ROTTERDAM, October 25 -- The Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice announced Friday that a total of 284 victims in the MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine have been identified. The progress came after experts identified anther six people last week, of which five were of Dutch nationality. The nationality of the sixth was not made known at the request of the embassies of the other countries concerned. In the July 17 tragedy, the 298 passengers and crew members on board the Malaysia Airlines flight were all killed, which means fourteen victims remain unidentified more than three months after the incident. The Netherlands leads the identification, which takes place in Hilversum. It is uncertain whether the remains of all victims are currently in Hilversum. In early August the Netherlands stopped the recovery and repatriation mission on the crash site until further notice due to the deteriorating security conditions in the area. The Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice on Friday once again emphasized that it may take more time before every victim will be identified.
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MOSCOW, October 24 -- Gazprom turned to the European Commission in late 2013 with a request to exclude the OPAL gas pipeline from the rules of the Third Energy Package The European Commission may once again delay a decision on providing full access for Russian energy giant Gazprom to the OPAL gas pipeline, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday. “I believe this is not the last delay,” Novak told journalists. “It seems to be (EU’s) principal decision not to consider this issue yet, although all the necessary agreements with the German regulator were reached in late 2013.” The issue was supposed to be considered on September 15, but the deadline was eventually moved to October 31. The European Commission has been postponing the decision on the issue since March 10 with an average frequency of one time in each two months. Excluding OPAL from under Third Energy Package Gazprom turned to the European Commission in late 2013 with a request to exclude the OPAL gas pipeline from the rules of the Third Energy Package, which requires the separation of gas production, transportation and sale to prevent gas suppliers from dominating the infrastructure. Under the rules of the Third Energy Package, Gazprom is required to reserve up to 50% of the OPAL gas pipeline’s capacities for gas transportation by independent gas suppliers. The OPAL gas pipeline, which has an annual capacity of 36 billion cubic meters and runs along Germany’s eastern border, provides a link from Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipe running under the Baltic Sea to Europe’s existing gas transport networks. The German Economy Ministry insists on providing full access for Gazprom to the OPAL pipeline over the threat of interruptions in Russia’s natural gas transit via Ukraine. ARBIL, October 25 -- Kurdish forces retook the northern Iraqi town of Zumar and several nearby villages from Islamic State early on Saturday after heavy coalition air strikes against the Islamist insurgents, security sources said. A Kurdish intelligence officer in Zumar said peshmerga forces had advanced from five directions in the early morning and encountered fierce resistance, but ultimately prevailed. A spokesman for the peshmerga ministry also said Zumar was now in Kurdish hands. Zumar was one of the first Kurdish-controlled towns to be overrun in August by Islamic State militants who went on to threaten the autonomous region's capital, prompting air strikes by the United States - a campaign since joined by Britain and France. If the Kurds are able to keep Zumar, it would make it easier for them to advance on Sinjar, where Islamic State militants are besieging members of Iraq's Yazidi minority on a mountain. Helped by the air strikes, Kurdish forces have regained ground from Islamic State but progress has been hampered by a lack of heavy weaponry and by homemade bombs and booby-traps laid by the militants. The Kurds claimed victory in Zumar in September, only to withdraw from the town again after suffering heavy losses. One peshmerga fighter deployed in the area on Saturday said a sniper was still at large in a village adjacent to Zumar, and a car bomb had exploded when they approached the vehicle, killing seven peshmerga. In another village, Ayn al-Helwa, the peshmerga said 17 militants had been taken captive, all of whom were Sunni Turkmen from the nearby Iraqi city of Tel Afar. HONG KONG, October 25 -- Students will conduct a poll asking protesters what they think of a government proposal aimed at ending demonstrations. Hong Kong protesters plan to hold a straw poll on government proposals they rejected earlier in the week as their street campaign pushing for free elections for the Chinese-controlled city enters its fifth week. With crowds likely to swell at the weekend, student leaders announced a plan for an electronic poll of protesters on reform proposals tabled by senior city government officials in talks on Tuesday that failed to break the deadlock. "The government always says that the students don't represent the people in the plaza and Hong Kong citizens, so we are here to make all our voices heard and we will tell the government clearly what we think," Alex Chow, one of the students guiding the movement, told protesters. n the poll, to be held on Sunday, demonstrators will be asked whether the government's offer to submit a report to the central government's Hong Kong and Macau affairs office on the protests would have any practical purpose. The report would note the protesters' unhappiness with a Beijing-dictated plan to have a 1,200-person committee screen candidates for the city's top leader in the inaugural 2017 election. Hong Kong officials have also offered to hold regular dialogue with protesters about democratic reforms if they end their occupation of three of the city's busiest areas. The Hong Kong Federation of Students, one of the main organisers behind the protests, has already rejected the government offer but still called for the Sunday referendum. Another organiser, Occupy Central, said the poll would ask two questions. One is on whether the government report should also include asking China's legislature to reconsider its August decision on the committee vetting candidates. The other is on whether the dialogue should also cover reforms to the local legislature. Student leaders plan to hand the results to the government on Monday, Reuters new agency reported. 'Time to go home' Speaking publicly for the first time since the protests began, Tung Chee-hwa, the city's first chief executive after its 1997 transition from British to Chinese rule, said on Friday that the protesters' demands were not realistic and that they should accept a longer timeline for electoral reforms. "Students, I hope you listen to what this old man is saying," the 77-year-old, who left office in 2005, said in a news conference. "It's time to go home." Leung Chun-ying, Hong Kong's current chief executive, has said the protesters have no chance achieving their goal. Friday marked the start of the fifth week since tens of thousands began blocking major roads to oppose to a plan by the Chinese central government to let Hong Kong people vote for their leader in 2017 for the first time but limit candidates to those vetted by a panel stacked with Beijing loyalists. Opponents of the protests tried to forcibly dismantle makeshift barricades around a protest zone in the heart of the densely populated Mong Kok district, as they have done on many days during the occupation, but police intervened.
WebProNews.com suggests as a joke that today's Twitter problems may be due to Justin Bieber. The pop star is apparently very close to surpassing Lady Gaga as the person with the most Twitter followers. Is it possible that Twitter's servers can't take the strain of the many people who have Bieber fever on Twitter? BERLIN, October 25 --The head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency says the number of Islamic extremists in the country is growing rapidly. Hans-Georg Maassen says his agency estimates that some 6,300 people in Germany are adherents of a fundamentalist strain of Islam known as Salafism. Maassen told rbb-Inforadio in an interview broadcast Saturday that the number of Salafis could rise to 7,000 by the end of the year, compared to about 3,800 three years ago. He says extremist strands of Islam provide disaffected young people with a sense of belonging and purpose that allows them to hope they'll go "from being underdogs to top dogs." Authorities estimate that some 450 Salafis have traveled from Germany to join extremists groups fighting in Syria and Iraq.
It now seems as if that cash injection has failed to materialise as F1 supremo Ecclestone says Marussia won't attend the Austin race. Marussia will be joined on the sidelines by Caterham, who are under administration and seeking a new buyer. "Neither of those two teams are going to go to America," Ecclestone told Reuters journalist Alan Baldwin With both Marussi and Caterham out, just 18 cars will take to the grid at the United States GP. TEHRAN, October 25 -- Reyhaneh Jabbari to be hanged early on Saturday for killing a man she says tried to abuse her, rights group reports. Amnesty International is calling on Iran to suspend the imminent hanging of a 26-year-old woman convicted for killing a man whom she said tried to sexually abuse her. Reyhaneh Jabbari, who was scheduled to be executed at dawn on Saturday, was arrested in 2007 for the murder of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former employee of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence. She was sentenced to death by a criminal court in Tehran in 2009 in what Amnesty said was a "deeply flawed investigation and trial". Her execution was due to be carried out on 30 September but was postponed for 10 days. "Time is running out for Reyhaneh Jabbari, the authorities must act now to stop her execution," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Programme. "Applying such a punishment in any circumstances is an affront to justice, but doing so after a flawed trial that leaves huge questions hanging over the case only makes it more tragic," Sahraoui added in a statement on Friday. Jabbari apparently admitted to stabbing Sarbandi in the back. She said he had tried to sexually assault her. However, she said that another man who was also in the house at the time killed him. Her claims do not appear to have ever been properly investigated, Amnesty said. Calls for retrial Iran's judicial authorities were reported to have pressured Jabbari to replace her lawyer, Mohammad Ali Jedari Foroughi, for a more inexperienced one, in an apparent attempt to prevent an investigation of her claims, Amnesty reported. Jabbari's execution has been deferred a number of times, including in the last month. "Instead of repeatedly rescheduling Reyhaneh Jabbari’s execution date, the Iranian judiciary should order a re-trial that complies with international standards for fair trial without recourse to the death penalty," Sahraoui said. Reyhaneh's mother told Amnesty International that she met her daughter for one hour today, but prison officials refused to give the family any details of Reyhaneh’s imminent transfer to a place of execution. ROSSWELL, October 25 -- Alan Eustace, 57, breaks Felix Baumgartner's 2012 record by jumping successfully from near the edge of space. The executive from Google has set a new skydiving record by jumping successfully from near the top of the stratosphere - about 135,000 feet, or 41,000 metres high, breaking the 2012 record by Austrian Felix Baumgartner. The record dive by 57-year-old Alan Eustace, who is a "senior vice president of knowledge" at Google, was conducted as part of a project allowing manned exploration of the stratosphere above 100,000 feet. According to a statement from the Paragon Space Development Corporation, Eustace completed the four-hour mission over Roswell, New Mexico, using a specially designed space suit and balloon module to carry him to the stratosphere. Eustace broke the record set by skydiver Baumgartner, who jumped from a height of nearly 128,000 feet or 38,969 metres, also from New Mexico. Eustace's free-fall into the atmosphere lasted about five minutes, and he deployed his parachute at around 18,000 feet "and floated gently to the ground," the statement said. "Within four hours of launch, Alan arrived at the launch site where the team and guests toasted his achievement and safe return." The New York Times, which first reported the news, quoted Eustace as saying, "It was amazing. It was beautiful. You could see the darkness of space and you could see the layers of atmosphere, which I had never seen before." Supersonice speeds The Times said that Eustace was propelled from the module with a small explosive charge, sending him traveling briefly at supersonic speeds, creating a sonic boom heard by observers on the ground. According to Paragon, the system has wide-ranging applications for the study of the science of the stratosphere. These include the "development of means for spaceship crew egress, the study of dynamics of bodies at Mach 1, new high altitude aircraft suits, and setting of records for space diving, sailplaning and ballooning." Without special equipment, humans cannot live at that altitude, according to Paragon, which says that "besides being unable to breath, exposure to the vacuum of space will cause fluids in the body to boil." The space suit is similar to those used for the Apollo missions and on the International Space Station, the company said. The missions by Eustace and Baumgartner offer hope for rescue and evacuation from troubled spacecraft. The US space shuttle was fitted with a crew evacuation system after the 1986 Challenger disaster. The private firm World View Experience announced that it had obtained the rights to offer these dives for "near space" tourism and research. For $75,000, adventurers can duplicate the experience inside a "luxury capsule" complete with bar and lavatory and in-flight Internet access. BAGHDAD, October 24 -- Officials north of Baghdad say soldiers and Shia fighters were poisoned in fighting last month. Iraqi government officials have said ISIS used chlorine gas during fighting with Iraqi soldiers and Shia militia north of Baghdad. A senior security official, a local official from the town of Duluiya and an official from the town of Balad said the group used bombs with chlorine-filled cylinders during clashes in September. They told the Associated Press on Friday that about 40 troops and militiamen were affected by the chlorine and showed symptoms of chlorine poisoning, but quickly recovered. The Washington Post also reported on Friday that 11 police offices had been rushed to hospital about 80km north of Baghdad last month with signs of chlorine poisoning. The US secretary of state, John Kerry, said on Friday that the US would investigate the claims, and said he took the allegations "very seriously". ISIS has been accused of using chlorine gas in neighbouring Syria in attacks on other rebel groups and the forces of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. Assad's army has also been accused of using the gas on civilians and rebels. Chlorine is a "dual use" substance under international law - meaning it is an industrial substance that can be used on the battlefield. Syria kept its stocks of chlorine for this reason under last year's UN-brokered deal to destroy its chemical weapons. HONG KONG, October 24 -- Groups behind demonstrations calling for electoral reform to hold spot referendum on whether to accept government offer. Protesters in Hong Kong have said they plan to hold a spot referendum on whether to stay on the streets or accept a government offer for more talks and clear their protest camps. The three main groups behind the demonstrations said on Thursday that they would register public opinion on Sunday at the main protest site. Thousands have remained camped out in the area for nearly a month, calling for electoral reforms in the southern Chinese city. Hong Kong's government has offered to submit a report to the central government noting the protesters' unhappiness with a Beijing-backed plan to have a 1,200-person committee pick candidates for the city's top leader in 2017 elections. Protesters say the committee is weighted towards the central government's preferences and should be scrapped, or at least reformed, to better represent the Asian financial capital of 7.2 million people. Hong Kong officials have offered to hold regular dialogue with protesters about democratic reforms if they end their demonstrations, which have occupied streets in three of the city's busiest areas. The Hong Kong Federation of Students, one of the main organisers behind the protests, has already rejected the government's offer but still called for the Sunday referendum. GENEVA, October 24 -- Mass trials of an experimental Ebola vaccine could start in West Africa in December and several hundred thousand doses could be available by the first half of next year, the World Health Organisation has said. The WHO's assistant director general Marie-Paule Kieny said on Friday that two potential vaccines were undergoing clinical trials. Larger trials in West Africa could begin in December if those tests proved effective. "All is being put in place to start efficacy tests in the affected countries as early as December," she said at the agency's headquarters in Geneva. "Before the end of first half of 2015 we could have available a few hundred thousand doses. That could be 200,000 - it could be less or could be more. "Vaccine is not the magic bullet but when ready, it may be a good part of the effort to turn the tide of the epidemic." She said that the organisation had held talks on Thursday with medical experts, officials from affected nations, pharmaceutical firms and funding agencies about the trials. The candidates currently undergoing clinical trials are the Canadian-made rVSV, and ChAd3, which is made by British firm GlaxoSmithKline. There are five other potential vaccines that will be tested next year, Kieny said. More than 4,800 people have died in West Africa of Ebola. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are the worst affected countries. Nigeria and Senegal were declared free of the disease last week after no new cases were reported for 42 days - twice the virus's maximum incubation period. However, Mali recorded its first case on Friday, and a total of 42 people who were in contact with the sufferer have been isolated. The disease continues to alarm countries outside of West Africa, with the US on Thursday confirming a New York doctor had contracted the virus while working for the medical charity, Doctors Without Borders in Guinea OTTAWA, October 24 -- Canadian police have released new videos showing the moments before the deadly attack on the country's parliament in Ottawa, saying that the slain suspect likely acted alone. Authorities also said on Thursday that they believe 32-year old Michael Zehaf-Bibeau was planning to travel to Syria. The grainy surveillance camera video showed a man rushing out of a vehicle, brandishing a firearm, as several people in the nearby street scrambled for cover. Earlier on Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told parliament members that his government would speed up plans to bolster laws on "surveillance and arrest" following the attack. Zehaf-Bibeau was shot dead after storming into the main parliament building shortly after killing Nathan Cirillo, a soldier guarding the nearby national war memorial. Parliament opened with applause for the sergeant who shot Zehaf-Bibeau, and a moment's silence for the dead soldier. "The objective of these attacks was to instill fear and panic in our country," Harper said. "Canadians will not be intimidated. We will be vigilant, but we will not run scared. We will be prudent but we will not panic." NEW YORK, October 24 -- A physician with Doctors Without Borders who returned from West Africa recently has tested positive for Ebola at a New York City hospital, the city's mayor confirmed. The doctor developed a fever and gastrointestinal symptoms, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said in a statement on Thursday. The doctor has been identified as Craig Spencer, who lives in Manhattan's Harlem neighbourhood, according to New York City Councilman Mark Levine. "A person in New York City, who recently worked with Doctors Without Borders in one of the Ebola-affected countries in West Africa, notified our office this morning to report having developed a fever," Doctors Without Borders said in a statement. Mayor Bill de Blasio at a news conference early on Friday said "New Yorkers have no reason to be alarmed... Every hospital in the city is prepared in case other patients come forward.""It is our understanding very few people were in direct contact with him... Every protocol has been followed." "We're hoping for a good outcome for this individual," he said. New York State Governor Mario Cuomo also said that proper procedures are being followed in treating the patient. "We have the situation under control," he said. "The more facts you know, the less frightening the situation is." The doctor reported his fever on Thursday morning, and Doctors Without Borders said it promptly notified the city health department. The patient, who returned to the United States within the past 21 days, is being treated at Bellevue Hospital, the health department said. Twenty-one days is the maximum incubation period for Ebola. Bellevue, a historic city hospital, is one of the eight hospitals in New York state designated earlier this month as part of an Ebola preparedness plan. Spencer's Facebook page showed a photo of him clad in protective gear. It shows he went to Guinea around September 18 and then to Brussels on October 16. Spencer has been a fellow of international emergency medicine at Columbia University-New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City since 2011, according to his profile on the LinkedIn career website. |
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