superstar pitcher Roger Clemens on charges of making false statements to Congress about his alleged use of performanceenhancing drugs. | Roger Clemens, the larger-than-life pitcher who appeared destined for the Baseball Hall of Fame, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington on Thursday on charges that he lied to Congress when he said he never used performance-enhancing drugs.
Clemens became the third high-profile athlete in three years to be charged with lying about the use of banned substances and to have on-the-field accomplishments tarnished.
Marion Jones, who won five track and field medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics, served six months in prison after pleading guilty in 2007 to making false statements to federal authorities about her use of performance-enhancing drugs. Barry Bonds, baseball’s career home run leader, is scheduled for trial in March on charges that he made false statements to a grand jury about his use of performance-enhancing drugs during the investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative in California.
The 19-page indictment charged Clemens, 48, with three counts of making false statements, two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of Congress during his testimony in a nationally televised hearing in February 2008 before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
At that hearing, Clemens and his former trainer Brian McNamee contradicted each other about whether Clemens had used steroids and human growth hormone. Andy Pettitte, Clemens’s friend and a longtime teammate, provided a written statement under oath to Congressional investigators in which he said Clemens admitted to him in 1999 or 2000 that he had used H.G.H.
Days after the hearing, the Democratic and Republican leaders of the committee asked the Justice Department to open an investigation into Clemens’s testimony. If convicted, Clemens could face up to 30 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine, but under current sentencing guidelines, a conviction would most likely bring a 15- to 21-month sentence. He would probably receive less prison time if he accepted a plea agreement. “Our government cannot function if witnesses are not held accountable for false statements made before Congress,” said Ronald C. Machen Jr., the United States attorney for the District of Columbia. “Today the message is clear: if a witness makes a choice to ignore his or her obligation to testify honestly, there will be consequences.”
The indictment is another blow to Major League Baseball, which is still dealing with the aftermath of the so-called steroid era, in which hundreds of players used performance-enhancing drugs without fear of penalty until the early 2000s. It also continues Clemens’s remarkable fall from grace, which included an admission that he had been unfaithful to his wife after published reports tied him to other women.
In a comment posted on his Twitter account shortly after the indictment became public, Clemens again denied using performance-enhancing drugs.
“I look forward to challenging the Government’s accusations, and hope people will keep an open mind until trial,” the message said. “I appreciate all the support I have been getting. I am happy to finally have my day in court.”
Clemens, a Texas native, became an overpowering presence with the Boston Red Sox in the second half of the 1980s, setting strikeout records and agitating hitters by throwing fastballs under their chins.
But he never won a World Series with the Red Sox, and in 1996 their general manager, Dan Duquette, declined to re-sign him, saying Clemens, 33 at the time, was “in the twilight of his career.” Over the next decade, however, Clemens became better even as he grew older. He racked up four more of his seven Cy Young Awards and helped the Yankees win the World Series in 1999 and 2000.
In 2004, Clemens returned to Texas, pitching three seasons for the Houston Astros. After flirting several times with retirement, he returned to the Yankees in May 2007, appearing by surprise in the middle of a Sunday afternoon game at Yankee Stadium and dramatically announcing over the stadium loudspeaker that he had rejoined the team.
But five months later, Clemens was forced to confront allegations that he had used performance-enhancing drugs after the release of a report by George J. Mitchell, the former senator appointed by Commissioner Bud Selig to investigate doping in baseball.
Clemens was the highest-profile player cited in the report, which named him, Pettitte and roughly 100 other players for ties to steroids and human growth hormone. The report based the accusations about Clemens and Pettitte on statements from McNamee, who said he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone on numerous occasions from 1998 to 2001. (McNamee said in a sworn statement that he had also injected Clemens’s wife, Debbie, with H.G.H., at Clemens’s request.) Pettitte quickly issued a statement admitting his use of human growth hormone. Clemens, however, was defiant and with the help of Rusty Hardin, a lawyer in Houston who shared Clemens’s brashness, began a public attack on McNamee’s credibility. Clemens went on CBS’s “60 Minutes” to deny the accusations, and in a news conference he and Mr. Hardin played a tape of a telephone conversation between McNamee and Clemens.
After several weeks of public back and forth between Mr. Hardin and lawyers for McNamee, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform summoned Clemens and McNamee to testify under oath. The committee said Clemens had questioned the credibility of the Mitchell report, which the committee had pushed baseball to compile. Clemens swept through the halls of Congress, posing for photos with members of the committee that was investigating him and autographing their souvenirs. But that bravado worked against him, lawmakers said in interviews Thursday. He may have falsely believed that his fame would trump the testimony of Pettitte and McNamee that contradicted his own. His chutzpah, the lawmakers said, may have led Clemens to issue outright denials when previous baseball players had evaded prosecution by using vague or equivocal language.
On Feb. 13, 2008, five months after Clemens pitched in his final major league game, he and McNamee sat a seat apart before the committee and disputed each other’s account. Responses from lawmakers broke along partisan lines, the Republicans generally siding with Clemens and the Democrats with McNamee.
Among those who testified before the grand jury were McNamee, Pettitte, David Segui a former major leaguer who was named in the Mitchell report and has admitted using performance-enhancing drugs and Jose Canseco, a friend and former teammate of Clemens who has also admitted using performance-enhancing drugs.
Canseco wrote a book in which he linked several high-profile players, including Mark McGwire, to the use of performance-enhancers, but he has been one of the few people to come to Clemens’s defense, saying he had no knowledge that Clemens used banned substances. One intriguing piece of evidence in the Clemens case was syringes that McNamee said he stored in his basement after using them to inject Clemens with drugs.
McNamee handed over the syringes and related drug paraphernalia to federal authorities shortly after Clemens began publicly disputing his account. The authorities tested them for the presence of performance-enhancing drugs and Clemens’s DNA. The New York Times reported last year that the tests revealed the presence of steroids. The Washington Post reported that authorities detected the presence of Clemens’s DNA. In the Yankees’ locker room in the Bronx on Thursday, Pettitte and Derek Jeter, another longtime teammate of Clemens, declined to discuss the indictment. But Jorge Posada, who caught many of Clemens’s games as a Yankee, came to his defense.
“We’re still very good friends and hopefully everything will be all right,” Posada said. “I’m going to support him and going to be behind him, and that’s all I can say.”
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2010 | ['(The New York Times)', '(USA Today)'] |
Police Service of Northern Ireland received a phone call in the early hours allegedly from a dissident republican group claiming to have planted an explosive in a Curryneirin neighborhood outside Derry, Northern Ireland. Police evacuated 12 homes before finding a device, describing it as "'It's a bomb and designed to kill". | The scene at Curryneirin outside Londonderry where a security operation got underway following a bomb warning to a local newspaper. Picture Martin McKeown. Sniffer dogs are helping to investigate the scene at Curryneirin outside Londonderry where a security operation got underway following a bomb warning to a local newspaper. Picture Martin McKeown.
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The scene at Curryneirin outside Londonderry where a security operation got underway following a bomb warning to a local newspaper. Picture Martin McKeown. February 16 2015 04:58 PM
Police have confirmed that they have discovered a 'significant' bomb that was designed to kill officers in the ongoing Londonderry bomb alert.
However, they did not confirm what kind of an explosive device it was, its size or when the ATO would be able to make it safe.
Police have now restored pedestrian and vehicular access to the Currynierin estate and those who were evacuated from their homes are allowed to return.
However, the Ardmore Road countrywards of the estate entrance remains closed to allow while the bomb is made safe.
It is understood that dissident republicans were behind the intended attack on security forces.
Superintendent Mark McEwan confirmed the discovery of the bomb close to the Currynierin housing estate on the outskirts of the city - after a 24 hour security alert which saw people evacuated out of their homes.
Supt McEwan said that those who left the bomb had showed a "callous disregard for the safety of the community and police officers".
A panel in the security fence between Ardmore Road and Currynierin has been removed to allow pedestrian movement to and from the estate. | Armed Conflict | February 2015 | ['(Belfast Telegraph)', '(Derry Journal)'] |
Budapest withdraws its bid, leaving Paris and Los Angeles as the two candidate cities for hosting the 2024 competition. | BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary’s government announced on Wednesday it would withdraw Budapest’s bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games, citing a lack of political and national unity behind the application that it blamed on the opposition.
Bidding alongside powerhouses Los Angeles and Paris, Budapest had been considered a long-shot candidate, pinning its hopes on the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Agenda 2020 initiative.
Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos had suggested the city might quit the race after local opponents of the bid last week submitted a quarter of a million signatures in a petition demanding a local referendum in Budapest on the issue.
“For Budapest and Hungary the Olympics is a national issue,” the government said in a resolution published on national news agency MTI.
“In recent months, the earlier unity has broken down and the issue of the Olympics has turned from a national issue into a party issue. Opposition parties are responsible for this, those who backtracked on their earlier decision (to back the bid).”
Wednesday’s decision was made at a meeting between Tarlos, Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the chairman of the Hungarian Olympic committee.
The IOC said it would await official notification from the national Olympic committee of the country, the only authority which can officially withdraw a bid.
The Hungarian government’s decision, however, is a further blow to the Olympic bid process with Boston, Hamburg and Rome having pulled out of a race that has now been left with just two cities.
The IOC voted in a string of reforms, named Agenda 2020, two years ago in the hope of making the Games more affordable and attractive for potential host cities.
Earlier on Wednesday, Tarlos, who only began to support the bid after Agenda 2020 promised to make hosting the Olympics more affordable, had urged a fast resolution of the issue.
“I never insisted on the Olympics,” he told the city council. “There is no point dragging out this process like strudel dough.”
The United States’ Olympic Committee and the Olympic organizers in Los Angeles were not immediately available to comment on the Hungarian decision.
According to a survey published on Wednesday by pollster
Median, half of Hungarians wanted Budapest to withdraw its
bid, with only a third supporting it nationally. In Budapest, 56 percent of voters were against the bid.
Sentiment changed as a group of young professionals and students collected more than a quarter of a million signatures in a month to press for a referendum on the Olympic bid.
Their Momentum movement has burst on to Hungary’s political scene to challenge Orban’s government and opposition parties a year before elections in 2018.
No opposition group has had such an impact on a major issue since Orban rose to power in 2010. In targeting the Olympics, Momentum has challenged an event seen as being of symbolic importance to the prime minister.
Momentum spokesman Gergo Papp told local website Index.hu that the government had backtracked on the bid “in a cowardly manner”, saying they had taken away a chance for the people to vote on the project.
| Withdraw from an Organization | February 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
As part of his state visit to the United Kingdom, Irish President Michael D. Higgins addresses the Houses of Parliament and attends a banquet at Windsor Castle with Elizabeth II. | Irish President Michael D Higgins has spoken of his country's "deep and enduring" friendship with Britain.
Speaking in Westminster during the first state visit to the UK by an Irish head of state, he said both countries could take "immense pride" in their work towards peace in Northern Ireland.
But he said there was "still a road to be travelled" to reach lasting peace.
At a banquet in his honour at Windsor Castle the Queen hailed the UK and Ireland as "neighbours and friends".
She said the nations should "no longer allow our past to ensnare our future".
Earlier, Mr Higgins was greeted at the Irish embassy in London by Prince Charles before heading to Windsor, where he shook hands with the Queen and Prince Philip.
The ceremonial welcome at Windsor Castle was marked by a 21-gun salute, military bands, and marching troops. Mr Higgins then visited Westminster Abbey and laid a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior - the tomb of a British soldier of World War One. This is customary on state visits.
He and his wife Sabina also stopped to look at a memorial to the Queen's cousin, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who was killed by an IRA bomb in 1979.
In a speech to both Houses of Parliament in the Palace of Westminster, Mr Higgins said: "I stand here at a time when the relationship between our two islands has, as I have said, achieved a closeness and warmth that once seemed unachievable."
He spoke of the "pain and sacrifice" associated with Irish independence from the UK in 1922, which he said had cast a "long shadow across our relations".
"We acknowledge that past but, even more, we wholeheartedly welcome the considerable achievement of today's reality - the mutual respect, friendship and co-operation which exists between our two countries," he said.
Mr Higgins's trip comes after the Queen became the first British monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland three years ago.
Then Sinn Fein did not take part, but Northern Ireland's deputy first minister Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander, attended the banquet on Tuesday evening - where he joined in a toast to the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the people of the UK.
During the banquet, Mr Higgins again spoke of Ireland's journey to "true reconciliation" with the UK.
He said: "Ireland and Britain live in both the shadow and in the shelter of one another, and so it has been since the dawn of history.
"We celebrate what has been achieved but we must also constantly renew our commitment to a process that requires vigilance and care."
During his visit, which ends on Friday, Mr Higgins is also due to meet Prime Minister David Cameron at Downing Street, pay tribute to the work of Irish health professionals, and meet business leaders and London Mayor Boris Johnson.
The president, who came to England to work as a waiter when he was 21, said his visit was "very important for the relationships between the people of Ireland and UK".
He will be joined on the trip by Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Foreign Affairs Minister Eamon Gilmore.
BBC Ireland correspondent Andy Martin said the trip could not have happened 20 years ago because of "lingering acrimony" between the two countries.
Our correspondent added that "changed entirely three years ago", when the Queen laid a wreath at a memorial to those who died fighting for Ireland's independence.
Meanwhile, the sister of a woman killed in the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings took part in a small demonstration outside Windsor Castle, calling for Mr McGuinness's arrest.
Julie Hambleton, whose 18-year-old sister Maxine died in the attack, said his attendance at the banquet was "the epitome of hypocrisy". It was announced on Monday that no new inquiry would be launched into the bombings after a re-examination of evidence.
The IRA is believed by some to have carried out the attack but no-one has ever admitted responsibility.
For centuries Ireland was under British or English rule and the more recent Troubles can be traced back to the partition of the country.
Ireland won independence following a civil war, but six counties were kept under British control, creating Northern Ireland.
President Higgins said before his visit that there were "a lot of very difficult memories" and that it would be wrong to "wipe the slate clean".
"How could I say to any family whose family member might be in a wheelchair or somebody who is dead, you must put it behind you?" he said.
Elsewhere Peter Hain - Northern Ireland secretary from 2005 to 2007 - suggested there should be no more prosecutions for offences committed before the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
He said his proposal was not an "amnesty", but "perhaps some special judicial process" where people could come forward and admit crimes but not be sentenced.
Mr Higgins has been a stalwart of Irish public life, as a politician, poet and the subject of songs.
In an interview with the BBC's Fergal Keane on the eve of the visit, the president was asked if he would bring a gift for the Queen.
"Oh yes," he said. "Something equine, something cultural. The warmth around this visit has been tremendous."
Higgins hails 'closeness' with UK
McGuinness toasts Queen at banquet
| Diplomatic Visit | April 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden meet for the final debate before the election next month. | With less than two weeks until Election Day, President Trump and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. laid out starkly different visions of America as they met on the debate stage for the last time. NBC’s Kristen Welker was the moderator. We fact-checked the candidates’ claims on the coronavirus, racism, health care and more. Highlights from the debate are below. Kristen Welker kept things under control (the muting helped). In closing statements, Trump attacks Biden while Biden offers a vision for the country. Asked about the environment and race, Trump did not mention the environment or race. Trump slammed wind power, and Biden said he’d ‘transition’ from oil. Biden calls Trump ‘one of the most racist presidents we’ve had in modern history.’
Trump, the current president, tries to paint himself as the outsider against Biden. Addressing systemic racism, Kristen Welker asks the candidates about ‘The Talk.’
Biden and Trump spar about their respective histories on criminal justice. Biden slams Trump over migrant family separations at the border. By Michael M. Grynbaum
Kristen Welker, the debate’s moderator, began the night with a plea for civility. “Please,” she instructed the men standing before her, “speak one at a time.”
For the most part, Ms. Welker got what she wanted. In a high-stakes debut overseeing a presidential debate — taking charge of a candidate matchup that proved a bucking bronco for the last moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News — Ms. Welker, an NBC anchor and correspondent, managed to restore order to a quadrennial institution that some believed could not be tamed. Mr. Wallace himself said on Fox News: “Well first of all, I’m jealous. I would’ve liked to have been able to moderate that debate and get a real exchange of views instead of hundreds of interruptions.”
No doubt, she benefited from Trump 2.0: a calmer president arrived onstage Thursday, a contrast with the candidate who derailed the proceedings in Cleveland last month. And she had a technological assist in the form of muted microphones, a novelty installed to keep the exchanges between Mr. Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. from going from civics to chaos. But in a poised and crisp performance, Ms. Welker, 44, succeeded where Mr. Wallace got walloped. Battle-tested by years of covering the Trump White House, she parried with the president and cut him off as needed; Mr. Trump, eager to shed voters’ memories of his unruly performance last month, mostly acquiesced. Ms. Welker — the first Black woman to moderate a general-election presidential debate since Carole Simpson of ABC in 1992 — entered the evening facing an onslaught of attacks from Mr. Trump, who earlier this week called her “terrible.”
Little of the pressure showed onscreen. Ms. Welker was polite but firm in guiding the discussion, offering chances for brief rebuttals but also taking control when the candidates threatened to go on a harangue, repeatedly urging, “We need to move on.”
By Reid J. Epstein and Sydney Ember
Kristen Welker’s final question of the debate to each candidate was simple: In your inaugural address, what would you say to Americans who didn’t vote for you? President Trump, who has done little to articulate a second-term agenda during any of his interviews over the past several months, used his answer to defend his record on the coronavirus crisis and attack Joseph R. Biden Jr.
“I am cutting taxes, and he wants to raise everybody’s taxes, and he wants to put new regulations on everything,” Mr. Trump said. “He will kill it. If he gets in, you will have a depression the likes of which you have never seen. Your 401(k)s will go to hell and it will be a very, very sad day for this country.”
Mr. Biden offered a more traditional closing statement. He recited an uplifting vision for what the United States would look like under a Biden administration and delineated clear goals for what he would do as president. “I am an American president,” Mr. Biden said he would say. “I represent all of you, whether you voted for me or against me. And I’m going to make sure that you’re represented. I’m going to give you hope.”
Mr. Biden went on to remind voters that the crux of his candidacy is about offering a vision of an America in which people of opposing political persuasions are not constantly at one another’s throats. “What is on the ballot here is the character of this country,” Mr. Biden said. “Decency, honor, respect, treating people with dignity, making that sure that everyone has an even chance. And I’m going to make sure you get that. You have not been getting it the last four years.”
The responses encapsulated perhaps the most crucial difference between the two presidential campaigns, one that has only become more apparent as the race has transpired: Mr. Trump’s re-election bid has largely revolved around attacking Democrats and Mr. Biden; Mr. Biden, on the other hand, has repeatedly articulated — at least in broad strokes — how the country would be different under his leadership. By Maggie Astor
Environmental justice — a theme in some of Democrats’ discussions during the primaries, focusing on the racially disparate effects of climate change and other environmental issues — made a striking appearance on the general-election debate stage. As the moderator, Kristen Welker, noted, people of color are much likelier than white people to live near chemical plants and oil refineries, which can cause health problems. Given that President Trump’s administration has lifted restrictions on these facilities, Ms. Welker asked him, “Why should these families give you another four years in office?”
Mr. Trump, in his response, did not once mention the environment, health or racial disparities. “I have not heard the numbers or the statistics you are saying, but they are making a tremendous amount of money economically,” he said. “I saved it again a number of months ago when oil was crashing because of the pandemic. Say what you want about the relationship, we got Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Russia to cut back, way back. We saved our oil industry and now it is very vibrant. Everyone has very inexpensive gasoline. Remember that.”
Joseph R. Biden Jr., by contrast, gave a detailed response. “Those people live on what they call fence lines. He doesn’t understand this,” Mr. Biden said. “The fact is, those front line communities, it doesn’t matter what you are paying them. It matters how you keep them safe. What do you do. And you impose restrictions on the pollutants coming out of those fence line communities.”
Mr. Biden briefly discussed the pollution he saw in Claymont, Del., as a child, and the high rates of cancer there. He then repeated his campaign pledge to transition from oil and other fossil fuels to renewable energy. “In terms of business, that’s the biggest statement. Because basically what he is saying is he is going to destroy the oil industry,” Mr. Trump responded. “Will you remember that, Texas? Will you remember that, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma? Ohio?”
“He takes everything out of context,” Mr. Biden said. “But the point of it is, look, we have to move toward net-zero emissions.”
By Glenn Thrush and Katie Glueck
t
“The fastest-growing industry in America are — is the electric, excuse me, solar energy and wind. He thinks wind causes cancer — windmills. It’s the fastest-growing jobs, and they pay good prevailing wages: 45, 50 bucks an hour. We can grow and we can be cleaner if we go the route I’m proposing.” “President Trump.” “Excuse me.” “Please respond, and then I have two follow-ups.“ “We are energy independent for the first time. We don’t need all of these countries that we had to fight war over because we needed their energy. We are energy independent. I know more about wind than you do. It’s extremely expensive, kills all the birds. It’s very intermittent. It’s got a lot of problems, and they happen to make the windmills in both Germany and China. And the fumes coming up — if you’re a believer in carbon emission — the fumes coming up to make these massive windmills is more than anything that we’re talking about with natural gas, which is very clean. One other thing.” “Find me a scientist who says that.” “Solar, I love solar, but solar doesn’t quite have it yet. It’s not powerful yet to really run our big, beautiful factories that we need to compete with the world. So —” “False.” “It’s all a pipe dream.”
For Biden and Trump, Stark Contrasts on Alternative Energy One of the most heated exchanges in a much more sedate debate came over the issue of wind power. President Trump, as he has often done, falsely claimed that Joseph R. Biden Jr. supported the Green New Deal. (Mr. Biden praised it on his website, but has not said he would back the progressive energy and job creation plan.) “If you look at what he wants to do — if you look at his plan, his environmental plan — you know who developed it? A.O.C. plus three,” he said, a reference to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressive lawmakers. (“It’s actually AOC plus 115 because that’s how many House and Senate members have cosponsored the most ambitious climate legislation in American history,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez responded on Twitter.) “We are energy-independent,” said Mr. Trump, who has pledged his support for coal and petroleum producers and ridiculed wind and solar energy sources as impractical. “I know more about wind than you do,” he added. “It is extremely expensive, kills all the birds, it’s very intermittent, it’s got a lot of problems, and they happen to make the windmills in both Germany and China. And the fumes coming up — if you’re a believer in carbon emission — the fumes coming up to make these massive windmills is more than anything that we are talking about with natural gas.”
Mr. Biden replied: “Find me a scientist who says that.”
“I love solar, but solar doesn’t quite have it yet,” the president added. “It is not powerful yet to really run our big, beautiful factories that we need to compete with the world.”
Later, Mr. Biden said he “would transition from the oil industry” because “the oil industry pollutes significantly” — a fairly conventional answer in keeping with Obama administration policy and with the automotive industry, which has been moving toward high-efficiency or alternative-fuel vehicles for decades. But Mr. Trump, eager for anything that could give him an edge in energy-producing battlegrounds, responded directly to the camera: “Will you remember that, Texas? Will you remember that, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma? Ohio?”
After the debate, speaking to reporters, Mr. Biden expanded on his remarks. “We’re getting rid of the subsidies for fossil fuels, but we’re not getting rid of fossil fuels for a long time,” he said, according to a pool report. Kate Bedingfield, a deputy campaign manager on Mr. Biden’s team, also stressed the part of Mr. Biden’s answer in which he had referred to subsidies. “He was very clear in his answer, he was saying that he was going to eliminate oil subsidies,” she said in a call with reporters. “I think, you know, writ large, the idea of transitioning off of oil is nothing new,” she added, invoking George W. Bush’s remarks on the subject in 2006. By Annie Karni
President Trump came to the debate ready with his regular wrap on race when asked to explain his description of “Black Lives Matter” as a symbol of hate: He claimed he had done more than any president since Abraham Lincoln for African-Americans, and he called himself the “least racist person in this room.” (Never mind that the moderator of the debate, Kristen Welker, is a Black woman.) But he has limited achievements to back up the ludicrous claims he regularly makes as part of his stump speech. He typically points to criminal justice reform and his support for historically Black colleges and universities as the twin backbones of his support for Black Americans. On Thursday night, he also talked about creating opportunity zones. It’s all been part of an effort to shave off a few points of Mr. Biden’s support among Black voters. Mr. Trump won just 8 percent of Black voters in 2016 and his campaign wants to increase his margin by a few points. Mr. Biden, however, appeared to take him by surprise by mocking the claims. “Abraham Lincoln here is one of the most racist presidents we’ve had in modern history,” Mr. Biden said. “He pours fuel on every single racist fire.”
Mr. Trump has refused to denounce white supremacists and in recent days even reverted to calling President Barack Obama by his middle name, “Hussein,” a callback to the racist birther conspiracy theory that helped launch Mr. Trump into the national political discourse. Mr. Trump has never apologized for spending tens of thousands of dollars on full-page newspaper ads calling for the return of the death penalty to punish the Black and Latino teenagers, known as the Central Park Five, who were wrongfully accused of raping a white woman in Central Park in 1989. Instead, he doubled down. And since taking office, he has frequently stoked racial tensions, elevating the voices of white nationalists when he appeared to defend their actions after a deadly confrontation with liberal protesters in Charlottesville, Va.
Onstage, Mr. Biden said, “this guy is a dog whistle about as big as a foghorn,” noting that at the previous debate he had told the Proud Boys to “stand by.”
“I said not since Abraham Lincoln has anybody done what I’ve done for the Black community,” Mr. Trump said, correcting him. “I didn’t say ‘I’m Abraham Lincoln.’ I said not since Abraham Lincoln has anybody done what I’ve done for the Black community.”
He also hit Mr. Biden for supporting the 1994 crime bill, which “put tens of thousands of Black men, mostly, in jail.”
Mr. Biden conceded that his support for that bill was “a mistake.”
By Reid J. Epstein
Four years ago, Donald J. Trump ran for and won the presidency by arguing that he wasn’t like any other politician — and he wasn’t. Now trailing badly with less than two weeks to go before Americans will decide whether he will be re-elected, Mr. Trump used the final debate with former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to try to paint Mr. Biden as an incumbent-type figure, a regular politician while describing himself, after nearly four years in the White House, as the outsider. “Just a typical politician,” Mr. Trump sneered at Mr. Biden early in the debate. When Mr. Biden described how he’d deal with criminal justice reform, Mr. Trump snapped, “Why didn’t you do it” while in office. “You had eight years with Obama. You know why, Joe? Because you’re all talk and no action.”
Describing himself as the outsider, while not consistent with his status as the sitting president, is perhaps Mr. Trump’s last best card to play in the 2020 campaign. The coalition that elected him four years ago wanted a president who would shake up the old ways of Washington, and Mr. Trump has used the final debate to argue, again, that he would do that while Mr. Biden would not. The only problem with this argument is that Mr. Trump is, at least for now, the president of the United States. By Maggie Astor
Kristen Welker, the second Black woman to moderate a presidential debate on her own, asked the candidates directly on Thursday about an experience that Black families have every day, but that is rarely discussed on a national debate stage: The Talk, the conversation that Black parents must have with their children, telling them how to behave so police officers will not shoot them. Mr. Biden responded by talking about his daughter, who is a social worker. “I never had to tell my daughter, if she’s pulled over, make sure she puts — for a traffic stop — put both hands on top of the wheel and don’t reach for the glove box, because someone may shoot you,” he said. “But a Black parent, no matter how wealthy or how poor they are, has to teach their child: When you are walking down the street, don’t have a hoodie on when you go across the street. Making sure that you in fact, if you get pulled over, just ‘Yes sir,' ‘no sir,’ hands on top of the wheel.”
He continued: “The fact of the matter is, there is institutional racism in America.”
President Trump responded with one of his favorite claims: that he has done more for Black people than any president in American history, “with the exception of Abraham Lincoln, possible exception.” His actions do not remotely back up this claim. Mr. Trump pointed, as he often does, to the criminal justice reform bill he signed, and to the 1994 crime bill that Mr. Biden signed. But, while he said he understood Black parents’ fear, his administration has repeatedly attacked racial justice movements, and he has refused to directly condemn white supremacists. Just two weeks ago, in the vice-presidential debate, Vice President Mike Pence claimed it was offensive to say there is systemic racism in the United States. By Reid J. Epstein
President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. sparred over each other’s history on criminal justice, with each accusing the other of being too tough on crime. Mr. Trump, who has campaigned on his fealty to America’s police departments, played up his commutations and signing of a criminal justice reform law while slamming Mr. Biden for pushing the 1994 crime bill. “Your crime bill, the super predators,” Mr. Trump said. “Nobody has done more for the Black community than Donald Trump. | Government Job change - Election | October 2020 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
Kuwait names Ali al–Momen as its first ambassador to Iraq since the Gulf War. | KUWAIT CITY (AFP) — Kuwait said on Thursday it has decided to name former army chief of staff Ali al-Momen as its first ambassador in Baghdad since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of the emirate.
Kuwait's emir is expected to issue a decree soon naming Momen as ambassador to Iraq, the state KUNA news agency quoted Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah as saying.
"We have recommended the nomination of Momen as Kuwait's ambassador to Iraq to the emir ... and we are awaiting an emiri decree appointing him in the post," he said.
The minister did not say when Momen would take up his functions or how many diplomats would be posted in Baghdad, saying only that "there are lengthy diplomatic procedures which will take their course."
It will be the first time Kuwait has had an ambassador in Baghdad since it was invaded by Saddam Hussein's regime in 1990. The oil-rich Gulf emirate was liberated from seven months of Iraqi occupation by a US-led coalition in the 1991 Gulf war.
Kuwait is the latest in a string of Sunni-ruled Arab states to announce that they are sending ambassadors to Baghdad amid pressure from Washington to upgrade relations with Iraq's Shiite-led government as a counterweight to Shiite Iran.
Bahrain, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have all recently named ambassadors.
Momen, who was chief of staff in the 1990s and subsequently retired from the army, heads a centre set up in Kuwait in coordination with the United Nations to provide humanitarian aid to Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam.
No Arab ambassador is currently in post in Baghdad for security reasons.
Kuwaiti foreign ministry undersecretary Khaled al-Jarallah said last week that the Kuwaiti embassy will probably be located in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone compound which houses government offices and the US embassy. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | July 2008 | ['(AFP via Google News)'] |
Protesters storm the Presidential Palace in Aden, Yemen, amidst anger over the lack of services and poor living conditions. | Demonstrators disperse shortly after breaking into Maashiq Presidential Palace amid public anger over the dire economic situation.
Angry protesters have been peacefully pushed back after they stormed the presidential palace in Yemen’s southern city of Aden, the seat of the war-torn country’s internationally-recognised government.
Demonstrators had broken into the Maashiq Presidential Palace earlier on Tuesday amid public anger over the lack of services, poor living conditions and depreciation of the local currency.
A government official told Al Jazeera Yemeni and Saudi forces evacuated members of the cabinet, including Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, to a military building situated near the palace grounds.
Local sources told Al Jazeera the protesters had found no resistance from forces loyal to the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC). Some carried flags of the STC separatist movement.
Al Jazeera’s Jamal Elshayyal said the protesters are members of the national security forces who have not been paid for nine months.
The palace, which the government had taken as its headquarters, is guarded by Saudi troops on the inside, Elshayyal said.
“But from the outside, it is guarded by the separatists – the STC – which is backed by the United Arab Emirates, which in theory is meant to be backing Saudi Arabia but in reality has been supporting the separatists that have been calling for a secession,” he explained.
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Meanwhile, a separate demonstration broke out in Yemen’s eastern city of Sayoun in Hadramout province, after dozens of people stormed a governmental complex in protest against dire living conditions and continuous increases in prices.
Forces affiliated with Yemen’s internationally-recognised government fired shots in the air to disperse the crowds while protesters burned car tyres in the streets nearby.
The STC condemned the government forces’ response to the protests.
Yemen has been racked by violence and instability since 2014, when Houthi rebels captured much of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.
In the south, a new unity government was formed last year under a power-sharing deal brokered by Riyadh, in a bid to end the power struggle between the separatist STC and loyalists to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is backed by Saudi Arabia.
The goal was to unite both sides in the fight against the Houthis, who control the country’s northern areas.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | March 2021 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
The Greek opposition leader Antonis Samaras resigns as leader of his party, New Democracy; the new temporary leader is Evangelos Meimarakis. | In light of the referendum result on Sunday, Antonis Samaras announced his departure from the helm of New Democracy.
Mr. Samaras called Greece’s European partners to help the governmentHe also announced that Evangelos Meimarakis would temporarily assume the party’s leadership. Rumors regarding Mr. Samaras’ resignation had circulated earlier in the day. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | July 2015 | ['(To Vima)'] |
The United States Senate confirms the nomination of Elena Kagan as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. | Washington (CNN) -- Solicitor General Elena Kagan was easily confirmed Thursday as the next associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, completing the 50-year-old native New Yorker's climb to the peak of the American legal profession.
The 63-37 vote was mostly along party lines. Five GOP senators backed Kagan, and only one Democrat -- Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska -- opposed her. Republican leaders offered spirited floor opposition to the nominee, but were unable to muster a prolonged delay or filibuster of the vote.
Kagan is set to begin a lifetime position as the nation's 112th justice. She will be sworn into office Saturday afternoon, taking the traditional constitutional and judicial oaths. The newest justice will then be able to assume her court duties immediately.
Her brisk confirmation was a political victory for President Barack Obama -- who placed Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the high court last year -- and for Senate Democrats. Obama after the vote predicted Kagan will be an "outstanding Supreme Court justice," and thanked senators for giving his nominee a fair and timely hearing.
"They got a sense of her formidable intelligence, her rich understanding of our Constitution, her commitment to the rule of law, and her excellent and occasionally irreverent sense of humor," said the president. "And they have come to understand why, throughout her career, she has earned the respect and admiration of folks from across the political spectrum, an achievement reflected in today's bipartisan vote."
Kagan was the administration's solicitor general when Obama nominated her on May 10 to replace retired Justice John Paul Stevens. She will become the current court's youngest member and third woman.
White House and Justice Department sources said Kagan watched the confirmation vote on television at the Justice Department, with colleagues in the solicitor general's office.
During the final day of floor debate, Republicans continued to raise deep concerns over what they contended was Kagan's lack of judicial experience, her views on gun rights, and her past work inside the Clinton White House.
They said that she will become a judicial "activist" intent on twisting the law to fit her personal political agenda.
"Throughout Ms. Kagan's career she has put her politics above the law," said Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee and leader of opposition to Kagan.
"The American people will not easily forgive this Senate if we confirm Ms. Kagan to the Supreme Court. They will not easily forgive the Senate if we further expose our Constitution to revision and rewrite by judicial fiat."
Among other things, Republicans have repeatedly slammed Kagan's handling of military recruiters seeking access to the Harvard Law School campus earlier this decade, when Kagan served as dean. Kagan has said she staunchly opposes the military's "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military.
One last-minute "no" vote came from Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, the chamber's newest Republican.
"I believe nominees to the Supreme Court should have previously served on the bench," said Brown, generally considered to be a key moderate. "Lacking that, I look for many years of practical courtroom experience to compensate for the absence of prior judicial experience. In Elena Kagan's case, she is missing both.
"The best umpires," he said, referencing to a popular line from Chief Justice John Roberts' confirmation hearings, "must not only call balls and strikes, but also have spent enough time on the playing field to know the strike zone."
Brown, who replaced the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy in February, had earlier effusively praised Kagan, and personally introduced her at the start of her confirmation hearings in June. Kagan lived in Massachusetts for several years before becoming solicitor general.
Democrats argued that Kagan possesses the intelligence and professional background necessary to be a force on the high court. They said they hope she will help counter what many on the left contend are excessively conservative court rulings that defy the will of Congress while hurting individual workers and voters.
When confirmed, "average Americans will be a step closer to once again having their voices heard in the highest court in the land," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York.
"Elena Kagan is a role model for so many women entering the legal profession today," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California.
"Her intellect, other broad range of legal experience, her sense of fairness (and) her profound respect for the law make her well-qualified to serve as an associate justice of the court."
Conservative opposition to Kagan failed to resonate this election year, a stark contrast to the heated Supreme Court confirmation battles of Roberts and Samuel Alito in 2005. Television and radio ads from advocacy groups were few, and serious grassroots outrage never materialized.
Administration officials painted Kagan as a moderate liberal, and many legal analysts seemed to agree she was a politically safe pick for Obama.
"The president probably got exactly what he wanted, and that's not someone who makes either the far right or the far left terribly happy. She seems to be a centrist, pragmatic progressive -- someone who's on the left but not the extreme left," said Thomas Goldstein, a top Washington lawyer and founder of the Web site scotusblog.com.
"She's a nominee without much of a track record, and therefore not much to attack. And the air really went entirely out of the balloon when trying to draw attention to her, maybe paint her as a liberal, or create her as an issue for the upcoming elections in November."
Kagan was born in Manhattan in 1960, one of three children of a lawyer father and schoolteacher mother. She graduated from Harvard Law School and served in a prestigious Supreme Court clerkship with the late Justice Thurgood Marshall.
While never a judge herself, Kagan's resume is diverse: work on Michael Dukakis' 1988 presidential campaign; a lawyer in private practice for two years; stints as a law professor and later, dean; four years as a legal and policy adviser in the Clinton White House; and most recently as solicitor general in the Obama Justice Department.
She supervised every federal appeal presented to the high court during her tenure at the Justice Department, and personally argued six cases before the same justices she will now count as colleagues.
Kagan will join a closely divided court that often splits in favor of a shaky 5-4 conservative majority. Despite no judicial record to draw clues on the kind of justice she would become, White House officials had quietly assured allies Kagan would be a "reliable" liberal vote similar to Stevens, the well-respected unofficial leader of the left-leaning bloc on the court. She is, therefore, not expected to tilt the current ideological balance on the high court.
Among the cases she will confront in her first term beginning in October will be disputes over protests at military funerals, state bans on violent video games, and the death penalty. High-profile appeals that may reach the court in the next couple of years include Arizona's sweeping immigration reform law and California's ban on same-sex marriage. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | August 2010 | ['(CNN)'] |
A Nigerian hospital worker is arrested for possessing bags that contain more than 70 dead babies. | A man carrying bags containing more than 70 dead babies has been arrested in Nigeria. He was employed by the Lagos University Teaching Hospital to take the corpses to a cemetery.
The worker was allegedly trying to dump the corpses as he could not afford burial fees. A hospital spokesman said it was co-operating with police investigations into the incident.
A BBC correspondent in Lagos says many families are too devastated to deal with the dead babies and others cannot afford morgue fees, so abandon them outside hospitals. Hospitals hire contractors to bury the corpses. A police preliminary investigation also led to the arrest of some workers in the Department of Morbid and Anatomy at the teaching hospital, said Lagos state police public relations officer Frank Mba.
He also said that the suspect had not intended to use the bodies in any rituals. "We are sure that the suspect is neither a ritualist nor a murderer nor a trafficker. Other contending issues like corruption and abuse of office will be investigated," Mr Mba added. The hospital described the incident as an embarrassment to the organisation.
The BBC's Fidelis Mbah says there's been a state of shock and disbelief among people in Lagos who cannot believe that a hospital with the magnitude of Lagos University Teaching Hospital would allow a contactor to handle that many corpses without supervision from its staff. Nigerians face baby poison charge
'Bad syrup' kills Nigerian babies
-- Lagos University Teaching Hospital --
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | July 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
The SITE Institute, a terroristmonitoring organisation, states that the alQaeda affiliated Islamic State of Iraq has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on the offices of AlArabiya Television in Baghdad that killed four people and injured at least 10. | Four people were killed and more than 10 others wounded in Baghdad on Monday when a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle by the offices of Al Arabiya, its correspondent in Baghdad and interior ministry officials said. The bomber struck at around 9:30 am (06:30 GMT) in front of the station's bureau in the city center, leaving a massive crater and sending a plume of smoke into the air that could be seen from several kilometers (miles) away. Majid Hamid, a journalist for Al Arabiya, said four people had been killed in the attack -- three security guards and a female office assistant. That toll was confirmed by an official at al-Yarmuk hospital in west Baghdad.
An interior ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity said that former deputy prime minister Salam al-Zawbayi and two of his guards were among the wounded. "There was a huge explosion that shook the building -- all the rooms were damaged," Al Arabiya journalist Tareq Maher said in a live broadcast. Maher said he was in the building when the blast occurred, adding that the building sustained heavy damage and the explosion left a massive crater.The street in front of the channel's offices was covered in shards of glass and debris, and nearby buildings showed signs of damage as did several cars. Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim Atta said that the explosives-laden vehicle had passed through a checkpoint, and charged that there may have been "cooperation" between the car's driver and the guards. Major General Jihad al-Jaabari, the head of the Iraqi army's explosives handling unit, said the bomber was an Iraqi and added that the vehicle was carrying more than 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of ammonium nitrate. "He was waved through, but if they had searched him, it would have been easy to find the explosive material," Jaabari said.
The bomber, who was driving a minibus, was apparently waved through the first checkpoint after security guards checked his identification, Iraqi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said. A total of 249 media workers have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, according to the Iraq-based Journalism Freedom Observatory.Al Arabiya TV is among the most popular Arabic news stations and has been targeted in the past. In September 2008, its Baghdad bureau chief, Jawad Hattab, escaped unharmed after spotting a bomb, which would-be assassins had attached to his car, before it was detonated by remote control. In October 2006, a car bomb targeting the channel's then bureau killed seven people and wounded 20. And in February 2006, Al Arabiya presenter Atwar Bahjat and two of her colleagues were kidnapped and murdered in the town of Samarra north of Baghdad as they covered the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine.Iraq is on high alert for insurgent attacks after a March 7 national election produced no clear winner and left the country adrift in political uncertainty. Overall violence has dropped sharply since the height of sectarian carnage in 2006-7. But daily bombings and killings continue, suggesting insurgents are trying to exploit the vacuum as political rivals jostle for power. | Armed Conflict | July 2010 | ['(AFP via Google News)', '(Middle East News)'] |
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge is meeting with the head of wrestling's governing body in an attempt to revive the sport for the 2020 Summer Olympics. | Facing a wave of criticism from around the world, IOC President Jacques Rogge will meet with the head of wrestling's governing body to discuss ways the sport can fight to save its place in the Olympics.
The IOC executive board dropped wrestling from the program of the 2020 Games on Tuesday, a decision which brought a sharp backlash from wrestling organizations and national Olympic bodies around the world — including the United States, Russia and Iran.
The move must still be ratified by the full International Olympic Committee in September, giving wrestling time to try to overturn a decision against a sport which dates back to the ancient Olympics and has been featured since the inaugural modern games in 1896.
Rogge said Wednesday he has been contacted by Raphael Martinetti, the Swiss president of international wrestling federation FILA, and was encouraged by the sport's resolve to make changes and fight for its place.
"We agreed we would meet at the first opportunity to have discussions," Rogge said at a news conference at the close of a two-day board meeting. "I should say FILA reacted well to this disheartening news for them.
"They vowed to adapt the sport and vowed to fight to be eventually included in the 2020 slot."
Wrestling, which remains on the program for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, still has a chance to stay on the list for 2020 — if it manages to respond decisively to the wakeup call and convince the IOC to reverse course.
"This is not the end of the day. The door is not closed," IOC Vice President Thomas Bach of Germany said. "It's good to see the reaction of FILA to say, 'OK we have understood, we have to do something and we will present a plan for the future of wrestling.' That is the right attitude."
Wrestling now joins seven other sports vying for one opening on the 2020 program: a combined bid from baseball and softball, karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and the martial art of wushu.
The IOC executive board will meet in May in St. Petersburg, Russia, to decide which sport or sports to propose for 2020 inclusion. The final vote will be made at the IOC general assembly in September in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
"The vote of yesterday is not an elimination of wrestling from the Olympic Games," Rogge said. "Wrestling will participate in the games in Rio de Janeiro. To the athletes who train now, I say, 'Continue training for your participation in Rio. Your federation is working for the inclusion in the 2020 Games.'"
Rogge was asked whether Tuesday's decision marked an end to wrestling's Olympic hopes.
"I cannot look into a crystal ball into the future," he said. "We have established a fair process by which the sport that would not be included in the core has a chance to compete with the seven other sports for the slot on the 2020 Games."
Rogge said he was fully aware of the strength of criticism leveled at the IOC for the move.
"We knew even before the decision was taken whatever sport would not be included in the core program would lead to criticism from the supporters of that sport," he said.
Still, complaints continued to pour in Wednesday from different parts of the world, uniting the U.S. and Iran on an issue in ways never imagined in diplomatic circles. The U.S. and Russia were also unlikely allies in the save-wrestling campaign. | Sports Competition | February 2013 | ['(AP via ABC News)'] |
The United States government avoids another government shutdown when President Trump signs the 1.3 Trillion dollar omnibus spending bill into law. This bill ensures no more shutdown threats until October 1, 2018. , | Just hours after threatening a veto, President Trump said Friday afternoon that he had signed a “ridiculous” $1.3 trillion spending bill passed by Congress early Friday, averting a government shutdown.
In a morning tweet, Trump said he might veto the omnibus bill because it did nothing to address the fate of young undocumented immigrants known as “dreamers” and did not fully fund his border wall.
But speaking to reporters at the White House about four hours later, Trump said he had decided to sign the bill despite his reservations, arguing that it provides much-needed funding for the military, including a pay increase for troops and new equipment.
“My highest duty is to keep America safe,” Trump said. “We need to take care of our military.”
Still, he voiced disdain for the hasty way the bill was passed.
“I say to Congress, I will never sign another bill like this again,” Trump said, also calling on Congress to give him a line-item veto, a tool that the Supreme Court has said is unconstitutional for a president.
“There are a lot of things that I’m unhappy about in this bill,” he said later in his 20-minute remarks, telling reporters that he had “very seriously” considered a veto.
Why did Trump threaten to veto a spending bill hours before he signed it?
The announcement, which Trump teased in a separate tweet an hour before, capped off a wild morning in the White House and on Capitol Hill. Several aides scrambled to persuade the president not to follow through with his veto threat.
In his tweet Friday morning, Trump said that those protected from deportation by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program have been “totally abandoned” by Congress, and he blamed the Democrats.
Trump, who decided last fall to end the DACA program, was seeking a deal that would give Democrats protections they sought for the program's recipients in exchange for additional funding of $25 billion for his long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall. The bill includes $1.6 billion for fencing and other border security measures.
“I am considering a VETO of the Omnibus Spending Bill based on the fact that the 800,000 plus DACA recipients have been totally abandoned by the Democrats (not even mentioned in Bill) and the BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not fully funded,” Trump said in his tweet.
In his remarks at the White House, Trump said he was disappointed in the level of border-security funding but pledged to do as much as possible with it and to seek more money from Congress.
Saying he was addressing Hispanics, Trump argued that his party is more interested in the fate of dreamers than Democrats are.
“Republicans are much more on your side than the Democrats, who are using you for their own purposes,” the president said. His aides have argued Democrats are trying to use DACA as an election issue.
People familiar with Trump’s thinking said the president was frustrated with the bill and the coverage it was receiving, particularly on Fox News, where critics took aim at the level of spending in the bill.
“He doesn’t care as much about the spending levels, but he knows all of his conservative friends do,” said a senior White House official who requested anonymity to speak more candidly.
Lawmakers have left town on a two-week recess, some of them on overseas trips and with no plans to return to Washington. The House passed the bill midday Thursday, and the Senate cleared the measure early Friday, shortly after midnight.
In late-night drama, Senate passes $1.3 trillion spending bill, averting government shutdown
Trump had until midnight Friday to sign a bill, or a government shutdown would have ensued.
The legislation funds the federal government for the remainder of the 2018 budget year, through Sept. 30, directing $700 billion toward the military and $591 billion to domestic agencies. The military spending is a $66 billion increase over the 2017 level, and the nondefense spending is $52 billion more than last year.
The spending bill is widely expected to be the last major legislation that Congress will pass before the November midterm elections, increasing pressure to jam the bill full of odds and ends, with provisions addressing areas as varied as guns and invasive carp.
The lack of an immigration deal in the spending bill had set already set off a round of recriminations, with the White House aggressively trying to deflect responsibility.
Trump’s veto threat only intensified the blame game Friday morning.
“Let's not forget that you ended DACA and torpedoed every possible bipartisan fix. This is on you,” Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) said on Twitter.
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) accused Trump of making a “loser’s bluff.”
“Go ahead and veto the omnibus over DACA. We dare you,” Pocan said on Twitter. “Everyone knows you’re the reason DACA recipients are abandoned.”
Meanwhile, lawmakers who opposed the spending bill on other grounds used the occasion to urge Trump to follow through with his threat.
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), head of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, urged Trump to veto the bill: “The@freedomcaucus would fully support you in this move, Mr. President. Let's pass a short term [continuing resolution] while you negotiate a better deal for the forgotten men and women of America.”
Also urging Trump to veto the bill was Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who in a tweet Friday morning said: “Please do, Mr. President. I am just down the street and will bring you a pen. The spending levels without any offsets are grotesque, throwing all of our children under the bus. Totally irresponsible.”
Before the Senate’s early-morning vote Friday, Corker had complained about the process of rushing the bill through Congress.
Several other conservative lawmakers egged Trump on Friday morning, complaining about the amount of spending and the rushed process. But there was no indication that Trump shared those concerns.
Instead, in his veto threat Friday, Trump proposed something that conservative hard-liners have largely rejected in recent months — trading dreamer protections for border-wall money. Conservatives, emboldened by a White House proposal released in January, have insisted that any immigration deal go further, cutting several programs that allow foreign nationals to live in the United States legally.
Other senior Republicans made Twitter pleas urging Trump to sign the bill. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) rattled off several policy wins in a Friday tweet directed at the president, including a gun-related measure long championed by the Texas Republican that was included in the 2,232-page spending measure.
“While Ds obstructed normal appropriations process, forcing an Omnibus, the benefits of Omnibus to national security, border security, opioid crisis, infrastructure, school safety and fixing gun background check system are important and will save lives. @realDonaldTrump,” Cornyn tweeted Friday.
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said of Trump’s threat: “I hope he doesn’t do it. That’s my reaction.”
“I don’t think what we did was the best thing we could have done,” Isakson added. “But it was the only thing we could have done, so to veto it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to me.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) sized up the president’s veto threat Friday morning this way: “Art of the Deal-Wrecker!” He urged the president to sign the bill.
“One day after his own [Office of Management and Budget] director said he would sign it … he’s now saying he’s thinking about vetoing it,” Kaine told reporters. “What, does he just want to create more confusion and chaos? I don’t get it.”
Kaine said Trump’s professed concern about DACA recipients is not sincere, saying he walked away from an offer from Democrats weeks ago to protect them in exchange for more border-security funding.
“He was the one who poured cold water on it and killed it among the Republicans just a month ago,” Kaine said.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said: “This is classic Trump. He says one thing and then he does something completely different.”
Van Hollen added, “He’s actually one of the worst negotiators I’ve ever seen.”
Although Trump aides declared Thursday that Trump intended to sign the bill, there were signs of his displeasure with various aspects of it.
On Wednesday, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) rushed to the White House to reassure Trump.
The president was upset with the lack of money for his border wall, and he griped about a proposed tunnel between New York and New Jersey — a project beloved by Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) — that Trump tried to block as part of the negotiations.
Veto threats were made then, too, but after conversations with Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the White House issued a statement saying Trump supported the bill.
“Is the president going to sign the bill? The answer is yes,” Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters at the White House on Thursday afternoon.
On Thursday, the White House also issued a lengthy release titled “The American People Win as President Donald J. Trump’s Priorities are Funded,” with a long list of specific items in the massive legislation.
Asked about the president’s tweet Friday, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement, “The tweet stands for itself.”
| Government Policy Changes | March 2018 | ['(Federal News Radio)', '(The Washington Post)'] |
China says that relations will be undermined if U.S. President Barack Obama meets the Dalai Lama. | BEIJING: A senior Chinese official Tuesday warned of serious damage to Sino-US relations if US leaders were to meet with the Dalai Lama, saying the move would "harm others but bring no profit to itself either."
Such a move would be both irrational and harmful, he said. "If a country decides to do so, we will take necessary measures to help them realize this."
Govt holds press conference on talks with Dalai envoys China's State Council Information Office held a press conference Tuesday morning to brief media on the latest talks between central government officials and private representatives of the Dalai Lama. | Famous Person - Give a speech | February 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(China Daily)', '(CBC)'] |
Hungary's Defense Minister Csaba Hende resigns amid the refugee crisis. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán immediately replaced Hende with a member of his Fidesz party, István Simicskó. | BUDAPEST, Hungary, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Hungary's Defense Minister Csaba Hende became one of the first political casualties of the Syrian refugee crisis on Monday.
The minister resigned as his home country continues to face criticism for its handling of the crisis. The news came after political leaders in Hungary gathered for a national security meeting on Monday.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a right-wing politician who has been critical of Europe's handling of the crisis, immediately replaced Hende with Istvan Simicsko, a member Orban's Fidesz party. Orban has pushed for the deployment of Hungarian troops to the border in order to stem the influx of refugees from the Middle East.
The political turmoil caused by the ongoing crisis is of no comparison to very real human costs associated with the crisis. Thousands of refugees desperately fleeing violence in Syria and elsewhere continue to arrive in Austria and Hungary, and on the shores of Greece.
The majority of them arrive with hopes of reaching Germany. Both Germany and France have ramped up their efforts to welcome and accommodate refugees, but the mass migration continues to tax the resources of less wealthy nations along the way.
Local municipalities in Greece have been overwhelmed by the arrival of refugees, most of whom are coming from the shores of Turkey. Politicians in Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos, a Greek island with just 85,000 inhabitants, is pleading for help from the Greek government after more than 15,000 refugees arrived on their beaches.
"Mytilene currently has 15,000-17,000 refugees and this is the official figure from all services," Yiannis Mouzalas, a junior interior minister, told To Vima radio. "We are placing emphasis here because the situation is on the verge of explosion."
Meanwhile, heads of state in Western Europe are promising to take in more refugees. French president Francois Hollande said his country would house 24,000 refugees over the next two years, while Prime Minister David Cameron announced a five-year plan to resettle 20,000 asylum seekers.
Additionally, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany, which has so far been most accommodating and active in responding to the crisis, pledged to set aside an additional $6.7 billion for refugee services. Germany is expected to take in some 800,000 refugees by the end of 2015. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | September 2015 | ['(UPI)'] |
Republican Party voters, in precinct gatherings, hold the Nevada caucuses with Donald Trump winning, Marco Rubio coming second, and Ted Cruz finishing in third place. , , Oregon Live) | The Nevada Republican caucuses took place Tuesday, February 23. This post provides hour-by-hour news, exit polls, results and analysis.
The Republican Party as you've always known it is gone. A new entity has risen to take its place, one that neither party officials nor pundits understand. "Suddenly, there are three strands of Republicanism, each entrenched and vying for supremacy in 2016," Politico wrote after Tuesday's Nevada Caucus. "Ted Cruz is the leader of the traditional conservative purists. Marco Rubio is emerging from the mud of a multi-candidate brawl to lead the once-dominant, now diminished, mainstream lane of the GOP. But it is Donald Trump's new alliance of angry populists that is ascendant -- and on the precipice of dominance." All true enough, though the part about Rubio is a little misleading. So-called "traditional" Republicans like former presidential nominee Bob Dole are lining up behind Rubio, but it's not because he's one of them. He's simply not Trump or Cruz. Keep in mind that Rubio was a Tea Party favorite when he ran for the U.S. Senate in 2010. His agenda is extreme compared to the one that Dole ran on in 1996. So we're in a whole new world in this election. Is the Republican Party becoming a fringe party -- or has the country truly changed so dramatically that Trump now represents mainstream American political thought? Time will tell. Final results in Nevada:
Donald Trump: 45.9%
Marco Rubio: 23.9%
Ted Cruz: 21.4%
Ben Carson: 4.8%
Businessman and reality-TV star Donald Trump has won the Nevada Republican Caucus, news sources project. After placing second to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the Iowa Caucus on Feb. 1, Trump has now won three straight elections by wide margins: the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries and the Nevada Caucus. Trump now heads to the March 1 multiple-state Super Tuesday contest with powerful momentum. If he wins a majority of the states next week, it will become very difficult for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Texas Gov. Ted Cruz or anyone else to stop his march to the Republican presidential nomination. Last June, when Trump announced he was running for president, his candidacy was widely considered a joke, nothing more than a shameless play for attention. Reports circulated that he had to pay people to show up and cheer at his announcement event, and NBC figured Trump would be out of the race and back on the network's prime-time schedule by the fall. "We will re-evaluate Trump's role as host of 'Celebrity Apprentice' should it become necessary, as we are committed to this franchise," NBC declared. Eight months later, Trump is not just the front-runner for the Republican nomination, he is beginning to look unbeatable. He has been replaced on "Celebrity Apprentice" by action-movie star and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Can bring needed change: 22 percent. That's right, a candidate who could win the general election mattered the most to only one in four Nevada Republican caucus-goers.
Here are some entrance/exit poll numbers from Nevada caucus sites:
61 percent of Nevada Republican caucus-goers want the presidential nominee to "be an outsider." 33 percent want the nominee to "have experience" in Washington politics. About 60 percent says they're "angry at the way the federal government is working." This all falls in line with the entrance/exit polls in New Hampshire and South Carolina that indicated voters want someone who will explode the Washington status quo. The polls are, needless to say, a very good sign for Donald Trump. The entrance polls also show that 24 percent of caucus-goers chose a candidate in the "last few days." Nevada Republicans are split four ways on what they consider the most important issue facing the country. Immigration, terrorism, the economy and government spending all landed in the 20 percent to 30 percent range. Update (February 23, 7:25 p.m. PT): The Trump Show
Have you been wondering how real-estate mogul Donald Trump became a star among Republican Party voters? Then you must not watch "Fox & Friends." On Monday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich blamed -- and considering the tenor of the conversation, that seems like the right word -- the Fox News program for creating the Trump political phenomenon. Trump appeared on the show every Monday for four years, until he launched his presidential campaign last spring. The regular segment was called, simply, "Mondays with Trump." "Look, you could say that Trump is the candidate 'Fox & Friends' invented," Gingrich said on the show, reports Daily Beast. "He was on your show I think more than any other show. It was always a happy, positive conversation." And you thought Trump hated Fox News. Pathetic attempt by @foxnews to try and build up ratings for the #GOPDebate. Without me they'd have no ratings! https://t.co/2bx54VKpQh
Update (February 23, 6:20 p.m. PT): Anybody but Trump
"If Trump is blowing through March, then the panic really sets in, and then it's all about simply denying him a majority of delegates, doing whatever it takes," MSNBC political analyst Chuck Todd said Tuesday, according to Real Clear Politics. "There is still a filing deadline to make the California primary. Maybe a Mitt Romney. This is a scenario someone outlined to me a couple days ago. Mitt Romney would file late, you may get favorite sons and daughters to file late, simply to try to beat Trump, deny him delegates and create another way for a brokered convention. I have to tell you, it's most far-fetched." That is indeed most far-fetched. But it does suggest that so-called "establishment" Republicans -- and few politicians represent the GOP establishment more than Romney -- really are panicking over Trump. It's not necessarily because they think the real-estate mogul would do a poor job as president. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman had some nice things to say about Trump this week. It's because they're realists. And they still don't believe that a boastful, pro-torture, pro-mass deportation New Yorker can win over independents and disaffected Democrats in a general election. Polling in South Carolina last week found that 38 percent of Trump voters "wish the South had won the Civil War." These are the kind of numbers you expect a third-party crank to get, not the nominee of one of the two major political parties in the country. So what will stop Trump? Clearly, it's not his controversial policy proposals such as the "beautiful wall" he plans to build along the southern border. The more far out his ideas, the more they're embraced by Republican voters who are fed up with the status quo. So maybe -- like Karl Rove attacking John Kerry's war record in 2004 -- the anti-Trump faction will try attacking the real-estate mogul's strength: his record as a businessman. So far Trump hasn't really been vetted, but that is now starting to happen. The Economist looked at his business career in its latest issue. It concluded that, yes, he's made good money in real estate (as well as impressively turning himself into a reality-TV star), but "Mr. Trump's [organization's] performance has been mediocre compared with the stock market and property in New York." The conservative British magazine concludes:
"He has great wealth, much of it made well over a decade ago from a few buildings he has retained in Manhattan, including his favorite on Fifth Avenue. But he has not yet created a great company, raised permanent capital on public markets, gone global or diversified very successfully. Something to think about when you are sipping an $18 'You're Fired' Bloody Mary at the Trump Tower -- or voting in a presidential election." You can expect Trump's remaining rivals in the GOP presidential contest to pick up on this line of attack. Update (5:10 p.m. PT): The Rubio reality
Old-school Republicans like 1996 GOP presidential nominee Robert Dole are lining up to support Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. But Nobel Prize-winning economist and liberal New York Times opinion writer Paul Krugman insists that "one shouldn't treat establishment support as an indication that Mr. Rubio is moderate and sensible. On the contrary, not long ago someone holding his policy views would have been considered a fringe crank." Krugman writes that Rubio's proposed tax cuts and balanced-budget-amendment plan are contradictory and would be "catastrophic" in a recession. And that's just for starters. Rubio, it should be remembered, was a Tea Party favorite when he ran for the U.S. Senate in 2010. But 2010's Republican radical is today's reasonable alternative. That is, when the front-runner for the GOP nomination is businessman Donald Trump, who has channeled outsider outrage at Washington business-as-usual and been rewarded for it. Trump has little on-the-ground organization in Nevada but is expected to win the state's caucuses tonight. Rubio, who has yet to win a primary or caucus, must score a strong second place to maintain the narrative that he's the logical choice for so-called "establishment" Republicans. Update (February 23, 4:35 p.m. PT): Governor who? Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval is a Republican and easily the most popular politician in his state. But none of the GOP presidential candidates have been eager to be seen with him in the run-up to Tuesday's caucuses. Politico points out the problem: Last year, he signed a tax increase into law. It doesn't matter than it was for education, an issue that's important to people of every ideological persuasion. He OK'd a tax increase, and ever since President George H.W. Bush went back on his "Read my lips, no new taxes" pledge more than two decades ago, that's just not OK for a Republican. That said, Sandoval might just need to be patient. "When the general election comes, Sandoval's endorsement will be desperately needed," Politico writes. "Democrats privately fear he could be a potent weapon to drive Latino and Hispanic turnout. But in an unpredictable and highly partisan GOP caucus, with many conservative Republicans alleging betrayal by Sandoval over his historic tax hike and threatening revolt, the endorsement of the Nevada governor is seen as more of a headache than a helpmate. And no one is quite sure what to do about him." The easy answer for Republican presidential candidates: ignore him. But at least one of them probably will be singing a different tune in a few months. Update (February 23, 4 p.m. PT): Bring on the best and brightest
Jon Hunstman, the former Republican Utah governor who served as ambassador to China under President Obama, was considered too moderate ideologically and too mild-mannered temperamentally to be taken seriously by primary voters when he ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. But Huntsman says he'd have no trouble backing Donald Trump if the bombastic, controversy-sparking real-estate mogul wins the 2016 Republican nomination. Huntsman said on David Axelrod's podcast that Trump is "right about bringing aboard a new generation of the best and the brightest and wiping out the old Washington establishment and the old Washington culture." * Listen to the podcast
Update (February 23, 1 p.m. PT): How do you solve a problem like The Donald? "Stopping Donald J. Trump is imperative -- and not just for his fellow Republicans." So says the Boston Globe editorial board. And why is it imperative? "Trump's campaign has revived some of the ugliest traditions in American politics, including the scapegoating of religious minorities and immigrants," the editorial states. "He has yet to put forth a serious platform of ideas about how he would govern or what a Trump administration would seek to accomplish. Just his nomination by one of the nation's major parties would be an international embarrassment." The Globe has endorsed Ohio Gov. John Kasich for the Republican presidential nomination. Over the past few days, many Republican insiders who want to stop Trump have begun urging Kasich to get out of the race so that so-called "mainstream" GOP voters can move en masse to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who finished second in Saturday's South Carolina primary. It's probably too late to stop Trump in Nevada. Wrote CNN Tuesday: "The more traditional campaigns of [Ted] Cruz and Rubio, said longtime Nevada political analyst Jon Ralston, 'are very frustrated by what everyone's frustrated by: you can't talk any sense into the Trump voters, they can't turn them.'" The Nevada caucuses take place this evening. Massachusetts votes on March 1 as part of Super Tuesday. Nevada Caucus preview (February 23, 8 a.m. PT)
Nevada Republicans head out to caucus Tuesday night, three days after Democrats in the state gave a narrow victory to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Real-estate magnate Donald Trump, who won the New Hampshire and South Carolina Republican primaries by wide margins, is expected to triumph in the caucuses. But polling has not been robust in the Silver State and is not considered especially reliable, in part because Nevada is still new to caucuses. | Government Job change - Election | February 2016 | ['(ABC 7)', '(Washington Examiner)'] |
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, British Prime Minister David Cameron, whose economy would be severely affected, denounces the Tobin tax under consideration in the European Union. | DAVID Cameron mounted a fresh offensive against proposals for a Tobin tax yesterday, adding to growing concerns in some sections of Brussels that the UK will eventually hold a vote on leaving the EU.
The Prime Minister told a hall of delegates at Davos that the tax policy was “simply madness” at a time when “five EU Member States are now less competitive than even sclerotic Iran” – a comparison unlikely to win him many friends on the continent.
And Brussels is in no mood to compromise. City A.M. has learned that several senior European Commission officials recently briefed bankers in Brussels that there is a growing belief that the UK will have to hold a referendum on EU membership by 2020.
They voiced the view that Cameron could be forced to include a promise on holding a vote in the Conservatives’ next manifesto in order to win an outright majority.
The officials added that the Commission plans to threaten Britain with exclusion from vital negotiations on the Tobin tax if the government does not agree to submit to it.
Even though the UK does not want to impose a levy, London is still keen to have a seat at the table. Without any UK presence, Brussels could attempt to design a Eurozone-only levy that would capture some City transactions. The EC officials said in their briefing that there is now no chance that there will not be some form of pan-European Tobin tax – although some bankers believe it could be watered down to make it less damaging.
It is understood that the Commission is now working on four plans for the tax: the first involves a levy at the European level covering 27 nations, the second a tax for the 17 Eurozone countries, another at a global level and a final one for a subset of Eurozone states. But the scope of the tax is still up in the air.
The private stance of Brussels’ most powerful body couple could see Britain increasingly forced to choose between submitting to European taxes and regulation and leaving the political union entirely.
Cameron attacked those regulations with unusual ferocity yesterday, saying: “The EU has promoted unnecessary measures that impose burdens on businesses and governments, and can destroy jobs.”
However, he also said: “Britain is part of the European Union. Not by default but by choice.”
| Financial Crisis | January 2012 | ['(City AM)'] |
2009 detention of American hikers by Iran: Iran announces its willingness to release Sarah Shourd, a U.S. hiker arrested in 2009, on bail and says that she will be permitted to leave the country. | Iran is to release one of the three American hikers detained last year, state media reported today, citing health grounds.
Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi, a Tehran prosecutor, said the authorities would release Sarah Shourd on $500,000 bail and allow her to leave the country. Shourd's mother had said she had been denied treatment for serious health problems, including a breast lump and precancerous cervical cells.
Shourd was detained with two friends, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, along the Iran-Iraq border in July 2009 and accused of spying.
Dowlatabadi gave no details on when she would be released. He said the conditions of her bail did not bar her from leaving the country, although she still faces trial with the other two Americans, who remain in custody.
"Based on reports and the approval of the relevant judge about the sickness of Ms Shourd, her detention was converted to $500,000 bail, and if the bail is deposited, she can be released," the official IRNA news agency quoted Dowlatabadi as saying.
Shourd, who has been held in solitary confinement, was to have been released yesterday as an act of clemency to mark the end of Ramadan, after the intervention of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But the judiciary abruptly halted that planned release, indicating such a decision would first have to go through the courts.
Iran has accused the three Americans of illegally crossing the border and spying. Their families say they were hiking in Iraq's scenic north and that if they crossed the border, they did so unwittingly.
The prosecution's case against the three is nearly complete and a judge has issued indictments for all three on charges of spying, Dowlatabadi said. "The suspects did not confess but we have enough reasons in hand for their spying charges," he said.
It was not immediately clear whether a bail payment to Iranian authorities would violate US trade sanctions or whether a special waiver would be required. The prosecutor rejected any link between the decision to grant Shourd bail and the return to Iran in July of Shahram Amiri, a nuclear scientist. Iran had accused the US of abducting Amiri, while Washington said he was a willing defector who later changed his mind. In the past, Ahmadinejad has suggested the three Americans could be traded for Iranians claimed to be held by the US.
In the last year, Iranian authorities have allowed bail or converted jail sentences to fines for two other high-profile detainees. In May, the French academic Clotilde Reiss was freed after her 10-year sentence on espionage-related charges was commuted to a fine equivalent to $300,000.
The Canadian-Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari was freed on $300,000 bail in October 2009 after nearly four months' detention after the crackdown after the country's disputed presidential election. He was later sentenced in absentia to more than 13 years in prison and 50 lashes. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | September 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)', '(AP via The Independent)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
Super Typhoon Yutu makes landfall on Saipan and Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands as a category 5 storm. The typhoon becomes the most powerful tropical cyclone to strike any part of the United States since 1935. , | Super Typhoon Yutu is currently making its passage over the Marianas, posing most threat to the islands of Saipan and Tinian. As Yutu moves past the Saipan-Tinian Channel, residents, especially those living in the southern part of Saipan and northern region of Tinian, will begin to feel the intensity of the storm. Sustained winds of 165-175 mph with gusts up to over 200 mph may be expected for the next two hours.
Super Typhoon Yutu is being classified as a dangerous Category 5 typhoon, making it an extremely dangerous and life-threatening hazard for the islands of Saipan and Tinian. For the next 2-3 hours, residents can also anticipate lightning and flash flooding. HSEM continues to urge the community to remain indoors and brace for worst conditions lasting until 3AM.
After 3am, wind strength will begin to dissipate to tropical storm-force winds of 60 mph with gusts up to 75-85 mph. These conditions will continue to pose a threat to the residents of Saipan and Tinian, and should not be taken lightly.
Upon daybreak, conditions will begin to improve.
At this time, HSEM reminds the public to remain indoors until the “All Clear” has been issued by Gov. Ralph DLG Torres. Remain off roadways to allow first responders to clear debris and attend to those who need assistance most.
More updates will be provided as they become available. (HSEM)
The Saipan Tribune gives its readers timely, accurate, balanced, and wide-ranging coverage of what is happening in the Northern Mariana Islands and around the globe. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | October 2018 | ['(Saipan Tribune)', '(The Washington Post)'] |
Ten people are injured when a taxi jumps a curb and hit a group of cabdrivers outside the taxi pool building at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts. | A taxi jumped a curb and barreled into a group of cabdrivers at Logan International Airport Monday, injuring 10 people in what officials described as a “tragic accident.”
There is no information to suggest the crash at the taxi lot was intentional, and the State Police said the driver — a 56-year-old Cambridge man who works for Metro Cab — has been cooperative with investigators. His cab was seized for investigation.
“He is known to be a very nice gentleman to his peers,” State Police Major Frank McGinn said about the driver at a news conference. He has “no history of violations or anything.”
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Taxi driver Jephtet Roseme, who witnessed the crash, said people were trapped under the cab as fellow drivers frantically tried to help them.
One of the victims was seriously injured, three others were “significantly” injured, while six were less seriously injured, McGinn said. The most seriously hurt cabdriver, a 43-year-old man from Cambridge, had broken legs and “maybe some internal chest injuries,” he said. He was in serious but stable condition at Massachusetts General Hospital, according to State Police.
It was not clear how fast the cab was going at the time of the crash, and with the investigation unfolding, officials offered few details about the cause. Officials were examining the mechanics of the car, a computer system inside the cab, and surveillance video from the lot as part of the investigation, McGinn said. They will also interview witnesses.
McGinn said it was “still too early to know” if there were any mechanical issues with the vehicle. He also said it didn’t appear the man had a medical problem but noted the investigation was just beginning.
Metro Cab did not respond to calls or e-mails seeking comment.
The crash occurred at about 1:40 p.m. on the airport’s outskirts, at a massive asphalt lot where hundreds of cab drivers wait to be dispatched to airport terminals. At the head of the lot is a building with restrooms and a cafeteria. Outside the building, cab drivers often relax at tables and chairs on a sidewalk terrace. That is where the crash occurred.
Abdias Pierre, a taxi driver, said cabbies often play cards and dominoes at the tables. “It’s all taxi drivers around here,” he said.
He said the driver involved in the crash has been around a long time, and Pierre did not believe the incident was deliberate.
The taxicab was visibly damaged at the site of the crash, its hood crunched open and airbags deployed. It was surrounded by debris from the seating area.
Next to the seating area, a small worship center where drivers can pray throughout the day appeared to have been damaged. Nobody was inside the center at the time of the accident, McGinn said.
The victims were taken to Mass. General, Tufts Medical Center, and other area hospitals, State Police said. Tufts said it cared for five patients, one of whom had been discharged by Monday evening, two of whom were listed in good condition, and two of whom were in serious condition.
Hamid Amri, another driver at the taxi lot, said Monday was a very slow day at the airport, so drivers were forced to wait for hours.
Donna Blythe-Shaw, a former union representative for Boston taxi drivers who still advocates on their behalf, said that is an increasingly common circumstance at the Logan taxi pool. As more riders throughout the city turn to ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft, taxi drivers head to the airport searching for fares.
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“There’s no work (on) the streets anymore,” Blythe-Shaw said. “All the steady work is at the airport.”
Many cabdrivers work long hours — in some cases 16-hour shifts — and Blythe-Shaw speculated that fatigue may have played a role in the crash. In 2013, a Boston Globe Spotlight series on the cab industry found that some overworked drivers slept in their vehicles at the taxi pool.
“This could have just been a very exhausted cabdriver,” she said.
Trooper Paul Sullivan, a State Police spokesman, declined to comment on whether fatigue was an issue. He also declined to say whether the driver could face charges.
State Police said the driver’s name will not be released unless he is criminally charged.
Boston police Lieutenant Thomas Lema, who oversees the department’s hackney unit, declined to comment specifically about Monday’s crash, saying the investigation was being handled by the State Police.
Laura Oggeri, a spokeswoman for Mayor Martin J. Walsh of Boston, said by e-mail Monday that city officials, including Boston police and Emergency Medical Services, did not have data about the safety track record of taxis in the city.
But Logan has seen some notable taxi accidents in the past, including an incident in 2003 when a traveler was killed by a cab that jumped the curb at a taxi stand outside baggage claim after a driver allegedly left a cab in drive as he stepped out of the vehicle.
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And in 1997, a taxi driver lost his legs after he was struck by another taxi driver at the airport.
The incident also comes about two months after another professional driver — an employee at the Lynnway Auto Auction — killed five people in a crash at the site.
Katheleen Conti and Rosemarie McDonald of the Globe staff and correspondent John Hilliard contributed to this report. Adam Vaccaro can be reached at [email protected]. | Road Crash | July 2017 | ['(Reuters)', '(The Boston Globe)'] |
Earlier in the day, over a thousand Indigenous Brazilian women, representing over 100 ethnic groups, march on Brasília after an overnight occupation of the headquarters of the Ministry of Health's Special Secretariat of Indigenous Health. Protestors chanted against the government's recent attempts at municipalization and privatization of the Indigenous health subsystem, and called for stricter environmental regulations. | Hundreds of indigenous women occupied a building of Brazil's health ministry in the capital, Brasília, on Monday to protest against the policies of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
The group of some 300 protesters demanded better healthcare for indigenous people, especially women, and condemned proposed changes to how these services are delivered.
The Bolsonaro government wants to make towns and cities responsible for providing medical services to indigenous people, and community leaders fear local authorities lack the infrastructure and specialised units required.
The federal government is currently in charge of healthcare, and indigenous communities are visited by specially trained professionals.
The protesters, who are in the city for the first March of Indigenous Women, sang and danced inside and outside the building of the Special Secretariat of Indigenous Health, known as Sesai.
"We've been left abandoned. They treat indigenous people like animals," 43-year-old Teresa Cristina Kezonazokere told Correio Braziliense newspaper (in Portuguese).
The demonstration ended almost 10 hours later, when Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said he would talk to some of their leaders. There were no reports of violence.
Organisers say the event in Brasília aims to highlight the role of women in indigenous communities. On Wednesday, some 1,500 indigenous women from 110 ethnic groups are expected to join a protest to defend rights they say are under threat under Mr Bolsonaro.
"We don't have to accept the destruction of our rights," said indigenous leader Sônia Guajajara.
The president has promised to integrate indigenous people into the rest of the population and repeatedly questioned the existence of their protected reserves, which are rights guaranteed in the country's constitution.
Mr Bolsonaro, who supports policies that favour development over conservation, says the indigenous territories are too big in relation to the number of people who live there and has promised to open some of them to agriculture and mining.
More than 800,000 indigenous people live in 450 demarcated indigenous territories across Brazil - which cover about 12% of land. Most are located in the Amazon region and some people live totally isolated.
Critics say Mr Bolsonaro's positions have encouraged illegal mining and invasions of reserves. Last month, an indigenous leader was stabbed to death, reportedly by heavily armed gold miners who had invaded a remote indigenous territory.
Meanwhile, deforestation in the Amazon, the world's largest tropical rainforest, soared more than 88% in June compared with the same month a year ago, according to data from Brazil's National Space Research Institute, Inpe.
But Mr Bolsonaro, who took office in January, has accused the institute of lying about the scale of the deforestation, and earlier this month sacked its head, Ricardo Galvão. The president and his ministers have also criticised the country's indigenous rights agency, Funai, and its environmental protection body, Ibama. | Protest_Online Condemnation | August 2019 | ['(BBC)', '(Telesur English)'] |
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency successfully launches SELENE, the largest lunar mission since the Apollo program, on a mission to explore the moon. | A rocket carrying the orbiter blasted off from the space centre on the remote southern island of Tanegashima. Over the course of a year, the orbiter will gather data on the Moon's origin and evolution. Japanese scientists say it is the most complex lunar mission since Nasa's Apollo programme in the 1960s and 70s, when astronauts walked on the Moon.
"We successfully launched the rocket and released the orbiter from the rocket," said Eriko Sunada, a spokeswoman for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) said. Three satellites
The three-tonne probe is called Selene, the Selenological and Engineering Explorer. It has been nicknamed Kaguya, after a princess in a folk story who ascended to the Moon.
The probe will orbit the Earth before travelling the 380,000km (237,500 miles) to the Moon. There the main orbiting unit and two smaller satellites will be positioned 100km (60 miles) above the surface of the Moon. They will collect data on its geology, topography and environment, Japan's space agency said.
The launch is four years behind schedule due to launch failures and technical glitches. Jaxa has been trying to expand its activities and is aiming to achieve manned space flight. | New achievements in aerospace | September 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Bolivia's new constitution enters into force. | Bolivia's President Evo Morales has enacted a new constitution that aims to empower the country's indigenous majority and allows for land reform.
Mr Morales said he had accomplished his mission to re-found Bolivia.
The new constitution was approved in a referendum last month by 61% of voters, but was rejected in the lowland regions where Bolivia's wealth is concentrated.
The constitution also scraps the single term limit for the president, allowing Mr Morales to seek re-election.
Mr Morales is Bolivia's first indigenous president.
Speaking to thousands of supporters in the town of El Alto, near the administrative capital of La Paz, Mr Morales said his opponents had "tried ceaselessly" to kill him.
"Now I want to tell you that they can drag me from the palace. They can kill me. Mission accomplished for the re-founding of the new united Bolivia."
Support for Mr Morales' constitution was highest in the western highlands where the country's indigenous majority is concentrated.
The document gives sweeping rights to Bolivia's 36 indigenous groups in the areas of government, the judiciary and land holdings.
It also allows agrarian land reform to take place by limiting the size of rural landholdings in future sales.
But the polarisation that has dogged the country since Mr Morales took office in 2006 is unlikely to diminish, say correspondents.
Many Bolivians of European or mixed-race descent in the fertile eastern lowlands, which hold rich gas deposits and are home to extensive farms, rejected the constitution.
The referendum failed to attract support in the opposition strongholds of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando. | Government Policy Changes | February 2009 | ['(BBC)'] |
Flash flooding in Afghanistan's Baghlan province kills at least 65 people and forces thousands of people to relocate. | Flash flooding in the remote northern Afghan province of Baghlan has killed at least 73 people and forced thousands to abandon their homes, police say.
The flooding has been deadliest in the Guzargah-e-Nur district of the province 140km (87 miles) north of the provincial capital Puli Khumri.
Police say the dead include women and children. About 200 people are missing.
Some 2,000 homes have been destroyed and roads washed away in what a local official said was a "huge disaster".
Northern Afghanistan has been hit by a series of floods in recent weeks, which have affected tens of thousands of people.
Flooding and landslides happen annually during the spring-summer rainy season in the north of the country, where flimsy mud houses offering scant shelter against rising water levels and volumes of mud.
Baghlan provincial police chief Aminullah Amarkhel told the BBC that floods hit four villages in Guzargah-e-Nur, destroying roads and bridges.
He said there was not enough dry land for helicopters to land.
"Right now, people need drinking water the most [as well as] medicine and food," Gen Amarkhel said.
"This is a huge disaster," he said. "Communities have lost everything, land, cattle and livelihoods." The authorities in Guzargah-e-Nur - an especially inaccessible area of Baghlan - have appealed to the central government to provide emergency assistance.
"So far no one has come to help us. People are trying to find their missing family members," Guzargah-e-Nur police chief Fazel Rahman Rahman was quoted by the AP news agency as saying.
He said that his officers had been overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster.
The defence ministry says that two army helicopters have been deployed to provide assistance - correspondents say the landing difficulties mean it is not clear how they will now be used. The Afghanistan Natural Disaster Management Authority says that it has stockpiles of food and other supplies in Baghlan province, and has begun transporting them to the affected area.
Last month flood waters washed away a big section of the main north-south road in the Tashqorghan gorge, effectively cutting off the north of the country. Further north-east in Badakhshan province, hundreds of people were killed in early May by a landslide which engulfed some 300 houses. | Floods | June 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
Philippine vice president Leni Robredo faces an impeachment charge before the House of Representatives for condemning the country's war on drugs at the United Nations. | MANILA, Philippines An impeachment complaint is set to be filed against Vice President Leni Robredo before the House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon, according to reports.
Actress Vivian Velez, a known supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte, said on her Facebook page that the impeachment complaint will be filed against the vice president at 1 p.m.
A report from radio dzBB said that Interior Assistant Secretary Epimaco Densing III said that the grounds for impeachment against Robredo are betrayal of trust, culpable violation of the Constitution and graft and corruption.
The basis for the complaint was Robredo's video message played during a United Nations forum where she revealed the alleged "palit-ulo" scheme of the police.
Meanwhile, the Robredo camp said that there is utterly no basis for the impeachment complaint that is going to be filed against the vice president as her record is "completely spotless."
"This was expected. They announced this about several weeks ago and this is not really something completely unexpected but it is something that we think is, to be perfectly blunt about, it a ridiculous effort on their part," Barry Gutierrez, Robredo's legal adviser, said in a telephone interview with CNN Philippines.
Gutierrez added that Robredo is not giving importance to the impeachment complaint as she is more focused on her job.
"Honestly, she is not giving this too much thought. She's focused on doing the job she was elected to do. She's focused on pushing the programs that her office has initiated since the star of her term including Angat Buhay and you know this is just political noise," Gutierrez said.
The Robredo camp, however, is ready to take on the complaint if it pushes through on the lower chamber.
"We're prepared to actually take this on. Obviously, there's a constitutional process for this and if this complaint, despite its weakness, will get some kind of endorsement from any kind of Congress then you know there's a process to be followed and we'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Robredo's legal adviser said.
Duterte earlier called on his allies to lay off on the planned impeachment charge against Robredo as she did not commit any overt act that warrants her removal from office.
House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, however, is keen on proceeding with the impeachment bid despite Duterte's call, according to Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2017 | ['(Philippine Star)'] |
Voters in break away "people's republics" (Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic respectively) in Donetsk and Luhansk go to the polls for parliamentary and presidential elections. Rebel leaders Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnisky appear set for victory in early counting in elections which will be recognised in Russia but not elsewhere. International observers noted a very high turnout. | The two self-proclaimed "people's republics" run by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine are to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on 2 November.
Ukraine, the US and the European Union say they will not recognise the results in the rebel-held Donetsk and Luhansk regions. They say the early elections violate an agreement with Russia and the separatists to hold local elections under Ukrainian law in those areas in December. Russia, on the other hand, says it will recognise the polls as a way of granting the separatists electoral legitimacy.
The rebel Donetsk and Luhansk governments say the elections are a logical next step following local referendums in May that gave overwhelming support to their independence from Ukraine. Those referendums - not recognised internationally - took place after the rebels had seized official buildings in April.
The rebels say that, as independent states, they are under no obligation to observe Ukrainian law. They did not take part in Ukrainian presidential and parliamentary elections this year.
Ukraine and the West however argue that the Minsk ceasefire deal agreed in September provides only for elections in December, not for unilateral measures. Russian President Vladimir Putin says that all they agreed to in Minsk was to hold elections "in co-ordination with, not in line with" Ukrainian election plans.
The two unrecognised mini-states adopted electoral laws in September that provide for directly-elected presidents and parliaments, both for terms of four years. Presidential candidates must have lived in the given "republic" for 10 years, and prospective MPs for five. In Donetsk, the main "presidential candidate" is Alexander Zakharchenko, the acting head of government. A recent opinion poll by the Donetsk University of Management gives him a commanding lead of 51%, with the other two candidates trailing in single figures, although nearly 43% say they have not made up their minds yet.
The other candidates - a former riot squad officer and the deputy speaker of a separatist provisional assembly - also support the separatist line. In the absence of any opinion polls in Luhansk, the Russian media reckon that the leading presidential candidate is Igor Plotnitsky, the acting head of government.
He faces three other candidates, including trade union leader Oleg Akimov and his own health minister, the high-profile Larisa Ayrapetyan. The Donetsk opinion poll puts the "Donetsk Republic" group ahead on 39%, with "Free Donbass" close behind on 31.6%. Nearly a third of those polled have not yet decided but, as no other parties are standing, the parliament will be made up exclusively of separatists associated closely with the government of the "people's republic". In Luhansk, the three groups standing for parliament are Mr Plotnitsky's Peace to Luhansk, Mr Akimov's Luhansk Economic Union, and the lower-profile National Union. All are firmly separatist in sentiment.
There are serious doubts about the transparency of the electoral process and even the number of people registered to vote.
The head of the Donetsk election commission, Igor Lyagin, says there will not only be polling stations in the 37 constituencies of the "people's republic", but another three in refugee camps in Russia. Voters can also cast their ballots by post or online, and the commission reserves the right to change the location and closing time of polling stations in the event of Ukrainian military attacks.
All of these special provisions raise questions about transparency.
In Luhansk, election commission chief Sergei Kozyakov acknowledges that he has no clear idea how many people are eligible to vote, given the numbers who have fled fighting in the region since the May referendum.
The Donetsk republic says observers from fellow-separatist administrations in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh will monitor the vote, along with some unspecified observers from Russia, Poland, Germany and Ghana.
The West and international organisations are shunning the polls, and even Russian parliamentary officials say they have no plans to send observers. President Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov says the elections are a "local matter", but some individual Russian MPs may monitor the votes. Ukraine seems unlikely to violate the fragile ceasefire by disrupting the elections, so clear but legally-disputed wins for the ruling separatists are certain. As such, this will not change the situation on the ground at all.
The elections will have international resonance by further convincing Ukraine, the US and EU that Russia and the separatists are not serious about resolving the Donbass crisis amicably. US Secretary of State John Kerry has already denounced them as a "clear violation" of the Minsk agreements, and the EU ambassador to Moscow, Vygaudas Usackas, has warned Russia it may face further economic sanctions. Crimea, annexed by Russia in a military takeover in March, broke away from Ukraine after a controversial referendum and local election. The majority ethnic Russians in Crimea backed the move, but it was condemned internationally. The minority Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians there also opposed the annexation.
Events in Donbass have been much bloodier, but there are clear parallels. Again heavily armed pro-Russian separatists are in power, organising the vote in defiance of Kiev and of international democratic standards.
In 2008 a similar pattern unfolded in pro-Russian regions of Georgia - South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Only Russia recognises those regions as independent.
Formal Russian recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states looks quite possible - but Russia might be reluctant to annex them, because of the enormous reconstruction cost after months of ruinous fighting. | Government Job change - Election | November 2014 | ['(Donetsk)', '(Luhansk)', '(BBC)'] |
The Indiana Pacers defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 98–80 in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round series in Cleveland, snapping LeBron James' personal streak of 21 consecutive wins in the first round. | CLEVELAND—Victor Oladipo scored 32 points and the Indiana Pacers held off Cleveland’s second-half rally for a stunning 98-80 victory Sunday in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference series, handing LeBron James and the Cavaliers’ their first loss in the opening round in eight years.
Indiana was in control from the outset, opening a 21-point lead in the first quarter and leading by 23 in the third. The Cavs stormed back and got within seven, but Oladipo hit a big 3-pointer and Bojan Bogdanovic helped put Cleveland away with a 3 to make it 88-71.
The Pacers completely outplayed the three-time defending conference champions, whose turbulent regular season has carried over into the playoffs.
Game 2 is Wednesday night.
James scored 24 with 12 assists and 10 rebounds for his 20th career triple-double. But James got little help as Cleveland’s four other starters — Kevin Love, Jeff Green, Rodney Hood and George Hill — combined for 25 points.
This is all new to James, who had won 21 consecutive first-round games and lost a post-season opener for the first time in his 13th playoffs. The 33-year-old is trying to get to his eighth straight Finals, and already the path is tougher than imagined.
Cleveland had won 14 straight first-round games, last losing on April 22, 2010, the last season of James’ first stint with the Cavs.
Indiana was swept by Cleveland in last year’s opening round. Those Pacers, though, didn’t have Oladipo or the balance of this Indy squad, which may lack experience but not confidence.
Lance Stephenson, a longtime playoff nemesis for James, helped set the tone in the first quarter with a dunk he punctuated by throwing several punches into the padded basket stanchion.
The Pacers took the fight to the Cavs. They were more physical, more energetic and more composed.
Oladipo has become one of the NBA’s rising stars, and after being a role player in Oklahoma City, he’s Indiana’s main attraction and looked like a seasoned star on the playoff stage. He made six 3-pointers, swiped the ball from James on two occasions and more than doubled his previous playoff scored high of 15.
The Cavs fell behind 33-12 during a strange first quarter that included Cleveland missing all eight 3-pointers, James not attempting his first field goal until 1:52 remained and fans in Quicken Loans Arena wondering what they were seeing.
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As he does for every post-season, James shuts down all social media activities, a routine he calls Zero Dark 23 Mode. And this time, he began it Saturday by posting a quote on Instagram from Martin Luther King Jr: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.”
The Pacers drove him into a darker place.
| Sports Competition | April 2018 | ['(The Star)'] |
A rescue helicopter crashes near the world's longest zipline in the United Arab Emirates, killing four people. | A rescue helicopter has crashed near the world's longest zipline in the UAE, killing its crew.
The Agusta 139 helicopter was on a rescue mission at Jebel Jais, a mountain in the Ras al-Khaimah emirate, when it came down on Saturday.
The country's National Search and Rescue Centre said four people had died.
Video footage has emerged showing the helicopter in a tailspin and on fire on the mountainside.
Local newspaper The National reports that it hit a cable before spiralling out of control.
Tourism authorities told local media they could not comment on the matter while an investigation. ordered by Sheikh Saud bin Saqr al-Qasimi, the ruler of Ras al-Khaimah, was ongoing.
The National Search and Rescue Centre said pilots Saqr Saeed Mohamed Abdullah al-Yamahi and Hameed Mohamed Obaid al-Zaabi, were among the victims.
Navigator Jasim Abdullah Ali Tunaiji and paramedic Mark Roxburgh also lost their lives.
Mr Roxburgh, a South African, is said to have described himself as a "single dad" to a young child on social media.
"As long as I can remember my dad taught me about self-sacrifice in the service of those in need," he wrote on his Facebook profile.
Social media were filled with tributes to the men as the news emerged, with many Emiratis offering condolences to loved ones.
The world's longest zipline opened at Jebel Jais in February.
Toroverde, which runs the 2.83km (1.76 mile-long) adventure experience, confirmed it was closed in a statement online.
"Toroverde Ras al-Khaimah regrets to report that there has been a very serious incident on the mountain, and due to this incident, Jebel Jais Mountain Park and access road have been closed until further notice, in order to give the emergency services the access they need," the company said.
"All the world's longest zipline's flights are cancelled until further notice and we will be in direct contact with all our customers by phone immediately."
United Arab Emirates profile
Hardliner Raisi set to win Iran election
Vote-counting shows Ebrahim Raisi - Iran's top judge - has so far received 62% of the vote.
UN calls for end of arms sales to Myanmar
Tokyo Olympics: No fans is 'least risky' option
Asia's Covid stars struggle with exit strategies
Why residents of these paradise islands are furious
The Gurkha veterans fighting for Covid care. VideoThe Gurkha veterans fighting for Covid care
Troubled US teens left traumatised by tough love camps
Why doesn't North Korea have enough food?
Le Pen set for regional power with eye on presidency
How the Delta variant took hold in the UK. VideoHow the Delta variant took hold in the UK | Air crash | December 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
Leaders of the G8 nations meeting at the 34th G8 summit in Japan agree to a target of cutting world greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2050. | World leaders say they will aim to set a global target of cutting carbon emissions by at least 50% by 2050 in an effort to tackle global warming.
It strengthens last year's G8 pledge to "seriously consider" the cuts. But the US has refused to set any interim targets for cutting emissions - and environmentalists have criticised the progress at talks as "pathetic".
Five of the world's biggest emerging economies said the G8 should increase its targets to more than 80% by 2050.
China, India, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa - who will join talks on Wednesday - also urged developed countries to commit to an interim target of a 25-40% cut below 1990 levels by 2020.
'Progress'
Climate change has been one of the stickiest issues tackled at the summit in Japan, with divisions over what targets should be set and what would be expected of developing countries. The BBC website's environment correspondent, Richard Black, says the joint statement, in fact, is exactly what leaders of nearly 200 countries signed up to in the original UN climate change convention agreed at the 1992 Earth Summit. He says that if re-stating a 16-year-old commitment is progress, then this is clearly a success. It leaves many ends untied - including the failure to specify a baseline date.
The EU wanted the G8 to confirm that the 50% cut would be measured from 1990 levels of CO2 - as agreed under the Kyoto climate protocol. But when the question was raised in a press conference Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said the cuts would be measured from "current levels".
Our correspondent says this is significant in several ways, not least because a 50% cut from now is worth far less than a 50% cut from 1990 levels.
'No guarantees'
The G8 statement repeats last year's "vision" to reach the target of cutting emissions by at least 50% by 2050 - but this time adds that the effort must be global.
It also acknowledges that to make progress, G8 countries have to take the lead through ambitious interim goals and national plans. Our correspondent says the US has moved a certain amount by agreeing that a long-term concrete target is desirable. But, he says, the deal shows much less ambition than many climate scientists and environmental groups would want, in particular by avoiding setting short-term targets. The statement also implies that G8 members will adopt the 50% figure only if major developing economies agree to some concrete action, and it is by no means certain that they will, our correspondent adds. South Africa's government earlier rejected the G8 agreement as a "regression", criticising the lack of firm targets to achieve sufficient cuts in emissions.
The global environmental group WWF said the target date of 2050 was insufficient and called the lack of progress "pathetic".
Summit sidelines
In their assessment of the global economy released on Tuesday, the G8 leaders expressed serious concerns at the threat posed to the global economy by soaring oil prices.
The price of crude oil has doubled since the last G8 summit, with highs of more than $146 (£72) a barrel. But they said they remained positive about the long-term resilience of their economies, so long as countries resisted the introduction of trade barriers. The G8 has issued statements on several key issues:
A statement is also expected on the disputed elections in Zimbabwe, which President George W Bush on Monday described as a sham. In their first face-to-face meeting, on the summit's sidelines, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Britain's Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, that he wanted to normalise ties, which are at their lowest ebb since the Cold War. Relations soured after Russia refused to extradite the chief suspect in the poisoning of the former Russian intelligence officer, Alexander Litvinenko, in London two years ago.
The meeting is taking place in Toyako, on the Japanese island of Hokkaido. Leaders from the G8 nations - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - are being joined by counterparts from some 15 other countries. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | July 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
A police officer is shot dead during a narcotics raid in Avignon, France. | PARIS, May 5 (Reuters) - A French police officer has been shot dead in the city of Avignon during an anti-narcotics operation, Prime Minister Jean Castex said.
| Famous Person - Death | May 2021 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announces a reshuffle of his Cabinet in light of recent controversies. Michaelia Cash becomes Attorney-General and Industrial Relations Minister, replacing alleged rapist Christian Porter, who is instead made Industry, Science and Technology Minister. Peter Dutton becomes Leader of the House, replacing Porter and Defence Minister, replacing Linda Reynolds, who was criticised for her handling of a rape allegation among her ministerial staff. Reynolds is instead made Government Services Minister. | Prime Minister Scott Morrison has launched a bid to recover from weeks of political damage over the treatment of women by naming a new cabinet team, shifting problem ministers and punishing a disgraced Liberal MP.
Mr Morrison named Peter Dutton as the country’s next Defence Minister and leader of the government in the House of Representatives and Michaelia Cash as the new Attorney-General and Industrial Relations Minister in the two biggest appointments in the changes.
Scott Morrison has given Michaelia Cash and Peter Dutton new portfolios in a cabinet reshuffle.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Industry Minister Karen Andrews will be elevated to Minister for Home Affairs, replacing Mr Dutton and taking a high-profile position as one of the cabinet’s most senior women.
The Prime Minister has faced a wave of anger about the treatment of women in the six weeks since former Liberal adviser Brittany Higgins alleged she was raped in Parliament House in March 2019.
“These changes will shake up what needs shaking up,” he said. “What we must do is address the government’s agenda with the changes we are making.”
Mr Morrison said improvements for women would come from greater collaboration and working together, not from setting people against each other.
He also announced a new cabinet taskforce on women’s equality, safety, economic security, health and wellbeing. The taskforce will be co-chaired by Mr Morrison and the Minister for Women, Marise Payne, and will include all women from the ministry as well as Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Finance Minister Simon Birmingham.
Marise Payne will co-chair a taskforce on women’s equality, which will include all women in cabinet, a role that Scott Morrison said will see her be the ‘prime minister for women’.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Mr Morrison also named Social Services Minister Anne Ruston as one of the cabinet’s leadership team, and Financial Services Minister Jane Hume will gain an additional portfolio, women’s economic security.
Mr Morrison called Senator Payne “effectively the prime minister for women” in her role as co-chair of the taskforce and Minister for Women, although he revised the title after a question from a journalist about whether he was not fit to be prime minister and should be the women’s prime minister.
Chief political correspondent
“In relation to what I should probably call the primary minister for women, just to ensure that no one gets too carried away with the puns ... what I’m trying to bring together is a team of ministers and Marise Payne as Minister for Women can bring all that together as a leader of that portfolio team,” he said.
Amanda Stoker will become the assistant minister for women, while also assisting Michaelia Cash in the industrial relations and Attorney-General portfolios.
As expected, Mr Porter moves out of the Attorney-General’s portfolio due to concerns about any conflicts of interest in the portfolio while he takes defamation action against the ABC over its reporting of allegations of rape, which he denies.
Mr Porter will become Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, replacing Ms Andrews. A key factor in the move was concern in the government that dropping Mr Porter from cabinet and the ministry would send a message that an accusation was enough for ministers to lose their job.
Mr Morrison also removed Linda Reynolds from the defence portfolio while she takes leave over a heart condition. When she returns from leave next week, Senator Reynolds will become Minister for Government Services, remaining in cabinet.
Senator Reynolds was admitted to hospital on February 23 after a week of intense criticism of her actions following the alleged rape of Ms Higgins in her ministerial office two years earlier.
Mr Morrison has criticised Senator Reynolds over some of her response to the alleged rape in her office, saying it was “disgraceful” she called Ms Higgins a “lying cow” over the adviser’s claims she did not get enough support after the incident.
He also acknowledged that people in the government failed to give Ms Higgins enough support, even though they were trying to help.
Stuart Robert will move from government services to become Employment Minister, replacing Senator Cash.
In another key appointment, Mr Morrison restored Defence Industry Minister Melissa Price to cabinet in her existing portfolio.
The changes leave cabinet with seven women: Senator Payne, Senator Ruston, Senator Cash, Senator Reynolds, Ms Andrews, Ms Price and Environment Minister Sussan Ley.
Mr Morrison addressed calls for Andrew Laming to quit the Liberal National Party and move to the crosssbench, saying Dr Laming had committed to undertake counselling, and that behavioural change is the preferred end result.
Dr Laming is facing calls to quit from within the Coalition, after allegations of online bullying and taking a photo of a woman’s bottom at her workplace without permission.
Coalition senator Sarah Henderson told Channel 7’s Sunrise on Monday that she was “not comfortable” being in the same party room as him.
The Queensland MP will leave politics at the next election and he will take immediate personal leave to undertake counselling after he conceded he did not understand how his actions affected other people.
Senator Payne said Mr Laming’s “behaviour is clearly inappropriate and he is taking steps to address that”. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | March 2021 | ['(Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
United States swimmer Michael Phelps breaks world records in the butterfly and individual medley at the World Swimming Championships in Barcelona to become the first man ever to break two world records for swimming on a single day. | The 18-year-old American destroyed the world record in the 200m individual medley as he relegated Thorpe to second in their much-anticipated showdown.
And that performance came less than an hour after he had broken the 100m butterfly world record in the semi-finals, a mark that had been set moments earlier by Ukrainian Andrii Serdinov.
The Baltimore native is the first swimmer in history to break two world records in two different individual events on the same day.
"I'm excited for sure," Phelps said. "After the 100 fly world record I was very fired up. So I just went out there and laid it on the line in the first 100 and tried to hang on."
The 100m fly record gave Phelps a world mark in his fourth different discipline. No other current male or female swimmer holds four individual records.
On Tuesday, he broke his own world record in the 200m butterfly with a time of 1:53.93. He also holds the 400m individual medley world record, the 400 IM semi-finals and finals are Sunday on the final day of the championships.
Thorpe (left) and Phelps are vying to be the world's best swimmer
Phelps could match Mark Spitz's seven Olympic gold medals in Athens next year as he targets gold in four individual events and three relays.
Phelps' triumph completed a highly successful evening for the American team.
Aaron Peirsol successfully defended his title over 200m backstroke, while Amanda Beard equalled the world record as she took gold in the 200m breaststroke.
But Beard's team-mate Jenny Thompson was out of luck in the 100m freestyle.
The veteran was beaten into bronze medal position by Finland's Hanna-Maria Seppala and Australia's Jodie Henry.
Australia's Grant Hackett cruised to victory in the 800m freestyle, but Britain's Graeme Smith just misses out on the medals in fourth.
Britons Sarah Price and Katie Sexton both booked their places in the final of the 200m backstroke by finishing second in their semi-finals. | Sports Competition | July 2003 | ['(BBC)'] |
Six people, including the shooter, are killed in a mass shooting at the Molson Coors Beverage Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. The perpetrator, who committed suicide, was an employee who was fired earlier in the day. | MILWAUKEE – In one of the worst shootings in Wisconsin history, five people were killed Wednesday by a gunman during a rampage on the Milwaukee campus of Molson Coors.
The gunman died by suicide, bringing the total of known dead so far to six. Initial accounts from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel indicated at least seven had died, but that number has since been clarified.
The shooter was a 51-year-old Milwaukee man who died of a gunshot wound, Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales said.
Molson Coors CEO Gavin Hattersley called the shooter “an active brewery employee.”
“Unfortunately, I am devastated to share that we lost five other members of our family in this tragic incident,” he said in an email sent to employees. “There are no words to express the deep sadness many of us are feeling right now.” He said the office would be closed the rest of the week and the brewery shuttered “for the time being” to give people time to cope.
The scene was chaotic two hours after the initial report of an active shooter. Live video showed an officer in body armor getting an assault rifle out of a car. Canines were on the scene. Helicopters hovered near the sprawling complex, which includes corporate offices and brewing facilities.
The killer's motive was unknown and names of the victims have not yet been released.
“There were five individuals who went to work today, just like everybody goes to work, and they thought they were going to go to work, finish their day and return to their families. They didn’t – and tragically they never will,” Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said.
The sprawling "Miller Valley" campus includes a 160-year-old brewery, underground caves, a Bavarian-style inn and a seasonal outdoor beer garden. Molson Coors is one of the world's largest brewers and stands as an iconic name in the beer business.
“We are all a family. We work a lot of hours together, so we’re all very sad,” said Selena Curka, a brewery employee who went with friends to a local bar to talk about what happened after the shooting. She was about to start her shift when the complex went on lockdown and she was turned away.
President Donald Trump addressed the shooting at an early evening press conference, saying, "Our hearts break for them and their loved ones. We send our condolences. ... It's a terrible thing, terrible thing. So our hearts go out to the people of Wisconsin, and to the families."
Alderman Russell Stamper said in a statement that “the vile and heinous deadly violence that was perpetrated at the brewery complex today has no place in our society and makes no sense.”
The shooting comes just after the anniversary of a deadly shooting in Aurora, Illinois. On Feb. 15, 2019, an employee opened fire in the Henry Pratt manufacturing plant in Aurora, killing five co-workers and injuring six other people, including one worker and five policemen. After a 90-minute shoot-out, officers killed the gunman.
“The cold disregard for human lives and the lack of value for human life that was shown must be categorically denounced across Milwaukee, across Wisconsin and throughout our nation," Stamper said.
Molson Coors Beverage Co. was formerly known as MillerCoors, before a 2019 name change.
James Boyles spoke with the Journal Sentinel. He said his wife, Lasonya Ragdales, works at Molson Coors in the claims department. She has been told that there was an active shooter and that she was locked in a room with co-workers. She was texting him from inside the building.
Paramedic units from Milwaukee and West Allis were dispatched to the scene along with officers from the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office, Marquette University Police Department and the U.S. Marshals. Officials with the FBI and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also on the scene.
Multiple nearby schools were locked down.
At Woodlands School, Andre Kimbrough said his son was still inside the building. Kimbrough said he, along with many other parents, went to pick up their children at the end of school around 3:15 p.m. but got a call from school officials about the lockdown. Many parents were circling the block waiting for an all-clear.
Kimbrough said he could see a "stream of police cars," ambulances and fire trucks. He felt good that the kids were safe inside.
"I'm more worried about how they feel," Kimbrough said. "They must be kind of freaking out."
Molson Coors Beverage Co., which operates MillerCoors, on Oct. 30 announced plans to close a Denver office and relocate hundreds of corporate support jobs to the Milwaukee office, 3939 W. Highland Blvd.
The brewer now has 610 jobs at the Milwaukee office. Corporate functions based there include human resources, financing and information technology. Also, the main brewery on West State Street and a smaller, recently expanded brewery together have 750 jobs.
The restructuring announced last fall is designed to cut costs, with 400 to 500 jobs being eliminated throughout Molson Coors. The consolidation also will bring together employees in central locations so they can better work together.
Molson Coors has seen continuing sales declines as it faces steadily increasing competition from craft brewers, as well as other makers of alcoholic drinks. Its recent name change, from Molson Coors Brewing Co., reflects increased investment in cider, seltzer and other alcoholic drinks.
Before Wednesday’s shooting, there had been three mass killings nationwide in 2020, with 12 total victims. All have been shootings. In 2019, there were 44 mass killings, with 224 total victims. The Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Killings database tracks all U.S. homicides since 2006 involving four or more people killed over 24 hours regardless of weapon, location, victim-offender relationship or motive.
The last mass shooting in the Milwaukee area was in August 2012. when white supremacist Wade Michael Page fatally shot six people and wounded four others at a Sikh temple in suburban Oak Creek. Page killed himself after being wounded in a shoot-out with police. The worst mass shooting in the area in the past 20 years was in 2005, when seven people were killed and four wounded at a church service in Brookfield, a Milwaukee suburb. The shooter killed himself.
. | Riot | February 2020 | ['(USA Today)', '(WGN-TV)'] |
Norway's Storting votes to lower the country's financial assistance package to the Palestinian National Authority and the Palestinian territories by $3.4 million over concerns of anti-Semitic content and incitement to violence in Palestinian school curricula. | In a groundbreaking move, the Norwegian parliament has approved a cut to the Palestinian aid because of the lack of change in the Palestinian curriculum and the continued insertion of antisemitism, hate and incitement to violence and martyrdom this school year.
The Progress Party initiated the move to cut NOK 30 million (2,6 million $3.4 million) worth of funding, supported by the other governing parties in the Storting, the Norwegian parliament.
Progress Party MP Himanshu Gulati declared that “not a single krone should go to Palestinian education until this is clarified and they have stopped the hate education.’’
MP Sylvia Listhaug, deputy leader of the Progress Party, stressed that the Palestinian school curriculum ‘’abounds with calls for violence and hatred against Israel and for martyrdom to be glorified. It is quite clear that Norway cannot support this, therefore we want to cut this item.”
MP Toskedal of the Christian Democrat party, who is a member of the foreign affairs committee, said: “We have long been uneasy about both textbooks and teaching programs in the Palestinian territories. It is very important that the school focuses on peace and cooperation.”
Progress Party MP Himanshu Gulati:”Not a single krone should go to Palestinian education until this is clarified and they have stopped the hate education.’’
In June, Norwegian Foreign Minister, Ine Eriksen Søreide, announced that more than half of the year’s planned funding to the Palestinian Authority’s education sector was being withheld until tangible improvements were made to the Palestinian curriculum. This followed on from an endorsement by the Norwegian parliament to withhold funding to the PA in December 2019.
Over the last month, IMPACT-se, the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, an organization that documents hate speech in Palestinian educational materials, briefed the major parties from left to right of the Norwegian parliament on the lack of change in the Palestinian curriculum and the continued insertion of antisemitism, hate and incitement to violence and martyrdom this school year.
IMPACT-se CEO, Marcus Sheff, said: ‘’”Last December, the Norwegian parliament voted to withhold funds to the Palestinians until the textbooks were changed. That change did not happen. This year, parliament has again shown its responsibility by endorsing a cut to the PA aid budget. ‘’
He added: ‘’Until the hate and incitement is removed from Palestinian textbooks, the EU and European nations need to take note of Norway’s leadership on the issue, stop being a party to the daily incitement of Palestinian schoolchildren and to the embarrassing abuse of their own taxpayers’ funds.”
IMPACT-se CEO, Marcus Sheff: ”Until the hate and incitement is removed from Palestinian textbooks, the EU and European nations need to take note of Norway’s leadership on the issue.”
Conrad Myrland of the Norwegian pro-israel organization MIFF, which has also been active in briefing members of the parliament, commented: “The work of IMPACT-se in Norway over the last 16 months has been vital for the decision to cut the aid to the Palestinians in the 2021 state budget. It is clearly a reaction that is coming after MPs have been briefed on the education that is given in the schools and by the teachers Norway are funding in PA, and also because the budget coalition is fed up with PA’s “pay for slay” and other misuse of Norwegian’s taxpayers money.”
. | Financial Aid | December 2020 | ['(Ynet News)', '(European Jewish Press)'] |
Voters in Somaliland take part in a presidential election. | A woman gets her finger marked in a polling station during presidential elections in Boroma, Western Somaliland, on Saturday. Somaliland is situated in Somalia's northwest. It declared unilateral independence from Somalia in 1991 when allied warlords ousted late president Mohamed Siad Barre. Internationally Somaliland is regarded as being an autonomous region of Somalia. So far no sovereign state has recognized its independence. Voters in Somaliland queued for hours and thronged polling stations Saturday for the second presidential election held in the self-declared republic, in a peaceful exercise in governance not seen for decades in the country's anarchic south. Voters and candidates said they hope this vote will award Somaliland the international recognition it seeks. The three men vying to become president of the region have all promised to seek international recognition for the autonomous region. "The election is very crucial for the future of Somaliland," said President Dahir Riyale Kahin as he voted Saturday morning. "It a bridge to a long-awaited international recognition." Saturday's election also coincides with the 50-year anniversary of independence for Somaliland, a former British protectorate. The province was only independent for five days before joining Somalia on July 1, 1960. Somaliland declared its independence from Somalia in 1991 and has been a haven of relative peace in northwest Somalia as southern Somalia has degenerated into chaos and anarchy. The region has its own security and police forces, justice system and currency, but is not recognized by any other state. All three candidates, who include Kahin, Ahmed Mohamud Silanyo and Feysal Ali Warabe, have also promised to maintain the region's security and economic development. Warabe said that while he believes his party deserves to win, he will accept the results given by the national election board. "I am now ready endorse if any one of us wins by one vote," he said. Residents also said they hope the vote will win more respect for the region and maintain the peace that has eluded southern Somalia since the 1991 ouster of longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre by warlords. Business student Sarah Jama said she was concerned about unemployment levels, but that she based her vote on a desire for peace. "Inasmuch as we need change, we must maintain the peace we enjoy," she said. "We are very scared of what has happened in countries around us, like southern Somalia." Omar Ali, 32, an electrician and father of seven, traveled from Libya to vote for the first time. "I think the election is very beautiful and I support the Somaliland elections so that they can be peaceful and fair," he said. He added, "I believe at the rate things are going in Somaliland, the future will be bright for my children, where they will be more interested in their country and not go abroad." Officials said polls were orderly on Saturday, but that the masses of voters kept polls open a few minutes after closing time. Results are expected in a week. "The process has ended peacefully, and the polling stations were supposed to close at 7 p.m. (1600GMT), but they extended for fifteen more minutes because people were in queues and we had serve them," said Issa Ahmed Hamari, chairman of the National Electoral Commission of Somaliland. The vote was closely watched by dozens of international observers. One observer, Steve Kibble of the British organization Progressio, said the campaign "has generally been peaceful and good-natured." The candidates agreed to hold campaign rallies on different days in order to avoid bouts of violence between supporters. More than 1.6 million people have registered to vote at more than 1,000 polling sites. Kahin, leader of the Democratic United National party, or Udub, was elected president in 2003 with 42.08 percent of ballots cast in an election won by 80 votes. Somaliland's second presidential election has been frequently delayed. It was first scheduled for 2008, and then for 2009. | Government Job change - Election | June 2010 | ['(Arab News)', '(AP)', '(The New York Times)', '(Al Jazeera)'] |
In the Rugby League, the Catalans Dragons beat the Warrington Wolves in the 2018 Challenge Cup Final. It is the first time a team that is not from Northern England has won the competition. | Watch highlights as Catalans Dragons pull off one of Wembley's biggest upsets to beat Warrington Wolves 20-14 and win their first Challenge Cup - and the first by a non-English team.
MATCH REPORT: Catalans beat Warrington 20-14 to win first trophy
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Catalans beat Warrington to win first ever Challenge Cup. Video, 00:04:13Catalans beat Warrington to win first ever Challenge Cup
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Syrian vice–president Abdel–Halim Khaddam resigns during a Ba'ath party congress | Mr Khaddam is said to have made his announcement during a meeting of the Baath party on the first day of a conference focusing on reform.
No reason has been given for his resignation and it is not known if the party has accepted it.
Mr Khaddam, a veteran hardliner, is seen as an architect of Syrian influence in neighbouring Lebanon.
BBC regional analyst Daniel Nassif says Mr Khaddam's influence has grown weaker recently.
International pressure earlier this year forced Syria to withdraw the troops it had sent to Lebanon during the 1975-1990 civil war.
Reform conference
Mr Khaddam was born in 1932 and is one of Syria's oldest leaders, having worked for Hafez al-Assad, father of the current leader, Bashar al-Assad.
He was a foreign minister and deputy prime minister in the Baath party before he was promoted to vice-president in the 1980s.
For decades, he charted Damascus' policy towards Beirut. He was quoted in 1976 as saying: "Lebanon will either be united or will be returned to Syria."
No explanation has been offered for his resignation, which comes at the start of a Baath party conference that is expected to recommend opening up Syria's economic and political life.
A party source told the Reuters news agency that Mr Khaddam expressed his wish to step down "during a meeting of the political committee of the party to which resignations are not normally submitted". | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | June 2005 | ['(BBC)', '(Jerusalem Post)'] |
British Home Secretary Theresa May will address MPs on Monday following revelations that the Metropolitan Police hired former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis to give PR advice. | Home Secretary Theresa May is to tell MPs about her "concerns" over the closeness of the relationship between News International and police.
The statement, on Monday, follows revelations that Neil Wallis, who is currently on bail over phone hacking allegations, advised the Met on PR.
Labour said the episode had left a "cloud" over the force and called for action to restore public confidence.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said questions had to be answered fully.
Mrs May will address MPs about the force's links with News International, which owned the News of the World before its closure a week ago.
It comes amid widespread allegations of phone hacking by the News of the World and of payments to police by journalists working for titles owned by News International.
In other developments:
Meanwhile, the Met's commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, is expected to appear before the Commons home affairs select committee on Tuesday.
He is under pressure following revelations that he once hired Mr Wallis - a former News of the World deputy editor who was arrested recently on suspicion of intercepting mobile phone voicemails - as a PR consultant for the Met.
Mr Wallis's media consultancy company - Chamy Media - was used by the force from October 2009 until September last year.
He was paid £24,000 to work as a two-day-a-month PR, until his contract was cancelled four months before the launch of the Operation Weeting investigation into phone hacking began in January this year. As part of the contract, Mr Wallis advised the Commissioner's Office, and the Directorate of Public Affairs and Specialist Operations, working closely with Assistant Commissioner John Yates, who led an earlier Met inquiry into News of the World phone hacking.
Home Office minister James Brokenshire told Sky News: "I think there are questions of the Metropolitan Police's relationship with Chamy Media and also with Mr Wallis.
"The home secretary wrote to Paul Stephenson to gain further information around that at the end of last week. The Metropolitan Police have replied to that.
"The home secretary does have some concerns still in relation to the Metropolitan Police's relationship with Chamy Media and will be making a statement to Parliament tomorrow around that to set out the issues."
Asked whether the government had confidence in Sir Paul, he replied: "We think he's been doing a very good job. We think he continues to do a good job."
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper told BBC One's Andrew Marr show: "There is a cloud created over the Met as a result of this. And I do think both the Met leadership and also the home secretary need to take some action now.
"She should be demanding full disclosure. She should be setting out what action the Met needs to take in order to restore that confidence. And at the moment she seems to be doing the opposite, she's saying all of this can wait until the judicial inquiry. It cannot possibly wait for what could be years."
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said he was "incredibly worried" about the impact of recent stories on confidence in the police.
He added: "When the public starts losing faith in the police it's altogether much more serious and we really are in some trouble.
"That's why I think it's very important the commissioner should answer the questions which are being put to him by the home secretary and answer them very fully."
Asked whether the positions of Sir Paul and Mr Yates were tenable, he added: "I'm not going to judge them until they have answered the questions which are being put to them."
Meanwhile, the Sunday Times reports that Mr Wallis was working as a public relations consultant for Champneys health spa when Sir Paul recuperated from surgery there earlier this year.
The Met acknowledged that Sir Paul had stayed for free at Champneys, while he recovered from a fractured leg caused by an operation to remove a pre-cancerous tumour.
But a spokesperson said: "As with many officers, the Met paid the intensive physiotherapy costs.
"The accommodation and meals were arranged and provided by Stephen Purdew, MD of Champneys, who is a personal family friend who has no connection with, or links to, his [Sir Paul's] professional life."
The force said Sir Paul had been unaware that Mr Wallis had worked as Champneys' PR consultant.
It added that the free stay had been recorded in the senior officer's gifts and hospitality register, due to be published shortly, when he returned to his post.
Mr Purdew, of Champneys, last said he was "outraged" by suggestions the stay had been arranged by Mr Wallis.
Mr Wallis' solicitor, Phil Smith, said: "There is no connection whatsoever between any stay Sir Paul Stephenson may have had at Champneys and Neil Wallis." | Famous Person - Give a speech | July 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Four British police officers are charged with beating, dragging, punching, stamping and mocking "terror suspect" Babar Ahmad after arresting him in Tooting, South London in 2003; the suspect, a 36yearold IT worker, was later deemed innocent. | Four police officers accused of a "serious, gratuitous and prolonged" attack and racist abuse of the terrorist suspect Babar Ahmad are to be charged with assault after a U-turn by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
The CPS said that Detective Constable John Donohue and Constables Nigel Cowley, 32, Roderick James-Bowen, 39, and Mark Jones, 43, will appear before magistrates charged with causing actual bodily harm. All have been put on restricted duties, meaning they will not be dealing with the public and will be desk-bound.
Mr Ahmad, 36 the longest-serving prisoner held without charge in the UK is in a secure isolation unit at Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire, fighting extradition to the US. He was initially arrested at his home in Tooting, south London, in December 2003.
In March last year, lawyers for the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, admitted the suspect was the victim of violence. The force paid 60,000 in damages after evidence submitted to the High Court in London said Mr Ahmad was assaulted and racially abused by a group of officers who were accused of a "serious, gratuitous and prolonged" attack. The case led to an independent review by a retired senior judge, Sir Geoffrey Grigson.
Inquiries into the attack were marked by the loss of key documents, including previous complaints against the officers, and the refusal of some to attend court. Simon Clements, a spokesman for the CPS, said yesterday: "Babar Ahmad was arrested by the officers on suspicion of terrorism offences. He suffered a number of injuries during that arrest, including heavy bruising to the head, neck, wrists and feet.
"The CPS received a file of evidence on how those injuries were caused from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) in 2004. We took the view at that time that there was insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction of anyone involved.
"Following Mr Ahmad's successful civil proceedings for compensation last year, his solicitors asked the CPS to look at the evidence again," he said.
"Our conclusion is that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to charge four of the officers involved in the arrest of Mr Ahmad with causing actual bodily harm to him, contrary to the Offences Against the Person Act 1861," Mr Clements added.
Through his solicitors, Mr Ahmad said: "I am pleased that the CPS has decided that a jury will hear the evidence in this case and it will now be for the jury to determine whether any police officer should be punished for the assault upon me."
Mr Ahmad has never been charged in Britain, but has been in custody since 2004 after the United States issued an extradition warrant.
The computer expert was originally held on suspicion of supporting and helping to recruit terrorists to fight in Afghanistan and Chechnya through email accounts and websites.
In July, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg halted the extradition process as it considers whether handing over Mr Ahmad to the Americans would breach his human rights by exposing him to life imprisonment without parole.
Among the officers being charged, DC Donohue has been transferred to the special operations wing since Mr Ahmad's arrest. The other officers belong to the Metropolitan Police's territorial support group (TSG).
They are due to appear at City of Westminster magistrates' court onWednesday, 22 September.
Sadiq Khan, the Labour MP for Tooting, and a close friend of Mr Ahmad's, said yesterday: "I am pleased that the CPS decided to look at this incident again. Mr Ahmad's injuries, which he received 60,000 compensation for, show there are serious issues to be examined here surrounding the conduct of the arresting officers.
"It is important that these very serious allegations are properly considered in a criminal court, and that justice is seen to be done," he added.
The CPS decision creates a fresh headache for senior Scotland Yard staff over the role of the TSG wing to which three of the officers belonged.
The unit has long been blighted by controversy, not least over the death of Ian Tomlinson, a 47-year-old who died after being struck with a baton and pushed to the ground by Constable Simon Harwood on the fringe of G20 protests in central London on 1 April last year.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Wandsworth Guardian)', '(The Independent)', '(The Guardian)', '(ABC News)', '(CNN)'] |
The Spanish Health Minister Carmen Montón resigns after the irregularities in her master's degree and the plagiarism of part of her final project were made public on 10 September. She is the second minister to resign since Sánchez formed the government on 7 June. | MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Health Minister Carmen Monton resigned on Tuesday after reports of irregularities in how she obtained an academic degree, becoming the second minister to quit since Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez took office in June.
Spanish news website eldiario.es reported on Monday that Monton had been awarded grades without attending classes or having contact with professors when she obtained her master’s degree at Madrid’s Rey Juan Carlos university.
Broadcaster La Sexta said on Tuesday it had tracked down her final project and found it contained plagiarized passages.
Monton denied those reports but said she was stepping down anyway, to avoid the situation affecting the government.
Sanchez took power after toppling his predecessor with a confidence vote over a long-running corruption scandal.
Anti-austerity group Podemos said Monton had no option but to resign if she could not explain the situation.
Monton’s departure follows that of Maxim Huerta, who resigned as culture minister in June just a week after taking office, over a tax fine related to his income 10 years ago.
Rey Juan Carlos university has been connected with other recent scandals involving accusations that politicians held improperly obtained qualifications.
The previous head of the Madrid regional government and the head of the opposition People’s Party received academic titles there which attracted accusations of malpractice, which both denied.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | September 2018 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Former Australian tennis player Bob Hewitt is jailed for six years in South Africa for raping underaged girls. | Former Grand Slam tennis star Bob Hewitt has been jailed for six years by a South African court for raping underage girls.
Hewitt, 75, was found guilty in March of two counts of rape and one of sexual assault on girls he was coaching in the 1980s and 1990s.
Judge Bert Bam criticised the Australian-born player for not showing remorse during his trial.
He said justice must be seen to be done, even for ageing offenders.
One of the victims who gave evidence at the trial said that Hewitt had assaulted her when she was just 12 years old.
The judge said at the time of Hewitt's conviction that the striking similarities between the three victims' testimonies showed that his conduct was calculated.
Speaking at the sentencing hearing in Pretoria, Hewitt's wife Delaille had begged the court to show mercy and not award a custodial sentence.
Hewitt had testified that he suffered from poor health.
The BBC's Nomsa Maseko, in Johannesburg, says the tennis champion has also been ordered to pay a fine to the South African Department of Justice, which will help fund its campaigns against sexual abuse.
Hewitt, who was a multiple Grand Slam doubles champion in the 1960s and 1970s, is expected to appeal against his conviction and sentence.
He was suspended from the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2012 over the allegations.
Hewitt played initially for Australia, later moving to South Africa and taking citizenship there.
He was a member of the South African team which won the Davis Cup by default in 1974. India, their opponents, refused to travel to South Africa for the final as a protest over the government's apartheid policies.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
A trial date has been set for September 2021, after families of the victims sue Remington for the "company’s reckless marketing of the Bushmaster AR-15", the gun used by the perpetrator in the rampage. | (Reuters) - Families of victims in the Sandy Hook school massacre that killed 20 children and six adults will get their day in court about nine years from the shooting.
A trial date in September 2021 has been set for the lawsuit brought by them against Remington Arms Co over its marketing of the assault-style rifle used in the shooting.
“After nearly five years of legal maneuvering by Remington, we will finally discover what went on behind closed doors that led to the company’s reckless marketing of the Bushmaster AR-15,” Josh Koskoff, a lawyer for the victims, said in a statement.
The lawsuit was filed in 2014 by the family members of nine people slain and one survivor of the 2012 massacre. Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis in Waterbury, Connecticut set the court date after about two hours of talks with lawyers for both sides.
“The families’ faith in the legal system has never wavered and they look forward to presenting their case to a Connecticut jury”, Koskoff added.
Remington did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside regular working hours.
The plaintiffs have argued that the Bushmaster AR-15 gun - a semi-automatic civilian version of the U.S. military’s M-16 - had been illegally marketed by the company to civilians as a combat weapon for waging war and killing human beings.
The company has argued that it should be insulated from the lawsuit by a 2005 federal law known as the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which was aimed at blocking a wave of lawsuits damaging to the firearms industry.
Connecticut’s highest court, in a 4-3 ruling, said in March that families of the schoolchildren gunned down in the massacre can sue Remington.
The company appealed that ruling to the United States Supreme Court, which last month declined to shield the gun maker from the lawsuit.
The Dec. 14, 2012 rampage was carried out by 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who shot his way into the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut and fired on first-graders and adult staff before fatally shooting himself as police closed in.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | December 2019 | ['(Reuters)'] |
In tennis, Maria Sharapova becomes the first Russian woman to reach world number one replacing injured American Lindsay Davenport at the top of the WTA rankings. | The 18-year-old, who has won three titles this year, is the first Russian woman to reach the top of the WTA rankings since their inception in 1975.
Sharapova would have toppled Davenport earlier this month but was forced to pull out of the JPMorgan Chase Open because of a chest injury.
"It's a dream come true to become number one in the world," she said.
I feel she needs to add new dimensions to her game though if she's going to have longevity From A
Have your say on Five Live
"The computer doesn't lie," she said. "You have to achieve something to get there and it's been an amazing two years. "It's been all about hard work and dedication and the achievement has been amazing." | Sports Competition | August 2005 | ['(BBC)', '(Yahoo! News)'] |
Sir Rex Hunt, who was Governor of the Falkland Islands at the time of the 1982 invasion dies aged 86. | Sir Rex Hunt, who was governor of the Falkland Islands during the Argentine invasion in 1982 which triggered the Falklands War, has died aged 86.
A statement said Sir Rex, who had retired to Stockton on Tees, died in hospital on Sunday night.
The Legislative Assembly of the Falklands said he would be forever remembered for his years of service. He was captured by the Argentine invasion force during the Falklands War and expelled from the islands.
He was granted the Freedom Of Stanley in 1985 to recognise his contributions to the islands.
Sir Rex, who grew up in Redcar in North Yorkshire, took up his post as governor of the island in 1980.
After Argentine forces landed on the islands in April 2 1982, Sir Rex took the difficult decision to order the token group of British marines defending the territory to surrender.
He put on his full ceremonial uniform and told the invading commander: "You have landed unlawfully on British territory and I order you to remove yourself and your troops forthwith."
The Argentines, who call the islands Las Malvinas and say they are an integral part of their country, expelled Sir Rex to Uruguay, and he was later flown back to spend the war in the UK.
The islands recapture was completed by a British task force on June 14.
Sir Rex, who had joined what was then called the Colonial Service in 1952 after service in the RAF, continued to serve as Governor of the Falkands until 1985.
Interviewed in 2007, he was full of praise for the prime minister of the time Margaret Thatcher and the First Sea Lord Sir Henry Leach for acting swiftly to dispatch a task force to recover the islands.
"I had been told that there was no possible way of getting the Argentinians out of the Falklands if they had got there first.
"It was certainly Margaret Thatcher and Admiral Leach who changed the attitude of the rest of them altogether.
"He said we could have it (the Task Force) ready by Sunday and that was just what Maggie Thatcher wanted to hear.
"Thank goodness we had a decent person in charge, she got it going."
He added: "The first thing I said to people, giving speeches here [in the UK], was that it was worth it and I have never had a word back from any of the people who went there - no matter how badly injured - who said it wasn't worth it - not one."
David Cameron has lead tributes by saying: "Sir Rex Hunt should be a hero to everyone in Britain.
"His courage, resolve and judgement fired the spirit of the islanders and the British people to stand up to aggression and to defend the rights and freedom of the islanders."
Roger Edwards, on behalf of the Legislative Assembly of the Falkland Islands, said it had received the news of his death with "great sadness".
He said: "Sir Rex will forever be remembered in the islands for his years of service as governor, and particularly for his courage and dignity in facing the Argentine invasion in 1982.
"A loyal friend of the Falkland Islands, he served for many years as chairman of the Falkland Islands Association and as president of the UK Falkland Islands Trust. "His passion and commitment to the Falkland Islands will be sorely missed. The thoughts and deepest sympathies of all Falkland Islanders are with his family and friends at this sad time."
The Foreign Secretary William Hague added: "Like the islanders themselves, he demonstrated great courage and fortitude in the face of Argentine aggression during the Falklands conflict. "After the conflict, he contributed to the transformation of the islands into a vibrant, modern and successful democracy."
The issue of the Falkland Islands, which are 7,780 miles from the UK and 1,140 miles from Buenos Aires, has again become prominent in the last year, with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez reasserting her country's claim to the islands. | Famous Person - Death | November 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
British author Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007, dies at the age of 94. | The British Nobel Laureate author, who wrote The Golden Notebook and The Grass is Singing, had a writing career spanning more than 60 years
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Doris Lessing, the Nobel Laureate author of The Golden Notebook and The Grass is Singing, has died aged 94.
Largely self-educated and from a modest British-colonial upbringing, Lessing went on to become one of the greatest British writers of the last century.
Beginning with a selection of short stories published in 1948 and ending with her final book Alfred and Emily (2008), Lessing wrote on the defence of freedom, the developing world, women’s rights and countless other themes across more than 50 works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry.
Her publisher, HarperCollins, said she died peacefully early Sunday.
Born Doris May Tayler to British parents in what was then Persia, on 22 October 1919, Lessing moved with her family to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), before briefly attending Roman Catholic boarding school in the capital, Salisbury.
Lessing spent many of her formative years in southern Africa, dropping out of school at 13 and fleeing from home and a turbulent relationship with her mother at the age of 15.
Eventually moving to Salisbury in 1937, she married and had two children with Frank Wisdom. She quickly became disillusioned the life she saw playing out before her, left Wisdom and her family, and instead became drawn to the like-minded members of a Communist group called the Left Book Club.
There she met Gottfried Lessing, whom she married and with whom she had a son. In the post-war years Lessing again became restless, and in 1949 she moved to London with her son. That year she also published her first novel, The Grass is Singing, and began writing professionally.
From 1951 to 1959 Lessing wrote the Children of Violence sequence, five relatively conventional novels of experience. In 1962 she penned her seminal work, The Golden Notebook, often referred to as “a feminist bible” – though that is a description which, she says, “never occurred to me as I was writing”.
In 1995, Lessing received an Honorary Degree from Harvard University, and in 2001 she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in Literature, one of Spain’s highest distinctions.
In the December 1999 Honours List Lessing was appointed a Companion of Honour. She turned down the offer of becoming a Dame of the British Empire because, she said, there is no British Empire – adding that it was “a bit pantomimey”.
In 2005, Lessing was shortlisted for the first Man Booker International Prize. In 2007, she received the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Swedish Academy praised Lessing for her “skepticism, fire and visionary power”.
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. | Famous Person - Death | November 2013 | ['(The Independent)'] |
U.S. talk–show host Ellen DeGeneres announces that she is leaving the American Idol television show after one year as a judge. | Filling Simon Cowell‘s seat on American Idol was already a tough task –- now another chair is there for the taking.
Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who became a full-time judge on the show during its ninth season, is bowing out of the series, PEOPLE has learned.
“A couple months ago, I let FOX and the American Idol producers know that this didn’t feel like the right fit for me,” she says in a statement. “I told them I wouldn’t leave them in a bind and that I would hold off on doing anything until they were able to figure out where they wanted to take the panel next. It was a difficult decision to make, but my work schedule became more than I bargained for.”
DeGeneres adds, “I also realized this season that while I love discovering, supporting and nurturing young talent, it was hard for me to judge people and sometimes hurt their feelings. I loved the experience working on Idol and I am very grateful for the year I had, I am a huge fan of the show and will continue to be.” In the same statement, Idol creator and executive producer Simon Fuller says, “I loved Ellen’s passion for the artists and her nurturing skills. She brought honesty and optimism to our judging panel and I will miss her greatly.” Peter Rice, the FOX entertainment chairman, says, “We love Ellen and understand and support her decision to bow out of Idol. We were fortunate to receive the humor, energy and love for talent that she brought to the show.”
A longtime fan of Idol, DeGeneres signed on to replace Paula Abdul after Abdul Tweeted about her departure in August 2009. “I’m going to have a day job and a night job,” DeGeneres said at the time. “This is exciting for me.” In January, Cowell announced he was leaving to concentrate on bringing his U.K. hit The X Factor to the U.S. – | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | July 2010 | ['(People)'] |
President of the United States George W. Bush and President of Russia Vladimir Putin hold their final talks in their current positions. | U.S. President George Bush laughs with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a briefing on the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics at his dacha in Sochi, Russia Saturday, April 5, 2008. Left is first lady Laura Bush. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
By MATTHEW LEE – 3 days ago SOCHI, Russia (AP) — With time running out on an often testy seven-year relationship, President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin are taking on a lot of unfinished business in their final leader-to-leader meetings Sunday.
The White House has ruled out chances of resolving differences over U.S. missile defense plans for Europe, but the two men hope to chart a course for better ties between Washington and Moscow after they leave office: Putin next month and Bush in January.
When they meet formally Sunday, Bush will also have his first in-depth talks with Putin's hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, who takes charge in Moscow on May 7.
The presidents were all jokes, smiles and handshakes when they greeted each other at Putin's holiday dacha in this Black Sea resort before a lavish social dinner Saturday.
Yet behind what both sides say is a warm personal friendship, the list of contentious U.S.-Russia issues is a long one, even leaving out the missile shield dispute.
Russia's vehement opposition to NATO's eastward expansion into its backyard, divergent policies in the volatile Balkans, and U.S. complaints of increasing Kremlin authoritarianism and democratic backsliding will all feature on the agenda, officials say.
Still, Putin and Bush are expected to announce a new "strategic framework" to guide future U.S.-Russia relations in four broad areas: security, curbing the spread of weapons of mass destruction, counterterrorism and economic matters.
The document could include a reference to possible future cooperation on missile defense, but far less than what the Bush administration would have liked, especially after offering numerous concessions to ease Russian concerns with little success.
Russia fears the system, to be based in former Warsaw Pact nations Poland and the Czech Republic, is aimed at its nuclear deterrent. U.S. officials deny this and insist it is intended only to defend NATO allies from missiles launched by rogue Mideast nations, like Iran.
U.S. allies in Europe have sided with Bush on the matter and at last week's NATO summit in Romania, alliance leaders fully endorsed the proposed system despite Russia's objections.
At the same time, Russia is fiercely opposed to NATO's enlargement into what was the Cold War-era Eastern bloc. Putin won a victory on that score last week, when NATO leaders put off opening the door to membership for Ukraine and Georgia, both former Soviet republics.
Bush had argued forcefully in favor of making the move now and even stopped in Kiev on his way to the NATO summit to assure Ukraine that he was fighting for it and Georgia.
Putin, however, convinced several NATO members, notably Germany and France, that the step would upset the balance of power in Europe, and Bush was forced to settle for a pledge that Ukraine and Georgia would eventually become part of the alliance.
Before arriving in Sochi, Bush visited Croatia, which, along with once communist Albania, was invited to join NATO at the summit. He renewed his argument for expansion, saying membership and the protections it brings are open to all countries in Eastern Europe. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | April 2008 | ['(AP via Google News)'] |
At least 17 people are killed and scores are injured during a fire on a ferry and a collision between two passenger trains on the island of Java in Indonesia. | A fire on a crowded Indonesian ferry and a collision between two passenger trains, have left at least 14 people dead and scores injured. The accidents happened just 30 minutes apart on the main island of Java.
The ferry fire broke out soon after the vessel left Merak port. More then 400 people were brought to safety but 11 are known to have died.
At least three people were killed when a passenger train was hit head-on by another while trying to change lanes.
Dozens of injured people were taken to hospital. An investigation is under way into the train crash in Banjar, a village in West Java province, a spokesman for the Transportation Ministry told the Associated Press.
At the port in Merak, Indonesian television showed firefighters on rescue ships near the ferry trying to extinguish the blaze with huge water cannons.
Panicked survivors were shown jumping off the ship wearing lifejackets.
A vehicle on the ferry was believed to be the cause of the fire, which started at about 0300 local time (2000 GMT Thursday).
One lorry driver, Musaka, told Agence France-Presse: "It was very scary when the fire started as it was still very dark. A passenger bus in the vehicle area caught fire first and my truck also burned.
"I was able to save myself as I could grab a lifejacket. I quickly jumped off into the sea."
Ferries are a main source of transportation given Indonesia's thousands of islands, and accidents are common due to overcrowding and poor safety standards. Ten die as Indonesia ferry sinks | Fire | January 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(Al Jazeera)', '(AP via The Guardian)', '(AFP via The Asian Age)', '(News24)', '(Xinhua)'] |
Uzbek President Islam Karimov fires Saidullo Begaliev, Governor of Andijan, for "short–sighted policies" and "lack of attention to the people's needs" that led to the Andijan massacre in 2005. Karimov appoints Ahmad Usmonov as Begaliev's replacement. | October 16, 2006 -- Reports from Uzbekistan say President Islam Karimov has blamed the outgoing governor of Andijon for an uprising in May 2005 ahead of a bloody crackdown that drew condemnation from Western governments.
Should the report prove accurate, it would appear to undermine Karimov's earlier claims that foreign-funded "terrorists" were solely responsible for the Andijon uprising. Local activists and rights groups have long suggested that social and economic hardship contributed to the unrest. An ITAR-TASS report posted on a pro-government Uzbek website today quotes Karimov as saying Governor Saidullo Begaliev's "short-sighted policies" and "lack of attention to the people's needs" were partly responsible for the unrest. Karimov reportedly made the remarks while addressing the Andijon regional parliament on October 13. The same day, Karimov appointed a senior Interior Ministry official, General Ahmad Usmonov, to run the region. But he gave no reason to explain his decision.
Uzbekistan's official UzA news agency says Karimov's criticism of the outgoing governor of Andijon was harsh, but it does not clearly suggest the Uzbek leader blamed Begaliev's shortcomings for the unrest. The agency quotes Karimov as making his regular claims that the Andijon events were organized by "international extremist groups." Uzbek authorities say 187 people, including many security officials, died during the Andijon unrest. Rights groups say the death toll was much higher and have demanded an independent probe of the events of Andijon. The UN and European Union have similarly urged officials in Tashkent to allow an independent investigation. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | October 2006 | ['(RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty)'] |
Charges occur in The Gambia's attempted coup d'état to overthrow President Yahya Jammeh. | A group of senior military officials and businessmen have been charged with trying to overthrow Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, the government says.
A Justice Ministry statement said the group had "conspired to stage a coup d'etat and overthrow the president". Mr Jammeh himself came to power after a bloodless coup in 1994. His critics recently expressed concern over a wave of arrests of senior officials - some of whom have been in jail for months without charge. Gambian newspapers reported that the men are being accused of bringing in weapons and mercenaries to support their coup attempt. The BBC's Tidiane Sy says it is not the first time that army officers have been accused of plotting against the president. In 2006, another group of military men were accused of trying to overthrow his government, and Banjul accused Senegal of taking part in that plot. In recent years, Mr Jammeh has publicly threatened to kill gay people and rights workers. And last month the government expelled the envoy of the UN's children charity, Unicef. | Regime Change | March 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
SpaceX successfully launches Israeli communications satellite Amos-17 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The launch was provided by SpaceX for free following the destruction of Spacecom's Amos-6 satellite in 2016. | CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX successfully launched its ninth space mission of the year today (Aug. 6), delivering an Israeli communications satellite into orbit.
Despite typical summer storms in the area, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 here at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7:23 p.m. EDT (2323 GMT), carrying skyward Amos-17, a communications satellite owned by the Israeli company Spacecom.
The California-based private spaceflight company originally aimed for a launch on Saturday (Aug. 3) but had to reevaluate its plans after preflight testing on Thursday (Aug. 1) indicated a valve issue on the Falcon 9. SpaceX opted to postpone the launch, replace the suspect valve and perform a second round of checks on the booster.
Static-fire tests are a standard part of prelaunch testing that SpaceX conducts before each mission. During such tests, the rocket's first stage is held down and its engines are briefly fired to show that the booster's systems are working as expected prior to launch.
The Amos-17 mission is the first time a Falcon 9 rocket has flown a payload for Spacecom following the loss of its Amos-6 satellite on Sept. 1, 2016. On that day, SpaceX was in the process of conducting a prelaunch static-fire test when the rocket exploded. At the time, SpaceX performed its static-fire tests with the payload attached to the rocket, a practice the company has since stopped.
Spacecom says that the Amos-17 satellite will provide C-band, Ku-band and Ka-band communications services over Africa, Europe and the Middle East. The satellite is designed to last 20 years and costs an estimated $250 million, which includes the spacecraft, launch services and insurance.
The first-stage booster used for this mission, dubbed 1047.3 (an internal identifier by SpaceX), is a veteran member of the Falcon 9 fleet, having flown twice before. First launched in July 2018, it carried the Telstar 19 Vantage satellite.Then, in November 2018, the booster helped loft Qatar's Es'hail 2 communications satellite into orbit.
The sooty, stripped-down Falcon 9 first stage launched this evening without its iconic grid fins and landing legs, for this time it would not be recovered.
After pushing Amos-17 skyward, B1047.3 ended its service by splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. The vehicle needed every drop of its fuel to ensure that the heavy Amos-17 satellite — weighing in at 14,330 lbs. (6,500 kilograms) when fully fueled — is able to reach the highest possible orbit. So, there was not enough fuel for the booster to land itself back at the Cape, or out at sea on a SpaceX drone ship.
However, SpaceX is still perfecting another hallmark of its reusability efforts: recycling pieces of the payload fairing (also called the rocket's nose cone). The company dispatched its fleet of recovery vessels a few days prior to launch, ensuring that a net-equipped boat called GO Ms. Tree would be in position to (hopefully) catch another fairing as it parachuted back to Earth.
Payload fairings are designed to protect satellites during launch. SpaceX fairings come in two halves, which are jettisoned once their rocket reaches space. Together, the two pieces cost about $6 million — a hefty chunk of the rocket's overall cost. (It currently costs a minimum of $90 million to book a Falcon Heavy launch and $62 million for SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket.)
When fairings fall back to Earth, they're typically reduced to scrap metal if they slam into the water or are exposed to briny seawater. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly stressed the corrosive nature of salt water, explaining that the company wants to reduce costs by cutting down on the refurbishments that each fairing half goes through after landing in the ocean. And that's where GO Ms. Tree comes in.
Related: SpaceX's Fairing-Catching Boat in Photos
In June, during the company's latest Falcon Heavy launch, SpaceX pulled off its first midair catch, a long-sought rocket-reusability milestone.
Acting as a giant catcher's mitt, GO Ms. Tree (formerly known as Mr. Steven) caught the powerful rocket's falling payload fairing off the Florida coast on June 25. This was a first for the speedy boat, which had come close on multiple occasions but had never managed to seal the deal.
SpaceX already reuses its first-stage rocket boosters, but it wants to expand its recycling efforts to include the fairings, further reducing launch costs. To that end, the California-based aerospace company equips both fairing halves with parachutes and small steering thrusters, to navigate themselves back to Earth and into GO Ms. Tree's net.
SpaceX has spent nearly two years testing the net-ship technique during select launches as well as performing numerous drop tests. GO Ms. Tree went through many design changes, including three different sets of arms and four nets, before the winning combination was found.
And that work paid off again today: About an hour after liftoff, Musk announced via Twitter that GO Ms. Tree succeeded in snagging a falling fairing half.
Fairing caught, video posting soonAugust 7, 2019
At an adjacent launch pad, just 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) away, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket awaits its own scheduled liftoff on Thursday (Aug. 8).
The Atlas V is equipped with five strap-on solid rocket motors designed to help lift the massive payload on board — the fifth Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellite (AEHF-5). Built by Lockheed Martin, the communications satellite will be used by the U.S. military and other government agencies for secure voice, video and data communications.
Before the Falcon 9 could get Amos-17 off the ground today, SpaceX needed approval from the Air Force's Eastern Range.
During a media teleconference on Monday (Aug. 5) for the upcoming AEHF mission, Air Force officials discussed the Cape's two planned launches this week.
Air Force officials signed off on a plan to launch the Falcon 9 and Atlas V rockets 35 hours apart. The rapid-fire launch schedule began when the Falcon 9 took to the skies and will end early Thursday morning with the Atlas V's planned 5:44 a.m. EDT (0944 GMT) liftoff.
With more and more launch providers flocking to set up shop at the Cape, the Air Force has been streamlining its processes and updating infrastructure to be in a better position to support more launches with less downtime in between.
Related: Elon Musk Says SpaceX Will Reuse a Rocket Within 24 Hours in 2019
One key feature that helps enable faster turnaround times is the advent of an autonomous self-destruct mechanism on rockets, which cuts the workload for each launch.
The onboard safety system cuts out the need for military officers to manually send signals to self-destruct errant boosters in case of an emergency and instead relies on onboard computers. The switch will also save millions of dollars in infrastructure costs as old, outdated systems are updated.
(Range safety teams now use GPS data instead of relying on ground-based radar systems.)
With companies like SpaceX aiming to launch multiple times in a 24-hour period, the Air Force is also working to ensure that it can support multiple launches on the same day.
"We would like to get to the point where we could launch [multiple vehicles] in 24 hours," officials said.
Ultimately, meeting this goal will still depend on which launch complexes the vehicles were launched from and what range resources were needed. But Air Force officials expressed optimism that same-day launches are on the horizon.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 8:25 p.m. EDT with news of the successful payload-fairing catch by GO Ms. Tree.
Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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Space is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. | New achievements in aerospace | August 2019 | ['(Space.com)'] |
According to exit polls, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's long–ruling Liberal Democratic Party has won a landslide victory in the Japan general election, 2005. Democratic Party leader Katsuya Okada concedes defeat and announces his resignation as party leader. , | Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has won a major political victory, with his long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party heading for what preliminary results indicate will be a landslide in parliamentary elections.
The leader of Japan's largest opposition party Katsuya Okada, conceded defeat on Sunday and announced that he would be quitting as party chief.
Initial results and exit polls conducted by major Japanese media had Koizumi's party on course to win its biggest ever proportion of seats in the 480-seat lower house.
Public broadcaster NHK predicted the party would win as many as 309 seats, compared to the 249 it held when Koizumi dissolved the chamber on 8 August.
The most it ever held was 300 of the body's then 512 seats in 1986. Official results were to be announced on Monday morning.
"I had hoped we would win a majority with our party alone, but we did even better than that," said Koizumi, smiling broadly, as the results were still coming in late on Sunday night.
"I thank the nation for its support and understanding."
Snap election
Koizumi called the snap election last month after rebels in his party shot down his cherished goal of privatising the gigantic postal service, a move he has argued is the key to revamping the world's second-largest economy.
The populist prime minister surrounded himself with fresh faces - often women - during the election, vowing to transform the country's political culture.
He had vowed to resign if the LDP did not win but the Tokyo Broadcasting Corporation, just moments after voting closed, said its exit poll showed the LDP would get 307 seats in the 480-seat lower house.
The LDP won 237 seats in the last election in 2003. It was defending only 212 seats after Koizumi expelled dissenters from the LDP.
"I thought it would be okay for the LDP to get a simple majority but people gave us even better results than we had expected. I'm overwhelmed with gratitude," said Koizumi, relaxed in a striped shirt without a tie.
Opposition party
The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which proposed its own set of wide-ranging reforms, has been projected as a distant second, with 105 seats, down from the 177 it was defending, the Tokyo Broadcasting projection said.
Okada, the opposition leader, said that he would take responsibility for the humiliating loss.
"The overall situation has now become clear ... the DPJ has suffered a great setback," Okada said."It's clear to everyone that the DPJ can't form a government now," he added. "So I'd like to step down as party leader, and a new leader should be selected as soon as possible".Okada had promised to repair ties with China and pull troops out of Iraq.
"Our message did not reach people. I regret that," he said.
Koizumi, the longest-serving prime minister in a generation, called the election more than two years before schedule in what was seen as a risky gamble.
Observers and even many in his party suggested he would divide and defeat the LDP, which has ruled Japan for all but 10 months since 1955.
Foreign reaction
The US State Department on Sunday congratulated Koizumi on his victory.
The State Department looks forward to continuing to work closely with the Japanese government, said spokeswoman Darla Jordan, and "to move ahead in our close cooperation on a broad range of global, regional and bilateral issues".
But neighbours China and South Korea might not be as pleased.
Koizumi indicated no change on Sunday in his stance on visits to a war shrine opposed by Beijing and Seoul.
Asked when he would visit the Yasukuni shrine later this year, Koizumi said: "I will make a decision appropriately."
It was Koizumi's usual response when asked about the Shinto sanctuary, which honours 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including 14 top convicted war criminals.
On taking office in 2001, Koizumi pledged to pray annually at the shrine. He has so far kept the promise, with his last visit on 1 January 2004, and indicated he would go some time this year.
The pilgrimages have infuriated China and South Korea, both of which Japan is accused of committing war-time atrocities against and see Yasukuni as a symbol of militarism. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | September 2005 | ['(Reuters)', '(Aljazeera)'] |
Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister of Russia, bans export of flour and wheat from August 15 to December 31 due to the worst drought in Russian history. | WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Wheat markets tumbled the daily limit on Friday, posting their biggest daily percentage loss in 14 months as investors took profits a day after pushing prices higher with Russia suspending grain shipments due to its worst drought in a century.
Valentina Zhikh, aged 68, harvests wheat at a field in the village of Danilovichi, some 160 km (99 miles) southwest of the capital Minsk, August 1, 2009. Picture taken August 1, 2009. REUTERS/Vladimir Nikolsky
Traders were wondering “have prices gone up enough now to factor in the damage that has been done or are markets getting ahead of themselves?” said Dan Manternach, wheat analyst for Doane Advisory Services.
Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) September and December wheat both fell by the maximum 60 cents, a day after finishing at the maximum daily gain. Front-month wheat futures fell 7.6 percent to $7.25-3/4 per bushel at 12:37 p.m. CDT (1:37 p.m. EDT). Minneapolis and Kansas City wheat also plunged near the daily loss limit.
“We didn’t think it should have been this high anyway,” said Joe Victor, analyst for Illinois-based research and advisory firm Allendale Inc.
Even after Friday’s losses, the nearby contract remained on track for a weekly gain of nearly 10 percent.
Since prices bottomed on June 9 at $4.25-1/2 per bushel, wheat futures had gained 88 percent entering Friday’s U.S. trading.
Chicago September corn prices fell 1.1 percent to $3.99 per bushel, following wheat lower amid profit-taking and hedge selling, while August soybeans slipped 0.1 percent to $10.54 per bushel.
Wheat prices remain well off the 2008 highs of $13.34-1/2 per bushel hit when fears of a global food crisis roiled the markets. World wheat ending stocks in 2007/08 were one-third lower than the 187 million tonnes projected in July by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Paris-based Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) said on Friday that the current situation is not comparable to the 2007/08 crop year.
While there is no world wheat shortage, it is too early to say the rally is over as the lingering Russian drought poses a threat to winter wheat planting in September, Manternach said.
Benchmark November milling wheat on Euronext was down 6.3 percent at 209.50 euros a tonne.
Related Coverage
Russia will honor its current grain export obligations only after the harvest is completed and the crop situation is more clear, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov told Reuters on Friday.
“The statements (that) Russia will honor current contracts and will evaluate resuming exports after harvest I think takes a little pressure off these markets. People are starting to take profits and the question now is how much lower will it go,” said Joe Bedore, CBOT floor manager for trade house FC Stone.
But traders cited concerns that Kazakhstan and Ukraine, also hit by drought, may also curb exports.
“There are doubts about the whole Black Sea zone,” said one futures dealer.
Two global suppliers canceled deals to ship some 65,000 tonnes of Black Sea wheat to Bangladesh after Russia curbed grain exports, a Bangladeshi importer said on Friday.
“If you see a lot of exporters declaring force majeure, that is likely to spook the market a bit and if you see neighboring countries like Ukraine and Kazakhstan putting any similar export restrictions in place, I think that could add further fuel to the rally,” Barclay Capital’s Sudakshina Unnikrishnan said.
Force majeure clauses in supply contracts free firms from contractual obligations to deliver goods, with no penalty due to events beyond their control. They are often used in response to natural disasters.
Ukraine on Wednesday said it had no need at the moment to limit grain exports and traders said global trade rules may limit the ability of Russia’s Black Sea neighbor to curb exports.
“Ukraine is a member of the World Trade Organization and has to be very careful about introducing export bans and export taxes,” a trader said this week.
“They have apparently introduced different measures, they have introduced an unofficial ban on grain shipments by rail to ports and extra reinspections of grain cargoes after loading which makes their exports much slower.”
Prices at 12:37 p.m. CDT (1737 GMT)
Additional reporting by Sam Nelson, Svetlana Kovalyova, Gus Trompiz, Nigel Hunt and Bruce Hextall; Editing by David Gregorio
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
| Droughts | August 2010 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Four alleged extremists planning terror attacks in Azerbaijan are killed in a shootout with the country's security forces; one suspect is arrested. The State Security Service says the group was connected to an unspecified religious extremist group abroad. | Security forces in Azerbaijan have killed four alleged extremists the government suspects were plotting terror attacks, the Caspian Sea country’s State Security Service says.
The service said the suspects were killed in a shoot-out on January 31 during a search operation that was launched after they opened fire at security forces.
A fifth alleged member of the group was taken into custody.
According to the security service, the suspects were connected to an unspecified religious extremist group abroad and planed a series of terrorist attacks on Azerbaijan's territory. It did not say where the shoot-out took place. It was impossible to verify the statement by the authorities in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic. | Armed Conflict | February 2017 | ['(Reuters)', '(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)'] |
American actor Leonard Nimoy, best known for his role as Spock from the Star Trek franchise, dies at the age of 83 from complications of COPD. | Leonard Nimoy lived up to his longtime catchphrase: Live long and prosper. Having achieved success in many arenas during his lifetime, the actor, director, writer and photographer died Friday in Los Angeles of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 83.
Most widely known for his performance as half-human, half-Vulcan science officer Spock on the classic sci-fi TV show “Star Trek” and its many subsequent film and videogame incarnations, Nimoy was also a successful director, helming “Star Trek” pics “The Search for Spock” and “The Voyage Home,” as well as non-“Star Trek” fare; an accomplished stage actor; a published writer and poet; and a noted photographer. He also dabbled in singing and songwriting.
But despite his varied talents, Nimoy will forever be linked with the logical Mr. Spock. Spotted by “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry when he appeared on Roddenberry’s NBC Marine Corps. skein “The Lieutenant,” Nimoy was offered the role of Spock and co-starred in the 1965 “Star Trek” pilot “The Cage.” NBC execs liked the concept but thought the pilot too cerebral, so they ordered a second pilot of the Desilu production with some script and cast changes (only Nimoy made it through both pilots). The series finally bowed on NBC in the fall of 1966. After three seasons, it was canceled in 1969 but would go on to be a hit in syndication, spawning films and other TV iterations and gaining a huge following of fans known as Trekkers or Trekkies.
After the series wrapped, Nimoy joined the fourth season of spy series “Mission: Impossible” as master-of-disguise Paris, leaving after the fifth season. He went on to star in the 1971 Western “Catlow,” with Yul Brynner and Richard Crenna, and the 1978 remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” with Donald Sutherland and Jeffrey Goldblum. The actor also made a series of TV films throughout the ’70s and received an Emmy nomination in 1982 for his role as Golda Meir’s husband in telepic “A Woman Called Golda.”
Also during the ’70s, Nimoy narrated the docuseries “In Search of …,” which investigated unexplained events, paranormal phenomena and urban legends long before these matters become the common fodder of pop culture.
© Provided by Variety
Then the siren call of “Star Trek” beckoned again and Nimoy returned to the role of Mr. Spock for 1979’s “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.” The film opened well at the box office, and though not well reviewed, it did spawn enough interest for Paramount to greenlight sequels that would continue into the 1990s: “The Wrath of Khan” (1982), “The Search for Spock” (1984), “The Voyage Home” (1986), “The Final Frontier” (1989) and “The Undiscovered Country” (1991). Nimoy was in all of them, albeit briefly in “The Search for Spock.”
Nimoy also appeared as Spock in a couple of episodes of series spinoff “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” several videogames based on the property and the J.J. Abrams-helmed “Star Trek” reboot, playing Spock Prime to Zachary Quinto’s young Spock in the 2009 film and its sequel.
After directing several TV projects, including episodes of “Rod Serling’s Night Gallery” and his “Star Trek” co-star William Shatner’s “T.J. Hooker,” Nimoy signed on to helm “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.” Variety said the production was “helmed with a sure hand by debuting feature director Leonard Nimoy, who also appears briefly but to good effect as the indestructible half-human/half-Vulcan Spock.” The review went on to say “Nimoy’s direction is people-intensive with less of the zap and effects diversions of competing films.” He went on to direct the next pic in the series, “The Voyage Home,” as well as four other feature films, including the 1987 comedy “3 Men and a Baby,” starring Tom Selleck, Ted Danson and Steve Guttenberg, and the Diane Keaton-Liam Neeson drama “The Good Mother” (1988).
Nimoy also had a long history of stage work. He appeared on Broadway in “Full Circle,” directed by Otto Preminger, in 1973, and as a replacement for Anthony Hopkins as Martin Dysart in “Equus.” In 1996 he directed “The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree” on the Rialto. But he also starred in many regional productions — he played Stanley Kowalski in a 1955 Atlanta production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” — and starred in several touring shows: He was Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof” in 1971, Sherlock Holmes in a play of that name in 1976 and Vincent Van Gogh in solo show “Vincent: The Story of a Hero,” which he also produced and directed, in 1978-80.
Leonard Simon Nimoy was born in Boston; his parents were Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine, and the language at home was Yiddish. He developed an interest in acting at an early age, first appearing on stage at 8 in a production of “Hansel and Gretel.” He took drama classes for a while at Boston College, and after leaving home to pursue his career in Hollywood, he landed his first lead role in the 1952 film “Kid Monk Baroni.”
After serving in the Army from 1953-55, he appeared in small roles in a few films, but mostly found roles in TV series, appearing in episodes of “Dragnet,” “Sea Hunt,” “Bonanza,” “Wagon Train,” “Rawhide,” “The Twilight Zone,” “The Untouchables,” “The Outer Limits,” “The Virginian,” “Get Smart” and “Gunsmoke” before rising to fame in “Star Trek.”
Most recently, he recurred on Fox sci-fi series “Fringe” as maniacal, genius professor William Bell, and he voiced Spock for a 2012 episode of “The Big Bang Theory.”
In addition to his work on “In Search Of…,” Nimoy lent his resonant, intelligent voice to a variety of films, TV projects and documentaries, including A&E; docu series “Ancient Mysteries.”
He wrote two autobiographies. The first, published in 1977, was called “I Am Not Spock.” Though “Star Trek” fans thought he was distancing himself from the beloved character, Nimoy had always enjoyed playing the character but was also using the book to talk about other aspects of his life. The book features dialogue between the thesp and Spock and touched on a self-proclaimed identity crisis because he became so associated with his character. In his second autobiography, “I Am Spock” (1995), he embraced that association.
He also wrote several books of poetry, including “You and I,” “Warmed by Love” and “A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life.” Some of his poetry books featured his photos.
Nimoy studied photography at UCLA in the 1970s, and his work as a photographer was shown in museums, art galleries and in published works, including “The Full Body Project: Photographs by Leonard Nimoy” and “Shekhina.” He was active in philanthropy and endowed Hollywood’s Temple Israel’s Bay-Nimoy Early Childhood Center.
In music, Nimoy released five albums on Dot Records, the first of which was space-based music and spoken word, “Mr. Spock’s Music From Outer Space.”
Nimoy was married twice, first to actress Sandra Zober. They divorced in 1987. In 1988, he married Susan Bay, an actress who is the cousin of helmer Michael Bay.
He is survived by his wife; two children from his first marriage, son Adam, a director, and daughter Julie; a stepson; and several grandchildren. | Famous Person - Death | February 2015 | ['(Variety via MSN)'] |
Residents of the American state of Florida prepare for the impact of Hurricane Hermine which is expected to make landfall today. A state of emergency has been declared in 51 of the 67 counties in the state. | Hurricane Hermine has swept onto Florida's Gulf coast with winds and heavy rain causing flooding and cutting power to tens of thousands of people, as officials warn of "life-threatening" conditions.
The Category One storm made landfall on Friday morning local time near St Marks, just south of Florida's capital Tallahassee, with 130 kilometre per hour winds extending 72 kilometres from the hurricane's eye, the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said.
"There is a danger of life-threatening inundation within the next 12 to 24 hours along the Gulf coast of Florida," it added.
The storm is moving north-northeast at 23kph.
Some 70,000 people in rain-drenched Tallahassee were already without power as local television stations broadcast video footage of buffeting winds and cars driving through flooded streets.
Authorities in several counties have issued mandatory evacuation orders for residents living on the coast and in low-lying regions.
"This is life-threatening," Governor Rick Scott said on Thursday, urging residents to take warnings seriously.
"We have a hurricane. You can rebuild a home. You can rebuild property. You cannot rebuild a life," he said.
Hundreds of schools and government offices will be closed on Friday as residents brace for the storm's full impact.
Hermine is the first hurricane to hit Florida in 11 years since Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said 100 Florida National Guard personnel were activated, with 6,000 more on alert in the state and 34,000 members ready to deploy from elsewhere in the United States.
President Barack Obama has asked FEMA administrator Craig Fugate to keep him updated on the situation "and to alert him if there are any significant unmet needs", White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
"Local, state and federal officials have been working diligently to prepare for these storms and have resources on hand to respond to them as necessary," he added.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | September 2016 | ['(Reuters/AFP via ABC News Australia)'] |
Sudanese President Omar al–Bashir announces he will step down in 2015 after nearly 25 years in power. | Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president and an indicted war criminal, said the people of Sudan need "fresh blood and a new impetus to continue their march" as he announced his intention to retire.
The next presidential election is due in 2015.
Al-Bashir seized power in a 1989 coup that toppled an elected government. He was last elected in 2010, a year before Sudan's southern region became independent.
The International Criminal Court has charged al-Bashir with genocide and other crimes during the deadly conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region. Despite an international warrant for his arrest, he has travelled to several friendly nations since he was indicted in open defiance of the court, which has no police force to arrest suspects.
Darfur has been riven by strife since 2003, when rebels took up arms against Al-Bashir's government, accusing it of discrimination and neglect. The government is accused of retaliating by unleashing Arab militias on civilians, an allegation it denies. The U.N. estimates 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have been displaced in the conflict.
African Union peacekeepers began patrolling Darfur in 2005 and were later reinforced by the addition of United Nations troops in 2007. The joint force has been the subject of frequent attacks and remains a target even though violence has tapered off.
Al-Bashir had in the past declared his intention to step down but his National Congress Party insisted he continued in office. However, the party said on Wednesday it was considering another candidate.
In the interview, al-Bashir said his decision not to run in the next election was "definite, God willing."
Boston University international relations Prof. Charles Stith, director of its African Presidential Center, said "my sincere hope is that Bashir's commitment holds and that with it the Sudanese people get the fresh start they deserve." | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | March 2013 | ['(The Daily Telegraph)', '(Daily Mail)'] |
The corpse of mayor Edelmiro Cavazos of the Mexican town of Santiago, Nuevo León, is found handcuffed and blindfolded after his abduction on Sunday night. | MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Security forces found the body of a slain mayor on Wednesday near Mexico’s richest city, days after he was abducted by hitmen in the latest attack on a public official from increasingly bold drug cartels.
Soldiers patrol the site where the body of Edelmiro Cavazos, mayor of the tourist town of Santiago, was found on a local road in the municipality of Santiago, some 30 km (18.6 miles) away from Monterrey, August 18, 2010. REUTERS/Tomas Bravo
President Felipe Calderon, who has staked his presidency on a faltering drug war, condemned the “cowardly assassination” of Edelmiro Cavazos, the mayor of a town on the outskirts of Monterrey, an industrial centre with close U.S. business ties.
“The murder of Edelmiro is an outrage and forces us to redouble our efforts to fight these cowardly criminals,” Calderon wrote in a Twitter update.
Cavazos, a 38-year-old, U.S.-educated mayor from Calderon’s conservative National Action Party, was found dumped on a rural road early on Wednesday outside his town of Santiago. He was blindfolded and his hands were tied.
Heavily armed soldiers swarmed the crime scene while frightened residents of the popular colonial tourist town stayed indoors, leaving normally busy streets deserted.
The attorney general in the border state of Nuevo Leon, which includes Santiago and Monterrey, which is 140 miles (230 km) from Texas, confirmed the body discovered was Cavazos’ and said drug cartels were behind the killing.
Nuevo Leon Governor Rodrigo Medina urged Calderon to send more troops to Monterrey and surrounding areas, echoing a plea published on Wednesday from Mexican business groups in a full-page statement in local newspapers.
Medina said this week that Cavazos, who took office last year, was probably targeted for his efforts to clean up Santiago’s corrupt police force, part of a nationwide effort to curb endemic police graft. The mayor of the San Pedro Garza Garcia municipality, part of Monterrey, said drug gangs threatened Cavazos directly late last year.
“When the mayor took office, he told me that criminal groups had gone to see him, saying: either you join us or we eliminate you,” Mayor Mauricio Fernandez told local radio.
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Santiago, a popular weekend getaway for Monterrey residents, has also become a staging post for drug gangs smuggling narcotics north into the United States. Many capos have taken refuge in mansions nestled in surrounding hills.
More than 28,000 people, mainly drug traffickers and police, have been killed in Mexico’s drug war since December 2006, intensifying worries in Washington about the stability of the United States’ oil-producing neighbour.
Interior Minister Francisco Blake was due in Monterrey later in the day to discuss the killing with local leaders.
The death of Cavazos, a father of three who was taken from his home on Sunday night, is the first attack on a public official by suspected cartels in Nuevo Leon, a manufacturing hub once seen as a model for other developing nations.
Drug violence has surged in Monterrey, where per capita income is double Mexico’s average, since a dispute between the powerful Gulf cartel and the Zetas, a brutal spinoff group, turned into all-out war since the start of this year.
That turf war is also terrorizing neighbouring Tamaulipas state, where hitmen killed a candidate for governor in June, the highest level political killing in Mexico in 16 years.
Violence in Nuevo Leon is still well below the dramatic levels of border cities like Ciudad Juarez, but the violence in Monterrey is a challenge for Calderon as foreign companies begin to question the safety of doing business in Latin America’s second-largest economy.
“Insecurity in Monterrey is now spinning out of control and is a clear threat to investment. The city is losing its leadership,” said political analyst Jose Luis Garcia at the University of Monterrey. “Politicians ... aren’t prepared to pay the price and confront the problems.”
Local business leader Juan Ernesto Sandoval warned this week that a nascent economic recovery in Nuevo Leon, after Mexico’s punishing downturn last year, was under threat.
“There are investment projects that are being frozen,” he said, pointing to a decision from one retail chain to put construction of stores and creation of 1,000 new jobs in Monterrey on hold.
Additional reporting by Cyntia Barrera in Mexico City; editing by Missy Ryan and Cynthia Osterman
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. | Famous Person - Death | August 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Aljazeera)', '(Los Angeles Times)', '(AP via Miamai Herald)', '[permanent dead link]', '(Reuters)'] |
A New Delhi court sends climate activist Disha Ravi to jail for allegedly sharing a "toolkit" on social media in connection with the ongoing farmers' protest against three farm bills as it investigates further. Ms. Ravi, a resident of Bangalore, was arrested on February 4 and flown overnight to New Delhi. | Climate activist Disha Ravi is escorted to a court in the Patiala House Courts complex in New Delhi on February 19, 2021.
PTI A Delhi Court on Friday sent climate activist Disha Ravi, arrested for allegedly being involved in sharing a ‘toolkit’ on social media in connection with the ongoing farmers’ protest against three farm laws, in three-day judicial custody.
The court gave the decision after the Delhi Police said it wanted three days judicial custody as, during the course of investigation when the 22-year-old was put under five-day police custody, she had been evasive and and tried to shift the blame on the co-accused.
Disha Ravi case: Delhi Police deny leakage of documents
The police said that her custodial interrogation was not required for the time being but they may seek her further interrogation once co-accused Shantanu Muluk and Nikita Jacob joined the interrogation.
Mr. Muluk and Ms. Jacob have been asked to appear before the investigating agency on February 22. Ms. Ravi’s bail application is likely to come up for hearing before a sessions court on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court on Friday ordered the Delhi Police to ensure that there is no leakage of any documents relating to its investigation into the FIR against Ms. Ravi. It, however, said the police could conduct press briefings in relation to the case “as per law” so long as no rights of her are violated.
The court direction came on Ms. Ravi’s plea seeking to restrain the police from leaking any investigation material relating to her case to the media.
Ms. Ravi has claimed that after her arrest, various messages were leaked by the police to the media, resulting in a large number of programmes, news bulletins and online dissemination of various private messages and interventions which were broadcasted.
“Some of the bulletins also made allegations that she is associated with various illegal and unlawful groups,” she stated. She pleaded for action against News18, India Todayand Times Nowfor publishing contents or extracts of her private WhatsApp chats, claiming it to be “violative of fair trial rights and right to privacy”.
Taking note of the facts of the case, Justice Prathiba M. Singh said, “Recent coverage by the media definitely shows that there is sensationalism. While police briefings and the happenings in court proceedings etc. can also be broadcasted and disseminated, leaked investigation material ought not to be disseminated so as to prejudice the investigation”.
The court said, “Media houses shall also ensure that the telecast/broadcast by them is from verified/ authenticated sources, though the sources need not be revealed...The channel editors shall ensure that the channels exercise proper editorial control so that the Petitioner’s [Ms. Ravi) investigation is not hampered, in any manner.”
In this case, the police had taken an unequivocal position that they were not responsible for leaking the messages or the investigation material to the media houses, while the media houses, both in the online articles as also in the videos, claimed to the contrary.
The court remarked that this contradictory stand “would require a little more detailed examination”. It said that the question of removal of content, which was already in public domain would be considered at a later stage.
Ms. Ravi, a permanent resident of Bangalore, was arrested in connection with an FIR registered on February 4. The plea claimed that she was flown overnight to New Delhi without obtaining a transit remand in flagrant violation of her constitutional rights. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | February 2021 | ['(The Hindu)'] |
Pakistan is to launch a greater campaign in South Waziristan against the Taliban. | PESHAWAR, Pakistan After fighting peripheral wars against militants for the last several years, the military is poised to open a campaign in coming days against the Taliban’s main stronghold in Pakistan’s tribal areas, South Waziristan, according to senior military and security officials.
For three months, the military has been drawing up plans, holding in-depth deliberations and studying past operations in the area, where previous campaigns ended in failure and resulted in some of the military’s highest levels of casualties. Even so, military officials said they expected stiff resistance once again in an area that one senior military official called the “epicenter” of the Taliban in Pakistan. It has also become a key base for Al Qaeda. “This is where we will be fighting the toughest of all battles,” the official said.
He and other officials did not want to be identified while discussing confidential preparations for the campaign. But they said the military now seemed ready to try to re-enter the area, having decided it could wait no longer. “If we don’t take the battle to them, they will bring the battle to us,” the official said. Advertisement
The past two operations in South Waziristan ended up with the military bogged down and suing for peace, resulting in a series of accords that ultimately strengthened the hand of the militants.
An operation in January 2004 led to a peace agreement by that April, followed by another on Feb. 5, 2005, with Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. But with few if any enforcement mechanisms, the accords were never sturdy and allowed the militants to regroup and tighten their hold on the region. In late January 2008, the military began another operation, called Zalzala, or Earthquake, with the declared goal of dislodging Mr. Mehsud. The operation did not cause even a tremor, and only 12 days later, authorities were struggling to revive the peace accord. With the failure of the operation went any pretense of state authority in Waziristan, as the government in effect ceded control to emboldened militants.
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Military officials hope that things will be different this time, having now taken on militants’ strongholds, each in their turn, in recent years in other areas: first in Bajaur, then in Mohmand and, most recently, in the Swat Valley. Perhaps most critical was the elimination of Mr. Mehsud, whose death in an American drone strike in August helped fracture the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-i-Taliban. “The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan as a monolithic organization remains no more,” a security official said. Since June, Waziristan has been under an economic blockade, with thousands of army soldiers sitting on the fringes of the area, waiting for orders from the military high command to move in.
Some argue that the military should have mounted an operation immediately after Mr. Mehsud’s death. “As far as we are concerned, the operation should have been launched three months ago,” said a senior government official. “Baitullah is dead and his group seems to be in some form of disarray. And this provides the best opportunity to go after them.” But a senior military official said that, in addition to needing to wait for the forces and resources to be available, the military wanted to see what would be the repercussions of Mr. Mehsud’s death. “We thought that Baitullah’s death would unravel the Mehsud militant group and galvanize the tribe to stand up to the people they have suffered from,” the official said. “It didn’t happen.” Now there is a sense within the military establishment that the situation in South Waziristan cannot be allowed to be perpetuated. The blockade is nearly three months old, and the military, which has been conducting limited airstrikes, is running out of targets. The Pakistani Army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, described Waziristan as an intelligence black hole. “We have to move in,” he said recently.
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A large number of civilians have already relocated to Dera Ismail Khan and Tank, both in North-West Frontier Province, giving the army a relatively free hand to mount an operation.
But all agree that the battle ahead is formidable. Questions remain whether the army will be able to hold territory and sustain operations in a tough and treacherous terrain, where snows arrive in late November. | Armed Conflict | October 2009 | ['(New York Times)'] |
Inception and The Social Network win top prizes at the Writers Guild of America awards. | Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” and Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Network” took home top screenplay honors at Saturday evening’s Writers Guild of America awards.
Nolan’s work beat out the scripts for “Black Swan,” “The Fighter,” “The Kids Are All Right” and “Please Give” in the original screenplay category. “The King’s Speech” and “Another Year” — Academy Award nominees for best original screenplay — were ineligible in the WGA category under guild rules.
Sorkin’s script bested those for “127 Hours,” “I Love You Phillip Morris,” “The Town” and “True Grit” in the adapted screenplay race. Oscar nominees such as “Toy Story 3" and “Winter’s Bone” were ineligible in the category under guild rules.
In accepting his award, Nolan touched on the exclusion of big-name films that were kept out of contention.
“Nine years ago I had a lot of success for ‘Memento.’ It was excluded,” he said. “Nothing is more important than recognition from my peers. There were some notables left off the list this year.”
“I’m not going to name them, for fear that it boosts their chances at the other show,” he joked, referring to the Feb. 27 Academy Awards. “I hope next year the person who stands up here can give thanks without qualification.”
Mark Boal, who won an Oscar last year for best original screenplay for “The Hurt Locker,” was in attendance with “Hurt Locker” director Kathryn Bigelow; they presented the awards to Nolan and Sorkin.
“You can imagine how I feel to get recognition like this,” Sorkin said. “I wrote a good screenplay, but David Fincher made a great movie.”
In the documentary film category, the guild honored “Inside Job,” produced, written and directed by Charles Ferguson and co-written by Chad Beck and Adam Bolt. In accepting his award for the movie about the financial crisis, Ferguson, clad in jeans and sneakers, quipped, “In the grand tradition of documentary filmmakers, I’m severely underdressed.”
Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal presented the Laurel Award for Screen (honoring lifetime achievement in outstanding writing for movies), to Steven Zaillian, writer of films including “Schindler’s List,” “Gangs of New York” and “Awakenings.”
On the TV front, “Murphy Brown” star Candice Bergen presented the show’s creator, Diane English, with the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award, which is bestowed on the WGA member who “has made outstanding contributions to the profession of the television writer.”
The tone of the evening was light, with numerous presenters making jokes about the ceremony, which is less glitzy than other Hollywood guild awards and isn’t shown on TV. A parallel ceremony is held in New York simultaneously for East Coast WGA members.
Martin Short, on stage with Catherine O’Hara to bestow the Best Comedy/Variety TV Series award to Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” joked that there’s “no bigger high than appearing on an untelevised award show. Only difference between you people and pharmaceutical-grade morphine is morphine doesn’t judge.”
“Modern Family” was named best comedy series and “Mad Men” was named best drama series.
Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, on hand to present writing awards in the documentary category, joked that the event was “the only award show where [the invite] says ‘self-parking in Hollywood & Highland.’ Stay classy Hollywood!”
| Awards ceremony | February 2011 | ['(Los Angeles Times)'] |
The United States Department of Justice charges five Chinese military officers with hacking into private-sector American companies in a bid for competitive advantage. | The US has charged five Chinese army officers with hacking into private-sector American companies in a bid for competitive advantage, in the first cyber-espionage case of its kind.
Attorney General Eric Holder said the alleged breaches were "significant" and demanded "an aggressive response".
US prosecutors say the officers stole trade secrets and internal documents from five companies and a labour union.
China denied the charges and warned the case would harm US-China relations.
In Washington on Monday, Mr Holder said a grand jury had laid hacking charges against the Chinese nationals, the first against "known state actors for infiltrating US commercial targets by cyber means".
He identified the alleged victims as Westinghouse Electric, US Steel, Alcoa Inc, Allegheny Technologies, SolarWorld and the US Steelworkers Union.
"The alleged hacking appears to have been conducted for no reason other than to advantage state-owned companies and other interests in China, at the expense of businesses here in the United States," Mr Holder said.
He said the US government rejected economic espionage as a trade tactic.
"As President Obama has said on numerous occasions, we do not collect intelligence to provide a competitive advantage to US companies, or US commercial sectors," Mr Holder said.
In response to the charges, the Chinese government said its "stance on the issue of internet security is consistent and clear".
Foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the allegations were "made up" and would "damage Sino-American co-operation and mutual trust".
"China is a staunch defender of network security, and the Chinese government, military and associated personnel have never engaged in online theft of trade secrets," he said.
In an indictment in the western district of Pennsylvania, the heart of the US steel industry, the US named Wang Dong, Sun Kailiang, Wen Xinyu, Huang Zhenyu, and Gu Chunhui, all officers in Unit 61398 of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), as the alleged conspirators.
FBI officials said the hacking in the years 2006-14 caused "significant losses" at the companies and that there were likely many more victims.
John Carlin, head of the justice department's national security division, said, "While the men and women of our American businesses spent their business days innovating, creating, and developing strategies to compete in the global marketplace, these members of unit 61398 spent their business days in Shanghai stealing the fruits of our labour."
For example, Mr Carlin said that as SolarWorld, a maker of solar panels and accessories, was rapidly losing market share to cheaply priced Chinese competitors, the hackers were stealing documents on pricing strategy from them.
While Westinghouse was negotiating a deal with a Chinese state-owned firm to build nuclear power plants, Unit 61398 stole secret designs for plant components, he said. "In the past, when we brought concerns such as these to Chinese government officials, they responded by publicly challenging us to provide hard evidence of their hacking that could stand up in court," Mr Carlin said.
Last year, cyber-defence company Mandiant published a report on a Chinese military unit the firm said was behind the vast majority of significant attacks on American federal agencies and companies.
In March, Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said the Pentagon planned to more than triple its cyber-security capabilities in the next few years to defend against such internet attacks.
US President Barack Obama has called cyber attacks a "real threat" to US security and its economy.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | May 2014 | ['(BBC)'] |
Voters in Egypt go to the polls for a second day to vote in the second round of a presidential election, with former prime minister Ahmed Shafik and Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party both competing for the presidency. | Votes are being counted after a second and final day of elections for the country's first president since Hosni Mubarak was forced from office in 2011.
Islamist Mohammed Mursi is up against former Mubarak Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq in a second-round run-off.
The vote also comes amid a bitter row over the dissolution of parliament following a court ruling on Thursday.
Mr Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood has denounced the step as unlawful and a coup against democracy.
The movement urged Egyptians to protect their revolution after the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (Scaf) declared the parliament null and void on Saturday. Two days earlier, the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled that last year's legislative polls were unconstitutional, in a decision made by judges appointed under Mr Mubarak.
The dispute has laid bare the fears of some that the military council is trying to consolidate power and resist the democratic changes demanded during last year's demonstrations.
Soldiers have already been stationed around the parliament with orders not to let MPs enter.
Pro-revolutionary groups meanwhile say they will stage a protest in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Sunday night to keep up the pressure for reforms.
Polls began closing at 22:00 (20:00 GMT), after voting was extended by two hours.
It is unclear how soon any results will emerge. Turnout appeared to be down compared to the first round.
The BBC's Jon Leyne says that there is less enthusiasm in the run-off election than there was for previous rounds of voting, and some have called for a boycott or spoiled ballots.
Many voters have expressed scepticism at the choices they face, and have voted with reluctance.
"Boycotting the elections is not a practical solution because at this point one of the two candidates will win anyway," Saber Abdullah, voting in Alexandria, told the BBC.
"I demand the next president to concentrate on helping the youth because the old regime have ignored them to the extent that they have reached rock bottom."
Mr Shafiq has campaigned on a platform of a return to stability and law-and-order which, correspondents say, many find attractive after months of political turmoil.
But to his critics, the former air force officer is the army's unofficial candidate and a symbol of the autocratic days under Mubarak.
Mr Mursi, meanwhile, has cast himself as a revolutionary and part of the movement that overthrew Mubarak, and has promised economic and political reform. He has also softened his religious stance in an attempt to attract liberals and minorities.
His Freedom and Justice Party won almost half of seats in the legislature in the 2011 polls.
Mr Shafiq came second in last month's first round, in which turnout among the 52 million eligible voters was only 46%. Official results gave Mr Mursi 24.8% and Mr Shafiq 23.7%.
Final results from the Higher Presidential Election Commission (HPEC) are due by 21 June, but are expected to arrive much earlier.
PRI The World
correspondent Matthew Bell, in the Nile Delta governorate of Sharqiya - birthplace of both candidates - says quality of life issues are of prime importance to voters there.
It is a rural and socially conservative area, where most voters chose the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate last year to represent them in parliament. It surprised analysts when Sharqiya produced a narrow win for Mr Shafiq in the first round of voting for president.
Manal Abdou, a child psychologist, said she decided to vote for Mr Mursi only a few days ago. She voted for another Islamist candidate - Abdel Moniem Aboul Fotouh - in the first round. "My priority is that the next president should have leadership skills and a national project that unites Egyptian youth and brings a renaissance to Egypt," she said.
Ibrahim Abdel Moneim, a 67-year-old retired high school teacher had a different reasoning. "Ahmed Shafiq will save the country. We don't trust these people with beards," he said, adding, "if we don't like him, we can go back to Tahrir Square."
The vote comes at a time of growing political uncertainty in Egypt.
On Saturday, the top official in parliament, Sami Mahran, said he had received a letter from the Scaf confirming for the first time that the lower house, the People's Assembly, had been dissolved.
In response, the Muslim Brotherhood said the move was a "coup against the whole democratic process".
"The [March 2011] constitutional declaration does not give the Scaf such right," it said in a statement. "The Scaf is hijacking the legislative authority in addition to the executive authority which Scaf is supposed to hand over within two weeks to a civilian authority."
The move followed Thursday's Supreme Court ruling that the law governing Egypt's first democratic elections in more than six decades was unconstitutional because party members were allowed to contest seats in the lower house reserved for independents.
Scaf officials have told state media that it now plans to issue a new interim constitution and potentially select a replacement constitutional panel itself.
The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) has vowed to hand over power to the winner by 30 June.
But the decision to dissolve parliament so swiftly means that the new president could take office without the oversight of a sitting parliament and without a permanent constitution to define his powers or duties. | Government Job change - Election | June 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Palestinian Election Commission delays the Palestinian Legislative Council elections, citing that there was not enough time to prepare. Critics of the ruling Fatah party had predicted the delay, and believed it was a way to prevent Hamas, the main opposition party, from gaining power. | It says it needs at least two months from the time a new election law is ratified to prepare the vote.
But the new law is being held up in a dispute between Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and parliament. Parliament has approved a law allowing two-thirds of the MPs to be chosen in districts, and one-third from party lists. Mr Abbas has refused to sign it.
He wants all MPs to be chosen from party lists. Correspondents say he believes this would favour his ruling Fatah party. The militant group Hamas has made a strong showing in recent local elections, and many observers believe it could seriously challenge Fatah's dominance of the Palestinian parliament.
Mohammed Ghazal, a Hamas spokesman, accused Fatah of trying to manipulate the electoral process. "We see talk of technical difficulties with the election as an excuse to delay it in their own interests, because they expect Hamas will win," he said.
In a statement the commission said it could carry out the election on time in line with the old election law. It called on Mr Abbas to issue a presidential decree with a new election date as soon as possible. | Government Job change - Election | May 2005 | ['(Al Jazeera)', '(BBC)'] |
The Rt Rev Graeme Knowles resigns as Dean of London's St Paul's Cathedral as protests by Occupy London demonstrators continue. | The dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London has resigned, saying his position had become untenable.
The Rt Rev Graeme Knowles said the past fortnight had been a testing time.
It follows weeks of protests outside the cathedral by anti-capitalist protesters, which led to the building being closed for several days.
The news comes as the City of London authorities prepare to order protesters outside St Paul's to remove their tents and equipment within 48 hours.
The City of London Corporation said it was going to issue a legal notice on Tuesday to try to clear the protest camp.
It has insisted that the protesters themselves are not being asked to leave the area.
A spokesperson said if the protesters did not comply the case would go to court.
Dean Knowles, who had occupied the most senior decision-making position at the cathedral, said he was stepping down "with great sadness".
In a statement, he said: "It has become increasingly clear to me that, as criticism of the cathedral has mounted in the press, media and in public opinion, my position as dean of St Paul's was becoming untenable. "In order to give the opportunity for a fresh approach to the complex and vital questions facing St Paul's, I have thought it best to stand down as dean, to allow new leadership to be exercised." | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | October 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Unrest in Uzbekistan: Uzbek soldiers seal off the town of Qorasuv after locals take over government buildings. The government denies giving an order to fire at protesters but they do not let journalists or the Red Cross visit the affected areas to evaluate the situation. Phone and internet access has been cut. There are varying reports of at least 700 people dead and continuing firefights in Andijan and other towns like Teshiktosh. Saidjahon Zaynabitdinov, head of the local human rights advocacy group Appeal, says that government troops had killed 200 in Pakhtabad and expects mass arrests. Opposition supporters and human rights campaigners rally in the capital Tashkent. Hundreds of refugees have fled over the border of Kyrgyzstan; they believe that the death toll may be in thousands. | The unrest spread from nearby Andijan, where local sources said several hundred people died when troops opened fire at protesters on Friday.
Some refugees near Korasuv said troops shot at them as they tried to cross the border into Kyrgyzstan - and some died.
UK Foreign Minister Jack Straw said his Uzbek counterpart had pledged to allow diplomats access to Andijan on Tuesday.
UZBEKISTAN
Most populous central Asian former Soviet republic, home to 26m people
Ruled since 1991 independence by autocrat Islam Karimov
Accused by human rights groups of serious abuses, including torture
Rocked by violence in capital Tashkent in 2004
Government says radical Islamic groups behind violence
State media silent
Who are the Islamists?
At a news conference in London Mr Straw also he repeated his condemnation of Friday's events, telling reporters that the violence "cannot be justified".
Uzbek President Islam Karimov said 10 soldiers and "many more" protesters were killed in Andijan, and blamed the unrest on Islamic extremists.
The protests were sparked by a long-running trial of local businessmen accused of Islamic extremism. Their families say they are innocent and have been unfairly targeted. There is also long-term pent-up anger in Uzbekistan regarding poverty, unemployment and other social problems, observers say. On Saturday, as news of the violence in Andijan filtered into Korasuv, residents went to the mayor demanding that a border crossing to the Kyrgyz side of the town, shut by the authorities two years ago, be reopened. Correspondents say locals saw the closed border as an attempt to grind them down by denying them access to the thriving market on the other side.
When the mayor refused, he was beaten. Angry crowds set fire to the militia headquarters, the road police and the tax inspector's office - the three most visible representatives of the central government. The government should be blamed instead of the Islamic extremists - people are demanding bread and jobs
Lyudmila, Uzbekistan
Uzbek crisis: Your comments
Uzbek troops have since rebuilt two bridges over the border, but have set up checkpoints on the roads leading into Korasuv.
Korasuv residents have been meeting to discuss how to run their own affairs. The town is currently calm, although there are rumours that the central authorities may move to take control, says the BBC's Ian MacWilliam in Kyrgyzstan.
He says the Korasuv unrest is exactly the kind of local rebellion the Uzbek government hoped to prevent by a show of force in Andijan.
A correspondent for the IWPR media development charity in Korasuv, Sultan Kanazarov, said although the town had been sealed off by a ring of troops, there was no great sense that it might come under attack.
Refugees 'attacked'
Hundreds of people have fled over the Uzbek border towards Kyrgyzstan. It is not clear how many of them were involved in the Andijan demonstration.
A spokesman for the UN's refugee agency, Peter Kessler, said the authorities in Kyrgyzstan were preparing for large numbers of refugees from Uzbekistan.
He said several dozen of those that had already crossed the border were wounded.
One boy, 15-year-old Biloliddin, told the BBC he attended the Andijan demonstration but fled when the shooting began. He said refugees were fired at again when they tried to cross the border.
Andijan itself is reported to be quiet, with soldiers and tanks patrolling the streets.
But the BBC's Monica Whitlock, in Tashkent, says prices are rising fast in Andijan because roads into the town are blocked and traders are afraid to cross army checkpoints. Since poverty was one of the chief reasons why so many people protested on Friday, this is a very important issue, our correspondent says. | Armed Conflict | May 2005 | ['(IHT)', '(CBC)', '(Reuters AlertNet)', '(Reuters)', '(CNN)', '(BBC)', '(Moscow Times)', '(Wikinews)'] |
Goodluck Jonathan will be reelected as President of Nigeria based on unofficial results in the presidential election. | The Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, last night appeared to have secured victory in an election intended to draw a line under decades of coups, violence and vote rigging.
Jonathan had an unassailable lead as votes were tallied from around Nigeria, despite a strong showing by his rival Muhammadu Buhari in his mainly Muslim strongholds.
Buhari, a former military ruler from the north, was hoping to at least force a second round against Jonathan, a Christian and the first head of state from the oil-producing Niger delta.
That looked impossible, with a Reuters tally of results from 35 of 36 states across Africa's most populous nation showing Jonathan on 22m votes to 12m for Buhari.
Jonathan's officials said there would be no victory claim until results were announced by the independent national electoral commission, but they were upbeat. Oronto Douglas, a senior adviser to the president, said: "This is no time for triumphalism. It is a time for deep reflection, for strengthening the bond of our union and for all of us to work together."
Jonathan, 53, a fedora-wearing zoologist from the south, inherited the presidency last year when Umaru Yar'Adua, a northerner, died during his first term. Some members of the ruling People's Democratic party said another northerner should have be allowed to stand for what would have been Yar'Adua's second term.
As expected, the results revealed a geographical divide. Jonathan did particularly well in the predominantly Christian south, while Buhari swept many of the Muslim-dominated northern states.
Since the end of military rule in 1999, Nigerian elections have been widely condemned for state-sponsored manipulation and fraud bordering on the farcical. Observers generally gave a clean bill of health to this year's vote.
The former president of Botswana, Festus Mogae, who leads the Commonwealth observer group, told the Associated Press: "In recent decades, Nigeria had come to be known for flawed elections. People outside and Nigerians themselves had come to believe that elections could not reflect the will of the people, but today people showed that they can change that.
We seem to be witnessing a giant of Africa reforming itself and putting its house in order."A senior political source, however, told the Guardian he could see a different picture emerging from election monitor reports. "I'm afraid they'll be singing a different tune," said the source, who did not wish to be named. "I can see there are massive complaints, including the abandonment of collection centres. It's very disquieting."
There were allegations of underage voting in the north and the snatching of ballot boxes in the south-east.
Fearing the ruling party would try to fiddle the results, Buhari supporters took to the streets in some northern cities. Bello Ar-Adam, a representative of Buhari's Congress for Progressive Change, told Reuters: "Rigging is the stock in trade of the PDP. A leopard doesn't change its spots."
Trouble flared in isolated areas. Police said a bomb was detonated at a hotel in the city of Kaduna, wounding eight people on Saturday night. A PDP official's house was burned down in the town of Azere.
Shots were fired in Bauchi and a car thought to be carrying fraudulent ballots was set ablaze in what turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. Young men stalked the streets armed with bows and arrows.
There were signs that young people had voted in record numbers. Chude Jideonwo, the co-founder of EnoughisEnough Nigeria (EiE), a youth voter registration campaign, said: "Young people came out massively to vote across the country, including in rural areas. This election disappointed the cynics and defied even our expectations."
Jideonwo added that, curiously, social media sites such as Twitter had seemed to indicate a likely victory for Buhari, but now results suggested Jonathan would win. "Goodluck Jonathan spent five or six months trying to engage young people in various ways.
"His strategy was to emphasise his likeability by being positive and reluctant to criticise. A week ago I would have said it's too passive, but now it seems to have been a good strategy."
Jonathan, whose PDP lost seats in a parliamentary election last week, cast his ballot in his home state of Bayelsa in the Niger delta and hailed the election as a "new dawn in Nigeria's political evolution".
"If the ballot paper means nothing then there is no democracy," he said. "Nigeria is now experiencing true democracy where we the politicians have to go to the people." | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | April 2011 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
An Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip kills five Palestinian militants according to Palestinian sources; Israel says they were attempting to fire missiles into Israel. | (CNN) -- An Israeli military strike killed five Palestinians in central Gaza on Saturday night, the Palestinian Authority's official news agency reported.
The Israel Defense Forces said, in a statement, that its aircraft "targeted" and struck "a squad of terror operatives who were preparing to launch rockets towards Israeli territory" from that area. The statement did not detail if there were any fatalities as a result.
Citing eyewitnesses, the Palestinian Authority-controlled news agency Wafa reported that five people had been "martyred" in what it described as an "Israeli drone strike." The incident took place in the Qarara neighborhood, east of Deir Balah.
The strike comes the same week that the general heading the Israeli government's program to ease the economic blockade of Gaza cited major progress in boosting the flow of goods into the territory.
Major Gen. Eitan Dangot estimated Tuesday that 300 trucks per day could soon pass through the Kerem Shalom crossing point -- up from 80 to 90 such trucks before last June. But he also sounded a note of concern regarding what he called the recent upswing of rockets and mortars fired into Israel by Palestinian militants from inside Gaza. Israel's military said Saturday that more than 200 such missiles, rockets and mortar shells have been fired onto its soil since the beginning of this year.
"In the last weeks, we are facing launching of rockets and mortar shells around Gaza, all over from the north to the south at Kerem Shalom," he said.
But a recent report about conditions in Gaza -- entitled "Dashed Hopes: Continuation of the Gaza Blockade" and signed by 22 groups -- presented a much bleaker picture in Gaza.
"Israel's failure to live up to its commitments and the lack of international action to lift the blockade are depriving Palestinians in Gaza of access to clean water, electricity, jobs and a peaceful future," said Jeremy Hobbs, director of Oxfam International, one of the groups that signed the report. "Only a fraction of the aid needed has made it to the civilians trapped in Gaza." | Armed Conflict | December 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(CNN)', '(The Jerusalem Post)'] |
Voters in Bulgaria go to the polls for a presidential election, with exit polls showing no candidate receiving the majority necessary to win outright, and Rumen Radev and Tsetska Tsacheva likely to face one another in a run-off on 13 November. | SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — A former Bulgarian Air Force officer who has called on the European Union to lift its sanctions against Russia was the likely winner of the country's presidential election Sunday, but he did not secure enough votes to avoid a runoff, exit polls showed.
The exit polls gave opposition Socialist candidate Rumen Radev a narrow lead over the candidate of the ruling center-right party, Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva, who was seen as the race's front-runner ahead of Sunday's voting.
The Balkan nation's relations with Russia, the future of the European Union and increasing immigration since neighboring countries closed their borders to refugees and migrants fleeing Africa and the Middle East dominated the election campaign.
Bulgaria, which joined the European Union a decade ago, remains the poorest member of the bloc. The slow pace of reforms to eliminate graft and poverty has fueled disillusionment, while over 1 million young people in the nation of 7.2 million have emigrated in search of better futures abroad.
Radev, 53, and Tsacheva, 58, were two of 21 candidates seeking the largely ceremonial presidency in an election that for the first time made voting for the position compulsory for Bulgaria's 6.8 million voters.
If officials uphold the election results, the two will go head-to-head in a runoff election on Nov. 13.
Most political analysts said Radev's likely victory in the runoff poses a threat for Prime Minister Borisov and his ruling GERB party, possibly prompting early general elections next spring that could shake up Bulgaria's political scene.
Radev, a former fighter pilot, has pledged to comply with Bulgaria's European obligations, if he is elected. But he also has said that "being pro-European does not mean being anti-Russian" and insisted that sanctions on Moscow need to be lifted.
Bulgaria joined NATO in 2004, but many in this Black Sea country still share deep historical and cultural ties with Moscow. Energy-strapped Bulgaria is also heavily reliant on Russian supplies.
If she becomes Bulgaria's first female president, Tsacheva is widely expected to continue the pro-Europe foreign policy of incumbent Rosen Plevneliev.
"I voted for a stable and secure Bulgaria with educated and prospering people living there," she said while casting her ballot.
Although the head of state has no executive powers, and all major policies must be approved by Parliament, the popular election imbues the post with a fair amount of political influence.
The president also leads the armed forces, can veto legislation and signs international treaties.
A poll conducted by the Alpha Research agency had Radev receiving 24.8 percent of the vote on Sunday, Tsacheva 23.5 percent.
Another poll by the Gallup International agency gave Radev 26.7 percent and Tsacheva 22.5 percent.
Although official results are not expected before Tuesday, they are not expected to change the need for or makeup of the runoff context. | Government Job change - Election | November 2016 | ['(AP)'] |
Italy defeat Germany during their semi-final meeting at the National Stadium in Warsaw, with two first-half goals from Mario Balotelli helping Italy to the UEFA Euro 2012 Final. | Last updated on 28 June 201228 June 2012.From the section Euro 2012comments137
Mario Balotelli secured Italy a place in the Euro 2012 final against Spain as his goals downed Germany in Warsaw.
Manchester City's enigmatic striker provided Italy with the cutting edge and two first-half goals as Joachim Loew's Germany failed to produce the impressive form that had seen them touted as potential tournament winners. "The future for Germany lies within that team, but tonight you could clearly see they hit the wall. They were outplayed by Italy in the first half and Italy produced a magnificent display in the second half. Italy get all the credit tonight, they were deserved winners. As a whole team Germany couldn't match up with Italy, they lost all the battles in midfield. They couldn't control Pirlo, they couldn't control Montolivo, they couldn't control De Rossi. And on nights like this you need a star and tonight Balotelli was that man."
Balotelli put Italy on the way when he directed Antonio Cassano's cross past Germany keeper Manuel Neuer then added a thunderous second from Riccardo Montolivo's pass.
Mesut Ozil's injury-time penalty provided the briefest anxiety for Italy, whose victory was confirmed moments later, and Balotelli fell into the warm embrace of his mother as he made his way down the tunnel.
The 21-year-old limped off with cramp late on - but his work was done and Italy can now look forward to a meeting with world and European champions Spain in Kiev on Sunday.
Italy's victory maintained their stranglehold on Germany - they are undefeated in eight competitive encounters that take in five matches at the World Cup and three in the European Championship.
And the scale of Italy's achievement is the greater for the fact that Germany had an additional 48 hours to prepare while Cesare Prandelli's side were going through after extra-time and penalties against England.
Balotelli, along with the pass master Andrea Pirlo, was the inspiration but Italy's defenders and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon provided defiance and quality as Germany threatened in the first half then attempted to mount a recovery after the break.
Germany coach Loew responded to Pirlo's master class against England by detailing the recalled Toni Kroos to monitor the veteran. The ploy was not a success.
Buffon and his German counterpart Neuer had greeted each other warmly in the tunnel before kick-off in a prelude to a busy first 45 minutes for the pair.
"For a man who often plays in a state of chaos, Balotelli was cold and measured as he joined his colleagues in terrorising Germany's defence."
Read McNulty's blog
Buffon was grateful Pirlo was well placed to clear Mats Hummels' effort off the line and also needed to be alert to deal with Jerome Boateng's dangerous cross, which almost deflected in off Andrea Barzagli, as well as a shot from Kroos.
Italy edged their way into the game as Neuer saved from Montolivo and they capitalised on the spell of pressure when Balotelli headed them in front after 20 minutes. Cassano was the creator as he escaped Hummels and crossed perfectly for Balotelli, who lost Holger Badstuber to head past Neuer.
Germany's slack defending was in sharp contrast to their attacking and Buffon was again called into action to save from Ozil and Sami Khedira before Balotelli provided another demonstration of the talent that makes him such a compelling footballer and personality.
Montolivo's pass exposed Germany, leaving Balotelli to take a touch before drilling a magnificent finish high past the helpless Neuer - although by stripping off his shirt in celebration he received a needless booking from French referee Stephane Lannoy.
Germany required emergency action and Loew took it at the start of the second half when he replaced the anonymous Lukas Podolski - watched by his new club manager at Arsenal Arsene Wenger - and Mario Gomez with Miroslav Klose and Marco Reus.
A German response was to be expected and captain Philipp Lahm almost provided it, only to waste a presentable opportunity by firing off target - bringing a reaction from Prandelli as he removed Cassano and sent on Alessandro Diamanti.
Reus almost provided what Loew was looking for just after the hour but once again Buffon showed great athleticism to turn his free-kick on to the bar.
Claudio Marchisio was guilty of squandering the chance to wrap things up for Italy before Balotelli's night ended prematurely with 20 minutes left, making way for Antonio di Natale.
Another spell of slick passing, inevitably, involving Pirlo, played Marchisio in again but he flashed a low, angled effort beyond Neuer but also the far post.
Germany, backed by magnificent vocal support, thought they had a late lifeline when Ozil scored from the spot after Federico Balzaretti's handball - but nothing could stop Italy and Balotelli's night of triumph. | Sports Competition | June 2012 | ['(TSN)', '(BBC)'] |
P. J. Thomas, India's chief of anti–corruption, resigns over charges brought against him of corruption stemming from 1992. | The head of India's anti-corruption watchdog has been forced to resign by the Supreme Court on the grounds that he himself faces corruption charges. PJ Thomas was appointed by the government last year.
But the court overturned the appointment because of charges against him dating from 1992, when he was a civil servant. Mr Thomas denies them.
His resignation is the latest in a series of corruption scandals to hit India's ruling Congress party. It is also an embarrassment for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who oversaw the appointment.
Mr Thomas had long resisted demands by opposition parties to quit.
He says that charges against him in a case involving palm oil imports when he was a senior civil servant in the southern state of Kerala in 1992 are baseless.
Mr Thomas and other officials are accused of accepting a contract for importing palm oil at inflated prices, thereby causing significant losses to the public purse. They were all accused of conspiracy to defraud the state government. The government defended its decision, saying it was not aware of allegations against him and that a government panel had cleared his appointment. The opposition says the man whose job it is to clean up Indian politics should be above suspicion. It has argued that all the facts surrounding Mr Thomas should have been known when he was named in his post.
The Supreme Court was unequivocal in rejecting the appointment of Mr Thomas.
"We hereby declare the recommendation by the high powered committee... does not exist in the eyes of law," the court, headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia, said. "Consequently, the appointment of PJ Thomas as Chief Vigilance Commissioner is quashed." The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the court's decision was "the biggest blow to Prime Minister Singh and his government".
"The dignity of the office of the chief vigilance commissioner has been restored," BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said.
The BBC's Mark Dummett in Delhi says Mr Thomas has never been arrested or appeared in court in relation to the accusations against him. The charges have also never been tested by a judge in court.
Our correspondent adds that the Supreme Court's decision is bound to reinforce the impression that the prime minister is a weak and ineffectual leader - charges he felt obliged to deny on television last month. Mr Singh headed the committee that appointed Mr Thomas to lead the anti-corruption watchdog last year. In that role, Mr Thomas was supposed to investigate allegations that millions of dollars were stolen by officials running the Commonwealth games, which took place in Delhi in October. He was also looking into claims that the former telecoms minister was responsible for India's largest ever scandal, costing the state an estimated $40bn (£24.5bn). Parliament's winter session was held up by opposition demands for a cross-party probe into the alleged telecoms scam, which the prime minister eventually set up. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | March 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
The 2019 Lou Marsh Award for best Canadian athlete is granted by unanimous vote to tennis player Bianca Andreescu. | Bianca Andreescu completed her historic 2019 season with another win Monday, becoming the first tennis player to be awarded the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s athlete of the year. She won in style, too, having been voted the recipient unanimously by a panel of 24 Canadian sports media members. The 19-year-old phenom from Mississauga began the season ranked 152nd in the world. Her goal, she told Team Canada on Monday, was to crack the top 100 by year’s end, a mark she had previously set for herself in 2018 but failed to achieve. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
She didn’t fall short twice. Andreescu finished 2019 having reached a career-high fourth in the global ranking — the highest a Canadian as ever stood in the history of the Women’s Tennis Association rankings — after becoming Canada’s first Grand Slam singles champion with an upset of Serena Williams in the U.S. Open final.
That victory, along with wins the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., and the Rogers Cup in Toronto, where she became the first Canadian woman to win the national tournament in 50 years, helped propel her up the rankings, where she finished the season fifth overall.
“Wow, I’m so thankful for this award. I was not expecting it and to be the first tennis player to win is even more surreal,” Andreescu said in a release from Tennis Canada. “None of my success this year would have been possible without the support from all of Canada. Canadian sports crushed it this year so there are definitely many other athletes who deserve a piece of this award as well — we all motivate each other to be better. I can’t wait for what 2020 will bring and am always proud to represent Canada at the highest level.”
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
Andreescu earned more than $6.5 million US in winnings on the season and lost just four completed matches, posting a 48-7 record including injury retirements. She went on a 17-match win streak, the longest of the year, and was 8-3 against players ranked in the top 10. Her impressive season, which also saw her battle shoulder and knee injuries, also earned her nominations for the WTA’s player of the year and newcomer of the year awards. Andreescu was the clear favourite in a group of five finalists that included golfer Brooke Henderson, St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington, sprinter Andre De Grasse and Atlanta Braves pitcher Mike Soroka. The Lou Marsh is handed out each December to Canada’s top athlete — professional or amateur, man or woman, in any sport. That short list was whittled down from a group 19 athletes. The list of nominations initially included Winnipeg Blue Bombers running back Andrew Harris — the first player to be named MVP and most valuable Canadian in a Grey Cup game — but he was eventually removed from contention for testing positive for a banned substance in August that had resulted in a two-game suspension.
While the Lou Marsh Award is usually accompanied by a spirited debate among the voting panel of sports media, the fact Andreescu would be crowned this year’s victor seemed inevitable.
Freestyle skier Mikael Kingsbury, last year’s Lou Marsh winner, predicted as much back in September after that historic U.S. Open win.
“Yo @Bandreescu_ anytime you want to come take the #LouMarsh I have it in Montreal.. its all yours now,” Kingsbury tweeted at Andreescu the time.
Kingsbury was among many Canadian athletes to cheer her on from afar following her win in New York three months ago and the support kept coming on social media Monday as the teenager received congratulations from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Olympic kayaker turned recently elected Liberal member of parliament Adam van Koeverden. Andreescu is currently rehabbing a left knee injury that forced her to bow out of her second match of the season-ending WTA Finals in Shenzhen, China, in October but she hopes to be back on the court in time for the Australian Open in the late January.
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After an “overwhelming” year, returning home for a longer-than-expected stay was something of a blessing in disguise, a chance to reconnect with family, friends and her ever-present furry sidekick, Coco.
“Coco is definitely No. 1 on my list to spend time with,” she said of her poodle.
Do you think the right choice was made? Share your thoughts
Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free) | Awards ceremony | December 2019 | ['(The Star)'] |
Barclays chairman Marcus Agius is to resign following the Libor interest rate scandal. | Marcus Agius is to resign as the chairman of Barclays in the wake of the Libor lending rate scandal.
BBC business editor Robert Peston says Mr Agius will admit to an "unacceptable standard of behaviour" at Barclays when he makes the announcement on Monday.
It comes after Barclays was fined £290m ($450m) for attempting to manipulate the Libor inter-bank lending rate.
Earlier, it emerged RBS had sacked four traders over their alleged involvement in the Libor-fixing scandal.
The dismissals happened at the end of last year. Our correspondent says Mr Agius made his decision to quit on Saturday night.
In his resignation statement he is expected to say the scandal has been a "devastating blow to the bank's reputation" and apologise to staff, customers and shareholders. Barclays was fined after the Financial Services Authority (FSA) found its traders had lied about the interest rate other banks were charging it for loans. Investigations are also under way at RBS, HSBC, Citigroup and UBS.
Giving a lower reading than the true rate would give the impression other banks thought it was a better risk to lend to than it was.
Libor (London Inter Bank Offered Rate) is the rate at which banks in London lend money to each other.
Non-executive director Sir John Sunderland will lead the search for a new chairman, and Mr Agius will remain in post pending that appointment. The early favourite to succeed Mr Agius is Sir Mike Rake, BT chairman and senior independent director at Barclays, said our correspondent. Robert Peston said some shareholders did not think Mr Agius, who has been chairman for six years, was tough enough to stand up to Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond, who is regarded as very talented but also very headstrong.
Mr Diamond has insisted he will not resign over the scandal.
He is due to appear before the Commons Treasury Select Committee on Wednesday, with Mr Agius set to follow on Thursday.
The BBC's business editor said earlier that, in making false submissions about their borrowing costs, Barclays managers believed they were operating under an instruction from Bank of England deputy governor Paul Tucker.
He said this belief came about after a telephone conversation in the autumn of 2008 between Mr Tucker and Mr Diamond, who at the time ran Barclays' investment bank, Barclays Capital.
Mr Tucker did not issue this instruction. But he and Mr Diamond have different recollections of their conversation.
So what Mr Diamond recalls about this telephone conversation might turn out to be the most explosive and important part of his testimony to MPs on the Treasury Select Committee, our correspondent added.
In a letter to the committee last week, Mr Diamond condemned the inappropriate behaviour of a "small number" of employees who had tried to make profits for their own benefit.
In his open letter to chairman Andrew Tyrie MP, Mr Diamond pointed out that authorities found no evidence that knowledge of the manipulation, for which it has been fined £290m, went any higher than "immediate desk supervisors".
Robert Peston said he believed Barclays board had "thrown its weight" behind Mr Diamond, considering him to be the best man to clean up the bank's culture. Earlier, the head of the Financial Services Authority, Lord Turner, said the FSA's fine for Barclays was its strongest currently available sanction and the law should be tightened to tackle misbehaviour in banking.
He told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme there should be a presumption a director of a failed bank should not work in the industry again.
Business Secretary Vince Cable is considering criminal sanctions for bank directors. He said those in charge of failed banks should face prosecution - a view echoed by Lord Turner.
Ministers have announced an independent review of the Libor workings, which will be established next week and report by the end of summer.
On Saturday, Labour leader Ed Miliband called for a public inquiry into the customs and practices of the banking industry.
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | July 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Voters in the Maldives go to the polls for a presidential election with Abdulla Yameen winning the election with 51.3% of the vote. | Abdulla Yameen will be sworn in as the Maldives new president today after his surprise win over former leader Mohamed Nasheed in the election run-off.
Mr Yameen secured 51.3 percent of the popular vote compared to 48.6 percent for Mr Nasheed in Saturday's poll.
It ended a contest wracked by lengthy delays.
Despite the acrimonious campaign, Mr Nasheed conceded defeat and said he would not challenge the results of an election monitored by international observers.
"I graciously accept defeat," Mr Nasheed told reporters in the capital Male in a late night address.
"We lost by a very small margin. Democracy is a process. It is up to us to make it work." He added: "The MDP (Mr Nasheed's Maldives Democratic Party) has always asked for a government elected by the people. Today is a happy day for the Maldives. We now have an elected government." The election commission said an inauguration ceremony would take place on Sunday and a special session of parliament had also been organised.
Mr Yameen is the half-brother of former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled the archipelago for 30 years.
Mr Nasheed won a first vote on September 7 with 45 per cent, but the result was scrapped by the Supreme Court which upheld a complaint about voter list irregularities.
After another attempt to hold the poll was blocked, a re-run of the first round took place on November 9.
Mr Nasheed won by a larger margin of nearly 47 per cent, but still not enough for an outright victory.
A run-off election announced for the day after by the independent Election Commission was again cancelled by the Supreme Court, which is dominated by judges named during Mr Gayoom's three-decade rule.
AFP We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
| Government Job change - Election | November 2013 | ['(ABC News Australia)'] |
The Italian cargo ship Jolly Nero crashes into the port of Genoa, destroying the traffic control tower. Seven people die, four are injured and at least two are missing. | RESCUE workers found seven bodies after a cargo ship slammed into the dock at Genoa, toppling the port's control tower into the harbour.
Rescuers carry away a body after the cargo ship Jolly Nero crashed into the control tower of the port of Genoa, northern Italy, killing at least three people, Tuesday, May 7, 2013. A half-dozen people remain unaccounted for early Wednesday, after a cargo ship identified as the Jolly Nero of the Ignazio Messina & C. SpA Italian shipping line, slammed into the port. (AP Photo/Marco Balostro)Source:AP
RESCUE workers in diving gear found seven bodies in the wreckage after a cargo ship slammed into the dock at Genoa, toppling the busy Italian port's control tower into the harbour.
Four people were hospitalised and two others remained unaccounted for, Luca Cari, spokesman for the fire rescue teams at the scene, told The Associated Press.
The crash occurred around 11pm Tuesday (7am AEST) during a shift change in the control tower, as the Jolly Nero cargo ship was leaving port accompanied by tugboats.
By Wednesday morning, all that was left of the tower was its mangled exterior staircase, tilted on its side. The tower itself - which was located on the edge of a dock jutting out into the harbour - was either in the water or in a heap of rubble and steel on the dock.
Mr Cari confirmed the seven dead, saying rescue crews recovered several of the bodies from an area near the tower's submerged elevator. There were fears that those still missing might be trapped inside the elevator, Mr Cari said.
There were no reports of missing ship crew.
"This event is unbelievable because we had the best weather navigation conditions," said Luigi Merlo, president of the Genoa port authority. He declined to speculate on a cause, saying the ship had plenty of room to maneuver in the harbor and shouldn't have ended up so close to the dock.
One theory prosecutors were considering was that a possible mechanical failure aboard the ship left the captain unable to steer it properly, Italian news reports said, citing prosecutor Michele de Lecce.
Mr Mauro described the ship, the Jolly Nero of the Ignazio Messina & C. SpA Italian shipping line, as somewhat unique in its height, so that the full weight of the ship slammed "violently" into the tower itself, not just the dock.
"The ship directly impacted the control tower," he told Sky TG24.
The Genoa-based Messina Line has a fleet of 14 cargo ships, with the Italian-flagged Jolly Nero listed at 239 metres long and 30 metres wide, according to its website.
The five bodies recovered included three coast guard officials in the tower at the time of the crash, a port captain and a tugboat operator, said Cmdr. Filippo Marini, a coast guard spokesman. The bodies of the other two dead were being recovered, he said.
In a statement, Messina said it was fully cooperating with authorities to determine the cause of the "tragic" accident, which it said occurred during a normal maneuver to leave the port. It said Messina Line ships do the maneuver with regularity and are always accompanied by tugboats.
"There aren't words to express the dismay and profound condolences for the victims of this tragedy and their families," Messina said in a statement.
Andrea Furgani, an ambulance doctor and one of the first rescuers, said crews brought four injured to hospitals in Genoa.
"The conditions were critical. They mainly suffered wounds caused by compression, broken bones and wounds on the chest," he said.
The disaster shook a nation that just a year ago witnessed another shipping tragedy when the Costa Concordia cruise ship slammed into a reef off Tuscany on January 13, 2012, killing 32 people.
Parliament held a minute of silence yesterday for the victims in Genoa, the mayor of Genoa proclaimed a period of mourning and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano sent his condolences to the victims' families on behalf of the nation.
Genoa's port, located on Italy's western Ligurian coast, is Italy's busiest in terms of cargo handling, according to the port authority website. It is also a major port of call for cruise ships sailing the Mediterranean.
| Shipwreck | May 2013 | ['(News.com.au)'] |
Parliamentary elections are underway in Venezuela amidst multiple ongoing crises. The election is boycotted by the political opposition to President Nicolás Maduro and has been called unfair by international observers. | The opposition boycotted the election and said the vote represents a "fraud." The poll, which was slammed by international observers, was marked by a low voter turnout of just 31%.
President Nicolas Maduro won total control over the country's legislature, the National Assembly (AN), and fully consolidated his regime's grip on power in the country following Sunday's parliamentary election.
Maduro's party claimed almost 68% of the vote, in an election which was mostly boycotted by the opposition. The National Assembly was the last institution in the country not yet headed by Maduro. The opposition, parts of which participated in the election despite the opposition's call for a boycott, received 18% of the vote.
Maduro's United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and allied parties captured 67 seats in the National Assembly, said Indira Alfonzo, president of Venezuela's National Electoral Council.
International observers like the EU and the Organization of American States (OAS) refused to send observers to Sunday's election and said the conditions for a democratic process in Venezuela do not currently exist.
The EU on Monday said the election had "failed to comply with minimal international standards."
"This lack of respect for political pluralism and the disqualification and prosecution of opposition leaders do not allow the EU to recognize this electoral process as credible, inclusive or transparent, and its results as representative of the will of the Venezuelan people," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
The country's opposition, led by the current AN president and Maduro foe Juan Guaido, said the vote represents "a fraud."
Venezuela had its highest inflation rates ever in 2018: 65,374%. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) marked it even higher, at 1,370,000%. A lack of hard currency meant precious few items could be imported. Soaring prices have made it impossible for most Venezuelans to shop at the supermarket. Only those who can provide their own plate or bowl get something to eat here because even aid organizations cannot afford disposable tableware. The once wealthy country has been suffering a massive supply crisis for years and is now short on everything from food and medicine to everyday items like soap and diapers.
Children in Caracas hold out their hands as aid organizations and church groups distribute food. Many haven't eaten for days. Statistics compiled for a study at the Catholic Andres Bello National University (UNAB) in Chile say 96% of Venezuelan households live in poverty, and 64% in extreme poverty. Few families in the country can afford meat, fish, eggs, fruits or vegetables.
People needing hospitalization, such as here at San Juan de Dios Hospital in Caracas, have to pay for their own medicine and medical instruments like catheters and syringes. More than one-third of Venezuela's 66,000 registered doctors have left the country. Overall, the ranks of medical personnel have been in decline, too, pushing the country's health care system to the verge of collapse.
A child plays in a Bahareque house made of sticks and mud, a building technique dating back to pre-Columbian times and now popular once again due to extreme poverty in the country's rural regions. Such houses have no plumbing or electricity.
Blackouts regularly paralyze the country — opposition politicians say lack of investment as well as corruption and poor maintenance of power plants are to blame for the dire situation. The crisis has also prompted the government to take drastic measures in hopes of saving energy. Experiments with a two-day work week for government employees have done little to help so far.
When the electricity goes out, the climate can become unbearable — air conditioners are useless. Life moves out onto the streets, like here in Maracaibo. Regional and even national blackouts have become common across Venezuela over the past several years. President Nicolas Maduro has repeatedly blamed the outages on acts of infrastructure sabotage committed by the country's enemies.
The water supply in Valencia's Santa Rosa district has collapsed. Now, people there bathe and wash themselves in puddles on the side of the road. There is no drinking water in the district.
These days the only things flowing into the Guaire River are sewage and toxic chemicals. Electricity and water in Venezuela are precariously interconnected: Lack of electricity and maintenance has led to cracks in dams, thus leading to water loss. That has meant less power for the country's hydroelectricity plants, leading to yet more blackouts in what has become a vicious circle.
A resident of the state of Carabobo pushes a canister through the streets of Guacara in hopes of finding drinking water. Some places in Venezuela only have running water for a couple of hours a week. Most families fill up anything they can to have drinking water the next time supplies are shut down.
Venezuelans are swimming in oil, but not in a good way. Fishers floating in inner tubes from tires cast their nets into Lake Maracaibo, even though it's contaminated with oil. The coast has also been affected. Recently, an oil pipeline leak and an accident at a refinery near Puerto Cabello in the northwest caused some 20,000 barrels of crude oil to be pumped into the ocean.
Cars have been lined up waiting for fuel at a Guacara gas station for more than two weeks. Venezuela has been forced to import its gasoline from Iran because its own system is so decrepit that it can barely even pump oil. Ten years ago, Venezuela was pumping some 2.3 million barrels a day. Now it is pumping less than half of that.
In Caracas, people wait in the streets with empty propane tanks in hopes of being able to fill them one day. Since electricity and gasoline have become scarce in Venezuela, many residents have turned to natural gas. Demand has in turn made it scarce too.
Portraits of Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Evo Morales and Rafael Correra adorn the side of a building in Caracas, looking over an overflowing dumpster. Many here worshipped the socialist leaders of Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and Ecuador like saints. But in Venezuela, the socialism of the 21st century has been unable to deliver on its promise of prosperity for all.
Author: Mirjam Gehrke "The truth cannot be hidden," Guaido said in a videotaped message, noting the low voter turnout of just 31%. "The majority of Venezuela turned its back on the fraud that began months ago."
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed the legislative elections, calling the process a "sham" designed by Maduro.
"What's happening today is a fraud and a sham, not an election," Pompeo said on Twitter.
The White House National Security Council also called Sunday's vote fraudulent. "This election only serves to keep Maduro in power and does nothing to build a better future for the people of Venezuela," the council tweeted.
Despite US President Donald Trump's campaign of strict sanctions and high diplomatic pressure, Maduro has remained in power, backed by the country's military and supported by Russia, Cuba, China and Iran.
Maduro has actively campaigned and held rallies, despite the coronavirus pandemic
More than 20 million Venezuelans were eligible to vote in the country, which has been beset by deep political and economic crises. The election comes amid a global pandemic, chronic shortages of gas, basic food and medical supplies. Some5 million Venezuelans have fled the country in a wave of migration second in size only to that of war-torn Syria.
The International Monetary Fund has projected a 25% decline this year in Venezuela's GDP, while hyperinflation has consumed its currency, the bolivar.
Venezuelans have seen hour-long queues for gasoline in the recent months
Sunday's vote brought a power struggle between the opposition and Venezuela's ruling PSUV to an end. The AN was the last source of power for the opposition, in a country where all institutions are controlled or influenced by Maduro.
The opposition gained control over the AN in 2015, when it won by a landslide. But the triumph was short-lived, as pro-government courts stripped the legislature of power and allowed for the creation of a parallel and all-powerful legislative body known as the National Constituent Assembly (ANC).
An election that was seen as compromised filled the ANC with PSUV and Maduro loyalists. This set the stage for the ongoing power struggle between Guaido and Maduro, after Guaido declared himself acting president of Venezuela in 2019, a decision he based on constitutional powers granted to him as chief of the AN.
Despite having obtained the backing of the United States and more than 50 other nations around the world, Guaido's interim presidency and parallel government have not been successful at dislodging Maduro from power or persuading the army to switch sides.
After several high-profile pushes for mass mobilization and a failed coup attempt, cracks began to show and Guaido's government found itself entrenched in a corruption scandal.
Opposition leader Juan Guaido is expected to lose his parliamentary leadership in Sunday's election
Ultimately, the Maduro-controlled Supreme Court suspended the leadership of three of Venezuela's opposition parties and appointed new leaders, who were accused of conspiring to support Maduro.
The opposition further fractured over Sunday's election, as a small faction has pledged to participate in the vote.
Guaido has planned a week-long plebiscite, starting Monday, to rebuke the new congress and seeking public support to prolong the mandate of the current AN under his leadership until "free, verifiable and transparent" elections can be held.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has pardoned more than 100 political opponents ahead of December's parliamentary election. Dissidents will boycott the vote so as not to give the ruling party the sheen of legitimacy. | Government Job change - Election | December 2020 | ['(DW)'] |
In association football, England defeat Germany 1–0 through an extra time penalty goal by Fara Williams to win third place in the FIFA Women's World Cup. | Last updated on 4 July 20154 July 2015.From the section Women's Football
Fara Williams's extra-time penalty ensured England beat Germany for the first time in 31 years to finish third at the Women's World Cup. The performance was the second best by an England team following the 1966 win by the men's side and eclipsed the 1990 men's team, who finished fourth in Italy. The Lionesses had not beaten two-time World Cup winners Germany in 20 attempts but they more than matched their opponents and won the spot-kick in the second period of extra-time after substitute Lianne Sanderson was brought down by Tabea Kemme. Williams, who is England's record cap holder and was homeless at one point in her England career, beat retiring German goalkeeper Nadine Angerer for her third penalty of the tournament. It brought to a close a superb campaign for England, who finished as the top European nation and are now set to climb from sixth in the world rankings after a tournament during which they generated strong and well-deserved support at home.
However, they were thankful for a glaring miss from Bianca Schmidt four minutes from the end as they held on to their slender lead.
The result was tribute to the progress that England have made under Mark Sampson after the Welshman took over 18 months ago. It also put a positive spin on their campaign after the cruel 2-1 semi-final defeat following Laura Bassett's injury-time own goal against Japan.
The team are set to receive an additional £2,000 for winning the bronze medal, taking their World Cup bonus payments to £14,000. Sampson's education as England head coach has now come full circle, following a 3-0 defeat by the eight-time European champions last November.
This time the 32-year-old Sampson chose to be more conservative in his tactical approach and it paid off as his team lined up with three centre-backs, which included Jo Potter alongside Steph Houghton and Bassett, who showed no hangover from her semi-final heartache. But the formation allowed space in front of the defence and the European champions could have scored three times in the first 10 minutes, with tournament top scorer Celia Sasic wasting a great chance before the impressive Houghton cleared off the line.
During an open start to the game, Houghton had the best opening of the first half but mistimed her shot from seven yards. There was also a strong penalty appeal as Kemme appeared to block Potter's shot with her hand. In her last World Cup game in charge, German coach Silvia Neid became frustrated with England's aggressive approach, but it ensured the match remained goalless at the break.
Having named an under-strength side, Neid brought on Melanie Leupolz to add more mettle to the German midfield and they began to create the better chances. Bardsley saved Sara Daebritz's header before Houghton blocked Lena Petermann's close-range shot. But the introduction of Eniola Aluko, who had not played since England's second game against Mexico, swung the game back in England's favour and she laid on a pass to Jill Scott, who wasted a great opportunity with 13 minutes remaining. The Lionesses were buoyed going into extra-time and their determination to not bow down to a world superpower of women's football helped create the penalty, which led to joyous scenes at the final whistle as a superb campaign ended on a high. Listen to the BBC Radio 5 live Football Daily podcast. | Sports Competition | July 2015 | ['(BBC)'] |
Afghan police admit they shot dead seven civilians, including two children, as they collected firewood in Spin Boldak, Kandahar, last Thursday. | An Afghan police patrol killed seven civilians after mistaking them for insurgents as they gathered firewood at dusk close to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, police said Saturday.
Two of the seven, killed on Thursday evening in the Raig area between Shorabak and Spin Boldak districts, in southern Kandahar province, were younger than 18, said southern border police commander General Mohammad Raziq.
The six-member police team on patrol at the time had been detained, he said.
"We are questioning the border police members behind the shooting and the investigation will determine if it was intentional," he told AFP.
Civilian deaths in the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan hit a record last year, with most killed by insurgents, according to the United Nations.
In a report last month the UN said 2,412 civilians were killed in 2009, compared with 2,118 the year before, with almost 70 percent the victims of Taliban attacks, including suicide bombings and roadside bombs.
The Taliban blames civilian deaths on the international and Afghan forces, and many Afghans say that civilian deaths would not occur if their country was not host to more than 100,000 foreign troops.
Kandahar is a significant target for Taliban rebels, who made it the country's capital during their 1996-2001 rule, until they were ousted by a US-led invasion following the Al-Qaeda attacks on the United States.
The city has been the scene of some major insurgent attacks, most notably in August when a truck bomb killed 40 people and injured at least 65. | Armed Conflict | February 2010 | ['(Reuters)', '(Press TV)', '(France24)'] |
The death toll from the conflict increases to 46, with hundreds of people injured and more than 100 buildings destroyed. | The death toll from recent clashes at a disputed Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border has risen to 46, with hundreds of people injured and dozens of homes destroyed, officials say.
Of those killed, 34 were reported from the Kyrgyz side, the Kyrgyz emergencies ministry said on Sunday, and 12 from the Tajik side.
More than 100 properties - including schools, shops, border checkpoints and a police station - were burned down or vandalised in some of the worst fighting the region has seen in years, the ministry added.
Images captured by the BBC show the extent of the destruction in villages in Kyrgyzstan, with homes blackened by fire, roofs collapsed and some buildings reduced to rubble.
As many as 10,000 people were evacuated after violence erupted in a disputed area around the Batken region of Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday.
People from both the Kyrgyz and Tajik sides hurled stones at each other after surveillance cameras were installed at a water facility.
A resident of Maskat village on the border with Tajikistan, Rakhat Esenova, said she had lost her home in the violence.
"We lived with hope in this house... I lived with the hope that [our] children and grandchildren would grow up here," she said, adding: "Why did they do this to us?"
The Kyrgyz interior ministry said it had opened a criminal investigation in connection with the violence, and that it would look into allegations of murder and illegal border crossings.
While a ceasefire agreement came into force on Friday, there were reports that violence had continued in several villages. The two sides reached another ceasefire agreement on Saturday evening, which appeared to be holding on Sunday.
The fighting has focused on water facilities in territory claimed by both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Like many parts of Central Asia, the border between the two countries has been a focus of tension for the past 30 years.
Restrictions on access to land and water that communities regard as theirs have often led to deadly clashes in the past. | Armed Conflict | May 2021 | ['(BBC)'] |
An EF1 tornado strikes the Orleans residential community of Ottawa, Canada, creating a track of damage but without serious injuries. | Resident of an Orléans neighbourhood described seeing a funnel cloud and hearing what sounded like a train Sunday before a tornado ripped trees out of the ground and damaged homes and cars.
Several residents of the Chatelaine Village neighbourhood north of Place d’Orléans said they only received an emergency alert on their phone after the storm was over — and that the warning was about a possible tornado in Gatineau.
Environment Canada said late Sunday that preliminary information indicates the tornado was a Category EF-1 and may have been on the ground for more than 30 minutes.
Firefighters, police and city workers were on-hand soon after the storm Sunday helping clear debris tossed around the neighbourhood and to check on residents.
There were no reports of serious injuries.
Ottawa Paramedic Service spokesman Marc-Antoine Deschamps said the service had not received any calls to respond to significant injuries.
“It looks like we got extremely lucky,” Deschamps said.
The tornado was in Ottawa’s east end, north of Highway 174 and east of Jeanne D’Arc Boulevard, according to a city bulletin. Residents are asked to avoid damaged areas.
On Singleton Way one home had a hole punched through the roof and trees down across the front of the house. Next door, windows were broken and debris was scattered around. The street was lined with fallen trees. A trampoline was mangled around a fence.
In nearby Big Bird Park, numerous trees were uprooted.
David Redmond, whose Singleton Way house sustained structural damage to the roof, said he was in Vanier when his son called around 6 p.m. to say there had been a tornado and the house was damaged.
Redmond said he got on the highway to head home and could see “this giant tornado in the sky hovering over this area, and it lasted the whole drive here.”
Dana Miller said she was about to go for a walk when the sky got dark and “things started moving around in my room.” She looked outside and saw a funnel cloud and “it was heading this way.”
Others reported hearing loud sounds like a train before they headed to safety in their basements.
Rita Heather on nearby Burnt Ember Way said she heard a noise that her husband thought was a low-flying plane.
“All of a sudden we saw the debris flying and he hollered let’s get in the basement. It got really loud and then it started to get softer.”
The fence at Heather’s house was smashed and a blooming crabapple tree was upended.
“My heart dropped when I saw that tree.”
At a nearby house, three cars were damaged, trees were snapped and broken and debris was scattered around the yard.
The force of the wind blew debris inside the house underneath the front door, said Mary-Jean Achtell.
“Everything is damaged, but we are safe,” she said.
A steady stream of people wandered through the streets and parks to survey the damage, some cleaning up debris as they went.
Numerous fire trucks were on the scene in an area around Place d’Orleans inspecting the damage from the sudden storm. A Ottawa First spokesman said there were no reports of anyone being trapped, but some of the damages to houses was significant.
Marc Messier, an inspector with Ottawa Fire, said his son watched what looked like a funnel cloud rip down his street in Orléans. He was driving toward Orléans when he saw what appeared to be a tornado and filmed it, later posting it on social media.
Ottawa Police Service tweeted about downed trees and property damage to some houses in the area.
“There are no reported injuries at this time,” the statement said, adding the following roads are closed because of debris: Jeanne D’Arc Boulevard between Tenth Line Road and Trim Road, Highway 174 between Cameron Street and Trim Road. “There are also several residential streets impassable due to debris and fallen trees.”
1 of 10 Environment Canada issued tornado warnings for Gatineau and Prescott Russell just after 6 p.m., but not for Ottawa.
A tornado was spotted near the Gatineau airport late Sunday afternoon and a tornado warning was issued for Gatineau and the area around the Lièvre River and Papineauville-Chénéville. The warning was later expanded to Prescott and Russell after a tornado was reported near Rockland.
On Sunday night, Gatineau Mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin said the tornado that touched down there did no significant damage.
Ken McGrath, director of operations for the Gatineau-Ottawa Executive Airport, said there was no reported damage to the airport. “We just had a little bit of hail. Everything went south of us, toward the (Ottawa) river.”
Numerous people posted images funnel clouds in Ottawa’s east end on social media.
The first alert was issued for the Gatineau area by Environment Canada at 6:01 p.m. It was lifted for Gatineau at around 7 p.m., but maintained for Papineauveille-Chénéville and Lachute.
“Persons in or near this area should be on the lookout for adverse weather conditions and take necessary safety precautions. Watch for updated statements,” the advisory said.
At 7:26 p.m., Environment Canada said a confirmed tornado was located near Alfred, moving east at 30 km/h. “Locations impacted include Alfred, L’Orignal, Coins Gratton, Blue Corners, Ritchance, Evanturel, L’Ange-Gardien, Village Lanthier, Cassburn and Henrys Corner,” it said.
A second possible tornado was near Wendover, moving east at 30 km/h, it added, with affected locations including Wendover, Glenburn, Rockdale, The Rollway, Jessups Falls, Centrefield, Treadwell, Plantagenet, Senecal, Curran and Plantagenet Station.
Just past 8 p.m., Environment Canada said a possible tornado was located near L’Orignal, moving east at 30 km/h. The storm was expected to be east of the region by 8:30 p.m., it added.
“As a city, as a community, we always want to be there for anyone who needs help moving forward from events like this,” Innes Coun. Laura Dudas said, adding this is just the latest in a string of weather-related crises for the city. “We need to be thinking about how we can be proactive in handling this.”
Cumberland Coun. Stephen Blais was returning to Ottawa by train when the tornado hit. Asked what this latest weather incident might mean in terms of emergency preparedness for the municipality, Blais noted that the city was already in a state of emergency because of severe spring flooding.
“I think it will be a day or two before we know much more,” Blais said.
After a briefing from emergency services, Orléans Coun. Matthew Luloff said only one minor injury had been reported.
“And that person is going to be taken care of and is just fine. We were very lucky,” Luloff said.
Luloff also cited the already declared state of emergency because of flooding and said the response by both city staff and residents had improved.
“Over the last year, I think more people now take these incidents a heck of a lot more seriously.”
The overall goal should be to ensure that similar levels of response became standard, Luloff added.
“I don’t believe you ever get to a point with emergency preparedness where you have everything worked out, and you can always improve.”
Residents in parts of Ottawa and Gatineau hit by tornadoes last September are still cleaning up and trying to rebuild.
Ottawa Health tweeted a link to resources where residents can get help if they are feeling stressed, including the Ottawa Distress Centre at 238-3311.
The impact of a stressful event such as a #tornado can be immediate or delayed. These are normal reactions to stress.
Ottawa Tornado ?. @jenmilligan23 took this from Riverside Dr looking east over Via Rail.
The not-yet-confirmed tornado over Ottawa just now
r | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | June 2019 | ['(Ottawa Citizen)'] |
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in Beijing for the last leg of her six–country Asian trip. Rice met with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao; talks about North Korea nuclear missiles program and Taiwan are on the top of the agenda. | Rice: US observes one-China policy By Hu Xiao (China Daily) Updated: 2005-03-21 06:12
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a piano prodigy, may find her China tour like playing a complex piece of music, but if done properly the result will be harmonious. Talks with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday made a good start. Chinese President Hu Jintao (right) meets with visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Beijing March 20, 2005. [newsphoto]Opinions on various topics, including the Taiwan question, Sino-US trade disputes, intellectual property rights protection, Korean Peninsula nuclear stand-off discussions and the World Trade Organization's Doha Round of market-opening talks, were exchanged frankly. Chinese President Hu Jintao (right) meets with visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Beijing March 20, 2005. [newsphoto]
Lingering in the background is the approval by China's top legislature of the Anti-Secession Law which opposes "Taiwan independence secessionists." In yesterday's separate meetings with Rice, both Hu and Wen stressed that the Anti-Secession Law aims to curb "Taiwan independence forces" and the law is conducive to stability and the development of relations between Taiwan and the mainland, and will also help maintain peace and development in the Asia-Pacific region. Both leaders said the "secessionist activities" of the "Taiwan independence forces" have posed the biggest threat to peace and stability across the Straits, expressing their hope that the US will understand, respect and support China's legislative action. Hu told the visiting secretary of state he hoped the United States will "see clearly the nature and harm of 'Taiwan independence secessionist forces' and their activities." Rice replied yesterday that it is in the US interest to maintain tranquillity across the Taiwan Straits and solve the Taiwan question peacefully, and that the United States will make efforts to that end. Rice said the US Government's position on pursuing the one-China policy and abiding by the three US-China joint communiques will not change, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman. During her meeting with Hu, Rice said the US Government attaches great importance to developing US-China constructive and co-operative ties, and that people around the world are watching the "remarkable transformation" that is going on in China. She said the United States is ready to join hands with China in exploring new fields for co-operation. Win-win trade
On the bilateral trade disputes, Wen said China and the United States should take each other's concerns into consideration and handle conflicts in trade co-operation to achieve a win-win situation. Premier Wen Jiabao shakes hands with visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Beijing March 20, 2005. [newsphoto]He said economic and trade co-operation is an important part of China-US relations and that the two sides should further improve current bilateral co-ordination mechanisms, based on the principles of equality, mutual benefit and development. Premier Wen Jiabao shakes hands with visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Beijing March 20, 2005. [newsphoto]
Wen said China and the United States maintain a generally good relationship and have forged fruitful co-operation in various fields, noting that bilateral ties could be furthered in US President Bush's second term given that the two sides will handle the relationship from a strategic and long-term perspective. Korean Peninsula
Beijing, the host of the three rounds of the Six-Party Talks, reiterated yesterday that China will continue to push forward the Six-Party Talks based upon its long-consistent position of sticking to the direction of seeking a peaceful solution through dialogue, with the goal of denuclearizing the peninsula. Hu said China is willing to work with all concerned parties, including the United States, to resume the talks soon. Rice highly appreciated China's role in the Six-Party Talks which involved Beijing, Pyongyang, Washington, Seoul, Moscow and Tokyo, noting that the United States believes the Six-Party Talks is the best way to resolve the question. Rice arrived in Beijing yesterday afternoon. It is her first trip to China since she became the top American diplomat in January. China is the last leg of Rice's Asian tour, which has already taken her to India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Japan and the Republic of Korea. (China Daily 03/21/2005 page1) China's economy expected to grow 8% from 2006 to 2010
Rice: US observes one-China policy
Farmers to choose new village committees
Mine gas explosion kills 60 in Shanxi
Annan unveils sweeping UN reforms
Commuting to school: A Tale of Two Cities
| Home | News | Business | Living in China | Forum | E-Papers | Weather | | Diplomatic Visit | March 2005 | ['(CNN)', '(China Daily)'] |
A spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of People's Republic of China says Taiwan is barred from observing this year’s World Health Assembly because current President Tsai Ing-wen has not endorsed the Beijing view that both sides belong to a single China under the One-China policy; the spokesman further said that the health of people in Taiwan is not being put at risk by Taiwan's inability to attend. | TAIPEI - Taiwan’s already precarious relations with old rival China took another step back this week after the self-ruled island said Beijing blocked it from the annual World Health Organization assembly, a move that may prompt Taipei to rethink how they treat the other side.
Officials in Taipei said Tuesday the deadline had lapsed to receive an invitation to the May 22-31 World Health Assembly in Geneva. They blamed China for using its clout in the World Health Organization (WHO) to block the invitation.
“If the other side overlooks our appeals and grave reminders, that is sure to severely hurt people’s feelings and spark a backlash in Taiwan public opinion, even causing cross-Strait (China-Taiwan) relations to drift further,” said Chiu Chui-cheng, spokesman for the Taiwan government’s Mainland Affairs Council.
“We want to appeal once more to the other side not to offend Taiwan public opinion,” Chiu said. “The Beijing authorities should reflect deeply on avoidance of old-fashioned, hawkish policy mentalities and actions that could cause huge harm to a resumption of cross-Strait relations.”
Beijing sees self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory rather than a state entitled to membership in international organizations. The two sides have been separately ruled since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to Taiwan.
Taiwan is unlikely to retaliate in real terms over the WHO slight, but the flap brings a string of other China issues into sharper focus and may increase popular anger in Taiwan while prompting a new search for ways Taipei can work with Beijing without selling down local autonomy.
“Taiwan people will feel frustrated with the assertive response of China,” said Huang Kwei-bo, associate diplomacy professor at National Chengchi University in Taipei. “Beijing’s image will get worse.”
Over the past year, China sailed an aircraft carrier around Taiwan, scaled back Taiwan-bound tourism and, since March, has detained a Taiwanese activist without announcing any formal charges against him.
Under former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, Beijing let Taipei observe the World Health Assembly every year since 2009 as “Chinese Taipei,” implying a link to China.
A spokesman for the Communist government’s Taiwan Affairs Office said Monday Taiwan could not observe this year’s assembly, where the WHO sets policies and approves a budget, because current President Tsai Ing-wen has not endorsed the Beijing view that both sides belong to a single China – a term Ma accepted.
Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party takes a guarded view of relations with China. Some party members want Taiwan to declare formal independence from Beijing.
China’s actions “will definitely push Taiwan people further and further away and severely destroy peace and stability between the two sides,” Tsai’s party said in a statement Tuesday. “The authorities in Beijing must reflect and correctly see this negative outcome.”
Taiwanese see the world health assemblies as opportunities to learn from the 192 WHO member states and share their own experience in infectious disease control, and improve medical services in developing countries.
Taiwan has just 21 diplomatic allies compared to more than 170 that recognize Beijing, making it hard for Taiwan to gain access to international bodies.
“The only barrier is politics and to speak more specifically, it’s just China,” ruling party legislator Yeh Yi-chin said Monday. “But where we’d like to appeal and remind everyone is, does the whole world want to let China, one country, destroy the global medical safety net?”
Beijing periodically uses its diplomatic connections and clout as the world’s second largest economy to block Taiwan from joining the United Nations, of which the WHO is a special agency. Last year Taiwan was rejected from observing a session of the U.N. International Civil Aviation Organization and from participating in the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Those barriers would keep affecting how Taiwanese see Beijing. “We need to see what happens next time at the United Nations,” Huang said.
Some Taiwanese may pressure Tsai to find a way of negotiating with China that lets the other side open doors again internationally without making Taiwan give up autonomy. Some scholars expect Tsai to propose a new formula for China relations in the second half of 2017.
The U.S. State Department backed Taiwan’s cause of joining the World Health Assembly this year, saying it supports the island’s “meaningful participation” in international bodies that require statehood.
"The United States remains committed to supporting Taiwan as it seeks to expand its already significant contributions to addressing global challenges,” a spokesperson said this week. “We encourage authorities in Beijing and Taipei to engage in constructive dialogue, on the basis of dignity and respect." | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | May 2017 | ['(Voice of America)', '(Reuters)'] |
New York police arrest members of Jewish group IfNotNow during a protest against Israeli actions. IfNotNow members were blockading a local politician, and have previously chained themselves to the Israeli consulate. | WASHINGTON — Members of a left-wing group protesting Israel’s actions along its border with Gaza were arrested recently at protests in Boston and New York.
Reports said police in Boston arrested eight members of IfNotNow after they chained themselves to Israel’s consulate in Boston on April 3, and seven on Monday as they blockaded the entrance to the New York office of Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader.
“We always welcome hearing from our constituents on critical matters such as this, and support their right to express their views,” Marisa Kaufman, Schumer’s spokeswoman, told JTA. Schumer is a leading defender of Israel in the Senate.
Another four were arrested Tuesday in Minneapolis outside that city’s Jewish Community Relations Council office, an IfNotNow spokesman said.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2018 | ['(The Jewish Telegraphic Agency)', '(The Times of Israel)'] |
One pro-Morsi demonstrator and a policeman were killed during clashes between protester and security forces in Giza and Helwan respectively. | Around 200 people arrested, with a policeman and protester killed in demonstrations, as authorities crackdown on Islamists a year after forcibly removing Mohammed Morsi from office
A series of demonstrations and small bombings marked the anniversary on Thursday of the ouster of Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi, and authorities responded by arresting nearly 200 people as part of their crackdown against Islamists.
One of the bombs went off accidentally inside an apartment outside Cairo, killing two suspected militants who were handling the explosives, the Interior Ministry said. It said the men were in the apartment with two friends who fled after the blast in the Islamist stronghold of Kirdasah.
A security official said one Morsi supporter was killed during clashes between protesters and security forces in Cairo's twin city Giza. Late on Thursday, a homemade bomb went off on a train in Egypt's second city, Alexandria, injuring five passengers, another official said. The bomb was placed in a suitcase under a chair- in a rare incident of directly targeting civilians.
A policeman was killed following violent clashes with protesters in Helwan, a district south of Cairo. The official said protesters in the area lobbed a firebomb at a deserted police station, and the force responded, setting off a firefight, in which the policeman was killed and two officers were injured. There were no immediate reports of casualties on the protesters side.
Mr Morsi's supporters had called for mass protests a year after he was toppled by the military and detained, but the number of demonstrators during the day was mostly in the hundreds, sometimes just dozens – evidence of the reluctance by Islamists to take on the security forces after a months-long crackdown that has killed hundreds and jailed at least 22,000.
Thursday's demonstrations took place in Cairo, Alexandria, Assiut, the oasis province of Fayoum southwest of the capital and several other provinces.
Protests continued after nightfall, with skirmishes reported in the city of Suez, the southern city of Aswan and on the outskirts of Cairo.
Despite relatively small numbers, the protesters blocked some roads, lobbed firebombs at police force, and chanted slogans against the military and President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the former military chief who ousted Mr Morsi following mass protests demanding he step down. Mr El-Sissi was later elected president.
In other violence reported by officials, three separate bombings damaged police stations but caused no casualties in Cairo's densely populated Imbaba district. A small bomb also went off near an air force hospital in Cairo late on Wednesday, and bombs targeted a police station and a railway station in the southern city of Assiut, which has a large Islamist presence, on Thursday.
Two more explosive devices were defused on the main road leading to the famed Giza Pyramids and a stun grenade went off near a police station in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, causing panic.
No one was injured in those attacks.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
In a report marking the anniversary, Amnesty International said the year since Mr Morsi's ouster has seen a "sharp deterioration" in human rights in Egypt, with a surge in arbitrary arrests, detentions and what it called "harrowing incidents of torture and deaths in police custody."
"On every level Egypt is failing in terms of human rights," the London-based group said. It added that it was up to Mr el-Sissi as the newly elected president to "turn the tide by launching independent, impartial investigations into all allegations of human rights violations and send a strong message that flouting human rights will not be tolerated and will no longer go unpunished."
In a statement, the Interior Ministry said 157 demonstrators and 39 suspected Islamists on the Interior Ministry's most-wanted list had been arrested.
After Mr Morsi's ouster, Islamic militants stepped up attacks against security forces in the rugged Sinai Peninsula, a campaign that later spread to the mainland. Militants bombed a central police compound in Cairo in January and tried to assassinate Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of the police, last year.
The government has blamed the string of attacks on the Muslim Brotherhood from which Morsi hails, which is now officially branded a terrorist organisation.
The Brotherhood- which has seen thousands of its members and virtually its entire top leadership arrested- has condemned the violence but vowed to continue holding demonstrations demanding the reinstatement of Mr Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president.
In anticipation of the mass protests, security was tight around the capital, with main thoroughfares, including the epicentre of protests Tahrir Square, were closed to traffic.
Near Tahrir Square, Cairo resident Qassem Shaaban said he expected the day to pass without any serious disturbance.
"Seriously, I feel like the Brotherhood has become extinct. They are no more," he said. "Today Egypt is celebrating."
There was little sign of festivities, particularly during the daytime when most Egyptians were fasting, observing the holy month of Ramadan. Egypt has been plunged into turmoil since the 2011 uprising that toppled long-ruling autocrat Hosni Mubarak, and many Egyptians see the crackdown, and the return of a military man to the nation's top post, as essential for restoring stability and repairing the shattered economy. | Protest_Online Condemnation | July 2014 | ['(The Telegraph)'] |
In the fourth round of the 2012–13 Football League Cup, Arsenal and Reading participate in a twelve–goal thriller at the Mad Stad—with Arsenal 4–1 down by the end of the first half. | Preamble Good evening everyone for what, hopefully, will be an intriguing League Cup encounter. Both sides are trying to defy recent form, but only Reading are seeking to defy history. They've played Arsenal nine times in all competitions ... and lost all nine. Will tonight be any different? The bookies, who make Arsenal strong favourites, suspect not. So what can we expect tonight? Hopefully a decent, open, game between two strong sides. Reading played a close-to-first-XI in their 3-2 victory over QPR in the last round. Arsenal, meanwhile, have often used the early rounds of the League Cup as a debutantes' ball, introducing hot new talent into society, but their 6-1 smashing of Coventry included Olivier Giroud, Andrei Arshavin, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Andrei Santos, and only a couple of unfamiliar names - 18-year-old Swiss defender Martin Angha and 19-year-old midfielder Nico Yennaris. It will be interesting to see how Angha and Yennaris develop. In the past such talent (think Sebastian Larsson, Fabrice Muama, Armand Traore) has blossomed elsewhere, or not at all (think Mark Randall). Sometimes, though, a raw diamond is introduced and shines ever brighter with the passing of time: Jack Wilshere made his first starting appearance against Sheffield United as a 16-year-old back in 2008. Team news: Er, scrub that 'hopefully two strong teams' bit. Arsenal's side is weaker than I expected. They've made 11 changes to the team that sneaked past QPR at the weekend. Heck, even Marouane Chamakh starts. Reading's side is watered-down too, with six changes to the side that drew 3-3 with Fulham. Reading: Federici; Gunter, Gorkss, Morrison, Shorey; McCleary, Leigertwood, Tabb, Robson-Kanu; Hunt, Roberts. Subs: Taylor, Harte, Pearce, McAnuff, Church, Le Fondre, Pogrebnyak. Arsenal: Martinez; Jenkinson, Djourou, Miquel, Koscielny; Frimpong, Coquelin; Walcott, Arshavin, Gnabry; Chamakh. Subs: Shea, Yennaris, Squillaci, Bellerin, Eisfeld, Meade, Giroud. We're off! Just so you know, while I'll be focusing mostly on this game I will be posting scores on the other Capital One matches too. Meanwhile Ryan Dunne writes: "Must say, I'm surprised to see you in the MBM hot seat tonight; thought there'd be like a reserve squad of MBM officiators, ready to take their chance in the diddy games and show their boss what they can do! It's easy to diss the League Cup (here in Scotland, our League Cup used to have genuine gravitas when the Glorious Glasgow Rangers and the Forces of Darkness were both gunning for feasible trebles) but I don't think Capitol are helping themselves with this official history. Highlights include 'In 1981, The League Cup had become the first major Cup competition to bear the name of a sponsor - The Milk Cup - following a ground-breaking deal with the Dairy Council'." That's a zinger, all right. 2 min Not a great start for the 17-year-old Gnarby, whose first touch is heavier than Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power. Reading then go up the pitch but a corner comes to nothing. They're again on the attack here. 3 min Another corner, and a chance for Reading! Morrison's header clatters the post, bounces off Martinez and Arsenal clear. The home side have started well; Arsenal are strangely woozy. 5 min No goals anywhere yet. "Weren't Wolves fined a couple of years ago for fielding a weakened side at Old Trafford in a league match?" asks Simon McMahon. Indeed they were. £25k if memory serves. "I take it the same rules don't apply in this competition. It's an old debate, I know, but what is to be done about the League Cup?" Answers please via email. 7 min A wonderful long ball from Frimpong spheres over Reading's central defenders and into Walcott's path. But he's unable to drag it down and Reading clear for a corner, which comes to zip. 9 min Save from Martinez! Roberts tips it to Tabb, who then slaloms into the box before having his shot blocked at close range. The Arsenal keeper then nearly undoes his good work, flapping like a James at a corner, but the referee awards an undeserved free-kick. 11 min Arshavin attempts the classic Arsenal near-post corner: chip, flick on, bundle home from 0.25 yards. But Morrison gets ahead of Djourou and Reading clear. We've had six corners already. Six! In 11 minutes! GOAL! Reading 1-0 Arsenal (Roberts 12) Lovely goal by Jason Roberts gives Reading a deserved lead. Arshavin gives it away to Hunt, who plays it out to Robson-Kanu on the left. His cross is A1 perfect and Roberts volleys it in from very close range. 14 min It's till 0-0 in all the other League Cup games. "Since you are allowed to comment on other matches, so will I," says Bryan Tisinger. "Bent can't even get a start in the league cup for Aston Villa. What are the chances he goes to Liverpool in the January transfer window? 98.6%? 99.999%? Can the Premier League just open a special one-minute transfer window to get that deal done now? Or is Bent not a 'Rodgers type' player and I am totally off the mark here?" Would be surprised if it happened Bryan: Bent is good running onto the ball, or when he is played in, but he is much less effective when he has his back to goal or linking up play. 16 min Reading are still on the attack. They've been very impressive so far and have just won a corner ...
17 min ... which comes to nothing. "The Milk Cup deal did spawn this classic, points my colleague Philip Cornwall, quite correctly. GOAL! 18 min: Reading 2-0 Arsenal (Koscielny 18) Oh dear oh dear. Gunter crosses from the byline, Koscielny stabs it towards his own goal, and it beats Martinez. What is it about Koscielny and own goals in the League Cup? GOAL! Reading 3-0 Arsenal (Leigertwood 20) Incredible! Another Reading goal! After another corner, Leigertwood shoots from just inside the area but Martinez - instead of palming it clear - punches it into his net. An awful mistake that. At the Arsenal AGM last week, Arsene Wenger made it clear that the League Cup was fifth on his list of priorities. Their performance tonight is making that clear. 22 min Arsenal have been shocking so far. This a young team but they should be doing better than this. Sleeping zombies have shown more life than this. 25 min Arshavin tries to thread in Walcott. He fails. The Arsenal fans are in good voice, mind, they're singing: "We're love you Arsenal, we do." The players aren't giving much back. 27 min Still no goals in the other League Cup games. Speaking of the League Cup, this from William Marzouk, about possible improvements. "Leave it as is. It's a long, gruelling season and you can't expect a club to put out the same starting 11 in three, much less four different competitions, with no winter break," he writes. "And it's a good chance to give playing time to emerging and out-of-favor players. Plus most clubs, recognising they are not serving up the grade A merchandise, offer cheaper tickets on League Cup night. And with the novel line ups the matches/results can be surprising. So everyone wins." 28 min Arsenal are stroking the ball around the half-way line but Reading, who are lined up with two banks of four, are looking rock-solid. 30 min "Come on Arsenal," cry the away fans. After more non-threatening possession an overhit pass flies into Federici's arms. "Isn't this a curious XI that Wenger has sent out tonight?" asks Lou Roper. "I suppose Jenkinson and Miquel might count as 'hot new talent', but surely the rest count as never-weres (step forward Djourou, Chamakh and thug-in-chief Frimpong) and loss-leaders in the shop window (Walcott and Arshavin)? May I have your thoughts?" Think that's harsh on Frimpong, Lou. And Walcott still has plenty of admirers, although I'm not always convinced. The rest, yes. 32 min Christian Benteke has put Aston Villa 1-0 up at Swindon. Arsenal are still giving every impression of wanting to be on the M4 back to London. 34 min Tony Adams is watching this from the stands. His look is mod and dandy; his countenance is anything but. Arsene Wenger and Steve Bould also look like they're sucking pickled eggs on the sidelines. 36 min Michael Tonge has put Leeds 1-0 up against Southampton. The Reading fans are now ole'ing their team. GOAL! Reading 4-0 Arsenal (Hunt 37) Oh dear oh dear. This is embarrassing for Arsenal. Chamakh is bundled over, but a foul isn't given, and Reading fast break. The ball goes from centre to right to centre - and Noel Hunt headers it home! 40 min McDonald has put Middlesborough 1-0 up away at Sunderland. Meanwhile Dave Briggs writes: "One thing I don't understand about this Arsenal line-up is why Wenger isn't giving Walcott a run out down the centre. After all, Walcott is always saying he wants to play there, and the manager isn't likely to learn anything new about Chamakh tonight, is he?" True. But that's a side issue here: Arsenal have been dreadful everywhere. | Sports Competition | October 2012 | ['(7–5)', '(The Guardian)', '(The Daily Telegraph)', '(Irish Independent)', '(ESPN)', '(GOAL)'] |
North Korea announces that it will release Australian Christian missionary John Short on account of his age. | North Korea's state news agency, KCNA, said Mr Short had apologised and admitted to violating North Korean laws.
It said North Korea had decided to expel him partly in consideration of his age.
Mr Short was picked up at an airport in Beijing by Australian embassy officials on Monday but did not make any comment. "The Government has confirmed through the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang that Mr Short has been released and was being deported from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)," the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said earlier in a statement.
"Clearly this is welcome news for Mr Short, his family and his supporters. Australian consular officials stand ready to provide assistance to Mr Short to ensure he can return to his home in Hong Kong as soon as possible.
"Noting the lack of Australian diplomatic representation in the DPRK, we take this opportunity to thank the Swedish government for their tireless efforts on this difficult consular case in recent weeks."
Mr Short, a Hong-Kong based Australian missionary, travelled to North Korea on a two-man tour with Chinese Christian Wang Chong.
The Chinese travel agency that booked the two-person trip said it was told Mr Short was carrying Korean-language Christian pamphlets in his luggage.
Mr Wang, who has since returned to Beijing, says Mr Short's problems stemmed from a visit to a Buddhist temple, where he left pamphlets promoting Christianity.
The local North Korean tour guide reported this to his superiors, who told security officials. The officials searched Mr Short's bags at the hotel and found pamphlet materials.
Proselytising is viewed harshly inside North Korea.
American-Korean Kenneth Bae, who was found guilty of carrying out missionary work in North Korea, was sentenced to 15 years' hard labour in April last year.
In a separate incident last week, a South Korean missionary confessed to spying and attempting to build an underground church in the country.
I am John Alexander Short living in Hong Kong and a citizen of Australia.
I violated the independent right and offended against the law of the DPRK.
I knew that my actions would offend the independent right and would be against the law of the DPRK.
I wanted more Korean people to be Christians therefore I secretly spread Bible tracts written by me.
I heard from the TV and newspaper reports that the DPRK is the closest closed socialist country in the world.
I heard from the reports the religious freedom is not in North Korea. And that foreigners are not welcome to visit or attend for the Church.
In the process of hearing the reports I questioned if it was true.
In early 2012 I requested Mr Paul Baek to translate my Bible tract into the Korean language.
Mr Paul Baek is a business man from South Korea.
I designed my Bible tracts in small size for spreading easier into Korea-DPRK.
I entered the DPRK in August 2012 and personally carried a few Bible tracts and my own personal Bible.
I was interested to see if I could possibly carry more on another occasion.
I committed the criminal act against the law of the DPRK by spreading my Bible tracts in Pyongyang underground station on the train.
My mind was to make sure that I could spread more of my Bible tracts on another occasion. After that my feeling was I could spread more easier next time.
In February 2014 I came as a tourist to DPRK to spread my Bible tracts in a larger quantity.
On February 16, I visited the Popun temple and committed a criminal act by secretly spreading my Bible tracts around the temple.
I deeply apologise for what I have done by spreading my Bible tracts on February 16th, the birthday of His Excellency Kim Jong Il. The people of the DPRK regard February 16th as the greatest national holiday.
I now realise the seriousness of my insult to the Korean people on February 16th because I made the Korean people angry and for this I truly apologise.
I realise that my actions are an indelible hostile act against the independent right and law of the DPRK.
I request the forgiveness of the DPRK for my actions.
I am willing to bow down on my knees to request this tolerance of the DPRK and the Korean people.
I realise that the mass media of the USA and the western countries who say that the DPRK is the closed country and has no religious freedoms is inaccurate and wrong.
I have the decision to report to anyone my positive attitude of the reality of the DPRK.
I will tell the truth to my friends of the DPRK.
I will not commit any further criminal acts in violating the independent right and law of the DPRK.
K | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | March 2014 | ['(Reuters via ABC Australia)'] |
The United Kingdom agrees to jail former Liberian president Charles Taylor if he is convicted, removing a key obstacle to a proposed trial to be held at The Hague under the auspices of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. | This paves the way for his trial to start in The Hague, after other European countries refused to host him.
A UN-backed tribunal in Sierra Leone, where he is in prison, wants the trial to be moved due to security fears.
Mr Taylor faces 11 war crimes charges after allegedly backing rebels in the decade-long Sierra Leone civil war.
"I was delighted to be able to respond positively to the request of the United Nations Secretary General, that, should he be convicted, Charles Taylor serve his sentence in the UK," British Foreign Minister Margaret Beckett said.
TAYLOR TIMELINE
1989: Launches rebellion
1991: RUF rebellion starts in Sierra Leone
1995: Peace deal signed
1997: Elected president
1999: Lurd starts rebellion to oust Taylor
June 2003: Arrest warrant issued
August 2003: Steps down, goes into exile in Nigeria
March 2006: Arrested, sent to Sierra Leone
Profile: Charles Taylor However, she said new legislation would be required. Mrs Beckett said the decision showed the UK's "commitment to international justice".
The Dutch government agreed to host Mr Taylor's trial, as long as he was imprisoned in another country if he was convicted.
Both Sierra Leone and Liberia are recovering from years of conflict, in which Mr Taylor played a central role.
Liberia's President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who took office in January, said she feared that putting Mr Taylor on trial in West Africa could lead to renewed instability.
Britain, the former colonial power in Sierra Leone, sent troops to help oust rebels from the capital, Freetown in 2000.
Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front rebels were notorious for mutilating civilians, by hacking off their arms or legs with machetes.
The UK's minister for Africa, Lord David Triesman, said they started the process in Sierra Leone "and we want to finish it". "We believe that this is a really strong - probably the strongest signal you could send anywhere in Africa - that there is no impunity, that major criminals will be brought to justice and if they are sentenced they will serve their time," he told Reuters news agency. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | June 2006 | ['(BBC)'] |
Groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch urge Qatar to release Mohammed al–Ajami, the poet held since last year on charges of "inciting to overthrow the ruling system" and "insulting the emir". | Human rights groups have urged Qatar to free a poet detained last year for what they say was peaceful criticism.
Mohammed al-Ajami is reported to be facing a secret trial on charges of "inciting to overthrow the ruling system" and "insulting the emir".
The case against him is said to be based on a poem he wrote in 2010 which criticises Sheikh Hamad Al Thani.
But activists believe the authorities were angered by a 2011 poem he wrote about authoritarian rule in the region.
In the poem Tunisian Jasmine, which he recited and then uploaded to the internet in January 2011, Mr Ajami expressed his support for the uprising in the North African state, saying: "We are all Tunisia in the face of the repressive elite."
He also denounced "all Arab governments" as "indiscriminate thieves".
Mr Ajami, also known as Mohammed Ibn al-Dheeb, had previously recited a poem that criticised Qatar's emir and was posted online in August 2010.
In November 2011, Mr Ajami was summoned by Qatari state security in Doha and arrested.
He was then allegedly held incommunicado for months before being allowed family visits, and remains in solitary confinement in the capital's Central Prison, Amnesty International said on Monday.
The human rights group said Mr Ajami's trial has been marred by irregularities, with court sessions held in secret. His lawyer reportedly had to provide a written defence of his client after being barred from attending one of the court sessions. Last week, a judge postponed Mr Ajami's trial for the fifth time. He next trial hearing is now scheduled for 29 November.
The charge of inciting to overthrow the ruling system carries the death penalty under article 130 of Qatar's penal code. Insulting the emir carries a five-year prison sentence.
On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said there was no evidence that Mr Ajami had gone beyond the legitimate exercise of his right to free expression.
Article 47 of Qatar's constitution guarantees freedom of expression and opinion "in accordance with the conditions and circumstances set forth in the law", and the country has pledged to respect the right of free expression as a party to the Arab Charter on Human Rights.
"Qatari authorities must ensure that legal proceedings against al-Ajami are carried out in accordance with international fair trial standards and that any charges which relate solely to peaceful criticism, even if it is of the highest authority in the country, are dropped," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa programme director. Human Rights Watch also called on Sheikh Hamad not to approve a draft media law unless "loosely worded provisions penalising criticism of Qatar or neighbouring governments" were removed.
Although the legislation calls for abolishing criminal penalties for media law violations, article 53 prohibits publishing or broadcasting information that would "throw relations between the state and the Arab and friendly states into confusion" or "abuse the regime or offend the ruling family or cause serious harm to the national or higher interests of the state".
Those who violate the law would face fines of up to $275,000.
"The draft law builds in a double standard on free expression that is inconsistent with Qatar's claims to be a centre for media freedom in the region," Human Rights Watch said.
The Qatari government set up the Doha Centre for Media Freedom in 2008 to promote press freedom and quality journalism, and is home to the pan-Arab satellite TV network al-Jazeera.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | October 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |