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sarahbalick

North Korean missile fired ahead of US-China summit - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-asia-39499007

shared by sarahbalick on 05 Apr 17 - No Cached
  • North Korea has test-fired a medium-range ballistic missile from its eastern port of Sinpo into the Sea of Japan.
  • he launch comes on the eve of a visit by China's President Xi Jinping to the US to meet President Donald Trump.
  • "The North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America," it said.
sarahbalick

St Petersburg metro explosion kill ten - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-europe-39481770

shared by sarahbalick on 03 Apr 17 - No Cached
  • At least 10 people have been killed in an explosion between two underground stations in St Petersburg.
  • President Vladimir Putin said all causes, including terrorism, were being investigated.
  • two explosions, one at each of the two stations.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • 50 people have been reported injured, and a number of children were among those hurt.
  • a terrorist act".
  • "I have already spoken to the head of our special services, they are working to ascertain the cause," he said, at a meeting with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.
  • Both attacks were claimed by Islamist groups.
sarahbalick

Mysterious factory break-in raises suspicions about Chinese visit | World news | The Gu... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...suspicions-about-chinese-visit

China breakin mystery

shared by sarahbalick on 11 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • Mysterious factory break-in raises suspicions about Chinese visit
  • It was an unusual burglary, in which four or five laptops were stolen from a Scottish renewable energy manufacturer in the dead of a March night in 2011.
  • Nothing else was taken from the company and the crime, while irritating, went unsolved and forgotten – until a few years later pictures began emerging that showed a remarkably similar project manufactured in the world’s most populous country.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • making a connection between the break-in and the politician’s visit,
  • Max Carcas, who was business development director at Pelamis until 2012, said the similarities between the Scottish and Chinese products were striking. Speaking publicly for the first time, he said: “Some of the details may be different but they are clearly testing a Pelamis concept.”
  • It might be that China’s engineers had been working along roughly the same lines as the UK engineers. Or it may be that China attempted to replicate the design based on pictures of the Pelamis project freely available on the web.
  • elamis was targeted by China, which has been repeatedly accused of pursuing an aggressive industrial espionage strategy.
  • “It was a tremendous feather in our cap to be the only place in the UK outside of London that the Chinese vice-premier visited,”
  • “We did have a break-in about 10 weeks after, when a number of laptops were stolen. It was curious that whoever broke in went straight to our office on the second floor rather than the other company on the first floor or the ground floor.”
sarahbalick

Putin backs WW2 myth in new Russian film - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-europe-37595972

putin myth russian film WW2

shared by sarahbalick on 11 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • Putin backs WW2 myth in new Russian film
  • A new film showing Red Army soldiers outnumbered by invading Germans but battling on heroically has become part of the Kremlin's campaign to restore Russian pride.
  • State television showed Russian President Vladimir Putin watching the film last
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • week, alongside Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, in the Central Asian leader's capital Astana.
  • The Kremlin promotes the idea of World War Two as a heroic victory that united the Soviet state against fascism - and still unites Russia today against a similar threat they say has resurfaced in Ukraine.
  • The 28 were immortalised - posthumously decorated as Heroes of the Soviet Union - and Soviet children learnt about their last stand in school.
  • Yet historians say the story is not true.
  • According to the Soviet mythology, 28 soldiers from the Red Army's 316th Rifle Division, mainly recruits from the Kazakh and Kyrgyz Soviet republics, stood unflinching against the advancing might of Hitler's Wehrmacht.
  • When, in June last year, Russian State Archive director Sergei Mironenko, citing historical documents, said the story was in fact a myth, he earned a sharp rebuke from Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky.
  • The USSR suffered the heaviest losses in the war - more than 20 million civilians and military - though scholars dispute the exact toll.
  • Nazi Germany and the USSR signed a non-aggression pact in August 1939 - the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret protocol, they agreed to carve up Poland between them.
  • Mr Putin and other officials have repeatedly talked about the need to counter the "falsification of history" or "rewriting history". They oppose interpretations of World War Two or other episodes of Soviet history that deviate from officially approved narratives.
  • Mr Medinsky, the culture minister, defended Panfilov's 28 Men, saying "even if this story was invented from start to finish, if there had been no Panfilov, if there had been nothing, this is a sacred legend that shouldn't be interfered with. People that do that are filthy scum."
  • t was accused of smearing the memory of WW2 veterans by asking whether residents of wartime Leningrad could have been saved by surrendering the city to Nazi forces.
  • Under this law, Vladimir Luzgin, a blogger from Perm region in the Urals, was fined 200,000 roubles ($3,200; £2,500) for reposting an article about the war on the Russian social network VK (VKontakte), the daily Kommersant reported in July.
  • The court said Luzgin had falsified history by stating "that the communists and Germany jointly attacked Poland, unleashing World War Two, or in other words, that Communism and Nazism co-operated honestly".
  • as justified.
  • the punishment of Luzgin w
  • n February 2013, President Putin ordered a single history syllabus for schools, offering a standardised narrative. A new state "History" TV channel was launched that year too.
  • In another incident, last year, the authorities in Sverdlovsk region banned the works of two British historians - Antony Beevor and John Keegan - saying they were imbued with Nazi propaganda. The Vedomosti daily described (in Russian) the order to remove the books from public libraries as "full of nonsense from start to finish".
  • Many Russians may not know how the state embroidered the tale of Panfilov's men - but many may not care either.
sarahbalick

Tax on sugary foods and drinks backed by World Health Organisation - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/health-37620087

tax foods drinks world health

shared by sarahbalick on 11 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • Tax on sugary foods and drinks backed by World Health Organisation
  • The World Health Organisation (WHO) has added its support to countries which place a "sugar tax" on soft drinks.
  • Several countries, including Mexico and Hungary, already tax added sugar products.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • A new report from the body found that raising prices by 20% or more results in lower consumption and "improved nutrition".
  • "Free sugars" are all the different types of sugar in the diet, except for the sugars that are found naturally in fruit and milk.
  • The WHO's nutrition director, Dr Francesco Branca, said "nutritionally, people don't need any sugar in their diet".
  • He recommended sugar intake be kept below 10% of a person's total calorie intake - and preferably below 5%.
  • It also said that the same tax measures levied against sugary drinks appear to work with other sugary foods, as well as those high in saturated fats, trans fats, and salt.
sarahbalick

Mike Pence edges Tim Kaine in VP debate instant poll - CNNPolitics.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

vp debate

shared by sarahbalick on 05 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • Mike Pence scored a narrow win over Tim Kaine in the vice presidential debate Tuesday night, according to a CNN/ORC instant poll, with 48% of voters who watched the debate saying Pence did the better job while 42% think Kaine had the best night
  • just 14% said he did worse than they thought he would
  • with 43% saying he did worse than they expected and 38% saying he outperformed their expectations.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • And 48% said Kaine had a better understanding of the issues, edging out Pence at 41%. Clinton topped Trump by a better than 2-to-1 margin on that score after their first debate
  • Most debate watchers said Kaine did the better job defending Hillary Clinton, 58%, while just 35% thought Pence better defended Donald Trump.
  • Still, 29% of debate watchers said what they saw Tuesday made them more apt to vote for Trump, compared with 18% who said it made them more likely to back Clinton. Most debate watchers, 53%, said their vote was not swayed by Tuesday's face off. After the first Clinton-Trump debate last week, 34% said it made them more apt to vote Clinton, 18% Trump.
  • Pence was largely seen as the more likeable candidate on the stage, 53% to 37%,
  • Both men are broadly judged qualified to take over the office of president if needed, 77% say Pence is qualified, 70% that Kaine is. Most voters who watched Tuesday night said Kaine's positions on the issues are about right ideologically (57%) while 36% see him as too liberal and 5% too conservative. Assessing Pence's positions, about half, 49%, think he's about right, 46% too conservative and just 3% too liberal.
sarahbalick

Texas lawyer in Nazi uniform opens fire at strip mall, 9 injured - NY Daily News - 0 views

www.nydailynews.com/...hopping-mall-article-1.2806725

texas lawyer nazi uniform opens fire

shared by sarahbalick on 29 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • Houston lawyer wearing Nazi uniform opens fire at strip mall; nine injured, suspect shot dead by police
  • A Houston lawyer wearing a Nazi uniform — who neighbors claimed had recently been acting paranoid — opened fire near a strip mall, wounding nine people before he was shot dead by police, authorities said.
  • Shots rang out around 6:30 a.m. Monday in southwest Houston near an intersection with a grocery store, Walgreens and Chuck E. Cheese.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • sed a tree near his car for cover as he exchanged gunfire with several officers in a nearby neighborhood before he was killed, officials said at an afternoon press conference.
sarahbalick

South Carolina shooting leaves Jacob Hall, 6, fighting for life after teen gunman opens... - 0 views

www.standard.co.uk/...t-primary-school-a3356916.html

shooting school US

shared by sarahbalick on 29 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • A boy of six was fighting for his life today after a teenage gunman opened fire at a primary school, injuring him, another classmate and a teacher.
  • First grade teacher Meghan Hollingsworth and another six-year-old boy were wounded in the playground shooting spree but were allowed home after being treated for their injuries.
  • teenager’s house about two miles from the school where the boy shot dead his fathe
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Jamie Meredith, a student’s mother, said some of the children went to hide in a toilet during the shooting. The authorities did not release a motive for the shooting and said they were not sure if the pupils and teacher were targeted. 
  • I think he just took him down.”
  • . Sobbing, he called his grandmother’s mobile phone but by the time she arrived at the house he was gone. 
  • he teenager had been home educated and it was unclear if he had ever attended the elementary school. His mother was at work at the time of the attack.
  • T
sarahbalick

Islamic State fired crude chemical weapons on US troops - Pentagon | World news | The G... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...-weapons-on-us-troops-pentagon

state fired chemical weapons

shared by sarahbalick on 22 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • Islamic State fired crude chemical weapons on US troops – Pentagon
  • Islamic State forces have fired crude chemical weapons at US troops in Iraq, the Pentagon has confirmed, a startling disclosure that US officials promptly downplayed as resulting in no deaths or injuries.
  • Mustard, a banned chemical weapon, is relatively easy to manufacture and has a low incidence of lethality in all but extreme doses, such as the bombardment that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein used on Kurdish civilians and Iranian soldiers in the 1980s and early 1990
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • “It was mustard agent in a powderized form – the same thing we have seen [Isis] use to little effect many times in the past in both Syria and Iraq.”
  • “No service members showed signs or symptoms of mustard exposure. This attack has not impacted our mission in any way, nor have we changed our security posture in the area around Qayyarah.”
  • Some chemical agents and precursor materials for their manufacture had been stored on Iraqi territory formerly controlled by Isis. The US military has insisted since 2014 that there is no evidence Isis obtained access to them. Alternatively, some of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s substantial chemical stocks have been known to survive a 2013 agreement brokered by Russia and backed by the US for their destruction.
  • Speaking of a potential chemical attack, Pentagon spokesman Davis said: “We are well trained and equipped for this, as are our ISF [Iraqi security force and [Kurdish] Pesh partners.”
sarahbalick

Charlotte shooting: State of emergency amid protests - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-us-canada-37436676

charlotte shooting state emergency protests

shared by sarahbalick on 22 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • Charlotte shooting: State of emergency amid protests
  • North Carolina's governor has declared a state of emergency in the city of Charlotte, after violence erupted during a second night of protests over the police killing of a black man.
  • Keith Lamont Scott was shot dead by a black officer on Tuesday.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • One protester remains in a critical condition after a "civilian on civilian" shooting, police said.
  • Mr Scott was the third black man killed by US police in a week. Such shootings have sparked nationwide protests.
  • Governor McCrory declared the state of emergency as rioters clashed with police, breaking windows and setting small fires.
  • "Any violence directed toward our citizens or police officers or destruction of property should not be tolerated," he said.The demonstrators are angry that Mr Scott, 43, was killed
  • Officers say he was repeatedly told to drop his handgun before he was shot but his family say he was reading a book, as he waited for his son to be dropped off by the school bus.
  • It is legal to openly carry a handgun in North Carolina, but a special permit is required to carry a concealed weapon.
  • olice were serving an arrest warrant on another person when they say they saw Mr Scott get out of a car with a handgun.
  • The second night of protests had begun peacefully but the demonstration was interrupted by gunfire and a man in the crowd was injured. The city initially said he had been killed but then issued a clarification.
  • Several journalists were also reportedly attacked. A reporter and cameraman for Charlotte's WCNC-TV were taken to hospital and a CNN journalist was tackled on live TV, local media report.
  • Police in Charlotte defended their actions in the death of Mr Scott by insisting he had been repeatedly warned to drop his gun.
sarahbalick

India stabbing: Bystanders watch as Delhi woman killed - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-asia-india-37415843

india delhi killed

shared by sarahbalick on 20 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • India stabbing: Bystanders watch as Delhi woman killed
  • Indians have reacted with outrage after passers-by watched a woman being stabbed more than 20 times on a busy street in the capital, Delhi.
  • choolteacher Karuna, 22, who died in the attack.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • He is seen stabbing her repeatedly as people walk by, before hitting her on the head with a stone and kicking her.
  • Locals did eventually intervene when he tried to escape.
  • "She was attacked as she was walking with her cousin at around 9am. It seems that the assailant started liking her when they used to be neighbours earlier, but since he was married, she never paid attention," senior police official Esha Pandey told the BBC.
  • Earlier deputy commissioner of police, Madhur Verma, told reporters that "the family had lodged a complaint four-five months back and both the families had reached a compromise".
  • On Sunday evening, 28-year-old Laxmi was stabbed to death in front of her house in full view of her neighbours by a man who then killed himself, the Times of India newspaper reported .
sarahbalick

Syria conflict: UN suspends all aid after convoy hit - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-middle-east-37417898

syria conflict

shared by sarahbalick on 20 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • Syria conflict: UN suspends all aid after convoy hit
  • The UN has suspended all aid convoys in Syria after a devastating attack on its lorries near Aleppo on Monday.
  • Russia and Syria have both insisted that their forces were not involved.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • But UN chief Ban Ki-moon launched a stinging attack on the Syrian government, saying it had killed the most civilians in the civil war.

  • UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura also said there was still hope but said delegates from the Syria Support Group, which includes Russia, had agreed it was in danger.

  • "Everything shown in the video is the direct result of a fire which mysteriously began at the same time as a large scale rebel attack on Aleppo," he said.
  • A media activist who witnessed the attack told the BBC Arabic service that Russian reconnaissance planes had been spotted, apparently filming the passage of the convoy.
  • Just a day ago, aid workers in Geneva were "almost celebrating" one said, because all the necessary permits had been received, all the warring parties had been notified, and a convoy was finally going to Aleppo province.
  • The 31 lorries were carrying supplies for 78,000 people in Urum al-Kubra. But this morning, the optimistic mood had changed.
  • He called the attack on the aid convoy "sickening, savage and apparently deliberate" and called for those responsible to be held to account.
sarahbalick

New York bombing suspect named as Ahmad Khan Rahami - BBC News - 1 views

www.bbc.com/...world-us-canada-37409441

new york bombing suspect

shared by sarahbalick on 19 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • New York bombing suspect named as Ahmad Khan Rahami
  • US officials are looking for Ahmad Khan Rahami, a naturalised US citizen who was born in Afghanistan, for questioning over explosions in New York and New Jersey on Saturday.
  • Further devices exploded in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in the early hours of Monday as a police robot investigated a bag. No-one was injured.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • The bomb that hit Manhattan's Chelsea district on Saturday evening injured 29, and an unexploded device was found nearby.
  • Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has urged jittery Americans to be "vigilant but not afraid".
  • "It is crucial that we continue to build up trust between law enforcement and Muslim American communities," she said.
  • "Anyone who sees this individual or knows anything about him or his whereabouts needs to call it in right away," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said on CNN.
  • Mr Cuomo said on Monday that there might be a foreign connection to the Manhattan attack. Officials had said over the weekend there were no confirmed links to international terrorist groups.
  • The bag had been picked out of the bin by two men on Sunday evening. They thought it could contain something of value but saw wires and notified the police.
  • "That was not a controlled explosion,
sarahbalick

Juncker proposes EU military headquarters - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-europe-37359196

military headquarters bbc

shared by sarahbalick on 14 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • Juncker proposes EU military headquarters
  • Jean-Claude Juncker said the lack of a "permanent structure" resulted in money being wasted on missions.
  • The Brexit vote has given added impetus to plans for greater defence co-operation, because the UK has always objected to the potential conflict of interest with Nato.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • But Mr Juncker said a common military force "should be in complement to Nato". "More defence in Europe doesn't mean less transatlantic solidarity."
  • He also insists that whatever the EU does it should not detract from Nato. But defence resources are finite. His critics will say nothing should be done that duplicates existing Nato activities, as that sends a signal of disarray in Western ranks to Moscow.
  • Prime Minister Theresa May distanced herself last week from remarks by Brexit minister David Davis, when he said remaining in the single market would be "very improbable" if it meant giving up control of British borders.
  • Public trust in the establishment is low - whether traditional politicians, bankers or EU bureaucrats - and Mr Juncker is an unelected president.
sarahbalick

Exclude Hungary from EU, says Luxembourg's Asselborn - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-europe-37347352

hungary luxembourg

shared by sarahbalick on 14 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • Exclude Hungary from EU, says Luxembourg's Asselborn
  • Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn has called for Hungary to be suspended or even expelled from the European Union because of its "massive violation" of EU fundamental values.
  • "Hungary is not far away from issuing orders to open fire on refugees," he suggested.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • "becoming impatient, it is not my personal approach to show a member state the door".
  • The EU could not tolerate "such inappropriate behaviour", he said, and any state that violated such basic values "should be excluded temporarily, or if necessary for ever, from the EU''. It was "the only possibility to protect the cohesion and values of the European Union,'' he said.
  • "could not be taken seriously".
  • The head of Hungarian diplomacy described his Luxembourg counterpart as a "classic nihilist" who worked tirelessly to destroy Europe's security and culture. By way of contrast, Hungary was defending not only its own territory, but that of the EU as well, the foreign minister insisted.
  • "Only Hungarians have the right to decide who they wish to live with."
sarahbalick

Owner of fresh heart found in Ohio field sought - CBS News - 0 views

www.cbsnews.com/...art-found-in-ohio-field-sought

heart ohio field

shared by sarahbalick on 14 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • Owner of fresh heart found in Ohio field sought
  • An EMS team idling at a convenience store in Norwalk, Ohio, in late August stumbled across a heart in a Ziploc bag in a field across the way. 
  • “This is pretty unusual. We have no idea where it came from,” said Sgt. Jim Fulton, with Norwalk Police Department.  
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • “We don’t have a body that we’re missing a heart from. So I guess it’s an unusual occurrence, is what you would say. It’s what’s listed on our report. We hope to be able to classify it as something else and close this out,” he said
  • “It could have come from a funeral home, an autopsy. There’s endless possibilities,” Fulton said.
  • When it was found, the heart had just started to decompose, so it could have been frozen or fresh, officials say. Fulton told WOIO they’re making the story public now in the hope of getting some public help identifying the heart.
sarahbalick

France foiling terror plots 'daily' - Prime Minister Manuel Valls - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-europe-37334836

france terror prime minister

shared by sarahbalick on 12 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • France foiling terror plots 'daily' - Prime Minister Manuel Valls
  • The French prime minister has said the country's security services are foiling terror plots and dismantling militant networks "every day".
  • Previously the authorities said about 10,000 were identified as high-risk.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • France has been under a state of emergency since IS attacks on Paris in November killed 130 people in what President Francois Hollande called an "act of war".
  • It questioned the deployment of between 6,000 and 7,000 soldiers to protect schools, synagogues, department stores and other sensitive sites.
  • Security is a central issue in the run-up to next year's presidential election but Mr Valls said proposals by the former French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, to set up special courts and detention centres were not the answer.
  • "Every Frenchman suspected of being linked to terrorism, because he regularly consults a jihadist website, or his behaviour shows signs of radicalisation or because is in close contact with radicalised people, must by preventively placed in a detention centre,"
  • Meanwhile, prosecutors charged one of the women arrested over a foiled attack near Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
  • Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said on Friday that Ornella G's fingerprints had been found inside the car. She was known to intelligence agents as someone who was considering going to Syria.
sarahbalick

North Korea's 'biggest' nuclear test sparks global outrage - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-asia-37317782

north korea

shared by sarahbalick on 09 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • North Korea's 'biggest' nuclear test sparks global outrage
  • World leaders have reacted with anger after North Korea carried out its fifth and reportedly biggest nuclear test.
  • firmly opposed" the test, Japan "protested adamantly" and the US warned of "serious consequences" including "new sanctions". The UN Security Council will meet later behind closed doors to discuss the issue.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The isolated communist nation has been hit by five sets of UN sanctions since its first test in 2006. Talks involving world and regional powers have failed to rein in the North's nuclear programme.
  • The test came on the country's National Day, which celebrates the founding of the current regime and which is often used as a show of military strength.
  • That would be a drastic step which might halt the economy and cause serious suffering to ordinary people.
  • China's foreign ministry said it would lodge a diplomatic protest and urged North Korea to avoid further action that would worsen the situation.
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