ponedjeljak, 26. rujna 2016.

Facebok-news Japan scrambles jets over Chinese flight

Japan says it scrambled fighter jets on Sunday after eight Chinese military aircraft flew between Japanese islands.
The planes, thought to be bombers, surveillance planes and one fighter jet, flew along the Miyako Straits, between Okinawa and Miyakojima.
China said about 40 of its aircraft had been involved in what it said was a routine drill.
The planes did not cross into Japanese airspace, but the move is being seen as a show of force by China.
It comes one week after Japan said it would take part in joint training exercises with the US navy in the South China Sea.
Japan's top government spokesman said Japan would be watching China's military movements closely.
Tokyo will "continue to devote every effort to vigilance and surveillance and rigorously enforce steps against intrusions into our airspace based on international law and the self-defence forces law", said Yoshihide Suga.
The Miyako Strait is a strategically important 250km (155 miles) wide stretch of water south of Okinawa and close to Taiwan.
It is also close to a group of islands in the East China Sea which are claimed by both Japan and China.
Japan, which controls the islands, calls them Senkaku, while China calls them the Diaoyu Islands.

petak, 23. rujna 2016.

The Malaysian 'Pokemon soft toy uncle' rescued by the internet

It began as just another heartbreaking story on the internet of an elderly, cancer-stricken soft toy seller left despairing after a mystery buyer never showed up to collect a bulk order of toys. This is what happened.

'Uncle David' has a regular spot peddling soft toys

For the last 15 years, a man known affectionately as "Uncle David" has frequented a corner of the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. He sells trinkets and soft toys daily to make ends meet.
On most days, you will find him outside a bank in the centre of the city.
He was diagnosed with cancer last year, and has now recovered, he says, but kept on plying his trade.

Charlotte police under mounting pressure to release video

Officials in Charlotte, North Carolina, are fending off mounting pressure to release video of a fatal shooting.
Family members of Keith Lamont Scott, an African-American man who was shot by a black officer, were allowed to watch the footage on Thursday.
Their lawyers say they want the video to be made public because it raises "more questions than answers".
He was the 214th black person killed by US police this year out of a total of 821, says Mapping Police Violence.
Critics have accused Charlotte authorities of a lack of transparency, compared with the swift action taken after a police shooting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a white officer has been charged.
Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts told a news conference on Friday: "I do believe the video should be released - the question is on the timing."
She said the video was "inconclusive" as to whether Mr Scott was holding a gun.
Police have already said a pistol was recovered at the scene.
City Police Chief Kerr Putney agreed, but said the body cam and dash-cam video, by itself, does not provide sufficient evidence of probable cause for the shooting.

Releasing it without "context" could only inflame the situation, he added.
The police chief has said all the evidence together indicates the officer identified as having shot Mr Scott - Brentley Vinson, who is also African-American - was justified.
The Charlotte Observer and the New York Times have joined calls for the footage to be made public.
"There is no legal reason to withhold the video from the public, and in this fraught situation, the best way to allay the community's distrust is complete transparency," the New York daily wrote.
Justin Bamberg, one of the lawyers representing the family, said the video shows Mr Scott did not make any aggressive moves towards police.
He said Mr Scott was moving slowly as he got out of the car because he suffered head trauma in a bad car accident a year ago.
Meanwhile, police said a suspect had been arrested in Wednesday's fatal shooting of a protester in Charlotte.
Demonstrators in the city defied a midnight curfew early on Friday, taking to the city streets for a third straight night.
Hundreds marched to the police station carrying signs saying "Stop killing us" and "Resistance is beautiful".
Security forces took a hands-off approach and the demonstration was much calmer than the previous two nights, when rioters looted businesses and threw objects at police.
Several hundred National Guard troops were deployed to keep order, a day after North Carolina's governor declared a state of emergency in Charlotte.
Mr Scott was fatally shot in an apartment complex car park on Tuesday by police who were searching for another person wanted for arrest.
There are conflicting accounts of his death - police say he was armed with a handgun; his family says he was holding a book.
The troubles in Charlotte reverberated on the US presidential campaign trail, with Republican candidate Donald Trump blaming inner-city drug use.
"Drugs are a very, very big factor in what you're watching on television at night," he said in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Democrat Hillary Clinton discussed the unrest in calls to the Charlotte mayor, her campaign said.
"Too many black Americans have lost their lives and too many feel that their lives are disposable," the campaign cited her as saying.

utorak, 20. rujna 2016.

Syria conflict: UN suspends all aid after convoy hit

The UN has suspended all aid convoys in Syria after a devastating air attack on its lorries near Aleppo on Monday.
The strikes destroyed 18 of the 31 lorries, which were bringing wheat, clothes and medical kit to the area.
A senior local official of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent was among about 20 civilians killed, aid officials said.
The convoy had received proper permits, and all warring parties - including Russia and the US - had been notified, a UN spokesman said.
The President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, has denounced the attack as a "flagrant violation of international humanitarian law".
Syrian Red Crescent president Abdulrahman Attar said: "It is totally unacceptable that our staff and volunteers continue to pay such a high price because of the ongoing fighting."
The US has expressed its "outrage" over the attack, which took place in the town of Urum al-Kubra hours after the Syrian army declared a US-Russian brokered truce over.
Washington has said it will "reassess the future prospects for co-operation" with Russia - an ally of Syria's government.
Aid deliveries to besieged areas had been a key part of the cessation of hostilities deal brokered last week.
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.
He said the first strike came at about 19:00 local time on Monday, when a helicopter dropped several barrel bombs. This was followed by rocket and machine-gun fire from aircraft, he said.
Russia's defence ministry has denied accusations that its aircraft, or those of the Syrian government, were involved, the privately owned Russian news agency Interfax has said.
The convoy was being unloaded at a Red Crescent warehouse when the attacks began. The aid had been due to be delivered to 78,000 people in rebel-held areas around Urum al-Kubra, who were last supplied in mid-July.
The UN said the aid included:
  • Blankets
  • Winter clothes
  • Education and nutrition items
  • Nine tonnes of medical supplies including trauma kits, burn treatments, IV kits and fluids, medication for chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiological conditions
  • Vitamins
  • Wheat
A health clinic near the warehouse was also badly damaged.
"The destination of this convoy was known to the Syrian regime and the Russian Federation," state department spokesman John Kirby said.
"And yet these aid workers were killed in their attempt to provide relief to the Syrian people," he added.

The attack appeared to signal the collapse of the latest effort by the US, which backs the rebels, and Russia to halt the violence in Syria, with the army there saying the deal was over.
"We don't know if it can be salvaged," a senior US official told journalists on condition of anonymity.
"At this point the Russians have to demonstrate very quickly their seriousness of purpose because otherwise there will be nothing to extend and nothing to salvage."
Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said the chance of renewing the ceasefire was "very weak", Interfax has reported.
In other comments, reported by Reuters, Mr Peskov said: "Unfortunately, we can state... that our American colleagues have failed to separate terrorists from the so-called moderate opposition."
After the army announcement, activists said Aleppo and the surrounding area had been targeted.
A member of the White Helmets group that helps civilians caught in the violence said there had been "heavy bombing on many neighbourhoods" of Aleppo, causing multiple casualties.
"Our rescue teams are now trying to get people from under the rubble," Ismail told the BBC's Newsday programme. "The situation has changed completely. Before the sky was clear. Now I hear warplanes."
He said people risked dying "in two ways - from bombing, and the lack of food, the lack of basic needs", and appealed for renewed international efforts.

"Do something to save these kids who do not know what this war is."

četvrtak, 1. rujna 2016.

Australian PM 'read riot act' to missing ministers

Australia's prime minister has said he "read the riot act" to three ministers after they went home early, meaning his government lost a series of votes.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's conservative coalition holds a majority of one seat in the parliament.
The opposition Labor Party came within a single vote of calling for a royal commission into Australian banks.
Coming at the end of the first week of the new parliament, the result is an embarrassment for Mr Turnbull.
It is seen as undermining the government's claim of having a "strong working majority".

MPs summoned back

Three senior ministers - Peter Dutton, Christian Porter and Michael Keenan - were among the coalition MPs not in the Lower House when Labor decided to pull a surprise test of the government's power.
Their absence meant the opposition won three consecutive motions: first surprising parliament against adjourning at the usual time of 16:30.
Second and third votes effectively brought forward a fourth vote on a royal commission into Australian banks.
The opposition have been pushing for this after a series of allegations of misconduct in the banking sector.
In response, MPs were recalled from airports and turned back on return drives to Sydney.
The government then regained control over parliament to quash the proposal.

'It was a farce'

Mr Turnbull said the move exposed a degree of complacency among his colleagues, and that he had "read the riot act" to the ministers.
"A number of our members should not have left the building," he told 3AW radio.
"They did the wrong thing, they know they did the wrong thing.
"They've been caught out. They've been embarrassed. They've been humiliated. They've been excoriated and it won't happen again."
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese told the Nine Network: "If you can't run the parliament, you can't run the country."
"It was a farce yesterday, it shows as an example of just how out of touch this government is; it doesn't have an agenda, it doesn't have ideas and now it doesn't have control of the House of Representatives."
Treasurer Scott Morrison dismissed the tactics as a "stunt" while Labor MP Michael Dandby said the move was a "legitimate political tactic".
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, now a backbench MP, said it would be a learning experience for many people.
"All of us are learning lessons all the time, whether you're a journalist, a member of parliament, a whip or even a prime minister," he said.

News-Hurricane Hermine becomes first to hit Florida in 11 years

Hurricane Hermine has made landfall in northern Florida, becoming the first hurricane to hit the state in 11 years.
Hermine hit the Florida Gulf Coast early on Friday as a category one hurricane, bringing with it a heavy storm surge.
Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for 51 counties as residents were braced for the dangerous storm.
Wind gusts reached 80mph (130km/h) on Thursday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
City officials in the state capital Tallahassee, which is in the path of the storm, said at least 70,000 homes were now without power.
Weather officials in the city warned of the risk of flash floods and urged people in the city to move to higher ground.
South of Tallahassee, the town of Cedar Key has seen a 9.6ft (2.9m) storm surge. Images from the town posted on social media showed significant flooding.
"It is a mess... we have high water in numerous places," Virgil Sandlin, the police chief in Cedar Key, told the Weather Channel. "I was here in 1985 for Hurricane Elena and I don't recall anything this bad."
While the area is prone to storms and storm surges, it has not seen a hurricane in close to 4,000 days.
The last hurricane to strike Florida was Wilma in October 2005, which made landfall in the same year as Katrina and caused five deaths and an estimated $23bn (£17bn) of damage.

Croc of gold: Kenya's booming crocodile farm industry

If you are working in an enclosure full of crocodiles, don't turn your back on them to answer your mobile phone.
Sadly that is what one member of staff did in May at Collins Mueke's crocodile farm in eastern Kenya.
"He was talking on his phone not aware of his surroundings," says Mr Mueke, 62. "He died while getting treatment in hospital.
"Another worker lost his index finger while handling a young crocodile just a few weeks old. It can be a scary place here, but you have to move on and earn a living."
Welcome to the lucrative, but dangerous, world of crocodile farming.

Like chicken

If you are of a nervous disposition, you probably wouldn't consider farming Nile crocodiles.
The largest species of African crocodile, it is one of the world's most deadly predators.
Growing to five metres (16ft) in length, and typically weighing as much as 750kg (118st), it is renowned for its aggressive nature.
In the wild attacks on humans are commonplace. While exact figures are not available due to incidents going unreported, the Nile crocodile is said to kill hundreds of people in Africa every year.
Mr Mueke has more than 33,000 of the crocodiles at his 300-acre facility in Kitui County, some 180km (112 miles) east of the capital Nairobi.
Led by demand for crocodile meat from China, but also rising domestic sales to the restaurants of upmarket tourist hotels, he says that business has never been better.

"Each crocodile... can fetch you about 5,000 to 7,000 Kenyan shillings for the meat (£30 to £53; $50 to $69)," says Mr Mueke.

SpaceX rocket explodes at Cape Canaveral ahead of launch

A rocket operated by the aerospace company SpaceX has exploded on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral where it was being test-fired ahead of a launch.
In a statement, the company blamed the blast on "an anomaly" and said no-one had been injured.
It said the rocket's payload, a satellite due to be launched on Saturday, was also destroyed.
The force of the blast shook buildings several miles away and sent a plume of smoke high above the complex.
SpaceX is seeking to create a new era of reusable rockets and affordable private space travel and has used its Falcon-9 rocket to take supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).
In December last year, the California-based company successfully landed a Falcon-9 back on Earth after a mission - a first in rocketry.

It went on to recover five more boosters, with most of them touching down on an ocean platform.
The idea is to re-fly these rockets, and the first such "second hand" vehicle is scheduled to launch in October.
SpaceX is run out of Hawthorne near Los Angeles by Elon Musk, who made his fortune with internet companies.

As well as being the rocket company's CEO, he also heads up the Tesla electric car company.

Analysis: David Shukman, Science Editor, BBC News

Whatever the details of what went wrong at the launch-pad, this is bad news for one of the most ambitious-ever space programmes.
SpaceX has big dreams for cheap, frequent and distant space travel. This test-firing was meant to be routine, part of an accelerating series of launches.
Beyond it, SpaceX is looking to make history by re-using one of the massive first stages that was returned to Earth intact. The company is also preparing to fly astronauts to the International Space Station.
Most exotic of all, the company's boss, Elon Musk, is due later this month to unveil his plans for a Mars colony, and how that would take effect.
There had been talk of the first SpaceX unmanned mission to the Red Planet in a couple of years' time. All its timetables will now be in jeopardy.
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station said a "significant" explosion happened just after 09:00 (14:00 GMT) at Launch Complex 40, which is leased by SpaceX.
"Our emergency management teams are responding right now," said spokesman Bryan Purtell.
The rocket was carrying the Israeli-built Amos-6 communications satellite.

Venezuela prepares for huge opposition march in Caracas

Venezuelan opposition leaders have called on their supporters to gather in the capital on Thursday for what they have dubbed the "Takeover of Caracas".
Their goal is to put pressure on the electoral authorities to allow a recall referendum this year, aimed at ousting President Nicolas Maduro.
The country is in a deep economic crisis which the opposition blames on government mismanagement.
The government accuses the opposition of trying to mount a coup.
President Maduro said his administration was well prepared: "If they're coming with coups, ambushes and political violence, the revolutionary [government] will provide an uncommon and overwhelming response.''
The president's supporters said they would hold counter-rallies.
Five hundred police officers will be deployed in the Chacao area of Caracas alone to police the marches.
In the run-up to the march, a number of opposition politicians were detained.
Last week, Daniel Ceballos of the opposition Popular Will party was returned to prison after having spent a year under house arrest awaiting trial on charges of rebellion.

The Interior Ministry said he was planning on escaping from house arrest to carry out acts of violence during Thursday's rally.
Mr Ceballos was one of the politicians arrested in 2014 over violent anti-government protests that swept through Venezuela at the time.
Forty-three people on both sides of the political divide where killed during those protests.
Popular Will party activists Carlos Melo and Yon Goicoechea have also been arrested over the past few days, the first suspected of carrying a "detonator cord" and the latter of carrying explosives.
Many shops and businesses said they would not open on Thursday out of fear the protests could turn violent.

'Come out peacefully'

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said he hoped that they could fill the main avenues of Caracas with people protesting peacefully.
All of those who want change, come out onto the streets peacefully, the recall referendum will put an end to this disastrous government," he said.
But government politician Diosdado Cabello said he hoped that the opposition would understand that "Nicolas Maduro is president, and we're telling you Nicolas is not going, we're telling you Nicolas will continue being president".
The opposition hopes the march will pressure the electoral authorities into allowing them to launch the second petition needed to trigger the recall referendum as soon as possible.

Explosion at Kennedy Space Center as SpaceX prepares launch

here has been an explosion on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the aerospace company SpaceX was readying a rocket for launch.
The cause of the blast is not clear and it is not known if anyone was hurt.
Pictures from the scene show a huge plume of smoke rising above the complex.
SpaceX has used its Falcon-9 rocket to take supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).

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