Friday, July 7, 2006

Londoners are commemorating the one year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on its transport networks that claimed 52 lives.

On this day last year, a series of coordinated suicide bombings struck London’s public transport system during the morning rush hour, with three bombs exploded within 50 seconds of each other on three London Underground trains. A fourth bomb exploded on a bus nearly an hour later in Tavistock Square. Fifty-two people were killed in the attacks, as were the four bombers, and about 700 injured in the deadliest single act of terrorism in the United Kingdom since the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 and the deadliest bombing in London since the Second World War. The four suicide bombers were all UK residents, and while Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the attacks, police are unsure of its exact role in the attack.

Flowers were laid by mayor Ken Livingstone and Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, near Kings Cross station at 8:50 a.m. BST (0750 UTC), marking the time and place of the first attack on a Piccadilly Line train beneath the station.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, who attended a private memorial at London’s Fire Brigade headquarters, said “This is a time when our country unites across all races, religions and divides and stands in solidarity with all those who have suffered so much, in sympathy with them and in defence of the values which we share,”, and recalled the efforts of emergency and public service personnel and the public at large, in the aftermath of the attack.

Tributes were also paid at Tavistock Square where a bus was attacked at 9:47 a.m. BST this day one year ago.

The bells of St Paul’s Cathedral tolled at the exact time of each of the bombings.

A two minutes silence was held across the UK at noon BST (1100 UTC), including at the Wimbledon tennis tournament. In many schools, offices, shops and town centres across the country the two minutes was observed. Other events are planned around London for later in the day.

Special programmes have been broadcast on British television to mark the occasion.

Yesterday, a video of one of the bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, was broadcast on the Al-Jazeera television channel, claiming to link the attacks with Al-Qaeda.

Friday, February 10, 2006

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) will meet in Canberra today for its first meeting of 2006. Members of COAG are the Prime Minister, State Premiers, Australian Capital and Northern Territory Chief Ministers, and the President of the Australian Local Government Association. COAG is chaired by the Prime Minister.

On the agenda is a wide range of issues such as health, economic reform, regulation, and education.

The state leaders (all of whom are members of the Australian Labor Party), met last night to develop a strategy for dealing with John Howard, Australia’s Prime Minister.

Sunday, May 27, 2018

In the official result of Friday’s Irish referendum over the legality of abortion, referendum officer Barry Ryan announced yesterday 66.4% of voters favoured overturning the eighth amendment of the constitution. Introduced in 1983, the eighth amendment made abortion constitutionally illegal. Irish Taoiseach — Prime Minister — Leo Varadkar said supporting legislation, to be framed following the result of this referendum, is to be “enacted before the end of this year”.

More than 2.1 million people voted on the referendum on Friday. With a 64.1% turnout, 1,429,981 voted in favour of eliminating the abortion ban while 723,632 voted to keep it. The results were announced at Dublin Castle. About 6000 voters spoiled their votes. Calling it “an historic day”, Prime Minister Varadkar said it was “a great act of democracy.” Ministers said they would form laws allowing medical termination of pregnancy in the first trimester, twelve weeks, of pregnancy, and under special cases until the 24th week. The legislation is to be formed after discussion with medical experts.

Since the amendment, Article 40.3.3 of the Irish constitution, in 1983, which gave an unborn child equal rights to life as the mother, hundreds of thousands of women traveled to different countries for the medical termination of pregnancy, while some used medical drugs illegal in Ireland to terminate the pregnancy.

“Savita Matters, Women Matter” was one of the slogans used by the supporters who wanted to repeal the amendment. In October 2012, a 31-year-old dentist of Indian origin, Savita Halappanavar, died from sepsis at a Galway hospital after she was denied abortion for a protracted miscarriage. She was told by a midwife that termination of pregnancy would not be possible since Ireland was a “Catholic country”. Halappanavar’s photo was used for posters by supporters who wanted the 35-year-old amendment repealed. In 2016, the current Roman Catholic Pope, Pope Francis, described abortion as a “very grave sin” and a “horrendous crime”.

Halappanavar’s father Andanappa Yalagi told Hindustan Times, “We’ve got justice for Savita. What happened to her will not happen to any other family. I have no words to express my gratitude to the people of Ireland at this historic moment.” 39 of 40 Irish constituencies voted in favour of repealing the law, while voters in only one constituency, Donegal, voted against — 51.87% opting to keep the anti-abortion laws. After the result was announced, the crowd were chanting Savita’s name in front of Dublin Castle.

Cora Sherlock, an anti-abortion activist, said, “what we voted on today is the ending of human life.” “I will accept the will of the Irish people, at the same time I will make it very clear what I feel of the campaign that has taken place. We will now regroup and find out what our next move is”, she added. Another activist, David Quinn, said, “The result today is basically a reversal of the 1983 result. On that occasion the defeated side did not simply slip away.”

“The people have said that we want a modern constitution for a modern country”, Prime Minister Varadkar said. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later congratulated Varadkar on Twitter, saying: “What a moment for democracy and women’s rights.”

Saturday, May 6, 2006

Ten American soldiers were killed when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border close to a landing zone in the Kunar province. A military spokesman said it crashed while conducting combat operations. The Soldiers were involved with Operation Mountain Lion, which is aimed at rooting out al-Qaeda and former Taliban militants.

“The remains of all the 10 soldiers have been found and there are no survivors. There is no indication that the helicopter came down due to some enemy action. Additional aircraft and crews were also at the landing zone and confirmed that enemy forces did not cause the crash,” said Lt. Tamara D. Lawrence, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military.

However; Muhamad Hanif, a Taliban spokesman, said that the crash was the result of the Taliban. He also said that advanced weaponry was used to shoot down helicopters.

“We have no indication that that happened,” said Lawrence in response to Hanif’s claim. “The crash occurred in a very mountainous terrain and the landing zone was very difficult. It was a mountain-top landing zone. There were various weather factors that could have come into play…. There were high winds. We are investigating any possible causes for the accident but there were no enemy actions detected at the scene,” she added.

In June of 2005, Taliban forces brought down a Chinook in the same province, which killed all American soldiers onboard. According to the military, rocket-propelled grenades were used in that attack.

There are at least 20,000 coalition forces in Afghanistan; 18,000 of them are American soldiers. At least 2,500 of the American soldiers are also involved with Operation Mountain Lion.

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Sunday, August 17, 2008

American swimmer Michael Phelps, 23, has set a new record for the most gold medals won in one Olympic games by winning his eighth gold medal of the 2008 Olympic games, beating the previous world record of seven that was set by Mark Spitz in the 1972 Olympic Games, which took place in Munich, Germany.

Phelps’ eighth medal was won in the final of the men’s 4 x 100m medley relay. In addition to Phelps, Aaron Piersol, Brendan Hansen, and Jason Lezak were in the winning Olympic team, which had a time of 3:29.34, which was a new world record. In seven of his eight races, Phelps set or contributed to a new world record time. He set an Olympic record time in the remaining race.

“With so many people saying it couldn’t be done, all it takes is an imagination,” said Phelps after realizing he had set the new medals record. “There are so many emotions going through my head and so much excitement. I kind of just want to see my mom.”

“Without the help of my team-mates this isn’t possible,” he continued. “I was able to be a part of three relays and we were able to put up a solid team effort and we came together as one unit. For the three Olympics I’ve been a part of, this is by far the closest men’s team that we’ve ever had. I didn’t know everybody coming into this Olympics, but I feel going out I know every single person very well. The team that we had is the difference.”

Grant Hackett, an Australian swimmer, praised Phelps for achieving his goal. “Michael Phelps – you can’t put it in words what he has done here, his level of achievement is phenomenal and I don’t think it will ever be seen again.”