IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • American ‘Swallowed’ by Sinkhole Under Bed

    {{A US man lying in his bed was swallowed by the Earth as a gaping sink hole opened up under his room in a Florida town, his brother said on Friday.}}

    Jerry Bush cried openly on CNN as he described the freakish nightmare of Thursday night, after which he jumped into the hole to try – in vain, he says he knows – to save his brother Jeff.

    “I heard a loud crash like a car coming through the house and I heard my brother screaming,” Bush said. He managed to get into his 36-year-old brother’s room and was stunned by the sight.

    “All I seen was this big hole, real big hole and all I seen was his mattress,” Bush said.

    Bush jumped into the hole and started digging.

    “I couldn’t find him. I thought I could hear him holler for me to help him,” Bush said.

    He added: “I know in my heart, he’s dead.”

    The sink hole opened up in Brandon, a suburb of Tampa. Authorities called to the scene found the hole to be about 100 feet (30 meters) in diameter and were unable to make contact with the victim.

    “There is no evidence of him being alive,” CNN quoted Jessica Damico, a spokeswoman for the Hillsborough County Fire Department, as saying.

    She was quoted as saying the hole was still actively developing and was not man made.

    Authorities have evacuated the neighbourhood as a precautionary measure.

    See Video….http://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-man-swallowed-sinkhole-signs-life-detected/story?id=18626485

  • Ryan Giggs Signs new One-year Deal with Man U

    {{Ryan Giggs has signed a new one-year contract with Manchester United.
    The 39-year-old winger’s deal will tie him to the Old Trafford club until June 2014 and complete his 23rd season as a first-team player.}}

    Former Wales skipper Giggs made his United debut on 2 March 1991 and has scored 168 goals in 931 appearances.

    “I am feeling good, enjoying my football more than ever and, most importantly, I feel I am making a contribution to the team,” said Giggs.

    “This is an exciting team to be part of, with great team spirit, and we are again pushing for trophies as we head towards the business end of the season.”

    United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said: “Ryan is an example to us all, the way in which he has, and continues to, look after himself.

    “What can I say about Ryan that hasn’t already been said? He is a marvellous player and an exceptional human being.

    “He has fantastic energy for the game and it is wonderful to see. Ryan seems to reach a new milestone every week, and to think that he now has 23 unbroken years of league goals behind him is truly amazing in the modern-day game.

    “His form this year shows his ability and his enjoyment of the game are as strong as ever and I am absolutely delighted that he has signed a new contract.”

    The new deal means Giggs will play past his 40th birthday on 29 November.

    BBCsports

  • US Senator Denied Russian Visa

    {{A senior U.S. lawmaker says he has been denied a Russian visa as a result of his vocal backing of the U.S. Magnitsky Act, which allows Washington to punish Russians implicated in human rights violations with a visa ban and asset freezes.}}

    Chris Smith, a Republican congressman from New Jersey who has served in the House of Representatives since 1981, said it was the first time his visa application to Russia had been denied over many years of coming to the country.

    “This is the first time [I’ve been denied],” Smith told Foreign Policy magazine on Wednesday. “I was shocked. During the worst days of the Soviet Union I went there repeatedly.”

    The visa denial is the latest sign of a cooling in U.S.-Russian relations following the U.S. Congress’ passage in November of the Magnitsky Act, which was fiercely opposed by Russian authorities, who have called it a form of meddling in the country’s domestic affairs.

    Russian lawmakers responded to the act by passing the so-called Dima Yakovlev law, which includes a reciprocal visa ban and asset freezes for alleged U.S. human rights violators as well as a ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian orphans.

    Valery Garbuzov, deputy director of the Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies in Moscow, said Smith’s visa denial could be the first volley in an extended visa war that perhaps only the nations’ top leaders can halt.

    “President Obama cannot cancel the Magnitsky Act, so relations will have to be built on these premises,” he said. “At the same time, the Russian response was excessive, which made the situation snowball.”

    Smith, one of the most vocal members in the U.S. Congress on human rights issues, said U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul tried to intervene on his behalf to secure a visa but had no success.

    {Moscowtimes}

  • US, Russia Can End Syria War—Opposition

    {{A leading Syrian opposition figure visiting Moscow said Friday that Russia and the United States could act as co-guarantors of a ceasefire in Syria.}}

    Manaf Tlass, a former elite army commander and close confidant of Syrian President Bashar Assad who defected last summer, told the state-run Voice of Russia radio station that Russia could help achieve peace in Syria by backing moderate opposition forces.

    “In Syria there is a third party that doesn’t support the regime or the extremists,” Tlass said in response to Syrian government claims that Assad’s fall would hand power to terrorists.

    “Most Syrians don’t want to choose between these two extremes, they want to go about their lives in a stable and secure state. And Russia could support moderate forces in Syria.”

    Tlass, who held talks with senior Russian officials in Moscow, said he came as part of efforts to negotiate a peace settlement. He added that “Russia has enough political clout to help find a solution.”

    Tlass added that he hoped Russia could “preserve Syria as a state, its unity, its complex structure with its ethnic and religious minorities, its infrastructure, and its secular nature.”

    Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed a new-found willingness to listen to Western arguments for solving the crisis after meeting his French counterpart, Francois Hollande, on Thursday.

    Throughout the two-year conflict, during which over 70,000 have died, Russia has shielded Assad’s regime at the U.N. Security Council from sanctions. Moscow also has rejected calls for Assad to quit, saying his government and rebels should pursue talks.

    {wirestory}

  • Former aide to Canadian PM Dumped Over Child Porn

    {{The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office quickly distanced themselves from former Harper aide Tom Flanagan on Wednesday after the political commentator said viewing child pornography did not harm others.}}

    Flanagan was a campaign manager and chief of staff for Harper or the Conservative Party at various times before the Conservatives took power in 2006, and has long been a commentator for CBC.

    At a seminar at Alberta’s University of Lethbridge on Wednesday, he took issue with the Conservative “jihad” on child pornography.

    The CBC dumped him as a political commentator and Harper spokesman Andrew MacDougall said his remarks were repugnant and did not reflect the Conservative government’s view.

    “…you know a lot of people on my side of the spectrum, a certain side of the spectrum, are bent on kind of a jihad against pornography and child pornography in particular, and I certainly have no sympathy for child molesters, but I do have some grave doubts about putting people in jail because of their taste in pictures,” Flanagan, a political scientist at the University of Calgary, told the seminar on Wednesday night.

    He said there was a real issue as “to what extent we put people in jail for doing something in which they do not harm another person.”

    Flanagan apologized, but not before the CBC fired him and Alberta’s conservative Wildrose Party, for which he was campaign manager last year, said he would have no future role.

    CBC News Editor-in-Chief Jennifer McGuire said: “While we support and encourage free speech across the country and a diverse range of voices, we believe Mr. Flanagan’s comments to have crossed the line and impacted his credibility as a commentator for us.”

    MacDougall tweeted: “Tom Flanagan’s comments on child pornography are repugnant, ignorant, and appalling.”

    In a later statement, MacDougall noted Conservative measures to toughen penalties for making or accessing child porn, and said Flanagan had not represented government views for some time.

    “The tragic reality is that child pornography hurts children. Pedophiles abuse children, and then trade these pictures on the Internet. Once online, these images haunt victims long after the sexual abuse occurs,” MacDougall said.

    Flanagan in a statement condemned the sexual abuse of children and the use of children to produce pornography, but drew a distinction between that and the use of porn.

    “Last night, in an academic setting, I raised a theoretical question about how far criminalization should extend toward the consumption of pornography,” he said.

    “My words were badly chosen, and in the resulting uproar I was not able to express my abhorrence of child pornography and the sexual abuse of children.

    I apologize unreservedly to all who were offended by my statement, and most especially to victims of sexual abuse and their families.”

    {Reuters}

  • Cardinals Begin Secretive Process of Picking New Pope

    {{Catholic cardinals from around the world begin on Friday the complex, cryptic and uncertain process of picking the next leader of the world’s largest church.}}

    Some details are still unclear, owing to Benedict’s break with the tradition that papacies end with a pope’s death, so these “princes of the Church” will first hold an informal session before traditional rounds of talks begin on Monday.

    No front-runner stands out among the 115 cardinal electors – those aged under 80 – due to enter the Sistine Chapel for the conclave that picks the new pope, so discreetly sizing up potential candidates will be high on the cardinals’ agenda.

    They will also use the general congregations, the closed-door consultations preceding a conclave, to discuss future challenges such as better Vatican management, the need for improved communication and the continuing sexual abuse crisis.

    Benedict ended his difficult eight-year reign on Thursday pledging unconditional obedience to whoever succeeds him to lead the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics at one of the most problematic periods in the Church’s 2,000-year history.

    “The discussion we have in the congregations will be most important for the intellectual preparation” for choosing a pope, said Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, adding the electors were already preparing spiritually for the vote by intense prayer.

    “I would imagine each of us has some kind of list of primary candidates, and others secondary,” said Cardinal Francis George of Chicago at a media briefing with O’Malley and another American cardinal, Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston.

    Reuters

  • Pope to Officially Resign Today

    Pope Benedict XVI will resign today (Thursday) evening .

    The pope earlier said he faced a “difficult and trying” decision in relinquishing leadership of Roman Catholicism’s more than one billion faithful, a step he will today (Thursday) evening.

    Although he plans to retire to a life of study and prayer, the pontiff told the crowd on Wednesday that there was no going back to his prepapal life, noting that his election eight years ago marked the end of “any privacy.”

    “There is no returning to private life. My decision to forgo the exercise of active ministry does not revoke this. I do not return to private life,” Pope Benedict said, addressing the square, which was thronged with banners from around the world.

    “I do not abandon the cross, but remain in a new way near to the Crucified Lord,” he said.

    The pope’s resignation, which was announced two weeks ago, is an event that hasn’t occurred in six centuries. It shocked the rank-and-file faithful.

    The Holy See has been putting the finishing touches on the protocols the Church will use to address the future pope emeritus, as he will be called, as well as the vestments he will wear.

    On the cobblestones around Saint Peter’s, the past week has played out as a series of final bows and last acts. On Sunday, the pope spoke from the window of the papal apartments for the last time, and on Wednesday, he mounted the ivory-painted popemobile for a final ride as its namesake passenger, gliding through a thicket of flags and chants of “Viva, il Papa!”

    In his address, the pope reflected on his election and on the tumultuous years that came in its wake. Over the course of his papacy, the pope garnered praise for his writings and drew large crowds during trips abroad.

    Controversy, however, loomed over his administration, including the spread of the sexual-abuse crisis across the world and bouts of infighting within Vatican ranks.

    That tumult has drawn calls from within Vatican walls and beyond for the election of a successor capable of reining in the Church’s sprawling ranks.

    “I have felt like St. Peter with the Apostles in the boat on the Sea of Galilee: the Lord has given us many days of sunshine and gentle breeze, days in which the catch has been abundant,” the pope said.

    “There have [also] been times when the seas were rough and the wind against us—as in the whole history of the Church it has ever been—and the Lord seemed to sleep,” he added.

    The remark referenced a gospel passage in which Jesus Christ sleeps amid a storm at sea and then awakes to calm the tempest.

    The turnout in St. Peter’s Square was higher Wednesday than in many of the pope’s public audiences in recent years.

    However, the piazza’s oval contours didn’t brim with faithful the way it did in the early days of his pontificate, following the death of his predecessor, John Paul II.

    “We have come just for this occasion to say goodbye to this pope, because he worked a lot and was very patient,” said Carmen Marsal Moyano, 54, who had traveled to Rome from Madrid with her husband.

    The pope, she said, “should have been recognized instead of criticized.”

    wirestory

  • Bangladesh Opposition Leader Sentenced to Death

    {{A special tribunal in Bangladesh has sentenced a leader of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party to death for allegedly committing atrocities during the country’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.}}

    Delwar Hossain Sayedee, vice-president of the party, was convicted on Thursday of genocide, rape and religious persecution.

    Meanwhile, a nationwide strike called by Jaamat-e-Islami to protest what it called politically motivated trials of its entire leadership, including its chief and his deputy leader, has left much of Bangladesh paralysed.

    Earlier this month the International Crimes Tribunal, a local court, sentenced Jamaat’s assistant secretary general Abdul Quader Molla to life imprisonment, sparking deadly protests by Islamists that left 16 people dead.

    The verdict also enraged secular protesters, tens of thousands of whom have since poured onto a central Dhaka intersection to reject the “lighter sentence” and demand the execution of Jamaat leaders.

    Aljazeera

  • ‘I’m Disappointed With Some Fans’–Benitez

    {{The former Liverpool and Inter Milan boss criticised the Chelsea fans for their lack of support and says it was a “massive mistake” to name him as an interim manager.

    The 52-year-old Spaniard also confirmed he would leave the Premier League club at the end of the season.}}

    {{Alastair Yeomans}}: “What was a difficult first half for you in the end turned out OK?”

    {{Rafael Benitez}}: “Yes, it was difficult, normally in the FA Cup it’s always difficult but I thought our team was doing well, it was a professional performance, a lot of players doing well.

    I was really pleased with Nathan Ake [who made his full debut] and really pleased with Paulo Ferreira because they showed they are good players and fantastic professionals. So for me, a great performance of the team and I am really pleased with the result.”

    {{AY}}: “What was your thinking about making eight changes for this game, because we saw the other week when Arsenal maybe didn’t play their full team against Blackburn they lost. What was your thinking about that?”

    {{RB}}: “I had a lot of confidence in the players because I can see them training every day and they were doing really well, so I was really pleased, I could see in the training sessions and was really pleased, so to play them, no problem.”

    {{AY}}: “And first half, the tempo, was that quick enough for you, was that good enough for you?”

    {{RB}}: “I think that they were pushing so they were working hard so it was not easy but they were doing their job.”

    {{AY}}: “How important is this FA Cup to you now? You go to Manchester United next so there are no givens.”

    {{RB}}: “I think for us every game, every trophy is really important. I have been manager for 26 years, I have won the Fifa Club World Cup, the Champions League, FA Cup, a lot of trophies and I’m really a little bit disappointed with some fans, a group of fans singing and I think they are not making any favour to the team.

    “They have to support the team instead of wasting time doing banners or singing songs. What they have to do is support the team and create a good atmosphere in Stamford Bridge.

    If we cannot achieve the target that we are looking for, to be in the Champions League… If they continue singing and talking and talking then I think they are not making any favours.

    They have to support the players, they have to support the team, I have experience as a manager, I will do my best until the last day.

    “They gave me the title of interim manager, it’s a massive mistake. I am the manager and I will manage the team until the end, every single minute.

    “If they want to carry on wasting time with these things because they have an agenda, they have to take responsibility if something is wrong.

    It’s not just ‘I will blame this one, I will blame the other one’, what they have to do is to support the team and then everyone has to stick together and we can achieve what we want to achieve – that is the Champions League. Simple.

    “If not then next year they can carry on singing but we will be in the Europa League so they have to realise that they are not making any favour – to the rest of the fans and also to the players.”

    {{AY}}: “When you made the comments that they are talking about, some of them, you were fighting for Liverpool. There was a big rivalry with Liverpool and Chelsea, you’d expect you to say those things, is that what you’re saying?”

    {{RB}}: “I am a professional, I am doing my job and I will do my job. What I want to do is, I want to win every single game for Chelsea Football Club.

    But, if they don’t understand this, at the end of the season, because I am interim, I will leave. They don’t need to worry about me.

    “What they have to do is to support the team, to support the players. And it’s a group of people and they have an agenda.

    They have to realise that the rest of the fans, they want to see the team the next year in the Champions League.

    It’s not ‘I am right or I am wrong’, you have to see the team in the Champions League and they have to support the team, that is the main thing.

    “At the end of the season, I will leave. They don’t need to be worrying about me.”

    BBC

  • Hollande to talk Syria settlement with Putin

    {{French President Francois Hollande said Thursday that he hopes to discuss political transition in war-torn Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose stance on Syria is crucial to hopes for a peace settlement.}}

    Speaking ahead of this meeting with Putin at the Kremlin on Thursday afternoon, Hollande told the Ekho Moskvy radio station that Putin’s position on Syria can determine how soon peace will come to Syria.

    “A lot will depend on President Putin’s stance,” he said. “We must finally launch the political dialogue” in Syria.

    The conflict in Syria has claimed more than 70,000 lives, according to the U.N. Russia, the most influential backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad, has dismissed all settlement plans involving Assad’s departure.

    Hollande said he is encouraged by the fact that Russia has acknowledged the influence of the Syrian opposition but would like to see Russia promoting talks on political transition in Syria.

    “We see that the Syrian opposition grows stronger and taking on legitimacy as well as some responsibility for the future of the country, and this opposition does not see itself getting engaged in a dialogue with Bashar Assad,” he said.

    “We’re going to discuss this and hopefully will have a discussion about power transition.”

    Hollande also lauded Putin for “creating conditions” for the opposition to engage with the Syrian government.

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this week called on Damascus to hold negotiations with the opposition and offered to host them in Moscow.

    AP