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The Haitian government declares earthquake rescue operations over. | Haiti's government has made the "heartbreaking" decision to declare the search and rescue phase for survivors of the earthquake over, the UN says.
The announcement came a day after two people, an 84-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man, were pulled alive from the rubble in Port-au-Prince. The UN spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs says 132 people have been rescued since the earthquake 11 days ago. On Friday the official government death toll from the quake rose to 110,000. Speaking in Geneva, Ms Byrs said that the decision to end the rescue operation was "heartbreaking" but that it had been taken on the advice of experts. She said most search and rescue teams would now be leaving Haiti, although some with heavy lifting equipment may stay to help with the clean-up operation and with aid distribution. She added that humanitarian relief efforts were still being scaled up in Port-au-Prince, as well as in the towns of Jacmel, Leogane and other areas affected by the earthquake. The BBC's Adam Mynott, at a university building in Port-au-Prince where many people are feared buried, says there has been some disquiet among Haitians about the decision to end search efforts. But although two people were pulled out alive in the capital on Friday, it is believed rescue teams have detected no new signs of life under the rubble for the past three days, our correspondent says. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Rescued after 10 days in rubble
On Friday an 84-year-old woman was found in the wreckage of her home seriously injured and severely dehydrated. She is being treated by doctors at the main city hospital with intravenous fluids and drugs. Her son said he had heard her cries on Thursday morning and, almost a day later, he dug her out with the help of friends. Meanwhile, a 21-year-old man, Emmannuel Buso, was pulled out alive by an Israeli search team and is said to be in a stable condition.
Speaking from his hospital bed he described coming out of the shower when the earthquake hit. He said he had no food, and drank his own urine to keep thirst at bay. The head of the Israeli team, Major Amir Ben David, said the rescue had given hope more people could be found alive. No decision has yet been taken on whether the Israeli team will now go home, the Associated Press news agency reported. More than 1,000 mourners gathered on Saturday by Port-au-Prince's shattered Roman Catholic Cathedral for the funeral of Haiti's Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot and a vicar, Charles Benoit. President Rene Preval attended the service, joined by New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan and the Vatican's ambassador to Haiti. "I came here to pay my respects to all the dead from the earthquake, and to see them have a funeral," mourner Esther Belizair told AP, saying that she had lost a cousin. Few funeral services have been held in Haiti for those killed by the quake. At least 75,000 bodies have so far been buried in mass graves, Haiti's government has said. Many more remain uncollected in the streets. 'Most complex operation'
The BBC has started a new radio service in Creole, one of the country's main languages.
The 20-minute long daily broadcast, called Connexion Haiti, will try to give people up-to-date information about the basic services they need to survive - such as where to find food, clean drinking water, medical assistance and shelter. An estimated 1.5 million people were left homeless by the 7.0-magnitude quake, which some have estimated has killed as many as 200,000 people. The UN says 130,000 people have now been relocated out of Port-au-Prince, easing the pressure on overcrowded camps in the city. Meanwhile the UN agency the World Food Programme says it has increased its food aid to survivors. Speaking after a two-day evaluation mission to Port-au-Prince, the executive director of WFP, Josette Sheeran, said that on Friday the agency had delivered about 2 million meals. "This is the most complex operation WFP has ever launched," she said. "Haiti's entire supply chain infrastructure has been devastated, and we have been faced with launching an operation from scratch." A benefit concert featuring more than 100 music and Hollywood stars has been broadcast around the world to raise money for the victims of the earthquake. | Earthquakes | January 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
Vice President Martín Vizcarra is sworn in to replace Kuczyski. | A low-profile former regional governor has been sworn in as Peru’s president after his predecessor became the latest of the country’s leaders to resign amid corruption scandals and public repudiation.
Martín Vizcarra promised to fight corruption “head on” before he was sworn in on Friday, hours after congress voted overwhelmingly to accept the resignation of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.
Kuczynski, known as PPK, abruptly tendered his resignation on Wednesday after it became clear he would not survive a second attempt to impeach him over a new corruption scandal.
The 79-year-old said he had been the victim of malicious campaign by the dominant political opposition and denied any wrongdoing.
Less than two years into a five-year term, Kuczynski is the first sitting president in Latin America to be forced out over ties to the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, which has been at the centre of the continent’s biggest corruption scandal.
It has tainted nearly all of Peru’s main political players of the last two decades.
Kuczysnki is accused of repeatedly lying about decade-old business ties to the Brazilian firm. He narrowly escaped impeachment for “permanent moral unfitness” in December after apparently striking a backroom deal with Kenji Fujimori, a dissident from the majority opposition party led by his sister Keiko.
Three days later, Kuczynski pardoned the Fujimoris’ father Alberto, the former president who was jailed in 2009 for authorising death squads, overseeing rampant corruption and vote-rigging.
But the move failed to appease Keiko Fujimori, whose party released the secretly filmed videos this week which showed Kuczynski’s allies attempting to buy votes from opposition lawmakers to save him from impeachment.
“It was a gigantic error,” Martin Tanaka, a political scientist at the Institute of Peruvian Studies, told the Guardian. “It did nothing to improve his relationship with the Fujimoristas and earned him the hatred and emnity of the anti-Fujimoristas who had supported him throughout the previous attempt to oust him.”
Among those former allies, the leader of the leftist Nuevo Peru party Veronika Mendoza, who called for PPK to be ousted and new elections to renew Peru’s corruption-ridden system.
“Our traditional political class has plundered our state,” she told supporters on Wednesday. “PPK is not a victim, he’s going because he’s corrupt and immoral.”
It was an embarrassing end to a presidency which began with high hopes that the Oxford and Princeton-educated technocrat could modernise Peru and fight graft.
But for many Peruvians, some of whom protested in downtown Lima on Thursday night, PPK represented the corrupt political class. Amid clashes with police, protesters chanted to “get rid of them all”.
Vizcarra, the incoming president, faces many challenges – not least his own low profile: an opinion poll earlier this month showed 81% of Peruvians didn’t recognise his name. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | March 2018 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Archaeologists from the University of Leicester announce the discovery of evidence that Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain started in Pegwell Bay, Kent. | Archaeologists believe they may have uncovered the first evidence of Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain in 54BC.
The discovery of a defensive ditch and weapons led them to identify Pegwell Bay in Thanet, Kent, as the place they believe the Romans landed.
The ditch, in the nearby hamlet of Ebbsfleet, was part of a large fort, the University of Leicester team says.
Its location was consistent with clues provided by Caesar's own account of the invasion, the team said.
Caesar's 54BC invasion, which ultimately ended in retreat, came almost 100 years before Claudius's conquest in AD43.
The 5m-wide ditch was discovered during an excavation ahead of a new road being built.
The university said its shape was very similar to Roman defences found in France.
It is thought it formed part of a large fort protecting Caesar's ships on the nearby beach.
Pottery found at the site was consistent with the 54BC arrival date and the team also found iron weapons, including a Roman javelin.
Archaeologist Dr Andrew Fitzpatrick said descriptions from Caesar's account of the invasion - which describes him leading a force of about 800 ships, 20,000 soldiers and 2,000 cavalry - suggested it was the correct landing site.
"The presence of cliffs, the existence of a large open bay, and the presence of higher ground nearby, are consistent with the 54BC landing having been in Pegwell Bay," he said.
"It's a big force, and you need a big landing place, because simply to land that number of vessels you need a big front.
"We think that the location of the site fits very closely with what Julius Caesar gives in a series of clues - he doesn't tell us in detail, but he gives some snippets, and by piecing those snippets together we think it fits very well."
Dr Fitzpatrick said the low-lying, coastal nature of the site was "defending the coast rather than looking inland", which led them to believe it could be Caesar's base.
Prof Colin Haselgrove, who led the investigation, said it was likely treaties set up in the wake of Caesar's invasion made it easier for the Romans to conquer parts of Britain almost 100 years later.
He said: "The conquest of south-east England seems to have been rapid, probably because the kings in the region were already allied to Rome.
"This was the beginning of the permanent Roman occupation of Britain, which included Wales and some of Scotland and lasted for almost 400 years."
The findings will be explored further as part of Digging For Britain, on BBC Four at 21:00 GMT and afterwards on BBC iPlayer. | New archeological discoveries | November 2017 | ['(BBC)'] |
Kwa Geok Choo, wife of first Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew and mother of current prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, dies at home. | MADAM KWA Geok Choo, perhaps better known Mrs Lee Kuan Yew, wife of Singapore's founding father and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, died at home on Saturday. She was 89.
She leaves behind MM Lee, 87, sons Lee Hsien Loong who is the Prime Minister, Hsien Yang, 53, and daughter Wei Ling, 55 and several grandchildren.
Mrs Lee was born on Dec 21, 1920. Her father, Mr Kwa Siew Tee, was a general manager at OCBC Bank. She excelled at her studies at Methodist Girls' School, Raffles Institution and Raffles College, where her university education was interrupted by World War II. She resumed her studies at Raffles College in 1946, after the university was reopened. She graduated with a First Class Diploma in Arts, winning the Queen's Scholarship. On the strong recommendations of her professors from Raffles College, Mrs Lee was allowed to read Law as a second year student at Cambridge University. She would later become the first Asian woman to be awarded a first-class honours, and she passed the final Bar exam in May 1949. Mrs Lee married Mr Lee in secret in Dec 1947 at Stratford-on-Avon, in England. The Lees had first met in Raffles College, where a friendly competition for grades later blossomed into romance. They married officially in September 1950 in Singapore. Mrs Lee was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1950 and admitted to the Singapore Bar the next year, becoming a full-fledged conveyancing lawyer by profession. The Lees welcomed the birth of their first son, Hsien Loong, in 1952. Their first daughter, Wei Ling, was born in 1955, followed by her brother and the Lees second son, Hsien Yang, in 1957. In 1955, the Lees, along with Mr Lee's brother Lee Kim Yew, founded law firm Lee & Lee with Mrs Lee as a senior partner.
Mrs Lee was a strong pillar to her husband in his political career, and accompanied her husband occasionally on official business trips abroad. Her health began to deteriorate in Oct 2003, when she suffered a stroke during the last leg of a two-week tour of three European cities with Mr Lee, who was then Senior Minister. She was warded in a London hospital for six days before being flown back and admitted to Singapore General Hospital. Mrs Lee recovered from her first stroke, but suffered another three years later in May 2008. She was admitted to Tan Tock Seng Hospital where she received surgery. While hospitalised in June, she suffered another stroke, and a brain scan revealed bleeding in the right side of the brain. The two consecutive strokes robbed her of her physical mobility, and Mrs Lee has remained bedridden ever since. Mrs Lee died peacefully at home on Saturday at 5.40 pm. Read also: Mrs Lee dies, aged 89 Wife's illness hardest for MM PM cuts short Belgium trip Netizens send condolences to Lees President's tribute to Mrs Lee Mrs Lee, the political wife | Famous Person - Death | October 2010 | ['(Channel News Asia)', '(TODAY)', '(The Straits Times)'] |
Chelsea Manning is jailed for refusing to answer questions from a federal grand jury in Virginia looking into the release of documents to WikiLeaks. | Follow NBC News Former U.S. Army soldier Chelsea Manning was jailed Friday after refusing to answer questions from a federal grand jury in Virginia looking into the release of documents to WikiLeaks.
U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton told Manning that she would remain in federal custody “until she purges or the end of the life of the grand jury,” a statement from her representatives said.
Manning told reporters earlier in the day that she was prepared to go to jail following the closed contempt hearing.
On Wednesday, Manning appeared before the same grand jury, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, but refused to answer any questions.
"I responded to each question with the following statement: ‘I object to the question and refuse to answer on the grounds that the question is in violation of my First, Fourth, and Sixth Amendment, and other statutory rights," Manning said in a statement.
"All of the substantive questions pertained to my disclosures of information to the public in 2010 — answers I provided in extensive testimony, during my court-martial in 2013," the statement said.
Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking a trove of military intelligence records to the anti-secrecy website Wikileaks. Her sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama in 2017 after seven years behind bars.
On Friday federal prosecutor Tracy McCormick and Manning's attorneys, Moira Meltzer-Cohen and Christopher Leibig, argued over the terms of Manning's incarceration.
Her representatives wanted the government to order her confined to home as a result of a recent operation -- ostensibly a gender-reassignment procedure that was reported in the fall -- and her need for prescription drug treatment.
The government argued that the William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center, run by the sheriff of Alexandria, Virginia, could handle Manning's medical needs.
McCormick said Manning would be housed with women, but she otherwise gave no specific guarantees and said one unspecified drug would be out of the question.
"They have no issue with the prescribed hormones needed," the prosecutor said, referring to the jail's medical staff. "They do have an issue with the narcotic because that is just not allowed in a detention center."
Alexandria Sheriff Dana Lawhorne said in a statement, "We will work closely with the U.S. Marshals to ensure her proper care while she remains at our facility."
On Tuesday, a judge in the Eastern District of Virginia denied a motion filed by Manning's attorneys challenging a subpoena calling her to testify, according to her lawyers.
Manning told The Associated Press that she didn't know what case was about.
"I just know there were an awful lot of government lawyers there," she said Tuesday after her motion was denied.
"Grand juries are terrible, to say the least," Manning, 31, added.
Manning's support committee, Chelsea Resists!, called the grand jury system "dangerous and undemocratic."
"Grand juries operate in secret, allowing the government to retaliate against activists and dissidents behind closed doors," said a statement from the committee released by Manning's lawyers.
“Donald Trump and his administration have publicly declared their disdain for Chelsea, and for President Obama’s decision to commute her sentence," the Chelsea Resists! statement said. "Chelsea has stood by the testimony from her 2013 court-martial, and this subpoena serves no legitimate purpose. It is a punitive effort to reverse Obama’s legacy, exposing Chelsea to legal hardship and possible imprisonment."
Pete Williams is an NBC News correspondent who covers the Justice Department and the Supreme Court, based in Washington. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | March 2019 | ['(NBC News)'] |
In the UEFA Women's Euro 2017 Final, the Netherlands beats Denmark 4–2 for their first UEFA Women's Championship title. | Last updated on 6 August 20176 August 2017.From the section Women's Football
The Netherlands won their first major women's international tournament after a thrilling victory over Denmark in the Euro 2017 final on home soil.
Denmark led through Nadia Nadim's early penalty but the Dutch soon levelled as Arsenal's Vivianne Miedema tucked in.
Lieke Martens put the hosts ahead with a precise 20-yard finish, but Denmark's Pernille Harder slotted in to equalise.
Dutch captain Sherida Spitse blasted in a free-kick to make it 3-2, and Miedema sealed a historic triumph late on.
Surprise finalists Denmark had pushed for another equaliser late on, as Sanne Troelsgaard went close with a swerving half-volley which dipped past the right-hand post.
But the Dutch, backed by the majority of a sold-out 28,182 crowd in Enschede, never looked in serious danger of conceding again and put the game beyond the Danes when Miedema scored the fourth.
It sparked a party atmosphere inside the FC Twente Stadion where virtually every home supporter was wearing the national team colour of orange.
An emotional Miedema appeared to be in tears in the final few seconds of the match, before the stadium erupted when the final whistle was blown.
The Netherlands had never reached the final of a major tournament, with their previous best performance coming when they reached the semi-finals of the 2009 European Championships.
They were not among the pre-tournament favourites, but once France and holders Germany - who were going for a sixth successive title - had been eliminated, they built on the momentum created with the support of their fans.
The Dutch had won all of their games at the tournament leading up to the final, conceding just once in five matches, and beating England in the last four.
Watched by Dutch football legends Marco van Basten and Louis van Gaal in the stands, the home side produced a professional display to fight back against a Denmark team they had already beaten 1-0 in the group stage.
After going behind, the Netherlands started to find their rhythm midway through the first half and eventually showed their superiority.
The Netherlands are only the fourth different nation to win the women's European Championships, after Germany's 22-year reign ended.
Joint-captains Spitse and Reading's Mandy van den Berg, who came on as a substitute in the closing stages, lifted the trophy amid joyous celebrations for the host nation.
It was not the only prize won by the Dutch, with Barcelona winger Martens being presented with the official Player of the Tournament award after a series of dazzling displays on the left flank.
However, the Golden Boot was won by England's Jodie Taylor.
Arsenal's Taylor finished as the tournament's top scorer with five goals, although Arsenal striker Miedema could have levelled by scoring a hat-trick against the Danes.
Rachel Brown-Finnis, ex-England goalkeeper:
This is the perfect ending, having the hosts win it, after they created so much momentum with their fans watching them.
They've been absolutely stunning. The way that they play the game is with so much energy, so much enthusiasm and so much interaction with the crowd.
The speed and the power, and the way they flood players forward, with the quality of the likes of Jackie Groenen, Miedema, Danielle Van de Donk, Martens - the list goes on.
They have been a pleasure to watch and they are deserved champions.
Denmark captain Harder worked tirelessly and was a constant threat but, with two clinically-finished goals, imaginative movement and some world-class hold-up play, new Arsenal signing Miedema was the deserved Player of the Match, scoring for the third game in a row.
The former Bayern Munich star would have had a hat-trick to savour, but for Danish keeper Stina Lykke Petersen's magnificent reflex save to keep out her far-post volley in the second half.
"It was an open match," Netherlands coach Sarina Wiegman said. "There were two teams who really wanted to play football.
"A match with six goals, that's very important for women's football as well."
Striker Miedema added: "We've played six amazing games and today we showed that even if we get behind in a game we can still change the game.
"The moment we scored for 3-2, I just thought 'it's not going to go wrong again'.
"We played so much better in the second half and we deserved to win the tournament."
Denmark boss Nils Nielsen said: "The Dutch team was the best team in the tournament.
"It's not easy to play at home. It's so easy to disappoint everybody, but they didn't, they performed so well.
"I am very, very proud of my own team. We have had so many problems and they kept fighting right until the end."
Formation 4-3-3
Formation 4-4-2
Match ends, Netherlands Women 4, Denmark Women 2.
Second Half ends, Netherlands Women 4, Denmark Women 2.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match Theresa Nielsen (Denmark Women) because of an injury.
Substitution, Netherlands Women. Mandy van den Berg replaces Kika van Es.
Attempt missed. Nadia Nadim (Denmark Women) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Sanne Troelsgaard with a cross following a corner.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match Kika van Es (Netherlands Women) because of an injury.
Corner, Denmark Women. Conceded by Dominique Janssen.
Substitution, Netherlands Women. Renate Jansen replaces Shanice van de Sanden.
Goal! Netherlands Women 4, Denmark Women 2. Vivianne Miedema (Netherlands Women) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Sherida Spitse.
Katrine Veje (Denmark Women) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Jackie Groenen (Netherlands Women).
Attempt missed. Sanne Troelsgaard (Denmark Women) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right following a corner.
Corner, Denmark Women. Conceded by Sherida Spitse.
Attempt blocked. Sanne Troelsgaard (Denmark Women) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Pernille Harder.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Substitution, Denmark Women. Nanna Christiansen replaces Sofie Pedersen.
Delay in match Stefanie van der Gragt (Netherlands Women) because of an injury.
Offside, Denmark Women. Katrine Veje tries a through ball, but Sanne Troelsgaard is caught offside.
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How to get into football - the most popular sport in the world, with clubs and facilities throughout the UK. | Sports Competition | August 2017 | ['(BBC Sports)'] |
Ukrainian President, Viktor Yushchenko may face impeachment on charges of undermining national security, and illegal arms trade with Georgia months before the attack on Tskhinvali, South Ossetia, says Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Yushchenko earlier said the arms trade charges are "unsubstantiated". | Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lashed out at Ukraine on Thursday for delivering weapons to Georgia, overshadowing talks with his Ukrainian counterpart over a sensitive gas deal.
"It is very regrettable that Ukraine thought it possible to deliver arms into the conflict zone," Putin said during a press conference with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
"States normally behave with greater restraint," he added in an admonition to Ukraine, which relies heavily on Russian gas but which angered Moscow by backing Georgia in its brief war with Russia in August.
Tymoshenko replied "we want a peaceful solution" to the conflict and said it would be possible to reach a deal whereby Ukraine would pay market prices for gas -- meaning a major increase on what it pays now.
"We have the possibility of making a strategic agreement on market prices for gas, on the transition to market prices," she said.
Tymoshenko said on Friday that she expected Ukraine to sign a deal with Russia by the end of October on the delivery of gas from 2009 for a period of up to four years.
Soaring prices could complicate talks, however, after Russian gas monopoly Gazprom on Wednesday announced prices for European clients had hit an all-time high of 500 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres.
Ukraine currently pays 179.5 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres and Russia has long been pushing Kiev to pay more, resulting in a series of price disputes intertwined with the two countries' rocky ties.
In 2006 one such dispute led Moscow cut off gas deliveries to Ukraine and, by extension, to Western Europe, which gets much of its gas from Russia and Central Asia via pipelines running through Ukraine.
The latest downturn in relations between Moscow and Kiev resulted from the August war in which Ukraine strongly supported Georgia.
Ukraine was a major exporter of arms to Georgia in the run-up to the war, which began when Russia poured troops and armour into its southern neighbour to repel a Georgian attack on the Moscow-backed rebel region of South Ossetia.
Earlier Thursday, the pro-Kremlin daily Izvestia accused Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko -- Tymoshenko's arch-rival -- of selling Georgia air-defence systems and rocket launchers used in the attack on South Ossetia.
On Wednesday, Tymoshenko denounced arms trafficking in Ukraine and blamed Yushchenko and his allies for not stopping it, Interfax news agency reported.
Tymoshenko and Yushchenko have been feuding bitterly in a political crisis that began when the president pulled his party out of their ruling pro-West coalition after a dispute over how to respond to the war in Georgia.
Yushchenko's office accused the prime minister of "treason" for not being tough enough on Russia.
The squabbling threatened Thursday's meeting with Putin when Yushchenko's plane made an emergency landing near Kiev, and Tymoshenko's team accused him of seizing her plane as she was about to leave for Moscow.
"The government delegation was deprived of its plane in a bid to thwart the negotiations" with Putin, a Tymoshenko spokesman was quoted as saying by Interfax. The prime minister arrived in Moscow aboard a chartered plane.
The two politicians have had a love-hate relationship since 2004, when they joined forces in the so-called Orange Revolution to overturn the rigged election of a pro-Russian candidate as president.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (R) speaks with his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Timoshenko during their meeting in the residence of Novo-Ogaryovo, outside Moscow. Putin lashed out at Ukraine on Thursday for delivering weapons to Georgia, overshadowing talks with his Ukrainian counterpart over a sensitive gas deal.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | October 2008 | ['(USA Today)', '(Bikilar.Az)', '[permanent dead link]', '(The Times)', '(France24)', '(BBC News)', '(Izvestia)'] |
At least 19 people are killed and 185 others are injured after two trains collide in Sohag, Egypt. Passengers triggered the emergency brakes on the first train; a second train following on the same track was not stopped. | Initial death toll of 32 has been revised down while number of injured has risen to 185 people, health minister says.
Egypt has begun to bury the dead from a train collision that killed at least 19 people and injured 185, according to a revised toll, as investigators probed the country’s latest deadly rail crash.
Health Minister Hala Zayed told reporters on Saturday that an initial toll of 32 killed in Friday’s crash was revised down, while the number of injured rose from 165.
Surveillance camera footage of the accident seen by AFP showed a speeding train barrelling into another as it rolled slowly down the tracks, sending a carriage hurtling into the air in a cloud of dust.
Most of those injured in Friday’s crash that occurred in the Tahta district of southern Sohag province suffered fractures.
The first victims were laid to rest early on Saturday with small groups of family and friends in attendance.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi pledged tough punishment for those responsible for the crash, the latest in a series of rail accidents to plague Egypt.
It came as the most populous Arab nation struggles with another major transport challenge – a giant container ship blocking the Suez Canal, a vital shipping lane for international trade.
Early on Saturday Egypt was again struck by tragedy when a building collapsed in the capital, Cairo, killing at least five people and injuring 24 others, according to officials.
At the scene of the rail disaster, technicians worked through Friday evening to remove five dislocated and damaged carriages. By morning the crash area was cleared of twisted metal and debris and rail traffic had resumed.
Witnesses and survivors recounted horrifying scenes.
“We were at the mosque then a child came and told us [about the incident]. We heard the collision, so we rushed and found the carnage,” a 59-year-old man told AFP news agency, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The first ambulances to reach the scene arrived “around half an hour” after the crash, he said.
“There were children who removed [debris] using wooden ladders,” added the witness, who spent the day helping rescue workers.
Kamel Nagi, a 20-year-old conscript, was on the Cairo-bound train after enjoying a few days of leave.
“Our train suddenly stopped and a quarter of an hour later, the second arrived and struck us,” said Nagi, who suffered multiple broken bones.
“I saw it coming, screamed, then found myself on the ground in great pain,” he said from hospital.
Authorities opened an investigation to determine the circumstances of the accident, while the rail authority blamed the crash on unidentified passengers who “activated emergency brakes” in one train.
The prosecution said it would interrogate several rail employees, including the two train drivers, their assistants and the signalman. They will also have to undergo drug testing and their mobile phones have been seized by the authorities to examine their call logs, it added.
But media reports on Saturday claimed both train drivers had died of injuries sustained in the crash.
The rail authority said one train hit the last carriage of the other, causing at least two carriages to overturn between the stations of Maragha and Tahta.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli said the government will disburse 100,000 Egyptian pounds (around $6,400) to each family who lost a loved one and between 20,000-40,000 pounds to those injured.
The government has spent “hundreds of billions of pounds” to upgrade the railway system over the past four years, he said, acknowledging that the network “has suffered from decades of negligence”.
Egypt’s railway network is one of the oldest in Africa and the Middle East and improving it “will take time”, Madbouli told reporters on Friday after visiting the crash site.
“Until then accidents like this can happen,” he said, adding that efforts to upgrade the system have been hampered by the coronavirus pandemic which has delayed deals with foreign firms.
“Anyone who caused this painful accident through negligence or corruption, or anything similar, must receive a deterrent punishment without exception or delay,” the president said on Twitter.
Middle East analyst Yehia Ghanem told Al Jazeera earlier that punishing low-level employees, as has occurred in the past, fails to address the structural problems with the country’s decaying rail system.
“There is a serious problem when it comes to fundamental services to the Egyptian people, including the railways. These kinds of accidents happen sometimes on a weekly basis. The responsibility falls on the system, on the regime, on the president himself,” Ghanem told Al Jazeera.
One of the deadliest Egyptian train crashes came in 2002, when 373 people died as a fire ripped through a crowded train south of Cairo.
More than 100 others injured after two trains collided north of Sohag city, health ministry says.
Train derails after crashing into concrete block on tracks south of Cairo, state media report.
Dozens dead after high-speed train crashes in Cairo, sparking criticism of neglected railway infrastructure.
At least 15 killed as freight train and passenger train collide in northern Beheira province, health ministry says.
| Train collisions | March 2021 | ['(Al Jazeera)'] |
A parliamentary election is to take place in Nigeria, but is postponed to 4 April as voting materials did not arrive on time. | Lagos, Nigeria (CNN) -- Nigeria postponed its parliamentary election Saturday due to a "terrible unfortunate emergency" caused by the late arrival of voting materials, the head of the election commission said.
Nigerians will instead go to the polls Monday, said Attahiru Jega, chairman of the Independent National Election Commission.
"We cannot proceed with these elections if we want them to be free, fair and credible if there are no result sheets," Jega said. "We cannot bury our heads and say there are no problems. It is regrettable. It is unfortunate. It should not have happened."
Jega said he takes full responsibility for the fiasco but he said a vendor that was supplying results sheets and ballots was unable to deliver them on time. The vendor, said Jega, cited the diversion of planes to carry relief supplies to earthquake-stricken Japan as the reason for the delay.
Citizens of Africa's most populous nation were supposed to vote Saturday for 360 House of Representatives seats and 109 Senate seats. They are scheduled to vote next Saturday in a presidential election and for state governors the following week.
Before the logistical problems, the election, the most expensive in Nigeria's history, had already been marred by riots, bombings and assassinations.
"The unprecedented levels of violence that have seen several people either killed, maimed, kidnapped or intimidated for political reasons pose the single most significant threat to the conduct of general elections," warned the Nigeria Elections Situation Room -- a forum of groups focusing on the upcoming elections.
Human Rights Watch estimates at least 70 people have been killed in political violence in the run-up to the voting.
The European Union described Nigeria's 2007 elections as the worst they had ever seen anywhere in the world, with rampant vote rigging, violence, theft of ballot boxes and intimidation. Nigeria had hoped to gain a cleaner image this year. | Government Job change - Election | April 2011 | ['(Pana Press)', '(AFP via Google News)', '(CNN)'] |
Qatari author Mohammed al–Ajami is given a life sentence for a poem insulting emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. | DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A Qatari poet has been sentenced to life imprisonment after a trial that rights groups say highlights the broadening crackdown on dissent across the Gulf.
Mohammed ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami, who has been detained in solitary confinement since his detention in November 2011, was sentenced by the trial court after being charged with insulting the emir and trying to overthrow the government.
The ruling, which can be appealed, is the latest in a string of repressive moves by Gulf monarchies against domestic critics who dare to challenge the status quo of loyalty to the region’s absolute rulers.
“The verdict has sent out shock waves among activists in Qatar and the Gulf region,” said Dina El-Mamoun, a researcher with Amnesty International. “It is an outrageous betrayal of free speech.”
Qatar, which is home to the U.S. military’s regional forward base, has played a leading role in promoting change in the Middle East since the Arab spring swept away four dictators in the past two years, in addition to becoming an increasingly active global investor.
But rights groups say the gas-rich state is less keen on highlighting abuses in Gulf nations or at home. Qatar is coming under increasing scrutiny after its selection as host for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Ajami wrote the widely distributed “Jasmine Poem,” which criticized Gulf rulers in the wake of the Tunisian revolution, last year. The controversial poem was interpreted as attacking the emir, Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani. “We are all Tunis in the face of the repressive elite,” it read.
The critique echoes the concerns among other opposition movements in the richer Gulf states of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, where rulers secure loyalty via cradle-to-grave welfare payments.
The clampdown on criticism of the region’s ruling families has gained strength across the Gulf monarchies since the Arab spring spread from Tunisia and Egypt in February 2011, triggering serious protests in Bahrain and Oman.
A Qatari contingent joined Gulf troops that crossed into Bahrain to back the minority Sunni government’s violent crackdown on the protest movement there led by the majority Shiites.
Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have all launched legal actions against critics of their respective ruling families.
The move in Doha against Ajami comes after a U.N. committee this week called on Qatar to strengthen its domestic laws and practices to end abuses.
The U.N. committee on torture urged the Doha government to ensure safeguards to prevent torture during detention, such as allowing the state-approved national human rights committee access to inspect detainees, while also criticizing what it described as a lack of judicial independence in practice.
The concerns were raised by the committee after it reviewed Qatar’s second periodic report on human rights, which had been submitted to the United Nations three years late.
The committee said it “regretted” the lack of information in the case of Sultan al-Khalaifi, the founder of a human rights group arrested in March 2011, who was detained for a month without charge. And it raised concerns about pieces of Qatari legislation that are used to hold suspects without charge, which prevents them from gaining access to a lawyer or a doctor and denies them the right to notify family members and challenge the legality of their detention. Qatar, however, defended its human rights record.
“While in Qatar we have the feeling that we have achieved significant attainments in a short period of time, we realize however that much more needs to be done,” the government’s representative said in a response to the United Nations.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | November 2012 | ['(The Washington Post)', '(RT)', '(AP via The New York Times)', '(BBC)'] |
Twenty-six Boko Haram militants and 11 Chadian soldiers are killed in an ambush after the soldiers recover cattle that the militants had seized. Nine Chadian soldiers are injured. | N'Djamena (AFP) - At least 11 Chadian soldiers were killed in an attack blamed on Boko Haram jihadists at Lake Chad, the latest in a surge of attacks in the region, authorities said on Sunday.
"The Chadian army lost 11 men including three officers... and six soldiers were wounded," the regional authority told AFP.
It added that Chadian forces killed "26 Boko Haram members" in fighting at Tchoukoutalia after the soldiers recovered cattle that the militants had seized.
Boko Haram militants have been waging a decade-long insurgency in northwest Nigeria, but the conflict has spilled into the Lake Chad region where Nigeria borders Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
Security sources earlier said seven Chadian soldiers and a guard were killed in the ambush that happened on Friday in Mbomouga in Chad's Ngouboua area.
Since 2018, Boko Haram has carried out at least nine attacks on Chad. But the jihadist group has stepped up attacks outside Nigeria after a period of calm last year.
Last month, militants killed four people in an attack on a Cameroonian island on Lake Chad and Boko Haram killed another 13 villagers in eastern Chad.
In March jihadists killed at least 23 Chadian soldiers in an attack on an army post in the group's deadliest attack on the country's military.
Since 2015, troops from Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria have been grouped into a mixed, multi-national force in a bid to help fight Islamist militants.
.
| Armed Conflict | June 2019 | ['(Yahoo News)'] |
The death toll from the 2010 Haiti cholera outbreak passes 1,000. At least one man is shot dead by United Nations peacekeepers after allegedly opening fire on the peacekeepers. | More than 1,000 people have died from cholera in Haiti, as the outbreak spreads there, health officials say.
The Haitian health ministry said the number of people who had received hospital treatment for the disease had risen to nearly 16,800.
Meanwhile, United Nations peacekeepers have stepped up security after violent protests on Monday left two Haitians dead.
At least one of the men was shot dead by the UN peacekeepers. The ministry said the number of dead from cholera up to Sunday was 1,034, which was 117 higher than the last official figure announced two days ago.
The number of those who had received hospital treatment had risen by about 2,150 since the previous update.
Cholera is now present in all 10 of Haiti's provinces. The ministry said the worst-affected area remains the central province of Artibonite, where at least 629 people have died. In Port-au-Prince - which was badly damaged by the earthquake in January - 38 deaths have been recorded, most of them in the slum district of Cite Soleil. Some of the demonstrators accused peacekeepers from Nepal of introducing cholera to Haiti for the first time in a century. A spokesman for the Nepalese army, Ramindra Chhettri, told AFP: "We are concerned. Our positions are being reinforced and Haitian police are helping the peacekeepers to protect themselves from attack." The UN said one man was shot dead by peacekeepers in Haiti's second largest city, Cap Haitien, after he fired at a soldier.
But the AFP news agency quoted a local official as saying the young man had been shot in the back and the protesters had been armed with stones. Another young man was killed by gunfire on a street in Cap Haitien during the clashes, police said. A number of locals and UN peacekeepers were injured in the clashes. As well as calling for UN peacekeepers to leave Haiti, the demonstrators accused the government of leaving the people to die. The UN says it has found no evidence to justify the accusation against the Nepalese troops, but the cholera strain matches a South Asian one. The Nepalese army said tests had proved that the allegation regarding its personnel was false.
The anger directed at UN peacekeepers was such that it required Haitian police to offer the UN troops protection, a police director in Cap Haitien told Reuters news agency.
"You cannot imagine how difficult it is," Joany Caneus said.
"We don't only have to protect the population, we have to protect UN troops."
The UN blamed the violence on political agitators it said were determined to disrupt presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 28 November.
In a statement, it urged the Haitian population "not to allow itself to be manipulated by the enemies of stability and democracy".
There have also been protests against the location of cholera treatment centres, which some people fear will bring the disease into their neighbourhoods.
The UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Haiti, Nigel Fisher, said UN agencies expected a significant increase in the number of cholera cases after a nationwide review. "It is spreading and we have to try to contain the number of cases and we have to try to contain the number of deaths," Mr Fisher said. Roland Van Hauwermeiren, country director for Oxfam, said the spread of cholera country-wide was a "direct result of the abysmal sanitation infrastructure throughout Haiti that was a serious problem long before January's earthquake".
Oxfam's most recent cholera response programme, in northern Cap-Haitien, has been suspended due to the protests, but will resume as soon as possible, a statement said.
Cholera itself causes diarrhoea and vomiting, leading to severe dehydration. It can kill quickly, but is treated easily through rehydration and antibiotics.
| Disease Outbreaks | November 2010 | ['(BBC)'] |
The government extends the lockdown in the city of Agra and delays the reopening of the Taj Mahal for tourists and visitors after a spike in COVID-19 cases in the country. | NEW DELHI/AGRA (Reuters) - India has withdrawn a planned reopening of the Taj Mahal, citing the risk of new coronavirus infections spreading in the northern city of Agra from visitors flocking to see the 17th century monument to love.
India pushes back Taj Mahal reopening
Local authorities issued a new advisory late on Sunday ordering an extension of lockdown curbs on monuments in and around Agra. The government order did not specify the duration of the lockdown for monuments that have been closed since March.
In the interest of the public, it has been decided that opening monuments in Agra will not be advisable as of now, the district authorities said in a notice published in Hindi.
Agra, one of Indias first big clusters of the virus, remains the worst-affected city in Uttar Pradesh, the countrys most populous state.
It was immediately not clear whether the federal government would scrap its plan to reopen other monuments across the country, such as New Delhis historic Red Fort.
Indias coronavirus infections are rising at the fastest pace in three months.
On Sunday, the health ministry reported a record single-day spike of 24,850 new cases and more than 600 deaths. That pushed Indias overall tally to 673,165 cases, closing in on Russia, the third-most affected country globally.
But the government has been lifting a vast lockdown of Indias 1.3 billion people that has left tens of thousands without work and shuttered businesses.
While international flights remain suspended, domestic travel has been opened up, and the government is hoping visitors will start to trickle back to some popular destinations.
Containment zones, areas identified as most affected by the virus, remain under strict lockdown, with restricted access and movement of only essential goods and services.
We dont expect visitors here because clusters around the Taj, including shops and hotels are closed, a local district administration official said in Agra.
Reporting by Neha Arora in New Delhi and Saurabh Sharma in Agra; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani, William Mallard and Tom Brown
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
| Disease Outbreaks | July 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
An air raid kills at least 24 civilians at a market in Houthi-held Saada Governorate, Yemen. | Conflict Agence France-Presse June 18, 2017 · 10:15 AM EDT A girl cries after her father was killed by a Saudi-led air strike in Yemen's capital Sanaa July 13, 2015. Yemen's war started in March of that year.
Khaled Abdullah/Reuters
At least 24 civilians were killed in an air raid Sunday on a market in northern Yemen, a medical official and witnesses said, blaming the Saudi-led coalition battling Yemeni rebels.
Most of the casualties worked in the Mashnaq market in the rebel-controlled Saada province on the Saudi border, an official at a nearby hospital told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Witnesses said the market was a centre for trafficking in qat, a leafy stimulant plant that is widely used in Yemen but illegal in Saudi Arabia.
One of the witnesses said some of the casualties had "just returned from a trip across the border."
The Saudi-led Arab military coalition has been accused of air strikes in Yemen for more than two years against areas controlled by the Shiite Huthi rebels.
Saada itself has come under heavy bombing since 2015, when the coalition intervened to support the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in its fight against the Iran-backed Huthis.
The coalition claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on the rebel-held capital Sanaa in October 2016 which targeted a gathering of mourners at a funeral ceremony, killing more than 140 people.
The Huthis have also accused the Saudi-led coalition of a raid last month that killed 23 civilians, including women and children, in the southwestern city of Taez.
The Saudi-led coalition — which accused the rebels of using civilians as "human shields" — has not claimed responsibility for that attack.
The rebels, who control a string of strategic ports along the Red Sea coastline and the norther highlands that border Saudi Arabia, have sporadically launched rocket attacks across the border.
No paywalls, ever.
In late January, the Huthis attacked a Saudi warship in the Red Sea, killing two sailors.
More than 8,000 people have been killed in the past two years and tens of thousands wounded in the war in Yemen, according to the World Health Organization.
The UN has called Yemen the "largest humanitarian crisis in the world" and warns that 17 million people, or two-thirds of the population, face a serious threat of famine this year.
| Strike | June 2017 | ['(AFP via PRI)'] |
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders presidential campaign fires national data director Josh Uretsky, and suspends two staffers following Friday's announcement the campaign had improperly accessed and downloaded voter data belonging to Hillary Clinton's campaign. NBC News reports at least four individuals affiliated with the campaign were involved in the breach, which occurred Wednesday. | Follow NBC News Two more staffers working for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' have been suspended in the wake of the revelation that the campaign had improperly accessed and downloaded voter data belonging to the Hillary Clinton's campaign.
The Sanders campaign communications director Michael Briggs confirmed to NBC News Sunday that two more staffers were suspended for involvement in the breach, which was made public Friday. Briggs declined to name the staffers, who he said were suspended Saturday after logs regarding the breach were handed over to the campaign by the DNC. He said the two weren't fired "because we are still assessing the situation."
Sanders' national data director, Josh Uretsky, on the other hand, was promptly fired Friday for his involvement in the snooping incident.
Documents obtained and reviewed by NBC News appeared to show that at least four individuals affiliated with the Sanders campaign were involved in the breach, which occurred Wednesday. It was unclear who the fourth person was or what consequences they might face.
The Sanders campaign on Friday said that taking advantage of a bug to access the voter data was "inappropriate." But the campaign also filed a lawsuit against the DNC over a "breach of contract" after the DNC disciplined the campaign by revoking its credentials to access its own voter data.
The campaign and the DNC reached a deal late Friday to restore access to the vital data.
Sanders said while apologizing for the breach during Saturday night's Democratic debate that his staff "did the wrong thing."
"This is not the kind of campaign that we run and if I find anybody else involved in this, they will also be fired," Sanders said. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | December 2015 | ['(NBC News)', '(Bloomberg)'] |
The chairman of the Nigerian People's Democratic Party , Vincent Eze Ogbulafor, resigns days after facing fraud charges in court. | The chairman of Nigeria's governing People's Democratic Party (PDP), Vincent Ogbulafor, has resigned days after facing fraud charges in court.
Mr Ogbulafor is accused of fraudulently receiving $1.5m (£1m) in federal funds when he was a government minister under ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo. He denies the charges but was under pressure to step down. Mr Ogbulafor's problems are seen as part of the PDP leadership struggle prior to the 2011 presidential polls. The BBC's Caroline Duffield in Abuja says many Nigerians will assume his fall has more to do with internal politics than the fraud charges, which - for Nigeria - represent a fairly small amount of money. President Goodluck Jonathan is thought to be interested in running for elections next year. But if he is to do so, his own party's rulebook - and senior officials - stand in his way, our correspondent says. The PDP has a system of rotating its candidate for president between people from the north and the south of the country. President Jonathan is a southerner and the PDP has said its candidate for the 2011 elections will be from the north. Our correspondent says most Nigerians do not much care whether the leader is from the north or the south. She says they want fair elections, running water and stable electricity. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | May 2010 | ['(PDP)', '(BBC)'] |
At least one person is killed and 70 people hospitalized as more than 100 wildfires break out across Lebanon for the second day. The Chouf and Matn regions are especially hit hard. The Lebanese Civil Defense labels it the worst firestorm in decades. | Aided by strong winds and unusually high temperatures, the fires have been described as the worst in decades.
Beirut, Lebanon – Firefighters in Lebanon on Tuesday battled massive wildfires in several areas in the country, before moderate rains in the evening brought them under control in most affected areas.
With more than 100 blazes erupting from north to south over the past two days, Raymond Khattar, the director-general of Lebanon’s Civil Defence, described the forest fires as the worst to have hit the country in decades.
At least one man died from suffocation after battling a fire in the city of Aley for several hours. Lebanese media also reported that a woman had lost her life after being run over by a fire truck in the southern coastal city of Sidon.
The Lebanese Red Cross announced that they had treated more than 70 people at a field hospital in Damour, mostly for smoke inhalation, minor burns and other light injuries.
The areas most heavily affected were in the Chouf and Metn regions, in the lush Mount Lebanon mountain range east and southeast of the capital, Beirut.
Aided by strong winds and unseasonably high temperatures, the fires ate their way through dense forest near the towns of Meshref and Damour in Chouf and swept into the residential areas overnight on Monday, leading many families to flee their homes.
Videos shared on social media showed hellish scenes of fires sweeping along roadways, releasing hails of embers onto onlookers.
The Lebanese state’s ability to combat the rapidly spreading fires quickly came into question, especially given that three aircraft specialised in fighting blazes remained grounded at the airport of Beirut, on Tuesday.
The three Sikorsky S-70 model helicopters were donated to the Lebanese state in 2009, taking part in firefighting missions for several years before falling into disrepair. They have remained non-operational for at least five years due to the failure of successive governments to fund their maintenance.
At the same time, dozens of Civil Defence teams were fighting the fires with little technical capabilities, even enlisting the use of anti-riot vehicles mounted with water cannons.
As criticism mounted on social media, Lebanese officials sought international assistance to tackle the fires. Two Cypriot aircraft began helping Lebanese Army helicopters in firefighting operations as of Tuesday morning, while a further two planes supplied by Jordan arrived at Beirut airport on Tuesday night.
Greece also deployed two aircraft that were imminently expected in Beirut.
Despite the respite brought by rains on Tuesday evening, there are fears that the blazes will reignite as the weather forecast for Wednesday predicts strong winds up to 45 kilometres (28 miles) an hour and temperatures of up to 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit).
George Mitri, director of the land and natural resources programme at the University of Balamand, said this meant the already-severe devastation would continue.
Before the recent fires, Lebanon had already lost three million trees in 2019 alone from forest fires, equivalent to all trees planted in reforestation initiatives over the last 15 years, Mitri said.
That figure equated to about 1,300 hectares (3,212 acres) lost this year, which is already above average. But Lebanon had lost at least another 1,200 hectares (2,965 acres) in just the last three days, Mitri added, meaning that the country had now lost double the yearly average.
“We have a new record in the extent of burned areas and the number of trees,” he told Al Jazeera. “It’s absolutely catastrophic to our national biodiversity.”
Firefighters are trying to extinguish blazes that erupted in mountainous areas amid high temperatures and strong winds.
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has said he is hoping the UAE will inject cash into Lebanon’s central bank.
| Fire | October 2019 | ['(Al–Jazeera)'] |
Chen Min'er replaces Sun Zhengcai as Communist Party Secretary of Chongqing; Sun Zhigang becomes party chief of Guizhou. | SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Saturday named rising political star Chen Miner as Communist Party boss in southwestern Chongqing, cementing his reputation as a favorite of President Xi Jinping ahead of a leadership reshuffle at a key party congress in the autumn.
The elevation of Chen, a trusted confidant of Xi, is a sign the president is flexing his political muscles as he maneuvers to line up a new Politburo Standing Committee, the apex of political power in China.
Chen previously worked under Xi in Zhejiang province, where Xi was then provincial party leader, and has since ridden the coat-tails of his former boss, climbing rapidly through the party ranks. Foreign diplomats who have met Chen say he talks openly about his closeness to Xi.
Chen, who moves to Chongqing from the poor southwestern province of Guizhou, takes over from Sun Zhengcai, the official news agency Xinhua said, without saying where Sun would go next or including wording to suggest he would get another position.
Chongqing television’s main evening news showed Chen giving a speech to senior city officials, telling them he would not let down the party’s trust in giving him such an important job. His predecessor Sun did not appear to be present in the meeting.
Chongqing is perhaps best known for its association with its disgraced former party boss Bo Xilai, once himself a contender for top leadership before being jailed for life in 2013 in a dramatic corruption scandal.
Chen said officials must “resolutely eliminate the malign influence” of the Bo case, Chongqing television reported.
Sun had been seen as another potential candidate for elevation at the autumn congress, but his star has waned.
Sources with ties to the leadership and foreign diplomats say Sun has been out of favor after the party’s anti-corruption watchdog this year criticized Chongqing authorities for not doing enough to root out Bo’s influence.
Chen was made Guizhou deputy party secretary in 2012, but was promoted to governor less than a year later and within roughly a month of Xi becoming president, before moving up again to his role as Guizhou party boss in 2015.
Sources with ties to the leadership had said Chen could jump straight into the Standing Committee with Xi’s support potentially easing out contenders from rival factions, though Chen is still considered a dark horse candidate.
The switch from Guizhou to the more high-profile Chongqing role signals that Chen is virtually assured of a Politburo spot. But the change so close to the 19th Party Congress may mean he has to wait longer for further promotion, as it would be unusual to move the holder of such an important post within months.
For decades, Guizhou was one of China’s most backward provinces, but in recent years the central government has poured in billions of yuan, with a focus on poverty alleviation and big data.
Xinhua said Guizhou governor Sun Zhigang, who is not related to Sun Zhengcai, had taken over as the province’s party chief.
Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Stephen Powell
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | July 2017 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Thailand approves marijuana for medical use and research. The country voted to amend the Narcotic Act of 1979 prior to the New Year’s holiday. | Thailand approved marijuana for medical use and research on Tuesday, the first legalization of the drug in a region with some of the world’s strictest drug laws.
The junta-appointed parliament in Thailand, a country which until the 1930s had a tradition of using marijuana to relieve pain and fatigue, voted to amend the Narcotic Act of 1979 in an extra parliamentary session handling a rush of bills before the New Year’s holidays.
“This is a New Year’s gift from the National Legislative Assembly to the government and the Thai people,” said Somchai Sawangkarn, chairman of the drafting committee, in a televised parliamentary session.
While countries from Colombia to Canada have legalized marijuana for medical or even recreational use, the drug remains illegal and taboo across much of Southeast Asia, which has some of the world’s harshest punishments for drug law violations.
Marijuana traffickers can be subject to the death penalty in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.
But in Thailand, the main controversy with legalization involved patent requests by foreign firms that could allow them to dominate the market, making it harder for Thai patients to access medicines and for Thai researchers to access marijuana extracts.
“We’re going to demand that the government revoke all these requests before the law takes effect,” said Panthep Puapongpan, Dean of the Rangsit Institute of Integrative Medicine and Anti-Aging.
Some Thai advocates hope that Tuesday’s approval will pave the way for legalization for recreational use.
“This is the first baby step forward,” said Chokwan Chopaka, an activist with Highland Network, a cannabis legalization advocacy group in Thailand. | Government Policy Changes | December 2018 | ['(BBC)', '(CNBC)'] |
Around 700 people are injured in two earthquakes in southern Iran. | Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- An earthquake struck southern Iran's Hormozgan province early Wednesday, injuring about 700 people, state-run media reported.
Frightened residents of the port city of Bandar Abbas poured into the streets after the 4.9-magnitude earthquake struck at 2:56 a.m. (6:26 p.m. ET Tuesday), Iran's Press TV said.
No deaths were reported.
Last year, a strong earthquake measuring 6.1 in magnitude struck Hormozgan, demolishing nearly 200 villages and killing at least six people.
Iran lies on a series of seismic fault lines and has experienced devastating earthquakes -- most notably in December 2003 when a 6.6 magnitude quake devastated the ancient city of Bam in southeast Iran, killing at least 30,000 people. | Earthquakes | November 2009 | ['(CNN)', '(Fars News Agency)', '(Times of India)'] |
Novak Djokovic wins the Shanghai Masters Tennis Competition for the second straight year. | Novak Djokovic overcomes a fierce challenge from Juan Martin del Potro to defend his Shanghai Masters title with a 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 victory, bringing the Argentine down to earth after his heroics against Rafael Nadal.
Novak Djokovic completed his second successive sweep of the Chinese ATP events on Sunday as he retained his Shanghai Masters title. Despite a shaky period in the second set, where he kept slipping on the concrete court, Djokovic came back strongly to close out a 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 victory Juan Martín del Potro.
This has been a close-fought rivalry over the past 18 months, dating back to Del Potro’s victory over Djokovic in the Olympic bronze medal match in London. Yet Djokovic is a hard man to take down, as he proved by taking revenge in a five-set Wimbledon semi-final this summer.
In the first and third sets of Sunday’s final, the world No2 produced some magnificent tennis, as a final tally of 47 winners and only 26 unforced errors would suggest. For some reason, Djokovic always seems to be at his best in the Asia-Pacific region, where his only defeat in his last 55 matches came against Andy Murray in the 2012 Dubai semi-final.
As for Del Potro, he looked shattered after his third runner-up finish at a Masters event. It is a peculiarity of his record that he has won a slam, the 2009 US Open, but never a Masters title.
But then, you look at the players he has faced in his finals – Murray, Djokovic and Rafael Nadal – and those names serve as a reminder of how difficult it is to win titles in this era. You have to go back to the 2010 Miami Masters, 33 tournaments ago, for the last time a man ranked outside the top five lifted one of these titles.
At least Del Potro could take consolation from the fact that he has qualified for the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. The Argentine’s straight-sets victory over Rafael Nadal in the semi-final was one of the finest performances of his career, and suggested that the 2014 season could see him challenging for a place in the top four.
At the moment, Del Potro stands fifth in the rankings but he has a chance of making up ground on David Ferrer, the No4, who has suffered a form slump since losing to Nadal in the French Open final, with not even a semi-final to show for his efforts over the last four months, while Murray is only just beginning rehab after a back operation last month.
On Saturday, the British No1 tweeted a photograph of himself and his fitness trainer, Matt Little, donning wet suits as they prepared for a pool fitness session. “Flattering,” read the sarcastic caption. | Sports Competition | October 2013 | ['(The Telegraph)'] |
Salome Zurabishvili takes office as President of Georgia. Zurabishvili is the first woman in office and the last president to be elected by popular vote. | The inauguration of Georgia's first female president marks the start of the country's new constitution. Salome Zurabishvili has committed to making the former Soviet state's path toward Europe "irreversible." Salome Zurabishvili was sworn in as Georgia's first female president on Sunday. Her inauguration marks the start of a new constitution which transforms her post into a largely ceremonial role.
Paris-born Zurabishvili won a run-off vote last month with 59.6 percent of the ballot, according to the Central Election Commission. Turnout was 56.23 percent.
Sunday's ceremony took place in the courtyard of an 18th-century manor that belonged to Georgia's penultimate king, Heraclius II.
Read more: Georgia's first female president
Attendees included former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who brokered a ceasefire deal during Georgia's 2008 war with Russia
Path to Europe
Zurabishvili said in her inaugural speech that she would use her experience in France's diplomatic service, and previous role as Georgia's foreign minister, to promote her nation's aspirations to join the European Union and the NATO transatlantic military alliance.
"The goal of my presidency is to make Georgia's democratic development and its path toward Europe irreversible," said the 66-year-old.
"I will facilitate this process with the support of our strategic partner, the United States of America, and our European friends."
Georgia signed an association agreement with the EU in 2014 as part of its efforts to diversify economic ties.
Read more: EU offers Eastern Partnership members money, motivation
Multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious: This is Georgia. The breathtakingly beautiful country between the Caucasus and the Black Sea is one of the oldest settlement areas of mankind. Today about 3.7 million people live in this small country with its magnificent nature and culture.
The metropolis of Tbilisi is Georgia's cultural center. And it has been since the 5th century. The city has known Roman, Arab, Turkish, Persian and other conquerors. Russia invaded Georgia in 1799 and remained there until the end of the Soviet era. They all left their traces. Tbilisi celebrates the present day with new constructions such as the Peace Bridge and the Concert Hall (right). Since the 3rd century, the Narikala fortress has kept watch over the old town with the typical balconies and carvings on the houses. The panorama path up to the fortress leads through a labyrinth of alleys. The massive castle has seen conquerors come and go, was destroyed and rebuilt again and again. Only a lightning strike in the powder warehouse (1827) turned it into a ruin.
The Metekhi Virgin Mary Church can be seen on the steep bank of the Kura, which flows through Tbilisi. From the 12th century, the residence of the Georgian kings was located on this site, as is indicated by the equestrian monument next to the church. It depicts King Vakhtang Gorgasali, the founder of Tbilisi. In 1937, under Soviet rule, the residence was demolished. The church survived.
The Abanotubani district with its hot thermal springs is considered the oldest part of Tbilisi. The springs have been used for 700 years. The Persian-style bathhouses were built later, in the 17th century. The bathing rooms are located under the domed brick vaults. A number of them are still in use today and are a popular meeting place to bathe and chat.
They are called Chinuri, Chichwi or Orbeluri. Grape varieties from Georgia enjoy an excellent reputation. The largest wine-growing areas are in the east of the country, in Kakheti. Archaeological finds prove that wine was cultivated in Georgia over 7,000 years ago. And even this very day wine is cultivated in amphorae. UNESCO declared this method an intangible cultural heritage.
When you travel through the country, you will encounter relics from Soviet era: houses, factories, monuments or, as here, this viewing platform on a former military road near Kazbegi mountain. All of them stone testimonies. Georgia was part of the Soviet Union for 70 years — until 9 April 1991, when the people voted for independence in a referendum.
The most diverse landscapes and climate zones are concentrated in the most compact area; from the mountain villages of the Caucasus to the beaches of the Black Sea. Almost half of Georgia is covered with forest. Two-thirds of the country is mountainous, with several 5,000 meter (16,404 ft) peaks. Numerous nature reserves and national parks make Georgia a worthwhile destination for hikers.
2,200 meters (7,218 ft) above sea level, in the Great Caucasus, lies Ushguli — "Courageous Heart"; a community of four villages with roots dating back to the 16th century BC. Ushguli is considered to be the highest situated permanently inhabited place in Europe. Since 1996, the villages with their characteristic fortified towers have been UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Up to 50,000 people lived in the cave town of Vardzia. It lies in the south of Georgia. It was built in the 12th century as a fortress to defend against Turks and Persians. It was carved by hand with simple tools into a 500-meter-high (1,640 ft) rock face, seven stories above each other. There were bakeries, stables, a treasury and a church.
160 kilometers (99 mi) from the Black Sea coast lies the old capital of Georgia, Kutaisi. It was the residence of the Georgian kings from the 10th century until 1122. Many are buried here. Churches, monasteries, palace ruins and the well-preserved medieval townscape make this city worth a visit. Today it is the economic and cultural center of West Georgia.
The Black Sea coast with a mild Mediterranean climate. The port city of Batumi, the third largest city in Georgia, beckons you to take a stroll along the beach, with a promenade flanked with artworks. A city of contrast: Between the derelict residential buildings, huge malls and luxury residential buildings are being built. Real estate mogul and current US President Donald Trump has invested here.
More than twenty different ethnic groups live in Georgia, including Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Arameans, Jews and Greeks. They brought their traditions and customs with them. And the Georgians? They love their own traditions and do not miss a single festival to wear their traditional costumes. They celebrate passionately — with traditional music and dances. Folk festivals are always a spectacle.
Opposition parties had denounced her victory as fraudulent. Opposition supporters marched with sacks of onions and potatoes on Sunday to mock what they claim were government efforts to bribe voters by handing out free vegetables.
Police blocked a convoy of cars and buses, which stretched for kilometers, on the road leading from the capital Tbilisi to the medieval town of Telavi, where Zurabishvili's ceremony was held.
Clashes erupted between police officers and protesters as they tried to break through police ranks, reported the pro-opposition Rustavi-2 broadcaster.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which monitors elections, said the election was administered well, but that state resources were misused in the campaign and "one side enjoyed an undue advantage." | Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | December 2018 | ['(Deutsche Welle)'] |
33 miners are still trapped without any contact underground after days of rescue efforts at a collapsed mine near Copiapó in the Atacama Desert. | COPIAPO, Chile (Reuters) - Rescuers advanced slowly on Monday to contact 33 miners trapped deep in a small mine in northern Chile, hoping they are holding onto life in a tiny shelter with little food and water four days after a cave-in.
Rescue workers drilled small holes deep into the mine hoping to locate the miners and provide them with food and water as they look for other ways to extract them from the copper and gold deposit that caved in on Thursday afternoon.
The accident has shocked the world’s top copper producer and shed light on safety conditions at small mines in the mineral-rich Atacama desert, where hundreds risk their lives for a piece of the commodity bonanza.
Lawmakers have vowed to review Chile’s mine safety regulations, although radical changes are unlikely in an industry where serious accidents are uncommon.
Hopes for a quick rescue were shattered on Saturday after an air shaft used by rescuers to descend caved in, hampering rescue efforts in what could become one of Chile’s worst mining accidents in decades.
“We have gone from hours to days and now possibly a rescue that could take weeks, which is very painful for us and generates a feeling of anger and powerlessness,” said Mining Minister Laurence Golborne, who is overseeing rescue efforts.
No contact has yet been made with the miners, trapped 4.5 miles (7 km) inside the mine and around 900 feet (300 metres) vertically underground.
SCENARIOS-Mine accident spotlights safety [ID:nN06239625]
FACTBOX-Major Chile mine accidents [ID:nN06266599]
For a graphic link.reuters.com/baj73n
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Dozens of relatives have endured the freezing nights and sun-blasting days in the desert outside the mine for news about their loved ones, hoping to find them alive in the deposit located 450 miles (725 km) north of the capital, Santiago.
President Sebastian Pinera, who took office in March only weeks after a massive earthquake hit central Chile, has vowed to probe the causes of the accident near the northern mining town of Copiapo and punish those responsible for any lapses.
Rescue efforts are another test for his new government as it moves to rebuild cities and industries ravaged by an 8.8 magnitude quake in February.
The San Jose mine, owned by the local Compania Minera San Esteban Primera, is part of a mining complex that produces around 1,200 tonnes of copper per year.
The mine, which has been operating since the late 1800s, has been linked to several fatal accidents in the past that briefly closed the deposit years ago.
Most of the country’s copper is extracted by big, foreign mining companies that invest heavily in safety to comply with international standards. Copper is by far Chile’s top revenue earner.
Smaller mines make up a tiny part of the country’s total output, but pepper the rugged, hilly desert of northern Chile. | Mine Collapses | August 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(Reuters India)', '(Aljazeera)'] |
The death toll of the floods in Jakarta, Indonesia, that started two days ago rises to 43. | Indonesian authorities are turning to the technique of cloud seeding to try to stop more rain falling in the flood-hit capital Jakarta.
Planes have been sent to inject chemicals into clouds in an effort to alter precipitation.
Jakarta and surrounding districts have struggled to cope since a storm on New Year's Eve left large areas underwater.
At least 43 people are known to have died, with some 192,000 evacuated. More rain is expected.
According to Reuters news agency, two planes have been sent up to shoot salt flares into the clouds, with the aim of making them break before they reach the Jakarta region.
"All clouds moving towards the Greater Jakarta area, which are estimated to lead to precipitation there, will be shot with NaCl (sodium chloride) material," Indonesia's technology agency BPPT explained in a statement.
The Indonesian disaster management agency said it was using inflatable boats to rescue stranded families. A dozen people remain missing.
By Friday morning, the clean-up operation was under way. On Thursday, authorities had used hundreds of pumps to try to lower water levels in residential areas and around public infrastructure, like the railways.
But even in areas where the water has receded, mud and debris are preventing many residents from returning home.
Floods are common in the city around this time of year, and are among the reasons President Joko Widodo plans to move the capital to East Borneo in the next few years.
Mr Widodo blamed the severity of current disaster on delays in flood control infrastructure projects.
It is the worst flooding in the area since 2013.
Jakarta, home to millions of people, is one of the fastest-sinking cities in the world. Experts say it could be entirely submerged by 2050.
| Floods | January 2020 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Those in power in Honduras empower police to quash "unauthorised" gatherings as President Manuel Zelaya calls on his supporters to march on the three–month anniversary of his fall, saying it will be "the final offensive". | Honduras's interim leaders suspended key civil liberties last night in response to "calls for insurrection" by ousted president Manuel Zelaya, empowering police and soldiers to break up "unauthorised" public meetings, arrest people without warrants and restrict the news media.
The announcement came just hours after Zelaya called on supporters to stage mass marches today to mark the three-month anniversary of the 28 June coup that ousted him. Zelaya described the marches as "the final offensive" against the interim government.
Zelaya, who surprised the world when he sneaked back into the country last Monday and holed up in the Brazilian embassy, is demanding he be reinstated to office, and has said that the government of interim president Roberto Micheletti "has to fall".
The government announced the decree in a nationwide broadcast, saying it was "to guarantee peace and public order in the country and due to the calls for insurrection that Mr Zelaya has publicly made".
The measure empowers police and soldiers to arrest without a warrant "any person who poses a danger to his own life or those of others", although unlike martial law, it requires that anyone arrested be turned over to civilian prosecutors.
The Honduran constitution forbids arrest without warrants except where a criminal is caught in the act.
The measure also permits authorities temporarily to close news media outlets that "attack peace and public order".
The media restrictions appear aimed at pro-Zelaya radio and television stations that – while subject to brief raids immediately after the coup – had been allowed to operate freely, openly criticising the government and broadcasting Zelaya's statements.
But under yesterday's order, authorities may now "prevent the transmission by any spoken, written or televised means, of statements that attack peace and the public order, or which offend the human dignity of public officials, or attack the law".
The decree states that the country's national telecommunications commission, known as Conatel, is authorised "through police and the armed forces … to immediately suspend any radio station, cable or television network whose programming does not comply with these regulations".
Pro-Zelaya television station Channel 36 warned yesterday that restrictions on the news media were coming, and said they were part of a pattern by the interim government of curtailing constitutional rights.
The government had previously bragged about the democratic atmosphere in the country, citing outlets such as Channel 36 as proof. The station continued broadcasting without interruption last night.
The interim government also expelled personnel from the Organisation of American States looking to set up a mediation effort and gave Brazil a 10-day ultimatum to either hand over Zelaya or give him political asylum and get him out of the country.
John Biehl, an OAS special adviser, told reporters in the capital, Tegucigalpa, that he and four other members of an advance team – including two Americans, a Canadian and a Colombian – were stopped by authorities after landing at the international airport yesterday. Biehl, who is Chilean, said he was later told he could stay, but the others were put on planes leaving the country.
"A high-ranking official told us we were expelled, that we had not notified [the interim government] that we were coming," he said.
Biehl said he was in Honduras to set up a visit by the OAS secretary general, José Miguel Insulza, who he said would arrive "at the appropriate time".
Micheletti had previously said the OAS was welcome to come, but had suggested that representatives began arriving today.
The foreign minister, Carlos Lopez, said the team's arrival had not come "at the right time … because we are in the middle of internal conversations".
| Famous Person - Give a speech | September 2009 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
The Syrian opposition accuses the Syrian army of launching a chemical attack on the Jobar neighborhood of Damascus, killing at least six people. | Damascus, Syria The Syrian opposition accused military forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad of launching a chemical attack against civilians in the neighbourhood of Jobar in central Damascus on Wednesday. At least six civilians died during the attack. Activists reported that the victims were apparently suffocated “due to the toxic gas used by pro-Assad forces in Jobar’s attack”. According to the General Commission of the Syrian Revolution, the regime military forces targeted Jobar with chemical weapon. “The world should be aware that Assad regime still owns some chemical weapons, and the images published online showing the victims of Jobar are clear evidence that Assad’s chemical weapons were not completely handed over to the international community,” opposition activistAli Musa told ARA News in Damascus. This comes one year after the chemical attack launched by pro-regime forces against the eastern Ghouta of Damascus countryside, August 21, 2013, where more than 1400 civilians were killed. | Armed Conflict | August 2014 | ['(Arabnews)'] |
Export restrictions placed by the commerce department of the United States against China's state–owned ZTE for alleged violations of U.S.–imposed export controls on Iran takes effect. , | LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department is set to place export restrictions on Chinese telecoms equipment maker ZTE Corp 000063.SZ for alleged violations of U.S. export controls on Iran, according to documents seen by Reuters.
The restrictions will make it difficult for the company to acquire U.S. products by requiring ZTE’s suppliers to apply for an export license before shipping any American-made equipment or parts to ZTE. According to a Commerce Department notice that will be published next week in the U.S. Federal Register, the license applications generally will be denied.
The restrictions will take effect Tuesday, Reuters has learned, and apply to any company worldwide that wants to ship American-made products to ZTE Corp in China. Those companies are not the target of the export curbs on ZTE.
“This is a significant new burden on trade with ZTE,” a senior official at the Commerce Department told Reuters. The official declined to comment on whether the U.S. government might take further action against ZTE.
The company can appeal against the action.
ZTE, based in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen, said in a statement on Sunday that it was aware of media reports on U.S. export restrictions.
“ZTE is highly concerned about recent media reports relating to a U.S. Department of Commerce investigation,” the company said. “ZTE has been working with associated U.S. government departments on investigations since 2012 and maintains constant communication with associated departments and is committed to fully address and resolve any concerns.”
Trade in shares in ZTE, which also sells consumer electronic devices such as smartphones in the United States, was suspended on Monday in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. The company did not offer an explanation.
"We believe the restrictions, if implemented, will cause significant supply problems to ZTE," Jefferies analyst Cynthia Meng wrote in a note, adding that ZTE has major trading relationships with several U.S. companies including Qualcomm QCOM.O, Microsoft MSFT.O and IBM IBM.N. Telecoms equipment and terminal businesses combined account for 80 percent of ZTE’s total revenue of 2015, Meng said. The company’s revenue for last year was expected to rise 23.8 percent to a record high of 100.8 billion yuan ($15.47 billion), preliminary results showed.
The Commerce Department investigated ZTE for alleged export-control violations following reports by Reuters in 2012 that the company had signed contracts to ship millions of dollars worth of hardware and software from some of America’s best-known technology companies to Iran’s largest telecoms carrier, Telecommunication Co of Iran (TCI), and a unit of the consortium that controls it.
The U.S. companies, which included Microsoft Corp MSFT.O, IBM IBM.N, Oracle Corp ORCL.N and Dell Inc [DI.UL], have all said they were not aware of the Iranian contracts. It is not clear if any of the companies still do business with ZTE.
Washington has long banned the sale of United States-made technology products to Iran. The Commerce Department’s investigation focused on whether ZTE had acquired American products through front companies and then shipped them to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions.
Commerce Department investigators obtained internal ZTE documents - some of which had been marked by the company as “Top Secret” - outlining an alleged sanctions-busting scheme. Reuters reviewed some of the documents.
The senior Commerce Department official declined to comment on whether ZTE had implemented that scheme.
The ZTE statement did not provide comment relating to the documents.
The day after the first Reuters article was published in March 2012, a ZTE spokesman said the company would “curtail” its business in Iran. The company later issued a statement saying: “ZTE no longer seeks new customers in Iran and limits business activities with existing customers.”
What effect the new export restrictions will have on ZTE’s global business is not clear.
One undated internal ZTE document obtained by Commerce Department investigators and reviewed by Reuters states: “Our company has many technologies and components that came from suppliers in the U.S ... Lots of chips or software used in the products of our company are from U.S. suppliers.”
One of ZTE's websites also states that several leading U.S. technology companies, including Microsoft, Intel Corp INTC.O, IBM and Honeywell International Inc HON.N, are "key strategic partners of ZTE". The terms of the partnerships are not described.
A spokeswoman for Microsoft said the company had a licensing agreement with ZTE but could not confirm if the Chinese company purchases other products, such as software. The other U.S. companies did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
The undated internal ZTE document also describes a proposal overseen by the company’s legal department that describes ways to export American products subject to U.S. sanctions by using shell companies to avoid getting caught.
“The biggest advantage” of one method is that it will make it “harder for the U.S. government to trace it or investigate the real flow of the controlled commodities”, the document states.
In its planned action against ZTE, the Commerce Department cites the proposal, stating that the company “planned and organized a scheme to establish, control and use a series of ‘detached’ companies to illicitly re-export controlled items to Iran in violation of U.S. export control laws”. It is not clear if the alleged scheme was implemented.
‘TOP SECRET’
Another internal ZTE document from August 2011 that discusses “U.S. export control risks” facing the company allegedly was signed by several top ZTE officials, including Shi Lirong, its president.
The document, marked by the company “Top Secret” and “No spreading abroad without permission of ZTE”, begins “Dear company leaders”.
It states that ZTE “has ongoing projects in all five major embargoed countries - Iran, Sudan, North Korea, Syria and Cuba”, adding that “all of these projects depend on U.S.-procured items to some extent, so export control obstacles have arisen”.
The document goes on to cite “other risks” to ZTE, including its operations in the United States.
“R&D employees at the U.S. Research Centers often travel between China and the U.S., carrying R&D data,” it states, in an apparent reference to research and development. “This already severely violates the law.”
The document does not specify what law may have been violated.
The company “needs to take preventative measures immediately, otherwise will face the risk of being investigated anytime”, the document states.
The document also states that ZTE’s Iran project “can potentially put us at risk of being put on the Blacklist by the U.S.,” and that such an eventuality could leave the company facing “the risk of losing the supply chain of U.S. products”.
ZTE Corp is one of the world’s largest telecoms equipment makers with operations in 160 countries, according to its website. It also is a major manufacturer of mobile handsets. Founded in 1985, its shares trade on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen stock markets.
Besides ZTE, the export curbs will apply to two of its Chinese affiliates, ZTE Kangxun Telecommunications Ltd and Beijing 8-Star, and an Iranian company, ZTE Parsian.
(This story has been refiled to add dropped word “for” in 21st paragraph) | Government Policy Changes | March 2016 | ['(Reuters)', '(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)'] |
Prime Minister Tom Thabane announces his forthcoming resignation after an arrest warrant is issued for his current wife, first lady Maesiah Thabane, who is wanted in connection for the 2017 murder of Thabane's estranged wife, Lipolelo Thabane. | The wife of Lesotho prime minister Tom Thabane, who is wanted in connection with murder, has been a controversial figure in the mountain kingdom for a while now.
Maesaiah Thabane's rise to power as the first lady of Lesotho in 2017 was nothing short of a miracle. She controversially married Thabane, who was still married to his estranged wife Lipolelo Thabane, just in time before Thabane's inauguration.
Lipolelo, 58, was shot dead on June 14 2017, two days before Thabane's inauguration. Lipolelo had refused to divorce her husband and took the fight to court where she won the battle for her privileges as the first lady. Maesaiah is now wanted by Lesotho police to answer questions related to the murder of Lipolelo.
Police suspect Maesaiah was behind Lipolelo's killing and asked her to present herself for questioning on January 10. When she failed to do so, a warrant of her arrest was sought but she had gone into hiding.
Maesaiah, who was born Liabiloe Ramoholi, gained notoriety after Thabane's ascendency to power, apparently calling the shots as to who should be appointed to ministerial roles and who should be fired. In the past two-and-half years of Thabane's administration, Maesaiah has been accused of causing chaos in the government by allegedly meddling in the affairs of the state.
She has also been accused of seeking to control ministers, especially when it comes to the awarding of tenders.
She allegedly ordered the removal of former health minister Nyapane Kaya after he refused to unlawfully award a multimillion-rand catering and laundry tender to her preferred candidates. In 2018 Maesaiah allegedly assaulted a foreign doctor on call at Queen Mamohato Memorial Hospital for delaying to attend to a patient who had been brought in by her bodyguards, who had hit him in a road accident.
In one of her latest gaffes last year, Maesaiah threatened to assault the minister of gender, youth, sports and recreation Dr Mahali Phamotse for having spoken to Thabane without her consent. This after Phamotse had asked Thabane, according to protocol, to greet the players before a soccer match kicked off.
She started a trust fund to help the needy and destitute in Lesotho but this fund was also mired in controversy.
The trust fund has been perceived by many as a money-laundering scheme.
In May 2018, one of her directors at the trust fund, Makarabo Mojakhomo, fled the country after she had been taken in for questioning by police for allegedly defrauding the organisation of R200,000.
Mojakhomo disappeared from police custody under unclear circumstances and later reappeared in SA where she remains holed up in fear for her life. Just yesterday, one of her procurement officers, Ntolo Shoaepane-Mpeete, was laid to rest after she was killed under unclear circumstances. Shoaepane-Mpeete disappeared and her body was found at a mortuary in Boksburg.
It is still not clear what could happened to Shoaepane- Mpeete but the deceased is said to have leaked the WhatsApp video of Maesaiah and Thabane singing heartily in their bedroom clad in their morning gowns. The Ha re na matla video went viral on social media recently.
Thabane, 80, announced on Friday that he would be stepping down as prime minister as police continue the search for Maesaiah, whose whereabouts are not known. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | January 2020 | ['(The Sowetan)'] |
The Guatemalan Army is accused of abducting over 300 children during the 19601996 Civil War and selling them for adoption. | (CNN) -- The Guatemalan army stole at least 333 children and sold them for adoption in other countries during the Central American nation's 36-year civil war, a government report has concluded.
Around 45,000 people are believed to have disappeared during Guatemala's civil war, 5,000 of them children.
Many of those children ended up in the United States, as well as Sweden, Italy and France, said the report's author and lead investigator, Marco Tulio Alvarez.
In some cases, the report said, parents were killed so the children could be taken and given to government-operated agencies to be adopted abroad. In other instances, the children were abducted without physical harm to the parents.
"This was a great abuse by the state," Alvarez told CNN on Friday.
Investigators started examining records in May 2008 for a period that spanned from 1977-89, said Alvarez, the director of the Guatemalan Peace Archive, a commission established by President Alvaro Colom.
Of 672 records investigators looked at, Alvarez said, they determined that 333 children had been stolen. The children were taken for financial and political reasons, he said.
Alvarez acknowledges that many more children possibly were taken. Investigators zeroed in on the 1977-89 period because peak adoptions occurred during that time frame, particularly in 1986. They will investigate through 1995 and hope to have another report ready by early next year, he said.
A presidential ministry has determined that about 45,000 people disappeared during the nation's civil war, which lasted from 1960 to 1996. About 5,000 of those were children, the ministry said. Another 200,000 people died in the conflict between the leftist guerrillas and right-wing governments.
The nation's public ministry and attorney general's office will determine whether anyone is prosecuted over the abductions, Alvarez said.
Asked if he would like to see prosecutions, Alvarez answered, "I hope so."
Alvarez said he has attended several reunions of abducted children -- now adults -- and family members.
"I can't tell you how happy that makes me," he said.
Adoption has served as a source of income in Guatemala for decades. The war just made it easier for abuses at the hands of soldiers to occur.
Guatemala has the world's highest per capita rate of adoption and is one of the leading providers of adoptive children for the United States. Nearly one in 100 babies born in Guatemala end up with adoptive parents in the United States, according to the U.S. consulate in Guatemala.
Adoptions can cost up to $30,000, providing a large financial incentive in a country where the World Bank says about 75 percent of the people live below the poverty level. Officials fear that often times mothers are paid -- or coerced -- into giving up their children.
Some unscrupulous lawyers and notaries, who have greater power in Guatemala than they do in the United States, have taken advantage of the extreme poverty and limited government oversight over adoptions to enrich themselves. Alvarez said corrupt lawyers and notaries were the driving force behind many of the army abductions of children.
The problem is confounded because many Guatemalan parents can't provide for their children. The United Nations' World Food Programme says Guatemala has the fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world and the highest in Latin America and the Caribbean. Chronic undernutrition affects about half of the nation's children under the age of 5, the U.N. agency said.
Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom Caballeros declared a state of national calamity this week because so many citizens do not have food or proper nutrition.
Despite the nation's problems, Alvarez hopes some good will come of the report, which was released Thursday.
"We have to tell the truth about what happened," he said. "Guatemalan society must know what happened and must never allow it to happen again." | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2009 | ['(CNN)', '(Reuters)'] |
The regional office of the leftist Unidas Podemos party in Cartagena, Murcia, is firebombed, leaving damage to its exterior. | MADRID (Reuters) - A regional office of Spain’s leftist Unidas Podemos party was hit by a fire-bomb attack on Friday, police said.
The attack took place in Cartagena in southeastern Spain. The blaze damaged the exterior of the building.
Podemos accused right-wing elements of carrying it out.
“The street terrorism of the far-right will not intimidate us,” party leader Pablo Iglesias, who is standing as a candidate in regional elections in Madrid on May 4, said on social media.
Police said no arrests had been made after the attack, which took place in the early hours of Friday morning.
It was the sixth time vandals have struck at the party building, a Podemos spokesman said.
| Armed Conflict | April 2021 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The regional Parliament of Catalonia defies the Constitutional Court of Spain by holding an informal and unilateral vote for secession. | The separatist movement in Catalonia’s parliament has escalated its battle with Madrid after it defied Spain’s constitutional court by debating a controversial pro-independence roadmap, and the region’s president announced a confidence vote to consolidate the move towards sovereignty.
The angry, last-minute debate – in which the pro-independence Together for Yes coalition and the smaller, far-left Popular Unity Candidacy secured approval for the unilateral disconnection plan by 72 votes to 11 – represents another open challenge to the Spanish judiciary and to Spain’s acting prime minister, Mariano Rajoy.
It also provoked a furious reaction in the Catalan parliament from Ciudadanos and Popular party MPs who left the chamber rather than take part in a vote they described as “illegal” and flagrantly undemocratic. One Ciudadanos MP accused the separatist faction of “wanting to take us not only out of Spain and the EU, but out of the 21st century and modern democracy”.
However, the president of the Catalan parliament, Together for Yes’s Carme Forcadell, insisted the parliament was exercising its sovereign rights.
Earlier on Wednesday, the pro-separatist Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, said a confidence vote would be held in parliament on 28 September to help bring the region to “the gates of independence”.
Last November, the Catalan parliament voted to begin the process of breaking away from Spain after separatist MPs used their majority to pass legislation to effect a “disconnection from the Spanish state” and pave the way for an independent Catalan state.
Spain’s constitutional court responded by unanimously ruling that the legislation had ignored and infringed the rules of the 1978 constitution, adding that the “principle of democracy cannot be considered to be separate from the unconditional primacy of the constitution”.
Rajoy hailed the court’s decision as a victory for “the majority of Spaniards who believe in Spain, in national sovereignty and in the equality of all”.
Spain’s acting deputy prime minister said the behaviour of the Catalan parliament would not be tolerated, adding that a cabinet meeting on Friday would authorise the government’s legal team to file a challenge with the constitutional court.
“The government said that we would not let allow any steps to be taken,” said Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría. “Yet today another very serious and obstinate one has been taken, one that infringes the right of all Spaniards to decide their constitutional framework. The government has said it will act, has been acting and will act.”
Pedro Sánchez, the leader of Spain’s socialist party, said the Catalan parliament’s decision was “extraordinarily serious” and had disregarded the rulings of the constitutional court.
He added: “No one has the right to put institutions beyond the law. These decisions violate the constitution and Catalonia’s statutes.”
The issue of Catalan independence remains bitterly divisive in both Spain and within the region itself. A recent poll suggested that 47.7% of Catalans are in favour of separating from Spain, while 42.4% were against it, with 8.3% undecided.
In an interview with the Guardian in the run-up to the vote, Forcadell and Raül Romeva, the Catalan foreign affairs minister, said Madrid’s failure to engage with the independence debate had left the government with no choice but to forge its own separatist path.
“The [Spanish state] has left us feeling that we just don’t have an alternative,” Romeva said. “We have always said that we would have preferred a Scottish-type scenario, where we could negotiate with the state and hold a coordinated and democratic referendum. We keep talking to Madrid, but all we get back from them is an echo.”
Romeva said the Spanish government had two options: accept the reality of Catalan independence or “carry on doing what it’s been doing, which is denying that reality in the belief that it can use the constitutional court and legal processes to stop it”, he said.
The latter path, Romeva said, would continue to prove to be counter-productive. “Every action they take serves only to rearm us and give us greater legitimacy for what we’re doing,” he said.
Since winning the Catalan election last September, the government, led by the Together for Yes coalition, has begun preparing legal steps for the transition and designing a tax collection authority, a social security apparatus and a foreign affairs department.
The aim, according to Romeva, is to have the necessary structures in place for when another independence referendum is called, likely in a year’s time.
Although the Spanish state is implacably opposed to Catalonia’s secession, with Rajoy having vowed to use “all political and judicial mechanisms in defence of the common good and the sovereignty of Spain as laid down in the constitution,” Romeva insists that Madrid has a democratic responsibility to accept the will of the majority of Catalans.
“The Spanish government uses the question of legality a lot,” he said. “But legality is an instrument; it needs to adapt to reality and to democratic will, and not the other way round. People around the world need to understand that what we’re doing is fundamentally legitimate and is not illegal.
“I’m being very careful with my words: it’s legitimate and it’s not illegal. It’s true that the [Spanish] constitution says what it says. But constitutions are texts that exist to serve a particular moment in history and certain circumstances.”
Romeva then hinted that even if the Spanish courts ruled against independence, it would not prevent the push for secession.
“Even if it were [illegal] – and it’s not – if there were a legitimate, peaceful and majority demand, it’s the law that would need to change. It’s a democratic right. You might not agree with it, but you can’t deny the democratic principle,” he said.
The Brexit vote in the UK, which has been closely followed in Catalonia, had revealed the “democratic deficit” in Europe and the need for the EU to recognise the dissatisfaction within its ranks, Romeva said. He denied that it would have a positive effect on Catalonia’s independence project by forcing the EU to entertain the prospect of a significant realignment, but said it had underlined the need for negotiation.
“Brexit isn’t good news for Europe or for Catalonia,” Romeva said. “It’s worrying, because it calls the European project into question. It feeds the frustration that Europe is in crisis. From that point of view, it isn’t good news. But that said, when there is a situation of conflict, democracy is the tool you use.
“In Catalan logic, yes, we don’t like Brexit, but we understand that the democratic deficit in Europe is what allowed leave to win. A process of negotiation has begun: it’s not the end of the world and it’s not paradise.”
He also shrugged off the idea that an independent Catalonia might find itself outside the EU.
“We have hundreds of European companies in Catalonia. The question is: if Catalonia became an independent state, in whose interests would it be for Catalonia to be out of the EU? Not Catalonia’s. Not Spain’s either,” Romeva said.
“Catalonia is and will be an ally of Spain for obvious reasons of markets and infrastructure, as well as cultural and linguistic reasons. Europe wouldn’t want to lose such an economically and socially dynamic reality. So this unthinking assumption that an independent Catalonia would be kept out [of the EU] is false.” | Government Policy Changes | July 2016 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Ramy Ashour beats fellow countryman Mohamed El Shorbagy 3-1 to win the 2014 El Gouna International in Egypt's El Gouna resort. | Ashour, the world number four, looked to be cruising to victory when he won the first two games 11-7 and 12-10.
World number three Elshorbagy kept his hopes alive after winning the third game 11-8, only for Ashour to settle the tie in his favour with a 11-8 victory in the fourth game.
It is Ashour’s first PSA World Series title since he claimed the 2013 British Open.
“I’ve never felt better,” Ashour was quoted as saying by the PSA official website after the game.
“I’m overwhelmed to win the title and I’m very happy with my performance today – I thought it was a great match.”
Ashour did not drop a single game en route to the final, having returned to his best after recovering from an injury-plagued period.
(For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.) | Sports Competition | April 2014 | ['(PSA World Tour)', '(Al-Ahram)'] |
The defence of imprisoned U.S. serviceman Bradley Manning receives a boost with a ruling by the judge presiding over his trial at Fort Meade in Maryland ordering the Obama administration to hand over several documents the government had hoped would remain confidential. | Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of being the source of the biggest leak of state secrets in American history, has won a partial victory in his battle to force the government to disclose vital information that could help his defence. The judge presiding over his trial at Fort Meade in Maryland has ordered the US government to hand over several confidential documents relating to the massive leak to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
In particular, the Obama administration must now disclose to Manning's lawyers some of the damage assessments it carried out into the impact of the leak on US interests around the world. Should those assessments reveal that the US government found that the fallout from WikiLeaks was limited, that could be used by Manning's defence to argue his innocence against some of the charges he faces, such as aiding the enemy. If the soldier is found guilty, the information might then prove invaluable in reducing any sentence.
As a result of the ruling, Manning's defence team was handed the main findings of a state department investigation into the impact of WikiLeaks on Tuesday evening.
Though the information has not been made public, it is likely to include the assessments of embassies across the globe of the effects on their work of the publication of hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables. In addition, Manning's defence lawyers will now also be able to see a redacted report into WikiLeaks by the defence intelligence agency. It was also revealed that the FBI carried out its own inquiry into the leak of confidential material to WikiLeaks, which the Manning's defence lawyers will also now pursue.
News of the breakthrough over the damage assessments came in the first of three days of pre-trial hearings at Fort Meade. The proceedings are being attended by Manning, who sits in full military uniform flanked by his civilian lawyer David Coombs and two military defence lawyers.
The ruling marks an important legal victory as well as a confidence boost for Manning as he approaches a full court martial in September. The army private, who was arrested two years ago outside Baghdad, faces 22 charges with a maximum sentence of life in military custody. It also vindicates Manning's faith in Coombs, who has conducted a robust defence against seemingly endless prevarication and sleight of hand on the part of the military prosecution. Coombs on Wednesday made a spirited appeal to the court for an end to what he called the government's attempt to play "hide the ball". Coombs protested that whenever he asked the government for specific information he was told he was being too broad. He gave one example of having requested documents emerging from a review carried out by the House of Representatives oversight committee under its chairman, Darrell Issa. "Short of telling the government that the documents are in a red file in Darrell Issa's third drawer, beneath his Bible, you can't get much more specific than my request," Coombs said. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | June 2012 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Lewis Hamilton wins a third World Drivers' Championship in Formula One, as his team Mercedes secures the Constructors' Championship. | World champion retains title in Austin after Sebastian Vettel is third Hamilton wins after team-mate Nico Rosberg makes late error
Last modified on Wed 21 Feb 2018 15.52 GMT
After the ecstatic Lewis Hamilton took the chequered flag on Sunday he performed donut spins for the cheering crowd while Daft Punk’s “One More Time” blared out from the Mercedes garage. As he crossed the line and had it confirmed that he had equalled his idol Ayrton Senna with his third F1 world title, the 30-year-old said over the car radio: “This is the greatest moment of my life.”
A little later tears mixed with sprayed champagne. Beside Hamilton and his beaten team-mate Nico Rosberg and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel on the podium there was Sir Elton John. It is not often that he looks upstaged.
This was a chaotic, compelling race. There were two safety cars, two virtual safety cars, crashes and enough all-round action to fill half-a-dozen grand prix weekends. How the Americans loved the show.
Hamilton needed to beat his closest challenger, Vettel, by nine points and Mercedes team-mate Rosberg by two, and he did just that – finishing the race 76 points clear of his nearest rival, with 75 points still available. Rosberg was second and Vettel, who needed to be runner-up if Hamilton won to push the championship into next weekend’s race in Mexico, was third.
Even as he approached the winning line Hamilton could not be certain he had won the championship because Vettel continued to put Rosberg under intense pressure until the end. It was Hamilton’s third win in the four races in Austin as he secured the title with three races to spare.
When he had taken the chequered flag and was congratulated by his team the emotion of the moment finally got to him. “I’m feeling it now, guys, I’m feeling it,” he said. He jumped into a crowd of Mercedes mechanics. Then he was congratulated by the vanquished Rosberg and Vettel. But Rosberg looked less than amused when Hamilton threw a cap into the German’s lap. Rosberg flung it back, without the flicker of a smile.
The race appeared to belong to Rosberg with 15 laps to go. Hamilton was leading, but on old tyres, and Rosberg was closing on him with fresher rubber.
But then Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat spun off. The safety car came out and Hamilton took his chance to make a second stop. He still had to catch Rosberg and that looked unlikely until the 48th of the 56 laps when the German made a mistake and came off the track, allowing Hamilton through.
The rain which had blighted much of the weekend in Texas finally relented. But its legacy was a damp and occasionally wet track which made this the busiest, most unpredictable of races. The rain had forced the cancellation of qualifying on Saturday and curtailed it on Sunday morning, with grid positions decided by Q2. All the cars started on intermediate tyres.
The only predictable thing was the start. Hamilton, who was second on the grid, went straight on the attack and was level with the pole-sitter Rosberg almost immediately. Then, as they went into turn one, Hamilton, on the inside, squeezed his team-mate wide. Rosberg would not yield and the two touched wheels but it was Hamilton’s racing line and the German was forced out, dropping to fourth behind Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo.
It was yet another example of Rosberg’s inability to beat Hamilton in wheel-to-wheel racing. He knew he could not afford to finish second to Hamilton in this race but he could not do anything about it.
Vettel, who had started back in 14th place because of a 10-place grid penalty, refused to let himself drift out of the championship picture and steadily worked his way through the field.
But it was the action at the front of the field that was dominating attention. Hamilton is normally a strong front-runner but he showed signs that he was struggling with his rubber and he was passed by the charging Red Bull of Ricciardo.
Worse was to follow, for he then came under pressure from Rosberg who eventually went past him on the 19th lap. The world champion came in for fresh rubber, the first of the drivers to move on to dry-weather tyres.
Rosberg, recovering well from his setback at the start, now put the squeeze on Ricciardo before taking the lead on lap 23. He followed that by putting in the fastest lap as he attempted to build himself a gap at the front. The freshly shod Hamilton moved past Ricciardo and into second place.
There was bad news for Williams, with Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas dropping out of the race, the team’s first double retirement since the Brazilian Grand Prix of 2012. There were only a dozen finishers in this high-casualty race.
At the halfway stage the safety car was deployed for the first time because Marcus Ericsson’s Sauber had stopped on the track. When the safety car came in, the immediate winner was Vettel, who went past Kvyat to take fourth place.
Then he went past Ricciardo on the outside to take third. The three surviving challenges for the world championship were giving the American crowd a race to remember. And another thrilling drive from Max Verstappen, who came fourth for Toro Rosso, provided more entertainment.
It all climaxed over the last 10 laps with the safety car finally off the track. A nervous Mercedes garage warned Hamilton to “keep it clean”.
But Hamilton was not required to do anything dangerous. With a few laps remaining Rosberg made his mistake and let Hamilton in. At that stage, with Hamilton in front, followed by Rosberg and Vettel – who had overtaken Verstappen for third – Hamilton was world champion.
There was no change at the sharp end after that. The leading three cars kept their places. Verstappen was fourth, Force India’s Sergio Pérez fifth and Jenson Button sixth for McLaren. It had been some race.
The Englishman’s 10th win of the season put him alongside Sir Jackie Stewart with three titles but he is the first British driver to successfully defend his championship.
1 Lewis Hamilton GB Mercedes 45pts
1hr 50min 52.703sec
2 Nico Rosberg Ger Mercedes 18
+2.850sec
3 Sebastian Vettel Ger Ferrari 15
+3.381sec
4 Max Verstappen Neth Toro Rosso 12
+22.359sec
5 Sergio Pérez Mex Force India 10
+24.413sec
6 Jenson Button GB McLaren 8
+28.058sec
7 Carlos Sainz Sp Toro Rosso 6
+30.619sec
8 Pastor Maldonado Ven Lotus 4
+32.273sec
9 Felipe Nasr Br Sauber 2
+40.257sec
10 Daniel Ricciardo Aus Red Bull 1
+53.371sec
11 Fernando Alonso Sp McLaren +54.816sec
12 Alexander Rossi US Marussia +75.277sec
Not classified
Daniil Kvyat Rus Red Bull DNF
Nico Hülkenberg Ger Force Indie DNF
Marcus Ericsson Swe Sauber DNF
Kimi Raikkonen Fin Ferrari DNF
Felipe Massa Br Williams DNF
Romain Grosjean Fr Lotus DNF
Valtteri Bottas Fin Williams DNF
Will Stevens GB Marussia DNF
Drivers’ standings
1 Hamilton 327pts 2 Vettel 251 3 Rosberg 247 4 Raikkonen 123 5 Bottas 111 6 Massa 109 7 Kvyat 76 8 Ricciardo 74 9 Pérez 64 10 Verstappen 45 11 Grosjean 44 12 Hülkenberg 38 13 Nasr 27 14 Maldonado 26 16 Button 16
Mnufacturers’ standings 1 Mercedes 574pts 2 Ferrari 374 3 Williams 220 4 Red Bull 150 5 Force India 102 6 Lotus 70 7 Toro Rosso 63 8 Sauber 36 9 McLaren 27 | Sports Competition | October 2015 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
Russia agrees to provide Iceland with emergency loans of 4 billion euros ($5.4 billion). | REYKJAVIK, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Iceland’s central bank said on Tuesday Russia had agreed to provide the country with loans of 4 billion euros ($5.4 billion).
Sedlabanki said in Icelandic on its website that the Russian ambassador to Iceland, Victor Tatarintsev, had informed Central Bank Governor David Oddsson on Tuesday that Russia would provide Iceland with the loan.
It said the loan would substantially strengthen Iceland’s foreign reserves and support the Icelandic crown.
The central bank said the loans were for 3-4 years on terms that would be 30-50 points above Libor rates.
It said Iceland’s Prime Minister Geir Haarde had begun investigating the possibilities of such a loan this summer and that experts from the Sedlabanki and the government would be going to Moscow shortly.
| Financial Aid | October 2008 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A riot breaks out at a New Year's Eve festival in Gisborne, New Zealand, leaving 83 people injured and 63 arrested. |
Raw video from the scene of the massive New Year's Eve riot in Gisborne, where sixty-three people were arrested and 83 injured. NZ Herald reporter based in Christchurch
A 'mob mentality' took over when a minority of festival goers began to cause trouble, sparking the massive New Year's Eve riot in Gisborne which ended in 63 arrests.
The large-scale disorder broke out across two campgrounds being used for the BW Summer Festival.
Sixty-three people were arrested and 83 injured, including seven who needed hospital treatment.
Police battled with the drunken mobs for three hours.
Photo / James Stewart
Officers were pelted with cans and other objects, vehicles were overturned, fights broke out, and several fires were lit.
"It was pure luck that someone didn't lose their life," said Tairawhiti area commander Inspector Sam Aberahama.
Videos have started to emerge that show the extent of the carnage.
Beer cans and other missiles are seen being thrown between groups across two campsites.
Festival goers can be seen sheltering under air mattresses to protect themselves.
Amelia Hooper, 19, and three friends - all from Devonport - arrived at the BW campground on December 29.
Staying with a large group of friends, the first two nights passed peacefully, she said.
They had returned from a day enjoying the nearby Rhythm & Vines festival when the carnage began.
About 5pm, the first tent was set alight in the 'Island' camp site, Ms Hooper said.
It triggered a chain of tent fires where "mostly young boys" would hold lighters to the tent fabric, and set them on fire, before moving to the next one. Ms Hooper estimated more than 30 tents were torched.
Many others were flattened by people jumping over them.
Groups then began charging fences between camp sites, sparking fights, and throwing full beer cans.
"I had my boyfriend bat away a can that could've split my head wide open. They were just flying everywhere.
"We decided to evacuate ourselves... we had to get out of there."
They watched the "complete chaos" from a distance.
Ms Hooper said there was a real fear someone could die in the skirmishes.
"It felt surreal, like it wasn't true," she said.
"It was all the boys really, the girls were just standing there watching... quite scared.
"The worst thing that happened was when one of the security guards on a quad bike got tipped and we could smell the petrol coming out... there was a lot of fire and a lot of smoke."
Police were "over-powered" by the sheer number of rioters, she said.
Once police finally gained control, they had to sleep in a car.
In the morning, once her phone had been charged, Ms Hooper said she received a "panicked text" from her mother.
She was also to assure her she was okay.
But her and her friends have "made a pact" not to ever return to BW campground.
"We definitely won't forget this New Year's in a hurry."
BW campground director Toby Burrows said a mob mentality took over when a minority of festival goers began to cause trouble.
"It's hard to say where it starts really but they started to cause trouble, started to light fires and just create general unrest," Mr Burrows told Newstalk ZB. "That built into a bit of a mob mentality and then they start to move in mass I guess, start to do things like charge the fences and break down the internal fences and things like that."
Mr Burrows said measures in place to control behavior over the five-day event did not work on New Year's Eve.
"We put serious amount of planning and resourcing into this, especially into controlling the behavior on the 31st. There were a number of things we did all week to help control the behavior and they worked very well for the week but on the last day it didn't seem to work. It's pretty early to work out where it went wrong.
"It is very gutting. There is a lot of work and planning goes into it and it is gutting because a minority of people ruin it for everyone else. A lot of kids were very well behaved and were just there to have a good time."
Mr Burrows indicated the event's future was now in doubt if organisers couldn't work out a way to control behavior.
"There is definitely a risk that it won't continue. After any event there is always a risk that it won't continue. Hopefully it will. We're into our 12th year and there has been a lot of hard work and planning over the years. The aim is to continue it but we have to sit down and talk with the emergency services and different parties and come up with the right solutions to make it a safe event and make it feasible."
Photo / James Stewart
Today, local authorities said the riot had hurt Gisborne's reputation, and expressed doubt over whether the organisers would at least be again allowed to run a BYO arrangement.
Gisborne Mayor Meng Foon also pointed the finger at the Gisborne District Licensing Committee, and had today spoken to its chairwoman and local councillor Pat Seymour about the debacle.
"Really, what needs to be done is the local licensing committee needs to take advice from the police when the police are making submissions to the application."
Mrs Seymour said authorities had worked with the organisers toward special liquor license which would have prevented people from bringing their own alcohol.
The measure would have meant festivalgoers could only purchase alcohol on the premises, restricted the amount brought on to the grounds, and what was served to each person.
But despite this special license being granted, the organisers chose to stick with the traditional BYO arrangement after meeting "substantial feedback" from festivalgoers, she said.
After last night's events, she believed no one would want to see the BYO arrangement to continue.
She said organisers would be "very aware" that police would especially now be coming down hard on alcohol plans and oppose any other arrangement but an on-site license.
"A lot of work goes on to prevent this kind of thing so it was really disappointing to think that it happened."
When she visited the festival the evening before, she observed good behaviour from the punters and plenty of supervision and control from police and security staff.
Many were youngsters aged around 18 or 19, on their first outings away from home.
"It's extremely disappointing to think that a few people - and it would have been a relatively small number - took advantage of the situation."
One eyewitness took to online social forum Reddit to hit out at camp staff and police for their role in the escalating drama.
The poster, Heavy-Metal-Viking said small fires started getting lit at around 4pm and were dealt with by staff.
Around the same time, campsite portaloos were locked and barred by staff. "This just frustrated campers, and plenty of guys just dropped trousers wherever they felt like it," the poster said.
At 6pm, a mob rushed the "prison style" fences and pushed it over.
Groups then started hurling full cans at each other.
"Another contributing factor is that campers where unofficially advised to pack everything away and take down gazebos and tents, because of people jumping into them to break them," the poster said.
"So the entire site is visible from any point because of the lack of obstructions. Any small crowd attracts bored angry teens."
Police started to "funnel" the campers toward the entrance at around 7pm, the poster claimed.
But the move created a "chokepoint" and a "big mob".
The poster said only one Rhino vehicle was tipped on its side, and not any other vehicles. Fires consisting of air mattresses and tents were then made.
"Police where totally overwhelmed by the volume and scale," said the eyewitness.
Police said the riot was well-planned and coordinated by a core group of festival-goers who were "intent on causing trouble".
Photo / James Stewart
There was an "extremely high" level of intoxication, said Mr Aberahama.
He said there had been trouble at previous festivals, but last night's riot had been the worst.
"This was an intentional riot that was fuelled by alcohol. It was obvious a plan had been put in place by the main agitators, which quickly spread through the campgrounds. We used every available police resource to try to keep control of the crowds," Mr Aberahama said.
Mr Aberahama said police were extremely concerned about the level of disorder.
"A definite mob mentality quickly developed amongst the crowd. It was dangerous for everyone - festival-goers, police, ambulance staff and security staff."
BW Summer Festival is touted as New Zealand's "premier beachside camping festival". It runs alongside Gisborne's Rhythm and Vines, and hosts up to 15,000 campers for five days, featuring two nights of concerts at the Soundshell outdoor theatre.
About 7000 people attended the festival, in which campers could bring unlimited amounts of alcohol into the campsites.
Police said they had been unsuccessful in their attempts to oppose the festival's BYO licence.
The nature and seriousness of the injuries was not specified early today.
St John Regional Manager Stephen Smith said most of the injuries were from projectiles being thrown. People were also injured during crowd surges.
"There were a number of people who weren't interested in causing trouble and just wanted to have a good time without incident. It's a shame they had their night ruined."
Police said those arrested would face various charges ranging from disorderly behaviour to assault.
Mr Aberahama said police resources and festival security staff were stretched to the limit and extra staff had to be called in from the Rhythm and Vines festival.
Photo / NZ Police
Yesterday the BW Festival organisers posted a photograph on Facebook of "the oven" - their facility to house troublemakers onsite.
"This is where you may end up spending your New Year's Eve at BW Summer Festival if you don't play by the rules," they said.
"It has the most up-to-date shiny chrome trendy interior decor and is compact enough to hold 20 guests at a time. It also comes with high-level security grills so you don't feel unsafe.
"There's not much air-conditioning so you will be all snugly and warm. It's all onsite so you don't even have to leave your camping ground. And did we mention there are four of these lovely little chalets, all waiting for guests. We're taking bookings now for tonight, so get in quick before the rush. " | Riot | December 2014 | ['(NZ Herald)'] |
Voters in Ukraine go to the polls for the first round of voting in the presidential election amidst ongoing violence in the east of the country with exit polls indicating that businessman Petro Poroshenko is headed for victory. , | KIEV, UKRAINE — Ukraine handed chocolate tycoon Petro Poroshenko a commanding victory in its presidential election Sunday, giving the pro-European billionaire a chance to resolve a conflict that has created the greatest tensions between the West and Russia since the Cold War.
The new leader takes the office once held by pro-Kremlin Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in February after anti-government protests. That revolt led to Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, the rise of a separatist movement in Ukraine’s east and a torrent of violence that increasingly looks like a low-grade civil war. All are massive challenges that will test a longtime politician who has promised to navigate between Russia and the West.
Poroshenko immediately moved Sunday to paint himself as a conciliator, declaring that his first official act after inauguration would be to visit the heart of the separatist rebellion in the Donets Basin.
“The first steps of our entire team at the beginning of the presidency will concentrate on ending the war, ending the chaos, ending the disorder and bringing peace to Ukrainian soil, to a united, single Ukraine,” he said at a victory rally Sunday. “Our decisive actions will bring this result fairly quickly.”
He has also said he wants to lead Ukraine to closer ties with the European Union.
But with violence preventing many citizens in pro-Russian eastern Ukraine from voting, it remained far from clear how much people there would accept Poroshenko’s mandate. Separatists in the region had vowed to disrupt the vote, and they largely succeeded Sunday, with many polling stations shuttered, ballots stolen, and election officials threatened and even kidnapped. Citizens in eastern Ukraine have long been skeptical of centralized power in Kiev, and many voted May 11 in a separatist-organized referendum in favor of autonomy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said a day before Ukraine voted that Russia would “cooperate with the authorities that will come to power as a result of the election,” but he added that he continued to consider Yanukovich the legitimate president of the country.
Exit polls released immediately after balloting ended showed Poroshenko taking more than 55 percent of the vote, avoiding a runoff that would have left Ukraine without an elected leader for three more weeks. His closest rival, former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whom polls indicated garnered 12 to 13 percent, conceded. Official results will be announced Monday.
Two far-right nationalist candidates appeared to do poorly. Oleg Tyagnibok of the Svoboda party and Dmitry Yarosh of the Right Sector party each received roughly 1 percent of the vote, according to the exit polls.
The Central Election Commission estimated final voter turnout nationwide at 60 percent, a spokesman said. Turnout in the 2010 election — in which residents of eastern Ukraine and Crimea could vote freely — was 67 percent. A regional breakdown of the final turnout figures was not immediately available, but 14 percent of the country’s registered voters live in the two eastern regions were voting was impeded Sunday.
Poroshenko, 48, is a soft-spoken businessman who built a candy empire out of the ashes of Ukraine’s post-Soviet economy. Forbes estimates his wealth at $1.3 billion. He has worked on both sides of the country’s political divide, as foreign minister during the pro-Western presidency of Viktor Yushchenko and briefly as economy minister under Yanukovych. But Poroshenko allied himself with protesters shortly after Yanukovych rejected a deal in November to move toward integration with the European Union.
Many of the anti-corruption civil society groups that occupied Kiev’s Independence Square in opposition to Yanukovich fear that the country’s new president could be an old-style representative of rule by Ukraine’s wealthiest.
Poroshenko said Sunday that he wants to hold new parliamentary elections this year, a move that would pave the way for a full revamp of the government. Yanukovich’s pro-Russian Party of Regions still holds a plurality of seats in the legislature.
In Kiev on Sunday, voters stood in long lines as they waited to fill out the large paper ballots for president. Many said they were choosing Poroshenko as a conciliatory figure.
Poroshenko “is the one person who is actually neutral,” said Alexander Stelmakh, 36, a construction worker who came with his 3-year-old son to vote at School No. 15 in the leafy Holoseevsky neighborhood on the outskirts of the city.
But in Ukraine’s troubled east, problems with voting were widespread, and pro-Russian separatists attacked polling places, according to the office of Donetsk’s governor, Serhiy Taruta. Only 426 polling stations out of 2,430 were open in the region, and none in the city of Donetsk, which has 1 million residents, the Donetsk Regional Administration said.
There were difficulties even in areas nominally under government control. Sunday morning, people started trickling into a polling station in Veliko Novoselovka, a town where Ukrainian troops backed by armored personnel carriers operated a roadblock along the highway leading to Donetsk, 60 miles east. A second roadblock was just outside town.
But voters were initially turned away because of a lack of ballots. The district’s top election official had been abducted Saturday and the ballots stolen, said the election official in charge of the polling station, who would give his name only as Oleksandr. By mid-afternoon, ballots arrived under army escort. But officials were still numbering and affixing official stamps to them more than three hours later, and no one in town had been able to vote.
“We very much wanted to vote. We want to end this disorder,” said one woman, a retired schoolteacher with tears in her eyes who gave only her first name, Tatyana.
In Krasnoarmiisk, a town 30 miles northwest of Donetsk, voting proceeded normally at School No. 9, but with only about 10 percent turnout, Natalyia Tyrhaninova, the head of the district election commission, said late Sunday.
The latest violence Sunday was a reminder of the challenges facing Ukraine’s new leader. One man was killed and another wounded in a skirmish near the town of Novoaidar, Deputy Interior Minister Serhiy Yarovoi told reporters, without giving details. Interfax reported that the victims were separatists. In Mariupol, a special police unit apprehended top separatist leader Denis Kuzmenko and killed one of his bodyguards, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement.
Also Sunday, the deaths of Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli, 30, and his Russian interpreter, Andrei Mironov, 60, were confirmed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The group said the two were killed the previous day by mortar fire near the rebel-held city of Slovyansk, but the exact circumstances remain unclear. Mironov, a former dissident who was imprisoned during the waning years of the Soviet Union, was a longtime fixture in Moscow’s journalism community and worked for many Western news outlets there, including The Washington Post.
Kunkle reported from Donetsk. Abigail Hauslohner in Moscow, Daniela Deane in London, and Anastasiia Fedosov and Aleksey Ryabchyn in Donetsk contributed to this report.
| Government Job change - Election | May 2014 | ['(Sydney Morning Herald)', '(Washington Post)'] |
A bus accident in Al Hoceima, Morocco, kills at least 16 Royal Guardsmen. | At least 16 royal guardsmen have been killed in Morocco after their bus plunged into a ravine, media reports and doctors say.
More than 40 other guardsmen were injured in the crash near al-Hoceima in the north of the country.
The guardsmen were reportedly travelling north to prepare for a visit by King Mohammed VI.
The 6,000-strong Moroccan Royal Guard is part of the military but its sole function is royal security. The Moroccan news agency MAP said the bus had fallen into a 200-metre (656ft) ravine on the road between Tetouan and al-Hoceima but that the cause of the crash was not yet known.
The injured have been taken to a provincial hospital in al-Hoceima. Eight are said to be in a serious condition.
The guards were said to be heading to al-Hoceima to cover the king's visit there.
MAP reported that the king had announced after the accident that he would cover the medical and funeral costs for the families affected.
The Moroccan Royal Guardsmen are recognisable by the red berets they wear and always accompany the king when he is in the country.
| Road Crash | August 2013 | ['(BBC News)'] |
More than one million anti–abortion protesters march through Madrid in one of the largest demonstrations since 2003 and 2004 anti–war protests. | MORE than one million people have taken part in a demonstration in Madrid against the socialist government's plans to liberalise the abortion law, one of the organisers said.
"There are more than one million people," Victor Gago, a spokesman for the anti-abortion organisation HazteOir (Make Yourself Heard), told AFP.
Minutes later, Mr Gago said he put the number of people at 1.5 million. He said an official estimate would be released later in the evening. The Madrid regional government meanwhile estimated the crowd at 1.2 million, the TeleMadrid television channel reported. Another anti-abortion protest in the Spanish capital last March attracted 500,000 people, according to the organisers. The proposed new abortion law, approved by the Cabinet last month, would allow the procedure on demand for women of 16 and over up to the 14th week of pregnancy, and up to 22 weeks if there was a risk to the mother's health or if the foetus was deformed. The existing law introduced in 1985, a decade after the death of right-wing dictator Francisco Franco, only allows abortion under more limited conditions.
| Protest_Online Condemnation | October 2009 | ['(The Australian)', '(Reuters India)'] |
The Welsh Conservative Party chooses Andrew R. T. Davies as their leader in the Welsh Assembly. | Mr Davies beat rival Nick Ramsay with 53.1% of the votes in a party election which had a 49% turnout.
The South Wales Central assembly member urged his party to offer a "real alternative to the failed Labour ideology in Wales".
Prime Minister David Cameron said the Tories' 14-strong group must offer a "strong Conservative voice for Wales."
The contest was called after former Tory group leader Nick Bourne lost his seat in May's assembly election.
The result was declared at 1445 BST, nearly two hours later than expected, and Mr Davies spoke to the Prime Minister shortly after.
Mr Cameron said: "I want to congratulate Andrew on his election as the leader of our party in the Welsh Assembly. "Under Labour, Wales has become the poorest part of the UK, its education system is failing a generation and now Labour are making cuts of £1billion to the NHS. "We must now offer a strong Conservative voice for Wales and I look forward to working closely with Andrew to deliver this and realise our strong ambitions for Wales."
Mr Davies paid tribute to both Monmouth AM Mr Ramsay, who won 46.7% of the vote, and Mr Bourne in his acceptance speech at the Swalec Stadium in Cardiff.
Mr Davies said he had been handed a "great responsibility".
"Wales runs through my DNA," he said.
"I'm a proud Welshman and a proud unionist and I feel bitterly disappointed when I look at the league tables on health, economic performance and education, and we see Wales propping those tables up, rather than leading from the top."
He added: "Above all, we will be inspiring the people of Wales to reach for those heights that I know our communities can go for."
Mr Davies praised the leadership of Mr Bourne, thanked his family for their support and paid tribute to Mr Ramsay.
"Ideologically there's not much difference between us and that stands us in good stead as a party," he said.
Offering his congratulations, Mr Ramsay said the new leader had his full support.
"This is now about taking the fight to Labour and taking the fight to Carwyn (Jones, First Minister).
"Let's fight for the next few years in advance of those assembly elections."
He added that the leadership election had gone "right down to the wire".
Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan congratulated both Andrew Davies and Nick Ramsay on how they conducted their campaigns.
"This result marks the start of a new chapter for the Welsh Conservatives in the assembly and I look forward to working with Andrew in the years ahead," she said.
"I know he realises the weight of responsibility he carries in holding the Labour-led Welsh Government to account, and in ensuring it pursues the right course towards building a stronger economy, providing better services, and offering greater opportunities for everyone in Wales.
"There is much to be done. And by working with colleagues at Westminster, in Europe and in local government we can all ensure further success for our party in Wales."
Mr Davies has been an AM since 2007 and sparked speculation about his ambitions when he suddenly stood down as the party's shadow health minister in November 2010.
The assembly's Liberal Democrat leader, Kirsty Williams, said: "I'd like to congratulate Andrew on his success on being elected leader of the Conservative group in the National Assembly. "I look forward to working with him and other party leaders on furthering devolution for the people of Wales."
Plaid Cymru leader Ieuan Wyn Jones also congratulated Mr Davies, adding: "With many significant challenges ahead for Wales, particularly over ensuring fair funding and further constitutional advances for our nation, I sincerely hope that he will use his new role to try to influence the Conservative party leadership in Westminster to act in the best interests of Wales."
In profile: Andrew RT Davies
| Government Job change - Appoint_Inauguration | July 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
Russian President Vladimir Putin says he hopes nuclear warheads will not be needed to deal with terrorists, after Russia launched cruise missiles at Islamic State positions in Syria from one of its Kilo-class submarines in the Mediterranean. | Vladimir Putin has said he hopes nuclear warheads will not be needed to deal with terrorists or anyone else, after Russia launched cruise missiles from its submarine at Syria.
During a meeting in the Kremlin, Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told the President that Kalibr cruise missiles had been fired by the submerged Rostov-on-Don submarine from the Mediterranean Sea for the first time. He said TU-22 bombers also took part in the latest raids and that "significant damage" had been done to a munitions depot, a factory manufacturing mortar rounds and oil facilities. Two major targets in Raqqa, the defacto capital of Isis, had been hit, said Mr Shoigu.
President Putin said the new cruise missiles could also be equipped with nuclear warheads - but that he hoped they would never need them.
He said: "With regard to strikes from a submarine. We certainly need to analyse everything that is happening on the battlefield, how the weapons work. Both the [Kalibr] missiles and the Kh-101 rockets are generally showing very good results. We now see that these are new, modern and highly effective high-precision weapons that can be equipped either with conventional or special nuclear warheads."
"Naturally, we do not need that in fighting terrorists, and I hope we will never need it. But overall, this speaks to our significant progress in terms of improving weaponry and equipment being supplied to the Russian army and navy."
Mr Shoigu said Israel and the US had been informed before the strikes were launched.
Russia's air campaign has been taking place since 30 September.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov later sought to temper any suggestion the country would use nuclear weapons on terrorists.
"Of course not, and the president has stated this, that there is no need to use any nuclear weapons against terrorists, as they can be defeated through conventional means, and this is fully in line with our military doctrine," he said.
Additional reporting by AP
| Famous Person - Give a speech | December 2015 | ['(Independent)'] |
A 16yearold Israeli boy injured by a Palestinian missile attack on his school bus on April 7 dies. | An Israeli teenager wounded when a Palestinian rocket hit a bus has died of his injuries.
Daniel Viflic, 16, was on a school bus in southern Israel on 7 April when it was hit by an anti-tank missile fired from the Gaza Strip.
The driver was slightly hurt in the attack, which happened just after the other children had been dropped off.
Nineteen Palestinians died in the ensuing wave of Israeli air strikes and Palestinian counter-attacks.
It was the most serious violence since Israel's conflict with Hamas in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009.
About 1,400 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, and 13 Israelis, including 10 soldiers, were killed.
| Armed Conflict | April 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(Wikinews)'] |
The United States Department of State warns U.S. citizens of a high security threat level in Yemen due to what it describes as "terrorist activities and civil unrest". , | The Department of State warns U.S. citizens of the high security threat level in Yemen due to terrorist activities. The Department
strongly recommends that U.S. citizens defer non-essential travel to Yemen. U.S. citizens remaining in Yemen despite this
warning should make contingency emergency plans and monitor the U.S. Embassy website. This replaces the Travel Warning for Yemen issued February 25, 2010, to update information on security incidents and concerns.
Terrorist organizations are active in Yemen, including Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). AQAP claimed responsibility
for a September 25, 2010, attack in Sana’a during which two unidentified gunmen fired on a bus belonging to the Political
Security Organization (PSO). Ten Yemeni security agents were wounded, two seriously. AQAP also publicly claimed responsibility
for the attempted attack aboard Northwest Airlines flight 253 on December 25, 2009, declaring it a response to “American interference
in Yemen.” In the same statement, the group made threats against Westerners working in embassies and elsewhere
There have been other terrorist incidents in Sana’a.On October 6, 2010, the motorcade of the British Deputy Head of Mission
was attacked by an unknown number of assailants. One member of the British Embassy staff was injured. On April 26, 2010,
the motorcade of the British Ambassador to Yemen was attacked in Sana’a by a lone suicide bomber. The U.S. Embassy in Sana’a
closed for two days in January 2010 in response to ongoing threats against U.S. interests in Yemen. On the morning of September
17, 2008, armed terrorists attacked the U.S. Embassy, setting off a number of explosions in the vicinity of the Embassy's
main gate. Several Yemeni security personnel and one Embassy security guard were killed, as were several individuals waiting
to gain entry into the Embassy, including a U.S. citizen.
The U.S. government remains concerned about possible attacks against U.S. citizens, facilities, businesses, and perceived
interests. On May 24, 2010, armed Yemeni tribesmen kidnapped two U.S. citizen tourists and their Yemeni driver and translator
near Sana’a. On June 12, 2009, seven Germans, one Briton, and one South Korean were kidnapped in Sa’ada. Two German children
were later released; three nurses were killed. The whereabouts and welfare of the other hostages are still unknown. There
have been no claims of responsibility for this incident and the investigation is ongoing. On March 18, 2009, a South Korean
motorcade was attacked by a suicide bomber near Sana'a International Airport. On March 15, 2009, four South Korean tourists
were killed in a suicide bomb attack in the city of Shibam in Southern Hadramout province. On January 17, 2008, suspected
Al-Qaeda operatives ambushed a tourist convoy in the eastern Hadramout Governorate, killing two Belgians.
U.S. Embassy employees have been advised to exercise caution when visiting restaurants, hotels, or tourist areas in Sana’a
in order to avoid large gatherings of foreigners. Travel outside the capital by Embassy personnel is often restricted.
The Yemeni government has been fighting against Houthi rebels in the North of the country since 2004. The fighting, which
originated in Sa’ada Governorate, has spread to the neighboring governorates of al-Jawf, Amran, and Hajja. The government
has used airstrikes to target the rebels, killing civilians on several occasions in 2009 and 2010. A tentative cease fire
was declared on February 12, 2010. U.S. citizens are urged to avoid any travel to this region.
There is ongoing unrest in Aden and surrounding areas in the South of the country. A secessionist movement has repeatedly
clashed with government forces in the area. Many protests by secessionists have turned into riots with loss of life. On
June 19, 2010, the headquarters of the PSO were attacked in Aden. Several people, including security officials, were killed.
AQAP claimed responsibility for the attack.
U.S. citizens traveling to Yemen should be aware that local authorities occasionally restrict foreigners’ travel to unstable
parts of the country. In addition, the U.S. Embassy often restricts travel of official personnel to the tribal areas north
and east of Sana’a, such as the governorates of Amran, al-Jawf, Hajja, Marib, Sa’ada, and Shabwa. Travelers should be in
contact with the Embassy for up-to-date information on such restrictions.
Boats traveling through the Red Sea or near the Socotra Islands in the Gulf of Aden are at risk of pirate attacks. More than
70 vessels were reportedly attacked in 2009. Since the beginning of 2010, 4 vessels have been reported seized in the area,
with one released in February. As of February 2010, 11 vessels were believed to be held for ransom, including the yacht of
a British couple. Following the April 2009 hijacking of a U.S. cargo vessel and the subsequent rescue of the vessel’s captain,
resulting in the deaths of three pirates, Somali pirates threatened to retaliate against U.S. citizens transiting the region.
The threat of piracy extends into the Indian Ocean off the Horn of Africa as well. See our International Maritime Piracy Fact Sheet. If travel to any of these areas is unavoidable, travelers may reduce the risk to personal security if such travel is undertaken
by air or with an armed escort provided by a local tour company.
U.S. citizens who travel to or remain in Yemen despite this warning should be extremely cautious and take prudent security
measures, including maintaining a high level of vigilance, avoiding crowds and demonstrations, keeping a low profile, varying
times and routes for all travel, and ensuring travel documents are current. U.S. citizens in Yemen should exercise particular
caution at locations frequented by foreigners. From time to time, the Embassy restricts official U.S. personnel from visiting
restaurants, hotels, or shopping areas. The Department of State strongly encourages U.S. citizens to consult the Warden Messages
on the U.S. Embassy website for current information on security conditions. Travelers who believe they are being followed or threatened while driving
in urban centers should proceed as quickly as possible to the nearest police station or major intersection and request assistance
from the officers in blue and white police cars stationed there.
U.S. citizens should register at the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy in Sana’a and enroll in the warden system (emergency alert network) to obtain
updated information on travel and security in Yemen. This can be done online prior to arrival in Yemen at the State Department's travel registration website.
The U.S. Embassy, Sana’a is located at Dhahr Himyar Zone, Sheraton Hotel District, P.O. Box 22347. The telephone number of the Consular Section is
(967) (1) 755-2000, extension 2153 or 2266. For after-hours emergencies, please call (967) (1) 755-2000 (press zero for extension)
or (967) 733-213-509. From time to time the Embassy may temporarily close or suspend public services for security reasons.
Emergency assistance to U.S. citizens during non-business hours (or when public access is restricted) is available through
Embassy duty personnel.
Current information on travel and security in Yemen may be obtained from the Department of State by calling 1-888-407-4747
within the United States and Canada or, from outside the United States and Canada, 1-202-501-4444. These numbers are available
from 8:00am to 8:00pm Eastern Time Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays). U.S. citizens should consult the
Country Specific Information for Yemen and the Worldwide Caution on the State Department's Internet site. Up-to-date information on security conditions can also be viewed at U.S. Embassy Sana’a's American Citizens Services website. | Armed Conflict | March 2011 | ['(U.S. State Department)', '(Voice of America)'] |
At least 37 people are killed in two days of attacks in northeastern Nigeria, after radical Islamic group Boko Haram issues an ultimatum for all Christians to leave the north. | A view shows the scene of a bomb explosion at St. Theresa Catholic Church at Madalla, Suleja, just outside Nigeria's capital Abuja, December 25, 2011. Islamist militant group Boko Haram said it planted bombs that exploded on Christmas Day at churches in Nigeria. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde
* Religious attacks kill dozens of Christians
* Boko Haram claim some attacks, hundreds flee northeast
* Fear of reprisals, sectarian conflict
(Recasts, adds quotes, details, background)
By Ibrahim Mshelizza
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Jarn 7 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Christians have begun to flee northern Nigeria after dozens were killed in a series of attacks by Islamist militants who issued an ultimatum to Christians to leave the mainly Muslim region or be killed, witnesses said on Saturday.
A Nigerian newspaper on Tuesday published a warning from Boko Haram, a movement styled on the Taliban, that Christians had three days to get out of northern Nigeria.
Since the expiry of that ultimatum, attacks in towns in four states in northeastern Nigeria have left at least 37 people dead and hundreds of Christians are fleeing to the south, according to residents and a Red Cross official.
| Armed Conflict | January 2012 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Voters in the German city state of Hamburg go to the polls with the governing Social Democratic Party of Germany led by Olaf Scholz retaining power. | Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) suffered a rather unexpected defeat in regional elections in Hamburg. The election results were the worst for the Christian Democrats since World War II.
Merkel’s Christian Democrats received only 16 percent of the vote in the city-state, while the Social Democrats (SPD) took the election with 47 percent of the vote. For the first time, the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) was above the 5 percent threshold for entry into the state parliament.
Despite taking a distant second in the Hamburg election, Merkel retains her popularity among the nation as a whole. Some within the party call the election results a “wake up call,” but experts say that the defeat in Hamburg is not to be taken as a downturn on the national scale. Other party members are saying that the election results should not be taken out of context. The election in Hamburg is “an election in a big city – nothing more and nothing less.”
Part of the reason that Merkel’s conservatives were defeated in the Hamburg election was their choice in a candidate. The CDU put up a candidate who was seen as weak compared to the incumbent, Mayor Olaf Scholz. His policies have been likened to Merkel’s, but election results are a sign that the people of Hamburg want something different in their local governance.
Because the SPD does not have more than 50 percent of the vote, Scholz will have to form a coalition with another party to keep his job. He is leaning toward an alliance with the Green Party, but foresees a possible conflict of interest in regards to some policies that he supports.
The election in Hamburg may be the beginning of a shift in the political climate in Germany. Before this election, many analysts believed that the AfD would not last. It began in 2013 as “an eastern German protest party,” but gained seats in Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia with around 10 percent of the vote in each state.
The small victory it gained in Hamburg has given the AfD an opportunity to seek election on the national political scene. The party has received increasing support for its views on Eurozone bailouts. It accuses Merkel of providing too much aid to European countries struggling economically. The AfD has also recently been branching out and making its views on immigration and crime known to the public. AfD members have said that because this was a local election, the party’s view on bailouts likely had very little to do with its success.
The Free Democratic Party (FDP) also performed well in the Hamburg election. After being completely shut out at last year’s election, they gained seven percent of the vote and are set to get back onto the national stage. The FDP is a former coalition partner of Merkel’s CDU.
The defeat of Angela Merkel and her conservative-leaning CDU in the Hamburg election is by no means the end of the line for her or her party. It has opened up the political scene once more to her old coalition partner, the FDP. The victory for the small parties, although they cannot claim much representation at this point, is considerable as they have found themselves in a position to launch onto the national scene.
| Government Job change - Election | February 2015 | ['(Guardian Liberty Voice)'] |
Members of the U.S. Congress reach a spending deal that, once passed by both houses, will prevent a year–end government shutdown and will fund Fiscal Year 2016 federal government operations. President Barack Obama signs a separate bipartisan bill that extends government funding through Tuesday, December 22. | Congressional leaders on Tuesday night reached agreement on a year-end spending and tax deal that would prevent a government shutdown and extend a series of tax breaks that benefit businesses and individuals, according to lawmakers.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) walked members of the House GOP conference through the deal at a meeting Tuesday night.
“Paul Ryan made a compelling case to support it tonight,” Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) said after leaving the session. “He feels that it’s time to start fresh, that we increase our hand and we’ll have better negotiating position if we have a strong Republican vote this year.”
[Get the latest on Congress and the campaigns in The Daily 202, The Washington Post’s new political tipsheet]
While the deal is in place, Democrats said they want to make sure what they agreed to is properly represented in the legislative text.
“We will review language to ensure that all of our agreements are drafted accurately,” said Kristen Orthman, a spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement Wednesday morning that Democrats will continue reviewing the text of the omnibus and that “a number of concerns have arisen.”
The House and Senate are expected to pass the legislation by the end of the week. With government spending authority set to expire at the end of Wednesday, however, leaders plan to quickly move another stopgap spending bill that would give Congress until Dec. 22 to clear the year-end spending bill, more time than is likely needed.
The sweeping agreement that came after weeks of bipartisan negotiations is the broadest tax and spending deal since the January 2013 “fiscal cliff” agreement, which prevented automatic spending cuts from taking effect and shielded middle-class workers from tax increases while allowing some increases on the wealthy.
Both parties will be able to claim policy victories while bemoaning what also made it in or was left out.
“A lot of us feel like we didn’t get things we wanted, but we got some stuff that we did want, and I think that’s going to be true on both sides,” said Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), the retiring chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee, who said he plans to support the agreement. “This is divided government, and if you’re going to move forward and follow Speaker Ryan’s notion that we want to move onto offense next year … then I think many of my colleagues will look at it like I do — that we need to move past this, get this done, let’s put 2015 behind us and get on to 2016.”
Ryan has portrayed the negotiations as a way to clear the decks for next year when under his leadership he promises a more methodical approach to moving appropriations bills.
“While not getting everything we wanted, the speaker noted that both packages include many provisions that Republicans have long fought for,” said AshLee Strong, a Ryan spokeswoman. “The speaker noted that though there are significant wins in these packages, we must not repeat this process and instead get back to regular order in 2016.”
Many House Republicans reserved judgment on whether they would support the proposals unveiled Tuesday, but most kept a positive attitude toward Ryan and the other GOP negotiators who cut the deal.
“The central players in this deserve a lot of credit for working this thing as hard as they did,” said Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who had been critical of former speaker John A. Boehner’s unwillingness to take a harder line on immigration. “What’s really good in there is really the atmosphere. It’s changed so much in a couple months.”
Ribble said Ryan played the best hand he was dealt through the budget deal negotiated by Boehner (R-Ohio): “No one can challenge Speaker Ryan’s ability to lead through these things, and he’s been doing a pretty good job here. They’ve been negotiating in pretty good faith and trying to make the best deal they could.”
But some conservative discontent was obvious, and it remained unclear whether that would metastasize into outright mutiny in the coming days.
Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), a member of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus, predicted that most Republicans would not support the omnibus spending bill and rejected Ryan’s suggestion that a big Republican vote would improve the GOP negotiating position.
“I don’t understand that at all — give the Democrats what they want now so next time they won’t want as much?” he said.
Ryan has committed to allowing members three days to review the agreement, setting up a potential Thursday vote in the House. That could slip to Friday because the legislative text of the spending deal was not released until early Wednesday morning.
The tax discussions were closely linked with talks on the year-end appropriations bill as negotiators attempted to trade priorities across the two must-pass bills.
But House leaders are expected to have to rely on some procedural maneuvers to pass the package, by holding separate votes on the tax and spending parts of the deal. If both pass they would likely be rolled into one package for the Senate to consider later this week.
The tax break package would cost about $650 billion and extend around 50 credits for businesses and individuals while also delaying until 2017 a tax on medical device manufacturers. The approximately $1.1 trillion appropriations package would fund the government for the remainder of fiscal 2016 and contains a two-year delay of the Affordable Care Act’s so-called Cadillac Tax on expensive employer-sponsored health care plans as well as a delay of a tax on health insurance plan purchases.
The spending bill also would lift the 40-year ban on crude oil exports. In exchange for allowing this provision, Democrats secured the extension of tax breaks for wind and solar energy producers for five years.
Many Republicans are reluctant to support the appropriations bill because it is the result of an earlier deal to increase spending over the next two years. House Democratic leaders, meanwhile, oppose the tax package because they argue it doesn’t do enough for lower-income workers and would make it more difficult to strike a tax reform agreement in the future by making breaks for businesses appear less expensive than those for middle- and low-income taxpayers.
“Republicans’ tax extender bill provides hundreds of billions of dollars in special interest tax breaks that are permanent and unpaid for,” Pelosi said in a statement. “These massive giveaways to the special interests and big corporations are deeply destructive to our future.”
The tax bill is expected to pass mostly with Republican votes while Democrats will deliver enough support for the spending bill to get it through the House.
The tax bill would permanently extend nearly two dozen tax breaks for businesses and individuals while temporarily extending others.
“After years of short-term extensions, good faith bipartisan compromise prevailed,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).
The credits being permanently extended include:
The spending bill includes a compromise over cybersecurity legislation that would encourage businesses to share information with the government about potential cyberthreats. The issue has pitted businesses against privacy advocates and efforts to complete a cybersecurity bill dragged on for years. The issue gained special urgency in the wake of several data breaches at major companies and in the U.S. government. It does not, however, address the latest cybersecurity debate over encryption that arose in the wake of the Paris terror attacks. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | December 2015 | ['(USA Today)', '(The Washington Post)', '(The Jerusalem Post)'] |
Jason Kidd is arrested by Southampton Town police for alleged drunken driving. | Jason Kidd, left, and Marcus Camby pose for a photograph following a news conference last week to introduce the New York Knicks' newest additions at the team training facility in Tarrytown, N.Y.Jason Kidd made surprising headlines with his decision to join the New York Knicks as a free agent.
Now he's making surprising headlines for doing the wrong things off the court.
The 10-time All-Star point guard, who on Thursday signed his three-year, $9.5 million contract with the Knicks, was arrested early Sunday for alleged drunken driving, according to police in Southampton Town (N.Y.) .
Kidd, 39, was arraigned on a misdemeanor DWI charge and released.
Police said Kidd's 2010 Cadillac Escalade struck a telephone pole and went into the woods near the intersection of Cobb Road and Little Cobb Road in Water Mill. Kidd's house in the Hamptons was nearby. Kidd was the lone passenger in the accident, which reportedly took place around 2 a.m.
Kidd was transported to the Southampton Hospital for treatment of minor injuries before dealing with the police.
Kidd's attorney, Eddie Burke Jr., did not elaborate on the incident released Sunday evening.
"Jason was involved in a single vehicle accident on his way back home from a charity function last night," Bruke said. "He suffered minor injuries and was treated and released from a local hospital. Jaosn has pleaded not guilty to a DWI charge and awaits further court proceedings."
TMZ reported that Kidd was carried out of the club he was partying at before he crashed because he was so intoxicated.
Kidd has faced trouble with the law before. He was arrested and eventually pleaded guilty for a domestic violence charge in January of 2001.
Reid Cherner has been with USA TODAY since 1982 and written Game On! since March 2008.
He has covered everything from high schools to horse racing to the college and the pros. The only thing he likes more than his own voice is the sound of readers telling him when he's right and wrong.
Michael Hiestand has covered sports media and marketing for USA TODAY, tackling the sports biz ranging from what's behind mega-events such as the Olympics and Super Bowl to the sometimes-hidden numbers behind the sports world's bottom line. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | July 2012 | ['(USA Today)'] |
Sweden bans far–right Danish leader Rasmus Paludan from entering the country for two years in response to last night's unrest in the city of Malmö, in which hundreds of Muslim youths clashed with police following the burning of a Quran. Malmö police say his behaviour posed "a threat to the fundamental interests of society". |
Violence erupted in Malmö on Friday after hundreds of people protested against anti-Muslim acts.
Around 300 rioters threw objects at police and set fire to debris. Several police officers were slightly injured and 15 people detained.
The violence followed the burning on Friday afternoon of a Quran by far-right activists near a predominantly migrant neighbourhood, according to the TT news agency cited by news agency AP.
Later, three people were arrested on suspicion of inciting hatred against an ethnic group after kicking the Muslim holy book.
The gesture came after Swedish police banned a planned far right-demonstration in Malmö due to "safety" issues. The rally had been organised by Rasmus Paludan, leader of the Danish far-right party Stram Kurs (Hard Line).
Swedish authorities detained him in Lernacken and eventually banned him from the country for two years after he attempted to reach the southern Swedish town despite the ban on the protest.
Malmö police said "his behaviour" posed "a threat to the fundamental interests of society".
| Riot | August 2020 | ['(Euronews)'] |
Ronnie O'Sullivan wins a record seventh UK Championship snooker title after defeating Mark Allen 10–6 in the final at the Barbican Centre, York. | Last updated on 9 December 20189 December 2018.From the section Snookercomments242
Ronnie O'Sullivan won the UK Championship for a record seventh time by outclassing Mark Allen 10-6 in York.
O'Sullivan retained his title to move to 19 World, UK and Masters trophies - surpassing Stephen Hendry's record in the 'Triple Crown' events.
A run of six frames in a row allowed the Englishman to dominate the final.
Northern Ireland's Allen rallied to trail 9-6, but O'Sullivan closed out the match with a break of 78 to collect the trophy and the £170,000 top prize.
Five-time world champion O'Sullivan sat out the 2015 event, but has dominated at the Barbican in recent years, claiming three titles since 2014.
He has now won a remarkable 27 of his 28 matches here since 2014, the only blemish being his 2016 final loss against Mark Selby.
O'Sullivan was tied with Steve Davis on six tournament victories but this win - 25 years after his first triumph - takes him past his fellow Englishman.
'The Rocket' celebrated by tipping a bottle of water over his head and jumped into the crowd after being presented with the trophy.
"History is fantastic," O'Sullivan told BBC Sport. "It's amazing, I can't believe it.
"I played very well, but I still had to convince myself because that is how hard it felt. It's great to create history, great to beat Steve Davis' record. "It's amazing to beat my hero Stephen Hendry's record. He was the ultimate player. I've still got eight world titles to get, so I'm chasing that one."
Despite turning 43 during the tournament, world number three O'Sullivan looks to be improving with age and is the most feared, most consistent and most successful player on tour by a distance.
He has been vocal regarding the amount of travelling players have to do for events across Britain, Europe and Asia, and has spoken about wanting to form a breakaway tour in order to continue competing. This was just his third out of a possible nine ranking events this season.
His record, though, is superb - winning here, reaching the final of the Northern Ireland Open and semi-finals of the English Open. His triumph at the invitational Shanghai Masters in September made him the first snooker player to pass £10m in prize money and he also won the aptly named Champion of Champions event in Coventry.
His first victory in the UK Championship, aged 17, made him the youngest winner of a ranking event - a record which still stands - and he has further landmarks in his sight.
O'Sullivan is now just two ranking titles short of Hendry's overall record of 36, and the 101 break he made in the second frame was the 986th century of his career, 14 short of the 1,000 mark, which no player has achieved before.
Despite his advancing years, he will also close further on Selby's world number one ranking with a deep run at the Scottish Open which begins on Monday, and will chase an eighth Masters title at Alexandra Palace next month.
World number seven Allen came into the tournament in good form after winning the International Championship last month, and defeated former world champions Neil Robertson and Stuart Bingham en route to the final.
But he has now lost two finals in York, the first to Judd Trump in 2011, and Northern Ireland's long wait for a first UK champion since Alex Higgins in 1983 goes on.
Masters champion Allen was not at his best in the tournament, and loose safety play and missed opportunities were heavily punished by his final opponent.
"Ronnie played awesome, particularly in the first session," said Allen. "I did not feel like I did that much wrong. I got punished and fell 6-2 behind and his long game was devastating, so was his safety.
"It is up to me to go away, practise and try and get closer to Ronnie's level. He is by far and away ahead of everyone else.
"I still fancied it at 9-6, even though you are relying on him to make mistakes. I was never giving up.
"I hate losing and I will never be happy with second but there are lots to be positive about."
The pair shared the first four frames in rapid fashion, O'Sullivan making breaks of 101 and 85, while Allen stroked in a 74.
But 'The Rocket' took control with further breaks of 66, 57 and 65 as he won five frames in a row.
O'Sullivan started the evening session by pinching a scrappy ninth frame, though Allen stopped his opponent's run of frames with breaks of 56 and 105.
However, O'Sullivan snatched a 23-minute tactical battle to go two from victory.
There looked to be no way back when Allen broke down on 45 with O'Sullivan compiling a cool 57 clearance in response.
Allen missed the 10th red when on for a maximum 147 break but won the 14th frame and pulled another back before O'Sullivan crossed the line with a 78 break.
Former world champion John Parrott: Every time he looked like being challenged O'Sullivan pulled away again. He's a snooker player for all ages.
I never thought we'd be seeing him like this when he was 17 years old winning his first UK Championship, but here he is 25 years later and still the man to beat after all these years. | Sports Competition | December 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
The tour bus of American heavy metal band Baroness falls off a 30–foot viaduct in Monkton Combe, near Bath. All nine passengers on board are injured, two seriously. | Two people on a tour bus used by the US band Baroness were badly injured when the vehicle fell 30ft (10m) from a viaduct near Bath.
Emergency services were called to Brassknocker Hill, in Monkton Combe, on the B3108 at its junction with the A36 Warminster Road at 11:30 BST.
Two of those on board suffered multiple fractures and had to be freed by firefighters. Seven had minor injuries.
All remaining dates of the band's European tour have been cancelled.
The group played at The Fleece in Bristol on Tuesday evening and had been due to appear in Southampton later.
A spokesman for the Southampton gig promoter said: "It is with great regret that we have to inform you that Baroness were involved in a very serious road accident earlier today and will not be able to perform at Talking Heads tonight. "Our thoughts are with the band at this time and we wish them and their crew a speedy recovery."
Tim Bailey, from The Fleece in Bristol, said: "It's awful for anybody but just knowing the band from last night and all the crew and how lovely everyone was - it was a real shock and we just really hope they're OK."
The band was formed in 2003 in Savannah, Georgia, and has toured throughout Europe and the United States.
They have also played at a variety of festivals, including Coachella and Bonnaroo in the United States. An Avon and Somerset Police spokesman said the crash involved a coach which had left the road with about nine passengers on board.
One of the pair who suffered multiple fractures was taken to Frenchay Hospital in Bristol and the other to the Royal United Hospital in Bath.
The seven with more minor injuries were taken to the Royal United Hospital (RUH).
"Seven casualties moved to the Royal United Hospital will not leave hospital tonight," an RUH spokesman said.
"They will be treated for their injuries into this evening."
Eyewitnesses said they heard a loud bang and rushed to the scene.
Site manager Tony Cook, 61, was one of the first people to arrive as he was working at a property at the bottom of Brassknocker Hill.
Mr Cook said: "At the top of the hill it is quite windy so they were going quite slow and seemed to be taking it quite carefully.
"It was torrential rain - it was like one of these eastern storms or something, it was like a river down here."
He added: "When we got down there the driver was hanging out of front of the coach, but his legs were trapped so we had to free him and get him back and comfortable.
"Then we got some ladders down there so that the people that were conscious inside could get out.
"We just got the people to the side of the road and made them comfortable and just helped."
Another witness, from the Angel Fish restaurant on the viaduct, said the coach had "fallen off" the viaduct at the traffic lights.
Insp Nick Hunt, from Avon and Somerset Police, added: "Police are investigating the circumstances of the accident. At this stage it is too early to tell what the cause was."
Heavy rain in the area reduced visibility and it was not possible for the air ambulance to land.
The A36, which was closed between Bath and its junction with the A366 at Farleigh Hungerford for most of the day, has now re-opened.
| Road Crash | August 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
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. | Spiraling drug-war violence in Mexico’s wealthiest region has claimed the life of a prominent mayor — kidnapped Sunday and found dead Wednesday — and prompted demands from panicked residents for army protection.
Edelmiro Cavazos was mayor of Santiago, a picturesque tourist town near Monterrey, Mexico’s third-largest city and an industrial hub. He was grabbed from his gated home late Sunday by at least 15 gunmen wearing uniforms of a defunct police agency who arrived in a convoy of sport-utility vehicles, with patrol lights flashing.
Cavazos and a bodyguard apparently left the home to see what the members of the convoy wanted. Both were overpowered and bundled into the vehicles. The guard was released a short time later.
Cavazos’ bound, blindfolded body was found dumped alongside a rural road Wednesday morning, state prosecutor Alejandro Garza said.
Cavazos, 38 and U.S.-educated, represented the conservative party of President Felipe Calderon and won election last year, ending long domination of Santiago City Hall by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
Calderon condemned the “cowardly assassination” of the mayor and dispatched his top security official to the border state of Nuevo Leon, where Santiago and Monterrey are located.
State Gov. Rodrigo Medina, who arrived by helicopter at the site where the body was dumped, speculated that Cavazos might have been targeted because of his efforts to purge the notoriously corrupt local police, who are said to work on behalf of drug cartels.
Medina vowed to go after Cavazos’ killers, and he urged the national government to send additional military and federal police troops to the state.
He was seconding a demand from a group of business leaders who took out full-page ads in numerous newspapers Wednesday, calling for one marine and three army battalions to be deployed to the area to combat drug traffickers who are “provoking panic, desperation and disillusion” throughout the region.
Affluent Monterrey and its surroundings have traditionally escaped much of the drug violence engulfing Mexico. But within the last year, a vicious battle between the Gulf cartel and its former paramilitary allies, the Zetas, has spilled into Monterrey and much of Nuevo Leon state.
Residents are being terrorized by kidnappings and broad-daylight gun battles. Repeatedly, gangsters have blocked main streets in Monterrey and other towns for hours to cut off their enemies or authorities.
Paralyzing the region, whose food, textile and construction industries account for 8% of Mexico’s GDP, could have a disastrous effect on the national economy, experts and officials say.
“Mexico’s fate is our fate, and the fate of Nuevo Leon is the fate of Mexico,” Medina said.
Mauricio Fernandez, mayor of nearby San Pedro Garza Garcia, said Cavazos told him of receiving a threatening visit from traffickers shortly after taking office.
“I told him he needed to call on the army,” Fernandez said in a radio interview. “He was frightened and had found a municipal government enormously in cahoots with organized crime.”
Mayors, politicians and police commanders are frequent targets of cartel hit men. Mayors especially complain that they are vulnerable because they are often on the front lines of the battle but with few resources to defend themselves. They are also vulnerable to graft.
Killing Cavazos “is a direct challenge to authority,” prosecutor Garza said.
This week, Garza announced the creation of police rapid-response units aimed at breaking up the street blockades set up by drug gangsters. The teams will be supported by helicopters, he said.
On Sunday alone, traffickers blocked Monterrey streets in at least 30 places. One resident wrote the Reforma newspaper a letter about getting caught in one of the blockades at 8:30 p.m. on the way home from her in-laws’ house. People ran to escape their trapped cars; those not fast enough were beaten by gunmen.
“People were running and we could hear the explosions … the gunfire,” the woman wrote. “Children were crying inconsolably, women were hysterical, men were carrying babies.... We were running and running and [husband] Juan was screaming at me, ‘Run, don’t stop, run, don’t turn around, don’t stop.’
“I was crying, screaming and begging for the mercy of God.”
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Tracy Wilkinson covers foreign affairs from the Los Angeles Times’ Washington, D.C., bureau.
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Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announces the formation of a unity government with Hezbollah. | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri formed a new unity government on Monday that includes two ministers from Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
Lebanon's Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri speaks after announcing the new cabinet at the presidential palace in Baabda, near Beirut, November 9, 2009. REUTERS/ Mohamed Azakir
Lebanon has been without a functioning government since Hariri led his coalition, backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, to victory in a June parliamentary election against Hezbollah and its allies.
A government acceptable to all main parties is seen as key to maintaining stability in a country facing sectarian and political tensions, as well as a huge debt burden.
“Finally, the government of national concord has been born,” Hariri told reporters after agreeing the cabinet at a meeting with President Michel Suleiman at the presidential palace in Baabda on the outskirts of Beirut.
“We have turned a page that we don’t want to go back to and opened a new page that we strive to make a page of concord and work,” he said.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner welcomed the formation of the Lebanese government and pledged the former colonial power’s support for Hariri.
“The formation of a new government was necessary to resolve the conflict that Lebanon was facing, to assure the security and stability of the country...,” Kouchner said.
He urged the new government to push through economic reforms demanded by donors and implement U.N. Resolution 1701 that ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also welcomed the formation of a new government and called on it “to recommit to the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1701.”
“The secretary-general hopes that Lebanese political leaders will continue to work together in a spirit of unity, dialogue and cooperation,” his spokeswoman said.
Hariri spent more than four months brokering a deal with the opposition. A warming of ties between the two sides’ main backers Syria and Saudi Arabia in recent weeks helped ease the rift in Beirut and led eventually to a power-sharing agreement.
The new 30-minister cabinet includes 15 ministers from Hariri’s coalition, 10 from the opposition including two Hezbollah ministers, and five, including the key interior and defense portfolios, were nominated by President Suleiman.
The president’s ministers in theory hold the balance of power in cabinet, with the Hariri coalition unable to gain a simple majority and the minority unable to block key decisions as they do not hold a third plus one votes in government.
Incumbents Ziad Baroud and Elias al-Murr kept their interior and defense portfolios.
Raya Haffar al-Hassan was appointed finance minister, responsible for managing Lebanon’s public debt burden, while retired university professor Ali al-Shami was named foreign minister.
Mohammed Safadi kept his job as economy minister.
Hassan, who is close to Hariri, manages a United Nations Development Programme project aimed at supporting decision-making at the office of the prime minister.
Shami, 64, was named by close Hezbollah ally Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. He will be the country’s top diplomat when Lebanon takes over a seat at the United Nations Security Council at the start of next year.
The new government’s first task would be to draw up a policy statement and present it to parliament for a vote of confidence.
Despite deep disagreements between the two camps on some crucial issues, such as the fate of Hezbollah’s guerrilla army, the statement is expected to go smoothly and swiftly.
Hariri is then expected to visit Damascus and hold talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a move set to redraw the political landscape in Lebanon.
Hariri’s coalition had accused Syria of assassinating statesman Rafik al-Hariri, Saad’s father, in February 2005.
Syria denies any links, but the killing forced Damascus to end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon in April 2005 and led to the formation of a special court in The Hague to investigate and prosecute the killers.
Hopes are also high that Hariri, a billionaire businessman who is close to Saudi Arabia, and his government will tackle the country’s economic woes.
Hariri said he looked forward to tackling the country’s economic woes, public debt and its need to modernize government institutions.
Lebanon has largely shrugged off the effects of the global financial crisis but has public debt of around $50 billion.
Additional reporting by Laila Bassam; Editing by Louise Ireland
| Organization Established | November 2009 | ['(Reuters)', '(Xinhua)'] |
Philippine authorities in Manila concentrate street children in cages with some even chained in anticipation of Pope Francis' pastoral visit. , , | Street children as young as five are being caged in brutal detention centres alongside adult criminals in a cynical drive to smarten up the Philippines capital ahead of a visit by Pope Francis this week.
Hundreds of boys and girls have been rounded up from doorways and roadsides by police and officials and put behind bars in recent weeks to make the poverty-racked city more presentable when Pope Francis arrives tomorrow, a MailOnline investigation has found.
In a blatant abuse of the country's own child protection laws, the terrified children are locked up in filthy detention centres where they sleep on concrete floors and where many of them are beaten or abused by older inmates and adult prisoners and, in some cases, starved and chained to pillars.
Six million people are expected to attend an open air mass conducted by Pope Francis in Manila's Rizal Park on Sunday, which will watched by a global TV audience and officials appear determined to ensure that urchins are hidden from view.
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Angel, a 13 year old little girl clad only in a flimsy dress, was chained to a post in the RAC detention centre and left there crying
Other children were allegedly encouraged to throw pebbles at her as she screamed in pain and fear in the detention late last year. Youngsters living in the city's doorways and roadsides are being rounded up despite many having committed no crime
A MailOnline investigation has uncovered the horrendous conditions the children are kept in, with many of them beaten, or tied to poles. This picture of a starving 11-year-old led to protests against the centres - but nothing has changed
The youngsters, who can be kept in the centres for months, are exposed to abuse and exploitation by older children and adults
Father Shay Cullen, who works to rescue the children, says the detention centres where the young street children are kept are 'a shame on the nation'
MailOnline found dozens of street children locked up in appalling conditions alongside adult criminals in Manila, where a senior official admitted there had been an intensive round-up by police and government workers to make sure they are not seen by Pope Francis.
We gained rare access to a detention centre by accompanying Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Irish missionary Father Shay Cullen, 71, as he freed a boy aged around seven and took him to his Preda Foundation shelter for children 100 miles away in Subic Bay.
Mak-Mak, whose legs and body were riddled with scabies, was picked up three weeks ago and spent Christmas and the New Year in a concrete pen at the centre hidden away in the slums of Manila's Paranaque district which with grotesque irony is named House of Hope.
There, guiltless children are kept behind bars, made to go to the toilet in buckets and fed leftovers which they eat from the floor. There is no schooling or entertainment for the youngsters who are held sometimes for months before being freed.
Adult convicts are kept in a pen next to separate compounds holding boys and girls and freely pass between the pens at certain times of the day, inmates and regular visitors to the centre told us, while officials either ignore or fail to spot abuse and attacks.
In poignant scenes, Mak-Mak an abandoned child with no ID at first seen frightened but then beamed with delight as charity workers told him he was being taken from his caged pen to children's home in the countryside. 'Are there toys there?' was his first question.
'Rescued' child Mak-Mak's legs and body were covered in scabies, caused by mites burrowing into the skin, when MailOnline first met him at a centre
Mak-Mak, who had no ID, was living on the streets after apparently being abandoned by his parents
The boy, who is thought to be around seven, was initially frightened when charity workers arrived at the centre, ironically called 'House of Hope'
But he beamed with joy after they said they were taking him away to a new home - asking: 'Will there be toys?'
Father Shay, pictured, said the conditions Mak-Mak was being kept in were 'completely beneath human dignity'
Mak-Mak is one of hundreds of children being kept in these dreadful conditions - but he is lucky, as he has been rescued by charity workers
But, thanks to charity workers, he is now living in a children's home on the coast, 80 miles from the Philippine's capital Manila
An adult prisoner held with other convicts in a cell directly opposite the pen holding Mak-Mak and the other children, 42-year-old Paulo, said: 'Lots of children have been brought here lately. We're told they're being picked up from under the road bridges where the Pope will travel.'
As a team of charity workers took Mak-Mak to his new home in Subic Bay, an exasperated Father Shay said: 'This boy is only about seven years old and he is behind bars. This is completely beneath human dignity and the rights of all the children here are being violated.
'They have no basic rights. There is no education. There is no entertainment. There is no proper human development. There is nowhere to eat and they sleep on a concrete floor. There is no proper judicial process.
'These kids are totally without protection. They have no legal representation. They are just put in jail and left to fend for themselves.'
Pope Francis famously washed the feet of inmates in a youth detention centre in Rome in 2013 but Father Shay, who has run a mission to help children in the Philippines for 40 years, said: 'Sadly, there is no way the Pope will be visiting these detention centres in Manila.
'They are a shame on the nation. Officials here would be horrified at the prospect of the Pope seeing children treated in this way.'
The caging of street children ahead of the Pope's visit comes despite anger in the Philippines late last year over another notorious detention centre the Manila Reception and Action Centre (RAC) where a skeletal 11-year-old was pictured lying on the ground, apparently near death.
The boy, who shares the Pope's name Francisco, is now recovering at a children's home run by a charity - but protests over his case failed to halt the current round-up or improve conditions at the 17 detention centres across the city, where an estimated 20,000 children a year are detained.
The government has defended the policy in interviews with the local press in Manila
Rosalinda Orobia, head of Social Welfare Department in Manila's central Pasay district, claimed the round-ups had been conducted to protect the Pope from being targeted by gangs of begging street children
Orobia told the Manila Standard newspaper the syndicates 'know the Pope cares about poor kids, and they will take advantage of that'
But the Manila Standard hit back at Orobia, saying the decision to clear the streets of the children only helped officials trying to pretend all was well in the city
The noticeable rise in 'rescues' has happened before other big international visits, one charity head revealed - including before President Obama's visit last year
Rosalinda Orobia, head of Social Welfare Department in Manila's central Pasay district, confirmed her officials had for weeks been detaining street children in the areas the Pope will visit and had taken in children as young as five.
Bizarrely, she claimed the operations were aimed at stopping begging syndicates targeting the Pope rather than tidying up the city. 'They (the syndicates) know the Pope cares about poor kids, and they will take advantage of that,' she told the Manila Standard newspaper.
In an editorial, the newspaper slammed the official's remarks, saying: 'We should all be scandalized by the government's artificial campaign to keep the streets free of poor children only for the duration of the papal visit.
The visit to Manila comes exactly 20 years after St. John Paul II's visit to the country, and there is great excitement to meet the first non-European Pope - seen here blessing a sick child - for more than 1,300 years
This is Pope Francis' second tour of Asia in six months, but the first time he has visited either Sri Lanka - the first stop on the trip, pictured - or the Philippines
Thousands welcomed the Pope to Columbo, Sri Lanka's capital, and similar scenes are expected in Manila
The Pope arrives in the Philippines for a five day stay tomorrow, after a five-day tour of Sri Lanka
'There is no question that children should be kept off the streets, but a campaign to do so just for the duration of a dignitary's visit helps nobody except the officials who want to put on a show and pretend all is well in our cities.'
Catherine Scerri, deputy director of street children charity Bahay Tuluyan, told MailOnline workers had remarked on a noticeable rise in the number of 'rescues' of street children by officials in recent weeks because of the Pope's visit.
'More children have been picked up in recent weeks and there has been a pattern of this happening before big international events in the past,' said Ms Scerri, an Australian who has worked for 11 years to improve the lives of Manila's legions of street children.
'It happened before President Obama's visit to the Philippines in April last year. When we tried to have them released we were told they couldn't come out until after Obama had gone and the children were very much given the impression that they were rescued because of this visit.'
The children can be kept with adult offenders, which leaves them vulnerable during their time in the centres
A study found the children are taken in forsleeping on the street, for begging, or for stealing food to relieve their hunger, with no proper judicial process
A survey by Bahay Tuluyan found the so-called 'rescue' operations to round up street children are indiscriminate, targeting youngsters who have committed no offences and do not want to go to detention centres.
Children are taken in simply for sleeping on the street, for begging, or for stealing food to relieve their hunger, with no proper judicial process, and are exposed to abuse and exploitation by older children and adults, the study found.
'There is no reason the shelters (centres) should be like this and what I find soul-destroying is the apathy of the people who work in and around places like RAC and allow this brutality,' said Ms Scerri.
'I can understand a lack of resources, but what I find so frustrating is the violence, torture and apathy and the fact that people are standing by and letting this happen. I think that is completely inexcusable.'
Detained children complained of violence, abuse, poor or inadequate food and lack of sanitation. They are given buckets for toilets and deprived of any education or contact with family members, something Ms Scerri said they found 'incredibly distressing'.
The practice of locking up street children ahead of major international events in Manila dates back to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Summit of 1996, Ms Scerri said. Children are held for periods ranging from days to months and repeatedly rearrested.
Children are repeatedly 'rescued' from the streets - with one child revealing they had been rounded up 59 times
However, being rescued had not helped the 13-year-old: the young teenager was still on the streets
There have been protests against the centres, but as yet it has failed to stop the policy
Huge preparations are taking place ahead of Pope Francis' visit. Here, a Filipino soldier plays with children as security forces get ready
A child and customer ride a pedi-cab past police as they rehearse security procedures on a road outside the Tacloban airport ahead of the visit
'The RAC and other institutions call these children recidivists even though they have committed no crimes,' she said. 'One child of 13 we interviewed had been 'rescued' 59 times and was back on the street.'
Most people in Manila know nothing about the way children are treated in the detention centres. 'When they find out, they are outraged,' she said. 'People are horrified to find out what the government is doing in their name.'
Social workers and child psychologists help heal the psychological scars of the street children taken out of detention centres in the boys' and girls' homes run by Father Shay's Preda Foundation.
In a harrowing interview conducted for MailOnline by a trained child psychologist at a Preda home, a boy called Ben described how aged just six he was abandoned by his mother and then picked up by police last year as he slept on the street.
He woke up in a police station and then spent three months at the House of Hope detention centre where, in cold detail, he described how he was sexually abused by 10 different inmates. 'I was very unhappy there,' he said quietly. Ben is now seven.
Removing children from the streets is not the only measure being taken ahead of the visit - here a Filipino worker removes dirt next to a poster of Pope Francis in a street in Manila
Pope Francis is expected to ride in 'Jeepney', a popular and uniquely Filipino mode of mass transport (pictured), during the visit
Workers have been busy preparing for the Pope's arrival in the Philippines, the largest predominantly Catholic country in Asia
These workers were spotted grabbing a nap in between getting Manila reading for Pope Francis
Young boys dressed as Swiss Guards rehearse at the steps of the Manila Cathedral in preparation for the arrival of Pope Francis
Workers wrap a statue of Christ at Rizal Park during preparations
Mak-Mak who had never before been outside the city and was wide-eyed with wonder at the sight of a cow in a field leapt out of the charity's van and sprinted across a lawn to a rusty set of swings and roundabouts as soon as he arrived at the children's home.
After playing happily with other boys for two hours, however, he quickly became tearful and withdrawn when questioned gently by the psychologist about his ordeal on the streets and then in the detention centre.
Like other children lucky enough to be saved from the detention centres where more and more children are being locked up this week, the road to recovery for Make-Mak will be a painfully long one. 'There's an awful lot of trauma there,' said Father Shay.
Father Shay is praying Pope Francis will speak out on children's rights during his five-day visit to the Philippines which ends on Sunday, perhaps pricking the conscience of officials in the devout country into taking more care of their unfortunate young.
Meanwhile, however, the only prospect of an escape from the hellish conditions behind bars for countless children will come when the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church shielded from their suffering flies back to Rome next Monday. (JAN 19th) | Armed Conflict | January 2015 | ['(The Daily Mail)', '(the Philippine Daily Inquirer)', '(Catholic Online)'] |
FC Barcelona defeats Manchester United F.C. to win the 2008–09 UEFA Champions League Final. | ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Barcelona completed an historic treble with a 2-0 win over holders Manchester United in the Champions League final in Rome on Wednesday night. Lionel Messi scored Barcelona's second as they beat Manchester United 2-0 to be crowned Euorpean champions.
Goals in either half from Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi capped a dazzling performance from the Catalan giants who dominated the showdown in the Stadio Olympico between Europe's top two sides. Barcelona, who are the first Spanish side to win the Primera Liga (domestic league), Copa del Rey (domestic cup) and Champions League in the same season, recovered from a shaky start to show off their own brand of flamboyant, attacking football with Andres Iniesta and Messi at the heart of their play. The victory completed a triumphant first season in charge for 38-year-old Barca coach Pep Guardiola.
By contrast, United, who were bidding for their fourth trophy of a previously triumphant season, were distinctly second best in their defense of the title they won in Moscow last year.
Alex Ferguson's men enjoyed their best spell in the opening moments with Cristiano Ronaldo testing Victor Valdes with a first-minute free kick which rebounded off the Barcelona goalkeeper and needed the intervention of Gerard Pique to prevent Park Ji-Sung from scoring. Portuguese star Ronaldo was involved again as he chested down a pass in the area and sent a shot skimming across goal and narrowly wide. The shot count stood at five to nil to United after the first ten minutes before Iniesta strode forward and played in Eto'o. The Cameroon international cut inside to elude the challenge of Nemanja Vidic before toe-poking the ball home as Michael Carrick vainly challenged. It was the idea riposte to the early United dominance and Barca were suddenly playing with their usual swagger. Messi and Ronaldo took turns to show their skill with the Argentine blazing a shot over from outside the area which left Edwin van der Sar shaking his head and Ronaldo setting himself up again with neat footwork before sending an effort wide. But it was Barcelona who approached half time in control and Messi underlined their dominance with a surging run which took him away from four players before his shot from an acute angle was partly fumbled by van der Sar. Carlos Tevez came on at halftime for the below-par Anderson, but it did not change the course of the match with Thierry Henry skipping inside Rio Ferdinand and seeing his shot only saved by the legs of van der Sar. Then Eto'o played a dangerous ball across the United area and Messi appealed for a penalty after appearing to be pulled back by John O'Shea.
It was still one-way traffic and after Iniesta was pulled down, Xavi's free kick thumped the post with United reeling.
The Premier League side's best early moment in the second half came as Wayne Rooney's dangerous cross was nearly converted by both Ronaldo and Park.
Dimitar Berbatov came on for United to replace Park but he had barely had a touch when Messi put the game beyond the English champions as he rose unmarked at the far post to head home Xavi's 70th minute cross.
United responded by surging forward and Ronaldo was denied by a desperate block by Valdes, but it was still Barca who had the best chances and captain and right back Carlos Puyol was twice denied by van der Sar as his attacking intentions typified the evening. | Sports Competition | May 2009 | ['(CNN)'] |
A police post near Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China is attacked, leaving 16 officers dead and 16 others injured. | Sixteen Chinese policemen have been killed in an attack on a border post in the restive Muslim region of Xinjiang, state media say.
Two attackers reportedly drove up to the post in a rubbish truck and threw two grenades, before moving in to attack the policemen with knives.
The attack came four days before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
Both attackers were captured during the raid near the city of Kashgar, Xinhua state news agency reported.
Kashgar, known as Kashi in Chinese, is some 2,500 miles (4,000km) from Beijing, near the border with Tajikistan.
Xinhua said the attack happened at about 0800 (0000 GMT), as the policemen were jogging outside the compound.
Although the episode happened a long way away from Beijing, the very fact that it happened, and the fact that it happened this week, will make the organisers of the Beijing Olympics nervous, says the BBC's James Reynolds in Xinjiang.
Uighur suppression
Fourteen policemen died at the scene of the attack and two on the way to hospital. Another 16 policemen were hurt.
One of the attackers was reported to have been injured in the leg.
Xinjiang, in the north-west of the country, is home to the Muslim Uighur people. Uighur separatists have waged a low-level campaign against Chinese rule for decades.
Human rights groups say Beijing is suppressing the rights of Uighurs.
China has spoken in the past of what it calls a terrorist threat from Muslim militants in Xinjiang, but it has provided little evidence to back up its claims, says the BBC's Daniel Griffiths in Beijing.
A spokesman for the Beijing Games Organising Committee told Xinhua he was confident that Olympic participants and spectators would be safe.
"China has focused on strengthening security and protection around Olympic venues and at the Olympics Village, so Beijing is already prepared to respond to any threat," Sun Weide was quoted as saying.
Warnings
Last week, a senior Chinese army officer warned that Islamic separatists were the biggest danger to the Olympics.
Col Tian Yixiang of the Olympics security command centre told reporters the main threat came from the "East Turkestan terrorist organisation".
The term is used by the government to refer to Islamist separatists in Xinjiang.
Late last month a group called the Turkestan Islamic Party said it had blown up buses in Shanghai and Yunnan, killing five people.
But China denied that the explosions were acts of terrorism.
The Washington-based IntelCenter, which monitors terrorism communications, said the Turkestan Islamic Party had released a video entitled Our Blessed Jihad in Yunnan.
In it, the group's leader, Commander Seyfullah, said it was responsible for several attacks and threatened the Olympics.
"The Chinese have haughtily ignored our warnings," IntelCenter quoted him as saying.
"The Turkestan Islamic Party volunteers... have started urgent actions."
'Evicted'
In Beijing, Chinese police and a small group of protesters clashed in Qianmen district, near Tiananmen Square.
The demonstrators complained that they had been evicted from their homes to make way for the reconstruction of the district.
The Olympic torch is due to be carried round a stadium in Mianyang, Sichuan province, which was used to house thousands of people forced from their homes by a devastating earthquake in May.
The torch will go on to the provincial capital in Chengdu on Tuesday before heading to Beijing for the opening ceremony on Friday. | Armed Conflict | August 2008 | ['(BBC News)'] |
Hurricane Dolly makes landfall on South Padre Island, Texas, with sustained winds of 95 mph . | BROWNSVILLE, Texas (CNN) -- Hurricane Dolly weakened to a tropical storm Wednesday night after it made landfall on South Padre Island, Texas, leaving a trail of battered buildings and flooding. By 9 p.m. CT, Dolly's sustained winds had dipped to about 70 mph with higher gusts, according to the National Hurricane Center. A Category 1 hurricane has winds of at least 75 mph. A tropical storm warning remained in effect from Brownsville to Port Aransas, Texas. Tropical storm warnings for other areas were lifted.
The eye of the storm made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane on South Padre Island, Texas, about 1 p.m. CT, tearing roofs off homes, flooding streets and sending residents scrambling for safety from wind gusts reaching 120 mph.
By 2 p.m., the hurricane was downgraded to Category 1, but in many areas along the southwest coastal region, the damage was already done. Watch CNN's Gary Tuchman brace against Dolly's high winds »
At least one person was injured as sustained winds up to 100 mph downed power lines and tore observation decks off homes and condos, CNN affiliate KPRC reported.
A 17-year-old fell from a seventh-story balcony, sustaining head injuries, a broken leg and a broken hip. He is alert and receiving treatment on the island while authorities wait for the first opportunity to get him to the mainland, KPRC reported.
"When we heard the first bang, I thought it was one of the air conditioners flying," said Jacqueline Bell, who lives on South Padre Island. "Then we went outside, and we saw the debris, and we saw the neighbors leaving."
CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said persistent rainfall could cause flooding upstream in the Rio Grande as long as the storm stalled over the mountains of Mexico. Watch Myers explain the threat of flooding upriver »
Myers said it could take two days for the rainwater to flow upstream and challenge the natural levees, which were holding for now.
"The levees are holding up just fine," said Johnny Cavazos, emergency coordinator for Cameron County, The Associated Press reported. "There is no indication right now that they are going to crest."
Even before Dolly made landfall, driving rain and wind gusts from its outer rings flooded streets and threatened to pour into homes while wind gusts shattered windows on the island popular with tourists. The 2,400 residents began bracing for the storm Tuesday night, when strong winds forced the closure of South Padre Island's causeway to the mainland. Officials said the causeway is closed any time winds reach 39 mph.
Some chose to remain on the island and wait out the storm.
Steven Murphy took shelter with his girlfriend in his 65-foot double-decker fishing boat, Murphy's Law, and hoped for the best. Read about why Murphy decided to wait out the storm
Murphy, who owns a charter fishing company with his brother on the island, lived through a more powerful hurricane, where he saw boats bigger than his tossed onto land. "I had nightmares about that last night," he said from his boat Wednesday. He said the wind outside sounded like a tornado and added that he'd seen several items blow past the windows of his vessel.
"It's starting to tear it up real good," Murphy said. See images and videos from affected areas »
On the mainland, people in the path of the storm stacked sandbags around their homes, nailed plywood over windows and prepared generators to keep power going in the event of a blackout. iReport.com: Are you in Dolly's path?
Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada said that the storm downed trees and dumped 6 to 8 inches of rain but that emergency workers were ready to respond once the wind and rain died down.
Ahumada said reports that the city's levees are in danger of breaching were exaggerated. Watch Mayor Ahumada explain the situation on the ground »
He said it would take 20 inches of rain to top nearly all of the city's levees, which had been reinforced to federal standards or above.
"People think we're facing a Katrina," he said. "That's not the case."
More than 13,000 customers were without power in Cameron County, where Brownsville is, utility company AEP Texas told The Associated Press. Dolly's arrival also had the military scrambling. The Navy moved 89 aircraft from its Corpus Christi post to other locations in Texas and New Mexico. See Dolly's projected path »
Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued a disaster declaration for 14 counties before Dolly arrived. The declaration "allows the state to initiate necessary preparedness efforts," according to a statement from Perry's office.
More than two dozen state agencies and organizations, including the Red Cross, are on standby to help with evacuations and other needs.
The National Guard has set up staging areas in Houston, Austin and San Antonio, officials said. As many as 1,200 National Guardsmen have been called to help, and 700 are deployed to targeted areas.
An incident management team has been pre-positioned in South Texas, including six UH-60 helicopters, to provide support to first responders. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | July 2008 | ['(150 km/h)', '(CNN)', '(NHC)'] |
Iran, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, People's Republic of China, Germany, and the European Union (the P5+1) reach a breakthrough agreement on the general framework for an agreement on Iran's nuclear program, but sign no verbal agreement or official document. The deadline for a full deal is June 30, 2015. | LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Iran and the United States, along with five other world powers, announced on Thursday a surprisingly specific and comprehensive understanding on limiting Tehran’s nuclear program for the next 15 years, though they left several specific issues to a final agreement in June.
After two years of negotiations, capped by eight tumultuous days and nights of talks that appeared on the brink of breakdown several times, Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, announced the plan, which, if carried out, would keep Iran’s nuclear facilities open under strict production limits, and which holds the potential of reordering America’s relationship with a country that has been an avowed adversary for 35 years. Whether Iran is racing toward nuclear weapon capabilities is one of the most contentious foreign-policy issues challenging the West.
| Sign Agreement | April 2015 | ['(The New York Times)', '(CNN)'] |
Hezbollah declares the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri invalid. Hariri has been detained in Saudi Arabia for several days. The Saudi government is accused of pressuring Hariri to resign in the first place. | Shia group’s head accuses Saudi Arabia of trying to stir sectarian tensions in Lebanon by forcing Hariri’s resignation.
The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah has declared that the country’s prime minister is currently detained in Saudi Arabia and that his “forced” resignation is unconstitutional because it was done “under pressure”.
Speaking in Beirut on Friday, Hassan Nasrallah said he was sure that Saad Hariri was forced to resign as part of what he called Saudi Arabia’s policy of stoking sectarian tensions in Lebanon.
Hariri, who announced his resignation last week in a televised address from Riyadh, has yet to return to Lebanon.
Nasrallah said Hariri is being prevented by Saudi officials from returning to Lebanon, which is why “we deem the resignation of Hariri illegal and invalid”.
“All of a sudden, out of nowhere, Saudi Arabia called the prime minister on (an) urgent matter without his aide or advisers, and was forced to tender his resignation, and to read the resignation statement written by them,” Nasrallah said, as he accused Riyadh of “blunt, unprecedented interference”.
“We declare that the prime minister of Lebanon has not resigned,” he said. “Saad Hariri is our political opponent, but he is also our prime minister.”
Nasrallah also said “Lebanon had enjoyed unprecedented stability over the past year”, and appealed for unity throughout the country.
He said US President Donald Trump must have known of the plans to force Hariri’s resignation.
Hariri is part of a unity government that also includes rival political factions such as those supported by Hezbollah.
Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said that there is widespread belief that Hariri is being held against his will, adding that even his own party members have called for his return to Lebanon.
“So a lot of questions of his whereabouts and the well-being of the prime minister, and a lot of fear that the situation could explode,” she said.
In a statement on Friday issued following Nasrallah’s televised address, Rex Tillerson, US secretary of state, cautioned against using Lebanon “as a venue for proxy conflicts”.
He urged “all parties both within Lebanon and outside to respect the integrity and independence of Lebanon’s legitimate national institutions”.
“The United States supports the stability of Lebanon and is opposed to any actions that could threaten that stability.”
Earlier, Heather Nauert, state department spokesperson, said a US diplomat met Saad Hariri in Riyadh but refused to comment on where the meeting took place or to elaborate on Hariri’s status.
“[The talks] were sensitive, private, diplomatic conversations,” Nauert said on Thursday.
“We have seen him. In terms of the conditions of him being held or the conversations between Saudi Arabia and Prime Minister Hariri, I would have to refer you to the government of Saudi Arabia and also to Mr Hariri’s office.”
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Nauert said Hariri’s resignation was an “internal matter that we couldn’t comment on”.
Separately, Russia’s ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, threatened on Thursday to refer Hariri’s case to the UN Security Council if the “ambiguity” continues.
“The issue of Hariri’s return to the country concerns the sovereign rights of Lebanon,” Zasypkin said in an interview with Lebanese channel LBC.
Lebanese officials have said Hariri is likely to be under either house arrest or in temporary detention in Riyadh.
His resignation on November 4 came on the same day that dozens of Saudi princes, senior ministers, businessmen were arrested in a purge carried out by a new anti-corruption committee led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Also on Friday, France’s foreign ministry said it wanted Hariri to be free of his movements and fully able to play an essential role in his country.
“As the minister said, we wish that Saad al-Hariri has all his freedom of movement and be fully able to play the essential role that is his in Lebanon,” French deputy foreign ministry spokesman Alexandre Georgini said, referring to an earlier statement by Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
Georgini said France’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia had also visited Hariri at his residence.
Tension grips residents of Lebanon’s capital amid fears of escalation in regional divide between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s abrupt resignation over the weekend was bizarre even by the often twisted standards of Lebanese politics. He made the surprise announcement from the Saudi capital in a pre-recorded message on a Saudi-owned TV station. Stunned Lebanese are convinced Saudi Arabia, Hariri’s longtime ally, forced him to step down to effectively wreck […]
| Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | November 2017 | ['(presumably in Riyadh)', '(Al-Jazeera)'] |
Dressed in white, the Venezuela opposition march, in silence, to the headquarters of the country's Catholic archdiocese to honor the more than a dozen people killed in three weeks of protests. For the first time, protesters were able to cross from the east to the western side of Caracas without being confronted by state security. (AP via U.S. News & World Report) |
CARACAS (AFP) - Dressed in white, Venezuelan protesters marched in silence on Saturday (April 22) to demand the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro, a show of defiance after three weeks of unrest that left 20 people dead.
After tense negotiations with security forces blocking their way, protesters in Caracas were allowed to march to their destination, the headquarters of the Catholic bishops’ conference.
A brief scuffle took place on the capital’s east side, where police fired tear gas to disperse a group of demonstrators trying to join the main march.
But there were no reports of violence on the scale seen at other protests, where there have been running battles pitting riot police and pro-government vigilantes against demonstrators hurling stones and Molotov cocktails.
The centre-right opposition accuses the leftist government of repressing protests and sending armed thugs to attack them.
The “silent protest” was a test of the authorities’ tolerance for peaceful demonstrations.
“I’m sure they’ll meet us with the usual (tear) gas, which is how they preach peace,” said 71-year-old protester Hector Urbina.
Protesters also marched to the Catholic Church’s episcopal seats in several other cities across the country, tightly guarded by the police and national guard.
Many wore white T-shirts emblazoned with the word “peace.” Others carried white flowers or Venezuelan flags, while one protester wielded a giant wooden cross.
The opposition is seen as close to the Church, which the government accuses of playing politics against it.
The opposition blames Maduro for the unraveling of oil giant Venezuela’s once-booming economy, which has left the country mired in shortages of food, medicine and basic goods.
Some protesters silently prayed, others carried Christian-themed banners or images.
“I’m not afraid,” said protester Jessica Muchacho, 33.
“We’ve got nothing left to lose. The government’s already taken everything, all possibility of living our lives with dignity.”
The opposition plans to return to a more confrontational strategy on Monday, when it is calling for Venezuelans to block roads in a bid to grind the country to a halt.
On Thursday, protests descended into a night of clashes, riots and looting that left 12 people dead in Caracas. More pockets of violence erupted on Friday night.
Residents described terrifying scenes Thursday night and early Friday.
“It was like a war,” said Carlos Yanez, a resident of the El Valle neighborhood in southwestern Caracas, where 11 people were killed.
The two sides blame each other for the unrest.
Vice President Tareck El Aissami accused the opposition of sponsoring a “spiral of terrorism” to trigger a coup.
Senior opposition leader Henrique Capriles fired back that the government’s “savage repression” was causing the violence.
Maduro, the heir of the leftist “Bolivarian revolution” launched by the late Hugo Chavez in 1999, says the protests are part of a US-backed coup plot.
Pressure on the socialist president has been mounting since 2014, when prices for Venezuela’s crucial oil exports started to plunge.
The crisis escalated on March 30, when the Supreme Court moved to seize the powers of the legislature, the only lever of state authority not controlled by Maduro and his allies.
The court partly backtracked after an international outcry. But tension only increased when the authorities slapped a political ban on Capriles on April 7.
According to pollster Venebarometro, seven in 10 Venezuelans disapprove of Maduro, whose term does not end until 2019.
The opposition is demanding elections to exit the crisis.
The secretary general of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro – one of Maduro’s harshest critics – accused the government of cowardice.
“When the political leadership gives the order to open fire on its own people, that’s a very strong signal of cowardice and weakness,” he told AFP. | Protest_Online Condemnation | April 2017 | ['(AFP via The Straits Times)'] |
Thai police arrest a student leader over an anti-government protest last month. The student was arrested in the outskirts of Bangkok while traveling to a protest. Human Rights Watch reports that he will be charged with breaching multiple laws. Police declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. | BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai authorities arrested a student leader on Friday over an anti-government protest last month, police said, just a few days before a big demonstration scheduled for Sunday.
Student groups have rallied almost daily around the country since July 18, calling for an end to military influence over Thai politics after a disputed election last year kept junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha as prime minister five years after he first took power in a 2014 army coup.
Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak, 22, was arrested on the outskirts of Bangkok while traveling to a protest, a video posted on his Facebook page showed.
“I would like to invite you to go to the investigating officers responsible for this case,” said a man who identified himself as a member of the Bangkok Metropolitan Police in the video, citing a court’s arrest warrant before at least four other men physically carried Parit into a car.
The video was apparently shot by a friend of Parit’s and posted to his page.
“We can hold him for 48 hours for questioning,” Police Major General Somprasong Yentuam, deputy Bangkok police chief, told reporters.
“Once we are done, we will take him to a court to request for pre-trial detention,” he said.
Somprasong said Parit will be charged for breaching internal security by “raising unrest and disaffection,” as well as for breaching coronavirus regulations banning public gatherings by helping organise a demonstration on July 18.
Human Rights Watch said the charges should be dropped and he should be immediately released.
Police on Friday also asked a court to revoke the bail for human rights lawyer Anon Nampa, 35 and student activist Panupong Jadnok, 23, whom they arrested on the same charges as Parit last week, Human Rights Watch said.
Prime Minister Prayuth has appealed for unity in light of the student-led protests, and said the government has been restrained with the protesters.
The student protest groups plan to stage a large protest on Sunday to intensify their demand to reform the military-backed constitution and call for new elections.
Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Frances Kerry
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Arrest | August 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
The European Space Agency releases the Planck space observatory's first all–sky map of the cosmic microwave background, the most accurate ever created. It determines that the Universe is older than expected, at 13.82 billion years old. | A map tracing the "oldest light" in the sky has been produced by Europe's Planck Surveyor satellite. Its pattern confirms the Big Bang theory for the origin of the Universe but subtle, unexpected details will require scientists to adjust some of their ideas.
The map shows tiny deviations from the average background temperature, where blue is slightly cooler and red is slightly warmer. The cold spots are where matter was more concentrated and later collapsed under gravity to form stars and galaxies. Image: ESA/Planck Collaboration
A spectacular new map of the "oldest light" in the sky has just been released by the European Space Agency.
Scientists say its mottled pattern is an exquisite confirmation of our Big-Bang model for the origin and evolution of the Universe.
But there are features in the picture, they add, that are unexpected and will require ideas to be refined.
The map was assembled from 15 months' worth of data acquired by the 600m-euro (£515m) Planck space telescope.
It details what is known as the cosmic microwave background, or CMB - a faint glow of long wavelength radiation that pervades all of space. Its precise configuration, visible in the new Planck data, is suggestive of a cosmos that is slightly older than previously thought - one that came into existence 13.82 billion years ago. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
This is an increase of about 50 million years on earlier calculations.
The map's pattern also indicates a subtle adjustment is needed to the Universe's inventory of contents.
It seems there is slightly more matter out there (31.7%) and slightly less "dark energy" (68.3%), the mysterious component thought to be driving the cosmos apart at an accelerating rate.
"I would imagine for [most people] it might look like a dirty rugby ball or a piece of modern art," said Cambridge University's George Efstathiou, presenting the new picture here at Esa headquarters in Paris. "But I can assure you there are cosmologists who would have hacked our computers or maybe even given up their children to get hold of this map, we're so excited by it." Planck is the third western satellite to study the CMB. The two previous efforts - COBE and WMAP - were led by the US space agency (Nasa). The Soviets also had an experiment in space in the 1980s that they called Relikt-1.
The CMB is the light that was finally allowed to spread out across space once the Universe had cooled sufficiently to permit the formation of hydrogen atoms - about 380,000 years into the life of the cosmos.
It still bathes the Earth in a near-uniform glow at microwave frequencies, and has a temperature profile that is just 2.7 degrees above absolute zero.
But it is possible to detect minute deviations in this signal, and these fluctuations - seen as mottling in the map - are understood to reflect the differences in the density of matter when the light parted company and set out on its journey all those years ago.
The fluctuations can be thought of as the seeds for all the structure that later developed in the cosmos - all the stars and galaxies.
Scientists subject the temperature deviations to a range of statistical analyses, which can then be matched against theoretical expectations.
This allows them to rule in some models to explain the origin and evolution of the cosmos, while ruling out a host of others.
The team that has done this for Planck's data says the map is an elegant fit for the standard model of cosmology - the idea that the Universe started in a hot, dense state in an incredibly small space, and then expanded and cooled. At a fundamental level, it also supports an "add-on" to this Big Bang theory known as inflation, which postulates that in the very first moments of its existence the Universe opened up in an exponential manner - faster than light itself.
But because Planck's map is so much more detailed than anything previously obtained, it is also possible to see some anomalies in it.
One is the finding that the temperature fluctuations, when viewed across the biggest scales, do not match those predicted by the standard model. Their signal is a bit weaker than expected.
There appears also to be an asymmetry in the average temperatures across the sky; the southern hemisphere is slightly warmer than the north.
A third anomaly is a cold spot in the map, centred on the constellation Eridanus, which is much bigger than would be predicted.
These features have been hinted at before by Planck's most recent predecessor - Nasa's WMAP satellite - but are now seen with greater clarity and their significance cemented.
A consequence will be the binning of many ideas for how inflation propagated, as the process was first introduced in the 1980s as a way to iron out such phenomena.
The fact that these delicate features are real will force theorists to finesse their inflationary solutions and possibly even lead them to some novel physics on the way.
"Inflation doesn't predict that it should leave behind any kind of history or remnant, and yet that's what we see," Planck project scientist Dr Jan Tauber told BBC News.
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Researchers in the US copy bird and bat wings to build a drone that can rebound and recover from mid-air collisions.
Tuesday's devastating attacks in Brussels show IS's European network is still at large, despite a year of intensive efforts by security forces to close it down.
Scientists are debating whether it's possible to harness the power of gravity for interstellar space travel.
The four-year-old boy who has become the centre of a controversy between India and Pakistan - and between his father and mother.
Why, almost 60 years after he first appeared in the Daily Mirror, is a layabout lout from north-east England still so loved around the world? | New achievements in aerospace | March 2013 | ['(BBC)', '(NASA)', '(The New York Times)'] |
Israel seals off the West Bank until midnight on Saturday, fearing repeats of riots which injured dozens of young Palestinians due to Israel preventing Palestinians under the age of 50 and without Israeli identity cards from attending their Jumu'ah at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. | Israel sealed off the West Bank on Friday as tensions mounted in Jerusalem over controversial plans to build new homes for Jewish settlers.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered the army to cut off the area until midnight on Saturday, citing a heightened risk of attacks. Israel has sealed off the West Bank ahead of major holidays in the past, but only rarely on other occasions. Security sources said the closure was decided after Israel discovered plans to repeat last Friday's riots in Jerusalem in which more than 60 Palestinian youths and 15 Israeli police were injured.
The closure was announced the day after US vice-president Joe Biden concluded a visit to the region aimed at promoting renewed peace talks.
Hopes of negotiations collapsed when Israel announced 1,600 new settler homes would be built in predominantly-Arab east Jerusalem. Israel also limited access to Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Only worshippers with Israeli identity cards and aged over 50 were permitted.
Prayers passed off peacefully at the mosque itself, but youths denied entry threw stones at Israeli police in Sultan Suleiman Street, Wadi Joz and Ras-Al-Amud on the Mount of Olives. Hundreds of Palestinians hurled rocks at Israeli soldiers near Ramallah.
Inside the Old City and throughout East Jerusalem, 3,000 Israeli police and paramilitary border police patrolled the narrow lanes, took up positions on rooftops and checked ID cards at temporary checkpoints.
Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen said he would try "to preserve the channel of dialogue with the various bodies so that quiet can be maintained on the site so that everyone can exercise their right to worship as they see fit."
Until Saturday night, only teachers, humanitarian and religious workers or Palestinians needing medical care will be allowed through checkpoints from the West Bank to Israel.
"The IDF will continue to operate in order to protect the citizens of Israel while maintaining the quality of life of the Palestinian population in the area," said an Israeli army spokesman.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of trying "to ignite a religious war in the region."
More trouble is expected next week with a planned march by right-wing Israelis through the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem. | Riot | March 2010 | ['(Friday prayers)', '(The Daily Telegraph)'] |
A passenger train collides with a tractor and trailer on a level crossing at Ibbenbüren, Germany. Two people are killed and twenty are injured. | At least two people are dead and 20 more have been injured following a train crash in Germany.
A passenger train hit a tractor-trailer at a level crossing near the town of Ibbenbueren in the north-western part of the country, police said.
And at least two people are dead while 20 more have been injured, with three of those injured in serious condition.
‘We got an emergency call at 11:31 (9.32am GMT) and rescue team, fire fighters and psychologists from all over the region were activated to help,’ said police spokesman Jochen Laschke.
‘The train was very crowded.’
The train, which is operated by private rail company Westfalenbahn, was travelling west from Osnabrueck.
It was badly damaged, with windows smashed and metal ports riped off. Footage from the scene of the crash shows the tractor-trailed ripped in half, with the tractor itself on one side and the tank, which was carrying manure, on the other side.
Two people are dead and three of those injured are said to be in serious condition | Train collisions | May 2015 | ['(Metro)'] |
April 2006 Nepalese general strike: King Gyanendra of Nepal asks for Prime Minister nominations to be made to assist in ending unrest in the country. | In a televised address he called on opposition parties to put forward their candidate for prime minister.
They are expected to meet on Saturday but their initial reaction has been that the king has not gone far enough.
The king has ruled directly since he sacked the government in 2005 saying politicians had failed to tackle the Maoist insurgency.
Assembly
The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kathmandu says the king's concession - on the 16th day of protests against his direct rule - is a significant climb-down.
Harmony and understanding must be preserved in the interest of the nation and people
It was welcomed as a positive step by India, the EU and the US - but members of Nepal's seven-party opposition alliance say the offer does not mention the formation of a constituent assembly.
Such an assembly could determine the future role of the king.
Looking tense during his address on Friday, the beleaguered monarch said: "Executive power of the kingdom of Nepal, which was in our safekeeping, shall from this day be returned to the people."
He called on the opposition alliance to recommend a name for prime minister as soon as possible.
Death of a protester
Nepalis tell their story
Until a new prime minister was appointed, the present government would continue, he said.
The king called for elections but gave no date when they would be held.
The opposition alliance is expected to meet on Saturday but spokesmen for three of the parties have already said the king's offer does not go far enough.
Leader of Nepali Congress (Democratic) Minendra Rijal said there was "no mention" of the constituent assembly.
He said it appeared the king still wanted to be "in the driving seat". Narayan Man Bijukchhe, chairman of Nepal Workers and Peasants' Party, said: "We did not conduct this movement to recommend the name of the prime minister to the king."
Analysts say that while the alliance has remained united in opposition to the king, the parties that constitute it have been bitterly divided in the past and, even if they wanted to, they might be unable to find an acceptable candidate for prime minister.
The reaction on the streets was more forceful.
Protester Grihendra Shrestha said: "We have won the battle, but we still must win the war."
It is definitely a step forward to reconciliation K L Maharjan, Hiroshima Send us your comments
"I want full democracy, all the power with the people," said Lekha Nath Bhatta.
India, which holds considerable influence over its neighbour, said the king's move "should now pave the way for the restoration of political stability and economic recovery".
The EU also welcomed the move, saying it hoped it would "open the path to a peaceful process in Nepal".
US state department spokesman Sean McCormack said: "We expect the king to live up to his words... We urge the parties to respond quickly by choosing a prime minister."
Tens of thousands of people had returned to the streets in Nepal's capital for a second day of mass protests on Friday, despite a shoot-on-sight curfew. The renewed curfew began at 0900 (0315 GMT) and ran through to midnight (1815 GMT).
On Thursday, three people died in one area of Kathmandu when police opened fire on the crowds. | Riot | April 2006 | ['(BBC)'] |
Bomb and shooting attacks kill two people and wound four in southern Thailand. | Two civilians were killed and four wounded in bomb and shooting attacks in southern Thailand, a military spokesman said Friday, as the region marked the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
A 25-year-old male security guard was shot dead by gunmen in Pattani province on Thursday morning, while a 39-year-old man was killed later in a roadside bomb attack in neighboring Yala, which also left one person with shrapnel injuries.
A car bomb ripped through a shopping street early Friday in the small town of Sungai Kolok, in the southernmost province of Narathiwat which borders Malaysia, wounding three people and destroying several shops.
"Three people were wounded but none is serious," Colonel Pramote Prom-in, army spokesman for the volatile region, told Agence France Presse.
The explosives had been packed inside pick-up truck parked on the street and triggered as people gathered at a morning market, he added.
Authorities had warned that militants were likely to attempt a large-scale attack ahead of Ramadan.
A shadowy insurgency, without clearly stated aims, has raged in Thailand's three southernmost provinces -- Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala -- since 2004.
Daily bomb or gun attacks have targeted both soldiers and civilians, Buddhists and Muslims, claiming more than 5,000 lives in eight years.
A state of emergency is in force in the worst-affected parts of the region, which rights campaigners say in effect gives the tens of thousands of military troops based in the area legal immunity and fuels rights abuses. | Armed Conflict | July 2012 | ['(Naharnet)'] |
Two people in Oklahoma and seven in Arkansas are killed by a strong tornado outbreak. | TUSHKA, Okla., April 15 (UPI) -- At least nine people were reported dead by emergency agencies across the southern United States Friday as a fierce storm system rolled through the region.
More than two dozen reported tornadoes spun out of the system in Alabama and Mississippi, AccuWeather said, and more heavy weather was expected to blow through northern Georgia during the night.
Seven deaths were reported in Arkansas where a falling tree killed a woman and her 8-year-old son in Little Rock and a 6-year-old White County boy was killed when a tree blew over on to his house, KARK-TV and KATV-TV in Little Rock reported.
Brian Smith of the National Weather Service told The Arkansas Democrat experts began surveying the damaged areas to determine if any of the many funnel clouds reported had touched down.
"This has probably been one of the more significant events we've had in awhile," Smith said.
The mayor of Clinton, Miss., told CNN his community suffered "extensive damage" from a tornado that narrowly missed a daycare center and school with an estimated 650 children inside.
"We have a lot to be grateful for," Mayor Rosemary Aultman said. "It could have been a lot worse."
Oklahoma was still tallying the damage from an outbreak of twisters Thursday night. One of the storms hit the small town of Tushka, killing two people and possible a third, The Oklahoman said. Dozens of injuries were also reported by emergency officials. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | April 2011 | ['(CNN)', '(UPI)', '(NewsOK)', '(BBC)'] |
Mahafarid Amir Khosravi is executed for masterminding the largest fraud case in Iran since the 1979 Revolution. | TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A billionaire businessman at the heart of a $2.6 billion state bank scam in Iran, the largest fraud case since the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution, was executed Saturday, state television reported.
Authorities put Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, also known as Amir Mansour Aria, to death at Evin prison, just north of the capital, Tehran, the TV reported. The report said the execution came after Iran's Supreme Court upheld his death sentence.
Khosravi's lawyer, Gholam Ali Riahi, was quoted by news website khabaronline.ir as saying that the death sentence was carried out without him being given any notice. Death sentences in Iran are usually carried out by hanging.
"I had not been informed about the execution of my client," Riahi said. "All the assets of my client are at the disposal of the prosecutor's office."
State officials did not immediately comment on Riahi's claim.
The fraud involved using forged documents to get credit at one of Iran's top financial institutions, Bank Saderat, to purchase assets including state-owned companies like major steel producer Khuzestan Steel Co.
Khosravi's business empire included more than 35 companies from mineral water production to a football club and meat imports from Brazil. According to Iranian media reports, the bank fraud began in 2007.
A total of 39 defendants were convicted in the case. Four received death sentences, two got life sentences and the rest received sentences of up to 25 years in prison.
The trials raised questions about corruption at senior levels in Iran's tightly controlled economy during the administration of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mahmoud Reza Khavari, a former head of Bank Melli, another major Iranian bank, escaped to Canada in 2011 after he resigned over the case. He faces charges over the case in Iran and remains on the Islamic Republic's wanted list. Khavari previously admitted that his bank partially was involved in the fraud, but has maintained his innocence. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | May 2014 | ['(AP via USA Today)'] |
A fire breaks out at the Gikomba market in Nairobi, Kenya, with 15 people confirmed dead and many homes and stalls being destroyed. | At least 15 people have been killed in a fire at a market in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
More than 70 people were injured in the blaze, which broke out in the middle of the night destroying many properties.
Gikomba is one of the largest open-air markets in the city and fires there are frequent, leading to speculation about possible arson attacks, The Standard newspaper says.
However, the cause of the current fire is not yet known.
The St John Ambulance service said the fire broke out at 02:30 local time (23:30 GMT on Wednesday) and spread to apartments and market stalls before being contained after about 90 minutes.
Some of the victims were burned while others inhaled poisonous fumes as they tried to salvage their property.
Hospital officials said there were four children among the dead.
Pictures from Reuters news agency showed people searching the wreckage and ash.
The injured have been rushed to different hospitals across the city.
One woman told the BBC she is still searching for her sister. "When I got to the scene, the fire had already spread to her house," said Millicent Achieng. "She told me she was inside her flat and there was so much smoke that she couldn't move. Her child was with her."
Ms Achieng said she pleaded with the security guard to open the gate to building, but he refused - saying he had been instructed by the landlord to lock it to "keep looters out". Ms Achieng said she tried to reach her sister unsuccessfully by phone several more times. "Now calls aren't going through," she said.
"At dawn I asked my brother to go look for her in the hospitals but he couldn't find her. We don't know if my sister is among those who were burned beyond recognition."
The market is well known for the sale of second-hand clothes, shoes and vegetables, and also has timber yards which were damaged in the blaze.
The blaze is believed to have broken out in one of the timber yards.
| Fire | June 2018 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Conservative Party suspends Dover MP Charlie Elphicke following "serious allegations" against him which have been passed on to police. Elphicke denies any wrongdoing. | The Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke has been suspended by the party following serious allegations which have been passed on to the police, the Tory chief whip, Julian Smith, has said.
in a brief statement released by the party on Friday evening, Smith said: “I have suspended the Conservative party whip from Charlie Elphicke MP following serious allegations that have been referred to the police.”
Elphicke tweeted to deny any wrongdoing, and to say the press had been told before him.
He said: “The party tipped off the press before telling me of my suspension. I am not aware of what the alleged claims are and deny any wrongdoing.”
The party tipped off the press before telling me of my suspension. I am not aware of what the alleged claims are and deny any wrongdoing.
The party did not give any more details about what the allegations concern, or who made a complaint. The Metropolitan police said it had no immediate comment on whether it had received a complaint about Elphicke.
Elphicke has represented Dover since 2010, and has been a backbencher apart from a brief spell as a junior whip that ended in 2016.
Elphicke, 46, a lawyer before entering parliament, is probably best-known as a staunch advocate of Brexit. He is a member of the pro-Brexit European Research Group of Tory MPs, and has talked up the idea of a no-deal departure being an option.
The statement from Smith came on his first full day as chief whip, having been promoted from deputy after the former incumbent, Gavin Williamson, was made defence secretary on Thursday.
Williamson was moved after the former defence secretary, Michael Fallon, quit the post after claims he made lewd comments to Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons.
Two other Tory ministers, Damian Green, the first secretary of state and May’s deputy, and trade minister Mark Garnier face inquiries as to whether they breached the ministerial code over allegations of inappropriate behaviour, though neither has been suspended by the party. | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | November 2017 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
A 6.6 magnitude earthquake occurs in Central Italy 68 kilometres east southeast of Perugia. Many buildings are reported as having been destroyed. , | An earthquake in Italy on Sunday struck the medieval walled town of Norcia as nuns, monks and priests were heading to morning prayer services, giving them just enough time to flee as the walls around them plunged to the ground.
The quake hit the same central regions that have been rocked by repeated tremors over the past two months.
The magnitude-6.6 earthquake caused extensive damage but no fatalities, despite registering much higher than the earthquake which stuck on August 24 and killed almost 300 people.
Weakened by repeated powerful jolts in recent weeks, many of Norcia's churches, monasteries and chapels were wrecked.
"We thought it was the end of everything," said 74-year-old Sister Maria Raffaella Buoso after being evacuated from the Monastery of the Poor Clares of Santa Maria della Pace. The United States Geological Survey said the quake was centred 68 kilometres east-southeast of Perugia at a depth of 1.5 kilometres.
Geoscience Australia seismologist Hugh Glanville told the ABC that at that depth, the earthquake was very shallow and had the potential to cause anything nearby to be catastrophically damaged.
"If it's a deep earthquake at 10, 20 or even 30 kilometres, the seismic waves have to travel through more earth before they reach the surface, but at such a shallow depth there is a lot less to dampen the waves effect on the buildings," he said.
That there were no reports of fatalities was largely due to the fact that thousands had left their homes after the earlier temblors.
Some 20 people suffered minor injuries.
Premier Matteo Renzi pledged that wrecked homes, churches and businesses would rise again, saying they were part of Italy's national identity.
"We will rebuild everything," Mr Renzi said.
"We are dealing with marvellous territories, territories of beauty."
Department head Fabrizio Curcio said the agency was using helicopters to tend to the injured and assess damage.
Reuters: Remo Casilli
Norcia's historic Basilica of St Benedict was among the buildings destroyed.
The Monks of Norcia tweeted images of the damage and said people were trapped in the town's main square, with fears nearby buildings might collapse.
"Everyone has been suspended in a never-ending state of fear and stress. They are at their wits end," Bishop Renato Boccardo of Norcia said.
"It's as if the whole city fell down," Norcia city assessor Guiseppina Perla told the ANSA news agency.
The destruction of the Norcia basilica is the single most significant loss of Italy's artistic heritage in an earthquake since a tremor in 1997 caused the collapse of the ceiling of the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi.
The basilica and monastery complex dates to the 13th century, although shrines to St Benedict and his sister had been built there since the 8th century.
During his Sunday blessing Pope Francis offered his prayers to those affected.
"I'm praying for the injured and the families who have suffered the most damage, as well as for rescue and first-aid workers."
Reuters: Remo Casilli
Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, head of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Umbria, advised parish priests not to hold mass inside churches.
He told priests in the Umbria region to hold mass outdoors, the ANSA news agency said.
The quake was felt as far north as Bolzano, near the border with Austria and as far south as the Puglia region at the southern tip of the Italian peninsula and was felt strongly in the capital Rome.
Marco Rinaldi, Mayor of quake-hit Ussita, north of Norcia, said a huge cloud of smoke erupted from the crumbled buildings.
"It's a disaster, a disaster," he told the ANSA news agency.
"I was sleeping in the car and I saw hell."
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The town of Arquata del Tronto, east of Norcia, which was devastated by earthquakes two months ago that killed nearly 300 people and levelled several small towns, suffered fresh damage.
"Everything came down," Mayor Aleandro Petrucci said.
Further south in Amatrice, the St Augustine church, which had survived August's quake, crumbled.
The earthquake followed a series of tremors to strike the country in the past five days.
A magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck east of the city on Wednesday, the second of the evening whose tremors were felt as far away as the capital Rome.
Mr Curcio said 1,300 people displaced by Wednesday's quakes had been evacuated to the coast in recent days.
| Earthquakes | October 2016 | ['(Reuters via ABC Online)', '(BBC)'] |
26 people who were mainly from China and aboard a tour bus die after it crashes into a highway railing while en route to Taoyuan International Airport and bursts into flames. | TAIPEI (Reuters) - A Taiwan tour bus carrying tourists from China crashed into a highway railing en route to the airport on Tuesday and burst into flames, killing all 26 on board, Taiwanese authorities said Tuesday.
The bus was carrying 24 tourists on an eight-day tour organized by a travel agency in China’s northeastern province of Liaoning, authorities said in a statement. The driver and the tour guide, both from Taiwan, were also killed.
“The fire moved very fast. All 26 died,” Lu Jui-yao, an official with the National Highway Police Bureau, told reporters.
Taiwan is a popular destination for mainland tourists, who provide a major source of tourism revenue for the island. Traffic accidents in Taiwan involving Chinese tourists are not uncommon.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and for years travel between the two sides was restricted, but tourist exchanges have deepened over the past two decades, with many Chinese visiting the democratically ruled island for the first time.
The cause of the fire was unclear. Taiwan authorities were investigating.
Taiwan’s cabinet spokesman, Tung Chen-yuan, said government officials dealing with tourism and China affairs had reached out to their mainland counterparts and that they would help arrange for relatives of the victims to come to Taiwan.
The passengers were on their way to Taoyuan, the island’s main airport just south of the capital Taipei, for their flight back to China when the accident happened.
| Road Crash | July 2016 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A court in southern Vietnam sentences a zoo owner to three years imprisonment for selling the carcasses of dead tigers. | HANOI - A COURT in southern Vietnam has sentenced a zoo owner to three years in prison for selling the carcasses of five endangered tigers. Presiding Judge Hoang Huy Toan said on Monday that Huynh Van Hai was convicted during a two-day trial earlier this month of selling the dead tigers he had raised at his farm near Ho Chi Minh City. He said 14 other defendants were sentenced to up to 30 months in jail on the same charges. The judge said Hai told the court the tigers died of bird flu and of choking on a bone. Tigers parts are prized in traditional medicine for their supposed healing qualities and fetch top dollar on the illegal black market. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | March 2011 | ['(Straits Times)', '(Malaysia Star)'] |
North Korea is to establish a special economic zone on two islands close to the Chinese border. | SEOUL - NORTH Korea announced on Monday it would set up an economic zone on two islands on the border with China, just days after leader Kim Jong Il returned from a trip to study his neighbour's dramatic economic rise. Pyongyang 'decided to set up the Hwanggumphyong and Wihwa Islands Economic Zone in order to boost the DPRK-China friendship and expand and develop the external economic relations', the official Korean Central News Agency said. The two islands in the estuary of the Yalu river which runs along the border have long been tapped as a joint economic development zone between North Korea and China, the South's Yonhap news agency said. The brief KCNA dispatch said the zone would be under North Korean sovereignty. The announcement comes shortly after Mr Kim returned on May 27 from his third trip in just over a year to China, his country's sole major ally and economic lifeline. Beijing has called for a Chinese-style opening-up of North Korea's crumbling state-directed economy. -- AFP | Government Policy Changes | June 2011 | ['(Straits Times)'] |
Four ships sink during a powerful storm in the Sea of Azov and Black Sea. 2,000 tonnes of fuel oil are spilled into the Strait of Kerch. Three sailors die and eight are missing. | Russian officials say four ships have sunk, including an oil tanker, and four others could break up. The bodies of three sailors have been found.
Up to 2,000 metric tons of fuel oil have leaked from the tanker in the Kerch Strait, which links the two seas.
A big clean-up operation is under way, amid fears of an environmental disaster in the region.
At least two other ships were carrying potentially hazardous cargos when they sank, including nearly 6,000 tons of sulphur. A new storm warning in the region was issued again on Monday. Investigation
The Russian oil tanker Volganeft-139 came apart after it was smashed by 108km/h (67 mph) winds and 5m (16ft) waves in the narrow Kerch Strait between Russia and Ukraine.
The tanker's 13 crew were rescued after several hours. So far, 35 sailors from the sunk vessels have been plucked to safety. The bodies of three sailors from the stricken ships were found on Monday morning, but five others are still missing, Russian officials say. Some 300km (187 miles) to the south-west, rescue teams are continuing their search for another 15 sailors missing after a a scrap metal ship went down near the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol. A second oil tanker in the region is being monitored closely because its hull has developed cracks.
Yet more ships have run aground or slipped anchor and are drifting at the mercy of the storm.
Russian prosecutors say they are investigating whether the ships' captains ignored warnings of the approaching storm. 'Sinking to seabed'
The Volganeft-139 was at anchor when its stern tore apart in Ukrainian waters on the busy waterway dividing that country and Russia, officials said.
A regional prosecutor told local media the tanker was designed in the Soviet era to transport oil on rivers and was not meant to withstand heavy storms.
Russian environmentalist Vladimir Slivyak said the tanker accident was a "very serious environmental disaster".
The heavy oil was sinking to the seabed and could take years to clean up, he said.
But the oil spill is small by comparison with the Prestige disaster off Spain five years ago.
Severe habitat damage was caused to beaches in Spain, France and Portugal when a tanker leaked 64,000 tons of fuel oil in November 2002.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | November 2007 | ['(BBC)'] |
Norway agrees to take in 600 refugees from Rwanda who were previously evacuated from Libyan detention camps. Rwanda last September signed an agreement with the United Nations to take in asylum seekers from Libya while their status was being processed, to cut down on human trafficking in the Mediterranean. | KIGALI/OSLO (Reuters) - Norway this year will take in 600 people evacuated to Rwanda from Libyan detention centers, the Nordic country said on Wednesday as it sought to discourage the smuggling of refugees across the Mediterranean Sea.
Rwanda, from where more than 2 million people were displaced amid genocide in 1994, signed a deal with the United Nations in September meant to help resettle people detained in Libya while trying to reach Europe.
The migrants evacuated to Rwanda have been given asylum-seeker status there while the U.N refugee agency determines whether they are refugees.
“Norway accepted to receive close to 500 people and Sweden took in seven last month. Others are still waiting,” Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta told a news conference in the capital, Kigali.
In a statement to Reuters, Norwegian Justice Minister Joeran Kallmyr said the number for 2020 would in fact be 600, but added that would not lead to an increase in the overall number of refugees the government previously committed to.
As part of a compromise last year among Norway’s four-party government coalition, Kallmyr’s anti-immigration Progress Party has agreed to accept a total of 3,000 refugees from U.N. camps in 2020.
“It’s important to me to show that we don’t support cynical people smugglers, and instead bring in people who need protection in an organized manner. A transit camp like the one in Rwanda will contribute to that effort,” Kallmyr said.
European authorities have been trying to close the route across the Mediterranean that has seen thousands of people die at sea while trying to reach Europe in recent years.
Last year, before the deal was signed, the United Nations estimated that about 4,700 people seeking refuge were estimated to be in Libyan detention centers, some of them run by militias and under siege amid civil war.
People smugglers have exploited the turmoil in Libya since 2011 to send hundreds of thousands of migrants on dangerous journeys across the central Mediterranean, although the number of crossings dropped sharply from 2017 amid an EU-backed push to block departures.
| Sign Agreement | January 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
A Vietnamese court sentences a former dissident army officer, Tran Anh Kim, to five years in prison on charges of subverting the government. | Updated :
6:54 PM, 28/12/2009
Tran Anh Kim – a resident living in the Red River delta province of Thai Binh – has been sentenced to 5 years and 6 months in prison on a charge of carrying out activities to overthrow the people’s administration.
Kim will be also placed on probation in Thai Binh for another 3 years after serving in prison, the provincial people’s court said in its verdict delivered on December 28. More than 30 local and foreign reporters attended the trial. Kim, who was born in 1949 and lived in Tran Hung Dao ward, Thai Binh city, was prosecuted by the provincial people’s procuracy for taking part in activities in an attempt to topple the people’s administration. According to the indictment, Kim registered to join the so-called Democratic Party of Vietnam wishing to change the political regime in the country. In June 2009, he was appointed Vice General Secretary of this organisation. He also joined the outlawed organisation Bloc 8406, calling for struggles for democracy and human rights, aimed at bringing down the current administration. He had since written stories and published them on the Internet, demanding a dismissal of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Vietnamese state. Kim admitted that he had many times answered the foreign media distorting the political situation in Vietnam and inciting extremist petitioners to cause socio-political disturbances. The judge stated that this was a serious case which threatened national security and that it was no longer a case of Kim himself as it showed close collusion between local opposition organisations and overseas Vietnamese reactionaries living in exile to oust the people’s administration. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | December 2009 | ['(VOV News.vn)', '(AFP)'] |
More than 120 people are injured in clashes in Jerusalem between ultra-nationalist Jewish demonstrators , Palestinian protestors, and Israel Police in response to a TikTok video showing Palestinians assaulting members of the Jerusalem ultra-Orthodox community. | Scores of people have been injured in clashes in East Jerusalem between far-right Jewish activists, Palestinians and Israeli police. The violence erupted as police tried to keep Palestinians and ultra-nationalist Jewish protesters apart.
It follows nights of confrontations in the Israeli-occupied sector amid rising nationalist and religious tensions.
East Jerusalem has long been a flashpoint, with an uneasy coexistence there between Jews and Arabs.
Israel has occupied East Jerusalem since the 1967 Middle East war and considers the entire city its capital, though this is not recognised by the vast majority of the international community. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the future capital of a hoped-for independent state.
The worst fighting in days broke out on Thursday night after hundreds of Jewish extremists from the ultra-nationalist Lehava group marched towards the Damascus Gate entrance of Jerusalem's Old City - where large numbers of Palestinians had gathered - chanting "Death to Arabs".
Stones and bottles were thrown between the two sides, and police used stun grenades, tear gas and water cannon to try to disperse the crowds.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said at least 100 Palestinians were injured, while police said 20 officers were hurt. More than 50 people were arrested.
Tensions in East Jerusalem have escalated since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on 13 April. Palestinians have clashed with police, accusing them of erecting barriers to stop them from congregating on steps outside Damascus Gate to break the daytime fast. Police say the measures are intended to help pedestrian flow into the Old City.
Jews have also been angered by a spate of TikTok videos showing Palestinians assaulting members of the ultra-Orthodox community, including an attack on two ultra-Orthodox boys on Jerusalem's light rail. The videos were given as a reason by Lehava for its march to Damascus Gate, in what it said would be a show of "national honour". There have also been a number of attacks by Jews on Arabs in Jerusalem this week, including an incident where Jewish youth chanting anti-Arab slogans assaulted an Arab driver who stopped to remonstrate with them.
Watch: Police use stun grenade and water cannon
| Armed Conflict | April 2021 | ['(including Lehava extremists)', '(BBC)'] |
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao addresses a special joint session of Parliament in Islamabad, praising Pakistan for its efforts in combating terrorism. | ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China praised Pakistan’s efforts to combat terrorism and promised to further advance the two countries’ strategic partnership and economic cooperation in a speech to the Parliament on Sunday.
Mr. Wen’s remarks came a day after China and Pakistan signed $15 billion worth of trade deals, bringing the total value of the agreements signed during his three-day trip to $30 billion over the next five years.
.
.
T. | Famous Person - Give a speech | December 2010 | ['(The New York Times)'] |
Seven people, including six police officers and a civilian, are killed and two other officers are injured in a shootout with suspected gang hitmen in Ciudad Juárez. | Seven people, including six police officers, have died in a shoot-out with suspected gang hitmen in Mexico, officials say.
The killings happened in Ciudad Juarez, just across the US border from Texas. Police came under fire as they tried to stop vehicles carrying the suspected hitmen, a police officer told AFP news agency. Last year more than 2,600 people were killed in Ciudad Juarez in drug-related violence. The city is the battleground for rival cartels fighting over lucrative smuggling routes into the US. A civilian was among those killed in the latest shooting. Two other officers were injured, according to reports. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has poured thousands of armed police and troops into the area to wrest control from the powerful gangs. | Armed Conflict | April 2010 | ['(BBC)', '(CNN)', '(The New York Times)'] |
At least 13 people are killed by floods and mudslides in Sao Paulo state, Brazil. | Floods and mudslides triggered by heavy rains have killed at least 13 people in the city of Sao Paulo and the rest of the state, Brazilian officials say.
Most died when mudslides swept away their homes. Main roads were flooded, causing huge traffic jams in Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city. Brazil has seen severe flooding this year which has left thousands homeless and dozens dead in the south-east of the country. The torrential downpours began on Monday night, causing rivers to burst their banks. Rescue services reported a dozen landslides. Brazilian television described Tuesday's rush hour in Sao Paulo as "chaotic". Officials say that the first few days of January have seen nearly as much as is normal in the entire month. | Floods | January 2011 | ['(BBC)'] |
When Russian President Vladimir Putin, during the January telephone conversation with President Donald Trump, raised the possibility of extending the 2010 New START treaty that caps U.S. and Russian deployment of nuclear warheads, President Trump declined, stating that this treaty is a bad deal for the United States. | In his January call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Trump condemned a 2010 nuclear arms-reduction treaty as a bad deal for the U.S., Reuters reported Thursday.
Asked by Putin about the possibility of extending the treaty capping U.S. and Russian deployment of nuclear warheads — known as New START — Trump reportedly paused to ask his aides what the treaty was, two U.S. officials and one former U.S. official briefed on the call told Reuters.
He then told Putin it was one of a number of bad deals negotiated by former President Barack ObamaBarack Hussein ObamaObama on Supreme Court ruling: 'The Affordable Care Act is here to stay' Appeals court affirms North Carolina's 20-week abortion ban is unconstitutional GOP senator: I want to make Biden a 'one-half-term president' MORE and that it favored Russia, before launching into a conversation about his own popularity, according to the sources.
The official White House summary of the Jan. 28 call does not mention any discussion of the agreement.
The White House has disputed the notion that Trump didn't know what the treaty was, saying that Trump was familiar with it but was asking his team for an “opinion” on the subject.
“It wasn’t like he didn’t know what was being said,” Press Secretary Sean Spicer told a group of reporters Thursday afternoon. “He wanted an opinion on something, which is … very different."
The treaty gives both countries until 2018 to cut their strategic nuclear missile launchers to 1,550 — the lowest number in decades — and limits numbers of land- and submarine-launched missiles and heavy bombers.
The deal, which expires in 2021, can be extended by mutual agreement for another five years, but absent an extension or a new agreement, both countries will be free to expand their arsenals.
| Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | February 2017 | ['(Reuters)', '(The Hill)'] |
Police in the western Indian city of Thane arrest more than 750 people suspected of defrauding U.S. citizens from a fake call center. | Police in the western Indian city of Thane have arrested more than 750 people suspected of defrauding US citizens from a fake call centre. Officers say the suspects obtained lists of US tax defaulters and used threats to obtain their bank details.
The scam is said to have netted more than $150,000 (£118,000) a day, making it one of the biggest frauds in India's history.
Thane police officials said they were contacting the FBI to ask for help.
Some 70 of those detained were formally arrested, police said, with the rest released pending further inquiries. Nine people believed to have led the scam have been identified.
The scammers pretended to be members of the US Internal Revenue Service, and told victims they owed back taxes.
In some cases, the victims were duped into buying gift vouchers from different companies and bullied into revealing voucher ID numbers, police said.
The scammers then made purchases with the voucher numbers.
Police say those involved in the scam at the Indian end retained 70% of the earnings, with 30% going to their US collaborators. Paramvir Singh, the police commissioner of Thane, told reporters that 851 hard disks, high-end servers, and other electronic equipment had been seized. Mr Singh said overnight raids on Wednesday had lasted well into the morning, and involved more than 200 policemen who had raided buildings in three locations in the city.
Thane police superintendent Mahesh Patil told BBC Hindi that the investigation could open up cases from other countries as well.
A US State Department official said: "We have seen reports and are following the situation closely to confirm any US citizen involvement. We would refer you to the local Indian authorities for further details on the case."
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The Supreme Court deadlocks in the challenge to President Barack Obama's executive order that set up the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans plan, which could have shielded up to five million illegal immigrants. The tie leaves in place an earlier ruling against the plan. | WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court announced on Thursday that it had deadlocked in a case challenging President Obama’s immigration plan, effectively ending what Mr. Obama had hoped would become one of his central legacies. The program would have shielded as many as five million undocumented immigrants from deportation and allowed them to legally work in the United States.
The 4-4 tie, which left in place an appeals court ruling blocking the plan, amplified the contentious election-year debate over the nation’s immigration policy and presidential power.
A closer look at those affected by the court’s decision.
The empty seat left by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death leaves the court with two basic options for cases left on the docket this term if the justices are deadlocked at 4 to 4. | Government Policy Changes | June 2016 | ['(4–4)', '(NBC News)', '(The New York Times)'] |
At 0730 AEST, Tropical Cyclone Larry makes landfall near Innisfail, Queensland, Australia, with wind gusts of 290 km/h recorded, which would make it a Category 5 storm on the Australian scale for severity of cyclones. | The Australian Defence Force (ADF) will send helicopters and transport medical personnel to battered north Queensland, which has been hit by Cyclone Larry.
People made homeless by the natural disaster will be eligible for ex-gratia payments of up to $1,000 under federal government assistance programs.
The cyclone swept through the north Queensland town of Innisfail early on Monday, damaging hundreds of homes and businesses with heavy rain and winds of up to 300kph.
Reports suggest one in five homes in Innisfail had suffered structural damage because of the storm.
Prime Minister John Howard said the government had authorised ex-gratia payments for people who had lost their homes or whose principal dwelling had been made uninhabitable.
Applications for $1,000 for each eligible adult and $400 for eligible children are to be made through Centrelink.
"This will be over and above the support to be given by the Australian government to the Queensland government under the long-standing natural disaster relief arrangements," Mr Howard said.
As part of a mission christened Operation Larry Assist, the ADF will despatch a range of equipment and personnel in response to requests for help from the Queensland government.
Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said Emergency Management Australia had formally asked the ADF for several forms of assistance.
It includes helicopter aerial reconnaissance to conduct low-level damage assessment and rescue and recovery tasks as well as transport to take a six-person medical team and equipment from Townsville hospital to Innisfail.
Townsville, 260km south of Innisfail, is home to Australia's largest military base.
A Navy Seahawk helicopter and three Army Black Hawk helicopters will provide support as soon as conditions allow.
"The ADF is also ready to provide, if requested, capabilities such as medical and engineering support, water purification, initial damage assessment and general humanitarian assistance," Dr Nelson said.
"Additional Seahawk and Black Hawk helicopters, a Sea King helicopter and Iroquois helicopters are currently deploying to Townsville in case they are required."
Dr Nelson said RAAF C-130 and Caribou transport aircraft and navy landing craft from Cairns would be made available, if required.
Mr Howard said he had spoken with Queensland Premier Peter Beattie and they had agreed to work together on the relief effort.
"This is certainly a very fearful and challenging time for the people of far north Queensland and I want them to know that their fellow Australians are with them," Mr Howard said.
Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said Emergency Management Australia would be the coordinating agency for federal relief.
"As the weather begins to clear, a better assessment of the damage can be made and we will be able to provide a broader range of assistance to the people of Queensland," Mr Ruddock said.
He said the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and the departments of health, family and community services, transport, and foreign affairs as well as Centrelink would also provide support.
Mr Howard said the nation was well-prepared for such emergencies.
"Australians are very good at responding to these things because everybody pitches in," he said.
Meanwhile, more than 120,000 people in far north Queensland are without electricity.
Ergon Energy's manager regional services Geoff Bowles said that at 3pm (AEST) 121,500 customers were without power.
Another 54,000 had experienced relatively brief interruptions and 10,200 had lost power but it had been restored.
Areas affected by the outages extended from Ingham to Mossman and across the tablelands, with the greatest impact being felt in the Innisfail area which bore the brunt of the cyclone.
Meanwhile, Cyclone Larry has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm as it moves across far north Queensland, but could still damage property.
The Bureau of Meteorology said Larry, with wind gusts of up to 160kph, was at 5pm (AEST) 70km north northeast of Georgetown, more than 100 kilometres west of the Queensland coast.
"Tropical Cyclone Larry still poses a threat to property in the warning area," the bureau spokesman said. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | March 2006 | ['(180\xa0mph)', '(AAP)'] |
Steve Bracks resigns as the Premier of Victoria. John Thwaites, the Deputy Premier, announces his resignation later in the day. | He will officially step down on Monday and has backed Treasurer John Brumby as his preferred successor.
Mr Bracks, 52, announced the shock decision to resign at a press conference at Melbourne's Treasury Place about 10.40am.
He said he had already informed colleagues and described it as the right decision.
"It's right for the state, it's right for the Government, and it's right for the Labor Party. And also it's the right decision for [wife] Terry and our family."
"I have given everything, body and soul to this job. I love the job, I love what we achieved. I couldn't have given any more than I have given over the past eight years to this state."
During the 30 minute press conference, he thanked the people of Victoria.
"I thank them for the trust they have put in us and I believe we have repaid their trust."
He also made special mention of two of his ministers, Deputy Premier John Thwaite and John Brumby, whom he described as the best treasurer of any government in the country.
"John Brumby has been the architect of Victoria's economic success and establishing labor as responsible for the state's finances," Mr Bracks said.
Mr Bracks said he had discussions two weeks ago with the pair about his decision to resign.
He will remain leader until Monday and said he backed Mr Brumby as his successor.
He said he had no regrets about his time as premier.
"I actually don't have any regrets - isn't this odd?- it's been the best time of my life, it's been brilliant, I love the job ... I'll miss it, of course I will, but I knew I'd have to make a decision at some point in my life."
Earlier, he said: "You must make a total commitment to meet the demands and challenges of the job and that is an iron-clad rule of public life.
"So once you reach a point where you know you can no longer give the commitment the choice is clear.
"I have recently made that choice and now intend to leave public office and make a new and different life outside of politics.
"Inevitable questions will be asked ... about the events of recent weeks and the part they played in reaching this decision.
"The truth is they did, but only in confirming my course, not in setting it.
"In confirming that I had a decision to make and once made I should publicly explain my decision for the future."
His wife, Terry, said she backed Mr Bracks's decision and joked that he would now have to learn how to use a computer.
In a short speech, she described Mr Brack's job as "relentless" before pausing as her eyes filled with tears.
Mr Bracks said he informed the federal Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd, just before holding the press conference.
Mr Rudd asked if he could talk him out of stepping down, Mr Bracks said.
"I said 'No, I'm about to go into a press conference, I've made that decision'."
Mr Bracks also declared he had no interest in running for federal office.
Mr Bracks defeated Jeff Kennett in an October 1999 election which pundits had said he had no chance of winning.
Instead he led Labor to an emphatic victory which toppled the seven-year Kennett Government. He was re-elected in late 2002 and again in late 2006.
According to his online biography, Mr Bracks was born in Ballarat, Victoria, in 1954.
He is married to Terry and father to Nicholas, Amy and Will.
Nicholas, 20, was recently in the news, when he allegedly crashed a family car near the family home in Melbourne's southwest, after drinking in the city with friends on July 12.
After police finalise charges, Nicholas will be summonsed to appear in court and will face a minimum penalty of a mandatory 12-month loss of licence, a $463 fine and loss of 10 demerit points.
"He is very remorseful, he's done the wrong thing," Mr Bracks said at the time.
"He's been an absolute idiot and of course he knows that and he knows the consequences are significant."
Mr Bracks also described the incident as one of the worst he had dealt with.
"I just felt hopeless and useless and you can't help feeling a bit of a failure in some ways as a parent," Mr Bracks said.
The crash was Nicholas's third alcohol-related incident in the past two years.
He claimed his drink was spiked when found wandering the beach in a confused state in Lorne in December 2005 and in March this year, he was caught trying to sneak bourbon into a sporting event at Melbourne's Olympic Park.
Mr Bracks today said: "I knew I had to make this decision at some stage. The events of the last couple of weeks meant that I made that decision at an earlier juncture." | Government Job change - Resignation_Dismissal | July 2007 | ['(Sydney Morning Herald)', '(Sydney Morning Herald)'] |
American Jimmy Walker wins the 98th PGA Championship, his first major championship. | Last updated on 31 July 201631 July 2016.From the section Golf
American Jimmy Walker won his first major with a one-shot victory at the US PGA Championship at Baltusrol.
The 37-year-old closed with a bogey-free three-under-par 67 to hold off Australia's world number one Jason Day (67) and win on 14 under.
American Daniel Summerhays (66) was third on 10 under, while Open champion Henrik Stenson faded with a 71 to finish joint seventh on eight under.
"It is surreal, an incredible finish," said Walker, ranked 48th in the world. England's Tyrrell Hatton (68) and Paul Casey (67) ended on seven under.
For the first time since 2011, all four of the year's majors have been claimed by first-time winners.
England's Danny Willett won the Masters in April, American Dustin Johnson took the US Open in June, while Swede Stenson won the Open two weeks ago.
He opened his week with a five-under 65 to lead the tournament and followed it with a 66 to hold the halfway lead on nine under with American Robert Streb.
Walker did not play on Saturday, when the threat of storms forced play to be abandoned, but returned with 49 others on Sunday morning for round three.
He carded a 68 to take a one-shot lead over defending champion Day, who had shot a 67, into the afternoon's final round.
Walker holed half-a-dozen putts of between three and five feet as he opened with nine straight pars to reach the turn on 11 under.
He then pitched in from a bunker on the 10th for a birdie and followed that with a 30-foot putt on the next to get to 13 under.
A run of five pars was ended by a third birdie on the par-five 17th, but it turned out to be a more nervy finish than Walker would have hoped for.
With a three-shot lead on the last, he opted for the safety of an iron off the tee.
But then Day rolled in a 14-foot eagle putt to close the deficit to one and Walker then hit his second shot into greenside rough.
He chipped his third to 35 feet and had two putts for the win, eventually holing from three feet to seal the title.
"I made it a little more difficult than I would have liked but I did it," said Walker.
Defending champion Day and Stenson, who had earlier posted a third successive 67 in round three to reach nine under, were both within one shot of Walker during the final round but neither were able to catch the American.
Two bogeys in his opening three holes meant Day dropped back to eight under but he holed three birdies in seven holes from the fifth to get to 11 under.
Although he finished with an eagle, the six pars that preceded it proved costly.
"The eagle was nice," said Day. "I had to step up and do something and I hit two good shots with my two-iron.
"I wanted to give Jimmy something to think about but it wasn't quite enough."
Stenson looked the more likely to challenge after a birdie on the sixth got him to 10 under, but, like many, he struggled with the pace of rain-soaked greens.
He then sent his approach to the 15th over the back of the green and looked a beaten man after fluffing a chip and carding a double-bogey six.
He finished tied with Martin Kaymer as the top European after the German eagled the par-five 18th to close with a four-under-par 66 and eight under total.
England's Justin Rose (68) and Scotland's Russell Knox (69) both finished on four under for the championship.
Ross Fisher's 69 moved him up to two under, alongside Welshman Jamie Donaldson (70) and one ahead of fellow Englishmen Matthew Fitzpatrick (67) and Andy Sullivan (69).
Andrew Johnston delighted his new-found fans with a birdie on the last to finish with a one-over 71 to finish one over par.
Masters champion Danny Willett closed with a level-par 70 to finish five over, as did Wales' Bradley Dredge, while England's Lee Westwood finished with a double-bogey seven on the last in a round of 75 to finish seven over. | Sports Competition | July 2016 | ['(BBC)'] |
After political pressure from Turkey, six Turkish sailors are released from detention by the Libyan National Army under general Khalifa Haftar. | Release follows warning by Turkey of retaliation against Libyan National Army Last modified on Mon 1 Jul 2019 15.22 BST
Six Turkish sailors detained in Libya by Khalifa Haftar’s forces have been released, Turkey’s foreign ministry has said, a day after Turkey warned his Libyan National Army (LNA) militia would become a “legitimate target” unless the men were released immediately.
The six men appear to have been captured by the LNA as a reprisal for Haftar losing control of a key town that has set back his efforts to capture Libya’s capital, Tripoli, from the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).
Turkey backs the GNA and has been accused by Haftar of supplying weaponry to the GNA in breach of a UN arms embargo, as well as operating drone strikes on his forces from the GNA military command headquarters.
Haftar has also ordered that in his strongholds in the east of the country all Turkish nationals should be arrested and all restaurants and shops with Turkish names or products be closed. The six men were arrested as part of Haftar’s anti-Turkish drive, and it is not clear if their release signalled that Haftar recognised he had overstepped the mark.
The Turkish foreign ministry spokesman said the six men wanted to continue working rather than return to Turkey. The state-owned news agency Anadolu said they were sailors but Turkey’s defence ministry had denied reports that the detainees included military personnel.
The forces loyal to Haftar also said they destroyed a Turkish drone parked at Tripoli’s only working airport on Sunday and declared a “general mobilisation” as tensions between Ankara and the eastern administration mounted.
In a surprise attack last week that caught Haftar’s forces off guard, the GNA captured the town of Gharyan, breaking the military stalemate that has prevailed since Haftar moved to capture Tripoli on 4 April.
Haftar expected to enter the city within days but has found himself bogged down in fighting that has begun to lose him much-needed diplomatic support.
On Friday, Haftar’s spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari announced a ban on commercial flights from Libya to Turkey and ordered his forces to attack Turkish ships and interests in Libya.
Haftar’s air force commander, Mohamed Manfour, stepped up warnings on Sunday by telling Tripoli residents to stay away from any site that may be hit by airstrikes.
Manfour said: “After exhausting all the traditional means in the battle for liberating the rest of Libya and after the recent deception and treachery, the LNA’s air force started to carry out strong and decisive airstrikes on select locations.
“We call upon all our people in Tripoli to immediately move away from the military sites, the positions of militias and terrorists, for their safety that is our priority as well as our beloved united and free Libya.”
Intensified strikes on Sunday night hit the outskirts of Tripoli, including in the area surrounding the city’s non-functioning international airport, Yarmouk camp and Ain Zara district.
Haftar himself has been supplied with weapons by the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. The extent of Haftar’s dependence on the UAE for weaponry was underlined when UAE-marked weapons left by fleeing LNA fighters were displayed in Gharyan at the weekend. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Release | July 2019 | ['(The Guardian)'] |
A court in Nigeria grants 47 men another delay in their trial over homosexuality and public displays of affection with members of the same sex. Judge Rilwan Aikawa says it is the last accepted delay at the Lagos court. The men face up to 10-year imprisonment if convicted in a closely watched trial. | LAGOS (Reuters) - A closely-watched trial of 47 Nigerian men charged with public displays of affection with members of the same sex, seen as a test of a law criminalizing homosexuality, was delayed for a third time on Wednesday after a lead witness did not appear.
Justice Rilwan Aikawa at the Lagos court warned prosecutors that the adjournment, to March 3, would be the last he granted them. The case was previously adjourned twice after the prosecution failed to produce witnesses.
Homosexuality is outlawed in many socially conservative African societies where some religious groups brand it a corrupting Western import.
On Tuesday, the prosecution opened its case by producing a police inspector witness who shared only his name, rank and that he knew the defendants from “anti-cultism” work.
The lead witness was due to appear on Wednesday but Prosecutor Joseph Eboseremen said the witness had not received a court summons on time.
The men, who face a 10-year jail term if convicted, were arrested in an August 2018 police raid on a Lagos hotel. Police said they were being “initiated” into a gay club, but the men said they were attending a birthday party.
Police paraded the accused in front of journalists at a press conference held by the state police commissioner the day after the raid.
The men pleaded not guilty to the charge last November, and said the prolonged case is causing financial and emotional distress.
“It’s affecting my life, it’s affecting my work,” defendant Onyeka Oghuaghamba, 43, told Reuters, adding: “I am not coping.”
He said he had been forced to take out loans to support his four children and wife because the appearances forced him to skip his work as a long-haul driver. Still, he said he had faith in the court.
“I want to prove that my hand is clean,” he said.
The trial is a test case for a law banning gay marriage, punishable by a 14-year jail term, and same-sex “amorous relationships”. It caused international outcry when it came into force under former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014.
Nobody has yet been convicted under the law, prosecution and defense lawyers in the case told Reuters.
But Human Rights Watch and other activists say it has been used to extort bribes from suspects in exchange for not pursuing charges.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Sentence | February 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |
Eight alleged members of a far right terror cell go on trial in Germany. The defendants, from Chemnitz, are accused of plotting attacks against immigrants and "the economic establishment". The city saw farright protests last year following the stabbing homicide of a German man. | Eight alleged neo-Nazis have gone on trial in Dresden, eastern Germany, accused of plotting terror attacks. Federal prosecutors say the so-called "Revolution Chemnitz" group planned to target immigrants, political opponents and the "economic establishment". They are said to be members of the neo-Nazi scene in Chemnitz, a city where far-right protests were held last year after a German man was fatally stabbed.
The group allegedly planned a deadly attack in Berlin for 3 October 2018.
Most of the men, aged between 21 and 32, were arrested on 1 October. Prosecutors say the group's plans for obtaining firearms had been intercepted in an internet chatroom. Germany celebrates National Unity Day on 3 October, to commemorate the reunification of the country in 1990.
Chemnitz is in Saxony, a state with one of the highest levels of far-right activism in Germany. Last month a Syrian man, Alaa Sheikhi, was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison over the fatal stabbing of Daniel Hillig in Chemnitz - the killing that sparked days of unrest in August and September last year. Far-right protesters clashed with activists opposed to them, as police struggled to contain the violence.
Some of the group on trial on Monday are accused of having assaulted foreigners in Chemnitz last September, in a "test run" ahead of the planned 3 October attack. Support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged after Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed more than a million migrants and refugees to stay in Germany in 2015-2016. Syrians fleeing their country's civil war formed the largest group. The AfD, campaigning against so-called "Islamisation", is now the largest opposition party in the federal parliament. Militant groups such as "Revolution Chemnitz" are suspected of plotting attacks to throw Germany into chaos and stage a far-right takeover.
In July last year a neo-Nazi, Beate Zschpe, was jailed for life over the murder of eight ethnic Turks, a Greek citizen and a policewoman between 2000 and 2007.
She was in a neo-Nazi cell called the National Socialist Underground (NSU). The case shocked Germany because it exposed major failures in the surveillance of such groups. | Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | September 2019 | ['(BBC)'] |
The Samoan Islands and Wallis and Futuna brace for the impact of Cyclone Amos as the Fiji Meteorological Service upgrades the cyclone to a category three storm, with sustained winds as high as 140 km/h at its centre. | Tropical Cyclone Amos was upgraded to a category three on Friday night, and was forecast to pass close to Samoa's southern coast this weekend.
The current forecast for Cyclone Amos, passing close to Samoa's southern coast as a category three.
The cyclone is still more than 600km west of the capital, Apia, slowly moving east at 16km/h.
On Friday night, Samoa's Meteorological Service upgraded the system to a category three storm, with sustained winds as high as 140 km/h at its centre.
It said the system was intensifying, and was expected to pass close to the country's southern coast late on Saturday and early on Sunday morning.
It had already issued heavy rain, strong wind, and flood warnings for the country, and small boats were advised not to go out into very rough seas.
The system was already bringing heavy rain and strong winds as it passed close to Wallis Island. The public there were advised to prepare, with schools closed on Friday and a 'yellow alert' declared by authorities in the French territory.
To the east, authorities in American Samoa placed the territory under 'hurricane watch', with Amos expected to enter its waters on Sunday.
Our correspondent in Pago Pago said people had gone home early on Thursday (Friday Samoa, New Zealand time) and stores had reported increased sales of plywood, torches, batteries, water and canned food.
A meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Pago Pago, Mase Akapo Akapo, said Amos was expected to pass to the territory's south, and there was the potential for severe damage.
Mase said residents should not take chances and prepare for strong winds, heavy rain and flooding.
"The system is coming from the west side, and if it passes to the south of us the strongest winds of the system will be right over us," he said. | Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | April 2016 | ['(Radio New Zealand)'] |
The Nigerian rebel group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta announces it has begun peace talks with the government. | President Yar'Adua shaking hands with leader of a militant group in the Niger Delta, Ateke Tom. Photo: NEXT
November 15, 2009 03:00PM
Nigeria’s
president, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, held a meeting, on Saturday night, with
the negotiators of the main Niger Delta militant group; the Movement
for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
Mr. Yar’Adua met
with the Aaron Team, appointed by the militant group to hold
negotiations with the federal government on the amnesty deal.
Details of the meeting are yet to emerge but the president’s spokesperson,Segun Adeniyi, said “the meeting went very well.”
The group’s
spokesperson, Jomo Gbomo, confirmed that “a formal first meeting
between the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the MEND
Aaron team took place on Saturday, November 14, 2009 in Abuja,
Nigeria.”
He stated that “the
parley which lasted for over two hours was frank, cordial and useful.”
According to MEND “the meeting heralds the beginning of serious,
meaningful dialogue between MEND and the Nigerian government to deal
with and resolve root issues that have long been swept under the carpet.
The Aaron Team
comprises Mike Okhai Akhigbe (Rtd Vice admiral), Luke Kakadu Aprezi
(Rtd Major General), Wole Soyinka and Amagbe Denzel Kentebe, who were
all present for the meeting.
While Farah Dagogo, a former overall field commander of the movement and Henry Okah attended the meeting as observers. | Diplomatic Talks _ Diplomatic_Negotiation_ Summit Meeting | November 2009 | ['(Afrique en ligne)', '[permanent dead link]', '(NEXT)', '(Reuters)'] |
In swimming, Ryan Lochte of the United States sets a new world record in the 200–meter individual medley in winning a gold medal at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Lochte becomes the first person to set a long–course world record since FINA banned rubberized swimsuits in 2010. | Ryan Lochte of the U.S. celebrates after winning the men's 200m Individual Medley final with a new world record of 1 minutes 54.00 seconds at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Shanghai, China, CAPTIONBy Wong Maye-E, APSHANGHAI -- Ryan Lochte continued to hold Michael Phelps at bay in an event Phelps used to own, the 200-meter individual medley, winning his second consecutive world title in the event and setting a world record of 1:54.00.
"I knew it was going to be a battle between Michael and I," said Lochte. "I got the better end this time...Anytime you break a world record you have to be excited."
Lochte is the first swimmer to set a long course world record in the post-rubberized suit era.
It was Lochte's second victory over Phelps this week. He also beat him in the 200-meter freestyle. Phelps finished in 1:54.16.
"That one frustrated me more than anything," said Phelps. "I thought I was going to get that one. I thought I was a little long at the finish and that cost me the race."
For several years, Phelps was the 200 IM king and Lochte was just another frustrated challenger to that throne.
While Phelps won the 200 IM titles at all world championships and Olympics held between 2003 and 2008, Lochte won two silver and two gold medals in the event.
But after the 2008 Olympics, the tables turned.
At the 2009 worlds, where Phelps did not compete in the 200 IM, Lochte won it in world-record time. Lochte also won at the 2010 national championships, with Phelps in the field.
At the Pan Pacific championships, the biggest international meet last season, Phelps conceded before racing even began, withdrawing from the 200 IM preliminaries to conserve energy for the medley relay scheduled for the same day.
In winning the 200 IM at Pan Pacs, Lochte nearly became the first swimmer to break a long-course world record in the post-rubberized suit era, coming within three-tenths of a second.
| Break historical records | July 2011 | ['(USA Today)'] |
Anglo Platinum Limited—the world's biggest platinum producer—fires 12,000 people in South Africa after a strike over working conditions. The corporation has stated that the strikes have cost it 39,000 ounces in output – equivalent to 700 million rand ($82.3 million; £51 million) in revenue. | The world's biggest platinum producer, Anglo American Platinum, has fired 12,000 striking South African miners after a protracted strike over wages.
Amplats said three weeks of illegal strikes by 28,000 workers in Rustenburg had cost it 700m rand ($82m; £51m) in revenue.
South African mining has been hit by a wave of wildcat strikes in which miners and officials have been killed.
Thirty-four platinum miners were shot dead by police on 16 August.
A separate strike is continuing at another mining firm, GoldFields, which is the world's fourth-largest gold miner.
On Tuesday, GoldFields evicted 5,000 striking employees from company dormitories, saying they were intimidating fellow workers.
In all, about 75,000 miners are currently on strike in the gold and platinum sectors, most of them illegally, analysts say.
With unemployment in South Africa already at 25%, the mass dismissal will deal a blow both to the country's weak economic growth and to President Jacob Zuma's reputation as leader, says the BBC's Milton Nkosi in Johannesburg.
The governing ANC party is holding a leadership contest in December, and some members are already calling for Mr Zuma to be replaced by his deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe.
Explaining its decision on Friday, Amplats said the miners had failed to attend disciplinary hearings and had therefore been dismissed. Attendance levels of less than 20% meant four of the company's mining operations in Rustenburg could not operate properly.
Employees would learn the outcome of disciplinary hearings later on Friday, and would have three days to appeal over their outcome, said the company.
"Approximately 12,000 striking employees chose not to make representations, nor attend the hearings, and have therefore been dismissed in their absence," it added.
Amplats' chief executive Chris Griffith said the company was still committed to "exploring the possibility of bringing forward wage negotiations within our current agreements". The ANC Youth League said it was "deeply disturbed and angered by the irrational and illogical firing".
"This action demonstrates the insensibility and insensitivity of the company... which has made astronomical profits on the blood, sweat and tears of the very same workers that today the company can just fire with impunity," said the league, which this week said it was backing Mr Motlanthe against President Zuma in the ANC contest.
"Amplats is a disgrace and a disappointment to the country at large, a representation of white monopoly capital out of touch and uncaring of the plight of the poor."
The league pledged solidarity with the dismissed workers and called upon "all progressive forces" to support the call for their immediate return.
In another development on Friday, a trade union leader was shot dead at Marikana, near the volatile Lonmin platinum mine where weeks of violent protests left more than 40 people dead.
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) spokesman Lesiba Seshoka told Reuters the official had been killed "execution style" but gave no further details.
Workers at the Marikana mine returned to work last month after receiving pay rises far higher than the rate of inflation.
The incident came hours after another deadly shooting, this time at the Amplats mine, in which a man died during clashes between striking miners and police.
Brigadier Thulani Ngubane told the BBC's Newsday programme that the death had nothing to with the police action to disperse about 200 protesters near Rustenburg.
A commission of inquiry into the deaths at the Marikana mine began earlier this week.
.
| Strike | October 2012 | ['(BBC)'] |
Hurricane Flossie weakens as it moves near the coast of the island of Hawaii. | HONOLULU (Reuters) - The island of Hawaii breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday as Hurricane Flossie weakened to tropical storm on its westward path, prompting cancellation of all storm warnings after two days on high alert.
Hurricane Flossie is seen in an NOAA satellite image taken August 13, 2007. The island of Hawaii breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday as Hurricane Flossie weakened to tropical storm on its westward path, prompting cancellation of all storm warnings after two days on high alert.
The National Weather Service downgraded the once powerful Flossie to a tropical storm late on Tuesday as it passed South Point on the “Big Island,” the largest in the Hawaiian chain and home to 160,000 people.
The storm got no closer than 100 miles of South Point, the southernmost point of the United States.
By 5 a.m. (11 a.m. EDT) on Wednesday, the weather service canceled a tropical storm warning, a high surf warning and flash flood watches for the Big Island.
Surf did reach as high as 20 feet on southern shores late on Tuesday, said Troy Kindred, Hawaii County Civil Defense administrator.
“We were ready in the event that things got worse,” said Kindred. “I think this was a pretty close call.”
Flossie approached Hawaiian waters as a Category 4 hurricane, causing the weather service to put the island of Hawaii on hurricane watch and officials to declare a state of emergency on Monday.
The last time a hurricane hit Hawaii was 15 years ago.
On the Big Island, police, firefighters and civil defense officials spent Tuesday night monitoring the storm’s impact. Reports from the field came in every hour.
“I’m happy to report we did not have much damage at all,” Kindred said. “With what the weather service had been saying, I feel incredibly lucky the way it turned out. That storm was well defined and moving at a brisk pace.”
Weather service officials had predicted up to 10 inches (25 cm) of torrential rain that never materialized and there were no reports of flooding, Kindred said.
It was a similar story with the wind. With the exception of 40 mile-per-hour (65 kph) gusts at the normally blustery South Point, the rest of the island experienced winds of 15 mph to 20 mph (24-32 kph).
At daybreak, Flossie was around 270 miles south of Honolulu with sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph).
The storm was losing its strength so rapidly that it could become a tropical depression later on Wednesday, Hawaii’s Civil Defense said.
The island government said schools would remain closed on Wednesday, but parks would reopen and shelters would be dismantled.
The last time a hurricane hit Hawaii was in 1992, when Iniki pummeled the island of Kauai, killing six people and causing estimated damages of $2.4 billion.
| Hurricanes_Tornado_Storm_Blizzard | August 2007 | ['(Reuters)'] |
HewlettPackard , the world's largest computer maker based in the U.S. state of California, pays US$55 million amid allegations it defrauded the United States government. , | Computer giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) has agreed to pay $55m (35.5m) to settle claims it paid kickbacks in relation to US government contracts. HP was accused of paying other companies so they would recommend HP products to government buyers. The government's chief procurement body, the GSA, entered into a contract with HP in 2002. It is thought to be one of the largest such settlement figures achieved by the US Department of Justice. The claims were first made in a lawsuit by two whistleblowers in 2004.
The settlement also resolves allegations that the 2002 contract over computer equipment and software was wrongly priced because HP provided incomplete information to the GSA. A spokesman for the US Department of Justice said the the government would always take action against companies seeking "to taint the government procurement process with illegal kickbacks". ''Contractors must deal fairly with the government when doing business with federal agencies," he added. HP said the size of the payout would affect earnings on its shares. HP tops Dell again with 3Par bid
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | August 2010 | ['(HP)', '(The Sydney Morning Herald)', '(AFP via France24)', '[permanent dead link]', '(BBC)'] |
Brandon Straka, the WalkAway movement founder and "Stop the Steal" activist who spoke at a rally held by pro-Trump supporters, is arrested on a felony charge of interfering with police during the storming of the United States Capitol. | Brandon Straka, a self-described ex-liberal, was arrested on a felony charge of interfering with police during civil disorder.
A prominent activist in the Stop the Steal movement who spoke at a rally held by backers of President Donald Trump in Washington the day before the storming of the Capitol was arrested on Monday on charges that he took part in the riot.
Brandon Straka, 44, was arrested on a felony charge of interfering with police during civil disorder. The self-described founder of a movement to “walk away” from liberalism was also charged with unlawful entry into a restricted building and disorderly conduct.
An FBI agent’s affidavit used to obtain a criminal complaint against Straka describes his role as an organizer of Stop the Steal and quotes his comments at the Jan. 5 rally held at Freedom Plaza, but doesn’t indicate whether the government views those activities as context for his actions at the Capitol or part of the alleged crimes.
FBI Special Agent Jeremy Desor said that videos revealed that during the melee, Straka was part of a crowd pushing toward a Capitol doorway. Desor doesn’t contend that Straka went into the building, but says that as others tried to charge through the entrance, the activist shouted: “Go! Go!”
Desor said that as a Capitol police officer tried to make his way through the crowd with a riot shield over his head, Straka urged others to wrestle it from him.
“Take it away from him,” Straka allegedly yelled. “Take it! Take it!”
Straka achieved some prominence in the media during Trump’s effort to reverse President-elect Joe Biden’s win. Straka spoke at a variety of previous Stop the Steal events at the Capitol, in Michigan and elsewhere. According to the complaint, he said he was supposed to speak at such a rally at the Capitol on Jan. 6 but that event was scuttled after the riot broke out and police cleared the crowd.
During his speech the day before the riot, Straka referred to the audience as “patriots” and referred repeatedly to a “revolution,” Desor said. Straka also told the attendees to “fight back” and added, “We are sending a message to the Democrats, we are not going away, you’ve got a problem!” the agent reported.
In media appearances, Straka described himself as a Manhattan-based, gay ex-liberal. He and his “#walkaway” tagline became a favorite in some conservative quarters in the past couple of years, featured on programs such as the "Judge Jeanine" show on Fox News.
Court records show the criminal complaint against Straka was approved by a federal magistrate judge in Washington last Tuesday.
| Famous Person - Commit Crime - Accuse | January 2021 | ['(Politico)'] |
2011 Jordanian protests: The motorcade of King Abdullah II of Jordan is attacked by bottles and stones thrown by protesters in Tafilah. | Jordanian government officials have denied reports that the motorcade of King Abdullah II has come under attack.
A spokesman said news that a group of young men in the southern city of Tafileh had pelted his motorcade with stones and bottles was "baseless".
The alleged attack comes a day after King Abdullah announced major reforms, promising to relinquish his right to appoint prime ministers and cabinets. Protests have called for electoral reform, more jobs and food price cuts.
An unnamed security official told Agence France Presse that the motorcade changed its route after the attack, during which no-one was hurt. "Part of the king's motorcade was attacked with stones and empty bottles by a group of men in their 20s and 30s after the king's car entered Tafileh," the official said.
The official added that police had "tackled the infiltrators and made arrests".
'Lots of shoving'
But government spokesman Taher Adwan told the Associated Press news agency that there had been no attack. "What happened is that a group of young Jordanians thronged the monarch's motorcade to shake hands with him," he said. He explained that when police "pushed them away, there was a lot of shoving".
A Royal Palace official who accompanied the king also said that rather than being attacked, the king had merely been enthusiastically greeted.
"It was a gesture of welcome, not an attack," he said.
The king was reported to have been on a trip to look at infrastructure projects in the south of the country.
Though violence has rocked other countries across the Arab world, it has been rare in Jordan, where pro-democracy protests in recent months have generally been confined to relatively small demonstrations. | Protest_Online Condemnation | June 2011 | ['(BBC)', '(The Guardian)'] |
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurs off the coast of Fiji. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says no tsunami is expected due to its depth. | A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.8 has struck just off the coast of Fiji, but it was centered far below the seabed, seismologists say. There is no threat of a tsunami.
The earthquake, which struck at 3:49 a.m. local time on Friday, was centered about 41 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of Levuka on Fiji’s Ovalau island. It struck at a depth of 669 kilometers (415 miles).
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) put the preliminary magnitude at 7.8, which is down from an initial estimate of 8.1. It makes it the world’s third largest earthquake so far this year.
“Based on all available data, there is no tsunami threat because the earthquake is located too deep inside the Earth,” the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a bulletin. No tsunami warnings were issued.
The depth of the earthquake significantly reduced its impact. USGS computer models estimate that up to 924,000 people near the epicenter may have felt “weak” or “light” shaking. Serious damage is unlikely.
Friday’s tremor comes less than three weeks after an 8.2-magnitude earthquake struck far below the seabed near Fiji. That earthquake was further away from land but there were no reports of serious damage.
Fiji is on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of fault lines circling the Pacific Basin which is prone to frequent and large earthquakes. | Earthquakes | September 2018 | ['(BNO News)'] |
Richard F. Heck, Ei–ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki win the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing new ways of linking carbon atoms together. , | Three scientists have shared this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing new ways of linking carbon atoms together.
The Nobel was awarded to Professors Richard Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki for innovative ways of developing complex molecules.
The chemical method developed by the researchers has allowed scientists to make medicines and better electronics.
The Nobels are valued at 10m Swedish kronor (£900,000; 1m euros; $1.5m).
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said this year's chemistry award honours the researchers' development of "palladium-catalysed cross couplings in organic systems".
The academy said it was a "precise and efficient" tool that is used by researchers worldwide, "as well as in the commercial production of for example pharmaceuticals and molecules used in the electronics industry".
Such chemicals included one found in small quantities in a sea sponge, which scientists aim to use to fight cancer cells. Researchers can now artificially produce this substance, called discodermolide.
Heck, 79, is a professor emeritus at the University of Delaware, US; Negishi, 75, is a chemistry professor at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and 80-year-old Suzuki is a professor at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan.
Professor Negishi told reporters in Stockholm by telephone that he was asleep when the call from the Nobel committee came.
"I went to bed last night well past midnight so I was sleeping but I am extremely happy to receive the telephone call," he said.
Organic chemistry has built on nature, utilising carbon's ability to provide a stable skeleton for functional molecules. This has paved the way for new medicines and improved materials.
To do this, chemists need to be able to join carbon atoms together, but carbon atoms do not easily react with one another. The first methods used by chemists to bind carbon atoms together were based on making carbon more reactive. This worked well for synthesising simple molecules, but when chemists tried to scale this up to more complex ones, too many unwanted by-products were generated.
The method based around the metal palladium solved that problem: in it, carbon atoms meet on a palladium atom, and their proximity to one another kick-starts the chemical reaction.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said he spoke to Professor Suzuki on the phone and congratulated him.
"He told me that Japan's science and technology is at the world's top level and encouraged me to make good use of the resources," he said.
Professor David Phillips, President of the Royal Society of Chemistry, said these metal-based "coupling" reactions had led to "countless breakthroughs". He added: "The Heck, Negishi and Suzuki reactions make possible the vital fluorescent marking that underpins DNA sequencing, and are essential tools for synthetic chemists creating complex new drugs and polymers."
Russian-born Andre Geim, 51, and Konstantin Novoselov, 36, of the University of Manchester, UK, were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics on Tuesday for groundbreaking experiments with graphene, an ultra-thin and super-strong material.
The prizes also cover chemistry, medicine, literature, peace and economics.
| Awards ceremony | October 2010 | ['(Nobel Prize)', '(BBC)'] |
United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar travels to Taiwan for a multi-day official visit. He is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the country in 40 years after the U.S. stopped recognising Taiwan in 1979 and has had unofficial ties since then. The PRC, which claims Taiwan as a breakaway province, condemns the visit. | TAIPEI (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar will visit Taiwan in coming days, his office said on Tuesday, making the highest-level visit by a U.S. official in four decades - a move that angered China, which claims the island as its own.
Azar’s visit will worsen already poor Beijing-Washington relations, inflamed over trade, the pandemic and human rights, even as democratic Taiwan has welcomed the show of support in the face of unrelenting Chinese pressure.
During his visit, Azar will meet with President Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said, which may infuriate China further.
“Taiwan has been a model of transparency and cooperation in global health during the COVID-19 pandemic and long before it,” Azar said in a statement. “I look forward to conveying President Trump’s support for Taiwan’s global health leadership and underscoring our shared belief that free and democratic societies are the best model for protecting and promoting health.”
His department, describing the trip as “historic”, said Azar would be accompanied by Mitchell Wolfe, chief medical officer of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other members of the administration.
Taiwan Health Minister Chen Shih-chung, who will also meet Azar, said he was looking forward to the visit.
“It also greatly boosts our global status in public health,” Chen told reporters. “This is a major step forward.”
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But China denounced the trip, saying it opposed any official interactions between the United States and Taiwan and had lodged “stern representations” with Washington.
“Taiwan is the most important and sensitive issue in Sino-U.S. relations,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said in Beijing.
Taiwan has been especially grateful for U.S. support for its requests to get meaningful access to the World Health Organization during the pandemic.
Taiwan is not a member because of Chinese objections; Beijing considers the island merely one of China’s provinces. Taiwan has denounced Chinese efforts to block its access, though Beijing says the island has been given the help it needs.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed a new law in March requiring increased support for Taiwan’s international role. China threatened unspecified retaliation in response.
The United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, having ditched Taipei in favour of Beijing in 1979, but is its main arms supplier and strongest backer on the international stage.
Gina McCarthy, then-head of the Environmental Protection Agency, was the last U.S. Cabinet-level official to visit Taiwan, in 2014. Her position is technically lower-ranking than Azar’s.
Taiwan has won praise for its response to the coronavirus pandemic, having kept its case numbers low due to effective and early prevention steps.
The United States has more coronavirus cases and deaths than any other country. | Diplomatic Visit | August 2020 | ['(Reuters)'] |