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FIVE members of Cuba’s national volleyball team have been convicted of raping a Finnish woman during a World League tournament in Tampere.Four of the men, including the captain, were given five-year jail sentences while a fifth is facing a prison term of three and a half years. Eight members of the Cuban volleyball team were initially arrested in early July following allegations that a woman was raped at a hotel where the team was staying in Tampere, 170 kilometers (105 miles) north of the capital, Helsinki. Finnish police originally arrested eight players, but released two of them soon afterwards. Four of the players, Rolando Cepeda Abreu, Abraham Alfonso Gavilán, Ricardo Norberto Calvo Manzano and Osmany Santiago Uriarte Mestre, were sentenced to five years in prison, the Cuban government website Cubadebate said
A fifth player, Luis Tomás Sierra, was sentenced to 3½ years, according to Cubadebate. HELSINKI, (Reuters) – Five volleyball players from the Cuban national team were found guilty today of aggravated rape while they were in the country in July for a World League tournament prior to the Rio Olympics.
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A court sentences five members of the Cuba men's national volleyball team to prison for a gang rape of a Finnish woman that took place in Tampere, Finland, in July 2016 during the FIVB Volleyball World League.
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MOSCOW, Sept 20 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Russia's military was checking media reports of air strikes on a humanitarian aid convoy near Aleppo in Syria the previous day and was expected to say something about the matter later in the day. At the same time the attack took place on Uram al-Kubra, presumed Syrian or Russian jets launched a wave of attacks in and around the nearby city of Aleppo, minutes after Syria's military announced a week-long ceasefire had expired. Both Syrian and Russian aircraft operate over the province, while the U.S.-led coalition targets the Islamic State group in other parts of the country. Witnesses described Monday's attack on a Syrian Arab Red Crescent warehouse and convoy in the rebel-held town of Uram al-Kubra in Aleppo province as prolonged and intense, saying the aerial bombardment continued as rescue workers rushed to pull the wounded from the flaming wreckage and rubble. Abdurrahman said the convoy of about 30 trucks had crossed earlier from a government-controlled area and were hit from the air hours after they reached the Red Crescent warehouse. The Syrian Red Crescent said the head of one of its local offices and "around 20 civilians" were killed in Monday's strike, which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights blamed on Russian or Syrian aircraft.
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The Obama administration claims that Russia was responsible for the bombing of a United Nations aid convoy near Aleppo on September 19. Russia denies its involvement. In the aftermath of the attack, the United Nations suspends all aid convoys in Syria.
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BEIRUT (AP) - An airstrike on a medical facility in northern Syria has killed at least five staff members, the medical relief organization that runs the facility said Wednesday. The mobile medical team was hit while responding to an earlier air strike targeting militants from the al Qaeda-linked Fatah al-Sham Front, Dr Oubaida Al Moufti, vice-president of the International Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group puts the toll at 13 dead, among them four nurses and paramedics and nine rebel fighters, some of them belonging to the al-Qaida-linked Fatah al-Sham Front. The strike hit a medical triage point, and killed two ambulance drivers and two nurses who had arrived to transport wounded patients to a more advanced medical facility, UOSSM said in a statement (in French). It said two of its ambulances, which are run by UOSSM and the World Health Organization, were destroyed and the three-story building collapsed. “This is a deplorable act against health care workers and medical facilities,” said Dr. Khaula Sawah, the head of UOSSM USA. Russia has strongly denied involvement of its own or Syrian planes, and said the incident was caused by fire on the ground and not by an air strike. The medical facility attack follows a Monday night airstrike on a Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy that prompted international condemnation and recrimination over attacks targeting humanitarian facilities and workers. Image copyright EPA Image caption The convoy had been unloading aid at a warehouse when it was attacked
Blame game
Speaking about Monday's attack on the aid convoy, unnamed US officials said the strike was too sophisticated to have been carried out by the Syrian army. The incident exposed rising tensions between the two architects of Syria's cease-fire deal, Russia and the U.S. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the convoy strike as a “sickening, savage and apparently deliberate attack.” The convoy was carrying aid materials from the UN
The incident exposed rising tensions between the two architects of Syria's cease-fire deal, Russia and the US The US said it believed Russian or Syrian government jets were behind the attack that killed 20 civilians, and that either way it held Russia responsible because under the truce deal Moscow was charged with preventing airstrikes on humanitarian deliveries. Syria’s rebels do not operate an air force. In New York on Tuesday, Russian and U.S. diplomats insisted that the Syrian cease-fire, which went into effect nine days ago, was not dead, despite indications of soaring violence. The Syrian military declared Monday night the truce had expired, shortly before presumed Russian or Syrian government jets launched a sustained aerial attack on Aleppo’s opposition-held neighbourhoods. The cease-fire was intended in part to allow humanitarian convoys to reach besieged and hard-to-reach areas throughout Syria. Yet following the convoy attack, the U.N. suspended overland aid operations to hard-to-reach areas in Syria. Syrians living in opposition areas will be disproportionately affected because the U.N.’s major warehouses are located in government-held areas. The U.N. estimates 6 million Syrians live in besieged and hard-to-reach areas.
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An airstrike yesterday on a medical facility near Aleppo kills five French medical charity workers.
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A Syrian man carries a baby after removing him from the rubble of a destroyed building following a reported air strike in the Qatarji neighbourhood of the northern city of Aleppo on Wednesday (AFP photo)
UNITED NATIONS/BEIRUT — US Secretary of State John Kerry demanded on Wednesday that Russia and the Syrian government immediately halt flights over Syrian battle zones, in what he called a last chance to salvage a collapsing ceasefire and find a way "out of the carnage". US Secretary of State John Kerry – who personally negotiated the truce during months of intensive diplomacy with Russia – spoke about the crumbling ceasefire after emerging alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov from a meeting of foreign ministers of 20 countries, gathered to discuss Syria in New York on Tuesday. On the ground, rebels battled the forces of the government of President Bashar al-Assad on major frontlines near Aleppo and Hama, and air strikes reportedly killed a dozen people including four medical workers. It would be a first step toward shifting the direction of the cease-fire, which originally called for the U.S. and Russian militaries to begin working together to target the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front in Syria. The team had just arrived at the scene of the first air strike in the rebel-held town of Khan Touman when planes circled around and struck the area again, D Oubaida Al Moufti, vice-president of the International Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations, said. Tensions between the United States and Russia escalated over a September 17th attack by the US-led coalition against Islamic State that killed dozens of Syrian soldiers in the eastern Deir al-Zor province. “If that happens there’s a chance of giving credibility back to this (cease-fire) process.”
The American and Russian brokered cease-fire that went into effect nine days ago appears all but dead, following the Monday night attack on the humanitarian convoy just southwest of Aleppo that killed at least 20 people. U.S. officials believe Russian aircraft are responsible for the attack near Aleppo, but Moscow has denied involvement and the Russian Defence Ministry said on Wednesday a U.S.
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The United States Secretary of State John Kerry calls for a no-fly zone over northern Syria, in response to the recent airstrikes on an aid convoy and medical facility in the Aleppo Governorate.
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U.S. tests for mustard agent after rocket attack near Iraq base
WASHINGTON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. military is carrying out tests to see if a chemical agent may have been used in a rocket attack in Iraq by Islamic State that came within hundreds of yards (meters) of U.S. forces but injured no one, a U.S. official said on Wednesday. The rocket fell on Tuesday in an unpopulated area near the Qayyara West base, where hundreds of U.S. forces are working to prepare an airfield ahead of Iraq’s offensive to retake the city of Mosul from the radical group Islamic State, said the official, who spoke with Pentagon reporters on condition of anonymity. A group of U.S. forces inspected the fragments afterwards and took a small sample of a suspicious “tar-like, black, oily” substance, which initially tested positive for mustard agent but then tested negative in a subsequent examination, the official said.
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The U.S. military investigates yesterday's Islamic State rocket strike near the Qayyarah Airfield West to ascertain if a chemical agent was used.
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BERLIN, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Volkswagen faces 8.2 billion euros ($9.1 billion) in damages claims from investors over its emissions scandal in the legal district where the carmaker is based, a German court said on Wednesday.
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Litigants file a new wave of lawsuits against Volkswagen regarding its emissions scandal.
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JAKARTA - Ten people have been killed in flash flooding and landslides in Indonesia, an official said Wednesday, with a search ongoing for three others still missing in the disasters on Java island. Aid has begun pouring into Garut in the west of Indonesia’s main island of Java, where 23 people died and 18 remain missing after torrential rain and fast-rising floods swept through the region, the national disaster agency said. Nugroho said Wednesday that about 1,000 villagers were evacuated to army barracks and other temporary shelters. Rains frequently caused landslides and widespread flooding across much of Indonesia, an archipelago where millions of people live in mountainous areas or on flood plains near rivers.
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Heavy rainfall, flooding, and landslides in the Indonesian province of West Java kill at least ten people and leave three others missing.
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People gather along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea during a search for victims after a migrant boat capsized in Al Beheira, Egypt, Wednesday (Reuters photo)
BURG RASHID, Egypt — A boat carrying almost 600 people capsized off Egypt's coast on Wednesday, killing at least 43, in the latest disaster among migrants trying to reach Europe. Local officials said 150 of the 600 had been rescued, describing it as one of the largest operation off Egypt's coast in the Mediterranean refugee crisis so far. The boat was carrying Egyptian, Syrian, and African migrants, security sources told the Reuters news agency. It was not immediately clear where the boat that sank on Wednesday was headed, though some security sources said they believed it was going to Italy. Earlier that month, a boat carrying hundreds of migrants sank off the Greek island of Crete and the bodies 104 migrants washed up on a beach in Libya. Migrants who survived had told authorities their boat set sail from Egypt
Some 206,400 migrants and refugees have crossed the Mediterranean this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
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A migrant boat carrying some 600 passengers capsizes off the coast of Kafr el-Sheikh Governorate, Egypt, killing at least 52 people, with hundreds more missing.
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Repair crews worked through the night trying to restore electricity to Puerto Rico’s 3.5 million people early Thursday after a fire at a power plant blacked out the entire U.S. territory. The Electric Power Authority said two transmission lines of 230,000 volts each failed for reasons still being investigated. The power company’s executive director said during a press conference that power lines are being inspected and they have activated a plan to restore service. The Electric Power Authority said investigators were trying to determine what caused the fire that broke out Wednesday afternoon at a power plant in southern Puerto Rico that serves a majority of customers on the island. Puerto Rico's Electric Power Authority has been undergoing restructuring and is seeking funds to update what it says is outdated equipment.
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A fire at a power plant at Puerto Rico's Electric Power Authority causes a blackout which leaves 1.5 million people without electricity.
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Reuters) - One person was shot and gravely wounded on Wednesday in a second night of unrest in Charlotte, North Carolina, officials said, as riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse unruly protesters after the fatal police shooting of a black man. As they approached downtown Charlotte’s central intersection, protesters confronted a column of patrol cars and officers in front of the Omni Charlotte Hotel and began to surround groups of police and their vehicles. ET]
Based on witnesses and evidence found, Keith Lamont Scott, the man killed by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Tuesday, exited his car with a handgun before he was shot, Police Chief Kerr Putney said Wednesday. Three uniformed officers were wearing cameras, there is also dash cam recordings, and investigators are reviewing the footage, Putney said. JUST WATCHED Chief: Scott was told to drop his gun Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Chief: Scott was told to drop his gun 02:14
Last week's fatal shooting of Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man in Tulsa, Oklahoma, sparked protests after video of the killing was aired Monday. North Carolina’s mayor later declared a state of emergency amid the unrest and said the National Guard and state highway patrol troopers would be sent to help police in Charlotte. Roberts called for a "full, transparent investigation" of the police shooting on Tuesday of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott, however, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney would not commit to releasing video of the incident to the public.
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Protesters of the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott yesterday injure twelve Charlotte, North Carolina police officers. Riots continue into a second night with North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory declaring a state of emergency.
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Former Phoenix Suns guard and current Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson assaulted a protester after he was hit in the face with a pie Wednesday. Nick Miller of eastbayexpress.com wrote "multiple sources have confirmed" that Johnson "tackled and assaulted the protester in a 'bloody' brawl" during a dinner event in Sacramento. According to eastbayexpress.com, a witness reported the protester charged Johnson and threw a store-bought pie in his face. Another witness said the pie had a whipped-cream topping. The protester then reportedly had some words for Johnson, prompting the mayor to punch the protester in the face at least "half a dozen" times. "One witness described it as a 'bloody pulp,'" Miller wrote, adding Sacramento Police arrested 32-year-old Sean Thompson for felony assault of a public official. Thompson's mugshot can be found here. Johnson played for the Suns for 12 seasons after being acquired in a trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1987. He was a three-time NBA All-Star and helped lead the Suns to the 1993 NBA Finals. The 50-year-old Johnson is a Sacramento native and played collegiately at Cal-Berkeley. In March, several women came forward to accuse Johnson of sexual abuse that allegedly occurred when they were in their teens.
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Sacramento mayor and former basketball star Kevin Johnson beats protester Sean Thompson's face to a "bloody pulp" after being hit in the face with a whipped cream pie at a charity dinner. Authorities arrest Thompson for felony assault of a public official.
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China’s first space station will meet a fiery end next year when the 8.5-tonne module comes crashing down to Earth, amid concerns authorities have lost control of the craft. Tiangong-1, which means 'Heavenly Palace', was launched in September 2011 with the hope of creating a larger space complex that China wants to be operational in Earth orbit around 2020. Officials have now confirmed that after four and a half years in orbit, Tiangong-1 (meaning Heavenly Palace) is expected to plummet to Earth in late 2017. “Yes there’s a chance it will do damage, it might take out someone’s car, there will be a rain of a few pieces of metal, it might go through someone’s roof, like if a flap fell off a plane, but it is not widespread damage.”
Wu Ping, the space official, told reporters the lab – which was launched into space amid great fanfare in September 2011 – had made “important contributions to China’s manned space cause” during its four and a half years of service. Wu Ping, deputy director of the manned space engineering office said: “Based on our calculation and analysis, most parts of the space lab will burn up during falling.”
According to Space.com the less than precise landing time indicates the operators had lost control of the unit, as if they were still able to communicate with it, they could steer it to “a guided re-entry over an empty stretch of ocean at a specified time”. Jonathan McDowell, renowned Harvard astrophysicist and space industry enthusiast, said the announcement suggested China had lost control of the station and that it would re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere “naturally.”
If this is the case, it would be impossible to predict where the debris from the space station will land. Log in to update your newsletter preferences Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive morning headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts by email Update newsletter preferences
“You really can’t steer these things,” he said. “Even a couple of days before it re-enters we probably won’t know better than six or seven hours, plus or minus, when it’s going to come down. Not knowing when it’s going to come down translates as not knowing where its going to come down.”
McDowell said a slight change in atmospheric conditions could nudge the landing site “from one continent to the next”. And Xinhua, China's government-run news agency, reported that the Chinese space agency may need to release an international forecast for where Tiangong will land at a later date - an uncertainty that seems to indicate the descent is uncontrolled. No prizes for guessing where this is…" 30/30 Panama Canal "From one mighty ocean to another – ships passing through the Panama canal"
Tiangong-2, China’s replacement for the space lab, was successfully launched aboard a Long March 2F rocket on 15 September from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in north west China.
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The China National Space Administration (CNSA) confirms its Tiangong-1 prototype space station, launched in September 2011, is "out of control", and will re-enter and burn up in the atmosphere in late 2017.
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Earth smashes yet another heat record; 16th month in a row
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday said August's temperature of 61.74 degrees (16.52 Celsius) was .09 degrees (.05 Celsius) warmer than the old August record set last year, and was the 16th consecutive month of record-breaking heat. NOAA monitoring chief Deke Arndt said it was also the hottest summer, with 2016 on pace to smash last year’s record for the hottest year. According to a State of the Climate report issued by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) today, August 2016 was 0.92°C above the 20th-century average. It was the fifth hottest month of any kind recorded, going back to 1880. Six of the 17 hottest months on record have been the summer months of 2015 and 2016. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)
The June-through-August summer was 2.18 degrees (1.21 Celsius) warmer than the 20th-century average and beat the old summer heat record, set last year, by one-fifth of a degree (0.11 Celsius), NOAA said. “The needle has been shoved all the way over into the red by greenhouse gases,” Arndt said. NOAA’s announcement came on a day when 375 members of the National Academy of Sciences, including Stephen Hawking and 30 Nobel laureates, released an open letter urging American leaders not to pull out of an international agreement to curb global warming. Organizer and MIT climate scientist Kerry Emanuel said the scientists wrote the letter in response to the Republican party platform that rejects the Paris climate agreement reached last December. The letter said presidential nominee Donald Trump’s advocacy of withdrawing from that agreement would “send a clear signal to the rest of the world: The United States does not care about the global problem of human-caused climate change.”
Pulling out of the Paris accord, Emanuel said, “will accelerate our head-long plunge into a riskier and riskier climate.”
“Everywhere we look we see signs that the climate really is changing,” Emanuel said. “We’re getting wake-up calls more frequently and we really have to do something about this.”
The summer of 2016 has meanwhile lurched from one extreme weather disaster to another at great cost in lives and damages.
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August 2016 becomes the world's hottest on record (since records began 136 years ago) and 16th 'hottest on record' month in a row.
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SANAA (Reuters) - The United Nations has condemned airstrikes by an Arab coalition that killed 26 people in Western Yemen on Wednesday and said attacks on civilian facilities in the Arab World’s poorest country have increased since July. Warplanes of the Saudi-led alliance launched missiles at a residential neighborhood in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Wednesday where Houthi leaders were staying, a resident and medics in the Houthi-controled area told Reuters. The raid hit a house in a neighborhood populated by workers. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a statement condemning the attack, said dozens of people, including children and women, had been killed and injured. Wednesday’s raid, which the Arab alliance said it was investigating reports on, was the latest in a series of strikes that have hit schools, hospitals, markets and private homes. In August at least 41 attacks hit civilian facilities and killed 180 civilians, a 40 percent increase in casualties since July, said a U.N. human rights spokeswoman. “We note with deep concern the sharp increase in civilian casualties since the suspension of peace talks,” said Cecile Pouilly in a statement. “We reiterate our call for the setting up of an international and independent investigative body.”
The coalition, which began operations in Yemen in March last year to try to reverse the rise to power of the Iran-allied Houthi group, has repeatedly said it does not target civilians. In a statement, the coalition said it was aware of reports alleging civilian casualties in Hodeidah city. “As with any allegation we receive, the information about the incident will be reviewed, and once it is found supporting the allegation based on credible evidence we will then move to a next step of investigations,” the statement said. The deputy governor of Hodeidah province, Hashim Azazi said late on Wednesday rescue workers were still pulling victims out of the rubble. Slideshow (7 Images)
A Houthi leader, Ali al-Amad, said in a Tweet he had survived a raid on the presidential palace. U.N.-sponsored talks to try to end the fighting that has killed more than 10,000 people collapsed in failure last month and the Houthi movement and allied forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh resumed shelling into neighboring Saudi Arabia. Nearly half of Yemen’s 22 provinces are on the verge of famine, according to the U.N. World Food Program, as a result of the war that has drawn in regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia.
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The death toll from a Saudi-led Arab coalition airstrike which hit a house in a residential area in western Yemen has risen to 26 people.
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A young black bear led police on a two-hour chase through the streets of downtown Anchorage, Alaska — scurrying down sidewalks and across lanes of traffic and even ducking behind a Pizza Hut along the way. The Anchorage Police Department said they first received a call about the four-legged suspect around 6 p.m. Thursday. Police followed the bear until after 8 p.m., when the state Department of Fish and Game ended the animal's city tour. Video of the bear's exploits posted on Facebook by Anchorage police had been viewed more than 1 million times. No one was hurt during the bear's escapades. Police said wildlife officials removed the beast from the populated area and placed it back into its habitat. The Anchorage Police Department says 69-year-old Robert Musser, who was barricaded in his home, is confirmed to be deceased.
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In a standoff which has continued for two days, an exchange of gunfire with a barricaded suspect in Anchorage, Alaska, injures two police officers. The standoff is one of two occurring in the Alaskan city.
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An explosive believed to be a firebomb has been thrown into a car - allegedly while the driver was still sitting inside.
It is also believed that the victim alleged the suspect shouted 'There you go, Muslim', before throwing the device into the vehicle.
The car has been almost completely destroyed by the suspected bomb after it set on fire .
It has been reported that the incident took place in North Philadelphia this morning at approximately 5am.
The video was recorded by a witness, going under the username @FeministaJones, who said: "Heard a huge explosion. Didn't know what it was. Then heard a man yelling saying his skin was burning.
(Image: Twitter/@TimJRadio)
"Heard him say he was in his car and someone drove by and threw something in it while he was in it.
"Then kept hearing loud pops so I went to the door. Neighbours were helping the man because his skin was burning. He lost some of it.
"Went to the corner and saw the whole car on fire. After firetrucks come, he talks to them and then talks to us.
"He describes a car pulling up and someone inside saying 'There you go, Muslim' before throwing something into his car.
(Image: ABC)
"Most of us know him too because he is always on the block working on his car and other things. This is wild.
"So I don't know if what was said was true or not but he said that's what he told the firemen. His face, arm, hands, legs all burned."
It is believed the man has been rushed to hospital after the incident. Police have yet to comment.
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A man in Philadelphia firebombs a man's car, referring to the injured burned man as being Muslim.
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Can Russia and US reach common ground on Syria? The Security Council was set to meet Sunday to discuss the upsurge in violence since the Syrian army announced an offensive to retake the rebel-held east of the devastated city. "What Russia is sponsoring and doing is not counterterrorism, it is barbarism," Samantha Power told the Security Council. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin conceded that the surge in violence over the past days meant that “bringing a peace is almost an impossible task now.”
Churkin again laid blame for the failed diplomacy with the United States, accusing Washington of being unable to convince armed opposition groups that it backs on the ground to distance themselves from the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and abide by the cease-fire. The United States, Britain and France, who called the emergency meeting, heaped blame on Moscow for supporting the Syrian offensive which U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura called one of the worst of the 5 1/2-year war. At least 26 civilians were killed in fresh government airstrikes on the contested city of Aleppo, Syrian activists said Sunday, as the United Nations Security Council convened an emergency meeting on the spiraling violence in Syria but failed to take any action because of deep divisions between Russia and the Western powers. Prior to the start of the U.N. meeting, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Russia should be investigated for war crimes following a Monday attack on a Syrian aid convoy that claimed 20 lives. He urged the United States and Russia to go “that extra mile” and save the Sept. 9 cessation of hostilities agreement “at the 11th hour.”
On the sidelines of the meeting, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the Security Council to force a halt to the hostilities in Aleppo, and he condemned Russia and the Syrian government’s alleged use of bunker busting bombs, which are designed to penetrate underground facilities. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said “dozens of raids” had hit districts of east Aleppo after midnight on Sunday, with many wounded and at least two civilians killed. The U.S. accused Moscow of “barbarism” over the worsening carnage in Aleppo, as Syrian and Russian warplanes pounded the city in one of the heaviest bombing raids of the five-year war.
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The United States, United Kingdom, and France seek a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the declining security situation in Aleppo.
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A Muslim preacher from a local mosque shoots and kills Jordanian writer and cartoonist Nahed Hattar in front of a courthouse in the capital Amman. Authorities take the gunman into custody.
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"All of Baseball is shocked and saddened by the sudden passing of Miami Marlins pitcher José Fernández," Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. We would like to extend our sincerest condolences, thoughts and prayers to the families and friends who share in the loss of the three victims involved in this tragic boating accident and to the Miami Marlins organization.” The team, which drafted the pitcher in the first round of the 2011 draft, canceled its Sunday home game against the Atlanta Braves but dozens of mourners still gathered at a makeshift memorial set up for Fernandez near the entrance to Marlins Park. Authorities said Sunday during a news conference that the boat involved in the fatal Sunday morning crash belonged to “a friend of José’s who is very well connected to several Marlins players.” Investigators say the boat, Kaught Looking, was heading south around 3:15 a.m. at full speed when it struck the north Government Cut jetty, flipped and killed all three men on board,
But in a news release Monday, the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission said Fernández was indeed the registered owner. The speed at which the boat was traveling was believed to have played a role in the crash but alcohol and drugs were not considered to be a factor, Veloz said. The identities of the two other victims were not released. An already famous youth, he had a promising future.”
The right-hander, who made his major league debut in April 2013, was a two-time All-Star selection and won the National League Rookie of the Year Award. Fernandez, who as a teenager survived harrowing conditions at sea as he fled Cuba to start a new life in the United States, was one of three men killed when a 32-foot boat collided with a rocky jetty off Miami Beach, the Coast Guard said. The Miami Dolphins held a moment of silence for Fernandez before their game against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.
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A boating accident near Miami Beach, Florida, kills Miami Marlins pitcher José Fernández and two others.
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The Los Angeles Dodgers celebrated clinching their fourth straight NL West title with the kind of storybook ending this city was built on: winning the crown in Vin Scully’s final home game when Charlie Culberson homered with two outs in the 10th inning to beat the Colorado Rockies 4-3 on Sunday. “Believe me when I tell you, I’ve needed you far more than you’ve needed me.”
At that, he asked the crowd to indulge what he called “a loving gesture” and listen to him singing “Wind Beneath My Wings” which he recorded for his wife, Sandi. Members of the Los Angeles Dodgers, including Dave Roberts, explain what it meant to send Vin Scully, in his last home game, off with a walk-off win to clinch the NL West title. “I wanted to see how they did it because everybody on this team believes and thinks that we’re going to do that next year,” Colorado starter Tyler Anderson said after his team’s 83rd defeat. Sunday was the final game Scully will broadcast from Dodger Stadium as he nears the end of a 67-year career that began in 1950, when the Dodgers were in Brooklyn, and spanned nearly seven decades.
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Vin Scully, broadcaster for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers since 1950, calls his final Dodgers home game.
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LOS ANGELES -- Golfer Arnold Palmer, whose skill and swashbuckling style made him one of the biggest stars in the sport and helped him became a beloved figure to the general public, died Sunday. “We are deeply saddened by the death of Arnold Palmer, golf's greatest ambassador, at age 87,” the United States Golf Associated said on its Twitter page. Along with winning seven majors and playing the Masters for 50 consecutive years, Palmer also co-founded the Golf Channel, the first cable network devoted a single sport. He was 87.An influential sports figure, Palmer brought golf to the masses, and in his lifetime, he won more than 90 golf tournaments, including the Masters four times and the U.S. Open in 1960.
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Arnold Palmer, winner of seven major championships, member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, and widely credited with helping bring golf into its modern era, dies at the age of 87.
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McIlroy picked up $11.53 million in one day -- the $10 million FedEx Cup bonus and $1.53 million for the Tour Championship, his second victory in three weeks, making him the first player to win four FedEx Cup playoff events. For that to happen, he would have to be runner-up and hope that none of the players ahead of him - Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Adam Scott and Jason Day - play well. Johnson, in the joint lead overnight, slipped to a final-round 73 to leave his fate in the hands of others as he tied for sixth and eventually second place in the FedEx standings, and a $3 million prize. Kevin Chappell had a two-shot lead with two holes to play when he made bogey on the 17th hole -- only his third of the week at East Lake -- and Moore birdied it in the group ahead of him. It was clinched with a birdie putt on the 16th, the fourth hole of the playoff to finally see off the challenge of Moore, with Chappell having dropped out at the first extra hole. (CNN) Rory McIlroy beat Americans Ryan Moore and Kevin Chappell in a sudden death playoff to win the Tour Championship and wrap up the FedEx Cup on a dramatic final day at East Lake. ATLANTA—Rory McIlroy checked off two more big boxes on his list of career achievements Sunday when he won the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
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In the final event of the PGA Tour season, The Tour Championship, Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy wins a three-way playoff to claim both the event title and the US$10 million FedEx Cup bonus for the overall season title.
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CARTAGENA, Colombia — More than 220,000 deaths, 8 million homeless and countless human rights violations: These are the tragic toll of South America's oldest armed conflict, which begins to wind down with the signing Monday of a historic agreement between Colombia's government and the country's largest rebel movement to end a half-century of hostilities. Related: How a Colombian-Canadian helped broker the historic peace deal between the government and FARC
Guests at the ceremony in the Caribbean coastal city of Cartagena were asked to wear white and included United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Cuban President Raul Castro and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. On Monday, European Union foreign policy coordinator Federica Mogherini said that with the signing of the peace agreement, the EU would suspend the FARC from its list of terrorist organizations. If the accord is accepted by Colombian voters in Sunday’s referendum, as polls say it will, the FARC’s estimated 7,000 fighters would have to turn over their weapons gradually to a team of United Nations-sponsored observers within six months. The signing was greeted with wild cheers followed by calls for Timochenko to be president from about 1,000 FARC rebels in the Yari Plains, a remote area of southern Colombia where the group recently concluded its last congress as a guerrilla army by endorsing the deal.
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Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC guerrilla leader Rodrigo Londoño, also known as Timochenko, sign a peace accord in Cartagena, ending the longest running armed conflict in the Western Hemisphere. The final agreement will be submitted to popular ratification in a referendum on October 2.
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Homa Hoodfar, 65, is a teacher at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, and an expert on gender and Islam. TEHRAN, Iran — A Canadian-Iranian retired professor was released from prison on "humanitarian grounds" and flown out of Iran on Monday, Iran's state-run news agency said, ending her months of detention alongside other dual nationals swept up by hard-liners in the security services. He said Hoodfar had left the Islamic Republic and was traveling to Canada via the Gulf Arab state of Oman. Oman confirmed it had arranged for a royal air force plane to fly Hoodfar to Muscat on her way to Canada, heeding a Canadian request to help in her release, state news agency ONA quoted a Foreign Ministry statement as saying. Earlier this year, in a controversial deal, the United States and Iran swapped prisoners and money in exchange for the release of the Washington Post correspondent, Jason Rezaian, and three other Iranian-Americans. “They understand that cases like these impede more productive relations.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Canadian counterpart Stephane Dion met last week during the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York for the first time since Tehran and Ottawa severed relations four years ago. Canada shut its embassy in Iran and expelled all Iranian diplomats in Canada in 2012 after accusing Tehran of posing the biggest threat to global security, mainly over its nuclear program and military assistance to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Since striking a deal with world powers last year under which it curbed its nuclear activity in exchange for sanctions relief, pragmatist Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has sought to mend ties with the West to improve the economy.
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Iran releases Canadian-Iranian sociocultural anthropologist Homa Hoodfar, who had been held since June, as the countries begin talks on restoration of diplomatic ties.
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A man dressed in a vintage military uniform emblazoned with a Nazi symbol and toting a "Tommy Gun" and a hand gun unleashed a flurry of bullets near a Houston shopping center on Monday morning, injuring nine people before he was shot dead by police. Six victims were taken to hospitals and three were treated at the scene after being shot at while inside their vehicles in the wealthy neighbourhood of West University Place, acting Houston police chief Martha Montalvo told reporters. The suspected shooter was shot by cops, and authorities don’t believe any other suspects were involved in the attack, police confirmed.The conditions of the shooter and victims haven’t been revealed. The first report of the shootings came in about 6:30 a.m., Police Chief Martha Montalvo said at a news conference, and the suspect began firing at officers when they arrived at a condo complex. The only information immediately released about the gunman’s identity was that: “He is a lawyer and there were issues concerning his law firm.”
Houston’s mayor, Sylvester Turner, told local station KTRK-TV that the lawyer was “disgruntled” and was “either fired or had a bad relationship with this law firm”. Two people were taken to Memorial Hermann Red Duke Trauma Institute and another three were taken to Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital.
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A gunman opens fire at a Houston shopping center and injures nine people. Responding police kill the shooter afterwards.
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HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) — Donald Trump repeatedly clashed with Hillary Clinton during Monday’s first presidential debate, interrupting her and appearing agitated at times as they tangled over the economy, her use of a private mail server and his unwillingness to release his income tax returns. But, you know, I think I did — I think I really did well when we were asked normal questions.”
Mr Trump lamenting on Monday night that his microphone had a problem was perhaps the first sign from him that he was aware he had not quite triumphed on stage.
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Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican Party nominee Donald Trump hold the first presidential debate of the 2016 presidential election at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.
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SRIHARIKOTA (ANDHRA PRADESH): India on Monday morning successfully put into orbit its own weather satellite SCATSAT-1 in a copybook style.In the second phase of its mission, the rocket will launch seven other satellites - five foreign and two Indian - between 11.25 to 11.28 a.m., in a different orbit.Exactly at 9.12 a.m., the PSLV rocket standing 44.4 metres tall and weighing 320 tonne tore into the morning skies with fierce orange flames at its tail.Gathering speed every second, the rocket raced towards the heavens amidst the cheers of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) officials and the media team assembled at the rocket port here.At the rocket mission control room, Indian space scientists at ISRO were glued to their computer screens watching the rocket escaping the earth's gravitational pull.Seventeen minutes into the flight, the rocket's main cargo, the 371 kg SCATSAT-1 - for ocean and weather related studies - was injected into a 730 km polar sun synchronous orbit.Although SCATSAT-1 is a follow-on mission for Oceansat-2 improvements have been made in the satellite's hardware configuration based on lessons learnt from Oceansat-2 instruments.Also SCATSAT-1's payload has been characterised with the objective of achieving data quality for Climate Data Records, apart from facilitating routine meteorological applications, the ISRO said.It said the SCATSAT-1's scatterometer will provide wind vector data products for weather forecasting, cyclone detection and tracking services to the users.The satellite carries Ku-band scatterometer similar to the one flown onboard Oceansat-2.The mission life of the satellite is five years.The remaining seven satellites will be placed in a 689 km polar orbit later.These seven satellites include five foreign satellites: three from Algeria (Alsat-1B 103kg, Alsat-2B 117kg, Alsat-1N 7kg), and one each from Canada (NLS-19, 8kg) and US (Pathfinder-44kg).The two other Indian satellites are: Pratham (10kg) built by Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) and Pisat (5.25 kg) from PES University, Bengaluru and its consortium.According to the ISRO, the two Algerian satellites Alsat-1B and Alsat-2B are remote sensing satellites while Alsat-1N is a technology demonstration nano satellite for Algerian students.On the other hand, the US satellite Pathfinder-1 is a commercial high resolution imaging micro satellite while the Canadian NLS-19 satellite is la technology demonstration nano satellite for experimentation in helping to reduce space debris and for tracking commercial aircraft.The IIT-B's satellite Pratham's mission objective is to estimate the total electron count with a resolution of 1km x 1km location grid while Pisat from PES University and its consortium is a nano satellite for remote sensing applications.After slinging SCATSAT-1 into its orbit the rocket's fourth stage will be restarted one hour 22 minutes into the flight and cut off around 20 seconds later.Two hours and 11 minutes into the flight the fourth stage will again be restarted to be cut offAone minute later.Following that in three minutes all the seven satellites will be ejected putting an end to PSLV's longest mission till date.The PSLV rocket is a four stage/engine rocket powered by solid and liquid fuel alternatively.Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) director K. Sivan told IANS on Sunday that the long time gap between the cutting off of the engine and its restart was not an issue.Sivan said the first time the multiple burn technology was first tested by ISRO while flying its PSLV rocket on December 16, 2015 and in June 2016, the technology was again demonstrated.About the challenge, Sivan said: "After cutting off the engine, its condition should be brought to such a stage that it could be restarted again.
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The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launches cyclone detection satellite SCATSAT-1, and seven other satellites into orbit from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The launch successfully demonstrates the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle's capability of placing satellites in multiple orbits in a single launch.
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Related: SpaceX plans return to space by November, 3 months after blast
On the technical front, Musk has already introduced the world to the Raptor rocket engine he plans to use to take people to Mars, which is different that the engines used for the Falcon rockets that SpaceX has already sent on missions. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket, expected to cost $7 billion through its first test flight, is currently slated for launch in 2018. Earlier this year he announced that SpaceX intends to send an unmanned mission to Mars by 2018, to investigate the demands of a later crewed mission. In December 2010, SpaceX became the first private company to send a spacecraft into low-Earth orbit and back, and a year and a half later it became the first to dock at the International Space Station. The SpaceX CEO laid out his plan to colonize the Red Planet at the International Astronautical Congress, a meeting of multiple international space exploration associations in Guadalajara, Mexico.
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SpaceX successfully tests its most powerful rocket to date. The company's goal will be to use the Raptor (rocket engine) to power their "super-heavy" Interplanetary Transport System in facilitation of the colonization of Mars and beyond.
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Prior reconstructions have gone back further — in some cases back to 3 million years — but were less comprehensive or focused only on particular time periods. As part of her doctoral dissertation at Stanford University, Carolyn Snyder , now a climate policy official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, created a continuous 2 million year temperature record, much longer than a previous 22,000 year record. “People can take this and improve upon it as more records become available in the future.”
Using a subset of the reconstructed temperature data, Snyder, who began the study while at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, analysed the relationship between past temperatures and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) levels estimated from Antarctic ice cores covering the past 800,000 years. But many of the same scientists said Snyder's estimate of future warming seems too high. But he adds that the question of how the planet will respond to atmospheric CO 2 over the long term requires more detailed analysis. In particular, the study fails to account for subtle changes in Earth’s orbit that affected global temperatures and helped to drive the expansion and retreat of glaciers throughout the time period covered by the analysis, says Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City. Credit: NASA
A new study paints a picture of an Earth that is warmer than it has been in about 120,000 years, and is locked into eventually hitting its hottest mark in more than 2 million years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that short-term climate sensitivity is around 3 °C of warming for a doubling of atmospheric CO 2 3. If that relationship were to hold up, it would suggest that the Earth is in store for even more warming in the future. Past and future polar amplification of climate change: climate model intercomparisons and ice-core constraints . “This is something that just needed to be done,” Shakun says.
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A study published in Nature finds the Earth's surface is warmer than it has been in about 120,000 years, and is locked into eventually hitting its hottest mark in more than 2 million years.
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A single bomb had trapped four families under the rubble of the same apartment block in the neighbourhood of al-Shar, where locals said the old buildings are easily brought down by ordinary munitions. BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian government forces captured a central rebel-held neighborhood in Aleppo on Tuesday after a week of blistering airstrikes, as a military official vowed that the offensive would continue until insurgents are "wiped out." They advanced on the old city of Aleppo, a former refugee camp in the north captured at the weekend then lost to rebel forces, and in two other districts, opposition forces and state television said.
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The Syrian Army clashes with insurgents in the 1070 Apartments district of Aleppo.
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BAGHDAD (AP) — Separate suicide bombings ripped through busy commercial areas in Shiite-dominated neighborhoods of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, killing at least 17 civilians, officials said. Hours later, another suicide bomber blew himself up in an outdoor market in the southwestern neighbourhood of Bayaa, killing six shoppers and wounding 21 others, another police officer said. The group claimed a truck bombing in July that killed at least 324 people in the Karrada shopping area of Baghdad - the deadliest single attack in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
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Three bombings kill at least 17 people in Baghdad.
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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan closed schools and offices as a large typhoon with 162 kilometers- (100 miles-) per-hour winds approached the mountainous island Tuesday. Authorities raised alert levels because Typhoon Megi's bands of wind and rain were expected to cover the entire island, which is prone to landslides and flooding, said National Fire Agency Director-General Chen Wen-lung. Megi was expected to make landfall in the evening and pass over the island's steep central mountain range during the night. The Central Weather Bureau said Megi is 500 kilometers (310 miles) in diameter and its winds will gust up to 198 kilometers per hour. Chen said that as of Tuesday morning 5,336 people were evacuated from mountainous areas that are prone to landslides and flooding. More than half went to shelters and the rest to the homes of family or friends, Chen said. Schools and offices were closed across the island. Megi is the fourth typhoon of the year to hit Taiwan. Flights were canceled at Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport, while high-speed rail and most other trains also stopped operations. On the Chinese coast, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) from Taiwan, fishing boats were ordered back to port.
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Taiwan authorities close schools and offices as Typhoon Megi approaches the island.
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world
Updated: Sep 27, 2016 22:35 IST
Nineteen people died and more than a dozen were injured when an overcrowded bus went off a road in Dhading district of Nepal on Tuesday. The local administration said most of the passengers were survivors of the 2015 earthquake from a remote part of Dhading who were heading to the district headquarters to receive financial assistance announced by the government. The bus slipped off the road near Lapang Phedi village, 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Kathmandu, the capital, and rolled about 300 meters (980 feet) before stopping on the banks of the Ankhu River. Thirteen severely injured passengers were airlifted from the accident site to Kathmandu for treatment, chief district officer Bishow Subedi said. The bus, which was on a local route and carrying all Nepali nationals, was unusually crowded because people in Nepal are heading to their village homes this week for the Hindu festival of Dashain, which begins Saturday. Officials said many accidents were caused by poor implementation of traffic rules and the poor condition of roads and vehicles.
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A bus skids off a mountain road in central Nepal, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than a dozen others.
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More than 1 million people died from dirty air in one year, according to World Health Organisation
China is the world’s deadliest country for outdoor air pollution, according to analysis by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The U.N. health agency said in a new report that 92 per cent of people live in areas where air quality exceeds WHO limits, with southeast Asia, eastern Mediterranean and western Pacific regions hardest hit. The Middle East’s public health challenges are enormous, especially when one accounts for the region’s transient population of refugees and guest workers. There is the need for service providers to learn to negotiate through any differences that they might have with their employers.”
“With the withdrawal of most of our development partners in the sector, there is the need for the health sector to be more efficient in its operations.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) states that 92% of the world's population lives in air pollution levels surpassing the organization's limits.
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Image copyright New Hope Fertility Centre Image caption Dr John Zhang holding the baby boy who was conceived thanks to the new technique that incorporates DNA from three people
The world's first baby has been born using a new "three person" fertility technique, New Scientist reveals. The aim was to replace defective mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) that may have condemned Abrahim to Leigh syndrome, a fatal disorder affecting the developing nervous system. The structure of a cell
Nucleus: Where the majority of our DNA is held - this determines how we look and our personality
Mitochondria: Often described as the cell's factories, these create the energy to make the cell function
Cytoplasm: The jelly like substance that contains the nucleus and mitochondria
Follow Michelle on Twitter Although she is healthy, two of her children have died as a result of inheriting the disease: a girl who lived until she was six and an eight-month-old baby. The technique used by Dr John Zhang, of the New Hope Fertility Clinic in New York, and his team involved taking the nucleus from one of the mother's eggs - containing her DNA - and implanting it into a donor egg that had its nucleus removed but retained the donor's healthy mitochondrial DNA. This embryo was implanted in the mother and the child was born nine months later on April 6, this year. It's not the first time scientists have created babies that have DNA from three people - that breakthrough began in the late 1990s - but it is an entirely new and significant method. The five-month-old boy has the usual DNA from his mum and dad, plus a tiny bit of genetic code from a donor. It’s vital that that happens soon.”
Professor Simon Fishel, president of the Care Fertility Group of IVF clinics, said: “This is a devastating disease that we do not wish children to be born with, and what’s more, we would wish to eradicate from any family lineage – and this technology will help achieve this. The translation of mitochondrial donation to a clinical procedure is not a race but a goal to be achieved with caution to ensure both safety and reproducibility.”
Details of the birth are due to be presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine meeting in Salt Lake City in October.
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Mitochondrial donation allows the first 'three person baby' to be born.
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Brunader said the symptoms for Zika are similar to other illnesses, such as the flu and colds, but with additional symptoms like conjunctivitis (red eyes) and sometimes a rash.
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Thailand authorities investigate what could be the first cases of Zika virus-linked microcephaly in Southeast Asia.
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"The Americas region has shown that with strong national immunization programs... dedicated financing and strong political commitment and partner support, measles can be stopped," said World Health Organization director Margaret Chan (AFP Photo/Joe Raedle)
Miami (AFP) - Measles has been eradicated from the Americas after decades of vaccination efforts, the world's first region to rid itself of the highly contagious disease, global health authorities said Tuesday. "This is truly a historic deed," said Carissa Etienne, director of the PAHO, which serves as the World Health Organization's (WHO) regional office for the Americas. Measles remains a top killer of children worldwide, and took nearly 115,000 lives in 2014 -- or about 13 deaths every hour -- according to the World Health Organization (WHO). About 250,000 people were infected with measles last year, most in Africa and Asia, the PAHO said. It can cause serious complications including blindness, encephalitis, severe diarrhea, ear infections and pneumonia, particularly in children with nutritional problems and in immunocompromised patients. MORE: After Marrying On Her ‘Deathbed,’ This Bride Made a Miraculous Recovery After Quitting 1 Food
Following this strategy, the last indigenous measles outbreak was registered in Venezuela in 2002. Normally, it takes three years without cases to declare a disease eradicated from a region, but in this instance it took 14 years. Factors such as conflicts that made it difficult to access some communities slowed down the verification process, said Merceline Dahl-Regis, chair of a committee of experts responsible for verifying the elimination of measles and other diseases in the Americas. All of our national wealth and infrastructure can’t protect us from people who refuse to have their children vaccinated. It is the result of a commitment made more than two decades ago, in 1994, when the countries of the Americas pledged to end measles circulation by the turn of the 21st century.”
MORE: First Ever Quadriplegic Treated With Stem Cells Regains Motor Control in His Upper Body
Before mass vaccination was initiated in 1980, measles caused nearly 2.6 million annual deaths worldwide. After declaring the elimination of rubella and congenital rubella syndrome in 2015, the International Expert Committee waited for evidence of the interruption of a measles outbreak in Brazil, which had begun in 2013 and lasted for more than a year.
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The WHO announces that measles has been eliminated throughout the Americas, the first time this virus has been eradicated in an entire region. The hemisphere’s last endemic case of measles — one which did not spring from an imported strain — was in 2002.
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(Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
Facing down congressional opponents of his historic outreach to Cuba, President Obama announced Tuesday that he has chosen highly respected career diplomat Jeffrey DeLaurentis to be the first U.S. ambassador to Havana in 55 years. Still, the nomination must be approved by the Republican-controlled Senate, which is seen as a long shot in a presidential election year and given expected strong resistance from Cuban-American senators including Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas. “Jeff’s leadership has been vital throughout the normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba.”
The announcement is certain to touch off an election-year fight in which the confirmation of DeLaurentis will serve as a referendum of sorts on Obama’s policy of engaging Cuba. Even if ultimately unsuccessful, the nomination of a U.S. ambassador could provide a boost to the Obama administration's final months of negotiations with Cuba, a country highly attuned to the degree of respect it feels it is receiving from the U.S.
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President Barack Obama nominates Jeffrey DeLaurentis as the first United States Ambassador to Cuba since 1961.
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The U.S. Department of Labor filed an administrative lawsuit against Palantir Technologies on Monday, alleging that the data analytics and security company systematically discriminated against Asian job applicants. Cofounded by billionaire Peter Thiel, the data analysis company is among the most highly vaunted of Silicon Valley startups, securing a $20 billion valuation last year, in part for its contracts with the US Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Special Operations Command and the Army. "From at least January 1, 2010 and going forward to the present, Palantir utilised a four-phase hiring process in which Asian applicants were routinely eliminated during the resume, screen and telephone interview phase despite being as qualified as white applicants with respect to the QA Engineer, Software Engineer and QA Engineer Intern positions," the lawsuit paperwork reads. Lisa Gordon, a spokeswoman for Palantir, said the companywill defend itself “vigorously” and denies allegations of bias. Ian Eliasoph, civil rights counsel for the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, said Palantir was randomly selected for a review, which examines the number of applicants for a given position compared with applicants’ demographics. There were 130 applicants, of whom around 73% were Asian. 'One in 3.4 million chance'
The government identified three staff roles for which it alleges there was biased recruiting:
When recruiting for a quality assurance engineer, the firm hired six non-Asian staff and one Asian from a pool of 730 applicants, of whom roughly 77% were Asian
There were 1,160 qualified applicants for a software engineer position, of whom approximately 85% were Asian, but Palantir hired 14 non-Asians and 11 Asians
When recruiting for a quality engineer intern, the firm hired 17 non-Asians and four Asians. “The likelihood that this result occurred according to chance is approximately one in a billion,” said the lawsuit, which was filed with the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges. However, Palantir said the Labor Department relied on a “narrow and flawed statistical analysis relating to three job descriptions from 2010 to 2011.”
Employment and civil rights attorney Cliff Palefsky said it was unusual to see hiring discrimination involving Asians. But Tracy Chou, of Silicon Valley-based diversity and inclusion organization Project Include, said discrimination against Asians for senior positions has been widely publicized. Since January 2010, Palantir has been a party to federal government contracts worth over $340 million, the lawsuit said. The Labor Department is asking an administrative law judge to award lost wages, interest, retroactive seniority and all other lost benefits of employment.
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The Obama administration through the United States Department of Labor sues Peter Thiel's Palantir Technologies for alleged discrimination against Asians in its hiring practices.
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Islamist rebel Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi looks on during an appearance at the International Criminal Court in The Hague on August 22, 2016, at the start of his trial on charges of involvement in the destruction of historic mausoleums in the Malian desert city of Timbuktu. In an unprecedented move, Mahdi, aged between 30 and 40, last month pleaded guilty to the single war crimes charge of "intentionally directing" attacks in 2012 on nine of Timbuktu's mausoleums and the centuries-old door of the city's Sidi Yahia mosque. The court found that Mahdi, was a member of the Ansar Drine, one of the jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb which seized the northern territory before being mostly chased out by a French-led military intervention in January 2013.
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The International Criminal Court sentences Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi to nine years in jail for leading the destruction of nine of Timbuktu's mausoleums and the centuries-old door of the Malian city's Sidi Yahya Mosque.
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This file photo taken on July 18, 2013 shows Iran's then outgoing president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaking during a press conference at the presidential palace in Baghdad (AFP photo)
TEHRAN — Iran's controversial former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose two-term rule saw the country increasingly isolated internationally, has said he will not stand again following advice from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In a letter to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad expressed his gratitude for the Leader’s “significant” statements at the beginning of an advanced course on Islamic religious studies held in Tehran on Monday. But Ayatollah Khamenei, the Islamic republic’s ultimate decision-maker, said on Monday that if Mr Ahmadinejad ran in the election it “will be detrimental for the country”.
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Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declines to run for a third term in the upcoming election. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has previously advised Ahmadinejad to not seek the presidency next year.
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Sam Allardyce’s tenure as manager of the England football team has been terminated after 67 days in charge following allegations he had offered advice on how to circumvent the English Football Association’s rules on player transfers. Allardyce, who had suggested the national manager’s role was his “dream job” on his appointment as Roy Hodgson’s successor in July, has left his position by mutual consent after two months and one game, the World Cup qualifying win over Slovakia. He and his agent, Mark Curtis, attended a meeting with the FA’s chairman, Greg Clarke, and the chief executive, Martin Glenn, at Wembley stadium on Tuesday with the hierarchy having been left dismayed by comments the 61-year-old had made to undercover reporters from the Daily Telegraph. In the light of the media allegations that we’ve seen, we’ve concluded and Sam’s agreed that his behaviour’s been inappropriate and frankly not what is expected of an England manager, discussing a range of issues from potential contraventions of FA rules through to personal comments that frankly just don’t work when you’re the manager of England.” "He accepts he made a significant error of judgement and has apologised," the FA said. However, due to the serious nature of his actions, the FA and Allardyce have mutually agreed to terminate his contract with immediate effect.”
The 61-year-old Allardyce was only hired on July 22 and had a contract through 2018. Some may have sympathy for Allardyce, gone after one victory in Slovakia and brought down by non-footballing matters, but the FA's statement spoke of the need for strong leadership and respect for the integrity of the game, and it clearly felt his behaviour was unbecoming of an England manager. “The manager of the England men’s senior team is a position which must demonstrate strong leadership and show respect for the integrity of the game at all times.”
Gareth Southgate, the manager of England’s under-21 side, will take charge of the senior team’s next four matches — against Malta, Slovenia, Scotland and Spain — while the FA searches for a new coach. The England manager was also captured appearing to tell a fictitious businessman how to circumvent third-party ownership laws, saying it was “not a problem” to get around FA rules which stop third parties ‘’owning’’ football players’ economic rights.
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England national football team manager Sam Allardyce resigns after only one match and 67 days in charge, due to a scandal over statements made to undercover reporters.
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The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said some militants may have been killed in the strike, but many of the victims were civilians, including students, a teacher, and members of families considered to be "pro-government". Civilian casualties in US airstrikes against Taliban and other militants in Afghanistan have long been a source of friction between the allies who have been fighting since 2001 to end militant opposition to the government in Kabul. The strike in Nangarhar province, on the eastern border with Pakistan, killed 21 people, at least three of them civilians, and wounded another 11, according to Malem Mashooq, the governor of Achin district where the attack occurred. Esmatullah Shinwari, a Nangarhar lawmaker, told the Associated Press that a crowd had gathered at the tribal leader’s house in the Achin district to welcome home his return from the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia when the drone struck. “US forces did conduct one counter-terrorism airstrike in Achin district, Nangarhar Province, Sept. 28, and for operational security reasons, we do not discuss the details of counter-terror operations,” he said in a statement. “US Forces-Afghanistan takes all allegations of civilian casualties very seriously.”
There was no information on whether it was an attack by a drone or a piloted aircraft. “We… are currently reviewing all materials related to this strike,” US military spokesman Charles Cleveland said in a statement. Thousands of US troops remain in Afghanistan, with many recent airstrikes and special operations missions aimed at Isis in Nangarhar, as well as helping Afghan forces in their fight against the Taliban in various parts of the country.
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A U.S. drone strike in Nangarhar Province kills at least 21 people.
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Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Amnesty International's Kate Allen explains the evidence for the chemical weapons claim
'Brutality'
The human rights group's eight-month investigation uncovered "scorched earth, mass rapes, killings and bombs" in Jebel Marra, a remote region of Darfur. The alleged chemical attacks, believed to have killed up to 250 people, mostly children, represent a “new low” in the catalogue of serious abuses perpetrated by government forces in the region, said the human rights group. Using satellite imagery, more than 200 in-depth interviews with survivors, and expert analysis of dozens of images showing babies and young children with terrible injuries, Amnesty International says its investigation indicates that at least 30 likely chemical attacks have taken place in the Jebel Marra since January 2016, with the most recent being September 9. But Amnesty said satellite images showed 171 villages had been destroyed or damaged in the last eight months alone, part of a large-scale military offensive launched in January against the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), which the government accuses of ambushing military convoys and attacking civilians. Amnesty's crisis research director Tirana Hassan said tens of thousands of people had been driven from their homes since the air and ground campaign began in January in Jebel Marra -- the homeland of the ethnic Fur tribe. The court issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir in 2009 for crimes against humanity and war crimes and added genocide to the charges against him in 2010. A recent United Nations report, seen Tuesday by The Associated Press, says the Sudanese government continues to violate sanctions imposed by the Security Council over their actions in Darfur. "The images and videos we have seen in the course of our research are truly shocking; in one a young child is screaming with pain before dying; many photos show young children covered in lesions and blisters. Some were unable to breath and vomiting blood,” said Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International’s Director of Crisis Research. There are no other armed actors in the area with any air force [capable of these attacks].”
Amnesty International said it had shared all of its video, photographic and testimonial evidence with two independent chemical weapons experts, and said both concluded that the injuries shown could not have been produced by conventional weapons.
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Amnesty International say dozens of children in Darfur are among more than 200 people estimated to have been killed by Sudan government chemical weapons since January.
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NIEUWEGEIN, Netherlands -- A relative of a victim of the downing of a Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine says he and other family members have been told that a Dutch-led investigation has found proof that a mobile Buk missile launcher had been moved into eastern Ukraine from Russia at the time. From that and other evidence collected by the Joint Investigation Team, "it may be concluded MH17 was shot down by a 9M38 missile launched by a Buk, brought in from the territory of the Russian Federation, and that after launch was subsequently returned to the Russian Federation," Paulissen told a news conference Wednesday in the Dutch town of Nieuwegein. Image copyright EPA Image caption This week, Russia presented radar images which it said showed the missile could not have been fired from rebel territory
21 July 2014: Four days after the tragedy, Russia's defence ministry presented satellite photos and other images suggesting it was downed by a Ukrainian surface-to-air Buk missile or a Ukrainian military jet
June 2015: Russia's Investigations Committee named a "key witness" - a Ukrainian "aircraft ordnance technician" - who claimed that the Boeing was downed by a Ukrainian Su-25 fighter
October 2015: Buk missile producer Almaz-Antey said that the plane was indeed downed by a Buk, but an old one - which Russia no longer had in its arsenal
September 2016: Russia's defence ministry released what it said were radar data suggesting MH17 was shot down by a missile, but not one fired by Russian-backed rebels
Russia's changing version of events Dutch police spokesman Thomas Aling said the investigation findings to be announced Wednesday differ in that they are designed to be solid enough to be used as evidence in a criminal trial. Moscow officials have consistently denied allegations that pro-Kremlin rebels in eastern Ukraine were responsible for downing the passenger plane. On Monday, the Russian military said it has new radio-location data that show the missile that downed the Boeing 777 did not originate from rebel-controlled territory, and said it would turn the data over to investigators. They have faced extraordinary challenges: the crime scene in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk oblast where the plane crashed on July 17, 2014, killing all aboard, was located in an active war zone, and during the days following the crash pro-Kremlin militants limited access to the site.
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Dutch-led investigators say Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was downed over eastern Ukraine in 2014 by a Buk missile that had come from Russia.
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The popular image, also known on the internet as the “sad frog,” has been used as a versatile base for memes, usually used to express emotions or experiences, since it first appeared in the online cartoon Boys Club in 2005. But recent appropriations of the smirking green frog as Adolf Hitler, a Klansman and numerous racist caricatures have earned him a spot in the Anti-Defamation League's database of hate symbols
"Once again, racists and haters have taken a popular Internet meme and twisted it for their own purposes of spreading bigotry and harassing users," Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO said in a statement . Pepe was manipulated over time to capture the range of the human experience, including Sad Frog, who was often paired with the phrases" Not Good Man," "Feels Bad Man," or "You Will Never..." to Smug Frog, Angry Pepe, Keith Haring Pepe, even Rare Pepes in the form of trading cards in an effort to cash in on the mania. "The mere fact of posting a Pepe meme does not mean that someone is racist or white supremacist," the group said. “However, if the meme itself is racist or anti-Semitic in nature, or if it appears in a context containing bigoted or offensive language or symbols, then it may have been used for hateful purposes.”
Pepe’s popularity has increased during the 2016 presidential campaign, with many supporters of Republican nominee Donald Trump using it for political memes, some of which are bigoted or anti-Semitic. Earlier this month Donald Trump Jr., son of the Republican presidential nominee, posted to Instagram a movie poster parody of himself heroically grouped with Pepe and others deemed “The Deplorables.” Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had said that half of all Donald Trump supporters are what she termed “deplorables.”
“Once again, racists and haters have taken a popular Internet meme and twisted it for their own purposes of spreading bigotry and harassing users,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s CEO. “I think he’s on a weird manifestation right now,” Mr Furie told the Washington Post, “It’s unfortunate that he’s peaking nationally in the news in this really negative way, but I think it’s just a phase.”
Because of the popularity of Pepe amongst Mr Trump’s Alt-Right supporters, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has voiced her concern about the use of the meme.
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The Anti-Defamation League declares that the "Pepe the Frog" meme is a hate symbol, particularly when used alongside other racially-charged symbolism.
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The typhoon was moving across Taiwan and expected to head into the Taiwan Strait and on towards China on Wednesday where it will make landfall in the southeastern province of Fujian. Major cities in Taiwan announced schools and offices would be shut for a second day on Wednesday as the island’s weather authorities said that due to the large diameter of the typhoon, heavy rain and strong wind would not significantly abate until Wednesday afternoon.
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Typhoon Megi makes landfall in eastern China a day after killing four people and injuring 260 on Taiwan.
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REUTERS/Stringer
BEIJING (Reuters) - Rescuers have pulled 15 people alive from a landslide that slammed into a village in China’s eastern Zhejiang province after a typhoon but 32 people are still missing there and in another nearby village, state media said on Thursday. Six people in Baofeng village in the same province were also missing after their homes were destroyed by a separate landslide, the official Xinhua news agency said.
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Rescuers save 15 people from a landslide in Sucun village in Zhejiang Province; another 26 remain missing. Six people are also missing from nearby Baofeng village.
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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities are searching for several hundred tourists after Mount Barujari on Lombok island spewed a massive column of ash into the atmosphere and have evacuated more than 1,100 others, the country’s disaster agency said Wednesday. More than 1,000 tourists including 639 foreigners were in Mount Rinjani National Park when Barujari, a smaller volcano within Mount Rinjani, began erupting on Tuesday, sending a plume of ash into the sky which fell back to coat vegetation. Nugroho said government scientists have declared a danger zone of 3 kilometers (1.6 miles) around the crater and raised the volcano’s alert to the third highest level, but some tourists did not immediately heed warnings to leave because they wanted to take photos or videos of the eruption. The eruption interrupted flights for several hours at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, about 135 kilometers (84 miles) from Lombok, and Selaparang airport in Mataram, the capital of West Nusa Tenggara province, located on Lombok Island. Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of high seismic and volcanic activity which is home to more than 400 volcanoes, including at least 129 that are still active and 65 qualified as dangerous.
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Indonesia authorities evacuate over 1,000 tourists from the island of Lombok after Mount Barujari erupts.
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The town of Lyndoch, northeast of Adelaide, has been flooded overnight, after the town's creek burst its banks. The SES issued a flood emergency warning after water levels continued to rise. 9NEWS Adelaide will air a special storm bulletin at 8.30am (ACST). Live stream it here. Two people were rescued from cars and residents urged to leave their properties. About 60km further north, another emergency warning was activated for towns along the Gilbert River. "Locations which are impacted include Saddleworth, Tarlee, Manoora, Stockport and Riverton," the SES said in a statement. Wind gusts of up to 115km/h were recorded at Ceduna just after midnight, and at Cummins at 3am. A gale warning is in place for the Upper South East Coast, while a strong wind warning exists for Adelaide Metropolitan Waters, Lower West Coast, Central Coast, South Central Coast, Spencer Gulf, Gulf St Vincent, Investigator Strait and Lower South East Coast. A number of flood warnings are also still in place, however a severe weather warning for the state has now been cancelled. For a full list of SA weather warnings, visit the BoM website . Premier Jay Weatherill is expected to visit the state's mid-north today to see the damage caused to the region's electricity infrastructure and speak with locals affected most by Wednesday's big blackout. Mr Weatherill described the storm as "catastrophic" and said it had involved weather events not seen before in South Australia, "such as twin tornadoes, which ripped through the northern parts of our state". The intense low pressure system was packing winds of up to 140km/h, among the strongest the city has experienced, prompting an unprecedented warning from police for workers to head home early and stay home amid concerns emergency services might not be able to cope. Several public schools in regional areas will remain closed, as well as school bus routes in Balaklava, Port Pirie buses, Napperby Primary School Buses and Kadina, Ardrossan and Clare buses. Meantime, tens of thousands of homes across South Australia were still without power well into the night, despite restoration to much of Adelaide and metropolitan surrounds. The Marne river near Cambrai. (Supplied: Jody Miltenoff) ()
More than 7000 homes were hit with more outages again yesterday afternoon. Aberfoyle Park, Kiana, Mount Hope, Sheringa, Melrose, Foul Bay and Flagstaff Hill were among several suburbs where power was out, which SA Power Network has attributed to “storm activity”. Transmission company ElectraNet said most services had been restored and it hoped to have one of the transmission lines repaired by Sunday, using temporary towers from interstate. The company also backed assertions from the premier that no energy system in the world could have survived such an event without going down. The State Emergency Service has responded to more than 600 calls for help. The State Emergency Service advises that people should:
Move vehicles under cover or away from trees;
Secure or put away loose items around your property. Keep clear of fallen power lines;
Don't drive, ride or walk through flood water;
Stay indoors, away from windows, while conditions are severe. You can contact SA SES on 132 500 for help. For life-threatening emergencies contact 000.
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The state of South Australia suffers widespread blackouts triggered by severe weather conditions.
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“The United States relies on principles of immunity to prevent foreign litigants and foreign courts from second-guessing our counterterrorism operations and other actions that we take every day.”
RNC chair Reince Priebus said Obama’s veto “showed remarkable disregard for the families of 9/11 victims, and the Senate has done the right thing by overwhelmingly overriding his poor decision.”
Meanwhile Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio said the override was “about holding anyone who supports terrorists accountable, and getting their victims the justice they deserve.”
Families of 9/11 victims have campaigned for the law, convinced the Saudi government had a hand in the attacks that killed almost 3,000 people. (C-SPAN2 via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate acted decisively Wednesday to override President Barack Obama's veto of Sept. 11 legislation, setting the stage for the contentious bill to become law despite flaws that Obama and top Pentagon officials warn could put U.S. troops and interests at risk. Family members who fought for the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, or JASTA, applauded and cheered after the House voted, making possible the prospects they’ll see their trillion dollar lawsuit reinstated eight years after an appellate court in New York sidelined it. “Overriding a presidential veto is something we don’t take lightly, but it was important in this case that the families of the victims of 9/11 be allowed to pursue justice, even if that pursuit causes some diplomatic discomforts,” Senator Charles Schumer, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said in a statement. “Overriding a presidential veto is something we don’t take lightly, but it was important in this case.”
After a personal appeal from Obama, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, was the lone vote against the override. Reid’s office later distributed a letter from Obama to him explaining why he vetoed the bill on Friday after both chambers passed it without opposition earlier this month.
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The United States Senate and House of Representatives override the veto of President Barack Obama in regards to the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. The act narrows the scope of the legal doctrine of foreign sovereign immunity, specifically, in this instance against the sovereign nation of Saudi Arabia. The action is the first such congressional veto override to Obama.
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Nepal on Wednesday ‘strongly urged’ that a conducive environment be created to ensure participation of all members in the next South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit in Pakistan, after four countries of the regional grouping,, including India, pulled out of the summit indirectly blaming Islamabad. Since the attack on the base in Indian Kashmir’s Uri town top Indian officials, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have said they will work to isolate Pakistan internationally, accusing that country of trying to destabilize Asia by exporting terrorism. Read: Why pulling out of Saarc meeting will not solve India’s Pakistan problem
Afghanistan, in its communication, said: “Due to increased level of violence and fighting as a result of imposed terrorism on Afghanistan, (President) Ashraf Ghani with his responsibilities as the Commander-in-Chief will be fully engaged, and will not be able to attend the Summit.”
Bhutan referred to the “recent escalation of terrorism in the region” and said this has “seriously compromised the environment for the successful holding” of the summit in Islamabad. SAARC, consisting of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, was founded in 1985 to promote economic cooperation in the region, but tensions between India and Pakistan have repeatedly blocked progress. Read: India boycotts Saarc summit: Five finer points in the diplomatic tussle
India and the three other Saarc states have clearly linked regional cooperation to an atmosphere free of terror – meaning Pakistan should stop sponsoring terrorism that is destabilising the region and stop interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.
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Members of the 19th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, scheduled to be held in Pakistan during November 2016, postpone the meeting following a Indian-led boycott, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan in response to Pakistan's alleged involvement in a deadly terrorist attack on a Indian Army base in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir, on September 18.
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Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc will pay $1.1 billion to resolve a U.S. regulator's claims that it sold toxic mortgage-backed securities to credit unions that later failed, the U.S. National Credit Union Administration said on Tuesday. Replying to a request for comment, an RBS spokesman on Tuesday pointed to comments that RBS CEO Ross McEwan made at a conference in London earlier in the day, in which he said the bank was working toward resolving various mortgage bond claims over the remainder of this year and next.
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The Royal Bank of Scotland announces that it will pay US$1.1 billion to resolve some of its mortgage claims in the United States.
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Jones praised the quick response of law enforcement officials, who were able to take the attacker into custody in a matter of minutes and without incident, saying that “lives were saved because of our responders being so well trained.”
A firefighter — later identified as Jamie Brock, a 30-year-veteran of the Townville Volunteer Fire Department — apprehended the shooter, police said. Nikki Haley (R) said in a statement Wednesday that as authorities investigate the shooting, she asked people in the state to join her and her husband “in praying for the entire Townville Elementary School family and those touched by today’s tragedy.”
[When even preschoolers must prepare for an active shooter]
Parents were told to pick up their children at a nearby church.
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A shooting at an elementary school in Townville, South Carolina, leaves two students and a teacher wounded. Police take the teenage suspect into custody. Authorities find the shooter's father dead. One of the students dies two days later.
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Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption World leaders gather for Shimon Peres state funeral
World leaders have hailed the vision of the late Israeli leader, Shimon Peres, as he was laid to rest days after his death at the age of 93. Peres was hospitalized after suffering a stroke two weeks ago and had made some progress before a sudden deterioration in his condition on Tuesday. Though he served as prime minister three times without ever winning an election outright, and shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for a peace that has yet to materialize, Peres emerged late in life as Israel’s beloved elder statesmen and a rare figure capable of uniting a fractious society. He began his career in the Defense Ministry and was the architect of Israel’s nuclear program, but in his later years Peres was more closely identified with the quest for peace with the Palestinians.
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Former President and Prime Minister of Israel, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres dies at the age of 93.
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NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Indian officials said elite troops crossed into Pakistan-ruled Kashmir on Thursday and killed suspected militants preparing to infiltrate and carry out attacks on major cities, in a surprise raid that raised tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals. Pakistan said there had been no such targeted strikes, but some military officers said it had repulsed the Indian troops and returned fire across the Line of Control, the de facto frontier that runs through the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir. An Indian military source and a government official said Indian special forces crossed the heavily militarized border by foot just after midnight and hit about half a dozen “launching pads”, where suspected militants were preparing to sneak across. India had on Tuesday announced that it was pulling out of the SAARC summit scheduled to be held in Islamabad in November after the September 18 cross-border terror attack on an Indian Army base in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir that claimed the lives of 18 Indian soldiers. The strikes also raised the possibility of a military escalation between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan that would wreck a 2003 Kashmir ceasefire. Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh, the Indian army’s director general of military operations, said the strikes were launched on Wednesday based on ‘very specific and credible information that some terrorist units had positioned themselves…with an aim to carry out infiltration and terrorist strikes’. That one country is working to deny Asia this opportunity. "The latest developments have set in the fear and tension as the deteriorating situation may trigger cross [border] artillery duels [such as] we have witnessed during the 1990s when several villagers were killed and wounded," he said. “There was tremendous pressure on the Indian prime minister to prove that he is ready to take serious action.”
The border clash also comes at a delicate time for Pakistan, with powerful Army Chief of Staff General Raheel Sharif due to retire shortly and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif still to decide on a successor. NAWAZ SHARIF REACTS
Minutes after India announced on Thursday that it carried out surgical strikes across the LoC on Wednesday night, Sharif denounced what he called was an "unprovoked and naked aggression" by Indian forces. India conducted Surgical strikes across the Line of Control in Kash
The Indian Army today said it has conducted surgical strikes on terror launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan, killing several terrorists and causing significant casualties to their hideouts. Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in full, but govern separate parts, and have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over Kashmir. Tension between the South Asian rivals has been high since an Indian crackdown on dissent in Kashmir following the killing by security forces of Burhan Wani, a young separatist leader, in July. Slideshow (3 Images)
They rose further when New Delhi blamed Pakistan for the Uri attack, which inflicted the heaviest toll on the Indian army in a single incident in 14 years. On Wednesday, officials from several countries said a November summit of a the South Asian regional group due to be held in Islamabad may be called off after India, Bangladesh and Afghanistan said they would not attend.
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The Indian Army claims it conducted surgical strikes on militant camps in Pakistan across the Line of Control, allegedly-killing several suspected militants. However, Pakistan rejects this claim and terms it cross-border firing that killed two of its soldiers.
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(Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP)
BEIRUT (AP) — Government shelling and airstrikes in Syria's eastern rebel-held Aleppo landed near a bread distribution center and two hospitals Wednesday, killing seven people and putting at least one of the medical facilities completely out of service, activists and medics said.
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A video from besieged eastern Aleppo's al-Shaar neighborhood emerges showing the moment a young girl, identified as Ghazal Qasim, trapped beneath rubble of a five floor building blown to smithereens by a deadly Assad government's bunker buster bomb attack on September 27, is rescued by the Syrian Civil Defense, better known as the white helmets.
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Four days later, rescue workers were still digging Friday through the rubble of the apartment building after pulling out the bodies of 20 people, including nine children, most from Ghazl’s family. At least 96 children are among the 320 people killed in Aleppo since a cease-fire collapsed on Sept. 19, according to UNICEF, as Syrian and Russian warplanes barrage the city’s eastern opposition neighborhoods, trying to crush more than five years of resistance there. “Aleppo is one of the most dangerous places in the world, and in the last week it has become perhaps the most dangerous place in the world for children.” Juliette Touma, regional chief of communications for the U.N children’s agency told The Associated Press. At first nothing can be seen of the young girl, identified as Ghazal Qasim, covered in dust and trapped under huge pieces of rubble. The agency cited a doctor on the ground as saying that children with low chances of survival are often left to die because of a lack of capacity or supplies. Many just huddle with their parents in windowless underground shelters — which offer no protection from the powerful bombs that have turned east Aleppo into a kill zone. But lately on the eastern side, Mr. McDonald said, “the bombing has become so intense that even underground shelters aren’t safe any more.” Save the Children has said that at several hospitals and ambulance centres it supports in eastern Aleppo, half of the casualties have been children since the bombings escalated after the collapse of a short-lived cease-fire last week. Now he’s seeing a spike in wounded children in intensive care, from four or five a month to four or five a day.
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The UN's children's charity UNICEF has called the effect of the war in Aleppo on children as the worst seen since the conflict began, and says at least 96 children have been killed and 223 have been injured in Eastern Aleppo September 23.
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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into possible antitrust violations by Chesapeake Energy Corp. 2 U.S. natural gas producer said in May that it had received subpoenas and demands for documents from the DoJ and some state government agencies in connection with investigations into possible violations of antitrust laws relating to the purchase and lease of oil and natural gas rights. Chesapeake had also received subpoenas from the DoJ, the U.S. (bit.ly/2dnnspG)
The company said in a regulatory filing on Thursday it had engaged in discussions with the DoJ, the U.S. Postal Service and state agency representatives and continue to respond to such subpoenas and demands.
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The Obama administration through the United States Department of Justice sends a subpoena to natural gas giant Chesapeake Energy regarding the accounting methods for its oil and gas properties.
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Samsung Electronics, which is already reeling from a global recall of its Note 7 smartphones, said on Thursday it is in talks with a U.S. watchdog to address potential safety problems related to some of its washing machines. The South Korean tech company’s comments came as the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) warned of problems with some of Samsung’s top-load washing machines, following media reports that they had exploded. In a statement released on its website, CPSC said it is “actively and cooperatively working with Samsung to address safety issues related to certain top-load washing machines made between March 2011 and April 2016.”
It did not specify which models are potentially dangerous, but the lawsuit alleged there were at least 11. Samsung said it was in "active discussions" with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to address potential safety issues of some of its top-load washing machines manufactured between March 2011 and April 2016. bit.ly/2db232k
"Affected units may experience abnormal vibrations that could pose a risk of personal injury or property damage when washing bedding, bulky or water-resistant items," the company said. The commission suggested people use only the delicate cycle to wash bedding and water-resistant and bulky items because the lower spin speed "lessens the risk of impact injuries or property damage due to the washing machine becoming dislodged." On its website, Samsung says people can enter their 15-digit serial number located at the rear of the washer to verify whether their washing machine is part of the notice. Samsung is also facing a lawsuit from U.S. customers who, according to a filing in a New Jersey court on Aug. 12., said their machines “explode during normal use.”
Samsung, the world’s top smartphone maker, announced on Sept. 2 a global recall of at least 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 smartphones in 10 markets due to faulty batteries causing some phones to catch fire.
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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warns that Samsung washing machines may explode if washing heavy load items at high speeds.
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HOBOKEN, N.J. (AP) " The Latest on a commuter train that crashed into a station in New Jersey, killing one person and injuring more than 100 others (all times local):
7:50 p.m.
New Jersey Transit has identified the engineer who was behind the controls of a commuter train that crashed at a station, killing one person and injuring more than 100 others. ___
6:40 p.m.
A former employer of a woman killed when a New Jersey Transit commuter train crashed at a station says it's "profoundly saddened" by her death. New Jersey's emergency management system was reporting more than 100 people injured, while the New Jersey transit service said there were "multiple" injuries, ABC News reported. Images from the scene show damage to the rail car and extensive structural damage, but there's no official word on the number of injuries. “It was for a couple seconds, but it felt like an eternity.”
He said the train was crowded, particularly the first two cars, because they make for an easy exit into the Hoboken station and onto the Path train. “A lot of people were bleeding; one guy was crying.”
The train came to a halt in a covered area between the station’s indoor waiting area and the platform. "People were running up the stairs to get out," with "others pushing to get through first," WFAN Radio sportscaster John Minko, who was at the station, told Fox News. Train #1614 was arriving from Spring Valley when it struck the Hoboken terminal building at around 8.45 am (6.15 pm), New Jersey Transit said in a statement, adding that all services were currently suspended in and out of the station. Authorities had previously said one person was killed and more than 100 people were injured. He said he had been contacted by the White House and was working with federal, state and local authorities to “make sure this investigation is seamless and coordinated.”
Structural damage and the possible presence of asbestos had prevented investigators from accessing the train cars, Bella Dinh-Zarr, vice chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters. "Due to a NJ Transit train derailment at #Hoboken Station, NJ, all PATH train service in and out of Hoboken Station is suspended," New York's official emergency information system tweeted. "My 30-minute commute is turning into at least an hour and a half," said Steve Malfitano, who had to go into New York just to get from one New Jersey city to another. “We plowed, I mean, right through the bumper.”
Investigators will be looking for similarities to a 2011 PATH commuter train crash at Hoboken that injured several dozen people, Dinh-Zarr said. The New Jersey Transit train ran off the end of its track as it pulled into the Hoboken station during rush hour Thursday morning, smashing through a concrete-and-steel bumper.
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A commuter train accident at the Hoboken Terminal in New Jersey leaves one woman dead and 114 others injured. Major structural damage occurs to the station with portions of the roof collapsed.
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Tropical storm-force winds extend outward just 45 miles from the storm’s center, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, which is monitoring the storm after it re-entered the Eastern Pacific basin Tuesday. The fifth Atlantic hurricane of the season and 13th storm was about 190 miles northeast of Curacao and was traveling west at 15 mph with 75 mph sustained winds, according to the center.
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center issues a Tropical Storm Watch for Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao islands in the Caribbean Sea, and for the northwest South American coast.
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Proving pundits wrong and overcoming skepticism, two days of round-the-clock deliberations in Algiers brought about a landmark agreement in which the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to slash output. “OPEC made an exceptional decision today ... After two and a half years, OPEC reached consensus to manage the market,” said Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, who had repeatedly clashed with Saudi Arabia during previous meetings. OPEC could announce an output-freeze deal on Wednesday in Algeria, although full details are unlikely to be firmed up before a formal meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in November, two OPEC sources said. Responding to the news, oil prices jumped more than five per cent to trade above $48 per barrel after the outcome of OPEC’s informal meeting in Algeria took traders by surprise. Many traders said they were impressed OPEC had managed to reach a compromise after years of wrangling but others said they wanted to see the details. Ministers from the oil cartel reached a preliminary deal Wednesday in Algeria to cut production for the first time since the global financial crisis eight years ago.
• Nigeria, Iran, Libya may be allowed to produce at maximum levels
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) wednesday agreed to cut its oil output for the first time since 2008, with Saudi Arabia softening its stance on arch-rival Iran amid mounting pressure from low oil prices, reported AFP. That represents a strategy shift for Riyadh, which has said it would reduce output to ease a global glut only if every other OPEC and non-OPEC producer followed suit. The main concern ahead of the meeting centered on Iran, which has been resistant to cutting production, as it’s trying to restore its oil industry since emerging from international sanctions over its nuclear program earlier this year. The Saudi and Iranian economies depend heavily on oil, but in a post-sanctions environment, Iran is suffering less pressure from the halving in crude prices since 2014 and its economy could expand by almost four per cent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, faces a second year of budget deficits after a record gap of $98 billion last year, a stagnating economy and is being forced to cut the salaries of government employees.
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Former Prime Minister of Iran and one of the founders of OPEC Jamshid Amouzegar, who was involved in the 1975 OPEC siege, dies at the age of 93.
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Cellino recently took 100% control of Leeds United
Controversial Leeds owner Massimo Cellino, meanwhile, was filmed by the Telegraph offering undercover reporters posing as an investment firm a way to get around FA and Fifa third-party ownership rules. Barnsley acted swiftly to suspend Wright pending an internal investigation, after he was filmed apparently telling reporters posing as members of a prospective Far East investment firm: “I can just recommend players to you... that I’ve gone and seen, and then you’ll have to do your spicy dealing, whatever you do.”
At a later meeting, when an envelope was offered that the Telegraph said contained bank notes, Wright said: “Cheers, just put it there” - indicating a seat alongside him. He was introduced to undercover reporters by two football agents and reportedly agreed in a series of meetings to identify players who could be “put into” Barnsley and help get players to sign up with the fictitious firm. PAUL HECKINGBOTTOM has stressed that he and his Barnsley players will ‘stay strong’ amid unsavoury national headlines that culminated in the club’s dismissal of assistant head coach Tommy Wright following corruption allegations. It is claimed former Chelsea player Hasselbaink agreed to fly to the Far East to talk to investors for £55,000 a time, whilst controversial Italian Cellino reportedly discussed a way that his club could get around Football Association rules on third-party ownership of players. On Wednesday a spokesman for Wright told the Daily Telegraph: “Any suggested acts contrary to criminal law or those of the FA and Fifa are categorically denied.”
The accusations come a day after Sam Allardyce lost his ‘dream job’ as England boss after an undercover sting revealed he agreed to offer advice on how to “get around” rules on player transfers.
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Barnsley F.C. fires assistant manager Tommy Wright as further allegations of corruption in English football are reported.
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Southampton have pledged to assist the English Football Association and Premier League after releasing a statement saying assistant manager Eric Black was to be named in the Daily Telegraph’s ongoing investigations into football. Eric Black was in charge of Aston Villa when their top-flight relegation was confirmed last season
Southampton assistant manager Eric Black gave undercover reporters advice on how to bribe officials at other clubs, the Daily Telegraph has claimed. “They won’t have an awful lot of money.”
Former Aberdeen striker Black quotes a figure of “a couple of grand”, which the Telegraph claims was his suggestion of a suitable payment to an unnamed assistant coach at a Championship side in return for introducing players to the undercover reporters’ fictitious agency. Prior to Thursday's publication of the Telegraph's latest revelations, Premier League side Southampton issued a statement saying: "Southampton Football Club has today been made aware by The Daily Telegraph that, as part of their ongoing investigation, the club's assistant first team manager Eric Black will feature as part of an article in tomorrow's (Friday's) paper. “The club immediately requested to be sent, by The Daily Telegraph, the details of this article, but the newspaper declined to share any further information. Southampton pre-empted the implicating of Black with a statement which said the club “intends to work closely with both bodies (The FA and Premier League) on this matter when the facts become clear. “Southampton Football Club is fully committed to investigating any situation that directly or indirectly relates to our club, employees or the wider community.”
According to the Telegraph, Black - a distinguished player with Aberdeen during his career - attended a meeting arranged by Scott McGarvey, the football agent who also teed-up the Allardyce meeting.
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Undercover press reporters make allegations of corruption against Southampton F.C. assistant manager Eric Black.
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Image copyright AFP Image caption A Rafale fighter takes off from the Charles de Gaulle in the Mediterranean sea the day before the operation
France has begun air operations over Iraq from the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, reports say. A number of Rafale fighter planes took off from the carrier early on Friday, news agency AFP said. The Charles de Gaulle, France's only aircraft carrier, was sent to the region earlier in September. This is its third mission with the US-led coalition since France stepped up military operations after the January 2015 Paris attacks. Iraqi forces have gained significant ground in the battle for Mosul, which was occupied by IS in June 2014, and are expected to launch an offensive to retake the city soon. AFP quoted an officer on board, who said the planes would take part in an attack on Mosul, an IS stronghold in Iraq. However, a French defence official told the Associated Press that Friday's mission was "in no way" the start of a battle for Mosul. He said the ministry would not provide details of the operation for the security reasons. French radio station RTL reported (in French) that 24 aircraft will take part in today's operation, with a sortie every three minutes, on average. It also said the fighters were armed with four 250kg laser-guided bombs each. The Charles de Gaulle is a 38,000-tonne ship powered by two nuclear reactors. It has more than 1,900 crew, and is 260 metres (850ft) long.
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France conducts airstrikes against ISIL positions in Iraq from the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.
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Deutsche, which is Germany’s largest bank and employs around 100,000 people, has been engulfed by crisis after being handed the demand for up to $14 billion earlier in September by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for misselling mortgage-backed securities before the financial crisis. Shares in Deutsche Bank recovered somewhat on Friday from a record low early in the day after a report that it was close to a cut-price settlement of $5.4 billion instead of $14 billion. Germany's Finance Ministry declined to comment on Friday on a report that Deutsche Bank was close to a $5.4 billion settlement with U.S. authorities over alleged misselling of mortgage-backed securities. The government denied a newspaper report on Wednesday that it was working on a rescue plan for Germany's biggest bank, as its shares went into a tailspin fueled by a demand for up to $14 billion from U.S. authorities for misselling mortgage-backed securities before the financial crisis.
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The Obama administration through the United States Department of Justice lowers the fine against Germany's Deutsche Bank to a settlement of US$5.4 billion after being handed a demand for up to $14 billion earlier this month over the sale of toxic mortgage bonds.
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With Matthew about 420 miles southeast of Kingston, the U.S. National Hurricane Center downgraded its designation to a Category 4, from the top Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, but Jamaican authorities said they were taking all possible precautions. The storm had winds of 140 mph (220 kph) as it moved northwest and the center was expected to pass across or very close to the southwestern tip of Haiti late Monday before reaching Cuba, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. "The hurricane will cause an interruption, obviously, in our economic activities here," Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness told Reuters in an interview on Saturday, saying that tourism and agriculture could be most affected. Simultaneously, the storm is forecast to lash southern Haiti, possibly dumping up to 40 inches of rain there and up to 25 inches in Jamaica, which could trigger life-threatening landslides and floods, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
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Hurricane Matthew becomes a category-5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds up to 160 mph, the strongest hurricane to form over the Caribbean Sea since Hurricane Felix in 2007. It is expected to impact parts of Haiti, Jamaica and eastern Cuba.
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Video: Philippines' president invokes Hitler, says 'happy' to slaughter millions of drug users
Rodrigo Duterte appears to liken himself to Adolf Hitler, saying that he would kill three million drug addicts in the Philippines similar to the Holocaust State Department spokesman Mark Toner on Friday said Duterte’s comments, in a rambling speech on his arrival in Davao City after a visit to Vietnam, were “a significant departure” from America’s partnership with the Philippines “and we find them troubling.”
Duterte told reporters that he had been “portrayed to be a cousin of Hitler” by critics. Spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon says Saturday Israel is convinced that President Duterte “will find a way to clarify his words.”
On Friday, the outspoken Duterte said “Hitler massacred 3 million Jews … there’s 3 million drug addicts. I’d be happy to slaughter them.”
Duterte, under fire for extra-judicial killings in the drug war, was referring to the estimated number of drug addicts in the country. While Hitler’s victims were innocent people, Duterte said his targets are “all criminals” and that getting rid of them would “finish the (drug) problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition.”
Germany’s government slammed Duterte’s comments as unacceptable, and called in the Philippine ambassador to the Foreign Ministry over the matter. Since Duterte came to power on June 30, police have killed more than 1,200 people and about 1,800 others have died in unexplained circumstances, according to official figures. I would like (them) to be all criminals to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition.’
Duterte was voted to power in a May election on the back of a vow to end drugs and corruption in the country of 100 million people. Do not be the policeman because you do not have the eligibility to do that in my country.”
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Digital Terrorism and Hate project, called them “outrageous.”
“Duterte owes the victims (of the Holocaust) an apology for his disgusting rhetoric,” Cooper said. The Anti-Defamation League, an international Jewish group based in the United States, said Duterte’s comments were “shocking for their tone-deafness.”
“The comparison of drug users and dealers to Holocaust victims is inappropriate and deeply offensive,” said Todd Gutnick, the group’s director of communications. “It is baffling why any leader would want to model himself after such a monster.”
Duterte has said there will be no annual war games between the Philippines and the United States until the end of his six-year term, and his hostility may make Washington’s strategy of rebalancing its military focus toward Asia in the face of an increasingly assertive China more difficult to achieve.
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President Rodrigo Duterte likens himself to Adolf Hitler saying he would "be happy" to kill 3 million drug users and dealers in the country. United Nations adviser Adama Dieng cautions Duterte that his use of language could lead to "crimes against humanity".
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He was arrested in the provincial capital of Kunming, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) away, on Thursday, a few hours after the bodies from different households were discovered.
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China arrests a man, Yang Qingpei, for killing his parents and then killing 17 neighbors in an attempt to cover up his crime in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province.
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MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Latest on Chief Justice Roy Moore's removal from Alabama Supreme Court bench over gay marriage (all times local):
Roy Moore has issued a statement after being permanently suspended as Alabama chief justice for ethics violations. (Mickey Welsh/Montgomery Advertiser via AP)
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was removed from the bench Friday for defying the U.S. Supreme Court on gay marriage, more than a decade after he got in trouble for refusing federal orders to move a Ten Commandments monument. It's the second time Moore has been removed from the chief justice job for defiance of federal courts - the first time in 2003 for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building. The outspoken Christian conservative was ousted from office in 2013 for his stand in defense of the 2 ½ ton monument he had installed in the state judicial building, but voters later re-elected him. The judiciary court ruled that Moore defied law already clearly settled by the high court's Obergefell vs. Hodges ruling when he told Alabama's probate judges six months later that they were still bound by a 2015 state court order to deny marriage licenses to gays and lesbians. "We likewise do not accept Chief Justice Moore's repeated argument that the disclaimer in paragraph 10 of the January 6, 2016, order - in which Chief Justice Moore asserted he was 'not at liberty to provide any guidance ... of the effect of Obergefell on the existing orders of the Alabama Supreme Court' - negated the reality that Chief Justice More was in fact 'ordering and directing' the probate judges to comply with the API orders regardless of Obergefell or the injunction in Strawser (federal case in Alabama)." “We find that, when coupled with the intentional omission of binding federal authority, the clear purpose of the Jan. 6, 2016, order was to order and direct the probate judges — most of whom have never been admitted to practice law in Alabama — to stop complying with binding federal law until the Alabama Supreme Court decided what effect that federal law would have,” the Alabama Court of the Judiciary writes. Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which filed the original complaint against Moore that led to the JIC charges against the chief justice stated this moring that the COJ "has done the citizens of Alabama a great service by suspending Roy Moore from the bench." Moore said the decision violates the standards of evidence and the requirement of a unanimous vote to remove a judge, and his lawyer announced an appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court. In May, the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission filed a complaint with the Alabama Court of the Judiciary against Moore for violating judicial ethics by ordering the state to ignore federal court rulings in favor of same-sex marriage. By the end of his term in 2019, he'll be beyond the age limit of 70 for judges, unless voters raise the limit in November. Moore testified Wednesday that the Jan. 6 order was just a status report to the probate judges and he wasn't ordering them to defy the federal courts. In the years after his first removal, Moore ran twice for governor, though he finished far behind in the Republican primaries.
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The Alabama Court of the Judiciary finds Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore guilty of six charges of violation of canon of judicial ethics and suspends him for the remainder of his term which is slated to end in 2019. The judge told other judges to ignore the Supreme Court of the United States ruling on gay marriage (Obergefell v. Hodges).
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The three-tonne probe blasted off aboard an an Ariane V rocket from Kourou, French Guiana in 2004 20/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission Rosetta orbiter deploying the Philae lander to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, the spacecraft measures 32 m across including the solar arrays, while the comet nucleus is thought to be about 4 km wide 21/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission The spacecraft, festooned with 25 instruments between its lander and orbiter (including three from NASA), is programmed to 'wake up' from hibernation 22/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission An Ariane V carrying the three-tonne probe Rosetta blasting off from Kourou, beginning a decade-long quest to hunt a comet in the depths of the Solar System and shadow it around the Sun in a bid to tease out secrets of how life began on Earth 1/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission Image of Comet 67P/CG taken by the Philae lander from a distance of approximately 3km from the surface 2/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission Rosetta's lander Philae took this parting shot of its mothership shortly after separation 3/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission Parting shot of the Philae lander after separation, captured by one of Rosetta's cameras 4/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission A technician celebrates after the successful landing of the Philae lander, in the control room at the ESA headquarters in Darmstadt Reuters 5/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission Scientists celebrate at a mission observation centre in Toulouse, southern France as they receive information that Philae has landed on the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet AP 6/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission Astronomer Klim Ivanovych Churyumov, who discovered the comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 1969, reacts after the successful landing of the Philae lander on the comet Reuters 7/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission A model demonstrates how the landing device Philae, of the space probe Rosetta, stands on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at the press center of the satellite control center of the European Space Agency in Darmstadt, Germany EPA 8/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission An artist impression of Rosetta's lander Philae on the surface of comet Getty Images 9/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission Picture taken on October 28 by the navigation camera on Rosetta shows the boulder-strewn neck region of comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Farewell Rosetta, you’ve done the job, that was space science at its best.”
Scientists faced a nail-biting 40 minute wait for confirmation that it had touched down and to see the last images captured by Rosetta, taken around 15 metres from the comet’s surface. The spacecraft and its lander, which bounced onto the surface of the comet on November, 2014, have produced a wealth of data providing valuable clues about the origins of the solar system and life on Earth. Scientists have already heralded a number of discoveries about the chemical composition of the comet that provide crucial insights into the formation of the solar system and theories about the origin of life on Earth. “That’s nothing like what we imagined.”
One of the crucial differences between Rosetta and previous missions was the probe’s ability to study one comet for an extended period of time. Professor Monica Grady, a space scientist at the Open University who works on Ptolemy, one of Philae’s gas and dust detectors, recalls being “knocked out” by the first detailed surface imagery.
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The European Space Agency's Rosetta space probe ends its 12-year mission studying comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in a "collision maneuver" into the comet's surface.
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The Kingdom of Jordan, like all of FIFA’s 211 member associations, believes in this power of football, which is why the Middle East nation rallied, invested and laboured for years to deliver the biggest sports event of their history and the first ever FIFA women’s football tournament in the region – the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Jordan 2016.
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2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, the first ever FIFA women’s football tournament in the Middle East, kicks off in Jordan.
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In a statement late on Saturday, the coalition said the vessel belonged to the UAE Marine Dredging Company "on its usual route to and from Aden to transfer relief and medical aid and evacuate wounded civilians to complete their treatment outside Yemen." The vessel, an Australian-built high speed logistics catamaran under lease to the United Arab Emirates military, was attacked by Houthi fighters near the Bab al-Mandab strait off Yemen's southern coast on Saturday. A military source said Ansarullah fighters and allied army forces launched rockets at an HSV-2 Swift hybrid catamaran operated by the Emirati navy off the shores of the Red Sea port city of Mokha early on Saturday, al-Masirah television reported. "In any case, the Yemeni people consider the Emiratis and Saudis their enemies and so anything belonging to them is a legitimate target," said al-Bukhaiti, speaking to CNN by phone Sunday from the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, which is run by Houthi rebels since they seized it last year. A senior Emirati military commander and three Saudi-backed foreign mercenaries had been killed in an attack by Yemeni forces in the Dhubab district of the southwestern province of Ta’izz two months earlier.
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Houthi forces launch rockets that hit and reportedly destroy HSV-2 Swift, a military vessel belonging to the United Arab Emirates Navy, off the coast of Yemen, near the strategic Red Sea port of Mokha.
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Hospital manager Dr Abu Rajan told local media that about 10 people at the hospital had been injured after it was hit by barrel bombs - improvised devices dropped from helicopters - cluster munitions, and a chlorine bomb. Another three medical facilities in al-Shaar neighborhood -- a women's hospital, a children's hospital and the central blood bank -- were also hit Friday, Sahloul said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Syrian military said the Army and its allies had advanced south from the Handarat refugee camp north of Aleppo city, which they took earlier this week, taking the Kindi hospital and parts of the Shuqaif industrial area. In this August 27 photo provided by the Syrian anti-government activist group Aleppo Media Center (AMC), shows a Syrian man carrying a girl away from the rubble of a destroyed building after barrel bombs were dropped on the Bab al-Nairab neighborhood in Aleppo, Syria.
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Russian and Syrian government attacks on rebel-held east Aleppo kill two people and injure 13 others. The Syrian American Medical Society reports the city's main trauma hospital closes.
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Story highlights Four people are killed and five injured in blast in Mogadishu, Somalia
Car bomb explodes near prison where militant Al-Shabaab suspects are questioned
Mogadishu, Somalia (CNN) The Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for a car bombing that killed four people Saturday in the Somali capital. The car was parked in front of the Blue Sky restaurant, near a busy road close to the headquarters of the Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) in the southern district of the capital. Abdifatah Omar, a spokesman for Mogadishu’s local government, said at the scene that three people had been confirmed dead so far and four others were injured.
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A car bomb at a Mogadishu restaurant near the Jilaow detention center kills four people and injures another five. Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for the attack.
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A Somali regional government official has demanded an explanation from the US after 22 civilians and Somali soldiers were reportedly killed in an airstrike. Officials in the semi-autonomous region of Galmudug accused neighbouring Puntland of misleading the US into believing they had targeted extremists. The Somali military confirmed its soldiers were killed in the strike. Washington says the strike killed nine al-Shabab militants, but that it was investigating. Residents in the city of Galkayo in the Galmudug region protested against the strike by burning American flags on Thursday. "The cabinet requests the US government give a clear explanation about the attack its planes carried out on the Galmudug forces," a government statement said. Al-Shabab had said it did not have any of its supporters in the area during the time of the bombing which took place late on Tuesday night. A Somali military general confirmed their statement on Thursday, saying there were no militants in the area.
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A Somalian regional government demands an explanation from the United States after an airstrike kills 22 civilians and other soldiers instead of the targeted Al-Shabaab militants in Galmudug.
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SAN FRANCISCO — Volkswagen has agreed to pay its U.S. dealers up to $1.2 billion to compensate them for losses they said they suffered as a result of the company’s emissions cheating scandal, according to a settlement agreement filed Friday in federal court in San Francisco. A judge still has to approve the settlement before it can go into effect. Volkswagen declined comment beyond a statement it issued Friday noting that the settlement “is not intended to apply to or affect Volkswagen’s obligations under the laws or regulations of any jurisdiction outside the United States.”
The automaker previously reached an agreement with attorneys for U.S. vehicle owners. Also on Friday, attorneys for vehicle owners said in a court filing that more than 311,000 people have registered for compensation under automaker’s vehicle-owner deal and less than 3,300 people have opted out. Separately, the U.S. Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission and lawyers for owners of 475,000 polluting diesel cars filed legal papers late Friday asking a federal judge to grant final approval to buy-back offers and diesel remediation efforts at an Oct. 18 court hearing.
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Volkswagen agrees to pay its U.S. dealers up to US$1.2 billion to compensate them for their losses resulting from the company's emissions cheating scandal.
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Residents in the state of Colima, Mexico have been forced to evacuate their homes as one of the most active volcanoes in Central America started to violently erupt on Friday spewing a large plume of ash and thick black smoke into the sky. Luis Felipe Puente, head of national emergency services, told Reuters that some 350 villagers living in the shadow of the volcano in the towns of La Yerbabuena and La Becerrera have been evacuated to a nearby shelter. MEXICO CITY — Eruptions at the Colima volcano in western Mexico have led authorities to evacuate two small hamlets on the volcano's slopes.
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Mexico's Volcán de Colima erupts forcing the evacuation of two nearby villages.
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Pedro Sanchez, who had fought to retain the leadership of the PSOE since a coup against him erupted this week, stepped down after a long and bitter meeting of the party’s federal executive committee on Saturday. So Sánchez, with the support of the other half of the PSOE, has been barricading himself – quite literally, until this week − inside the party’s headquarters in Madrid. “That is how I say goodbye, sure of the fact that it has been an honour to be secretary general of the Socialist Party.”
Pressure had started to build on Mr Sánchez following disappointing results in December and June’s inconclusive general elections. Sánchez responded to complaints about the weekend’s performance and his leadership by calling a snap leadership election for later this month, hoping his enemies in the party would not have time to prepare a rival candidacy. A few hours earlier, 17 members of the socialist executive had resigned in a bid to unseat the leader, and as Sánchez and another 17 loyalists stood firm, an all-out, very public, war had been unleashed in the heart of the party. Hopes for an end to Spain’s nine-month political deadlock have risen after the shattered Socialist Workers’ party deposed its leader over his pointblank refusal to allow the acting prime minister to form a government. However, the most immediate challenge for Sánchez, the man many blame for Spain’s unprecedented political impasse, is to survive an emergency meeting of the party’s federal committee today.
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The leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, Pedro Sánchez, resigns.
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Cruz has railed against the Obama administration's plan to halt U.S. oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) on Oct. 1, turning supervision of the organization over to private organizations and businesses. The US government has ceded control of the technical management of the internet, in what has been called the “most significant change in the internet's functioning for a generation”. The request for a temporary restraining order, which was heard in a federal court in Galveston, Texas, Friday afternoon, alleged that the action overstepped U.S. government authority and would harm users of .gov domains, including the states that filed the lawsuit. ICANN, a California-based nonprofit, manages the database for top-level domain names such as .com and .net and their corresponding numeric addresses that allow computers to connect. After the transfer, ICANN will be governed by a collection of academics, technical experts, private industry and government representatives, public interest advocates and individual users around the world, in what it calls a “multi-stakeholder process.”
Federal officials began discussing a plan to move ICANN under international oversight in the 1990s, and rolled out a formal plan in March 2014. Conservatives in the U.S. Congress, led by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, sought to prevent the handover earlier in September by attaching an amendment to an unrelated stop-gap funding bill for the U.S. government.
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The Obama administration through the United States Department of Commerce transfers oversight of the technical management of the Internet by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to an international consortium of stakeholders.
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Mayo have that mountain climbed it seems, back to a one-point game, Dublin up 1-12 to 1-11, thanks to a massive points from Patrick Durcan, and apparently Mayo have the momentum too. What the game also told me is the new generation of Dublin footballers – Brian Fenton David Byrne and particularly Ciarán Kilkenny – have, despite their young age, become central figures in Jim Gavin’s team. Dublin's Kevin McManamon and Mayo's Aidan O'Shea fight for the ball in the All-Ireland final replay at Croke Park
Mayo got the deficit back to a point on two occasions in the last 10 minutes as Dublin went 12 minutes without scoring but Costello got his third point in the 71st minute. In the end, Dublin's stronger bench proved decisive as Cormac Costello came on to kick the champions' three final scores from play. MAYO: R Hennelly, P Durcan (0-2), K Higgins, B Harrison; L Keegan (1-0), C Boyle, D Vaughan; S O’Shea, T Parsons; D O’Connor (0-1), K McLoughlin (0-1), J Doherty; A Moran (0-1), A O’Shea, C O’Connor (0-9 all frees). Another massive psychological blow to Mayo, another fillip in Dublin’s game, then not long into the second half, Hennelly’s confidence cracks completely, when he fumbles a short ball from Paul Flynn, and with that pulls down Paddy Andrews, earning himself a black-card. Dublin’s John Small is one man lucky to be still on the field, but after another confusing kick-out from Hennelly, Keegan is seen to pull down on Diarmuid Connolly, not to the ground it seems, but enough to earn a black card nonetheless. 2: Mayo then ask the first big question of Dublin: After 18 minutes, Aidan O’Shea collects a ball on the 45m line, spins away from Cian O’Sullivan, and out of nowhere comes Lee Keegan to fetch the ball and with that score a stunning goal, shooting low and just perfectly left past the helpless Stephen Cluxton. Lee Keegan of Mayo celebrates after scoring Mayo's goal during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Final replay
That goal put them into the lead for the first time in the game as Dublin started brightly and were 0-4 to no-score up after five minutes.
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Dublin defeats Mayo in the 2016 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, retaining the Sam Maguire Cup for the first time since 1977.
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AFL grand final: Western Bulldogs' moments of magic that decided the 2016 premiership
Updated
Grand finals are made of moments, each of which is pored over for months and years in the search for the whys of the day. At the time the Dogs looked to be pulling away, and though they did not (not at that point, anyway) they had laid down a marker to the Swans and proved they were not going to be scared into their shells. The Sydney Swans - once the South Melbourne Football Club - will take on the Western Bulldogs - formerly Footscray - in the game which will decide the 2016 AFL Premiership. Wood stood up time and again during the game, but the skipper made his biggest mark earliest and the Bulldogs never looked back. If the grand final was purely a numbers game, Sydney would have the Western Bulldogs' measure. Lance Franklin has kicked 80 goals this season at 60.2% and finished second for most goals kicked in 2016 behind West Coast's Joshua Kennedy (82 goals). No team wins all of them on grand final day, but usually the team that wins the most will go home with the cup.
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In Australian Rules football, the Western Bulldogs defeat the Sydney Swans to win their first premiership since 1954.
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In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte 1/10 Isis in Sirte Isis fighters parade through in Sirte in 2015 2/10 Isis in Sirte Islamic State (IS) group jihadists on the outskirts of Libya's western city of Sirte AFP/Getty 3/10 Isis in Sirte A photo of a billboard in Sirte, Libya, listing seven rules for women's clothing, saying they must be loose-fitting and undecorated HRW/social media 4/10 Isis in Sirte Isis militants process down a street in the coastal city of Sirte in Libya this week; the group has heralded Libya as its ‘strategic gateway’ to attack Europe AFP/Getty Images 5/10 Isis in Sirte An Isis lecture on Sharia at the Ouagadougou complex in Sirte, Libya, in 2016. Fighters loyal to Libya’s Government of National Accord help a wounded comrade after he was shot by a Daesh sniper on the western frontline in Sirte on Sunday (AFP photo)
TRIPOLI — A Dutch journalist was killed by sniper fire on Sunday while covering clashes in Libya’s coastal city of Sirte, as unity government forces battled the Daesh terror group holdouts in the city. Dr Akram Gliwan, spokesman for a hospital in Misrata where pro-government fighters are treated, told AFP that photographer Jeroen Oerlemans was "shot in the chest by an IS sniper while covering battles in Sirte" 450 kilometres (280 miles) east of Tripoli. Forces loyal to the Government of National Accord (GNA), who reported eight soldiers killed and 57 wounded on Sunday, said vehicles, arms and ammunition were seized in the latest round of an assault launched on May 12 and executed in phases to recapture Sirte from IS. The Misrata-led forces said in a statement posted on social media that they had conducted air sorties in preparation for a ground offensive on Sunday in Sirte's neighborhood Number Three. The Committee to Protect Journalists noted that Oerlemans' death marked at least the 10th journalist, along with one media worker, killed in the Libyan conflict since it began in 2011.
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An ISIL sniper in Sirte, Libya, shoots dead Dutch photographer and war correspondent Jeroen Oerlemans.
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Matthew, which has sustained winds of 140 mph (220kph), is one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in recent history and briefly reached the top classification, category 5, becoming the strongest hurricane in the region since Felix in 2007 The eye of the approaching Category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (230 kph) late Sunday, was expected to pass to the east of Jamaica and then cross over or be very close to the southwestern tip of Haiti late Monday or early Tuesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. The latest forecast had Matthew's path passing closer to Haiti than before and the center issued a hurricane warning for Jamaica and "much of Haiti," and said life-threatening rainfall was expected in parts of the impoverished Caribbean nation. In Haiti, civil protection officials broadcast warnings of a coming storm surge and big waves, saying the country would be "highly threatened" from the approaching system, which is expected to start affecting Haiti and Jamaica Sunday night. The center was expected to pass about 50 miles east of the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, where authorities evacuated about 700 spouses and children of service members on military transport planes to Florida.
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Hurricane Matthew, at Category 4 strength with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (240 km/h), temporarily stalls as it heads towards Jamaica and Haiti. Weather forecasters expect tropical storm conditions today with landfall tomorrow. Further, they expect rainfall of 20 inches, with up to 40 inches in some parts of southern Haiti.
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Merera Gudina, chairperson of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress, told Reuters news agency at least 50 people were killed when people fled after police fired tear gas and shots in the air to disperse anti-government protesters at a crowded religious festival. Read more: Ottawa urged to advocate for human rights in Ethiopia
An estimated 2 million people were attending the annual Irrecha thanksgiving festival in the town of Bishoftu, southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa, when people began chanting slogans against the government, according to witnesses. Police demanded that the photographer leave the scene, where rubber bullets were seen strewn on the ground. Mud-covered and shoeless, he said he had been dragged out of a deep ditch that many people fell into as they tried to flee. Ethiopia is facing its biggest anti-government unrest in a decade and some festival participants had crossed their wrists above their heads, a gesture that has become a symbol of protest by the Oromo community, according to an AFP photographer.
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Police allegedly attack Oromo protestors at a religious festival in Bishoftu, Ethiopia causing a stampede which kills dozens of people.
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Update 8:30 a.m. Monday:
National Transportation Safety Board investigators hoped Monday to reach the site of a plane crash near Togiak that killed three people Sunday afternoon. The station says another Ravn Connect flight utilizing a Hageland Aviation Services plane crashed in midair with another plane on Aug. 31, killing five people. Troopers reached the crash site — which Johnson said was located in "steep terrain" about 12 miles northwest of the village of Togiak in Southwest Alaska — later Sunday.
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A Ravn Alaska Cessna 208B crashes near Togiak, Alaska killing three people.
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“We will invoke Article 50 no later than the end of March next year.”
While the prime minister previously had hinted she planned to initiate Britain’s EU exit early next year, many observers had speculated she would wait until France’s presidential election ends in May or perhaps even the Germany elections, set for the late summer or fall of next year. Reacting to Mrs May's comments about Article 50:
The CBI said there was still an "urgent need for answers" on single market access and business regulations
The cross-party Open Britain campaign warned Mrs May about being "gung ho" and said she should not "expect any favours from Parliament" on her repeal bill
Labour's shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry said the Article 50 commitment was "meaningless" without the government saying what it wanted to achieve
European Council President Donald Tusk said the announcement brought "welcome clarity"
Scotland's Brexit minister warned the Scottish Parliament might block the "Great Repeal Bill"
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it was "depressing" that government decisions were "being driven by ideology of the hard Brexiteers, rather than interests of country"
Leading Brexit campaigner Iain Duncan Smith said the PM had set a "fairly reasonable" timetable and thought Article 50 could be triggered sooner than March
Lib Dem leader Tim Farron called for clarity before Article 50 was triggered, adding: "We can't start the process without any idea of where we're going"
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Theresa May confirms Article 50 deadline
The PM, who had previously only said she would not trigger Article 50 this year, ended speculation about the government's timetable on BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday morning. It means that the authority of EU law in Britain will end.”
May and the Brexit secretary, David Davis, will use the opening day of the conference to detail plans for their “great repeal” bill that will allow Britain to “take back control” of its legislation. Ahead of her speech on Brexit at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, Mrs May told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show: “As you know, I have been saying that we wouldn’t trigger it before the end of this year so that we get some preparation in place. “It’s not just important for the UK but important for Europe as a whole that we’re able to do this in the best possible way so we have the least disruption for businesses, and when we leave the EU we have a smooth transition from the EU.”
Mrs May said Parliament will be kept informed, adding: “This is not about keeping silent for two years, but it’s about making sure that we are able to negotiate, that we don’t set out all the cards in our negotiation because, as anybody will know who’s been involved in these things, if you do that up front, or if you give a running commentary, you don’t get the right deal.”
The Prime Minister was challenged on how she will seek to control immigration post-Brexit. European Communities Act 1972
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Theresa May told the BBC's Andrew Marr that repealing the EU act will make the UK "sovereign and independent"
In 1972 the UK Parliament passed the European Communities Act
It gave direct effect to EU law, so if there is a conflict between an act of the UK Parliament and EU law, Westminster loses out and EU law prevails
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) became a kind of Supreme Court of Europe, interpreting EU law with judgements that were binding on all member states
Did the UK lose its sovereignty in 1972? Brexit Secretary David Davis will also tell the conference: “To those who are trying to frighten British workers, saying ‘when we leave, employment rights will be eroded’, I say firmly and unequivocally, ‘no they won’t’.”
The Bill is expected to be brought forward in the next parliamentary session (2017-18) and will not pre-empt the two-year process of leaving the EU, which begins when the Government triggers Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. At the same time, the new Bill will convert existing EU law into domestic law, while allowing Parliament to amend or repeal any other EU law after scrutiny and debate. “That is what people voted for: power and authority residing once again with the sovereign institutions of our own country.”
The repeal bill will also end the primacy of EU law, meaning rulings by the European court of justice will stop applying to the UK once the legislation takes effect.
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Theresa May, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, announces March 2017 as the deadline for triggering Article 50 and says that her government will introduce a "Great Repeal Bill" that will repeal the European Communities Act 1972 once the United Kingdom leaves the European Union.
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Police have said autopsies showed poisoning as the cause of death of two 88-year-old male patients on Sept. 18 and 20. Investigators found 10 unused intravenous drip bags with small holes in their rubber seals on the fourth floor of the hospital, where the two elderly patients had died, The Japan Times reports. They are now also investigating the deaths of 46 elderly patients since July, who were being treated on the same floor as the two deceased men.
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Authorities arrest a Japanese man for killing as many as 48 elderly patients at the Oguchi Hospital in Yokohama.
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BUDAPEST, Hungary — The Latest on Hungary's referendum to oppose mandatory European Union quotas for accepting relocated asylum seekers (all times local):
The president of the European Parliament is accusing Hungary of playing a "dangerous game" by holding a referendum on whether to accept mandatory European Union quotas for relocating asylum seekers. The government's position is expected to find wide support among voters, but 90 minutes before voting stations were to close, analysts forecast the ballot would be invalid because voter turnout would likely fail to exceed the 50-percent-plus-one vote necessary threshold. The referendum asked: “Do you want the European Union to be able to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary even without the consent of Parliament?”
Orban's right-wing, anti-immigrant Fidesz party claimed victory immediately after voting stations closed, saying its own projections based on exit polls showed that 95 per cent of voters supported the government position despite an expected turnout of only 45 per cent. The referendum’s question is: “Do you want the European Union to be able to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary even without the consent of Parliament?”
Polls show that the relentless campaign urging citizens to “send a message to Brussels” while associating migrants with terrorism has increased xenophobia in Hungary. The far-right Jobbik party supports the government's anti-migrant position, while most of the other opposition parties and many civic groups are asking voters to either stay home on Sunday or cast invalid ballots. Slideshow (12 Images)
Last year, hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond crossed Hungary on their way to richer countries in Western Europe. Orban says the EU needs to strengthen its borders to keep out migrants, like Hungary did last year by building fences on its southern borders with Serbia and Croatia.
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Voters in Hungary go to the polls for a referendum on whether to accept mandatory European Union quotas on relocating migrants. While an overwhelming majority of voters reject the EU's migrant quotas, turnout was too low to make the poll valid.
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Instead of winning by an almost two-to-one margin on Sunday as pre-election polls had predicted, those favoring the accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia lost by a razor-thin margin, 49.8 percent to 50.2 percent for those against the deal. Both President Juan Manuel Santos and leaders of the FARC, after four years of grueling negotiations, vowed to push ahead, giving no hint they want to resume a war that has already killed 220,000 people and displaced 8 million. BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombians rejected a peace deal with leftist rebels by a razor-thin margin in a national referendum Sunday, scuttling years of painstaking negotiations and delivering a major setback to President Juan Manuel Santos, who vowed to keep a cease-fire in place and forge ahead with his efforts to end a half-century of war. I’ll continue search for peace until the last moment of my mandate,” Santos said in a televised address appealing for calm and in which he tried to reassure voters he was in complete control of the situation. He has ordered his negotiators to return to Cuba on Monday to confer with FARC’s top leaders, who watched the results with disbelief after ordering drinks and cigars at Club Havana, once Cuba’s most exclusive beach club. “The FARC deeply regret that the destructive power of those who sow hatred and revenge have influenced the Colombian people’s opinion,” the FARC’s top commander, a guerrilla known as Timochenko, told reporters. The shock outcome, comparable to Britain’s decision to leave the European Union in the Brexit vote, opens an uncertain outlook for the peace accord that was signed less than a week ago by Santos and the FARC in a ceremony attended by heads of state, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
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Referendum voters in Colombia narrowly fail to ratify a peace deal between the Government of Colombia and FARC.
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Phil Mickelson leaped higher than when he won his first Masters. CHASKA, Minnesota (Reuters) - Ryan Moore ended a long wait for U.S. Ryder Cup redemption when he clinched a rousing win over Europe at Hazeltine on Sunday, beating Lee Westwood to allow the Americans to reclaim the golden trophy in golf's top team competition. Not only was this a scene from Sunday at Hazeltine, it was eight years ago at Valhalla. In a radio interview going into the Ryder Cup, Love was trying to explain that the Americans didn’t have to do anything “super human” when he said, “This is the best team maybe ever assembled.”
Ultimately, this wasn’t about measuring against the past as much as it was building to the future. “You keep losing, you feel like you have to do something different,” said Love, who avoided becoming the first U.S. captain to lose the Ryder Cup twice. It was Reed who Love sent out in the opening match against Rory McIlroy in an effort for the U.S. to stave off any early European comeback. McIlroy’s putter went cold, and Reed holed a 7-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to secure the 1-up victory. Mickelson was under pressure all week and delivered 2 1/2 points, including a halve with Sergio Garcia in which both birdied the final two holes. Moore finished eagle-birdie-par for a 1-up victory over Lee Westwood, and the celebration was on. It worked so well – a 16½-11½ victory over Europe in 2008 – that when someone asked Azinger if he’d like to do it again, Mickelson didn’t give him a chance to answer. The 24-year-old Pieters set a European rookie record by registering four points and became the first Ryder debutant since 1999 to play in all five sessions. But rhetorical ridicule and backswing blurts are different from several thousand fans — all of whom came to cheer for their team to win — cheering when something happens that helps their team win. BY the time you’re reading this on Sunday morning, we will be into the final day of this year’s Ryder Cup, the closest thing golf has to a World Cup. There were so many elements to the week that made this U.S. victory monumental beyond the fact that for at least these next two years before the Ryder Cup is contested again, in France in 2018, they put an end to the European dominance.
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In golf, the United States wins the Ryder Cup for the first time since 2008.
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The Cronulla Sharks rugby league team, the Shire’s sporting flag-bearers, have copped similar flak since coming into being in 1967, not all that long after the Shire was considered a part of Sydney as opposed to a holiday destination for Sydneysiders. James Maloney was superb as he controlled the match from five-eighth, and he played a big part in his side enjoying 60 per cent of possession in the first 40 minutes. Ben Barba scores the Sharks' first try during the NRL grand final against the Storm at ANZ Stadium.
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In Australian rugby league, the Cronulla Sharks defeat the Melbourne Storm 14–12 to win their first premiership after 50 years in the competition.
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“It was as if it was ordained,” Scully said during San Francisco’s 7-1 win that secured the Giants the second NL wild card. So I don’t expect that,” Baker said. “To be a part of what he’s done in his last game, I’ll give him a little salute at some point.”
Afterward, Roberts called it a “huge honour” to be part of Scully’s finale and also “sad day, but it’s something that definitely should be rejoiced. He told viewers he’d “miss our time together more than I can say.”
Then he closed again, reciting a familiar and favourite line among Dodgers fans: “This is Vin Scully wishing you a very pleasant good afternoon wherever you may be.”
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Vin Scully, broadcaster for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers since 1950, calls his final game.
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“I got a chance to say goodbye, which was very important.”
Braves keep Tigers out of playoffs, say goodbye to Turner Field
ATLANTA — The Detroit Tigers were eliminated from playoff contention Sunday when Julio Teheran matched a career high with 12 strikeouts and Freddie Freeman hit a first-inning sacrifice fly that led the Atlanta Braves to a 1-0 victory in the last game at Turner Field. Mark Teixeira will be honored with a pregame ceremony before winding up his big league career when the Yankees host Baltimore. The Braves are heading to the suburbs next season, trading the ballpark affectionately known as “the Ted” — a nod to former owner and namesake Ted Turner — for 41,500-seat SunTrust Park , hastily being assembled some 15 miles away as part of a mall-like complex that will generate even more money for the team. He patted his chest with his glove and said, “Thank you.”
And with that, one of baseball’s most prolific switch-hitters said goodbye to the game. "Being the last game ever at Turner Field, it's kind of an emotional thing," Freeman said. After an 18-46 start that included the firing of manager Fredi Gonzalez, the Braves went 50-47 the rest of the way under interim manager Brian Snitker, who might have done enough to keep the job in 2017. And on a 3-2 count, the final out at Turner Field was recorded: Johnson struck out Upton, cementing a win for Turner Field's final Braves game. San Francisco, which won Series titles in 2010, ‘12 and ‘14, plays at the defending NL champion New York Mets on Wednesday night in the NL wild-card game, with the winner advancing to a Division Series against the Chicago Cubs. The Giants are pumped.”
NEW YORK — Matt Wieters homered from both sides of the plate, Kevin Gausman gave Baltimore a clutch pitching performance and the Orioles snagged a playoff spot on the final day of the regular season by beating the New York Yankees 5-2 Sunday. In the pregame ceremony, the Braves introduced the All Turner Field Team, with the likes of Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones entering from center field to huge ovations. In the top of the ninth with two outs, the Tomahawk Chop broke out for a final time with Braves closer Jim Johnson on the hill and Justin Upton at the plate. The Braves played their final game at Turner Field on Sunday, ending a run that lasted a mere 20 seasons with a 1-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
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The Atlanta Braves play their final game at Turner Field. They now move to the new SunTrust Park for the 2017 season.
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KUNDUZ, Afghanistan: The Taliban launched an assault on Kunduz, which was the scene of intense fighting on Monday, one year after the Islamist militia briefly took over the northern Afghan city following a lightning offensive, an AFP correspondent said. KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan forces battled the Taliban in the northern city of Kunduz for the third straight day on Wednesday and American helicopters provided air support to troops on the ground in the wake of the multipronged attack on the city launched by insurgents this week. Government forces, fighting with limited NATO-force support following the end of the main international combat mission in 2014, are estimated to have control over at most two-thirds of the country. The attack came as the Taliban have stepped up operations in different parts of Afghanistan, including the strategic southern province of Helmand, where they have been threatening the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah.
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The Taliban launches an offensive entering the city of Kunduz which they briefly captured last year.
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The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of contacts across the country, revised the death toll from Monday’s attack in Hasekeh province up from 12 to 22. 54 people died in the blast, which President Recep Erdogan said was carried out by a child aged between 12-14, although Isis did not claim responsibility.
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A suspected female suicide bomber kills at least 20 people at a Kurdish wedding in the Syrian city of Al-Hasakah.
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In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said Mabrouk was targeted in the airstrike by U.S. forces, but did not confirm his death, saying that the results of the strike are still being assessed. "Each time we remove a significant Al-Qaeda leader, we disrupt and degrade their command and control and halt their expansion," he said. A Twitter account run by the Fatah al-Sham Front said that Mabrouk, a veteran Egyptian jihadist also known as Abu Farag al-Masri, was killed in the northern Idlib province, which is controlled by an insurgent alliance that includes the Fatah al-Sham Front. US 'protecting Syria jihadist group'
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, reported on Monday that Masri was killed when the vehicle he was travelling in was hit near the border with Turkey. Last month, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham's top military commander was killed in an air strike in the northern province of Aleppo. Mabrouk was imprisoned in his native Egypt in 1981 in the sweep following the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. Fatah al-Sham recently announced it was changing its name and severing ties with al-Qaida in a video in which Mabrouk sat next to the group's top leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani. But in part because of the presence of al-Qaida veterans like Mabrouk among its ranks, most experts still view the group as an al-Qaida affiliate, and both the United States and Russia have vowed to keep striking it.
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A United States Air Force drone strike kills a senior leader in the Syrian militant group Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, Egyptian-born Abu al-Faraj al-Masri, in Jisr al-Shughur, Idlib Governorate.
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(Reuters) - Bass Pro Shops said on Monday it will acquire Cabela’s Inc CAB.N for $5.5 billion, combining two meccas for outdoor enthusiasts, even as the deal may face antitrust scrutiny given that the hunting and fishing retailers overlap in several U.S. states. Cabela’s shares ended up 15 percent at $63.18 on the New York Stock Exchange, close to the $65.50 per share in cash that the deal with Bass Pro values the company. It would come close to a year after Cabela’s said it would explore strategic alternatives, including a potential sale, after coming under pressure from activist fund Elliott Management Corp. The Bass Pro consortium has so far prevailed over a rival bid from private equity firm Sycamore Partners, which had teamed up with U.S. credit card company Synchrony Financial to make an offer, the people said. Cabela’s also agreed to sell its credit card business called “World’s Foremost Bank” to Capital One Financial Corp (COF.N), which will forge a 10-year partnership with Bass Pro to issue credit cards to Cabela’s customers. Cabela's also maintains large catalog and web-based retail operations.While Bass Pro will own the Cabela’s brand, the company intends to “grow and celebrate the Cabela’s brand and will build on qualities that respective customers love most about Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shops.”Johnny Morris, Bass Pro founder and CEO, will hold a majority stake in the new entity and will lead it.
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Bass Pro Shops acquires Cabela's for $5.5 billion, combining two retailers for outdoor enthusiasts.
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-- 58-mph sustained winds and greater: 2 p.m. Monday. -- Winds subsiding below 58-mph sustained: 6 a.m. Tuesday. USAG Daegu's official Facebook page states that winds exceeding 58 mph are anticipated in Area IV between midnight Tuesday and 3 p.m. Wednesday, peaking at 46-mph sustained and 69-mph gusts. TCCOR 2 by definition means: Destructive winds of 58 mph or greater are anticipated withn 24 hours. Area IV can expect 46-mph sustained winds and 69-mph gusts with 3 to 5 inches of rain, according to U.S. Army Garrison Daegu's official Facebook page. The U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) estimated maximum sustained winds had reached 145 knots, roughly 165 mph, the equivalent of a Category 5 tropical cyclone at that time. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni remains in TCCOR Storm Watch and is a bit further south of Chaba's forecast track: 121 miles north-northwest of Iwakuni about three hours after passing Pusan, and still packing 92-mph sustained winds and 115-mph gusts at center. The violent storm was moving north-northeast off the Tsushima islets chain near Japan’s southern Kyushu, packing gusts of up to 180 kilometers (110 miles) per hour, Japan’s weather agency said.
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Typhoon Chaba, now a super typhoon with winds of 145 knots (165 mph), heads for Japan's southern islands with storm warnings of torrential rain followed by mudslides and flooding.
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